Pugh reaches out to new governor and schools chief
Published: November 8, 2010
CSBA President Frank Pugh congratulated California’s next governor and state superintendent of public instruction following the Nov. 2 election results—and also reminded them of the crucial issues awaiting them concerning the state’s public schools and students.
“Jerry Brown and Tom Torlakson worked hard for their victories, and we congratulate them and all the winners of statewide and local races,” Pugh said. “We look forward to working with the victors and the new Legislature to reverse the funding losses our schools have labored under in recent years and to improve the climate for learning on which California’s future happiness and prosperity rely.”
The education issues facing Brown and Torlakson are formidable: existing education commitments that have been underfunded by $18 billion in the past three budget cycles; the risk that midyear cuts may be needed in the current budget, with Proposition 98’s minimum funding guarantee to schools already suspended; anemic growth in student achievement among virtually all ethnic, racial and socioeconomic groups—an inevitable result of the state’s chronic underinvestment in education; a long history of unfunded mandates that have saddled schools with responsibilities that they lack the resources to properly address; ongoing, sometimes misguided reform efforts coming out of Sacramento and Washington, D.C.; and economic and social ills that are reflected in many students’ living conditions.
There’s no single cure-all for these problems, but CSBA has spearheaded a strategic approach that can help with each of them: Robles-Wong v. California, the historic lawsuit seeking to have the state’s current education finance system declared unconstitutional and to replace it with a system that provides all students an equal opportunity to meet the academic goals set by the state.
Pugh invited the new governor and schools chief to work with CSBA and the students, families and other education groups that filed the lawsuit to negotiate a solution that will permanently align California’s school finance system to the high academic standards its students are expected to meet.