Wilson Riles Reform ahead for California's Public Schools
Boyarsky, Bill
Wilson Riles Reform ahead for California's Public Schools by BILL BOYARSKY California's new state superintendent of public instruction, Wilson G*. Riles, a black, combines traits of idealism and...
...In his first months on the job, Riles has made it clear he will pursue a moderate course...
...Conciliation may be the best approach to California's electorate in the 1970s...
...It took shrewd strategy to take advantage of this new mood...
...Los Angeles is under court order to integrate its schools, an order that is being appealed by the school district...
...Riles said that the Bureau will now offer guidance to districts that have integrated but then discovered they could not cope with the tensions that followed...
...But such a program has been rejected by past legislatures, and Riles will have to overcome opposition from districts in the same position as Beverly Hills—districts that do not want to share their wealth with the poor...
...Riles told me that the state now pays only thirty-six per cent of the cost of running local school districts, compared to the average forty per cent to fifty per cent of fifteen years ago...
...Circumstances—and Riles' performance—will determine how much significance his election victory has for the nation...
...In California, teachers attain tenure after three years of probationary status...
...Tenured teachers can be dismissed only after a long review procedure that often requires Superior Court action...
...Instead, the state would levy a statewide property tax for school purposes...
...A few months later, at the urging of friends concerned with the declining quality of education, he resigned his post and entered the race for Rafferty's job...
...The governor's stand is not known, and will depend on what happens in the complex fiscal negotiations between him and the legislature...
...At present, all he offers is a hope—a hope that a rational problem solver, who happens to be black, can restore order to, and improve the performance and economic stability of, public education in California...
...After the election, Riles and his chief campaign strategist, Sanford L. Weiner, said they were successful because they were able to capitalize on a changing public mood—a desire for constructive action to improve the schools and a rejection of the law and order rhetoric of the Republican campaigns of 1966, 1968, and 1970...
...This was first evident in the November election...
...Riles' solution was the tax plan approved by the State Board of Education...
...What is needed are long range plans...
...I presume that if I were a politician in the political sense, a young man coming up, there would be a great temptation to run for higher office," admitted Riles...
...That is just not so...
...He wants school districts to pour money and skilled teachers into inner city schools and into newly integrated schools to "cut down on the transient situation where the school is balanced one year and all black the next...
...But here's what the problem is...
...I don't think the teachers want that...
...For if the Democratic-controlled legislature had increased the Education Department's appropriation, Republican Reagan might have cut it for political effect...
...Although he took office only in January—too short a time for California's educational critics to judge him— Riles already has initiated action to reform a deteriorating school system...
...Five or six years ago, this may not have been the case...
...Early in the year, Riles had tried to create a cordial atmosphere with the state administration in another way...
...Despite the potential troubles ahead, Riles has an attractive political future...
...The election said that the majority of the people were not extremists, left or right...
...A graphic example of such inequality is found in the Los Angeles area...
...It provides for stringent monitoring of teachers' performance, along with a yearly review of their work...
...He is handicapped in this effort by a system which gives primary control over schools to local school districts...
...He has been encouraged so far by an apparent willingness of all political segments in the state— right, left, and center—to give him a chance to show what he can do...
...These districts tend to resist state officials in Sacramento...
...Hayakawa was greatly admired by conservatives for the strong methods he used in putting down student rebels at San Francisco State College...
...Student revolts at Berkeley, San Francisco State, and Santa Barbara, and demonstrations elsewhere, have antagonized many Cal-ifornians...
...The district must make the school climate and the school offerings so good that no one will want to leave anymore...
...In 1958, the State Board of Education, and Rafferty's predecessor, Roy Simpson, brought him to Sacramento as executive secretary to the Commission on Equal Opportunities in Education...
...Judge Alfred Gitelson lost to an opponent who labeled him the "busing judge...
...Fine...
...Instead of trying conciliation, the Reagan-Rafferty policy was to capitalize politically on campus unrest by inflammatory statements...
...If he succeeds, his accomplishments may be emulated elsewhere, to the benefit of school systems far beyond California's borders...
...Riles will not go that far, but he has said present tenure laws make it "extremely difficult to replace a person who is incompetent...
...it does not provide us the wherewithal to do the job...
...In November, Riles defeated Max Raf-ferty, the incumbent superintendent whose superpatriotism, and hostility toward youthful dissent and modern education, made him the idol of the Birch circuit and other conservative-to-far-right circles...
...But the size of the district and the political importance of Los Angeles will undoubtedly thrust Riles into the situation...
...In addition, the more outspoken critics of education in the black and Mexican-American communities are now concentrating their attention on local, rather than state, officials in the belief that local school officials have more to say about day-to-day educational problems in the ghettos...
...Superintendent Riles believes educators must concede that integration has caused some unforeseen strife, which his own department must find ways of halting...
...Screening standards would be tightened for those entering the profession...
...Senate...
...For California has been a bellwether state in education, both for good and for bad...
...Riles said the college president, a colorful and accomplished speaker, was a great help to him in cutting down Rafferty's margin in heavily conservative Orange and San Diego counties...
...If not, they can get someone else...
...To many in California, Riles' election provided some hope that reason would prevail, that the state may again offer leadership in education to the rest of the country...
...Yet, he told the press conference, he was philosophically closer to Riles...
...Beverly Hills, with its expensive homes and businesses, levies a property tax of only $2.80 for each $100 assessed valuation...
...In March, he supported a modification approved by the Board of Education...
...for the next four years, I'm free to do what I can for education . . / " "California moved from sixth in the nation—in the average amount of state aid to a child—to twenty-fourth in five years," Riles pointed out...
...The city's segregated neighborhood patterns have produced a segregated school system and, unless the lower court is reversed, the district will have to comply with the order...
...Even today, Riles' supporters find it hard to believe that he is in charge of California's public schools while Raf-ferty has been self-exiled to Alabama where he is deari of education at one of Governor George Wallace's favorite colleges, Troy State...
...Riles began negotiations with Reagan's aides in the State Finance Department...
...This fact was of great importance when Rafferty took office, shortly after the compensatory education program started, for it meant that Riles' power came from allies in the legislature and on the Board—not from Rafferty, with whom he disagreed on policies and philosophy...
...But as a concrete first step, Riles said he will strengthen the State Education Department's Bureau of Intergroup Relations, an understaffed unit that previously spent all of its time advocating integration...
...Riles, a black, combines traits of idealism and pragmatism which make it likely that he will succeed—if anyone can—in improving the public schools in his state...
...The governor, who has always believed the University was too soft on student dissent, rejected Hitch's plea...
...While the program was nominally under Education Department control, it had been conceived and sponsored by the State Board of Education and by Democrats and moderate Republicans in the legislature...
...He said the money should be spent instead to improve education in ghetto schools...
...This is designed to end a system that favors wealthy communities with high tax bases and hurts poorer ones with low property values—and not much assessed valuation to use as a tax base...
...The fact that he has drawn little fire from the militant members of the black community may be related to the blacks' lack of representation in California, particularly in education...
...If it so happens that this is the kind of thing the people want done, fine...
...The whole thrust has been toward integration," Riles told me...
...In our interview, Riles told me about other problems facing him— lack of good early childhood education in the schools, drug abuse, teacher training, student discipline, school finance, racial tensions...
...He met with Reagan, he told me, and "let him know I will cooperate with him in any way I can—that I really meant it when I said I would run the department in a nonpartisan manner...
...This conservative trend was strongest in white, middle class suburban election districts where Rafferty also ran well by appealing to fears of disorder and dissent...
...The people can be trusted . . . and they will pick the man they believe can do the job regardless of race and regardless of political party...
...I didn't want to get into the position of just communicating with him through the press...
...I'm for it...
...An uncle took him out of junior high school...
...Reagan's proposed budget, Hitch said, "is by far the worst budget yet...
...Riles is the first black person to hold a statewide elective office in California...
...But he has renounced further ambitions—a wise move considering what happened to Rafferty, who lost in his attempt to win election to the U.S...
...Riles presents a well reasoned position, but it does not deal with some of the troublesome practicalities of integration...
...As he described it, in October, 1969, "Max and the board kicked me upstairs" to deputy superintendent —with no power...
...S. I. Hayakawa, president of San Francisco State College, endorsed Riles...
...But when Reagan conservatives assumed control of the Board, Riles found himself outnumbered...
...But the shortcoming has been that the present assumption is that just by getting people together, they learn to live amicably and without conflict...
...Riles received forty-eight per cent of the vote in Orange county, considered to be the West Coast capital of Birchism...
...In the city with the largest school system in the state, Los Angeles, 24.1 per cent of the students are black, but there are no black members of the elected board of education...
...In integration, there must be major attention toward making sure the family and the [school] principal understand these dynamics, and making sure this is a creative situation...
...Reagan considers tenure a "shield for incompetents...
...On both bodies, he is expected to provide a more moderate voice in groups dominated by Reagan conservatives...
...Riles serves on the state college Board of Trustees and also on the Board of Regents of the University of California...
...It was the best compromise you could hope for at the time," said Riles...
...In 1962, he was made director of a new compensatory education program created by the California legislature to improve education in the ghettos...
...When that happens, his campaign no-busing statements, and his low-keyed approach to integration, might not satisfy many people...
...If his ideas become reality, they may be adopted in other parts of the country, with profound effects upon the nation's educational system...
...He is a big man, with the look of a fullback...
...Trouble has developed over Riles' insistence that teacher tenure laws be modified...
...Both the University and the colleges have been under attack from the far left and the far right...
...BILL BOYARSKY is a political writer for The Los Angeles Times...
...To save his department from the projected Reagan cuts, Riles had to persuade the governor to raise the figure for education before the executive budget was considered by the legislature...
...the boy ran away to go to high school in another city...
...Riles' talent was quickly recognized...
...I wanted to pick up a telephone, and I invited him to do the same...
...It was California, in the 1950s and mid-1960s, which provided a good example to other states by building large and well equipped state college and University of California campuses throughout the state, offering tuition-free education to every student academically qualified for admission...
...You pay more to educate your child in Compton than you do in Beverly Hills," Riles told me...
...Only four years before, California—mostly Democratic in registration—turned to a Republican law-and-order candidate, Reagan, who talked about the "forgotten American" long before Richard Nixon and Spiro Agnew discovered the "silent majority...
...The political effect of his statement was demonstrated by the election results...
...This has been most evident at meetings of the State Board of Education, controlled by Reagan-appointed conservatives...
...Although an educator by profession, he worked from 1954 to 1958 as executive secretary of the Los Angeles office of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, a pacifist group which devotes much of its work to improving race relations...
...Riles said Reagan "listened well...
...Riles and I talked recently about the election, and the future, at dinner at the Biltmore Hotel...
...In March, University of California President Charles J. Hitch protested that the University was in trouble and might not be able to educate enough physicians and dentists to meet the state's needs...
...Youngsters grow up in a segregated environment and they meet in a school situation because the school is trying to fulfill its responsibility toward integration...
...Riles emerged with the right to hire 243 consultants of his own choosing...
...Yet, such opposition could anger the governor and handicap Riles in his efforts to improve elementary, junior high school, and high school programs under the jurisdiction of the Education Department, which is ruled by the Reagan members of the State Board of Education...
...Qualified students are being turned away from some colleges because there is no room for them...
...Riles already has initiated action to reform a deteriorating school system/' "I think the election said something," Riles noted...
...The future of the man I interviewed is of considerable importance to the shape of education in America in the years to come...
...When the budget went to the legislature, Riles was satisfied with it...
...Some of the same suburbs that voted for Riles voted against the judge who had ordered the Los Angeles schools to integrate...
...He has tackled the problem with the same determination he displayed last fall when he accomplished one of the most remarkable upsets recorded in West Coast politics in recent years...
...The Finance Department agreed with him and rescinded the twenty per cent budget cut it had originally proposed for the Education Department...
...Recently the Board voted nine to one for a tax plan supported by Riles even though some of the Reagan appointees expressed doubts about it...
...In 1970, however, the suburbs turned against Rafferty despite a campaign which ruthlessly stressed Riles' color and tried desperately to link him with left wing causes...
...I got the impression he would be willing to cooperate in any way...
...But school districts are desperately short of money this year...
...Moreover, liberals of all persuasions—except the self-isolated far left—are still so happy about Rafferty's defeat that they are in no mood to criticize Riles...
...But it was California, under Governor Reagan, which demonstrated how badly a good system of higher education could be damaged by budget cutting...
...But Raoul Teilhet, president of the California Federation of Teachers, a 17,000-member AFL-CIO union, said the plan was conceived by a committee "heavily weighted in favor of management's point of view...
...The legislature must approve Riles' plan for a statewide levy for schools and Reagan must sign it into law...
...Riles went on to Arizona State, where he supported himself, and attained a master's degree...
...As a result, Riles was able to perform his duties for a number of years independent of Rafferty...
...Compton, with its low property values, levies a property tax of more than $5.70 for each $100 of assessed valuation, yet it can raise only $700 per child...
...Riles' victory put a black man at the highest level of educational policy-making in the state—a major gain for California Negroes...
...Legally, the problem is the local district's, not Riles...
...He was born in Alexandria, Louisiana, fifty-three years ago, and raised in a home that had no running water or electric lights...
...It would revise the present system of school property taxes, now levied only by local districts...
...Riles is also headed for controversy on his financial plans...
...Many right-wing Rafferty supporters are also going along with the new superintendent, at least for the present...
...Weiner countered that at a Los Angeles press conference...
...Yet it raises enough money to spend $1,500 for each child in its schools...
...In February, Governor Reagan submitted the most extreme of his economy budgets, ruthlessly slashing appropriations for education and for medical aid for the poor...
...Reagan opposed additional state appropriations for schools this year...
...Riles, pleased with the vote, said that Board members realized they could not be negative...
...Several miles to the south is the city of Compton, much poorer and with a heavily black population...
...I told them that the people had elected me to change things and that I ought to be given a chance," Riles told me later...
...Rafferty attempted to portray Riles as a left wing extremist, making much of the fact that Riles had worked for the pacifist Fellowship of Reconciliation...
...Since 1967, university and college funds have been reduced by the administration, and students now pay tuition...
...Conservatives were thought to dominate California politics, but Riles, who is a moderate to liberal Democrat, defeated Republican Rafferty in the nonpartisan election by nearly a half million votes...
...But for the next four years, I'm free to do what I can for education...
...And in some big city districts, the state's share is much lower: in Los Angeles it is twenty-three to twenty-four per cent and in San Francisco only seventeen per cent...
...More than one million voters live in the dis-strict, which sprawls over 750 square miles...
...During his campaign, Riles said he opposed forced busing—an anathema to many whites—as an integration tool...
...they had to supply more money to California's hard-pressed schools...
...In some of these areas, the Board and the Education Department can offer only advice, for the real control is in the hands of local school districts...
Vol. 35 • June 1971 • No. 6
