Executive director’s note: Making a case for optimism 

Notwithstanding my smiling visage in the photograph that accompanies this column, anyone who has been a regular reader during the past year could not be blamed for thinking one of two things—either I’m an incurable pessimist or I’ve been in a really bad mood for a really long time.

Let’s consider the evidence:

• “I have rarely seen such collective outrage on the part of folks in the field as I have with the State Board’s ill-considered and unwarranted action.”
  —Fall 2008
• “I have never seen such claptrap in my life.”
  —Fall 2008
• “See if your elected officials know and understand the concept of ‘politics as the art of compromise’ ” (the clear implication being that you would find them lacking in this regard).
  —Winter 2008
• “Are you astonished as I am at how bad things have gotten in Sacramento?”
  —Winter 2008
• “The situation in which schools find themselves right now … demands that I devote this space to current efforts to address the patently dysfunctional system that our public schools depend on for support.”
  —Spring 2009
• “This shameful turn of events has school people scrambling in ways that have not been seen in over 75 years.”
  —Spring 2009
• “As I write this column … it is difficult to muster the slightest bit of optimism about the future of California.”
  —Summer 2009

It’s gotten to the point where I’m afraid to even ask the question, “How bad do things have to get before they start getting better?”

As various crises have come to the fore—the budget crisis, the crisis of leadership in California, the crisis of educational policy at both the state and federal levels—it has been demonstrated time and time again that, yes, it can indeed take a little longer for us to reach rock bottom.

It makes little sense, however, for us to wallow in despair. As difficult as it may be in these difficult times, we must keep our focus and energy on what we can do—as an association and as individual members of governance teams—to turn this situation around and begin to make things better. In this column, I want to focus on two avenues by which CSBA is working to do exactly that.

I. Local governments working together to effect change

While I would argue that the pessimism reflected in the above comments was warranted, I am happy to say that it’s been a long time since I’ve felt as hopeful as I did after attending the Local Government Summit on State Governance and Fiscal Reform in July. This historic event brought together more than 500 elected officials from schools, cities and counties throughout California for a two-day discussion about reform and real solutions to the crises we face today.

Highlights of the summit included a panel comprising the Bay Area Council’s Jim Wunderman, California Forward’s Jim Mayer and state Board of Equalization member (and former state Senator and Assemblyman) Bill Leonard. During a vigorous debate on the concept of a constitutional convention, Wunderman urged local leaders to embrace bold reform, while Leonard advised that it makes more sense to “narrow your focus to what you really need in order to do your job.”

On the second day of the summit, participants broke up into small groups to discuss more than two dozen reform options, with the goal of identifying consensus priorities. After three hours of spirited conversation, the following options rose to the top:

• protect local revenue sources from diversion or borrowing by the state
• reform state term limits
• reduce the two-thirds majority required for local taxes
• require that new funding sources be identified for any new state programs

Even though there was wide support for “protect local revenues” as a concept, the conversations within each breakout group varied widely. In some groups, there was strong support for the type of bold, broad reform that might result from a constitutional convention. In other groups, the approach was less drastic, focusing on changes that could be made to the current system.

Perhaps the key message I took from the summit was the universal frustration and anger that local elected officials are directing at the Legislature. Even though the amount of time spent by individual groups on legislative reform proposals varied widely, there was a huge groundswell of support for reforms directed at the legislative process—including term limits and the reapportionment process. Just as importantly, there was a great desire to do something—anything—to reduce the amount of partisanship in both houses.

With the summit past, the hard work really begins. Many of the reforms supported by summit attendees will generate strong support—but achieving them is much easier said than done. Still, after appropriate consultation with CSBA’s leadership, it is imperative that we try. We must capitalize on the momentum of the summit and turn that momentum into a real movement made up of school, city and county leaders to achieve the reforms that are essential to the long-term success of our state.

II. Joining with leading experts to support governance teams

This summer, CSBA entered into a partnership with School Services of California and Dave Long and Associates to develop a program that integrates governance with fiscal, curriculum and instructional support for school districts. The partnership is a tremendous opportunity to strengthen the association’s governance consulting services and will provide a powerful venue for CSBA to enhance its support to governance teams as they strive to speed up student achievement and allocate resources in ways that maximize student outcomes. I am very excited about this opportunity to amplify our support for governance teams, which even in these difficult fiscal times will allow us to offer the highest level of service to help CSBA members meet the needs of students.

And there you have it—the times are still hard and we are still in a crisis, but even with that I can still be optimistic about some things!