Davis’ Education Reforms Fail 3 Challengers’ Tests

California’s public schools have enjoyed rising test scores three years running, but you wouldn’t know it from the Republican challengers to Gov. Gray Davis.

They see chronic failure and little progress.

“There has not been any major breakthrough in education, other than in some individual districts like L.A.,” said former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan, the leading GOP contender.

Riordan and his two Republican rivals--financier Bill Simon Jr. and Secretary of State Bill Jones--face a test of their own in the March 5 primary. They must persuade impatient voters that they can transform the state’s educational system.

Polls show that education continues to be the top concern of California voters--even ahead of the state’s sagging economy and energy woes. Many share the contenders’ view that schools have failed to improve since Davis took office three years ago.

Educators doubt whether anyone can deliver rapid change in a state as large and diverse as California, especially at a time when schools are confronting the converging forces of budget cuts and growing enrollments.

“We have allowed our educational infrastructure to deteriorate for two decades. It’s going to take a long time and lot of investment to rebuild it,” said Jeannie Oakes, director of UCLA’s Institute for Democracy, Education and Access.

Davis has added billions of dollars to the education budget and made the issue his No. 1 priority throughout much of his term. The governor has emphasized teacher training and recruitment programs, reading instruction for children, and an accountability system that ranks schools by their test scores.

Davis has won praise for his reforms from teachers unions, administrator groups and school district superintendents. Even so, he remains politically vulnerable because of public perception that schools are making little, if any, progress.

The Republican challengers attack Davis as an ineffective leader on education, while they pitch traditional GOP themes: Slash bloated bureaucracies and return control over money and teaching to local schools.

Jones is the only Republican candidate to put forward a formal plan for recruiting more teachers, an urgent need in a state that must hire nearly 200,000 additional instructors over the next decade. His GOP counterparts talk about opening more charter schools, streamlining education budgets and freeing schools from unnecessary state regulations.

While the three Republicans agree with Davis on the need to hold schools accountable for their test scores, none offers detailed blueprints for accomplishing the goal. And the candidates devote little, if any, attention to the vexing problem of how to lift the lowest-performing schools.

“Their proposals are very partial and fragmented. These people do not have interlocking strategies that would reform California schools,” said Michael Kirst, an education professor at Stanford University and the former president of the state Board of Education. “They are disappointing even compared to prior [gubernatorial] candidates.”

While Jones, Riordan and Simon have offered proposals for improving academic achievement, they have paid little attention to the social and economic conditions beyond the school walls that hinder learning.

Children’s Advocates Draw Up Priority List

Children’s advocates say the next governor--Democrat or Republican--must promote universal preschool, expanded networks of health clinics, more breakfast programs, extra English classes for parents and more student support services, from psychologists to child-abuse counselors.

Riordan and Jones talk about the need to improve medical care for poor children. Jones calls for new programs to educate parents and students about the consequences of bad diets. All three GOP candidates also speak about the importance of after-school programs.

Extensive proposals along these lines, however, would require whole new investments that are unlikely in an atmosphere of financial austerity.

“I think there’s a real disconnect between the political process and what actually happens on the ground,” said Carol Valentine, the family literacy coordinator at the Elizabeth Street Learning Center in Cudahy.

The pre-kindergarten-through-12th-grade school, in southeast Los Angeles County, features a separate health clinic and family center on its grounds. The facilities provide low-cost medical care, mental health counseling, child care, and classes for parents to learn English and earn high school diplomas.

“To a lot of politicians, these people are untouchables because they don’t vote,” Valentine said of the mostly Spanish-speaking families at the center. “Of course, the health of our entire community depends on how everyone does.”

Davis ran for governor four years ago on a pledge to fix the state’s public school system. As governor, he continued reforms launched by his predecessor, Republican Pete Wilson, including the Stanford 9 exam and smaller classes of 20 students per teacher in the primary grades.

Declaring education his “first, second and third priority,” Davis devoted billions of dollars to recruit teachers to under-performing schools, to create a high school graduation exam and to launch his accountability system, which punishes schools for continual failure but rewards those that show big testing gains.

From the outset, Davis said he would run for reelection only if student test scores improved. In fact, statewide scores have gone up for most of the tested grade levels over the last three years.

Public Perception Seen as Davis’ Achilles Heel

The primary grades, the focus of the most intense reforms under Davis and Wilson, have made the most progress, earning double-digit gains in some cases. Middle schools improved by a smaller margin. High school performance has remained flat.

“I am very proud of the progress [in] the vast majority of schools,” Davis said. “Almost through sheer will, we have put reforms into place that are working for students and teachers alike.”

Still, Davis has had a hard time capitalizing on the positive news in the schools.

Only a quarter of registered voters in California believe that schools have improved since he took office, and nearly 1 in 5 believe the schools have worsened, a Los Angeles Times poll found last month.

A separate survey, conducted by the Public Policy Institute of California, found that just 39% of California residents approve of Davis’ work on education, down from 51% two years ago.

Analysts say that public perception is Davis’ Achilles heel--a liability that his eventual Republican challenger is certain to exploit in the general election.

“Davis has to make the case that things improved on his watch,” said Mark Baldassare, a senior fellow at the institute and the director of the recent survey.

Davis acknowledged the uphill battle to sway public opinion.

“Perception will follow reality,” the governor insisted. “Our job is to communicate. Over time, people will understand that collectively we have made remarkable progress.” Davis’ Republican challengers are sending a contrary message. Virtually ignoring the Stanford 9 testing gains, they have instead seized on another set of test statistics that paint a bleak picture of California education.

The three Republicans cite the state’s last-place finish in a set of reading, math and science exams that compares the performances ofchildren in 40 states. In the most recent round of science testing, for example, California’s fourth-graders trailed their peers in 39 other states, including Mississippi.

Davis and leading educators say the low scores reflect large proportion of students in California who speak limited English. The Republican candidates blame the governor.

“Gray Davis has failed to understand the need for serious education reform, and it is costing our children their future,” Riordan said when the science results were released last fall.

But for all his criticism of Davis, Riordan argues that the key to improving schools rests not with the governor but with effective local leadership.

To make his case, the former mayor touts his own experience in Los Angeles. Although he had no direct authority over the schools, Riordan recruited and supported several reform-minded candidates for the city’s Board of Education in two successive elections in 1999 and 2001. He cites their election as his single proudest achievement as mayor.

The newly constituted school board ousted the superintendent, hired a new schools chief and pressed reading reforms in the elementary schools. Test scores are on the rise.

“I take a little credit for L.A. because I was part of getting the new school board elected,” said Riordan.

The former mayor has been widely viewed as a catalyst for change in the city’s schools, but close observers of Los Angeles Unified contend that state-level reforms launched under Davis and Wilson also contributed to the improvement.

Aside from criticizing Davis on the stump, Riordan has targeted school district administrations, saying he wants to “slash bureaucratic bloat.” His school finance plan would force districts to show precisely how much money goes for teacher salaries, books and educational materials in classrooms, and how schools spend the rest of their money. He contends the process would make school finances more transparent to the public and pressure districts to plow more of their funds directly into the classroom.

Riordan says that districts often waste funds that could be better spent directly on students.

But four leading school finance authorities--asked by The Times to review the Riordan plan--described it as “simplistic” and “ill-conceived.”

The experts say Riordan failed to consider spending outside classrooms that directly affects students, including money for counselors, nurses, cafeteria workers, custodians and bus drivers.

“You need a lot more things beyond teachers compensation and schoolbooks to educate children,” said Lawrence Picus, a USC education professor and director of the Center for Research in Education Finance. “He’s disingenuous in this proposal. He’s implying that if it’s not in the classroom, it’s waste.”

Both Jones and Simon also champion the idea of cutting spending on wasteful educational bureaucracies. They both talk about creating “block grants” that would send money directly to schools without interference by outside administrators.

But experts say all three candidates are perpetuating a myth when they argue that administrative spending in the state’s 1,000 school districts is excessive.

Just 5% of education dollars are spent on district-level administration in California, according to EdSource, a nonprofit research group that studies school finance and policy issues in the state. By contrast, 94% of education funding is spent at school sites and in classrooms for teacher salaries, aides, books, supplies and other services, the organization reports.

“The notion that all this money is being wasted because it’s not being spent in the classroom is totally without foundation,” said Scott Plotkin, executive director of the California School Boards Assn.

Jones and Simon have proposed several other education initiatives.

Jones wants to limit all school districts to 30,000 students, a plan that would affect 32 school systems statewide and would require legislation. The proposal would probably meet stiff resistance from districts over issues of funding and racial segregation.

Jones also wants to establish new teacher-training academies at decommissioned military bases, where college students would earn bachelor’s degrees and teaching credentials. Their tuition would be covered by the state in exchange for commitments to work in their neighborhood schools for a minimum of six years. Jones says the academies could produce about 4,000 new teachers a year.

“There’s only one component that matters: How do we get better-educated children?” Jones said. “We’re in a crisis in education. The public expects us to deal with this aggressively.”

For his part, Simon has proposed “10 commitments to make public education work in California.” He wants “every child” to read, write and speak English by the third grade and to build “every school we need.” Simon also says that school superintendents would be held “professionally accountable” for student achievement, and every campus would provide child care before and after school.

Simon doesn’t say how he will pay for any of his proposals--or how many children will be served by them--at a time when the state faces a $12.4-billion shortfall.

“One of the aspects of my education program is to empower teachers and parents,” he said. “The theme here is local control.”

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School Reform

Gov. Gray Davis and the three Republican gubernatorial candidates have all made education a top priority in their campaigns. Davis emphasizes his school-accountability system and teacher-training initiatives. The Republican candidates emphasize traditional GOP themes: They want to slash bureaucracies and give schools greater control over spending and teaching.

Former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan

Establish a school-financing plan that he says would put more money in classrooms by cutting administrative spending.

Pare the educational bureaucracy in Sacramento to a single agency.

Allow big-city mayors to appoint local school board members and school district superintendents.

Create smaller schools that he believes are more conducive to learning.

Secretary of State Bill Jones

Establish academies at decommissioned military bases to train teachers at state expense; in exchange, students would commit to working in their neighborhood schools.

Create school districts of no more than 30,000 students.

Replace the state board of education and the state superintendent of public instruction with regional boards and superintendents.

Give state and federal money directly to schools in the form of block grants, bypassing bureaucracies that traditionally distribute the money.

Los Angeles financier Bill Simon Jr.

Hold school superintendents residentresidentprofessionally accountableearsears for student achievement.

Provide child care before and after school at every campus.

Ensure that every child can read, write and speak English by the third grade.

Build residentresidentevery school we need.earsears

Gov. Gray Davis

Established an accountability system that ranks schools by their test scores, punishes those that fail continually and rewards campuses that show big gains.

Offered millions of dollars in financial incentives for teachers who agree to work in low-performing schools.

Created a high school exit exam that students must pass to obtain a diploma.

Offered millions of dollars in merit scholarships to high school students who earn high test scores.

Source: Candidates