San Jose Mercury News

San Jose Mercury News Editorial
Teachers are right: Schools need money
May 11, 2005

From San Jose's malls to intersections from Palo Alto to Burlingame, you're likely to run into a teacher anywhere you go this afternoon. They'll be out en masse, marking the annual Day of the Teacher by protesting California's funding of education.

Honk your horn, thank them for their daily toil -- and pledge to support higher spending for schools that meet the state's tough standards and high expectations. The teachers aren't right about everything, but there's no question California needs to put more money into education.

Getting to the point of sufficient funding, with working conditions and salaries to attract and retain the best teachers, can't be done in one year. And the teachers' unions will dispute some ideas, such as investing in performance-based pay. But it all must start with a commitment for more money that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has yet to make.

Friday, with the May revision of his budget, Schwarzenegger at least can make a down payment. He should start by rescinding his plan to pass on to local districts the pension obligations to teachers, a $500 million expense. And he should do more to make good on his promise last year to meet $2 billion in funding obligations for K-12 and community colleges under Proposition 98.

Teachers are fuming that Schwarzenegger has treated them shabbily. They suspect that his grandstanding for a badly worded tenure-reform initiative is a tactical diversion from addressing the schools' long-term needs.

Whatever the governor's intent, the effect for him has been disastrous. He has managed to alienate teachers while uniting the PTA, school administrators and school boards against him. The teachers union's multimillion-dollar radio ads blasting his budget have put him on the defensive and squelched talk of larger reforms. As a political observer noted on an education blog, all that Schwarzenegger has accomplished so far ``is a big dues increase for the California Teachers Association.''

That's unfortunate, because unlike many Democratic leaders, who are tied to the unions, Schwarzenegger has an opportunity to work for a real consensus on what's best for kids. He has broadly advocated some good ideas such as breaking up big high schools into smaller ones, creating more charter schools, and offering merit pay and incentives for teaching in poor, underperforming schools. And he has named a reform-minded state school board and secretary of education.

But by coming out too soon with half-baked ideas, he has antagonized teachers and played into the unions' hands. By refusing to acknowledge that California's schools are seriously underfunded -- Education Week says it's 43rd in per-pupil spending -- the governor undercuts his credibility.

Money and education reforms must go together. Schwarzenegger will have to pay to play. Thank the teachers for pointing that out.