The contrasting styles in problem-solving couldn't be more stark between Arnold Schwarz-enegger and Gray Davis.

For nearly four years, the Davis administration waged war with the American Civil Liberties Union over the state's responsibility to improve poor-performing schools. The state has blown $20 million thus far defending itself against the ACLU's class-action lawsuit. Most of the money has been spent on outside lawyers, making it one of the most expensive expenditures of this kind in years.

Davis, the self-proclaimed education governor, tried to broker an out-of-court settlement – to no avail. His successor, after just a few months in office, appears to be close to a deal.

Word is that Gov. Schwarzenegger wants to settle out of court, which would benefit many of the 1 million poor and minority students who attend awful schools. Members of his administration, most notably Education Secretary Richard Riordan, have been working behind the scenes to get this resolved in the near future.

While both sides are understandably reluctant to disclose details, one senses that progress is being made. ACLU lead attorney Mark Rosenbaum asserted that the $20 million spent to fight this case could have been better used to hire qualified teachers for low-achieving schools. Schwarzenegger's sympathies were telegraphed during the recall campaign when he lamented the sorry state of these schools. "If you call this equality in education," he declared during a debate, "I think it is outrageous."

How this will play out in a settlement is anyone's guess. Schwarzenegger has shown himself to be far more politically adept than many expected.

The very fact that Riordan and Rosenbaum recently toured schools in Edmonton, Alberta, is instructive. So too is Riordan's muscular advocacy for inner-city schools when he was mayor of Los Angeles. The education secretary is pushing for a simplified funding mechanism that would provide extra money for the very schools represented by the ACLU.

Schwarzenegger's style of gaining consensus, rather than butting heads, is paying off in several respects. It enabled him to gain Democratic support for his economic recovery plan just when it looked like there was no chance of getting his proposals on the March ballot. A similar willingness to compromise could settle the ACLU lawsuit. That makes far more sense than the scorched-earth policy pursued by the Davis administration in hiring a high-powered Los Angeles law firm, which countersued the 18 districts with schools named in the suit.

This case, which never should have been allowed to drag on for so long, should be settled without further delay.