10/11/2009 GAAS:600:09 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Print Version |
Gov. Schwarzenegger Urges Passage of Remaining Reforms Necessary for California to Compete Successfully in Race to the Top
Signs Education Reform Measures
Continuing his commitment to ensure California gets its fair share of available federal economic stimulus funding, Governor Schwarzenegger has signed SB 19 by Senator Joe Simitian (D-Palo Alto), making California eligible to apply for Race to the Top – a $4.35 billion federal competitive grant program in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (Recovery Act) designed to support education reform and innovation. The Governor also signed SB 680 by Senator Gloria Romero (D-East Los Angeles) and intends to sign AB 1130 by Assemblymember Jose Solorio (D-Anaheim) today. Immediately after taking this action, the Governor urged the legislature to pass the remaining reforms necessary to ensure California can be highly competitive in this national education funding competition.
“These bills represent an important first step in bringing California’s students and schools closer to billions of much-needed federal funding – but our work in Race to the Top education reform is not done,” said Governor Schwarzenegger. “I urge the legislature to act quickly to pass the other education reforms I proposed to improve our education system and ensure California is competitive for Race to the Top education funding for our schools.”
On July 24, 2009, President Obama outlined both eligibility requirements and competitiveness criteria for states to compete for Race to the Top funding. On August 20, 2009, Governor Schwarzenegger called for a special legislative session and submitted a legislative proposal to ensure California is in compliance with both federal eligibility requirements and competitiveness criteria. The Governor’s proposed reforms were introduced as SBX5 1, a bipartisan legislative measure by Senator Gloria Romero (D-Los Angeles), Senator Bob Huff (R-Diamond Bar), Senator Elaine Alquist (D-San Jose) and Senator Mark Wyland (R-Carlsbad).
Only states that permit linking student achievement data and teacher and principal data for the purposes of teacher and principal evaluation are eligible to apply for Race to the Top funds.SB 19 eliminates California’s existing prohibition on student and teacher data linkages.
As confirmed by a recent EdSource report about the federal government’s education reform requirements, California must do more than just eliminate the so-called “data firewall” in order to compete for Race to the Top. Since only a select group of states will be funded under the competitive grant program, it is critical that the California legislature also pass education reforms proposed by the Governor in SBX5 1 to address the other federal competitiveness criteria, including:
- Strengthening requirements that districts implement bold turnaround strategies in the bottom five percent of persistently low-performing schools, helping increase the overall quality of our state’s education system.
- Outlining components for agreements between school districts and the state to work with local teachers unions to turn around struggling schools, helping ensure that all California students can reach our high academic standards.
- Giving parents more freedom to choose the school that best serves their children by authorizing open enrollment for students in the lowest-performing schools, allowing them to attend any school in the state.
- Repealing California’s charter school cap, which is an unnecessary barrier to innovation.
- Reinforcing a school district’s authority and ability to reward teachers who consistently do a great job improving student achievement. Locally bargained alternative pay schedules help California recruit and retain high-quality teachers and principals, highlight effective teaching practices and create incentives to improve our education system.
Addressing other federal competitiveness criteria, the Governor signed SB 680 by Senator Gloria Romero (D-East Los Angeles), which extends and expands the School District of Choice program. By allowing more districts to participate in the program, this measure gives parents more options when determining which school best serves the academic needs of their children. Additionally, the Governor intends to sign AB 1130 today, which provides for a growth assessment and achievement model that allows schools to measure a student’s academic progress in addition to his or her overall proficiency. Together, these bills help give local school districts additional information about student, teacher and principal performance to guide classroom instruction and for use as one of many teacher and principal evaluation measures.
Last month, Gov. Schwarzenegger announced that an additional $1.3 billion in expedited State Fiscal Stabilization Funds (SFSF), additional education funding available through the Recovery Act, will be available to California schools, colleges and universities this year. In May, the U.S. Department of Education provided California $3.2 billion for the first phase of SFSF, 67 percent of California’s total $4.9 billion allocation, to help mitigate the effects of budget reductions to education. The second installment of SFSF funds was not scheduled to be released to states until December; however, the Recovery Act permits states facing extreme budget difficulties to apply for 90 percent of funds during the first phase. Gov. Schwarzenegger petitioned for 90 percent of the state’s total SFSF allocation on August 27, and the U.S. Department of Education has granted it. Under the Governor’s leadership, California was also the first state in the nation to be federally approved for SFSF funds.
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