Gavin Newsom ought to be pleased that the Legislative Analyst’s Office has given its seal of approval to the governor’s plan to streamline the state’s education bureaucracy to improve accountability of K-12 test scores. The Newsom plan is indeed sensible, but it’s big question whether some bureaucratic deck-chair moving can save California’s educational Titanic.
As LAO explained, “Six major studies have examined California’s governance structure over the past 30 years and identified several shortcomings.” Mainly, studies suggest the State Board of Education, governor and Legislature must rely on the elected superintendent of public instruction “to implement their policies, which may not align with the SPI’s priorities.” Yet the superintendent “influences policies through their implementation, but has no formal policy role.”
LAO agreed that the Newsom plan to shift control over the Board of Education from the superintendent to a gubernatorial appointee “would clarify confusion over who should manage the state’s … education system.” The current superintendent, Tony Thurmond, seemed blindsided by the Newsom proposal and complained, via a spokesperson to CalMatters, that it’s an “unnecessary disruption.”
Per the report, the Newsom plan tries to answer a question asked by an influential education research center associated with California’s top universities. “The question ‘Who is responsible to whom, and for what?’ remains unresolved in California’s education governance system, resulting in blurred lines of responsibility and difficulty making systemic improvement,” noted a report from the Policy Analysis for California Education (PACE).
Good for the governor, but we have trouble giving too much credit after watching him cave to teachers’ unions and place unnecessary limits on charter-school expansion given that such schools remain one of the state’s bright spots given the benefits of competition. Other states, even poor ones such as Mississippi, have seen impressive jumps in test-score results.
Certainly, the state is better able to resolve substantive education issues if its own lines of authority are clarified. But let’s not be naive: The reason test scores are abysmal is not because the state educational bureaucracy isn’t designed properly. It’s because there’s too much of it.