California's dismal ranking on most education indicators and the constraints in many school districts such as strong union contracts and fractious school boards mean that a remedy will not come without a struggle. But he ought to be thinking even bigger. Some of Davis' proposals need a sharper focus. He plans an admirable pilot program to give special attention to 200 below-average schools statewide, requiring improvement in return. But schools will be allowed to volunteer, all but guaranteeing the participation of the schools most likely to improve.
More thought needs to go into selecting campuses with a range of needs and problems.
It works, and there's no hiding failure. In his speech, Davis said he will remove principals and teachers from schools that fail to improve from year to year after getting extra help and extra scrutiny from the state. The Legislature should support that promise with legislation that would allow California, like 10 other states, to take over a school that persistently performs poorly, in the same way the state already can take over a school district that's in fiscal trouble. And perhaps most important, principals and teachers need to be enlisted, because no remaking of California's schools can succeed without their participation. On many campuses, principals are a cop and social worker more than anything else.