Remedial education ;

Hayden calls for emergency session

During a four-hour public hearing Friday that revolved around the fate of remedial education, state Sen. Tom Hayden urged Cal State University Trustees to call upon the governor for an emergency legislative session on education.

A remediation proposal, designed to tighten CSU admission requirements and severely limit enrollment in remedial education classes, was the focus of the second in a series of five public hearings.

Ralph Pesqueira, a CSU trustee and chair of the sub-committee on remedial education that initiated the proposal, said he would support an emergency session of the legislature on education. "I am for anything that would focus the power-makers on education," he said.

Hayden called the proposal "legalized segregation" and said it was a serious side effect from a downsizing trend in the CSU system. He said that the overall California school system is in disastrous shape.

"Today, 42 percent of students would be imperiled by these standards," Hayden said at the hearing which drew more than 90 concerned parents, teachers and students.

If approved, the proposal seeks to deny admission to students not prepared to take college-level English and algebra.

"This is a trickle-down Darwinian notion that those who do not know algebra should be shown the door and forget about the philosophy and the history," Hayden said.

Proponents of the proposal say it will place college preparation where it should be, in the kindergarten through 12th grades, which will improve the quality of education at the college level.

"CSU must make sure a college degree means something by striving for quality and high standards," Pesqueira said.

The proposal includes a five-year phase-in plan which would allow students already in the kindergarten through 12th grade system time to bring their skills up to college level, Pesqueira said.

Critics of the plan say it is overly simplistic and does not take into account the serious state of a lower education system that faces budget crises and overcrowded classrooms.

Many said the five-year plan was not long enough to make the changes necessary to allow cuts in remedial education.

"The five-year plan is extremely unrealistic," said Enrique de La Cruz from UCLA, the vice president for public policy, Asian Pacific Americans for Higher Education.

The proposal will cause a domino effect that will flood the community colleges with students who cannot get into the CSU system, said Marty Hittleman, president of the community college council of the California Federation of Teachers.

"We already turn away thousands of students because CSU students come here to take classes they cannot get," Hittleman said. "Your effort is clearly to eliminate students so as to not spend money on them."

Emotions running high, the more than 25 people who spoke at the hearing each expressed opposition to the proposal. Many were concerned with the impact of the proposal on minorities and economically-disadvantaged students who are shuffled through the school system.

"This is not a coincidence that this policy comes at a time when there is a tax on affirmative action," said Michael Valenzuela, Cal Poly Pomona transition counselor.

"The [Latino] community interpretation is their reality and this proposal will strike a deep and severe blow to our community of which we may not recover."

The proposal ignores systemic problems including changing demographics, the after-effects of Proposition 13 and the fact that most students must work their way through high school and college, said Cal State Long Beach graduate student Francisco Heredia. "The proposal is draconian and overly simplistic," he said.

Pesqueira said that opposition to the proposal has been educational. "We are exposing something in California that a lot of people are taking note of; the debate has been good," he said.

Three more hearings are scheduled and will take place in the San Francisco area, Sacramento and Fresno. The trustees will vote on the proposal in January. If approved, the five-year phasein plan will take immediate effect.