SACRAMENTO — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger today will announce a plan to reduce class size in the state's lowest-ranked schools as he seeks to counter charges from education groups that his budget policies undermine California students.
The governor will include the $174-million proposal in his revised state spending plan, administration officials said. It is part of an effort by his administration to shift the education debate away from how much money the state is spending on schools. Officials want to focus it instead on ideas that could boost academic performance without increasing costs by billions of dollars.
Schwarzenegger this week unveiled a controversial proposal to turn around failing schools by handing them over to state-appointed trustees or management teams, or allowing them to reopen as charter schools with state permission.
The class-size reduction would provide 2,400 of the state's worst-performing schools enough money, in theory, to reduce the number of students per classroom to 20 for a single grade, the officials said. But schools would be free to reduce class size in any way they chose in grades 4 through 12.
"We are saying the school will be eligible for a pot of money, and if they want to use it to shrink some classes in each grade, then they can do that," said a senior administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. No officials would speak publicly about the proposal before the governor announced it.
The senior official said 632 public schools in Los Angeles County districts would qualify for the program; 308 would be in the L.A. Unified School District. In Orange County, 106 schools would qualify; in Riverside County, 131; in Ventura County, 45.
The governor has been taking fire from education groups and Democratic lawmakers for his intent to hold back more than $2 billion owed schools under voter-approved funding formulas. In a deal the governor struck with education groups last year, he vowed not to touch that money. But in the face of an $8.6-billion budget shortfall, he reneged.
The governor's approval rating has dropped significantly in public opinion polls since school groups, including the politically powerful California Teachers Assn., launched a campaign against him that includes a blitz of television ads.
