California’s education system needs a big overhaul

SACRAMENTO >> When COVID-19 shuttered virtually everything in 2020 and forced public schools to begin distance learning, those schools responded with the agility one would expect from a decrepit battleship forced to make a quick change of course in the face of an unexpected enemy. In other words, the state’s hulking K-12 system barely responded at all, even as small and nimble private and charter schools quickly adapted to the new reality.

I remember news stories about public schools unable to set up even the most basic Zoom classes, of teachers who had no idea what they were supposed to do — and then of unions and administrators resisting efforts to re-start classroom teaching even after the rest of society was getting back to normal. Instead of re-ordering procedures to help kids stay current on their schoolwork, the school establishment mainly whined about not having enough money.

Anyone who needed a reminder about why government bureaucracies are incapable of providing quality public services need only look at the resulting disaster. A Stanford University study found, “a substantial decline in student learning in both English language arts/ literacy (ELA) and mathematics between the 2018–19 and 2021– 22 academic years.” Those are the general figures, but the results for poor and minority students were a travesty.

California’s lowest-income students already fared second to last in the nation in 2018, before anyone had even heard of coronavirus. After the pandemic closures, the study found that only 16% of Black students met or exceeded state math standards — a number that was below 10 percent for English learners. And then there are the appalling truancy numbers: Nearly a third of the state’s K-12 students were chronically absent during the ruckus.

We heard rumblings of a “parent revolt,” which manifested itself in some high-profile schoolboard elections. But, again, it’s hard to turn around a giant ship — especially one that for years has been taking in water. In the private sector, unhappy customers take their business elsewhere. With government agencies, the process for making change is daunting. Booting bad school-board members is a start, but there are so many obstacles to improving matters at the classroom level.

A recent settlement has been touted as a way to force the state to enact meaningful reforms that might improve

Steven Greenhut Columnist