EDITORIAL : THE EDUCATION GOVERNOR? GRAY DAVIS IS MOVING FAST TO DEVELOP A GAME PLAN FOR REFORM.

GOV.-elect Gray Davis is moving quickly to establish himself as a leader determined to reshape schools and re-establish California as The Golden State for education.

On Thursday, Davis named a transition panel of business, education, economic and labor experts to help formalize his proposals on education.

The 13 members of his new policy team include the University of California president, the heads of two powerful teachers unions, which donated more than $1 million to Davis' campaign, and the superintendent of the San Diego Unified School District who was a former U.S. attorney for the San Diego area.

While the appointments are largely political, they do not necessarily foreshadow recommendations that protect the status quo.

Davis said the panel's mission is to help California develop the ``high-expectation approach'' to schools that he promised throughout the campaign.

``High expectation'' is exactly correct. Voters, parents and taxpayers will be closely following this panel's progress and will be demanding a lot.

The challenge for the panel will be to come up with specific plans that set realistic and achievable standards and recommend serious deadlines for improvement.

Davis said during the campaign that his approach would include annual peer reviews of teachers with tests every five years in their areas of specialty, mandatory statewide tests of students in grades 2-11, and specific academic objectives for every school that can be monitored and evaluated by the governor annually.

These are only a few items in a large menu of problems that need solutions.

And the solutions won't be easy.

Decades of incompetent, entrenched bureaucrats are not going to fade away with the wave of a magic wand.

If Davis and his panel are committed to reforms and real change, they should pick the worst school district in the state and turn it around.

Naturally, we think the most obvious target for constructive criticism and change is the Los Angeles Unified School District.

Lawmakers just gave schools throughout California the largest cash present in years, and already the district's board is doing a contortion act to funnel all the money into the pockets of teachers, whether they have earned it or not, and prevent any money from going into programs and books for the children.

If Davis and his experts can make the system work again in L.A., they can make it work anywhere.

Solutions that don't take into account petty, lying, self-serving bureaucrats and a bickering board of blind mice have no chance to succeed anywhere.