Vantage Point: Education reform: The class of 2021 can’t wait 

Paul H. Chatman

Education reform in California remains an elusive goal. Everyone realizes we need it, but our policymakers can’t seem to achieve it. In recent years, the state has spent a lot of time commissioning study upon study examining how to reform a system that was designed to meet the educational needs of the 1960s. Actual reform efforts, though, have mostly amounted to tinkering around the edges, not investing in major, structural change. Programs come and go; some even have a measure of success—until funding levels are reduced or the programs eliminated entirely. Every year the state Legislature passes bill after bill with new mandates and very few resources, cramming more and more requirements into a system that is already overburdened. The question that must be answered is, what can we do to effect the real structural reform that will produce a 21st-century education system and meet the needs of all our children?

This year, schools across this state have once again started the academic year uncertain if the state budget will support their local spending plans. Many of our boards have been forced to undergo the difficult process of issuing pink slips, which has caused some of our staff to seek employment elsewhere. We have closed schools and eliminated programs, creating great strain among parents, students and communities. (And, I should also mention, many of us are enduring these traumatic events at the same time that we are losing some of our most experienced superintendents to retirement.) In the meantime, the children across our state rely on us to prepare them to compete with workers from around the world for the 21st century’s jobs.

I thought about all that when I had the pleasure this summer of attending graduation ceremonies and presenting diplomas to one of my district’s preschool graduating classes; it was the highlight of my year. Some smiled eagerly, some held on for dear life to their teacher’s arm or leg as they approached. Shaking those young graduates’ little hands and looking into their excited faces, it struck me that this will be the high school graduating class of 2021! Driving home, I asked myself, how am I going to prepare these students—the class of 2021—to compete for those future jobs? Does our education system offer county offices of education, school districts and school sites enough flexibility to make the changes needed to meet the future’s local and global needs?

I know this: If this state continues on its current path, the next 13 years will produce too many dropouts and too many underachieving, overtested students unprepared for the world they will face. For me, that is unacceptable. For those children entering kindergarten, that is intolerable.

The class of 2021—and the students we have today—deserve better. You and I must keep up the pressure to reform the state’s education structure—not behind closed doors, but with everyone at the table. And please, no more studies, we need—we demand—action.