VantagePoint: What's wrong with this picture?

What’s wrong with this picture?

It may only be April, but it’s already turned into an especially puzzling year for everyone trying to sort out the education picture in California. The Marine in me says we’re under attack. The football player in me feels like we’re down by three touchdowns at the end of the first quarter. Either way, it’s time to fight back.

I chose the jigsaw puzzle as a theme for my year as CSBA’s president to illustrate the fact that there isn’t a clear, cohesive picture of what public education ought to look like. There are so many pieces to the puzzle, and so many hands moving those pieces around. And, of course, there are always some ham-handed people who will try to force pieces, and some jokers who will hide a piece or two.

This month’s examples:

• The state Board of Education issues a fuzzy prescription of “corrective actions” for 96 school districts and one county office of education.
• We have yet another remedy for school “reform.”
• And we’re still stuck with a shortsighted state budget proposed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger that would devastate public education.

The prescription for those Program Improvement districts suffers from tunnel vision and one great big blind spot. First, SBE’s action crams all those local education agencies into just four different categories. Worse, SBE failed to make the required actions contingent on funding, even though $48 million in federal money is available. Now those districts will have to pry those all-important puzzle pieces—those dollars—out of the hands of state legislators who have their own vision of what needs to be done.

As for reform, the recommendations released by the Governor’s Committee on Education Excellence are pieces of another puzzle. Some of them fit the picture of what’s needed for our schools; some don’t. And, as usual, many pieces are missing—including those crucial ones shaped like dollar signs.

To its credit, the committee does call for an additional $10 billion to help teach economically disadvantaged students and English learners. That’s a good start, but it’s apt to turn out to be a nonstarter, now that what Gov. Schwarzenegger once promised would be “the year of education” has turned into what state Superintendent Jack O’Connell has called “the year of evisceration,” thanks to the governor’s reckless budget proposal.

There’s a bright side to this sorry picture, though, and it comes from the most important pieces of the education puzzle of all: you. The sharpest picture of the deficiencies in the governor’s proposed across-the-board spending cuts is focused where it counts the most—in the home districts of the state lawmakers who will have to pass the budget.

The outpouring of local support for public schools, the board resolutions and messages delivered to the state decision-makers have all been extremely gratifying to observe. If your school district or county office of education hasn’t gotten on board yet, we’ve made it easy; go to CSBA’s Web site at www.csba.org to find a sample resolution, useful background information and examples of what advocates for local schools all across the state are doing. Just click on the “Schools: An investment we can’t afford to cut” logo.