The tables are turning on education for California parents who once felt
trapped by school administrators at low performing schools. 

The California State Assembly passed two comprehensive bills that advance
education reform.  The new legislation would position the state to be eligible
for a slice of the Obama

Administration's $3.4 billion Race to the Top grant. The application deadline is Jan.

19.         
            Assembly Speaker Karen Bass held a conference call with the media Tuesday

to outline the bills, adding that the Assembly “took time to conduct in-depth

negotiations with the Senate and the Schwarzenegger Administration.
            Bass said the bills would provideshigher standards for math and language,

new evaluations for principals, real tools for teachers at low-performing schools,

increased intervention for consistently troubled schools, stronger parental involvement

and greater ability for students in the lowest performing schools to transfer to higher

performing schools. The legislation also makes it easier to fire bad teachers and

replace up to 50% of teachers in the lowest performing schools. To increase

accountability, teachers' performance would be linked to that of their students.
            Race to the Top bases 25% of a state's score on a governor's school

improvement plan. Actions on Tuesday will send a signal to Washington that California

is on the path of improving school performance.  The state senate was expected to take

action on Tuesday.  In his final State of the State address, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger

promised to sign the legislation into law “as soon as it hits my desk.
            Contained in the bill is a provision that requires changes in school

operations if a petition is signed by at least 50% of parents.  The California Teachers

Assn. is not pleased, and one representative has accused lawmakers of pushing

legislation through just to get one-time federal funding.  Teachers fear the measure

would divide parents and teachers, and leave behind some children whose schools may not

be affected by reform.  The reform would affect 1,000 of the state's worst-performing

schools.
            The governor sees the measure as a way out for good students trapped in a

bad school environment:     

                Now, for the first time, parents without the principal's

permission ”have the right to free their children from these destructive schools. That

is great freedom.
            Also in the past, parents had no power to bring about change in their

children's schools but that will now change too. Parents will now have the means to get

rid of incompetent principals and take other necessary steps to improve their

children's education.

            More than half of the school districts in the state have agreed to make the

necessary reforms, according to state Supt. of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell.