Moises Castillo: What should we do to improve the quality of teachers in California’s schools?
Delaine Eastin: We have to raise the pay to be a teacher in this state. Teachers should be treated like professionals and paid at a much higher level than they are paid now. Then, if somebody wants to be off in the summer, they can pick an 80% contract. Also, more teachers need to be encouraged to do staff development. For example, in the private sector, when a person works for a company and we want to train them on a new operating system or a new protocol or anything else, the company doesn’t tell them to take vacation time and pay their own way. Why should teachers be treated so differently? It is time that we really give them the full salary that you need to have to live in California.
MC: What are some of the barriers that are getting in the way of making this happen?
DE: California is below the national average in per pupil spending but we are the most expensive state in the union to live. We have to raise per pupil spending. We have the largest class size in America above the third grade. We have to lower class sizes and that means building more classrooms and hiring more teachers. All this means more resources. The RAND Corporation did a study and it showed that if you look at the factors that contribute to the most successful students in the most successful states, they spend more money per child. That is one out of five things they do. They also have lower class sizes in elementary education; they have public preschool available for all kids, not just rich kids; teachers report a lower turnover; and teachers report that they have enough resources. All that stems back to the first factor, which is higher per pupil spending, higher resources per child.
Lizbeth Antonio: How would you describe your role in education?
DE: The role of the State Superintendent is several fold. First, you are not the dictator or the empress and you don’t tell people what to do. In fact, a lawsuit that my predecessor lost says that the State Board sets policy and certainly the governor and the legislature play a big role in setting policy and the budget. The state superintendent can in fact be used as a bully pulpit to be an advocate for children and education. I advocated for class-size reduction for K-3 and got ridiculed by the governor at the time, Pete Wilson, and by some member legislators. Eventually, we got class-size reduction. I supported standards for all kids and all schools, and now we have standards. At one point when Governor Wilson had illegally taken $2.3 Billion out of schools, I was part of the lawsuit against him to make him put that money back. We, in fact, got the money back and that is where we actually got the money to do class-size reduction. There isn’t as much power and authority as one might think, but there is a lot more moral persuasion and you do have a bully pulpit. You can get in to see an editorial board and any of the many interest groups that affect public policy. You can testify before the legislature, and you can generally be a voice to fight for what is right for kids.
LA: What type of changes would you like to see in the California public school curriculum?
DE: I would like to see every child learning at least two languages. I would like to see the arts strengthened in the California public school system. We are dead last in the number of music teachers. I would also like to see every school have a garden in its school, so that kids could really learn not only where food comes from but also what the basis of a healthy diet is. I would certainly like to see every California school have a complete and full public library with a librarian. I’d like to see us with more nurses and more counselors, as well as smaller class sizes in K-3.
AH: What are the current educational resources that students and teachers are entitled to?
DE: The State Constitution says that you are entitled to a free and appropriate education, but it doesn’t really define that in specific terms. Every school isn’t the same. Resources available to a student at a small school like Whale Gulch in Mendocino County, that doesn’t even have electricity, aren’t many. I wish that I could say that every district uses all of its money wisely and gives every child a credentialed teacher and a textbook. Not every district does an excellent job providing for that. We try to cajole them and sometimes we sue them to try to force them to give kids what they should be getting. We have a ways to go in California before we give every child a free and appropriate education in my view.
AH: In your opinion, why is it important that students have access to educational resources?
DE: It is more important than it has ever been. In a democracy where people respect one another, people have to be well educated. Even the founders of our country understood that. Now we live in the information age where not only do we need to respect your neighbors and one another, but we have to make sure that you learn at a very high level because there are no good jobs left in America for unskilled workers—none. If you really want a good job in America, it is very important that you have a good education because this is the information age. They use a lot of robots now in a lot of what used to be considered unskilled labor. Now they would have a few semi-skilled laborers. I had a high school student tell me once that she was going to drop out of high school, join the army, and drive a tank. I said ‘if you can’t read at the 13th grade level and don’t have high levels of skill in math, you can’t drive a tank.’
When I was a child, you opened up the hood of the cars in the 1950s and it was a very simple matter (although I still couldn’t fix it). However, at the time you didn’t need the level of education that you need today to be a car mechanic.
AH: How evenly are educational resources appropriated among California schools?
DE: The good news is that they are more equal than they once were. The bad news is that not all of the money follows the child into the classroom. Some districts are inefficient and a very few are corrupt. Not every child’s needs are the same. Even if you gave an identical amount of money to two schools, if one school had lots of children who didn’t have books and opportunities to learn at home, those children might need additional support. They would need more than a child from a very affluent community, whose parents have books in every room, has tutors, and lots of other support. Again, I think that our goal should be not just absolute equality, dollar per dollar, but in fact, additional support for children that have learning challenges.
AH: What type of legislation would you support that would establish equality in the amount of educational resources in all California schools?
DE: I would raise teachers’ salaries even higher among some of the poorest schools because that would be an attraction for more senior teachers to work in some of the schools where the kids really need extra help. Right now, lots of these schools have the newest teachers and face the challenge that a lot of the teachers are not fully credentialed. The kids with the biggest needs have the least equipped teachers. I would reverse that and say that we are actually going to give a bonus where we are going to pay more and spend more for the poorest children. I would make sure the schools were clean, well-lighted, safe, up to date with technology as well as fully equipped libraries and enough nurses, counselors, and of course good teachers. I would make sure that they would have great sport programs, but also make sure that they would have great art programs.
Ernest Morrell: What, in your mind, can you do in your position at the state level to hold districts accountable for some of the things that you would like to see, such as, districts using money more wisely or schools functioning more efficiently?
DE: I can’t make the legislature appropriate more money for kids. I have fought for it. I have been a thorn in the side of the Governor and the Legislature for being cheapskates. All I can do is be an advocate, be a voice. I can’t pass laws that say that school districts that have cell phones and cars and all sorts of benefits for school board members can’t do that any longer.
I administer 41% of the state budget here in California. Water Resources administers less than 1% of the budget and has 4800 people working in it. You might think that I have this huge department, but do you know how many people I have in my department operating the biggest school system in the country? 1620. Out of that, by the way, something like 60% of them are federally funded. I can’t pick that 200 people that do nothing but run the school lunch program and have them work on school accountability. I can’t because the law gave me the money to hire the people to run the school lunch program, and that is what the law says I have to spend the money on. I am as frustrated as anybody out there about the inability of the State of California to force higher quality and more ethical and responsive behavior on the part of the kids. I have a staff of people that are getting heart attacks and getting shingles, which is stress-related. They are all very committed people all working more than 12 hours a day and they can’t do anymore.
I will tell you that we build Cadillac prisons and jalopy schools and it is a disgrace to California. However, I can’t individually make anybody change that. I just can keep arguing, advocating, testifying, and working on these issues. I am in my last year of State Superintendent and I hope that the youth listening are going to become advocates for change. You deserve a better education—that is a fact—but I, as the State Superintendent, can’t give it to you by myself. We need to have a Legislature that passes laws to begin working on the problems.
EM: What would you recommend that they do as students?
DE: First, I would recommend that they continue with their education to articulate the things that they care about. Second, remember that your first line of defense is always local government. If you go locally, you will be more likely to get more time and people are more likely to hear you. But you can also meet your legislator at their local office. Invite your local legislator to see your schools and to see if there are leaks in your ceilings, have 15 year-old computers, have a shortage of librarians or library materials. Ask them what they are going to do to fix this problem—how will they address this problem? I would love to see some of you become educators and eventually legislators, governors, and superintendents of schools. The reality is that if the young people don’t step up and put pressure on the system, they are going to continue to ignore young people. We are so worried about rich people getting tax cuts at a time when kids don’t have a great education. When I went to high school in this state, 1965, California was 5th of the 50 states in per pupil spending. We did it once. We once invested in kids. In those days we built universities and colleges. Not only are we not investing in K-12, but we haven’t been building new universities and colleges like our ancestors did.
Stay with your education—the future belongs to the educated and you’ll be better advocates.
Interview with the Superintendent of Schools for the State of California, Delaine Eastin
Moises Castillo and Lizbeth Antonio of Santa Monica High School, Aminah Hasan, of Westmark High School and Professor Ernest Morrell of Michigan State University, interviewed Delaine Eastin, Superintendent of Schools for the State of California, on student access to a quality education. 