Hart to educators: It's your time

Challenging educators from throughout California, the state's former secretary for education declared on Wednesday that teachers and administrators face an unprecedented opportunity.

And they had better not waste it.

"The public is sitting back and watching," said Gary K. Hart, who also is a former state senator and is widely considered one of California's foremost education experts.

"If you blow this, we do run the risk of losing the public's support for good."

Hart was the keynote speaker at the opening session of the three-day education conference "California K-16 Partnerships & Student Success." He addressed more than 800 educators at University Student Union.

The conference continues today with two keynote speeches. At 8:30 a.m., Laura Rendon -- the Cal State Long Beach College of Education's endowed chair -- talks, followed by a 12:30 p.m. address from Kati Haycock, one of the nation's leading child advocates in the field of education and the director of the Washington-based Education Trust.

There are also myriad smaller sessions taking place throughout the day at the Student Union.

Conference organizers had initially hoped to attract 200 people to talk about strategies to improve student achievement. However, they eventually had to stop accepting registration requests when they hit 800 people eager to discuss the latest in education concepts.

Karl Anatol, CSULB's provost, welcomed conference attendees and introduced Hart by noting the onetime teacher's extensive education background.

"He makes it his priority," Anatol said, "to be where education touches young folk."

Hart said that the biggest challenge is how to develop coherent strategic plans to spend the billions of additional dollars that will be coming to school districts from the state in the next few years.

After two decades of neglect, education will be receiving at least a 12 percent statewide funding increase this year. There also will be a number of special grants. Together, Hart said, a typical high school of 2,000 students could be looking at a budget increase of $500,000 or more.

"This is substantial," Hart said. "And all of you as educators and education leaders will have some say in how the money is spent. One of the greatest challenges you face is taking these funds and translating them into a program that works for students."

Hart noted how technology has changed ed-ucation's role in society.

"No longer will hard work alone make the American dream come true," Hart said. "Times have changed. We are in the knowledge economy. If we are going to be productive, an increasing number of people must be better educated, better trained, or we will not prevail in the global economy."

The conference concludes on Friday with a unique session with a number of top officials who will be taking questions from conference attendees. Among those facing educators will be California State University Chancellor Charles B. Reed, U.S. Senator Jim Jeffords and several California legislators.