Scott Harris: Public Education In California is Failing
The days of funding a system that promotes failing students and protects failing teachers must end.
Public education in California is remarkably expensive and a spectacular failure.
For years, public education was a source of pride in California and the envy of the other 49 states. However, decades of mismanagement and poor decisions have dropped us to the bottom of the national list, barely able to beat out such educational juggernauts as Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi.
At least the California Teachers Association, which has everything to do with teachers and very little to do with education, can take comfort in knowing that through their efforts, our teachers are the highest paid in the country.
With plans to spend $68 billion this year, K-12 public education is the largest and most important business in the state of California — and the business is failing. Each important measure is negative — literacy and graduation rates are down, violence and dropout rates are up. The education business is responsible to their shareholders — and that’s us.
How’s this for a report card? We have more students than any state in the union and spend more money than any other state (as well as most countries), with the most notable expenditure being those top-tier teacher salaries. At one point, we had the best K-12 system in the country. Now? Our kids drop out at an alarming rate, students are routinely promoted to the next grade with the full knowledge of teachers and administration that they are not prepared, almost 50,000 high school seniors a year cannot pass an exit exam that is a joke and those who do graduate are rewarded with a diploma that the business community regards as almost valueless. The most powerful political force in the state, the California Teachers Association, refuses to allow teachers to be held accountable for their actions and results, and insists on their protection through tenure.
Those in the education industry tell us that the only answer is more funding. They ask (demand) for billions of additional dollars. They grow indignant if we ask what they plan to spend it on, but do promise us improvements in unmeasured results. They rail against the No Child Left Behind Act (which asks for accountability in reading and math), fight the California High School Exit Exam and consider tenure sacrosanct.
As we look at a deficit closing in on $20 billion, our K-12 system is the most expensive item in the state budget. California public education has become a sad commentary on our values, our state and our future. It is time for us to take back our schools, to demand that our children are educated and prepared to enter a job market where they compete with workers from around the world.
Here’s a simple true or false test for our California public educators:
» Education is more important than tenure.
» A high school diploma should represent 12th-grade-level abilities.
» The stigma of a lifetime without the ability to read and write is worse than the stigma of failing a grade.
» California taxpayers deserve accountability for our $68 billion.
» Good teachers should be rewarded; bad teachers should be fired.
The answer to all five is “true.” Let’s raise expectations, of students and teachers. Let’s reward both for succeeding. Let’s work together to once again make California public education a source of pride.
While $68 billion is a pretty compelling number, there is one even more important: 6.3 million. That is the number of students in the public education system who are trusting that we will educate them and prepare them for a successful future. Let’s not disappoint them any longer.
Scott Harris is a political commentator. Read his columns and contact him through his Web site, www.scottharris.biz, or e-mail him at .
» wrote on 08/21/08 @ 10:42 AM
Throwing money to Government to solve a problem is a joke. Illegal aliens, political correctness, poor teachers and the unions are the problem.
» wrote on 08/21/08 @ 10:56 AM
Mr. Harris,
I agree that our public education system needs to be dramatically re-worked to serve California students, and that protecting incompetent and unmotivated teachers is counterproductive. I have to ask, though: have you been in very many public schools recently? Did your research for this article reveal how many California students are second language learners, as compared to the percentage in other states? I suspect that you might have a hard time passing an eighth grade level test in, say, Italian, even if you knew the content very well.
As for No Child Left Behind, I would say that yes, accountability is very necessary. However, the emphasis on standardized testing begets a pattern of rote memorization at the expense of creativity, interdisciplinary thinking, exploration and other pursuits that are essential to developing productive citizens. “Teaching to the test,” which many educators feel forced to do, is deadening to a student’s mind and to the life of a school.
Thank you for drawing attention to the situation in our schools with this article. However, I hope community members and policy makers will take a more nuanced view, based in the reality of California classrooms, as they seek a new solution.
» wrote on 08/21/08 @ 05:00 PM
Great article. Our schools have become so top heavy with administration and employee benefits that they may be past the point of being able to be saved. The standard pay and benefits for school district employees are so beyond what can be afforded by any private business that the districts are technically bankrupt and can not begin to fund their retirement obligations. Public education can’t work for much longer and school vouchers can be the only solution.
» wrote on 08/21/08 @ 06:56 PM
The decline in California’s education system dates to the passage of proposition 13, which has led to chronic under-funding of the state’s schools. Mr. Harris wants to blame teachers, most of whom work long hours for little pay, for the public’s abdication of financial responsibility. Compare California property taxes and funding per pupil to those of New Jersey and Massachusetts and you will see why those northeastern states consistently rate near the top in public education. (Of course it doesn’t hurt that they have a lower percentage of English language learners too.)
Of course teachers, like other public servants, should earn their paychecks. Most do, and those who don’t can already be fired. Tenure is hard to get, and it is not an unconditional guarantee of employment. Teachers can be fired for dereliction of duty and mistreatment of students or colleagues. These days, they are regularly laid off for budgetary reasons--tenure or no. Under NCLB, moreover, they are constantly reviewed for performance. If we eliminate tenure, however, we remove one of the few remaining incentives for entering the teaching profession. It’s already hard to think of another profession that requires so much in the way of education and certification in return for so little in the way of money and public esteem. Without the hope of even relative job security, why on earth would anyone with other professional options go into teaching?
I have to wonder why conservatives like Mr. Harris hate teachers so much. Do they just have it in for the little guy? He should spend some time in Santa Barbara’s classrooms, watching our teachers at work, before he blames them for problems that they are few others try every day to solve.
» wrote on 08/21/08 @ 09:12 PM
There is no doubting that we need to “re-work” our system. However, we are NOT administratively “top heavy.” Check your facts “reality check.” Our teachers only work 3/4 of a year, their salaries MUST consider that. Let’s ask teachers to teach a full year (220 days) and pay them appropriately. Teacher salaries and benefits have had to conform to an inadequate work year, so don’t get riled at that (or no one would choose teaching as a profession). We don’t need more money for the same year - we need more money for a realistic year of teachers working with students like all businesses do.
Students would also clearly benefit from a 220 day year rather than a 180 day year.
» wrote on 08/21/08 @ 10:26 PM
The post below unfairly asking why Harris hates teachers actually answers the question of why there is hate for the teacher’s union. First, the union destroys the incentive structure. “Tenure” wouldn’t be needed if seniority wasn’t a substitute for ability. If more successful teachers, and teachers in subjects requiring more skills like science and math, could actually be paid more then we could make advances in both balancing the budget and providing higher quality education.
Also, the lead off about Prop 13 highlights why our current system needs a major overhaul. Thank goodness for prop 13 because the school system would suck as much money out of property owners as it could but wouldn’t get any better. It would just make home ownership that much less affordable. Property owners should not have to bear a disproportionate burden of funding education particularly when the greatest strain on the system is—as has been mentioned in a couple of the other posts below—the ballooning number of “english learners” whose families haven’t been here long enough to learn the language let alone establish themselves economically and think about buying a house. We will never have a dynamic system able to respond to the needs of the whole community as long as the union continues to rule, and as long as costs of education are not proportionally distributed community-wide.
» wrote on 08/22/08 @ 09:13 AM
I find it ironic that below the comment section of this article is a picture of the Dos Pueblos Engineering Foundation which is a private foundation that supports one of the most successful academic programs (public or private) in the nation. DP’s engineering academy recently placed third in a world-wide robotics competition. DP (and San Marcos and Santa Barbaras HS) sends hundreds of its graduates on to Ivy league, UC’s and other wonderful institutions and counter Mr. Harris’s ignorant blanket statements. By the way, who is this guy? What are his credentials? Since I am very familiar with DP, I can speak to their extensive selection of IB and AP courses (courses which according to statistics compiled by the district show DP has some of the top AP scores in the nation), coupled with their extensive extracurricular programs (San Marcos has one of the best Mock Trial programs in the state) make our public schools outstanding institutions. Yes, perhaps Mr. Harris should actually tour these schools and talk to parents, teachers, and principals before blanket statements about how horrible they are. Are there problems and students who do not succeed? Of course (remember that public schools take all who come and can’t cherry pick like private schools). Perhaps public schools are broken in other places and need massive reform, but like politics, education reform is all local. And just so Mr. Harris gets his facts straight, California ranks almost last in per-pupil spending and have the largest class sizes in the nation. I’m not saying more money is the only answer, but if our schools were gold-plated symbols of waste like Harris claims, why aren’t thousands of people lining up to be teachers?
» wrote on 08/22/08 @ 08:07 PM
Most teachers are paid over 70,000 per year for 9 months work, they have every holiday off, full medical care for their families, and a retirement plan worth over $3,000,000 in present value. It’s an incredible deal but there is no money left over for education.
» wrote on 08/23/08 @ 10:42 AM
For teachers police etc....get rid of the entitled pension system. Discount the value of that money over a normal lifespan and pay that money to teachers/police etc now, with a 401k option. Not only would we be taking care of our liabilities currently, but these groups of workers could actually afford to buy a home with the increase money and have an actual nest egg down the road vs. banking on a retirement system that more than likely will go bankrupt.
As far as the challenges of the student population, here are some stats from greatschools.net:
Percentage of English Learners:
Monroe 43%
Adams 62%
Cleveland 65%
Harding 68%
Franklin 70%
Mckinley 77%
I say good luck to the teachers…
» wrote on 08/23/08 @ 12:37 PM
Like most Government employees they complain often, but do very little work. The Civil servants are not the sharpest tools in the shed, and they are overpaid and underworked.
» wrote on 08/23/08 @ 02:04 PM
“Reply to teacher” says that “Most teachers are paid over $70,000 per year...” Where on earth does s/he get this bogus morsel of hooey? That figure is near the top of almost any district’s pay scale, meaning that a teacher would have to put in 15 to 20 years of service before their salary approached that number. At my school there are around 65-70 teachers, less than 8 of whom have worked more than 15 years. As for “full medical”, I’m not sure exactly what that means, but it means less and less in real dollars every year, and it doesn’t begin to cover the cost of dentistry in Santa Barbara.
» wrote on 08/24/08 @ 06:31 PM
Teachers in SB start at over $50,000 per year and quickly move up to $70,000 for 9 months work. Their vacation and insurance package is the best available and the retirement package is awesome. Retirement at 55 or less with full pay and medical is a pretty sweet deal - plus cost of living increases. You would have to contribute $3000 - $4000 per month (or more)into a IRA or 401K for an entire career to get a similar payout. The problem is that there in no money left over for the classroom. The other big problem is the army of administrators at the muliple district offices around town - but that is another story.
» wrote on 08/24/08 @ 11:59 PM
Replying to “Reply...”
Nope. Wrong again. According to next year’s salary schedule, which in the third and final year of the contract’s life is the highest it has ever been, a starting teacher earns $43,986 a year. That teacher will earn $70K after eleven years of service if they have the maximum educational units acquired after earning their credential. They will reach $70K after 23 years if they have the medium number of credits, and with the minimum number they will never reach $70K. Let me reiterate that at my school, for example-I don’t know what the statistic is district wide-only a small handful of teachers have been working in the district more than 15 years.
I find it especially vexing when people who don’t do their homework start complaining about education.
» wrote on 08/25/08 @ 01:42 PM
Come on now. I know many engineer types getting paid with bonus well over $70,000 a year and many have less then 5 years on the job. Most of these never put in the time a good teacher puts in. I know since I have worked both industry and as a teacher. No one paid me overtime or bonus for spending countless hours grading papers and tests until 2:00 AM, or using “vacation” time for class prep. Unlike most industry jobs teachers are required to continually take college classes (regardless of there expertise).
The issues with student achievement can be traced back to lesson plans and school administrations forced to bend into political correctness. Prop. 13 is the straw dog deflecting the issue of the State of California “forcing” well-off districts to share money with those with less money thus diluting the entire structure. This is a state often raiding tax money, regardless of where it should go. Next came what massively failed called “confluence” education -1970’s (which lingers on called fairness). Let’s not forget each child “has to be taught their native language” which also failed, as evidenced with test score turn around in the Santa Barbara School District after former Superintendent Caston proved English as the primary language works. In the 1950’s and early 1960’s if a student threatened a teacher, threatened students, continually disrupted classes, they were gone. No longer. Teachers are not allowed to touch a student without threat of lawsuit even when faced with known gang members. 9th Graders were transferred to High School at their detriment (physical, emotional, scholastically0. The examples of “political correctness” abound. This is the short list.
Give the following to any school administrator and teachers in the state. Allow them to conduct classes with proper discipline under rules of the 1950’s and you will see test scores and graduation rates go up. More importantly the knowledge level will increase.
Why do you, the reader, believe underpaid private school teachers turn out superior product? The private schools do not have to knuckle under to political correctness.
Kids (K-12) will test the rules and find ways around achievement if allowed. California’s students prove it.
» wrote on 08/29/08 @ 10:24 PM
You leave out a very important component in the equation; that of incompetent and ineffective administration. It is a fact that many credentialing programs are revising their adminsitrative credential programs to upgrade the requirements prior to issuing administrative credentials. Leadership is key to the success of any organizaiton, including schools. When you have laissez-faire administrators (absence of leadership)earning upwards of $130,000. per year, you have a REAL problem. I am in favor of NCLB, which is a reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Act (ESEA) of the 1960s. What does that tell you? We are not seeing much progress in the area of accountability. Why do the teachers get the blame? Where are the leaders?