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By Erika Hayasaki
Times Staff Writer
The Honolulu Advertiser, April 11, 2003 —
Frustrated by rundown facilities and scarce resources, California
teachers overwhelmingly support plans being pushed by State Education
Secretary Richard Riordan to give schools more control over their
budgets and provide additional funds for campuses with large numbers
of poor and minority students, according to a poll released Thursday.
The survey of 1,056 public school teachers in California,
conducted by Louis Harris, found that most teachers think many African
American and Latino students in California are getting short-changed
50 years after the Supreme Court handed down the Brown vs. Board
of Education decision that outlawed forced segregation.
Teachers reported that schools with the most minority
students were more likely to have rat and
cockroach infestations, unqualified teachers, rundown campuses,
and not enough textbooks.
In addition, the report, which was commissioned by
the Hewlett Foundation, found that 82% of teachers approved of Riordan's
proposal that schools control their budgets and 63% supported a
weighted student funding formula in which more money would go to
campuses with high numbers of English-language learners and students,
disabled students and children from low-income families.
"Teachers themselves really are concerned about
children," Riordan said in a phone interview Thursday. "They
and other people at the school level really have their hands tied."
The best way to ensure a fair and equal education
is to "put authority and accountability down at the school
level and work on developing fair and more efficient ways to fund
schools," Riordan said.
He added that the teacher opinion poll was a "huge
step in the right direction," and said he hoped it would help
his education plans gain passage in the Legislature.
But California Teachers Assn. President Barbara Kerr
said that although she believed teachers wanted more control over
their curriculum, school budget and textbook choices, she worried
that Riordan's proposals would give principals too much power and
that teachers would be left out of the decisionmaking.
"I have not talked to anyone who is interested
in the concept in a principal as a czar," she said. "Even
the principals I have spoken to hardly have the time to be a leader
in curriculum and deal with students, let alone dealing with [buying]
toilet paper and paper towels too."
Some California principals have criticized a return
of power to the schools, saying that they already face strong pressure
to raise test scores and run their staff and that controlling their
budgets would be an added burden in an already stressful and busy
workload.
UCLA management professor William G. Ouchi, an advisor
to Riordan, said the teacher survey was
significant because it showed that some teachers in more affluent
districts were willing to allow more money to flow to needy districts.
"There is overwhelming agreement that this current
system is broken, and they're willing to adopt a really big change
in the way things are done," he said.
Researchers interviewed the teachers over the phone
between Feb. 12 and March 7, asking about conditions on their campuses
and their thoughts about Riordan's plans.
They found that teachers in schools with overwhelmingly
African American and Latino enrollments
were 11 times more likely to have more than 20% uncredentialed teachers
among their staff; 3.3 times more likely to report a serious teacher
turnover problem; 70% more likely to see cockroaches, rats or mice;
and 40% more likely to lack books or other materials.
"Most disadvantaged children attend schools that
do not have the basic facilities and conditions
conducive to providing them with a quality education," the
report concluded. "Without such facilities and conditions,
both the teachers and the students will be hard-put to achieve any
semblance of quality education."
Fifty-four percent of all science teachers surveyed
said they did not have enough lab equipment, tools or lab stations;
50% of all social sciences teachers interviewed reported a lack
of maps, atlases and reference materials; and 32% of all teachers
who responded reported there were not enough copies of textbooks
for students to take home.
Rick Miller, a spokesman for the California Department
of Education, said, "There's no question there is clear room
for improvement in school finance."
He said the department and governor's office were
putting together a commission that would soon begin to study school
finance and come up with "a comprehensive way for how we can
better fund schools."
Harris, the pollster, said he hoped legislators and
Schwarzenegger's team would review the poll results while making
decisions because "the entire school system is in jeopardy."
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