Gov. Unveils 15 Picks for New Schools Panel

Even as he forges ahead with some of his own controversial education initiatives, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Friday named a 15-member committee to study ways to overhaul the state’s public school system.

The Governor’s Advisory Committee on Education Excellence, led by Occidental College President Theodore R. Mitchell, will take two years to formulate recommendations in four areas: finance, governance, teacher recruitment and training, and the preparation and retention of school administrators.

The panel includes people with a variety of political affiliations, professional backgrounds and educational philosophies.

Members include former Democratic state Sen. Dede Alpert; former Paramount Studios chief Sherry Lansing; Caprice Young, head of the California Charter Schools Assn.; Jose Huizar, president of the Los Angeles Board of Education; Mark Rosenbaum, an American Civil Liberties Union attorney who helped bring -- and settle -- a schools-equity lawsuit against the state; and a number of education professionals.

The governor intends for the committee to replace the Quality Education Commission, authorized during the Gray Davis administration to look at school cost and quality issues. Schwarzenegger, who did not make any appointments to the commission, stirred controversy earlier this year when he said he wanted to abolish it and create his own committee.

The work of the new group, whose members do not require Senate confirmation, will be funded by private contributions from four foundations.

Mitchell, in a telephone news conference to announce the appointments, acknowledged that the governor intended to pursue his education proposals without waiting for the committee to conduct its work.

Schwarzenegger, for example, has called for merit pay for teachers and wants to alter voter-approved Proposition 98, a 1988 initiative designed to guarantee a minimal level of state spending for schools.

He also has angered education and parent groups -- and members of the Democrat-controlled Legislature -- with his budget proposals, which would leave schools with about $2 billion less than they are due in the next fiscal year under Proposition 98.

“We need to do some very serious analysis before we can make recommendations to the governor on any issue,” Mitchell said.

He couldn’t say whether the committee would oppose any of the governor’s initiatives, but said it would undertake a “disciplined and rigorous study” of California’s public education system.

Several recent studies have shown that the state lags behind many others in the nation in school funding, student achievement, high school graduation rates and teacher quality.

Friday’s announcement drew criticism from some opponents of the governor’s education budget and schools initiatives.

“It would seem to me that if he were serious about dealing with the problems of under-funding our schools face, he’d want to have a solid grasp on the issue first,” said Roger Salazar, spokesman for the Education Coalition, a group formed to fight the governor’s budget and other proposals.

“It’s hard to fathom why he would push through initiatives” before the committee completes its work, Salazar said.

Mitchell said he hopes to keep politics out of the committee’s work and welcomes ideas from everyone, including state Supt. of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell and teachers and education groups, many of whom have been vocal critics of Schwarzenegger’s proposals.

Mitchell once headed the UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies and served as an education advisor to former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan, the governor’s education secretary.

Neither Riordan nor Schwarzenegger participated in Friday’s news conference, but each issued written statements expressing his expectations for the committee’s work.

“I have asked this distinguished group of educators and policy makers to help me fix this broken system and to make California’s schools the best in the nation once again,” Schwarzenegger said.

The committee is scheduled to meet monthly and to report regularly to Riordan as it delivers a series of recommendations over the next two years.

Other committee members are: Arlene Ackerman, superintendent of the San Francisco Unified School District; Russlyn Ali, executive director of Ed Trust West; Ernesto Cortes, southwest regional director of the Industrial Areas Foundation; Jim Doti, president of Chapman University; Dave Gordon, superintendent of the Sacramento County Office of Education; Thomas Henry, chief executive of Fiscal Crisis Management and Assessment Team; Peter Mehas, superintendent of the Fresno County Office of Education; Irene Oropeza-Enriquez, an elementary school teacher in Woodland; Sau-Lim “Lance” Tsang, a board member of Oakland Unity Charter High School; and Randolph Ward, a state administrator overseeing the Oakland Unified School District.