...to see what bad, bad things Davis has done... - CLICK HERE
calgov2002:
 calgov2002: for old calgov2002 articles. calgov2002: for new calgov2002 articles. Other Bump Lists at: Free Republic Bump List Register |
Posted on 10/15/2002 10:40:56 AM PDT by Tony in Hawaii
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Tuesday, September 3, 2002 Calvary Christian Center School Sacramento, CA Thank you and good morning.
Yesterday, Gray Davis told reporters that he wouldn't let me roll back four years of progress. Well, I have a message for the governor: what I'm going to undo is his four years of failed leadership. It has to do with four years of failing schools, power crises and blackouts, and budget problems stretching from last year that are projected for years to come, all caused by his mismanagement and failure to lead.
Though the governor's definition of progress doesn't seem to include educating our children and repairing our schools, I believe there is no issue that's more significant to our future. I say this as a father of four and as a community leader who has real life experience improving education for California's youth.
I'm so glad to be at the Calvary Christian Center, and I want to thank you for taking me on a tour of your facilities. Your school demonstrates all that is possible when parents and schools work together. You know that education, in order to be truly successful, can't stop when children leave the classroom. It must begin and end each day with parents, and involve a serious collaboration with teachers.
But at too many schools in California, the sad reality is parent participation is shunned. It's frowned upon by bureaucrats and administrators who think they know what's best for our children, but don't even know the kids' names.
Tomorrow in San Jose, I will be delivering my first of three major speeches on improving California's education system. In particular tomorrow, I will discuss my proposals for empowering parents, teachers and local communities to take control of their children's education. As it should be, my focus will be on our public schools.
And make no mistake - there are many good public schools in California. But a complete picture of education in California includes charter schools, private schools, and home schooling. California needs to accommodate all these different options because no two children are the same.
But there is one reform that must be universal. We must welcome parents back into the day-to-day lives of their children. Any school that does this, and in deed any school, public or private, that gives a child the chance to succeed, will earn my respect.
And yes, this will include schools that are just one child, or a few, learning at home with their parents.
Too often the state has focused too much on strict mandates, and not enough on results. The latest example of this is the state's assault on home schooling.
Most recently, a memo released by the California Department of Education declared home schooling an unauthorized substitute for attendance at public school. This memo has been viewed, and rightly so, as a warning to all parents who have made a career of educating their children. The fact of the matter is home schooling is turning out well-educated kids. Often times, parents are choosing to teach their children themselves only because they believe the circumstances of their own child demand this special attention.
These are parents who are making huge sacrifices, often giving up their careers, because they love their children and care deeply about their education.
These individuals should be celebrated and applauded, not threatened with litigation and even criminal penalties.
And as this assault on home schooling takes place, predictably, Gray Davis has chosen again to sit back and do nothing.
When I'm governor, I will improve our public schools. That is my promise. But at the same time, parents who believe the best choice for their child is home schooling will be allowed that choice.
I want to give parents every opportunity to educate their children. That's why I will fight for improving public schools, increasing the number of charter schools, and also for home schooling in California. The question we should all be asking is why Gray Davis doesn't wish to expand opportunities for California's school children who are currently being failed by unaccountable bureaucrats and crumbling facilities? Did they fail to attend his latest fundraiser?
Ladies and gentlemen, with new leadership, I see a California that starts inventing the future once again. And together, we can renew the California Dream for every child and every person proud and privileged to live in this great state.
Thank you very much and I'll be happy to take any of your questions. |
Thank you for posting this! I heard a report on FOX about this last month, it included a report that at least one district intended to use this memo to go door to door and check. I headed straight to FR to search for more on this but found NOTHING! And haven't heard anything else in the media since.
It surprises me since I know there are several homeschooling parents from CA here on FR. I was considering to relocate there so would appreciate ANY further news on this. Anyone?
ping
Education is the most critical issue in California, more serious than even the budget crisis. When Gray Davis first ran for Governor, he promised that Education was to be his highest three priorities, but instead Mr. Davis has shown us what they really were all along: Re-Election, Re-Election, and Re-Election. What were the results? Education spending per student has increased nearly 30%, while classroom performance remains relatively unimproved and at the bottom of a nation producing a third rate primary and secondary education product. The system is broken and the State is nearly bankrupt. So what can we do?
One answer is to free California’s teachers from the overwhelming power of national unions. Teachers should have a choice whether or not to support an often radical political agenda. Unlike Gray Davis, if you elect me Governor of California, I will enforce the law that prohibits unions from requiring campaign contributions in dues payments without teacher’s permission (Beck (487 US 735), 1988).
Second, we must reverse the trend toward large unified school districts that has effectively excluded parents from affecting public school decisions. The purpose of consolidation was supposedly to reduce the cost of overhead through economies of scale and to strengthen the districts’ collective bargaining power, but that isn’t how it has turned out. Instead, district bureaucracies have become enormous and the resulting issues are so complex that parents are pushed aside by an organizational machine controlled by union lawyers.
I plan to assist formation of corporate service associations for school districts so that they can divest operations into smaller, more personalized institutions while retaining the organizational muscle to deal with the unions. Smaller school districts will give parents a stronger voice on district boards over the issues that matter to them. The principle need to make this possible is to develop programs for children with special needs. Here is where can turn to parents for solutions.
Some would argue that parents on local School Boards aren’t qualified to make administrative decisions about public education, especially over programs for children with developmental challenges. So, I’d like to talk about an education success-story that not only proves that argument wrong, it points toward a total transformation in public education.
Home education is enjoying a renaissance in America, and religious freedom isn’t the principle reason. Parents are choosing to home school to assure educational excellence for their children, whose learning habits they know best. A family bond of patience and discipline is a critical factor in student success, especially in a challenging situation. What many people don't know about home-schools is that they have a high percentage of students with genetic, behavioral, and developmental disabilities that had often been poorly served by public institutions. Even with that statistical disadvantage, SAT, ACT, and STAR test scores strongly indicate that home education is producing superior results across the entire spectrum of individual ability.
So parents ARE competent to make choices about their children’s education, and home schools successfully manage nearly every type of specialized educational problem. So what are they doing right that we can apply to public institutions?
As home-educators have grown in number, they have been organizing into loosely knit education cooperatives that point to a new form of public education: a decentralized, customer-oriented network for lifelong learning, using products customized to meet individual interests and abilities. That promises what 21st Century public education could really become: a multi-disciplinary market of customized learning products and services.
We are already starting to see the effects of this change. Software and curriculum companies are finding a growing market of customers committed to gaining competitive advantage. Colleges and universities are offering online degrees because they need superior students to assure productive alumnae. Superior teachers could get rich transmitting their ideas and methods to a mass-market. Where better to develop those products and sell them to the world than California?
We can use private and home education as if they were R&D laboratories developing and testing proven learning tools and services. Public school parents on school boards could then select those products that the State would fund for use in public schools. It is a gradual transformation, from experimenting on our children with untested academic theories, to contracting for innovative tools and methods that have been proven in the marketplace.
All we have to do is let it happen and keep government from regulating new educational methods out of existence. If you elect me Governor, that is what I will do. Federal education dollars aren’t worth the price of Federal control and bureaucratic requirements. Private and home education both leave the State with more money to spend per-child and provide a competitive incentive for public schools to keep their customers.
Together, let’s help California rise from the ashes of a broken system and lead the way once again, into a world of exciting possibilities for our children.
- Enforce the U.S. Supreme Court decision re Communications Workers v. Beck (487 US 735, 1988).
- Assist formation of corporate service associations. Offer State funding for local school districts to divest into smaller, more personalized institutions.
- Use the private and home education market to develop and test learning tools and services. Private validation services could assess product performance against product claims. School boards would be free to select guaranteed products for use in public schools.
- Insurance on the guarantee would cover the cost of remedial education if the product fails to meet warranted performance.
- Veto any bill requiring home and private educators to conform to State teacher certification standards.
- Veto any bill requiring State supervision of home schools.
- Analyze any Federal program for insufficient funds and unintended consequences suspecting unfunded mandates. Cite New York v. United States (505 US 144, 1992).
- Publicly excoriate Bill Lockyer at every opportunity.
...to see what bad, bad things Davis has done... - CLICK HERE
calgov2002:
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