CA State Superintendent's Blueprint for a Second Term
Back in December, I wrote about a marvelous, campy country and western video that State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson sang (kinda) under the title "California: We do things different," adding the grammatically correct ly at the end. The movement of the state from "test and judge" to "support and improve" now extends to Torlakson's official vocabulary as he talks about the "The California Way" in a series of proposals he's called Blueprint 2.0, which is in draft form.
Blueprint 2.0 begins by parting ways with the past. "The days of California's reliance on a single standardized test for accountability purposes are over," the draft document says. "While well intentioned, we now recognize that we were using the wrong drivers for positive educational change." Local control funding and the new state standards are creating "a new accountability system that differs from the previous [one] in almost every respect."
Torlakson recently talked with me about what Blueprint 2.0 calls the "unique opportunity" that schools have to reconfigure themselves as learning organizations. Here, edited for length and clarity, is our conversation.
When you talk to your colleagues from other states, what do they think about California's difference?
They wondered about us four-and-a-half years ago when we were not jumping on board the train that was hauling all the federal money, if you obeyed the new rules. Many of them got on that train and found that it wasn't going anywhere worthwhile. Or they got the money, and now their waivers are in trouble. I think we're viewed as progressive, and other superintendents marvel at the fact we passed an $8-billion tax measure and coupled it with finance system reform attuned to serving lower income kids and English learners.
Let's talk about the Blueprint specifically. One of its elements is raising revenue. How are you going to build a coalition around finance?
There's a short term and a long term. The short term is that we have to have a new measure for revenue to replace the loss of Prop 30 [the tax increase voters approved in 2011. Next year the sales tax portion expires, and the income tax portion expires at the end of 2018]. It's tricky enough to figure out what will sell to the voters and what would be acceptable to the governor or get his endorsement. The longer-range issue is the whole definition of adequacy and how you fund that. California used to be in the top five or six states in per pupil funding, and now we're 46th [adjusted for cost of living]. The promise of the Local Control Funding formula is in jeopardy if the funding isn't there.
The momentum from my re-election campaign helps. We're going to go around the state and put a spotlight on all the good things going on. People support my push for career-tech education, technology in our schools, more parent involvement, more help for English learners. Many of those things are going on because Prop 30 is providing the revenue stream.
Are you anticipating a road show?
Of sorts. We've done it before. We've got lots of good news. We are changing the way schools are funded, providing more money to schools and students who need it most, implementing more CA State Superintendent's Blueprint for a Second Term - On California - Education Week: