California Assembly approves bills for Race to the Top funds

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Assembly OKs bills to get federal schools funds
Marisa Lagos and Nanette Asimov, San Francisco Chronicle, January 6, 2010

(01-05) 20:16 PST SACRAMENTO -- Education experts said Tuesday that legislation to qualify California for federal Race to the Top funds fails to solve the underlying structural problems faced by the state's public school system.

The two bills, which won Assembly approval Tuesday and are expected to pass the state Senate today, are designed to secure California schools up to $700 million of the $4.3 billion in one-time federal grants that President Obama has promised to states that make sweeping changes to their education policies. Supporters also hailed them as a key step toward overhauling the state's struggling school system.

But even if California wins a grant, experts said the new laws won't solve the chronic underfunding of schools and the problem of retaining good teachers. Even some of the most controversial elements of the plan such as open enrollment, which allows parents to transfer their children out of the worst schools and request admission to a school elsewhere in the state, won't fix the underlying problems, said Bruce Fuller, a professor of education and public policy at UC Berkeley.

"We're in a sense just shifting the deck chairs around a sinking Titanic," he said. "We're creating the illusion of choice among schools that are collapsing among less and less state support."

Money problems remain

Michael Kirst, education professor emeritus at Stanford University, said the impact of the changes will depend on one thing: money. While $700 million would certainly help California schools - and even if, as expected, the Obama administration ties future funding to federal requirements as well - the state is facing a $20.7 billion budget shortfall, and education is likely to be on the chopping block when the governor unveils his budget later this week.

Other key elements of the overhaul include allowing state officials and parents to force districts to overhaul bad schools; linking student test scores and other data to teacher evaluations; establishing a new commission that would set the academic standards for what students are supposed to learn; creating a system to track students from elementary school through college to see what is working; and making a new program to credential math and science teachers.

The bills have been debated for months. Assembly Democrats have sided with teachers unions and education associations that wanted to restrict the changes, while Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and state Sen. Gloria Romero, D-Los Angeles, have pushed for bolder change, such as open enrollment and allowing more charter schools. While the Race to the Top competition outlined some specific areas that states must comply with to be eligible for the grants, some of the changes being made in California were not explicitly required by the Obama administration.

Supporters, such as the California Parent Teacher Association, said the legislations' overall impact will be "very positive." And Schwarzenegger, who had threatened to veto an earlier bill he said didn't go far enough, praised the bills passed Tuesday as historic and "sweeping education reforms."

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/01/06/MN0D1BE1C9.DTL

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1. UPDATE: Now the State Senate has approved the bills too, governor to sign

The state Senate approved two bills Wednesday that will help California compete for up to $700 million in federal education funds and will give parents choices in where their children attend school.

The bills, which the governor plans to sign today, will allow parents to transfer their children out of failing public schools and request admission to a public school anywhere else in the state. The bills also enable parents to force districts to overhaul bad schools. They also will link student test scores and other data to teacher evaluations; establish a new commission that would set the academic standards for what students are supposed to learn; create a system to track students from elementary school through college to see what is working; and institute a new program to credential math and science teachers.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/01/07/BARJ1BEJTP.DTL