SAN DIEGO - One day after urging a series of education changes in his State of the State address, Gov. Jerry Brown said today that he expects a major part of his plan to face staunch opposition, while other elements remain murky.
The Democratic governor called his proposal to change the categorical funding system for public schools a "heavy lift," and he predicted a tussle in the Legislature. He said wealthy areas of the state are likely to object to a plan he said would shift money to lower-income schools.
"That's a big, major reform with real bite in it," Brown said.
Brown is also proposing less state testing, but it is not yet clear exactly how some of his other ideas about education might come to fruition.
"The actual details we'll get soon," he told reporters after speaking in San Diego this afternoon.
Months after he first suggested establishing local panels to evaluate classrooms, Brown said today that he still plans to design such a program.
"I want to design a visitation program so that every classroom is visited on a regular basis, and there's written evaluations of how things are," he said. "It's almost a form of mini, mini-regular accreditation."
Asked who might be on such a panel, Brown said, "I think it should be outside people. You don't want to have people controlled by the district."
He said panels could include teachers and experts.
"It should be a balanced panel of people who can say, 'Hey, this teacher is cutting it and this teacher is not, and here's why we think that.'"
Brown is campaigning for a November ballot initiative to raise taxes, framing it as a choice between taxes and schools. In a question-and-answer session after speaking in San Diego, at least one guest took exception.
"It appears you are holding education hostage," a question card read to Brown said. "Please explain."
Brown answered, "Education is the largest part of the budget ... When you need money, education cannot be ignored."
© Copyright The Sacramento Bee. All rights reserved.
What You Should Know About Comments on Sacbee.com
Sacbee.com is happy to provide a forum for reader interaction, discussion, feedback and reaction to our stories. However, we reserve the right to delete inappropriate comments or ban users who can't play nice. (See our full terms of service here.)
Here are some rules of the road:
• Keep your comments civil. Don't insult one another or the subjects of our articles. If you think a comment violates our guidelines click the "Report Abuse" link to notify the moderators. Responding to the comment will only encourage bad behavior.
• Don't use profanities, vulgarities or hate speech. This is a general interest news site. Sometimes, there are children present. Don't say anything in a way you wouldn't want your own child to hear.
• Do not attack other users; focus your comments on issues, not individuals.
• Stay on topic. Only post comments relevant to the article at hand.
• Do not copy and paste outside material into the comment box.
• Don't repeat the same comment over and over. We heard you the first time.
• Do not use the commenting system for advertising. That's spam and it isn't allowed.
• Don't use all capital letters. That's akin to yelling and not appreciated by the audience.
• Don't flag other users' comments just because you don't agree with their point of view. Please only flag comments that violate these guidelines.
You should also know that The Sacramento Bee does not screen comments before they are posted. You are more likely to see inappropriate comments before our staff does, so we ask that you click the "Report Abuse" link to submit those comments for moderator review. You also may notify us via email at feedback@sacbee.com. Note the headline on which the comment is made and tell us the profile name of the user who made the comment. Remember, comment moderation is subjective. You may find some material objectionable that we won't and vice versa.
If you submit a comment, the user name of your account will appear along with it. Users cannot remove their own comments once they have submitted them.
About Comments
Reader comments on Sacbee.com are the opinions of the writer, not The Sacramento Bee. If you see an objectionable comment, click the "Report Abuse" link below it. We will delete comments containing inappropriate links, obscenities, hate speech, and personal attacks. Flagrant or repeat violators will be banned. See more about comments here.