A peek at the Carlsbad mayoral race

For the North County Times

With the retirement of a mayor who has been in office for a quarter of a century and two City Council seats up for grabs, Carlsbad voters will have their first opportunity in decades to make a substantial change in city leadership.

The incumbents have a lot going for them. The city's in better financial shape than its neighbors, and public opinion surveys show three out of four Carlsbadians have faith in their city government.

Here's a peek at the candidacies of two council members who say they want to be Carlsbad's next mayor, Matt Hall and Keith Blackburn.

Hall's website carries misinformation about a measure on the November ballot.

The 16-year council veteran urges passage of an "initiative calling for a two-tiered pension system for city employees." Unless he's busily gathering petition signatures, no such initiative exists.

The two-tiered system is already a done deal for police and firefighters, imposed on them in May at the same time council members voted to place a city charter amendment on the ballot. Replying to my request for clarification, the Hall campaign supplied me with the amendment's language. It would give the council the right to reduce pension benefits while requiring a vote of the people to increase them. It applies to public safety personnel only, not all city employees, as Hall's website claims.

Whether it was intentionally deceptive or not, the misinformation shows how politicians lose their credibility.

In April 2009, Hall voted against starting construction on the Alga Norte swim complex, despite an $11 million surplus in the construction budget.

As it turns out, the city wound up with a $5 million surplus, another $1 million bailout for the failing golf course, and a vacant lot waiting for a pool. Hall says he can't wait to build the pool now that a $1 million surplus has been forecast for next year's budget.

Blackburn voted with Ann Kulchin to begin construction of Alga Norte last year.

The council's rookie and the lady were the visionaries. Had their view prevailed, the city's return on its investment in Carlsbad's recreational health and safety would be a lot closer today to paying dividends.

When it comes to city employee benefits, Blackburn's primary concern is to keep them competitive with surrounding cities. He's not opposed to reductions in pension formulas. But lower benefits, he points out, could hinder the city's ability to compete for and retain the best employees, increasing training costs caused by higher employee turnover.

Those who claim Carlsbad's enviable quality of life will always attract the best people have apparently not heard about commuting.

Tune in next time for my take on other council contenders.

Teaching by skill level worth a try

For the North County Times

Mark Twain once complained that everybody talks about the weather but nobody does anything about it. The same could be said today of school reform.

This newspaper's call for a dialogue on how to improve schools has so far produced only a handful of editorials suggesting the key to better schools is to free them from obstacles created by unions and state regulations.

The community's response has been a collective yawn. Maybe that's because the call for reform has been mostly about cutting costs for what schools are already doing. Except for upgrades in technology and classroom furniture, students continue to trudge from one grade to the next in much the same way they have since the days of one-room schoolhouses.

Herded by age group through 12 years of schooling, all are expected to learn the same things in the same way at the same rate. Those who can't or won't conform to the norm lose interest. Accelerated and remedial classes are designed to individualize instruction, but the dominant one-size-fits-all culture causes students on both ends of the spectrum to either drop out or seek the path of least resistance through social promotion each year.

An example of actual reform can be found in the Kansas City, Mo., schools, where this fall 17,000 students will transition from being grouped by age to being grouped by competence in each subject. School districts in Maine and Alaska have already begun to move away from a system where students move ahead based on how much time they warm seats in a classroom.

A competency-based approach allows students of varying ages, assisted individually or in small groups by their teachers, to work at their own pace on projects matching their skill levels. The stigma of not fitting in with peers will be reduced, since students will see that learning depends more on varying skills and interest in subject matter than age.

Math and science whizzes may take longer to master the English and arts courses that are easily aced by those struggling with math. While some students may complete all the requirements necessary to graduate early from high school, those who need more time may take an extra year.

Meanwhile, here in North County, each time test scores are released, we're reminded that a school's academic ranking reflects the average family income of its students.

In districts where failing schools face state sanctions, board members, rather than tackling school reform, wrangle with teacher unions, seek off-the-shelf quick fixes for low test scores and decide whether to honor a former student for voicing her opinion about gay marriage as a contestant in a beauty pageant.

Dreyfuss an actor, not a school reformer

For the North County Times

Oscar-winning actor and Encinitas resident Richard Dreyfuss warns that if America's public schools do not adopt a national civics curriculum, our democratic republic is doomed. If kids aren't taught how to run the country, his Dreyfuss Initiative website proclaims in a burst of overblown rhetoric, "government by, for and of the people will have failed."

His proposed curriculum would include "the telling of glory tales and myths to the very young" and, "as the brain develops," include the teaching of reason, logic, clarity of thought and critical analysis. The final two years would focus on the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

Dreyfuss should check out the current standards for the history and social science curriculums of California schools. He'd discover that kindergartners learn about personal responsibility and patriotism from stories and folklore.

Fifth-graders gain an understanding of how a representative democracy works and the role and responsibilities of its citizens.

In the 11th grade, they learn about the significant events in the founding of our nation. They analyze the Declaration of Independence and the debates involved in drafting and ratifying the Constitution and Bill of Rights. Seniors are expected to evaluate and take positions on the scope and limits of their rights and responsibilities in a free and civil society.

That sounds like civics to me.

Dreyfuss's plea for a more reasoned and responsible political discourse is understandable, given the constant stream of angry invective erupting from the mouths of cable-TV talking heads. But implying that the absence of civics courses has caused the nasty discord shows an ignorance of what schools are teaching today, as well as the misguided notion that knowledge of civics assures civility.

The commendable skills Dreyfuss espouses ---- reason, logic, clarity of thought and critical analysis ---- are best taught by good teachers exemplifying them in the classroom, regardless of subject matter.

While a national civics curriculum is not the answer, Dreyfuss proposes several other public education projects more in keeping with the actor's considerable dramatic talents.

One is the production of a television special that brings together historians, comics, thinkers, artists and stars in a narrative of the life of our democracy as a Dickensian tale. Another is a multi-part series titled "Miracle at Philadelphia," a political thriller about the Founders. The most ambitious is experiential learning conducted on a train running from Philadelphia to Washington, D.C., via Gettysburg, carrying students and luminaries of the political left and right engaged in spirited discussions of the Civil War.

Richard Dreyfuss is a fine actor, but in this case it seems he's miscast himself as a school reformer.