Governor Took Low Road on Education

Arnold Schwarzenegger held a great opportunity in his hands when he became governor of California. He could have been the education governor.

This is a man, after all, who got his feet wet in politics by sponsoring an after-school initiative. During the campaign, when he was still wildly popular, he promised “to guarantee equal education for all children.”

Instead, Schwarzenegger -- whose four children attend private school -- has cavalierly broken a promise on public school funding, embittered teachers, and offered next to nothing in the way of creative or sweeping solutions to the state’s most critical challenge.

As I write, I don’t know if Arnold’s Proposition 74 -- the proposal to extend public school teachers’ probationary period -- won the hearts of voters.

But I do know this: Even if it passed, it’s not going to fix the schools.

What’s the bigger challenge, after all, firing bad teachers, or attracting new ones and then making an honest commitment to monitor and continue training them once they’re on the job?

“The governor vetoed a bill that would have continued professional development for teachers,” said state schools boss Jack O’Connell, who has no trouble hiding his disappointment with Schwarzenegger’s empty rhetoric on education. “The achievement gap in California is real, and I just think if we’re going to continue to be a strong economic engine in the world, that’s linked to our ability to close that gap.”

Last month came news that despite some improvements in test scores, California’s fourth- and eighth-graders rank close to rock-bottom in the nation in math and reading.

So what does Arnold do? Throws a lame education initiative on the ballot all the while hoping voters wouldn’t notice that another of his initiatives, the budget-capping Prop. 76, would eviscerate school funding.

California schools have bigger challenges than any state when you consider the huge low-income population and the number of students still learning English. Despite these challenges, California’s national rank in spending per pupil is somewhere between the middle of the pack and the bottom, depending on who’s counting and what formula is used.

Yes, I know you can’t throw money at the problem. But neither can you expect excellence when mediocrity is all you’re willing to pay for, and even at that, the governor tries to raid the public school kitty.

I met recently with Rob Reiner, whose preschool initiative would guarantee a head start for every California child and do more than anything Schwarzenegger has on the table. If he does nothing else, the governor ought to get behind it.

Jeannie Oakes, a UCLA education professor, recalled a Schwarzenegger speech “that was amazing about what we can’t let happen to California students.” And then, under the guise of reform, he gave us the duplicitous distraction called Prop. 74.

“It will do nothing to solve the most serious problems in California schools,” Oakes said. “It will do nothing about serious underfunding, low achievement, high dropout rates, and it won’t even solve the teacher quality problem.”

She wishes Schwarzenegger had united rather than alienated educators and led a discussion about what it might cost to achieve his own promise of equal education for every child. She wishes he had helped galvanize the efforts of grass-roots parent groups that are demanding accountability and resources in their children’s schools.

Even if he was a committed cheapskate, Schwarzenegger could have used his bloated popularity two years ago to visit every school district in the state and tell parents an essential truth: If they don’t get more involved in their children’s education, they’ll have themselves to blame for lousy report cards.

I’ve written in the past that for obvious social and economic reasons, parents have an obligation to learn English and encourage their children to do the same. That message doesn’t mean much coming from a columnist who was born and raised in California, but it would have meant something from a gazillionaire governor who was born abroad.

“He could have been the head cheerleader, the parent organizer, the champion of low-income families,” says Oakes.

Is it too hard to fire bad teachers?

Of course. The contract for United Teachers Los Angeles is 310 pages of protection.

“It takes too long and it’s too expensive” to toss a bad apple, says Roy Romer, chief of the Los Angeles Unified School District.

But Arnold’s measure wouldn’t solve that problem, nor does it get us anywhere near an honest fix for California’s lousy report card.

“The world is moving its talented jobs to India and China and other places because they have very good education,” says Romer. “If you take a 50-year view of Los Angeles, you’re going to have to build the economy on schools and knowledge, and we are not doing it. The political and frankly the social cadre have not recognized that you can’t educate only the elite and compete in the world. You have to educate everybody.”

At the very least, the governor could have demanded payback from his corporate pals. With all the favors they’ve gotten from Schwarzenegger, he could have tapped them for more help with charters, corporate sponsorship of schools, donations of equipment and brainpower.

In short, he could have restored California’s role as the national model for public schools.

Is it too late?

I don’t know. But what better focus for the rest of his time in office?

*

Reach the columnist at steve.lopez@latimes.com and read previous columns at www.latimes.com/lopez