Education reform, teacher tenure, free tuition: Where California governor’s race candidates stand
Four of the leading California gubernatorial candidates — Assemblyman Travis Allen, R-Huntington Beach, Republican business John Cox, and Democrats former state Superintendent of Public Instruction Delaine Eastin and former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa — debated in San Diego on Sunday at a forum co-hosted by The San Diego Union-Tribune and ABC 10 News.
PHOTO GALLERY: 2018 California Gubernatorial Candidates' Forum
The U-T has transcribed their responses. Here is what the candidates said about education when asked to answer in 45 seconds.
Gov. Jerry Brown famously a few years ago derided the whole idea of education reform as a siren song, suggesting that California and other states don’t really know specific ways to improve their schools. Yet union-friendly states in New Jersey, in Massachusetts and in New York have achieved significantly better test results across ethnic groups by adopting reforms that they find very effective. Should California emulate these states? Which states? Which reforms?
Eastin: “Well, one of the things you all should know is that it’s interesting they picked those three states — New York, New Jersey and Massachusetts — as spending more than twice as much per child than California is spending. Hello? The elephant in the room. We got a bunch of educators here — you know. We used to be tied with New York. Fifth of the 50 states in per-pupil spending. Today we’re 41st of the 50 states. You’re living in the most expensive state in the union with the highest number in percentage of poor kids, and the highest number in percentage of English learners. Of course we should be investing more. And we do know what we need to do. We have some fabulous schools in this state. But they tend to be the schools in the most affluent areas where the kids have enough resources and the teachers feel supported, and we don’t have class sizes that are just skyrocketing again. So, common sense is not very common. That’s what we need, investment in our kids and their future.”
Chris Reed, Union-Tribune Deputy Editorial and Opinion Editor: “A follow up question on that, the fact is that Florida and Texas spend far less than California and yet have better scores. So, the idea that school quality is a function of school spending, where’s the evidence of that? We’re now 70 years into the modern system of public education in California. We have a long history of showing there’s not a clear or obvious one-to-one connect between what we spend and the goals we achieve. So, it seems as 2018 is not 1965.The argument that school quality is a function of school spending, where’s the beef?”
Eastin: “Well, let me just tell you that in Texas they have hundreds more teachers than we do — thousands more teachers than we do — and they have fewer kids than we do. The truth is that the cost of living is much lower in Texas and so a dollar goes a lot further. We must, in fact, look one another in the eye and say when California was investing near the top we were in achievement near the top. And I will go on to say that I do think that there are other things we need to do: preschool for all, mandatory kindergarten. We need to reduce class sizes and make sure that our kids have counselors, nurses and librarians again. All of those were dead last in the 50 states and near the bottom in per-in-class size.”
Villaraigosa: “You know, when I was mayor of Los Angeles, one out of three schools were failing and we had a 44 percent graduation rate. By the time I left, because we engaged in reform and set high standards, that one out of three schools was one out of 10. The 44 percent graduation rate was 72 percent. I do believe we do need more money for our schools, but I think we also need to ask more from our schools. The fact of the matter is that I was speaker of the California state Assembly and mayor of Los Angeles and I can tell you this, I know taxpayers in the state. They’re willing to give us more if we’re showing that we’re doing more with the money that we got. The gains that we made in Los Angeles, we made them when they were laying off teachers to an extent we hadn’t seen in decades, and we were still able to make those strides. So yes I do agree we need more money but we also need to do more with the money we got.”
Allen: “California used to have the best schools in the nation. Now our schools are ranked among the worst, and some studies even show that our kids are 46th and 47th in the nation in reading and math. Only 30 percent of our 9th-graders are ever expected to finish a four-year college degree. We have to demand accountability once again in our schools. No longer should we have 5th-graders reading at the second grade level. Children must be tested in the beginning of the year and in the end of the year to make sure that they’ve actually learned the requisite skills they need — reading, writing, math. No more trophies for all children in California — you have to earn your education. Very simply, children must understand that this is an education earned in California. Parents must be given a choice to send them to the very best public schools or the very best charter schools or home schooled if that is the best option. We must put the children first in our education system.”
Cox: “The politicians’ answer is all the same: spend more money. Jerry Brown has increased education spending by 80 percent since he’s been in office and the education results have gone nothing but down. Competition is the only way to get quality and efficiency. Every day I wake up in the private sector and I try to do something to beat my competition. Barack Obama and Bill Clinton had a choice of a good school, a good private school for their children. I think every parent has to have the power of choice, has to have the power to choose a competitive education, an efficient and quality education. Throwing more money at the same system, which is riddled in corruption and cronyism and control by the unions is not the way to improve our education.”
In a lightning round, the candidates also spent 30 seconds each in answering the following questions:
What single curriculum change does California most need to implement?
Allen: “Get rid of common core. Absolutely we must give the locals control over their education. The local districts must once again be in charge of what they’re teaching our students. There must be accountability so that we all know that our students are getting reading, writing and math, all the basic skills that we all learned when we were in school. But common core is a failure. I have a 9-year-old daughter in California public schools. I can tell you right now, she is not learning the way that we learned in the education that has diminished in California. Locals must have control, which is why we need competition in charter schools as well as public schools and local choice.”
Cox: “Civics. I became a lawyer because of my 7th grade civics teacher and my mother also taught. The trouble with California, by the way, we’re not teaching civics, but the kids don’t want to learn it. And I got to tell you, the adults don’t want to learn either. And the reason is because they know that their legislature and their government is controlled by special interests. I’m the only governor candidate who is talking about reforming the system to put the people back in charge. When the people are in charge, they will learn civics, they will turn out to vote, they will take an interest in their government.”
Eastin: “Well, the biggest thing we gotta fix in education is we’re underinvested, terribly underinvested. And we need to do a lot more to help our kids to be in smaller class sizes so that they can, in fact, learn English, they can master civics, they can learn all the other things. But the truth is we need more teachers and we need to treat teachers like they have the most important job in America because they do. And we need to treat educators as if they have a sacred trust with the state and its children. And if we do that, if we raise up the children and the education system, we will rise results, as well as investing more.”
Matt Hall, Union-Tribune Opinion and Editorial Director: “I didn’t hear a curriculum change. Five seconds. What would your curriculum change be?”
Eastin: “Curriculum change? I would give children a longer school day and a longer school year so they have more time to learn everything they need to learn.”
Villaraigosa: “I’m not sure that’s a curriculum change but I am 100 percent with you on that. I do think we need to extend the school year and the school day, particularly for kids that were left behind. But if there was one curriculum change I’d bring back the arts. You know, when I was a kid in the public school, you could play the trumpet for 25 cents and if you couldn’t afford it they’d give it to you for free. And I think we need to bring back the arts because as we know not everybody focuses on science and math — it’s a great way to learn science and math, by the way. Or social studies. So the arts I think as a curriculum change is something I would make.”
Should teachers be allowed to get tenure after two years, in a process that starts after 16 months, as they do now?
Cox: “Sorry I don’t know why tenure is even available to begin with. I’m in the private sector. I don’t have tenure. I can be fired at any time. And you know what, it makes me better. We gotta be able to get good teachers. I wanna see teachers paid like rock stars and movie stars and baseball players because of merit, because of quality. And I got to tell you, the tenure system shouldn’t even exist. But the corruption and cronyism in Sacramento keeps it there. Talk to Shirley Weber who’s tried to extend the probation period and it’s ground out in committee.”
Eastin: “The probation period is too short, in my opinion. And as somebody who’s set up the Teacher of the Year Foundation, I will tell you I had a group of teachers of the year at my home after an event, the statewide Teacher of the Year event that came by and had a glass of wine together, and every single one of them thought it was too short. The fact is, we gotta have at least a three-year requirement. Many of us are not ready for tenure after 18 months, which is essentially how they’re getting it now. So I believe it ought to be a three-year requirement and I stand by that.”
Villaraigosa: “I think teachers have a really tough job. About 50 percent leave the profession in the first five years. I worked for the teachers union for eight years. I represented many of those teachers. I do believe that the tenure track is too short. I’ve come out in support of [Vergara v. State of California] as you know because I did believe it was too short. I think at least three years, I think there’s some, at least some, 30 states that have at least three years. It should be at least three years. I think we need to understand that we have to focus a lot more on teacher training and teacher support, but we do need to hold people accountable when they’re not ready for the profession.”
Allen: “Very simply, the current tenure is ridiculous. Even when you take a look at progressive Democrats like Shirley Weber as was mentioned a moment ago, she would like to extend tenure from at least three years to potentially even five years. And it does beg the question why we still have the tenure system at all. But the current tenure system, where it’s only a couple of years and we then we have tenure, it really begs the question as to why we’re granting this. At the end of the day, our education system should be for the benefit of our children first. We have to have excellent teachers and we must reward those teachers, but I don’t think the tenure system is effectively doing that as it’s currently written.”
Should CSU and UC have free tuition?
Eastin: “Yes. Absolutely. Unequivocally. I went to UC Davis when it was $82.50 a semester. And it was still hard for a blue-collar family to send their kid because I had to live away from home, I had to buy the books, I had to have the spending money, it was still a stretch. But today we’re making it almost impossible for young people to go to college. So I believe in tuition-free [University of California, California State Universities] and community colleges and I’ve been vocal about it. If those people coming out of the Depression or war could figure out how to do it for us, then by God we can figure it out for the next generation, especially now when education is more important in the world than it’s ever been before.”
Villaraigosa: “Should it be free? Yes. I think we’d all like it to be free, but we don’t have the resources for that. So what I have said, we gotta start with poor kids. My children don’t need free CSU or UC. Me, 50 years ago did. So I believe that we should focus first on the kids that have the talent and want to go to UCs and CSUs but can’t afford it. And with respect with the rest of our kids, it should be affordable and it currently isn’t.”
Allen: “No, absolutely not. College should not be free. But what we should be doing is freezing tuition at current levels. There never should have been a tuition increase when [UC president] Janet Napolitano was stashing away $175 million in a slush fund and our kids had to pay higher tuition for it. Number one, Janet Napolitano should be fired. As your next governor of the state of California, I’ll tell you, she will not be in her position. The next step is very simple: California’s colleges should be for the benefit first and foremost for California’s children. Our citizens should be put first in line for our schools, and yes we do gotta build a lot more CSU and UC campuses. This is our next generation. It’s about time we build it in California.”
Cox: “There’s nothing free. I worked my way through college. I went to a community college to begin with. I had a conversation just yesterday with an administrator at [UC San Diego] and she told me that she has to deal with 18 different bargaining units that represent faculty. And most of the faculty teaches one course. That is unsustainable. You gotta be able to have affordable education, and you gotta have a reasonable payroll system that allows the cost to be spread among people. We also have to address the housing crisis, which is also addressing increasing the cost of salaries in our school system and all across government.”
Gov. Jerry Brown and Jane Napolitano have feuded over UC funding. How would you change that relationship?
Villaraigosa: “Well, first of all, I think the state has an obligation to give the UCs more money and the CSUs, frankly. When you look at what we used to give and what we give today, it’s a pittance. And I do believe that we have to respect the constitution. Part of why you have a UC Regents is because you don’t want political interference in the decision making, so as governor I’m gonna want to balance that, work with the Regents and the UC president. But I think we gotta start by giving more money. We focus a lot on what we want and not a lot on what we intend to give.”
Allen: “Number one, we fire Janet Napolitano. Number two, we demand accountability from our schools. There is lots of waste in the CSU and UC systems. I mean, she was stashing away $175 million and practically no one even noticed. What we have to do is make sure that we build more of these schools so our kids can get educated. But gone will be these excessive layers of administrators, assistants and all of these things that are not directly involved in teaching our children. There is so much waste in UC and CSU systems. We have to cut that out. And thirdly we get someone to run that, and certainly not Janet Napolitano.”
Cox: “This ought to be run like a business. I’m in the private sector. I don’t waste money like they do in government. We have a thousand boards and commissions, that’s why we don’t have the money to spend on our colleges. They’re not being run efficiently. Look at the money that’s wasted at Caltrans. And let me tell you again, the housing crisis is driving up the cost of government all across every single agency because we’ve got to pay our employees so much more because the housing is so expensive in this state. But what we got to do is get the waste and corruption out of Sacramento so that we don’t have this monumental cost for education that is basically pricing our kids out of school.”
Hall: “That’s 30 seconds, but I’m going to give you five to 10 more because I didn’t hear how you would address the relationship.”
Cox: “Well, I think one of the ways to do that is by getting the politics out of the system. Napolitano and Brown are both politicians. We need to get people in these situations that are used to running businesses and know what it’s like to have a payroll and demand goals and demand the meaning of those goals.”
Eastin: “Ladies and gentlemen, the elephant in the room is that budgets are statements of values. If you look at the budget of California when I left to go to UC, 18 percent went to higher education and 3 percent went to prisons. Today, less than 12 percent is going to higher education and more than 9 percent is going to prisons. So if you really want to change things in California, you need to take a good look at your value statement when you’re putting your budget together. And yes, the Regents have a lot of power and I’ll appoint a lot more Regents that look like people in this room that won’t necessarily come in private jets to their meetings.”
