Legislature- heal thyself.
A new strategic report for California schools, A Blueprint for Great Schools, was released by the State Superintendent of Public Instruction on Aug.9 and included a number of valuable recommendations. ( available at www.cde.ca.gov). We have seen these reports before. Recall the Getting Down to Facts report of two years ago that was to be the culmination of years of research?
The new Blueprint sets out a new mission for the California Dept. of Education. At least the report will due no harm.
Lets suppose however, that you wanted to actually improve California schooling. What would it require? For this post I will focus specifically what would be required to reduce the California drop out rate. I reluctantly conclude that only a few ideas in the Blueprint would assist.
What would it take? First. Increase the number of counselors in the schools and the number of social workers in high poverty schools. California ranks 49 out of the 50 states in these categories. The social workers could organize parents into the “wrap around” services mentioned in the blueprint.
Why won’t we add these counselors and social workers? Because that costs money. And, this is the key failing of the Blueprint. Although it details the money issues in the section on finance, it offers no directions nor solutions.
To improve the schools would require adequate funding of the schools – see Robles-Wong et al v State of California.
