Education Reform

This is it for Gov. Pete Wilson, the end of the game. Not only is it his last at-bat, it's his last swing. It's his last week to drive in runs, to produce legislation. He's mainly playing for more education reforms, a school bond issue with construction finance reforms and a water bond that agriculture can support. The 1997-98 legislative session--Wilson's last as governor--will be history by next Monday. After that, his role in the Capitol will be essentially reactive--signing or vetoing bills.

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.

Harvard Graduate School of Education professor David W. Breneman urged that steps be taken to improve efficiency in the state's higher education system during a meeting this week with Cal State Northridge administrators and faculty. Breneman is the author of a controversial California Higher Education Policy Center study calling for drastic changes in most state university programs. The study advises shifting resources from research and graduate work to undergraduate education.

Continuing his interest in public education, retiring state Sen. Gary K. Hart said Tuesday that he will head a new California State University program aimed at improving classroom performance from the elementary grades through high school. As director of the Sacramento-based Cal State Institute for Educational Reform, Hart, 51, will assist elementary and secondary schools that are struggling to improve in tough budgetary times.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa collected more than $761,000 for his education reform efforts during the last six months of 2006, some of it from companies and individuals who have had business before the city but no direct link to education, according to financial reports filed with the state Wednesday. The funds come on top of more than $1 million collected by Villaraigosa during the first six months of last year.

The best counsel John F. Kerry has received about education during the presidential campaign came last fall from one of the party's strongest voices for school reform during the 1990s. "It bothers me," the reformer wrote, "that some Democrats have resisted the idea of making educational outcomes -- the skills and knowledge our kids obtain from the educational system -- as important as educational inputs -- the adequate funding, the good facilities and the higher teacher pay we all want."

After feuding bitterly with him for most of last year, Gov. George Deukmejian announced in his annual State of the State Address Wednesday that Supt. of Public Instruction Bill Honig now will join him in co-sponsoring legislation to "reform" student curriculum and school financing.

Colorado Gov. Roy Romer said states have begun "a creative movement" to improve education, although a National Governors' Assn. report shows only mediocre progress in reforming school systems. Romer released the final report of a five-year study of the status of education. The report used as evidence of progress increases in teacher salaries.

Reform is the buzzword in public schools today. Faced with a student population that needs more help and the public's demand for higher quality, schools are trying new methods of teaching and recreating the look, feel and daily pace of the classroom. It can be a bewildering process for parents. This package of stories hopes to take the mystery out of some of the leading reform efforts under way in the Los Angeles area.

After a day of behind the scenes haggling over partisan differences, leaders of the National Governors' Assn. on Sunday adopted a compromise plan for a commission that will grade the states--and the federal government--on progress toward education reform goals.