Governor Announces Allocation of $463 Million in Proposition 1D Funds

GOVERNOR SCHWARZENEGGER: Well, thank you very much. Thank you for the wonderful introduction. Yvonne Chan is an extraordinary school principal, probably the best in the country. And I want to say thank you so much for your great enthusiasm and for raising the money through private sources and getting now the $6 million from the state. So I love your enthusiasm. And, of course, I was here three years ago visiting this school because of what I'd heard about the outstanding work that is being done and the great leadership that this charter school provides. And so I said then already that if you continue with the work the way you're doing now, that I'll be back. And I'm so impressed with the great work you've been doing, so this is why I'm back.

But before I say anything about education and about the school, I just want to say thank you very much also to Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell for being here today. (Applause) And then Secretary of State Consumer Services, our wonderful leader of that agency, Rosario Marín. Thank you very much. (Applause) Then Assemblyman de León, we want to thank him also for coming here today and being a great believer in children and education. (Applause) And then we have Caprice Young, the president of the California Charter Schools Association, I want to thank her also for being here. (Applause) And of course there are a lot of other elected officials here and important people that helped raise money and that are important to help with the guidance of this school. We want to thank all of you for being here. And we want to thank also the hundreds and hundreds of schoolchildren that are here today, sitting out in this hot weather. Thank you all for being such great students. A big hand to the children, also. (Applause)

Now, this school took action amid incredible challenges, as you have heard, and became a model of charter schools nationwide. Now you have even bigger goals, so I could not resist to come back here again and to be visiting this great school, 'The Little School That Could'. It is a big thrill to award your school here today more than $6 million in Proposition 1D funds. (Applause)

And it is a thrill to see, actually, the building already up and running. So this is, of course, the official grand opening here today. This is part of, may I remind you, part of the money. All together we are handing $450 million -- $450 million are being allocated this week to 29 charter schools up and down the state of California. (Applause)

Here at Vaughn the funding will provide for seven new classrooms, and that means the opportunity for 189 new students. And if they excel the way you all have done, you students, we will also be celebrating a success story; 189 success stories here in this school.

So I am delighted that you will be building also these classrooms here and have built this school green, because that is very important. We want to make sure that there are green performance standards that are applied to building schools here. This is important, because we have made a commitment a while back that we're going to build our buildings more green, because we want to protect the environment. And schools just like this one here are building the legacy and inspiration of this, building things green, because this is important because we want to create new environmental leaders here in this school. Innovation and innovative schools are exactly what the voters had in mind when they approved the $10.4 billion of Proposition 1D money.

I have said a long time ago that we have to rebuild California. This is part of the Strategic Growth Plan that the people have approved in 2006, which was all together $42 billion to rebuild California, to fix our levees, build more transportation, expand our school system and build more school facilities, expand our universities and also build more career-tech educational facilities and more charter schools.

So we're very happy that we made sure that the initiative included specific money for charter schools, because they are very important for our communities and for our state. So let's hear it for the charter schools of this great state. (Applause)

As a matter of fact, the Annual Charter School Report shows that they are both more popular and more successful. Since 2004, more than 200 charter schools have opened up here in California. And we will continue and I promise you I will do everything in my power to make sure to build more charter schools and to actually increase the speed of building charter schools in the state of California. And when you hear great reports, like for instance 4 percent more charter schools earned higher academic performance index scores from 2003 to 2007, when you hear those kinds of things you get inspired by this.

But let me tell you something; it's not easy for charter schools, because there are so many roadblocks that are laid and so many obstacles are put in front of them when they want to open up or expand. And this is why I was so pleased with last week's Alameda court ruling that will clear the way for more charter schools throughout the state of California. (Applause)

As I said, there are many roadblocks, and this is why I was so disappointed to learn that this week the Los Angeles Unified School District is still refusing to lease available classroom space to seven charter schools. We must stop that. We must give them the equal opportunities that public schools have. These schools serve hundreds of students and because of the roadblocks being thrown up they are being denied more choices and more opportunities. So we want to ask the Los Angeles Unified School District, open up those classrooms for the charter schools. Open them up. (Applause)

Thank you. So that is a big challenge for all the schools, and especially also here for Vaughn. But we want to say thank you to the people here that have been so helpful in making this great school happen.

And again, a great, great thank you, of course, to the leader of this great school here. I want to thank you again for being such an outstanding school principal. So thank you very much, thank you all for being here today.

And now I would like to bring out Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell to say a few words. Please welcome him. (Applause)

SUPERINTENDENT O'CONNELL: Thank you, Governor. Thank you very much, Governor, and thank you, Dr. Chan. If only Dr. Chan was a little bit more enthusiastic, don't you think?

You know, for the past 15 years now we've seen the charter school family, a key component of our public school family, continue to grow, continue to prosper. Our charter schools really are helping each and every one of our students that attends them reach their full maximum potential. Today, statewide, we have nearly 250,000 students and we're growing in our charter school student population. You know, charter schools do need to be, as the Governor said, much more creative, much more innovative, in order to find facilities for our students. But we're fortunate to have a school like this that really is the model for all of our other schools.

I want to also thank the public for their strong support of public education. The public's passage of the school bonds -- overwhelming passage of the statewide bonds, the largest school bonds in the history of the country -- have passed in the state of California over the last several years. We're now seeing results, such as the modernization and the expansion here of this beautiful campus and others around the state.

Also, this is made possible in large part because of the strong support of the public with the passage of Proposition 39 eight years ago, reducing that vote threshold to 55 percent so we can build schools to the unique educational needs of each community. In fact, in the last three election cycles for the state of California, for charter schools alone, nearly $1 billion has been set aside for the modernization and for the expansion of the charter school community, creating nearly 23,500 additional seats in our public school-charter school system. These three bonds have enabled us to build 63 schools in 19 counties.

And as the Governor so eloquently said, just this past week in Sacramento with the State Allocation Board, they allocated about $450 million from Proposition 1D, that the voters again wisely passed, including the money here for the Vaughn International Studies Academy. That will enable us to open seven additional classrooms here and also modernize additional facilities at this beautiful campus.

And it's clearly appropriate that we remind you here that Vaughn has recently been recognized as a California Distinguished School, and also a National Blue Ribbon School. This really is a great school. (Applause)

Please welcome the Director of the Charter Schools Association for the state of California, long-time friend of mine, Caprice Young. Caprice? (Applause)

CAPRICE YOUNG: Wonderful to see so many charter school students and charter school supporters all in one place. You know, a lot of people have yet to understand that charter schools are public schools. Charter schools are public schools, and we are putting public back in public education. Isn't that right? (Applause)

And when charter school students do well, you not only do well and get to go to college, but also you restore faith among the population of California that public schools are vital to democracy in the state of California. That's an important thing, that each of you does every day in your classroom. You study and you learn, you make success for yourself. But you also restore faith in public education in California and that is a very, very important thing that you do every day. (Applause)

And when public school students succeed it's a way of saying thank you to the voters, to all of your parents who voted for the money to build this beautiful school. Now, the state just allocated nearly $500 million of new money for charter schools to be built, but now the truth is that there is more than $1.5 billion -- three times as much that was asked for. So it's our job to make sure that we build beautiful schools and have very outstanding academic programs so that we can keep the faith with the voters, so that they'll want to spend more money doing really good work on behalf of the future of California. So give yourselves a hand for keeping the faith with the voters of California. (Applause)

We also want to say thank you to all the different agencies that we work with to build charter schools. To say thank you, especially because you put the faith in the charter schools to do a good job, that we don't have to have the level of red tape that so often comes with being a district school and we can do a great job when you trust us and hold us accountable. And we thank all of you for the support and the good faith that you have in working with us in building wonderful schools. Thank you very much. (Applause)

And now it's my pleasure to introduce Secretary Rosario Marín, who leads many of the agencies with whom we work, who put their trust in charter schools to do a good job on behalf of the voters and, most importantly, the students of the public schools of Los Angeles and California. Thank you. (Applause)

SECRETARY MARÍN: Thank you, Caprice. I am delighted to be here with all of you, and isn't this a glorious day? Yes, yes, yes. I do want to introduce one person. He is the director of the Department of General Services and former under-secretary for the State Consumer Services Agency, Director Will Bush. Thank you very much for being with us today.

I do want to say a few things in Spanish -- the Governor has asked me to relay his message to the Spanish-speaking population. So, if it is okay with all of you, I will say a few remarks in Spanish. Is that okay? ... So, Governor, I'm going to do what you asked me to do, and do it in Spanish. So thank you so very, very much.

...

YVONNE CHAN: There we go! Okay. Now, I want to make sure -- because school is about teaching and learning, and I know the California Department of Education -- a long time ago we said, "They don't do building." Oh, wrong, folks. Wrong. Because the California Department of Education has expanded their role, just like all the other agencies. You have Ms. Kathleen Moore, Ms. Lisa (Inaudible). They are the ones who helped us get this baby in place. Thank you. (Applause)

And of course, without the support of legislators, that won't happen. So, representing our legislators -- come on, mi hijo, venga, venga. Okay -- is Assemblyman Kevin de Leon. He represents not Pacoima, he represents China Town, which is almost the same as Pacoima. Thank you for being here. And also, unfortunately, our Senator Alex Padilla, can't be here and our Assemblyman Fuentes can't be here. However, representing their office is Gerardo Guzman, y también Angel (Inaudible). (Applause) Y de veras también tenemos (Inaudible) Maggie. Okay, Maggie.

Now, I know we talk about Los Angeles Unified, but however, I kind of get things done with Los Angeles Unified. How do you like that, okay? So, really, some of you -- Los Angeles Unified District apart here -- because though they cannot help us with the building now, they gave us the furniture. Remember the furniture man? Manny, where are you? Manny-Hanny-Manny, where are you? Hanny-Manny. Okay, he delivered all the furniture along with him, helping him, is from Los Angeles Unified, Patty (Inaudible). She helped me, saying "You've got to apply for 1D." And Jay Moore. So Los Angeles Unified did help me out, because I asked.

Now let's end this to staff this train. Remember this train here? The train has a quick, powerful engineer. The train has all of these boxcars, right? And we go chugga-chugga-choo-choo, right? Chugga-chugga-chugga-chugga. But don't forget, for a charter school we are The Little Engine, right? We have to go to a higher mountain, over the river. We have plenty of difficult territory to cover. So to staff this engine we have wonderful teachers and staff. Teachers, raise your hands. Teachers of Vaughn. And, of course, a very, very different type -- very different type of leadership. I'm a very different type of principal for charter schools. We have to learn new skills, we have to cope with difficulties.

So our leadership, our A Team, please come up here. Mr. Leandro -- come on, Mr. Paeda (phonetic) -- A Team members. They are not just administrators. They are custodial, they're maintenance, they're security. They learned so many new skills to move it along. And, last but not the least, definitely when we get the money, great. When we get the approval, wonderful. How do say it in Austria? Wunderba, okay? And, of course, then we get all the permission, ding-how, ding-how. Now we still need ground-level people. Our female-minority contractor down the street, Martha Villa-Escanasi (phonetic) from Pueblo. (Applause) Our architect team -- architect team. My God, he lives all the way in Cambria. He came here almost pro bono -- Marshall Lewis, architect team. All these are local architects. And, of course, our tough, real tough inspector -- so tough that sometimes he and I cross -- Mr. Guy Davis.

So the drum please -- the drum please. Now we are moving the train. Okay? So I'm asking all the A Team to move the train to the front of the sign. Come on. And -- thank you. Let's give the Vaughn team a big hand. (Applause)

Okay. At this time, friends and media, and friends of the press, our Governor will answer some questions. Governor, question? Yes.

QUESTIONS/ANSWERS:

GOVERNOR:                                                 Thank you very much. Thank you for this great enthusiasm. And again, if you have any questions about any of those things --

But before I answer any questions, let me just say thank you very much to the students for the extraordinary work that you are doing. I just want to let you all know that each and every one of you are winners. You're winners because you're working hard, you're listening to your parents and to your mentors and to your teachers and to your school principal.

There is only so much that we grownups can do. We have the responsibility to provide you with the opportunities; we have the responsibility to make sure that we create great teachers and great classrooms and schools. But you have the responsibility to study and no one can do that for you. And you have done that; you have great grades. This school consistently has come up on the top with a great average. So we want to say congratulations to all of you.

And let me just tell you, that no matter what your goal is, you can accomplish it, because you're studying hard. If you want to be a police chief, or if you want to be a great athlete, or you want to be a great politician or a great actor or a great executive or a great entrepreneur, no matter what it is, you can do it because you're studying, because you're doing your homework. And I know as time goes on and you become older you're also going to stay away from drugs and from gangs and from violence and from all those things that destroy kids' lives.

So thank you very much to all of you kids. Let's give them a big hand for the great work that they are doing. (Applause)

Now, if there are any questions about the charter schools, please feel free.

QUESTION:                                                   Hi, Karen from KNX. Actually, it's a different story, outside of the charter schools. I have two questions. One is assembly member, leader, Republican Leader Mike Villines says he doubts that the budget deadlines will be met, what your thoughts are on that. And also, constitutional amendment on same-sex marriage.

GOVERNOR:                                                 Well, first of all, let me just say that it is very important, and I made this clear to the legislators, they're to go to work on the budget right away. We have done our work, the Governor's Office. We have worked since January on the budget. And I think it is very important that Democrats and Republicans get together as quickly as possible, because we are facing a $17 billion deficit. And there are a lot of moving parts, part of this budget, including the lottery and also to change the system itself, that has failed the people for decades now. So there are a lot of things that need to be done. So I hope that they're working on that right now. I hope they come to my office and we start negotiating and working that out so we meet the constitutional deadline of July 1, because I think the people of California demand that and they deserve a budget by July 1, and a good budget that really takes care of the budget deficit and also fixes the problem once and for all.

And then, on the same-sex marriage, I think that the people, as you know, several years ago have voted against same-sex marriage. And I always said that the only thing that can turn it over is the people themselves, by voting again and changing their minds, or the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court has decided that it's unconstitutional to stop people from getting married, same-sex marriage. And therefore we move forward now and let people get married and have same-sex marriage in California. I think that we should move forward, and I hope they do. And I think that what I've heard, by June 16th or so, that the offices will open up and we'll make it available.

Any other questions?