Time for education reform with Governor

The Governor has called for a special session on education reform to enact changes needed to make California eligible and competitive for billions of dollars in federal funding.

I am honored to serve as the vice-chair of the Assembly Education Committee, and I look forward to working with the Governor and my colleagues in the Legislature to enact meaningful reforms that will improve the delivery of education for our children.

While there will be many issues that emerge in the special session, I am focused on making changes in the following areas:


1. Remove barriers in state law that prohibit using student achievement on state testing in the formal evaluation of teachers.

This is necessary because it is a requirement in the proposed federal "Race to the Top" grants. While I am in support of this concept, I also believe that student test data should be only one factor in evaluating teacher performance.

There are several conditions that impact students' standardized test scores, including parental involvement, public safety (e.g. gangs in the community and on school campuses) and language barriers.

Ultimately, a "value-added" analysis, such as evaluating a teacher's success at making progress with a pupil, is the most logical way to incorporate pupil performance into formal teacher evaluations.


2. Enhancing accountability

I favor crafting reforms that promote innovative approaches that properly distribute accountability, while granting the necessary decision-making authority to those who are held accountable.

For example, there is evidence of success in educational models that allow a principal to be in complete control of his or her school, and then hold that principal accountable for results.

To promote such models it would be necessary to enact changes in law that will allow the principal to hire and fire whomever they think will do the best job.

Also, incentives could be enacted to encourage school districts to allow the principal to spend monies wherever they deem necessary.

Furthermore, the state should do away with or minimize "categorical funding," which dictates to school districts how funds must be spent rather than allowing local decisions to be made based upon the unique circumstances of each local school.


3. Charter schools

The proposed "Race to the Top" regulations favor fewer restrictions on charter schools.

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has suggested that California should lift the current cap on the number of charter schools allowed. I favor educational choice and welcome this change in state law.

I propose, in addition, that we focus on which charter schools work best and why, and then initiate incentives to duplicate that success in the lowest performing schools across the state.


4. School vouchers for special education

Funding for special education is overwhelming school budgets, yet special needs children are not always getting adequate attention.

Rather than forcing parents to fight with school districts over appropriate levels of care, why not give them the option of purchasing those services from a private vendor or a school that has excelled in that area of service?

The bottom line for my approach in achieving educational reform is to experiment and promote innovation. The best way to approach reform is to encourage innovation at the local level, while maintaining high standards and enforcing accountability by empowering parents through greater choice and flexibility.

We should exchange the "command and control" model that favors mandates from Sacramento and Washington, D.C., for a model that promotes local innovation and grants local authority.

Assemblyman Brian Nestande (R-Palm Desert) represents the 64th Assembly District in the California Legislature.