A call for sweeping reform to California’s educational policy has local educators uncertain about the future of Napa schools, particularly at a time when schools across the state are facing the prospect of billions of dollars worth of cuts.

On Friday the Governor’s Committee on Education Excellence proposed a total overhaul of statewide public education, a proposal that could either extend control to local educators or do away with local authority altogether.

The 278-page report, compiled by the non-partisan and privately funded committee established by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger almost three years ago, calls California’s current system “fundamentally flawed” and “irrational.”

Defining “insanity” as “doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results,” the report urges the state “to say ‘enough’ and to fundamentally rethink how we have organized ourselves to educate the 6.3 million children whose future depends on our effectiveness.”

Students and educators who succeed, the report continues, “are often doing so in spite of the system — a system that is hobbled by red tape, riddled with inefficiencies, and impossible for parents and students to understand.”

The report outlines long-term, comprehensive strategies including changes to school funding, governance and accountability, and state support and compensation.

“The committee’s report serves as an outstanding blueprint on how to make big, bold improvements to our education system,” Schwarzenegger said in a prepared statement Friday. “The report shines a spotlight on a number of issues — from streamlining bureaucracy, to the need for more local control and having clear governance and real transparency, so there is accountability from top to bottom.”

Local control

Placing an emphasis on student achievement, the system would allow local educators, rather than the state, to choose the best programs to meet community needs.

Increased local authority over issues such as personnel, programs and budgets, it said, would allow “more decisions to be made closer to the students they serve.”

Failing schools and districts, however, would become targets of the system’s “zero-tolerance policy.”

If a school or district is deemed by the state as underperforming, said the report, “the state should take more drastic actions by assigning a trustee with broad executive powers to the school.”

That trustee would have the authority to convert the school to a charter school, assign the school to a neighboring district or county office, assign control of the school to an education management organization or reorganize the school entirely.

Currently, Napa Valley Unified School District is on a probationary status for failing to meet federal standards, though it consistently meets targets set by the state.

“Failing” teachers and administrators would be removed from classrooms and schools under the proposal, and compensation for teachers, principals and administrators would be based on performance, potentially linked partially to student test scores.

That idea has met resistance from teachers in the past.

The new system would also change the way the state provides funding to schools, offering more flexibility in terms of how districts spend so-called categorical funds.

Criticizing California’s current system, the committee said the state “ironically directs a seemingly endless stream of resources to underperforming schools that are not linked to improvement and, in fact, go away if the school improves.”

The proposed system would strive to reverse what the report calls “such perverse incentives.”

The report also proposes that the state amend calculations for Proposition 98, the minimum funding guarantee for California.

The system would offer preschool to all 3- to 4-year olds in poverty with the goal of phasing in a universal preschool program. Full-day kindergarten, training for teachers, and additional resources for English learners has also been proposed.

$10 billion fix

Mitchell said the system could take up to a decade to be fully implemented, noting that he does not expect implementation or even funding to begin this year.

“The changes we propose would not happen overnight,” said the report. “It took years for California’s current convoluted and dysfunctional system to evolve; we’ll need a carefully phased process to dismantle it.”

“This year marks the beginning of a long process,” said Mitchell, adding that the system lays the basis for a long-term educational system as opposed to a “short-term fix.”

Mitchell said the proposal is not dependent on the No Child Left Behind Act, nor would it be compromised by changes that could result from reauthorization of the federal education law.

The total cost to implement the recommendations would be about $10 billion, said Mitchell, or between 18 to 20 percent of the state’s current K-12 budget.

The proposal comes in the face of a multi-billion dollar state budget deficit that caused the governor to propose a $4.8 billion cut to public schools.

Napa Valley Unified School District alone expects to lay off up to 90 educators, including temporary employees, next year.

“We are going to need a champion if we’re going to manage to make this happen,” said Mitchell, noting that the Committee has Schwarzenegger’s support.

“I realize that providing a first-rate education system means having adequate resources,” said Schwarzenegger. “The report recommends additional funding spread out over the next decade and when our budget picture is brighter, as it surely will be, I will strongly consider that.”

Napa County Office of Education Superintendent Barbara Nemko said she isn’t convinced, and has seen too many reports with too little action over the years.

“I can pull them off the shelf,” said Nemko.

As for Friday’s study, she said, “I can’t get excited about it because reports aren’t worth the paper they’re written on unless somebody is willing to bite the bullet and actually do something.”

Calling the idea of universal preschool “wonderful” and praising the idea of increased district control, Nemko also cites flaws in the proposed reform. In particular, she said the zero-tolerance policy “doesn’t take into account individual conditions in the school.”

“It’s absurd. What do they know about it?” asked Nemko, adding, “Now ask me how I really feel.”