Mercury News Editorial

Budget deficit no excuse to halt school reform

Article Launched: 01/02/2008 01:37:18 AM PST

With the state headed toward a massive budget deficit, advocates for strong California K-12 schools will spend much of 2008 fighting to maintain current levels of education funding without suspending guarantees under Proposition 98. It will be a huge victory for California children if they can - but also a missed opportunity if that's all they do. Education reform involves much more than a single-minded focus on dollars.

Last year was the year for studies on education reform. There were 22 of them in Getting Down to Facts, funded by the Hewlett and three other foundations, plus 47 more presented at a conference in Sacramento last fall.

This year will be the year of recommendations and, hopefully, some action. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger soon will release the policy prescriptions from his Committee on Education Excellence. Then Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell will present the recommendations of his 4-year-old P-16 Council, which will focus on improving achievement of minority and low-income children.

The governor and legislative leaders are already low-balling expectations, saying a $14 billion budget deficit will pre-empt the governor's year of education reform.

But this is no time for policy paralysis. The Committee on Education Excellence is expected to recommend billions of dollars in new spending - but only if distributed differently from today's funding and spent more wisely. Enacting some of the obvious changes now would serve as a down-payment to voters, assuring them that substantial new money wouldn't simply be piled on a failing system.

Among the actions that can be taken now, without substantial new money:

• Give school districts more freedom by eliminating restrictions on dozens of earmarked funds that dictate spending. So-called categorical grants consume nearly one-third of education spending. Local school districts must have more autonomy, which would reduce the need for bureaucracies that track the money.
• Create a data commission to look at how other states use education data effectively and fund the next stages of two information systems. One will collect data on teachers' education and training and one will track individual students' performance. Only by integrating the two, despite likely objections of the teachers' union, will analysts and the public get the most out of the information.
• Require districts to disclose actual spending by individual schools. This would reveal disparities between schools in rich and poor areas.
• Create a permanent innovation fund to encourage experimentation and spread best practices and programs. The first, modest grants should target new models for administrator training and more effective ways to evaluate and pay teachers, other than simply by seniority. Would an entrepreneurial school board and local teachers union break from the pack and pay teachers based on their leadership, skills and student performance? It's worth putting up the money to see.

One immediate issue facing the state is what sanctions to impose on 98 school districts - nearly one in 10, including Los Angeles Unified - that have failed to measure up, for five years in a row, under the federal No Child Left Behind law. East Side Union High School District is the only local district on the list, although hundreds could be added in coming years as the feds ratchet up demands for graduation rates and student proficiency.

The feds require that some action be taken, and the topic is on next week's agenda of the state Board of Education. Schwarzenegger may include recommendations in his State of the State address next week.

The unsubtle No Child Left Behind law doesn't distinguish between technical violators and chronically troubled districts, but Schwarzenegger should. He should save the severest interventions for a handful of districts (not East Side Union) that have shown no improvement.

Laying the groundwork for systemic reform, while preserving current funding for K-12 schools and community colleges, should be enough battles for one year. Schwarzenegger doesn't need to incite many more.

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