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   From: patrick@optus.com.au   
      
   As part of his budget proposal, Gov. Gavin Newsom last week announced a   
   new educational plan that sounds reasonable, as it streamlines regulatory   
   authority and places more oversight in the governor’s office. Per Newsom’s   
   statement, “California’s K-12 education system as being governed by a   
   fragmented set of entities with overlapping roles that sometimes operate   
   in conflict with one another, to the detriment of educational services   
   offered to students.”   
      
   The buck should stop with the governor, but let’s be realistic. The   
   state’s enduring educational problems will not be fixed by rearranging the   
   bureaucratic deck chairs and centralizing authority or even by boosting   
   funding, but by decentralizing decision-making and placing more of it in   
   the hands of parents. Top-down models rarely work in any endeavor,   
   especially education given that students all have their own individual   
   needs.   
      
   The plan echoes recommendations the Legislature made 24 years ago, but   
   were never implemented. A report last month from PACE (Policy Analysis for   
   California Education) revisited similar ideas, and pointed to “overlapping   
   roles and unclear lines of accountability.”   
      
   Specifically, as CalMatters explains, the proposal gives the state Board   
   of Education appointed by the governor control of the California   
   Department of Education and provides the elected superintendent of public   
   instruction with the authority to “foster coordination and alignment of   
   state education policies.” It’s unclear exactly what that means, although   
   it’s clear that it leaves that post with fewer responsibilities. The   
   current superintendent, Tony Thurmond, said that he was blindsided by the   
   governor’s proposal.   
      
   Rather than getting deep into the political debates, Californians should   
   look at K-12 education in terms of academic success. The latest statewide   
   test scores, released in October, showed some noticeable improvement, with   
   1.8% improvements in math and English year over year. That’s good news,   
   but EdSource reported that most scores failed to match pre-pandemic   
   levels: “Despite the improvement at all grade levels, the number of   
   students who were advanced or proficient in English language arts last   
   year only increased to 48.8%, 37.3% in math, and 32.7% in science.”   
      
   Those numbers are abysmal, and are far worse for minority and low-income   
   students. Recent boosts failed to close these gaps. A report from UC San   
   Diego in November revealed shocking data about the lack of preparedness of   
   incoming freshmen: “Between 2020 and 2025, the number of students whose   
   math skills fall below high school level increased nearly thirtyfold;   
   moreover, 70% of those students fall below middle school levels, reaching   
   roughly one in twelve members of the entering cohort.” So let’s not get   
   too excited about slight improvements.   
   Meanwhile, as EdSource reported in July, charter schools have seen   
   increasing enrollment and comparatively strong test scores. The vast   
   majority of those schools had high enough scores to merit their charter   
   renewal, with 16% scoring at the highest levels. It’s no secret charter   
   schools were far more adept at handling the COVID-19 disruptions. Instead   
   of building on that success and applying those lessons to traditional   
   public schools, the governor and Legislature have since the pandemic   
   limited charter-school expansion and focused on imposing new oversight   
   measures on them.   
      
   So while we have no real problem with Newsom’s streamlining proposal, we’d   
   urge him to promote an agenda that empowers parents and promotes   
   competition — rather than one that advances the teachers’ unions’ failed   
   agenda.   
      
   https://www.dailynews.com/2026/01/13/editorial-rearranging-the-deck-   
   chairs-on-californias-sinking-k-12-ship/   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)