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Sacramento Bee

January 3, 2003

California Education is Broken
By Michael Warder*

Governor Gray Davis is staring at a deficit of about $35 billion over the next 18 months. The largest item in the budget is K-12 education. Since the education system of California is one of the worst in the country, it surely is time to rethink the model.

Everything should be on the table. We are a state known for creative thinking. Well? The focus must be on what is best to further the educational results of six million children. Maintaining education budgets cannot be the goal.

California might, for instance, consider adapting a much larger version of what Pennsylvania has done with a tax credit for businesses that contribute money directly to a particular public school. Instead of sending money to the state capital's general sinkhole, these businesses take direct responsibility for funding schools. Such an approach encourages the personnel of these businesses to get involved directly in local public schools. It is good to sharpen school management and to stimulate mentoring.

As part of that same credit, Pennsylvania businesses can also give partial tuition scholarships for children who wish to attend private schools. This allows a child from a low-income family the opportunity to receive a private education. Such scholarships in California could go a long way to alleviate the overcrowding of the public schools. Many private schools have classroom seats available. These seats are wasted in neighborhoods where the public schools are severely overcrowded. Such scholarships can cost far less than the Average Daily Attendance formula now in place.

Some school districts have hired private, for-profit companies on a contract basis to take over consistently failing schools. For instance, the Philadelphia schools were doing so poorly that the state hired several private firms to run them. Edison Schools run twenty of the worst. It offers a turnkey operation and now manages 150 schools nationwide involving 80,000 students. They claim that 84% of their schools have shown positive achievement gains. Skeptics of the claim should look at some of the certifiably and chronically horrible schools in California. Where is the harm in trying something new that might break a dismal performance cycle and save some money to boot?

The charter school movement is another area that deserves far more encouragement. There are now in America about 2,500 such schools serving more than 500,000 students. California has about 400 charter schools. These are self-constituted public schools began often by teachers, parents, or non-profit organizations that are built around a specific educational vision and that operate outside of the regulatory constraints of the public school system. One such example, The Accelerated School of Los Angeles, hasalso attracted a wide diversity of private sector grant making. Charter schools are less constrained by the regulatory and collective bargaining procedures of the typical public schools. Teachers may be hired, compensated, or fired more simply. Here again, tax credits could encourage more business involvement.

Perhaps the most controversial innovations are the voucher plans enacted in Milwaukee and Cleveland. Last summer the Supreme Court declared these two programs constitutional. It is expected that vouchers will take root now in other states. These plans involve having taxpayer-financed vouchers that parents, if they choose, can use to send their children to the private school of their choice. The vouchers can be structured so that they are less expensive than the per pupil costs for public schools. Given the poor performance and overcrowding in some of California's school districts, might it not be time to conduct limited, voluntary, pilot voucher programs for low-income children in areas where there is severe overcrowding?

While it might not work for many families, the growth of the home schooling option is phenomenal and works well for some. More than one million children nationwide now attend home schools. Excellent course materials for the children and the parents are comparatively inexpensive, and the parents that take it on need not be professors to teach their children. That has been consistently demonstrated in the past decade. Some excellent course materials cost $500 a year, and many are cheaper. If the parents wish to take the time, why not explore tax credits for them?

With the rise of the Internet, lifelong learning and qualification testing need not take place as it has in the past. Surely the use of technology and powerful software now available is an option to pursue.

California should use this budget crisis to refine and improve newer plans enacted in other parts of the country states. And it should take the lead in creating its own education options. Everything should be on the table.

*Mr. Warder is Executive Director of the Los Angeles Children's Scholarship Fund and can be reached at mwarder@lacsf.org.

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