Orange County Register, October 24, 2006
Appeal-Democrat (Marysville, California), October 25, 2006

New study points to failure of public education in math and science, critical to state's future

In this year's California gubernatorial campaign, incumbent Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican, is boasting that he's increased spending on K-12 education to record levels. His opponent, Democrat Phil Angelides, counters that even more must be spent on education, paid for with higher taxes.

But both men only gloss over the real problem: The current system is falling short not because of a lack of money, but because it's practically designed to fail. To continue California's leadership in the high-tech future, it must produce children educated at a much higher level than that achieved -- or, rather, not achieved -- by the current system, especially in math and science.

More evidence of this comes from a study released Oct. 19 by the Institute for Higher Education Leadership & Policy at California State University, Sacramento. It was compiled by the institute's director, Nancy Shulock, and research specialist Colleen Moore and is entitled, "State of Decline? Gaps in College Access and Achievement Call for Renewed Commitment to Educating Californians."

The report concludes that the state continues to have preparation levels "that remain comparatively low, especially in science and math, despite some recent improvement in measures of high school student preparation for college."

The report notes that California now ranks among the top states in the percentage of eighth-graders taking algebra and of high school juniors and seniors doing well on Advanced Placement tests. But California ranks 35th among states in "the share of high school students taking advanced math courses and 49th in the share taking advanced science courses."

And California ranks in the bottom fifth of states "in the share of eighth-graders scoring at or above 'proficient' on all subject areas of the National Assessment of Education Progress." Worse, for this group of students, the state ranks a pathetic 48th on the science measure.

The consequence of this failing performance for the future is that there will be "a large drop in the education levels of California's workforce and per capita income."

The study recommends policies promoting more training for K-12 students so they're ready for college, and state college and university fee structures that make a "commitment to affordability."

But we believe more needs to be done. Despite some reforms in recent years, fundamental change is called for in K-12 education. "The problem is not because we're not spending enough money, because the state already is spending more than $11,000 a year for each student" in K-12, said Lance Izumi, director of education studies at the Pacific Research Institute. "Taxpayers aren't getting enough bang for the buck. There's a need to look at successful models that help minority kids achieve, rather than pouring money into models that have been shown not to work."

Izumi pointed to his recent book, "Free to Learn: Lessons from Model Charter Schools," which details what works in successful charters and that many of the practices could be adopted by noncharter schools as well.

With the election two weeks away, the gubernatorial candidates, with their concentration on money, have passed up a great opportunity to put education philosophy and policy front and center. After the election, those are the topics that should dominate debate.