By Noah Grand
Daily Bruin Reporter
The best way to organize a new system of education in California
““ from kindergarten through college ““ is through the
governor’s office, according to a new state report.
The report is another step in the California legislature’s
attempt to create a single master plan for both primary and higher
education by August.
“To ensure that (K-16 coordination) will be carried out,
it should be placed in the office having ultimate accountability
and the greatest power over multiple segments,” the report
states. “That is the office of the governor.”
The report, released Thursday, is the final work of the
governance working group, one of seven working groups within the
Committee to Develop a Master Plan for Education ““ a joint
state legislative committee consisting of state senators and
assemblymen.
Final reports from the other six working groups will be
published over the next six weeks.
Meanwhile, the master plan committee will begin holding a number
of hearings to start formulating a new master plan for
education.
The first hearing, to be held next week, will discuss the
governance committee’s findings, according to Stephen Blake,
spokesman for Sen. Dede Alpert, D”“San Diego, master plan
committee chair. He said he was unsure what the committee’s
first hearing would focus on because of the scope of the governance
committee’s work.
Alpert formed the committee by Senate Concurrent Resolution 29
in May 1999 to create a new master plan to replace
California’s original plan, formed in 1960.
The original master plan defined the roles of the UC, California
State University and community college systems. The new master
plan, however, is designed to incorporate both universities and
K-12 schools.
Most of the report’s recommendations focused on
streamlining the state’s K-12 educational system and the
California Community College system. There were no specific
recommendations for the UC or CSU system.
“That we did not mention much of the UC says that most of
(the UC) is functional, and there are more pressing matters,”
said Christine Galves, consultant for the governance working
group.
UC regent Joanne Kozberg was among the 25 members of the working
group, but she could not be reached for comment.
The UC Office of the President would not comment until studying
the report’s 430 power-point slides, which would take at
least a week, said spokesman Charles McFadden.
The working group concluded that the governor’s office was
the best place to centralize responsibility, because that office
had the most power, including his introducing the budget and
line-item veto power over expenditures, Galves said.
That office is also the only state-wide office that deals with
all areas of college education, Galves said, so the working group
concluded it was the only office that could coordinate all
education throughout the state.
A major focus of the report — especially for primary education
““ was establishing a direct path of accountability. One
concern was that the governor, the superintendent of Public
Instruction and various state appointees could all blame each other
for the system’s failures.
Centralizing all these positions under the governor would
eliminate this, the report states, by providing one person at the
top with final responsibility.
While the legislature would still be able to pass bills
affecting education policy, Galves said one of the group’s
goals was to reduce the more than 600 pieces of education
legislation considered annually.
“The legislature is overly and unevenly involved in
education governance, mostly with respect to K-12 education,”
the report states.