Judging by the rules, regulations, and legislation pouring out of Sacramento and local boards of education, you'd think that educating kids was simply a matter of making laws. Pass a law, and hey, presto, the kids' achievement scores rise to the sky. And there's a corollary, put there by the same folks who insisted on new math and whole language and who want to install merit pay and lots of "collaboration" with your administrators: if the kids don't achieve, blame the teacher.

 

Accountability: it's the word du jour in education circles, but the only ones being held accountable are the teachers. We are the handy scapegoats, and we are the ones being bashed for all the problems of our public schools. I am sick and tired of the shortsighted "friends" of education who harp endlessly on accountability of teachers and ignore the real problems in our classrooms.

 

Early last year, Governor Davis introduced into the California Legislature four pieces of education "reform" legislation. These four 'X' bills, as they were called, were not well thought out and most were seriously flawed. Despite their hard work, CTA legislative advocates couldn't completely clean up the bills. Not surprisingly, the philosophy behind the legislation was to raise test scores at all costs and, if that didn't happen, hold teachers accountable.

 

One of these bills targets low-performing schools, saying that if test scores don't rise by 5 percent, teachers can be reassigned and the state can take over the entire district, as was done in Richmond and Compton. There are 3,144 such low-performing schools in California, all of them in low-income neighborhoods where a high percentage of children are limited-English or non-English speaking. The bill disregards these conditions; just raise those scores.

 

The bill does not address overcrowding, shortage of supplies, rundown buildings, or year-round schools on double sessions. Neither does the bill look at the kids themselves - their health and attendance records, their determination to spend the requisite amount of time reading and practicing language, their need for parental support. Kids are not, after all, passive vessels into which teachers pour information. When a student learns, it is because there is effort and cooperation between teacher, student and parent. Passing laws does not raise achievement scores.

 

If we are going to be held accountable for what happens in our classrooms, we must control the process for which we are to be blamed or praised. California lags so far behind in allowing teachers professional management of their classrooms that Chester Finn, former Secretary of Education in the Reagan Administration and director of the ultra-conservative Fordham Foundation, gave the state an "F" in teacher autonomy. Unfortunately, the rush to legislate has resulted in scripted teaching and an assembly line approach to classroom methods, which in turn have undermined creativity, academic freedom and professional control. All that matters is those scores.

 

The new legislation will hold us accountable for someone else's decisions, made by legislators and educational theorists. That's a prescription for failure, because the only valid authorities on teaching are teachers - active teachers who work in today's classrooms.

 

The governor pushed his legislation despite the fact that at the same time he gave public schools less of the 1998-99 budget surplus than Pete Wilson did the year before. He increased the education budget by a mere 6 percent, of which only 1.4 percent could be used for teacher salaries and benefits. He endorsed that restriction at the same time that California is suffering the worst teacher shortage in our history, and despite the fact that huge reserves are left in the state treasury. In fact, our state spends more on our prison system than it does on higher education: at San Diego State University last fall, 4,600 fully qualified students were denied admission simply because there was no room for them.

 

This stingy funding shames California, which has the seventh largest economy in the world, but ranks 40th in funding of our public schools (over $1,000 per year per student below the national average - the average, not the top), ranks 49th in class size, and falls into a disgraceful 50th place in computers, counselors, and librarians per student.

 

But it's the teachers who are to be held accountable! The system is underfunded, overcrowded and struggling with serious sociological problems, but teachers, without professional autonomy to do the job right, are the ones who will be held accountable if the kids don't produce the correct scores.

 

The new "reform" legislation is ill conceived, inadequately financed, and holding the wrong people responsible for six million kids' education progress.

 

Make no mistake about it. We are going to fight legislation that is unfair toward teachers and students, legislation that targets teachers instead of issues. Governor Davis, we want you to recognize that teachers are already doing an incredible job under very adverse conditions. Don't ask us to do the impossible. Untie our hands and give us real help.