ARNOLD’S TIMING

14Mar08

   In politics timing is everything. Today it wasn’t on the side of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger—and he knew it. The Governor appointed a panel three years ago to provide him recommendations on ways to better serve the 6.3 million students in California’s public schools. This morning the group unveiled their suggestions with Governor Schwarzenegger present in Santa Monica. From a public relations standpoint, this was probably not the best day to persuasively argue the reports goals.              Many of the panel’s recommendations seemingly make sense. They include: increasing language training for students struggling with English (about half the schools in the state), universal preschool, and full-day kindergarten. The panel also wants to streamline the state’s education bureaucracy and give teachers higher pay.

            You’d be hard pressed to find many who would disagree with those ideas but equally hard pressed to find someone who could tell you how to pay for them.

At the press conference unveiling the recommendations the Governor jokingly asked the reporter’s first question before they could, “what about the budget?” As California struggles with a budget crisis, one of the state’s biggest expenditures—education—will be taking about a $5 billion hit if the Governor’s suggested budget is approved.. As a result State Superintendent Jack O’Connell called today “pink slip day” as more than 8,500 teachers statewide are facing job losses. Tomorrow (March 15) is the deadline for the state to send letters to permanent, tenured teachers warning them that their job might not be safe. Districts have until July 1 to rescind the “pink slips” or fire the teachers. But in the current budget situation, the rescinding many notices does not seem likely.Districts across the state will be affected differently. The LAUSD, the nation’s largest school district, has pledged not to fire tenured teachers and has not send out any “pink slips”. Still the district could see cuts in administration and after-school programs.Even though the Governor wanted his advisory panel to drive the educational reform agenda, it seems like their advice will have to be put on hold…for now. But any student of California politics knows how cyclical the budgetary process moves. This is certainly not the first time we’ve seen this trend—costly educational reform is approved in strong economic years, and then as the budget tightens, the innovative programs disappear. Governor Schwarzenegger argued against this see-saw budgeting today by saying, “it is inexcusable we are sending kids on a rollercoaster ride where they have to hold on for dear life”.Governor Schwarzenegger says the only real way to improve education is to first fix the budget situation. But changing any status quo in Sacramento is harder than it looks. Remember that old high school science theory from Sir Issac Newton’s—an object in motion remains in motion? Even though the current motion of the budget is not in the best interest of California’s students, it is almost impossible to reverse. Unfortunately, Issac Newton probably couldn’t even find a way to solve the budget mess.                                  

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