California Senate eyes landmark school reform package targeting the state’s worst schools

Calif. Senate eyes landmark school reform package

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The California Senate was poised to send Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger a package of education reforms designed to overhaul the state’s worst schools and allow parents to send their children elsewhere.

The legislative package was approved Wednesday by two Senate committees then sent to the Senate floor for a final vote later in the day.

“This is about parental choice in public education,” education committee chairwoman Sen. Gloria Romero, D-Los Angeles, said about the compromise she helped negotiate.

Schwarzenegger said he would sign the bills if they pass the Senate, as expected.

Under the legislation, state officials could close failing schools, convert them to charter schools or replace the principal and half the staff.

Students in the worst 1,000 schools could transfer, while parents could petition to turn around a chronically failing school, although the program would be limited to 75 schools.

The measures also provide a method for linking teacher evaluations to student performance.

The two bills are intended to help California qualify for $700 million in competitive federal grants under the Obama administration’s Race to the Top initiative.

Schwarzenegger lauded the legislation, saying it contained reform that once seemed impossible.

“For too many years, too many children were trapped in low-performing schools. The exit doors may as well have been chained,” Schwarzenegger said while delivering his State of the State address to lawmakers.

The bills, which require a simple majority vote to pass, were narrowly approved Tuesday by the state Assembly.

The reform efforts were opposed by the California Teachers Association and other groups representing educators. They also divided Democratic lawmakers, some of whom said the measures went too far and had too little debate.

State Sen. Carol Liu, D-Pasadena, voted against the reforms, saying they did not do enough to help low-achieving students and those who have problems speaking English.

Other senators made the point that California was making major reforms without a guarantee that it would get any of the federal money that will be awarded on a competitive basis.

Schwarzenegger has been pushing lawmakers to act since calling a special session in August and saying the measures would ensure California can compete for a portion of the $4.3 billion being made available by the federal government.

The first federal deadline for applying for the money is less than two weeks away.

“We are not in a position to turn our backs on the potential of $700 million to help kids in high-poverty schools,” said Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento.

California has cut billions of dollars from K-12 and higher education because of an ongoing fiscal crisis and a steep drop in tax revenue.

Assembly Speaker Karen Bass, D-Los Angeles, said she hoped California, which has 6 million public school students, would be given special consideration for embracing reforms such as parental choice that go beyond the requirements called for by the Obama administration.