SAN DIEGO
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The experts have had their committee meetings and issued their report on how to improve California's public schools. Now they want to hear from you.
California Secretary of Education David Long is hosting a town-hall-style meeting Monday at the University of San Diego to get feedback from parents, educators, business leaders, students and community members on a report issued by a state committee late last year, “Students First: Renewing Hope for California's Future.”
The 44-page report's recommendations include:
Paying teachers based on how much their students learn;
Spending more on students, especially those who score low on achievement tests;
Getting rid of the strings attached to state funding and give local educators more control over how to spend money;
Creating a data system that links school data to information from colleges, workplaces and social services agencies;
Making kindergarten full-day;
Providing preschool to all 3-and 4-year-olds in poverty.
Community dialogue
on education reform
When: 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Monday
Where: University of San Diego Joan B. Kroc Institute For Peace & Justice, 5998 Alcala Park in Linda Vista.
Online: To read “Students First: Renewing Hope for California's Future” report, go to www.everychild
prepared.org
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Randy Ward, superintendent of county public schools, is one of 18 members of the Governor's Committee on Education Excellence, which spent two years studying the state's public schools before coming up with recommendations on how to improve them.
Former state Sen. Dede Alpert is also on the committee and will be at Monday's meeting with Ward.
“To create the political will to build a public school system today to get us ready for tomorrow, so to speak, is something that each and every one of us have the responsibility for,” Ward said. “I would encourage anyone that cares about improving our public schools to attend.”
Ward hopes to get some answers from attendees to questions of his own: “Did the report get it right? Did we get anything really wrong? Did we miss anything?”
The county has 494,000 students at 710 public schools in 42 local school districts, according to the County Office of Education's most recent annual report.
Chris Moran: (619) 498-6637; chris.moran@uniontrib.com
