Second of two parts
Previously, “One Man Holds a Clear, Crisp Solution to What Ails Public Schools”
[Editor’s Note: In this concluding installment, second-year School Board member Steve Gourley provides long-range, but, he says, highly practical, solutions to the by now annual ritual of mass teacher layoffs.]
“Based on a law passed, that I think was passed 2 years ago,” says School Board member Steve Gourley, an attorney and former director of the state DMV, “even special education kids have to take the exit exam because it is required of all students. Some people have tried to repeal it, but so far unsuccessfully.
“If they really are special education kids, there is no way on God’s green earth they can pass that exam.
“My wife’s personal experience is that the counselors would be at school until 6, 7, 8 o’clock at night giving these kids all the time they needed to take the test, watching the kids become extremely frustrated and irritated.
“Parents were frustrated and irritated at their kids having to do it, being put under the stress of taking a test they weren’t capable of doing.
“Jack O’Connell, the State Superintendent, was against exempting the special ed kids, and (Gov.) Schwarzenegger vetoed it.
“You could ask others about that. Ask Gloria Romero, running for State Superintendent, or (Assembly Speaker) Karen Bass (D-Culver City), who helped carry the bill whether they got pushed away at the last minute.
“Think of it. It is incredibly stupid to require special education kids to take this exam. It wastes the counselors’ time and the time of the people who have to prepare the reports the next time, because the kids are not going to pass.”
How do these laws come about?
“You have a roomful of bureaucrats. They make up the rules. Then somebody goes to a legislator who writes the bill or he has a 12-year-old in his office write it. Then they have to hire more people at the State Office of Education.”
When, in your view, did California public schools go off the tracks? On their own, or as part of a national trend?
“Prop. 13, clearly, in the late 1970s, is mainly to blame. When that happened, I knew it was wrong at the time. I understood why people wanted to vote for it. Howard Jarvis was the driving force behind Prop. 13. His motivation was to keep the taxes low for the apartment companies he worked for. And it did.”
The only solution, then, to the annual massive funding problem for public schools is fo likeminded people to organize?
“Yes. And that’s what (community activist) Alan Elmont keeps telling me. I said this during (my) campaign (for he School Board almost 2 years ago):
“You have to go over to the window, open it up, lean your head out and yell, ‘I’m mad as hell. And I’m not going to put up with it anymore.’
“You have to take this totally dysfunctional system apart.”
When there is such widespread dissatisfaction, why hasn’t a revolt erupted?
“There has been a revolt, a quiet one.”
But it has not made a dent in the state Legislature.
“True. But, the quiet revolt has been people sending their kids to private schools. Since they probably vote more often and have more influence in the state legislatures, and some of them are state legislators, they have no compunction or rationale to solve the problem.
“Republicans certainly aren’t going to raise taxes on people who are Republicans who aren’t sending their kids to public schools and don’t want to pay for them.
“The Democrats are not going to say, ‘Look, this is all you get from a public education.’
“I keep saying, ‘Every time you spend $10, you are trying to get a dollar’s worth of accountability.’ It’s insane. Let them do what they want to do. If they don’t do it right, they eventually will be gone.
“Don’t set up a system where you are going to have 5,000 hours of an annual audit. The paperwork isn’t worth it. What you are doing is teaching kids. With some people it sticks, with some it won’t That is just the way it is.”
You are 60 years old. Can you reasonably expect to see a reversal of the California public school system in your lifetime?
“Yes. I can see there being a backlash against various state and federal governments. In California, if we ever draw districts fairly, we might change some people and their attitudes.
“You asked what else happened in California to cause the present situation. We sent a governor to Washington (Ronald Reagan) who did his best to destroy the University of California, by cutting its funding, by instituting larger and larger tuitions, by having no interest in public schooling. He said, ‘If you want a good education, you should go to a private school.’ He took that philosophy to the federal government. Then he spent us broke trying to outspend the Russians on arms. They would finally discover on their fax machines and computers that people were living better in West Germany.
“And then he took credit for bringing down the Berlin Wall. What brought down the Berlin Wall was the availability of information and better education. It had nothing to do with buying so many arms we would make the Russians go broke.”
Isn’t there a consensus about the strong feelings you express?
“I don’t know that there is,” Mr. Gourley said. “I am approached by special-education parents all the time, though. They say the school isn’t paying enough or hiring enough teachers for special education.”
