Teachers flee
Press-Democrat 4/30/07
A survey released Wednesday from the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) cited chapter and verse on the public's frustration. More than half of those surveyed think the quality of education is a big problem. Seven in 10 think state schools are declining or not getting better.
Meanwhile, a separate report released Thursday from the California State University's Center for Teacher Quality reported that thousands of teachers are leaving their profession because they are fed up with paperwork, top-down meddling and a lack of support, including shortages of supplies and books.
As a result, a state which also has large numbers of teachers approaching retirement age, now faces a teacher shortage.
These reports follow a blue-ribbon report released in March that left no doubt that public schools in California are in crisis.
The Getting Down to Facts Project found that student test scores rank seventh to last among all the states in math, third to last in reading and second to last in science.
In casting blame, the Stanford-based researchers offered one factor familiar to teachers. Neighborhood schools are choking on bureaucratic dictates from Sacramento.
State residents are beginning to lose faith in their state's ability to revive public education, according to the PPIC survey.
"While education remains a critical issue for most Californians," said PPIC president and CEO Mark Baldassare, "they clearly see a lack of progress and appear to be questioning the return on all the investment and activity of recent years. (Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger) has declared 2008 the 'Year of Education Reform.' The question is, does the public have the will -- and the faith in state leaders -- to tackle this complex and controversial issue."
Even Rube Goldberg, the cartoonist famous for drawing the most convoluted contraptions, could not have imagined the mess that is education governance in California.
The governor and his education secretary, the state Legislature, the appointed state Board of Education, the elected state superintendent of public instruction, the state Department of Education, the elected county superintendent of schools, the elected county school board, elected local school boards (40 in Sonoma County alone) and the appointed district superintendents -- all these people claim some responsibility for overseeing what happens in the classroom.
Is it any wonder these people are falling all over one another? Among other bureaucratic dictates, every neighborhood school must manage more than 100 categorical programs handed down from Sacramento.
Public schools are drowning in bureaucracy, turf wars and special-interest politics, and people are losing faith.
One would think this impending train wreck would be enough to compel people of conscience in Sacramento to respond before it is too late.