California Education as A Children's Soccer Match

by Brian Leubitz [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

Have you ever seen a game of youth soccer? Not the ones when the kids start getting good, but when they are like 6 years old.  They don't really get the strategy other than the ball should go in their net not ours. So they all run after the ball, and as soon as they get there, they just kick it in any which way is convenient.

That is kind of what's going on in California education right now. Not from the teachers really, they're only able to watch from the sidelines like a worried coach. Sure, they can advocate for a position, and do their best to provide a strategy. But the real problems are emerging from the purported leaders in Sacramento, it's chase, chase, chase, kick, chase, chase, chase, kick, chase, chase, you get the point.

Yesterday, the Assembly passed Senator Perata's bill blocking the compromise between Superintendent Jack O'Connell and the Governor. The compromise would have allowed outside administrators to exercise great amounts of authority over districts that didn't meet the bizarre and onerous standards of the No Child Left Behind Act. Perata's bill includes some important provisions, as the so-called compromise left our school districts and teachers in jeopardy. While local control can lead to not making the tough decisions required, it cannot totally be ignored. Schools are the heart of a community, and localities must have a strong voice in the process.

Now, the hitch here is that we need some form of this legislation to be signed into law in order to get $17 million in federal funding. The Governor says he prefers the Republican form of the bill, which, of course, stands no chance of passage. At any rate, we don't need this "strong father" mentality on our education. We don't need more top-down organization from the state, we need to provide the resources and let our teachers do their jobs.

But if you look closer at this bizarre soccer match, you see that the real problem is the size of the ball. California spends far less money per pupil than states like New York and Connecticut, despite the enormous challenges our students face. This is a measure of priorities and which end we want to score on.  On one side, you have the goal of a quality education for all of California's children.  On the other, you have low taxes and wanting something for nothing. Yet that is the way the Republican kiddos elected officials are going.

And the worse part of this whole metaphor? For the life of me, I can't figure out who the ref is.