EDUCATION PLAN DRAWS FIRE CRITICS SAY PROPOSAL GIVES GOVERNOR TOO MUCH POWER.

Byline: Harrison Sheppard  Sacramento Bureau

SACRAMENTO - The California Performance Review plan commissioned by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger proposes major changes in public education, but critics said much of it amounts to a power grab and predicted it won't improve the system.

The plan calls for increasing the power of the governor's appointed secretary of education, Richard Riordan, giving him new authority over the community college system and over workforce training in the K-12 public schools.

Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell said the proposal gives him some ``nervousness.''

Strengthening the education secretary upsets a system of checks and balances that has been working well, said O'Connell, who was elected by state voters. His position is overseen by the state Board of Education, which is appointed by the governor and confirmed by the state Senate.

``That person should not be setting policy,'' O'Connell said. ``That's why you have the Legislature and me. We enforce the laws. You need to have someone like me that's independently elected. I'm the spokesperson for the kids.''

The powerful California Teachers Association has long advocated the elimination of the education secretary position and does not want to see it strengthened.

``I think it's dangerous to put the welfare of all of public education in the hands of one appointed person,'' said Barbara Kerr, the union's president. She agreed with the recommendation to increase vocational training.

O'Connell is also concerned that the plan calls for eliminating county boards of education and superintendents, and replacing them with regional authorities. The regional approach will add to the size of the bureaucracy that students and parents have to deal with when seeking services, he said.

The California Performance Review plan also calls for eliminating the community college statewide Board of Governors and transferring its power to the state community college chancellor, who will then report to the governor's education secretary.

Jonathan Lightman, executive director of the Faculty Association of California Community Colleges, said eliminating the Board of Governors is ``unacceptable.'' Even though the board members are appointed by the governor, he said, they serve as more independent advocates for the system's needs.

Those who worked on the CPR plan said the intent is not to add to the governor's power, but to make the education bureaucracy more efficient and effective for children.

``Contrary to what some people have been concerned about, this is not a grab for anything that belongs to the superintendent of public instruction,'' said Don Currier, a state employee who served as team leader for the education section of the report.

He said many people interviewed for the report described the state education system as fragmented.

Most of the functions to be transferred to the secretary of education, he said, are already under the governor's authority in other ways.

The report also calls for making textbooks cheaper and lifting some of the bureaucratic restraints on local schools.

At the higher-education level, it calls for increasing the cost of college for non-California residents while allowing some community colleges to offer four-year degrees, and making it easier for community college students to transfer to a university.

Harrison Sheppard, [phone]

harrison.sheppard(at)dailynews.com