Arnold's Education Reforms' Price Tag: $6 Billion

This state desperately needs a big boost to our education funding. There are some greatly needed reforms and Arnold wants to make this year, the year of education. But that is going to be tough. The scope of the problems are very large and so is our current budget deficit. That said, he is still pushing forward and his blue ribbon panel has just released a proposal, complete with a $6 billion price tag. Merc:

Setting the stage for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's "Year of Education," a panel he appointed has proposed a sweeping set of reforms that will help define the debate, including performance-based pay for teachers, universal preschool and full-day kindergarten.

A blueprint of the recommendations obtained by the Mercury News also calls for:

• Billions more to be spent each year to educate English-learners and other low-income students who are lagging behind more affluent peers.

• A sophisticated new data system to better track students' successes and failures.

• A school "inspection system" similar to those used in New York City and several European countries. To increase the accountability of schools, the results of the inspections would immediately be made available to the public.

A lot of time, money and resources have been poured into a series of studies to investegate the California education system and ways that it can be improved. This is just one of many. They all have a common theme: we can make things better, but it will take real money. Reforms with out money don't work and just more money won't work either.

This is assured to be a subject of Arnold's upcoming State of the State speech. He has not signed off on this report, so it is unclear if he supports all of the proposals.