ShareThisBy JIM BOREN
There must be a secret manual somewhere that tells desperate politicians they can make points by ignoring their elected jobs, and promising to fix public education. Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is the latest to drink the school reform Kool-Aid.
It's not that the politicians are wrong about the schools. In California, they need reforming. But you can't make significant improvements in the schools with drive-by efforts that grab headlines.
Successful school turnarounds come from hard work and continued emphasis on basic reform measures. Few politicians have the attention span to stay with the problem for the dozen years or more that it may take to fix a school system.
President Bush's No Child Left Behind Act is a good example of the lack of follow through on what originally was a good idea. It made sense when it was enacted, and had bipartisan support. But the act was never properly funded and it needed some changes to make it workable for school districts. The Bush administration left NCLB to flounder through inattention.
The other day, Education Secretary Margaret Spellings told reporters in Washington that the act is nearly flawless and does not need changes. Tell that to the teachers and principals around the country who are trying to make it work.
So we're left with a good idea in NCLB and not much else, all because the politicians don't have the patience to make mid-course corrections.
Now the Los Angeles mayor joins a handful of big-city mayors with some say over the school systems in their cities. Villaraigosa may have his heart in the right place, but fixing the schools takes more than good intentions.
One of the biggest problems is that schools now are run for the convenience of adults, and not the children. From money being siphoned out of the classrooms for employee perks to school calendars designed to maximize three-day weekends for staff, these public institutions cater to employees.
There are no better examples than all the holidays in February, a "travel day" the Monday after Easter and a full week for vacation at Thanksgiving. No wonder children aren't learning. Their education is being chopped up into short segments of classroom time for the benefit of the adults.
If Villaraigosa really wants to reform Los Angeles schools, he should propose a longer school day and longer school year, and do away with the extended vacations in the middle of the school year. Of course, he'd have to buck his public employee union pals on that one. But it would be a good test to see if Villaraigosa is really serious about fixing L.A.'s schools.
But there are deeper education issues that politicians seem to ignore. The children that are taught in public schools represent the diversity of California. On one end, children come out of poverty _ many of them don't even speak English _ and on the other end are school districts in the richest parts of the Golden State.
But the schools are expected to get the same results out of a classroom of farmworker children in Orange Cove in the San Joaquin Valley as they do in classrooms of upscale Marin County.
Standardized test scores follow the poverty line in every community in America. But the politicians ignore that, and suggest that they have a magic bullet for making the schools better. If that's true, let's see it. In fact, why aren't the politicians richer than Bill Gates if they actually have the secret to educating children?
Unfortunately, the schools often use their plight _ at least the ones in poor neighborhoods _ as an excuse for poor student performance. That's not good enough. Every child deserves a chance at a solid education _ even if they are poor, don't speak English or their parents are on drugs or in prison.
The biggest problem with public schools is they make excuses instead of understanding their circumstances and devising strategies to teach children who come to school with disadvantages.
That happened in Fresno until a reform group ran a slate of school board candidates. The new board fired the superintendent, got tough in negotiations with the teachers union and demanded better student performance in the high-poverty school system.
The district's problems have not been solved, but it is on the road to improvement.
Fresno Mayor Alan Autry also tried to take control of the school system, but did not get the same results as Villaraigosa from the state Legislature. But Autry's helped in the reform movement by focusing attention on the problems in Fresno Unified.
Now we'll see if Villaraigosa is willing to spend the time necessary to reform the Los Angeles school system. If he does, who is going to run the city of Los Angeles?
Jim Boren is The Fresno Bee's editorial page editor. E-mail him at jboren(at)fresnobee.com or write him at 1626 E St., Fresno 93786.
