Schwarzenegger, education leaders confer at conference

An impromptu summit meeting between Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and leaders of CSBA and other education groups during CSBA’s recent Annual Education Conference and Trade Show gave participants reason for long-term optimism despite short-term budget worries.

“As of yesterday’s meeting, I have hope,” Paul H. Chatman, who succeeded Dr. Kathy Kinley as CSBA’s president at the close of the Annual Conference in San Diego, said at the conference’s final session. Kinley also participated in the meeting, as did representatives of the Association of California School Administrators, California Association of School Business Officials, California County Superintendents Educational Services Association and California State PTA.

“It will be the start of a discussion about changes in education,” Chatman said of the unscheduled meeting, which went on for more than an hour.

“We have the opportunity now to do something constructive,” Dave Long, the secretary of education in Schwarzenegger’s cabinet, agreed in a separate address during the Annual Conference. Long had joined the governor at the meeting with education leaders.

CSBA Executive Director Scott P. Plotkin provided the greatest details about the encounter in his annual “State of the State” conference presentation. Schwarzenegger had previously proclaimed that 2008 would usher in a “Year of Education,” when a shelf of studies on public school governance and finances would become the basis of fundamental changes, but “He wants to lower expectations” due to growing state budget problems, Plotkin said.

“He’s not going to make 2008 a year of education reform,” Plotkin said. “It’s going to be a multiyear effort on a whole range of things, whether it’s revenues or expenses or closing the achievement gap.”

‘Magic words’

Despite concern for the short term, Plotkin told his Annual Conference audience that the governor showed an incisive understanding of the challenges facing educators—and Schwarzenegger uttered what Plotkin called “the magic words.”

“I know that education reform can’t be done unless there is a substantial conversation about additional revenues for the public schools,” Plotkin paraphrased the governor. “This is not our first and last meeting. I want to keep the lines of communication open with the leaders of education.”

Plotkin said he and others at the closed-door meeting were candid yet cordial, reminding Schwarzenegger of the high standards set for California’s schools but noting that “We’re at the end of the food chain every time the state goes through a fiscal crisis.”

“We’re one of the few states in the country that does not have revenue-raising authority” at the local level, Plotkin said the governor was reminded.

Schwarzenegger responded that he is “definitely open to talking about that,” Plotkin reported, adding, “I consider that a major breakthrough.”

Plotkin also said the governor is aware of the growing number of school districts and county offices of education that face escalating sanctions under the federal No Child Left Behind Act’s Program Improvement regime. The governor realizes that many are in Program Improvement only because of technical shortcomings, such as the number of parents who decline to let their children take standardized tests, Plotkin said, adding that Schwarzenegger ruled out any “draconian” penalties.

Plotkin again praised the governor’s choice last year of Long—a longtime local administrator and county superintendent—as his chief education adviser. “We want the governor to turn to him when there’s a question about what’s going on in the real life of kids,” Plotkin said.