Governor Defends Education Funding to Student Audience

SACRAMENTO â€”  Gov. George Deukmejian, asked Thursday whether he thought it fair that locksmiths and tool sharpeners make almost twice as much as beginning schoolteachers in Los Angeles, told an audience of high school students that “I don’t think it’s fair that basketball players get paid $1 million a year and the governor only gets $85,000 . . . . “

The issue came up during a question-and-answer session conducted by Deukmejian with about 1,000 delegates to the YMCA Model Legislature & Court, which is holding its annual Youth-in-Government conference at a downtown hotel.

The question was asked against the backdrop of teacher walkouts in Los Angeles and other cities over pay and other collective-bargaining issues.

Deukmejian, whose pay was increased last month to $85,000 from $49,100, noted that teacher salaries in California rank sixth nationally. “We are not following a policy that has pushed teacher salaries down,� he said.

During a prepared speech, Deukmejian told the students that under his Administration “spending for education has grown twice as fast as the spending for all (state government) programs combined.�

The governor later took questions from the audience. One student noted that Los Angeles teachers recently staged a one-day walkout and announced they may stage further walkouts in an effort to get higher pay. Saying that locksmiths and tool sharpeners earn almost twice as much as starting Los Angeles teachers, the student told the governor, “To me, this inequity doesn’t seem fair.�

After the audience’s applause subsided, Deukmejian replied, “Well, I don’t think it’s fair that basketball players get paid $1 million a year and the governor only gets $85,000 a year.� The governor’s answer prompted whistles, laughter and applause. “I will continue to be supportive, financially, of education,� he continued.

Deukmejian’s first question from the students was whether he had second thoughts about calling state Supt. of Public Instruction Bill Honig a “demagogue.� Honig repeatedly has attacked the governor’s proposed education budget as “a disaster.� Refusing to back down, Deukmejian said he did not think Honig’s criticism was “beneficial for education.�

“I would just hope that Mr. Honig would be more cooperative, rather than being confrontational,� the governor said.

Deukmejian was asked at another point to explain what he is doing to help non-English-speaking students entering California’s school system. Last year, the governor vetoed a bill that would have extended the bilingual education law requiring school districts to provide native-language instruction to students who are not fluent in English.

The son of immigrant Armenian parents, Deukmejian pointed out that “when my father came to this country he didn’t know the English language, either.�

“I can relate to their situation, I can understand it,� he said of the immigrants, declaring that he is supportive of special programs “as long as they don’t promote a dependence on their mother language.�

Deukmejian, who recently returned from a trade mission to Japan, urged the students to prepare themselves to face tough competition from the Japanese.

Contrasting the Japanese education system to California’s, Deukmejian said students there are exposed early to a rigid system of testing and must attend school 240 days a year, compared to 180 days here.

And responding to Democratic critics in the Legislature who have criticized him for vetoing appropriation bills aimed at reducing classroom crowding, Deukmejian made a point of noting that Japanese “class sizes are much larger than ours, 48-50 students in the classroom.�

On a lighter note, the students began the session by continuing a tradition of giving Deukmejian gag gifts. Anticipating the governor’s trip to London in April, the YMCA leaders presented Deukmejian with a British bowler, a bumbershoot and a copy of the London Times.