STEVE SMITH -- What’s Up?

In his State of the State speech Monday, Gov. Gray Davis proposed

additional education funds to extend the middle school year by 30 days.

The plan is voluntary, which means that if districts want to take the

money and run with the program, they can, and if they don’t want to, they

don’t have to.

At a recent lunch reception for Eagle Pride, the group supported by

the Costa Mesa Kiwanis Club that promotes and recognizes local students

in good community standing, I was asked by John Carpenter what I thought

of the governor’s new plan. Carpenter, a teacher at Estancia High School,

was there with his wife, Eileen, to watch their daughter, Taylor, receive

one of the Eagle Pride awards.

I told Carpenter that, as I was unaware of any of the details of the

governor’s program, I was hesitant to comment on it. But I did offer that

without any specifics and without any clearly defined goals, the plan was

just more political rhetoric and would not work.

But that’s the way it is in politics. Too often, the rhetoric makes

the headlines and gets the votes but, when it’s time to implement, to

nail down the details, politicians just can’t do it. Too many of them

lack the courage to discuss the fine points that make or break a plan

and, once again, their talk is cheap.

In Thursday’s Daily Pilot, Newport-Mesa Unified School District Supt.

Robert Barbot echoed the same thoughts about the details, not the

rhetoric. Interesting, because I had not read them before I made my

comments to Carpenter. Barbot said, “There were no surprises [in the

governor’s plan] -- well, the only surprise was that he was very general

in the comments he proposed. They were very good, but he was very general

this time. Sometimes he is specific about dollar amounts and where the

money is coming from.”

Barbot added a particularly insightful comment: “We want to make sure

we’re doing a good job with the days we have before we add more. Class

time is just a tool, but so is quality of instruction, attention span.”

Well said. The only aspect of any plan that is missing is for more

people in positions of power to point out that too often kids fail in

school because they lack enough parental support at home.

In the current issue of OC Family magazine, school board member Dana

Black and Westside resident Eva Marin pointed to the lack of parental

support as a reason -- not the reason -- for failure (note: I wrote the

OC Family story and profit no further from its distribution).

“A lot of [the poor test scores] has to do with the background of the

kids,” Marin said. “They don’t have the same advantages as the kids in

Newport. Not everybody has a computer in their room, and they don’t have

the access to the same information. The level of education makes a big

difference, but the language is the main issue. For some of these

parents, it’s more of a necessity to go to work, and they question the

value of the child’s education. They look at work as physical instead of

working with your brain. There are parents who value education, and those

who don’t. A lot of these parents don’t even check their homework.”

Black went on to discuss the measures the district is taking to

identify the students in need and to help them early in their education.

Black stuck her neck out and said what many of us have believed for a

long time -- that without the support at home, teachers and

administrators cannot help students succeed. I applaud -- no, I give a

standing ovation to -- Black for her comments.

I only wish the governor had the courage to say the same thing if, of

course, he believes in the power of parental support. But it’s hard for

the governor to make such a statement. It’s not likely to be embraced by

voters, the parents who are working hard and just don’t see how they can

do any more than the status quo.

But parents must raise the level of importance of their child’s

education if kids are to succeed in school. We will not achieve the

success we need simply by cutting class size or adding more time or

providing more equipment. These things help, but as Barbot said, they are

only tools. It is the culture of learning that must be established at

home that is necessary for academic excellence.

The Kiwanians understand the importance of parental support.

Throughout the hour, their comments were peppered with their appreciation

for the efforts the Eagle Pride parents were making. But it’s easy for

them to state the details of what most of us know to be the truth --

they’re not politicians.

* STEVE SMITH is a Costa Mesa resident and freelance writer. Readers

may leave a message for him on the Daily Pilot hotline at (949) 642-6086.