This article originally appeared on page A - 12 of the San Francisco Chronicle
California schools, once among the best in the nation, have fallen to the bottom in spending and achievement over the past decade. These past two years, further deep cuts caused many to shorten the school year, cancel classes, close libraries and lay off thousands of educators. And this past Tuesday, schools took another hit, losing $300 million more in trigger cuts that slashed the state budget yet again.
Ironically, while Republican legislators have prevented a ballot initiative that would allow the people to vote to raise revenues, two-thirds of Californians asserted in a recent USC Dornsife/LA Times poll that they are willing to raise their own taxes in order to invest more in public schools. Furthermore, 71 percent favor putting moreeducation funds in disadvantaged communities, even if it means shifting funds from wealthier communities.
The public seems to recognize that starving schools that serve poor children ultimately feeds a school-to-prison pipeline that harms everyone. The corrections system has quadrupled in size since the 1980s, and now chews up 11 percent of the state budget — more than our public universities — devouring the funds that should go to education.
Most inmates are high school dropouts who are functionally illiterate: We pay nearly $50,000 a year to incarcerate the same young people whom we would not spend $10,000 a year to educate well. Were we to invest in strong schools, these young people could hold down good jobs and contribute to the tax rolls - helping fund the health care, Social Security and other services all of our citizens need.
Most respondents (about 90 percent) want to reduce class sizes, increase parent involvement and invest in teaching. In a rebuff to the recent state practice of putting new teachers in charge of classrooms before they have completed their training, they strongly favor ensuring that new teachers apprentice with expert veteran teachers for a full year before they can teach on their own.
Californians are equally clear about what they do not want. By more than 2 to 1, respondents say the state should rely less on standardized tests to measure learning. This is not surprising, given that California requires more tests than almost any other state (32 before students even get to the SAT or ACT). When it comes to measuring school and teacher performance, 72 percent think that measures other than tests are needed.
Californians have spoken, and what they want is a better and more equitably funded public school system, with fewer top-down mandates and less reliance on standardized testing. They want a system that invests more in well-trained teachers, and they want those teachers to work in reasonable-size classrooms that invite parental involvement.
What Californians want is entirely within reach: Research and practice have shown that we can create these kinds of schools. At this critical juncture, voters are prepared to invest in our students and our state's future. It is time for legislators who have been denying the public the right to vote on its future to step aside and let the people speak. The people understand that California cannot be a land of opportunity unless it invests in excellent education for all. Right now, today, we have the knowledge, the leadership and the public will to rebuild our schools. So when can we get started?
Linda Darling-Hammond is Charles E. Ducommun professor at Stanford University, where she founded the Stanford Center for Opportunity Policy in Education.
