Acts of War: Our Education System

By Larry Stirling

"If an unfriendly foreign power had attempted to impose on America the mediocre educational performance that exists today, we might well have viewed it as an act of war."

That was the stinging indictment of A NATION AT RISK, the 1983 report of the blue-ribbon National Commission on Excellence in Education.

How are we doing here in California, seventeen years after that dismal assessment of the American Educational System in 1983?

According to the CALIFORNIA INDEX OF LEADING EDUCATION INDICATORS 2000 (published by the Pacific Research Institute for Public Policy), not so good ... Test scores are still shockingly low Graduation rates are low Teacher quality is low Teaching methodologies are questionable Spending programs lack accountability

The bottom line: we are at war ... and our children are in peril!

In war, what happens to a battlefield general who can't get the job done?
A. Give them four more years to try to turn the war around? B. Relieve him or her of command and send in a proven battlefield general to lead the war?

DeDe Alpert is Chair of the California State Senate Education Committee. On her official state government web site, she describes herself as "one of the Legislature's foremost advocates of public education."

If DeDe Alpert, as the Legislature's battlefield general of public education, is losing the war ... should we
A. Give her four more years to try to turn the war around? B. Relieve her of her command and send in a proven battlefield general to lead the war?

What would be the evidence against DeDe Alpert? Here are just a few of the shocking findings of the CALIFORNIA INDEX OF LEADING EDUCATION INDICATORS 2000:
California's fourth-grade reading scores ranked next to last among the states.
At least 30 percent of California high-school students failed to graduate in a four-year period.
54 percent of California State University (CSU) incoming freshmen had to enroll in remedial math and 47 percent in remedial English.
Only 16 percent of California fourth-graders reached the "proficient" level, which the National Assessment Governing Board says all students should reach, and more than half rated "below basic," meaning that they do not even have a partial mastery of reading.
California ranked well below the national average in the number of high-school students who had taken higher level math and science courses
California ranked dead last in the percentage of 1996 high-school graduates who had taken First-Year Chemistry
California was dead last in the percentage of 1996 high-school graduates who had taken First-Year Biology

What would be the charges against her? Despite the fact that she IS a nice person ... and ASSUMING that her heart IS in the right place ... and that she MAY have the best of intentions ... and that she CLAIMS to be one of the "foremost advocates of public education" ... the simple truth is ...

DeDe Alpert hasn't been able to get the job done ...and our children are paying for it.

Our children need a proven battlefield general to relieve DeDe Alpert of her command in Sacramento and to shake things up in the Education Establishment. Our children deserve the best!

EXPECT THE BEST WITH JUDGE LARRY STIRLING. "LEADERSHIP TO SOLVE PROBLEMS ... NOT POLITICS AS USUAL."

Judge Larry Stirling's "10-Point Plan for Educational Excellence"

1 Reading must be the #1 priority of every teacher and administrator, not just the "reading specialist." Remedial English for California State University freshman should be the exception, not the rule. 2 Make use of emerging technologies to end the lock-step, one-size-fits-all approach. Tailor education to the individual student. 3 Break the budget-busting textbook monopoly which locks our kids into quickly-outdated books. Open the education market to flexible, easily-upgradeable software and Internet solutions. 4 Quality education begins with quality teachers. Reward teachers who do an outstanding job. Repeal the Fisher Act which requires teachers to have five years of college before being allowed to teach in California schools. Hire based on demonstrated competence, not on the basis of having survived five years of college. 5 Scrap the seven-volume Education Code and replace it with a streamlined state legislative framework. Return more power to local schools to make decisions about how they will achieve the educational goals of the state, and the expectations of their students and parents. 6 Dump the seriously-flawed Stanford 9 test. It's an off-the-shelf test published by a Massachusetts-based multinational corporation - a test which is not aligned with the curriculum actually taught in California. Replace it with an independently administered "California Regents' Examination" that directly reflects the educational goals and curriculum of Californians. 7 Increase educational choice and innovation by fostering the formation of Charter Schools. 8 Strive to provide every child with a computer upon entering the 6th grade. 9 Award "need" scholarships to parents who can show that (a) their neighborhood school is performing below statewide test averages, or (b) that their child has special needs to be met, or (c) talents to fulfilled. The parents would use the scholarships to send their children to a school of their choice that will allow their child to fulfill his or her potential. 10 Develop and implement a range of innovative strategies for engaging and integrating parents into the process of educating their children, welcoming parents into the classroom literally and figuratively, and empowering them to be home-based coaches for their children.