State senator addresses education 

By Jeff Dusing
Daily Forty Niner

Cal State Long Beach and State Sen. Betty Karnette, D-Long Beach, played host to an education summit Thursday focused on the status and accomplishments of the New Master Plan, Kindergarten ­ University one year after its signing.

The Carpenter Performing Arts Center was filled with a celebrity panel of Southern California educators, including CSULB's Jean Houck, dean of the College of Education.

The New Master Plan is a resolution that was adopted in the state senate on May 27, 1999. Its purpose is to revise and improve the state of education in California. The original master plan, adopted back in 1960, was established to develop all aspects of higher education in junior colleges and universities. Since then, kindergarten through high school has been without its assistance.

"Less on us than on K-12, we have been a part of the Master Plan since 1960 and we are accustomed to it," Houck said when asked about the New Master Plan's impact on CSULB.   "One thing that I have heard a discussion about is that we believe that the roles that they defined originally, in which they designated the CSU's prime role is educating."

Houck said he believes that CSULB has grown, it has developed scholarly programs and that it is now able to offer doctoral programs.

"We would like to see this discussed in the New Master Plan."

Another issue raised at the meeting, was the fact that it takes a mandatory five years to obtain a teaching credential, whereas it only takes four in New York state.

According to Houck, CSULB has recognized this fact and has initiated a credential program that enables a student to obtain a credential in four years, if a student is willing to enroll in a few summer classes.

One possible side effect of improvements in state education, which was discussed in the meeting, is increased enrollment at the university level.

"We are not ready for growth," Houck said. "Unlike a community college or a high school, we are not able to build another facility in three months.  Fortunately, the freshman class was not quite as large as projected."
 Houck also went on to describe the university's efforts to move classes off campus to a more comfortable setting when ever possible.

Also discussed were the controversial school voucher proposition and parental involvement in the New Master Plan. Before calling the meeting to a close, Sen. Karnette reassured the audience of her dedication to the improvement of education in California, and promised to work with those in power to do so.