Schwarzenegger’s “Year of Education”: Missing The Point at the Outset

The first thing to understand about education reform, before even looking at the specific proposals here, is that it so often misses the point. The problem with education in California isn't that it is universally bad. I am a product of California public schools, from my first day in kindergarten in suburban Orange County in 1984 to my graduation from UC Berkeley in 2000 - and I had a great education the whole way. The problem is instead that it is uneven, and that students of color, and those from poor backgrounds, do not have the same educational opportunities or outcomes.

One of the most accurate predictors of student achievement is the income level of the student's parents. Lower-income families tend to live in districts with inadequately funded schools, but also aren't able to give students the kind of external support, such as test prep or computers, they need to succeed. Idealistic teachers who go to work in, for example, Oakland often burn out due to the lack of state support for their work and either find another career or take a job in Walnut Creek.

Those teachers who remain often give what they have to their students, but education is not a substitute for economic opportunity. To target poor children for aid but not their parents or their neighbors, as many have come to understand, is not a likely recipe for success.

We do indeed have an achievement gap in education in California. But it isn't going to be addressed by abandoning the poor and students of color, by attacking teachers, and by reducing the amount of democratic control over education. California has an education problem because it won't spend money on improving it, and Arnold, with his firm opposition to any new taxes, refuses to do the only thing that will help remedy the situation.

In that light, educational reform proposals such as those Arnold are proposing have to be seen in a different light. They're proposed to achieve political goals, not educational goals. Over the next three days I break down the proposals according to three categories: Teaching, Funding, and Democracy. A lack of respect for each is at the core of Arnold's plan, as is a desire to seize power over education in California.

Will Democrats rise to the occasion? Last year was to be the Year of Health Care. Arnold proposed individual mandates, and Democrats pooh-poohed it. But, 11 months later, there was the State Assembly, controlled by Democrats, approving a plan that incorporated Arnold's basic proposals, with some slight differences in the details. If the Year of Education is to have a better outcome than the Year of Health Care, we need Democrats to stand firm for public education, for students, and for teachers.

Robert Cruickshank is currently completing a Ph.D. in US history through the University of Washington. He is a Californian through and through, however, born and raised in Orange County and educated at UC Berkeley. He resides in Monterey, California, where he is active in supporting sustainable development projects, public transportation systems, and other progressive policy goals. This article originally appeared in Calitics and is republished with the permission of the author.