Thank you, Senator Scott, for the opportunity to speak today on the budget for K-12 education. Recognizing our painful budget constraints, I join the Education Coalition in urging your support for their compromise with the Schwarzenegger administration on Proposition 98. That support is based on the understanding that it probably represents as much as could be negotiated in this extremely difficult environment. But it assumes no further cuts to the Prop. 98 guarantee.
I want to make it very clear that the Governor's budget proposal calls for real sacrifice from California's schools. It will cost our classrooms $2 billion in the budget year beginning July 1, and likely billions more over the next several years until the economy recovers.
Although the Department of Finance estimates the promise of Proposition 98 will be back on track by 2007-08, those billions lost in the interim will never be paid back to the schools. The agreement leaves schools with just enough to maintain the status quo.
When voters approved Proposition 98 they sent a message that they didn't want California to continue funding its schools at rock-bottom levels. They wanted school funding to increase year after year until our spending equaled that of state's where per-pupil funding is significantly higher than in California. During the dot-com boom, California was finally moving toward the middle of states in school funding. The increased money was tied to strict accountability standards. It helped us to raise expectations for academic achievement, provide standards-based textbooks and rigorous new training for teachers.
Test scores increased five years in a row. New schools were built. And we began to see a narrowing of the achievement gap that has robbed so many of our poor and minority children of a chance for better futures. I believe we can protect the gains we've made and improve upon them, even in difficult times. But we cannot ask our schools to absorb further cuts. Our state is now back down toward the bottom of the nation in funding for schools — 44th when you account for our high cost of living — and our students deserve better.
So I urge you to hold the line with the governor's proposal, and not to subject our schools to further funding decreases, as the Legislative Analyst suggests.
You'll also be dealing with a number of proposals on categorical funding. I am putting forth a proposal that combines flexibility with accountability and, most importantly, targets the benefit of improved flexibility toward the critical need of improving high school student achievement.
The language of this legislative package will be out shortly. It calls for roughly $450 million in categorical funding to be block granted to high schools that agree to focus that funding on five goals:
- Number one, increasing expectations in our high schools as we have in the lower grades;
- Number two, focusing on professional development for teachers and principals to improve instruction and school leadership
- Number three — improving high school instructional materials and fostering use of standards-based texts
- Number four, working with higher education and middle schools to smooth the transition for students as they enter and leave high school and
- Number five, building a community of support for improving high school achievement.
Essentially, my plan focuses flexibility to areas and programs that have shown success in our elementary schools, but where we have failed to focus in high schools. It is a reasonable, cost-effective way of moving us forward to the next important step in standards-based reform — improving our high schools.
While it is revenue neutral in recognition of the current year budget reality, I want to make clear that to really do justice to our high school students, this proposal must be funded at higher levels in the future. We need to fully support not only additional professional development but quality instructional materials and programs to support student achievement, such as AVID.
I also want to make it clear that in our efforts to raise expectations for our high school students, we are saying that all students, whether or not they are college-bound, deserve to be prepared with the skills and knowledge contained in a college-prep curriculum. Because the fact is, the coursework required by college admissions officers is every bit as important to success in the workplace, even in today's entry-level jobs. Many students enrolled in high school career academies are already learning to our high standards and being prepared for the workplace, while at the same time fulfilling a-g requirements. All students deserve such preparation.
Also this year I am focusing on reducing the bureaucratic burden placed on schools from the Department of Education, by streamlining our system of collecting data from school districts, and eliminating redundant data requests.
I ask for your support in the Legislature, by requesting that you place an embargo on any unnecessary data collections from our schools, particularly in this difficult budget year, and until our data collection system is refined.
This proposal recognizes the need for protecting professional development programs for our teachers. I urge you to keep in mind the importance of professional development — for our beginning teachers, veteran teachers and school principals — as you work on these categorical proposals.
On a related point, I also want to urge you to reject the Governor's proposal to increase by 40 percent the fees at our graduate schools of education. Our schools desperately need to attract and retain highly qualified teachers, and teacher salaries still are not as high as our teachers deserve. So I urge you to remove teacher education from the Governor's proposal on graduate education fees, and protect our future teachers by putting their graduate fees under the same 10 percent cap as is proposed for our undergraduates.
Moving to the area of childcare, I shared many of the recommendations made in the Governor's childcare package, and I look forward to working with you all on a package that ensures quality childcare.
Finally, I hope you'll support me in my efforts to refine the federal No Child Left Behind Act, to be more flexible and workable for our schools. On Wednesday, I'll be putting before the State Board of Education a list of recommended changes to our NCLB accountability workbook. Our goal is to remain in compliance with the federal law, to maintain our high standards, and at the same time ensure the law paints a fair picture of our schools' improvement.
Thank you for your time. I appreciate the difficult work you have in front of you, and look forward to working with you on behalf of California's 6.2 million students.
