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SANTA
MONICA-MALIBU UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT PRESS
RELEASE |
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Contact: John Deasy,
Ph.D. 310.450.8338, ext. 241 |
For Immediate Release October 18, 2005 |
Special Election
Education Implications
A major set of decisions
face the California Voter on November 8. Not the least of which is the decision
to vote in this special election. I have become seriously concerned with the
frequency with which people tell me that they are sick and tired of special
elections and that they will sit this one out ‘and that will show them’. I know
that voter fatigue is real and obviously present these days, but I implore you
to vote in this election. The voice of every person is critical if you care
about the future of California. For what is at stake in this election is a very
real decision about our economic future as a State.
There are a number of
propositions on the Ballot, and many of them are bound together as reform for a
fiscally ailing State. I am not going to comment on all of the rhetoric or the
myriad of campaign advertisements facing the electorate. I am going to simply
call out what I feel is a landmark situation before all of us with respect to
public education. There are two specific Propositions related to public
education: Prop. 74 deals with extending the waiting period for permanent
teaching status, and Prop. 76 deals with State spending and school funding
limits.
My comments on Prop. 74 are
short and simple. This is not a critical issue. I do not believe that extending
or shortening the waiting period for permanent status for teachers will affect
the quality of education in this State one iota. A high quality evaluation
system for employees will do this, and only a high quality evaluation system
coupled with deep investments in professional development for the teaching
force can improve the education system of California’s public schools. The
proposition will extend the time for teachers to receive permanent status from
the current two years to five consecutive years. Passage of Prop. 74 may well
hurt California because it may dissuade new faculty from entering the teaching
profession in this state, as we will now be only one of three states in the Country
to have a five year waiting period before tenure. We will join the ranks of
Indiana and Missouri. A cursory examination of State achievement data points to
the fact that an extended waiting period for tenure status for the teachers in
these two states did little to improve the quality of education and student
achievement. One can look to the type of evaluation and professional
development systems that the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified schools have put in
place if the voter (or public) wants an example of how to improve the quality
of instruction and student achievement. These data speak loudly for themselves.
Collaboratively developed rigorous systems to assure quality teaching
performance is what California needs, not a red herring nestled inside another
special election.
As for Prop 76, my comments
are direct, explicit, and serious. If Prop. 76 is passed there is not a single
component of the new law that will help public school education. The
Proposition will give the Governor unprecedented power to cut school budgets at
her/his determination in mid-fiscal cycle. The act will alter the State’s
constitution with respect to school funding in ways never seen before by this
State. While any additional cuts to K-12 funding bring us closer to a third
world status of fiscal support for education, if there must be a cut then it
must be planned for in advance of the current fiscal cycle. Since schools do
not generate revenues (like businesses) they can only absorb cuts if planned
for, not in the middle of a school year. We simply can’t shut a school or end
courses in February. The passage of Prop 76 will allow for such misdirected
fiscal decision-making. The dramatic changes to previously approved voter
propositions 98 and 111 will be permanently altered to lower the constitutional
school-funding guarantee provided for in Prop 98. Please recall the recently
released RAND study that examined how California’s public schools were doing.
The report was solemn and bleak. We fund our schools at nearly the bottom of
the 50 states, and last with respect to the large industrial States. Our
schools are at the top of comparison with respect to overcrowded classrooms and
achievement is dead last when accounting for conditions of the students as
compared to like students across the country. The direct effect of diminishing
funding for public education in California since the passage of Prop 13 was
clearly pointed out as the single largest contributing factor to the decline of
what was once the Nation’s finest public school system and the model for most
of the world.
It is true that there are
systems like Santa Monica-Malibu that dramatically buck the trend. But they are
few in number, and have required unique and special communities that are
willing to stand up and say education is a priority and an essential for the
health and welfare of a community and a State. But even these systems will be
gravely harmed by the passage of Prop. 76. California turns out the largest
number of new members of the Nation’s workforce annually. I pose this question:
do you want a well trained individual to put in your IV needle, to drill your
tooth, to change the tires and adjust the hydraulic breaking system on your
airplane, to operate the switching mechanism on your mass transit train, to
operate your regional nuclear reactor, and to maintain your vehicle? I, for
one, want all Californians to participate in the American Dream of home
ownership and an opportunity economy. I believe we all want this and expect it.
This requires a high quality public education system that is well funded.
Proposition 76 will clearly not permit this.
As the Legislative Analyst
points out ‘the net impact over time will be to lower the minimum guarantee for
K-12 education’. I must ask myself, and you, one question: How do you get lower
than last place? Implicit in the decision to approve or not approve Prop.76 is
a moral question about the future and future opportunity of those whose voice
is not heard. We are voting on a measure that will affect our children. I think
we need to ask them what part of the diminishing American dream do they want to
give up permanently?
I suggest and request that
you remain a well-informed and active voter on November 8.
John Deasy, Ph.D.
Superintendent of Schools
Santa Monica-Malibu Unified
Schools
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SANTA MONICA-MALIBU UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT
1651 16TH Street, Santa Monica 90404 -
310-450-8338 - Fax 310-581-1138