Political Philosophy for Marilyn E. Rea

Candidate for
Governing Board Member; Santa Clara Unified School District; Trustee Area 2

I believe that public education is the foundation of our democracy. It involves not only the obvious interests of parents and students, but the extended interests of all members of the public and the community. As such, I oppose any form of voucher that would channel public funds into private ventures. I am not afraid of competition, but I am afraid of my tax dollars, and your tax dollars, being channeled into schools over which we as a community have no say and no control.

I do not believe that public education is failing. I believe our public schools are better than they have ever been. Here's why: I grew up in California, and graduated from California public schools in the "golden days" before Proposition 13. I was educated enough to go on to Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, and graduate number one in the School of Mathematics and Sciences. And I know that the education my children received at Wilcox High School was superior to what I received in high school, both in content and in rigor.

So why do people believe that education is failing? Why do people believe that schools are not what they used to be? Because the role of our schools, the need for universal education, has changed so drastically. I have heard it said that in the 1940s, we had a sixty percent dropout rate, but we didn't have a dropout problem. That's because in that era, dropping out wasn't a problem. There were jobs to be had, at decent wages that would support a family, that required little more than a strong back and a good work ethic. That is no longer the case. Today even a ten percent dropout rate is a prescription for disaster, because there are few places for dropouts to go but onto the streets.

I do believe that public education needs to do better. Santa Clara Unified is looking at implementing graduation standards that will require every student to complete Algebra I. That's important in this day and age. How many of you who went to public high school believe that everyone in your high school completed Algebra I? Not in mine, I assure you. The new state assessment, however, goes way beyond that. In fact, this year the state assessment at eighth grade will assume that every eighth grader has completed Algebra I. And when the students don't fare well, the cry will go out that public education is failing. Not so. We just keep raising the bar, often without the time or resources to adapt.

The new state graduation standards under consideration are proposing that every student complete not only Algebra I, but Geometry and Algebra II as well. Did that happen in your public high school? Perhaps this is where we want to go, but I hope it is carefully considered and carefully implemented in a way that supports student success.

I do believe in standards. I believe it is important to measure what we want students to know and be able to do. I have only limited use for the norm-referenced tests that we traditionally use to measure our schools' performance. The problem is, norm-referenced tests only tell us whether we are better or worse than someone else. While this is a fine piece of information, it doesn't tell us the quality of either. I could be better than you, and we're both terrible, or I could be better than you, and we're both wonderful. What I care about, and I think what most people care about, is not whether Jane reads better than Brian, but whether Jane and Brian both read well. And that's what we need to start measuring and evaluating. That is the direction in which we are headed here in Santa Clara, and hopefully at the state level.

I do believe that local control is one of the keys to quality public education. With all the money flowing into education because of the booming economy, more and more of it comes with strings attached, tightly controlled out of Sacramento. We all like the money, but the more its use is controlled by Sacramento, the more we get a one-size-fits-all type of education that does not allow local communities to adapt to and address local needs. And it restricts the ability of your locally elected officials to respond to what you think is important.

I am very concerned about the initiative process. What was intended as a means for people at the grassroots level to have more input into their government has been perverted into a system where anyone with enough money can write their own views into an initiative, hire signature gatherers, and then millions of dollars and thousands of hours are required to mount a campaign in which both sides focus more on soundbites than issues. That's no way to get quality government or quality law.

I believe that every learner is important, child or adult. We are fortunate in Santa Clara Unified to have not only K-12 schools, but a large adult education program as well. A forty year old man learning to read is as important and as worthy of our resources as a first grader learning to read. A fifty year old woman learning computer skills is as important and as worthy of our resources as a fourteen year old learning computer skills. We live in an age when education is a lifelong process, and we model that in Santa Clara by providing programs that serve all populations.

I believe that we will find the best answers when we all work together. The people who work in public education bring an expertise to the table, about how children learn and the best ways to support them. Parents bring an expertise to the table, about their own children, and what their strengths and weaknesses are. The public brings an expertise to the table, about what our students need to know and be able to do to becoming contributing members of our society. And each student brings an expertise to the table, about their own abilities and desires and what motivates them. Together we can build the educational system we want for the future.