"Ten years ago, Gov. Gray Davis committed his administration to education. He personally chose a team to implement his vision for schools from a group handpicked by then-Education Secretary Gary Hart, former state senator from Santa Barbara. Well-liked and brilliant at education policy, Hart had recently retired from a respected career in the Senate where he served as chairman of the Senate Education Committee. Davis did not mince words – he said do not back down in pursuit of his expectations for schools. He wanted change. And he got it."By 2000, state officials were implementing the public school accountability system Davis had signed into law the previous year. He created a measuring stick for school performance called the "academic performance index." Today, it defines our thinking about what it means to be a good school. Davis set the original goal of a good school on the index at 800 of 1,000 points. He enacted the high school exit exam to give a California high school diploma real meaning. His administration also deftly negotiated a voluntary program that gave more money to the lowest-achieving schools in the state if they promised to improve. If they didn't meet their goals, they faced state sanctions that included expanded school choice options for parents stuck in those schools.
It's this notion of parental choice and empowerment that has re-surfaced in recent weeks as a hot topic in Sacramento, as lawmakers and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger struggle to make California eligible to apply for up to $700 million in federal "Race to the Top" funds, President Barack Obama's school reform initiative. The application is due this month, and the debate turns on the fate of schoolchildren trapped in under-performing schools. After butting heads a few weeks ago with state Assembly leaders who killed her original measure for school change, state Sen. Gloria Romero, a Democrat from East Los Angeles, is back at it with another Race to the Top proposal. It would allow students in the state's lowest-performing schools to transfer