Setback for DeukmejianPrimer on school policy
The Democratic-controlled California Senate has rejected two key appointees of Republican Gov. George Deukmejian who were opposed by teachers’ unions and the state’s bilingual-education lobby.
On a party-line vote, the Senate on Jan. 21 rejected the nomination of Betty Cordoba to the state’s Public Employment Relations Board, which is charged with settling labor disputes between teachers and school boards and other public employees and their employers. Democrats and labor unions alleged that Ms. Cordoba, a former teacher from Los Angeles, was an opponent of the law that created the board in the mid-1970’s.
A week earlier, the Senate Rules Committee refused to approve Mr. Deukmejian’s reappointment of Angie Papadakis to the state board of education. Ms. Papadakis, who had served on the board for five years, had testified before the legislature last year against a bill to extend the state’s bilingual-education law. Lawmakers passed the measure but it was vetoed by the Governor.
In a statement, the Governor praised the two nominees as “outstanding, dedicated women” who were denied confirmation “not because of any lack of education, integrity, or fitness for office, but only because the Democratic members of the Senate want to try to dictate the policies of this administration.”
“They won’t succeed in preventing me [from doing] what I was elected to do,” he added.
The National Conference of State Legislatures has released a new publication designed to help lawmakers draw on the experience of colleagues in other states in developing education policies.
The 97-page book summarizes 60 policy studies conducted over the past 11 years with funding from a program jointly sponsored by the ncsl and the U.S. Education Department’s office of educational research and improvement. The program provides federal matching grants to states to help legislatures respond to education issues.
Studies included in the book address topics such as school finance and tax revision, state responses to changes in federal aid policies, teacher pay and recruitment, job training and economic development, and oversight of school-reform measures.
Copies of the book, “Directory of Legislative Studies in State Education Policy,” can be obtained for $10 each by writing to the Book Order Department, ncsl, 1050 17th Street, Denver, Colo. 80265, or by calling (303) 623-7800.--tm
