GOP BILLS HEAD FOR SLOW LANE; DAVIS EDUCATION PLAN MONOPOLIZES FAST TRACK.

Byline: Jennifer Kerr Associated Press 

Some Assembly Republican freshmen will be getting lessons this week about the politics of school reform as conducted in a Democrat-dominated administration and Legislature.

Education is the mantra. It is the first, second and third priority, and political obsession of new Democratic Gov. Gray Davis. In his first six weeks in office, he has talked about little else.

The Democratic majorities in both houses have started moving four of his education proposals through committee hearings.

The first committee to hear each one already has passed the bills he sought to spend $94 million on reading instruction, require high school students to pass a test to graduate and have experienced teachers help and evaluate troubled teachers.

The Senate Education Committee will hold its third hearing Wednesday on the fourth education bill he wants. It calls for rating all 8,000 schools mainly by student test scores, trying to improve some of the 300 worst ones and rewarding ones that improve. The author, Sen. Dede Alpert, has been working on amendments to address concerns such as the lack of resources for schools in poor and minority neighborhoods.

The movement of the education bills is remarkably swift for a Legislature that rarely gets going on major issues until the gun of a real deadline, such as adjournment in August, is thrust to its head. Happy to have a Democratic governor once again, the Legislature's Democratic leaders are attempting to do just about everything Davis wants.

This week, minority Republicans get their day, but their chances of getting their bills out of the Assembly Education Committee on Wednesday are slim.

``I think we have to be realistic that we are a minority party,'' conceded Assemblywoman Charlene Zettel of San Diego, one of the freshman GOP bill authors.

As it became obvious that education would be the dominant topic of this legislative session, Assembly Republicans formed their own education task force. When Davis called a special session to consider his four bills, Republicans introduced their own 22 bills.

The GOP special-session bills before the committee Wednesday all deal with getting tough on teachers and measuring them by their students' test scores.

``Teachers are the most important component of a good public education system,'' Assembly Republicans said in their ``Checklist for Real Education Reform'' statement released last month.

``Teachers must be trained, but more importantly they must be able to translate that training into effective teaching. Any proposal must hold teachers accountable for student progress in testing. Test scores are the only real measurement of student progress,'' the document says.

One bill would require student scores from the annual statewide achievement test to improve for a teacher to keep a teaching credential. It would also require teachers to pass tests in the subjects they teach every five years to keep the credential.

``Right now, the only guideline for renewal is providing successful service,'' said Zettel, author of the bill. ``Basically, it's just showing up for work.''

Another bill by freshman Assemblyman Tony Strickland, R-Thousand Oaks, would give teachers an additional $1,000 in yearly pay for each grade level that their pupils improve over one year.

Zettel's other bill is aimed at finding new ways to evaluate and ultimately get rid of bad teachers. It calls for appointment of a task force of educators and parents to study whether to change the grounds for dismissal of a permanent teacher.

Assembly Republicans refused last week to vote for Davis' teacher bill in the committee. It would set up a peer review process to have experienced teachers assist and evaluate teachers who are having trouble. It would not, however, change the grounds for dismissal.