This article was originally published in the January 20, 1999 edition of The Sacramento Bee © 1999 The Sacramento Bee Review the highlights of President Clinton's federal education plan

Davis Launches His School Reform Bid By Dan Smith Bee Capitol Bureau Gov. Gray Davis kicked off his legislative effort to fix public education Tuesday, sponsoring four bills to improve reading skills and hold teachers, principals and students more accountable. But Tuesday's opening of the Legislature's largely ceremonial "extraordinary session," which will run concurrently with the regular session and allow education bills to be considered more quickly, also produced nearly two dozen alternative proposals from minority-party Republicans. And as the Davis administration released details of its legislative program, Republicans questioned whether the governor's plan to weed out bad teachers was substantial enough to be successful. Teachers union representatives, while encouraged by the administration's willingness to give teachers a voice in that process, said they were concerned that Davis' proposal would essentially force local school districts to adopt peer-review programs for evaluating teachers. Davis said the bills he is sponsoring would "substantially improve education" in California. "The purpose behind these bills is to ask more of teachers, students, principals and parents," he said at a Capitol news conference. Although legislators have suggested that the special-session debate will focus on Davis' four proposals, Davis said he was open to alternative ideas from Democrats and Republicans. But only one of the four Davis bills -- a $94 million, relatively noncontroversial reading improvement program by Assemblywoman Kerry Mazzoni, D-Novato -- requires a two-thirds vote and, therefore, Republican support. Assembly Republican leader Rod Pacheco of Riverside said Republicans could withhold votes on that bill to force more money into the school accountability aspect of Davis' program. The three more controversial measures in the Democratic governor's plan can be enacted with simple majorities in the Democrat-controlled Legislature. Lawmakers are hoping to finish work on the bills in 60 to 90 days. Under special-session rules, they would become law 90 days after Davis signs them. Davis' peer-review effort, AB1x by Assembly Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa, D-Los Angeles, would require each school district to evaluate teachers, using mentor teachers, or forfeit the money that the state transfers to districts annually to cover inflation. School districts' cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA, amounts to about $75 per pupil in the budget Davis proposed for the fiscal year beginning July 1. It is money that local districts count on to cover pay increases negotiated with their employees. By tying the COLA to the adoption of a peer-review system, the money becomes "an important lever" in encouraging local unions and districts to adopt peer review, said Gary Hart, Davis' education secretary and the key architect of the governor's proposals. The idea did not sit well with the California Teachers Association, which supports peer review conceptually but believes it should not be dictated by the state. "We've always preferred the approach of incentives rather than punishment," said Bob Cherry, associate executive director for the union. "It (peer review) looks like it's mandatory to me . . . and we're going to have concerns." Villaraigosa, a former teachers union organizer, noted that the peer review measure gives each local district and union vast flexibility in working out details of their system. Republicans said the peer review measure would do little to rid schools of poor teachers. "What in his legislation deals with incompetent teachers, other than a letter to the school board?" Pacheco said. Pacheco also said Davis' bill to hold schools and principals more accountable for student performance would affect too few schools. SB1x by Sen. Deirdre Alpert, D-Coronado, would rank all schools based on an "academic performance index" calculated mostly with test scores, but including graduation and attendance rates for both teachers and students. The data also would be broken down by ethnicity and poverty levels. Moreover, 200 of the lowest-performing 4,000 schools would be randomly chosen for a two-year monitoring program in which improvement would mean more state money. Lack of significant improvement could mean sanctions, including the reassignment of the school principal and at least one of several other penalties, including closing the school. Under the Davis-sponsored SB2x, California would become the 23rd state to require high school students to pass an exit exam to graduate. The test would be "the Super Bowl of exams," said Sen. Jack O'Connell, D-San Luis Obispo, the author of the bill. "The high school diploma will be worth much more today than any diploma has been in the past," he said. Davis, however, would not address the potential political fallout if the test -- to be required of the 2003 graduating class -- resulted in widespread student failure as many educators have predicted. He said students could begin taking the test in 10th grade and retake it several times. "The goal is not to leave a lot of casualties on the road," Davis said. "The goal is to encourage people to elevate their skills and work harder so they can pass it." Patrick Hoge and Jon Matthews of The Bee Capitol Bureau contributed to this report.