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Gray Davis on EducationFormer Democratic CA Governor |
A: Education affects all people, but obviously, because of the disproportionate number of Latinos in public schools, what we do overwhelmingly affects Latinos. Something happened in the ‘70s, ‘80s and ‘90s. There was busing, there was Prop 13; and by the time I became governor, California schools ranked 50th, or 48th at best.
We’ve invested 34% more money in the schools. We have money for low performing schools, and for schools that do well. The good news is that test scores are up, not once, but four years in a row. English language learners in Los Angeles are doing disproportionately better than their counterparts. That means we’ve got this thing headed in the right direction.
Principles of the Democratic Governors Association:
IMPROVING PUBLIC SCHOOLS AND INVESTING IN OUR YOUNGEST CHILDREN
Democratic Governors are leading the way with highly-trained teachers, strong standards and accountability, increased funding to repair and modernize public school facilities, access to technology and computers, and more discipline and safety in the classrooms. Democratic Governors believe the most important aspect to insure a child’s education is to have the best possible teachers in the classroom. They believe that we must value teachers as professionals, encourage their development to be the best teachers they can be for our children and compensate them accordingly. Democratic Governors favor greater parental choice, but oppose measures that weaken public schools diverting taxpayer dollars to private schools with no accountability for results. Democratic Governors around the country are also forming innovative public-private partnerships to create programs to provide early childhood education, nutrition and health care services to ensure that our children have the best possible start in life.