Governor losing on education-reform delay

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's ambitious agenda this year ignored perhaps California's biggest problem — and now it's haunting him and, in particular, kids in four Bay Area school districts.

The governor is wading through a legislative sea of 2007 priorities, including health care woes, prison crowding, political reform and global warming.

The work yielded him a favorable job performance rating this week in a statewide poll. But that survey also showed the public has grown gloomy about schools and gave him a poor rating on education.

Amid building pressure, Schwarzenegger's Education Secretary David Long issued a statement Thursday that acknowledged the state has "a broken system" as it relates to school funding and governance.

Long said ongoing studies by the Governor's Committee on Education Excellence will identify "necessary changes" without just pouring in more money.

Critics dismissed the comments as a stalling technique, saying there already are enough reports and recommendations to fill a library.

Long's comments echoed the governor, who saw summaries of existing reports last month that concluded the "system is fundamentally flawed."

Schwarzenegger then declared an overhaul of school funding and governance his No. 1 priority for 2008, the "Year of Education Reform."

Advocates of changing the overly complex and uneven funding system more swiftly, at least for the bankrupt districts in Oakland and elsewhere, were disappointed.

Advocates of change include virtually the entire education community — the California School Boards Association, the California Teachers Association, the California Federation of Teachers, civil rights groups, business leaders and a coalition of parents groups.

State schools chief Jack O'Connell said the bottom line, when funding and governance issues are hammered out, will be the need to spend more money on schools. "Today we spend on average of 30 percent less than the rest of the nation," he said.

With a $66 billion price tag already — and growing — that may be a tough move for a deficit-ridden state.

But the governor, who wants to make education finance reform his issue, has leaned on Democratic majority leaders in the Legislature to stop some Democrats from moving ahead this week with their school funding remedies.

Schwarzenegger did not want to have to make potentially embarrassing vetoes, analysts said.

The Assembly Education Committee forced Assemblywoman Loni Hancock, D-Berkeley, to shelve her AB1601 bailout bill for seven school districts, including Oakland and Vallejo.

The troubled school districts have been taken over by the state. Oakland remains under state control.

Despite the setback with AB1601, "we're still trying to find ways to help them," said Hancock aide Rebecca Baumann.

In Oakland's case, a separate bill is advancing to restore operational — not fiscal — control to local officials.

Hancock's bill would have changed the base for the funding of those seven districts from the longtime average daily attendance system, to average monthly enrollment.

AME is a better workload indicator, provides more stable and predictable funding and requires less paperwork, experts said.

The Assembly Education Committee this week also postponed consideration of another similar, but wider-reaching reform bill by Assemblyman Mervyn Dymally, D-Compton.

In the Senate this week, the education committee advanced SB 146 by Sen. Jack Scott, D-Pasadena, to the Senate Appropriations Committee, where it is expected to stay until next year. SB 146 would have applied AME statewide.

"Many school districts have been frustrated by an antiquated school funding formula that is based on how many kids are in class on any given day," Scott told the committee.

"This bill would streamline the attendance process by cutting down on the amount of paperwork and consequently saving school districts money and effort," he said.

Last year, state Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata co-authored a similar bill with Scott, which the governor vetoed, citing studies in progress. This week, Perata spokesman Alicia Trost said, "Sen. Perata has no plans for an AME bill."

Assemblyman Gene Mullin's education reform bill last year also was vetoed, with a similar explanation from the governor.