Governor’s education panel issues long-awaited report

CSBA Executive Director Scott P. Plotkin hopes that the release of recommendations by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Advisory Committee on Education Excellence last month will push state lawmakers to finally initiate “the right conversation” about giving schools the resources they need to do their jobs.

“We should be talking about how to couple sensible reforms with a level of funding that provides students with the greatest opportunity to achieve the high academic standards we have set for them,” Plotkin said.

Copies of the advisory committee’s report, “Students First: Renewing Hope for California’s Future,” have been circulating for months, but it wasn’t officially made public until March 14. The report is meant to serve as a blueprint for a long-term, comprehensive reform effort to be carried out over the next decade, according to committee chair
Ted Mitchell.

The study was to have been the centerpiece of the governor’s proclaimed “Year of Education.” However, the state now faces a multibillion-dollar budget deficit that undermines some of the report’s key findings—that the state’s schools are substantially underfunded, for example, and that an additional $10 billion should be invested in support of economically disadvantaged students and English learners.

Schwarzenegger has asked his Education secretary, Dave Long, to schedule a series of statewide forums to hear public reaction to the report.

“We look forward to analyzing the report and working with the governor on big, bold initiatives to ensure that California students have access to a first-rate, adequately funded education system,” said CSBA President Paul H. Chatman.