Governor Launches School Finder Web Site for California Parents and Children

GOVERNOR SCHWARZENEGGER: Good morning, everybody. As we all know, as parents we all want to send our children to the best schools possible. But until now this has been kind of difficult to make those determinations, because information was not as readily available. That's why I'm very excited today to talk about our new California School Finder Web site, or what I call the 'One Stop Shop'. We had great help on this project and we want to thank Microsoft and Google and Superintendent Jack O'Connell, Education Secretary David Long and his entire staff and Teri Takai, who is our State Chief Information Officer. She has done an extraordinary job also, so we want to thank her.

Now, with a few simple mouse clicks, it will be easier to find a wealth of useful information here. I've always said that if you can go online and compare the performances of cars and see how fast they go and compare one with another -- or the horsepower, acceleration rate, or the warranty policies and all those kinds of things -- we should also be able to do the same things for our children's' schools.

With the Web site, www.schoolfinder.ca.gov, you can do exactly that. You can start with a map of California, or you can put in your zip code and all of a sudden you will see all the schools in your neighborhood. And you will be amazed how many schools there are. As a matter of fact, I'm sure that most parents don't even know there are that many schools around. You might not have even known any of this information but now you can go and line up those schools side-by-side and make comparisons. You can see the schools' test scores and how much progress they've made over the last year. You can see graduation rates, also the kinds of programs that they have to offer. You can see the teacher/student ratio and you can see how much money, for instance, is spent per pupil in any given district and compare one district with the other and all this kind of information you can get.

You know, this information is exactly what parents want and we know that because it was parents that actually helped us put this site together. And we used the best technology available so that the Web site is easy to use and that is, I think, one of the most important things here.

And this is just the beginning. We plan to add even more information as soon as the information becomes available, because some information is still very hard to come by. All of this is part of our work to increase transparency and accountability in California's education system, because the more parents know about their children's schools the better it is. This will keep the schools on their toes, allow parents to make better choices and in the end provide better education for our children.

So thank you very much and I want to thank everyone that is behind me here for being here today. And now I would like to have David Gordon, our Superintendent, comes out and say a few words also about this. Thank you very much. David?

SUPERINTENDENT GORDON: Thank you very much, Governor. And as a district and a county superintendent, one of our top priorities was making sure information about our schools was always readily available to parents. But given the tools that were available, it was often very difficult. A lot of the tools were too complicated to use, they weren't user friendly enough. So I want to commend the Governor and all of the partners in developing this device for their wonderful collaboration on this project. We look forward to the further development of the tool as even more information is added, because for a parent nothing rises above the importance of finding the best available schools for their children and we must do all we can now and in the future, to make sure information about schools and student performance is more accessible and more transparent.

So thank you, Governor, thank you to all the developers. And now it's my privilege to introduce my colleague from Los Angeles, the Los Angeles County Superintendent of Schools, Dr. Darline Robles.

DR. ROBLES: Thank you, Dave. Good morning. I'm going to say a few words in English and then I'm going to say the same words in Spanish. (Spanish)

In Los Angeles County we have 1,975 schools to serve and educate 1.7 million students. In any given community trying to access information about a specific school can be difficult. This new Web site will make it easy for parents to get information on their child's school, on their neighboring schools, or compare schools across the state or around their community. Information is power. Parents will have the information they need to make choices about their child's education and it's important to learn more about their child's school, all on an easy Web site and that information which you recently heard. (Spanish)

Truly, it's great to have this opportunity for our parents and families, particularly our Spanish-speaking communities and I understand that will be live very soon.

And now it's my pleasure to introduce a good friend and colleague from the California State PTA, Carl Barnes.

CARL BARNES: Hello, everyone. I'd like to thank the Governor for all his support in this effort. This is a great Web site. As a parent with two young children and trying to decide on what school I wanted to send my children to, I could use this Web site as a way of navigating through all the differences that some of the schools have to offer in the city of San Francisco. And with that, I'd like to bring on Marci Brazell (Phonetic).

Marci Brazell: Hello. Microsoft Services is delighted to have the opportunity to work with the Governor's Office to deliver this service to California parents. This effort is a great example of the progress the state of California is making to best leverage the use of technology to serve the citizens of California. This effective collaboration between the Governor's Office, Department of Health Care Services, Department of Technology Services and Microsoft was critical to the success of this project.

I would now like to introduce Ross -- I'm sorry.

ROSS LAJEUNESSE: LaJeunesse.

GOVERNOR SCHWARZENEGGER: LaJeunesse. You see, I was not the only one who --

ROSS LAJEUNESSE: It's as bad as Schwarzenegger. (Laughter) Not quite.

GOVERNOR SCHWARZENEGGER: Not quite.

ROSS LAJEUNESSE: Hi. My name is Ross LaJeunesse, I'm head of State Policy for the Western United States for Google. Google is proud to partner with this Governor, with the Secretary of Education, with the State CIO, on the School Finder project. Google devoted hundred of hours of engineering and product development resources to this project and we did that because we believe in this Governor and in his vision for this Web site. We did it because Google believes in the power of both information and the power of technology to change the world. And we did it because Google's core mission is to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and usable. And that's the key to this site -- accessible and usable -- so this Web site, this project, is in complete alignment with our core mission.

And so we applaud the Governor and his team for doing a great job on this project. And in true Googler fashion I'd like to do a shout-out, as the younger Googlers say, to Sunil Davaloy (Phonetic) and J.L. Needham (Phonetic) of the Google Team who helped make this happen. Thanks very much and I'm going to turn it back over to the Governor for questions.

QUESTION/ANSWER:

GOVERNOR:                                               Thank you very much. Thank you. Any questions about this, please?

QUESTION:                                                  Governor, how easy is it for parents to transfer students to another school if they want to make a move? Are there residential restrictions or any limits at all on what they can do?

GOVERNOR:                                               Well, first of all, let me just say that after I'm through with my Question/Answer period here, we will have Terri Takai and also David Long take you through the whole Web site. So they're going to show how it is going to be used so that you have an idea of how easy it really is to work it.

But the idea here is to, no matter where you are in California, you should be able to and you will be able to go and zero into your neighborhood and then get all the information about all of the schools in your neighborhood. And like I said, people will be surprised how many schools are available. And why that is important is because we want parents to be able to compare one school with the other so you have choice. You're not stuck in just one school. As a matter of fact, we have just signed a bill by Senator Scott, which is a terrific bill, so that kids can leave the school without having to be forced to stay in a school. All you have to show, if you want to move to another school, is that there is a place available in that other school. That's what this bill says, because up until now it was very difficult to get your kid out of a school because you need to have a school principal sign off that you can leave and all those kinds of difficulties.

But what we want to do is open it up and make it competitive, one school with the other, so that when one school that shows, for instance, an enormous drop-out rate -- and you will see, there is certain information still not one it because the information is not available, or is available but not given to us, because no one want to know this information, if you know what I mean. So what we are trying to do now is and even go and ask the legislators to pass legislation so this information that is available but we don't get it, so that we can get that information and put it on the Web site, because we want to the parents to literally know everything about every school. We want the parents to know what is the dropout rate.

Today Jack O'Connell, our Superintendent, is going to make an announcement about the dropout rates and probably it is bad news. We have heard already that it is bad news. So I want to know and I want the parents to have the choice to go to the Web site and to say, what is the dropout rate in this school versus another school in the same district? And if there is a huge drop-out rate in one school and not in another that is maybe nearby, I would like to have my kid sent over to the other school. So those are the choices I want to have. I want to know which school has after-school programs or preschool programs. I want to know that if you want to go look for the best school, if my kid is into arts, do they have arts programs in this school? If my kid is into physical education -- and I'm a big believer, like I am, in daily physical education -- I want to check out which school in my neighborhood has daily physical education so that my kid stays in shape physically but also mentally. So all of those things are very important.

A lot of this information -- now, we are working with a lot of groups but a lot of this information is not yet available to us. But we are going to work on that, we're going to work. That's why the Parent Teacher Association is a very important component. If we don't get, for instance, the information about how much space is available in a given school, how many students can go and be added to this school, if they don't give us that information, the Parent Teachers Association, you know, will get that information, because they're involved in every school in the state. So we're going to work together with all kinds of different groups to get this information.

QUESTION:                                                   Governor, how much did this Web site cost to set up? And are you aware of a Web site that is celebrating its 10th anniversary, called Ed Data that does virtually the same thing?

GOVERNOR:                                               We are very much aware of all the Web sites and everything that is out there. But it is very difficult for parents to find their way around and also it's very difficult because, on purpose, they make it in such a way that you can't compare one school with the other. But we know better. We know that you have to be able to put the two numbers together, or see five schools in your neighborhood and see all of the numbers, what the dropout rate is, what the graduation rate is, what the progress has been, what kind of programs do they offer, all of those things. Like you do when you go shopping for a car, like I said. You can go and say I want to spend $30,000, you can go on a Web site and you find all the cars for $30,000, compare the horsepower and the speed, acceleration from 0-60 and the warranty policy, everything.

That's why I say why can't we do that with schools? Because there has been a tradition here of withholding information so that people have a difficult time comparing, so that you feel like the school that your kid is in, that's the only choice you have. But the fact of the matter is there are many choices and we want the parents to have the choices. Because now, when certain schools will lose students and you move them to another school, that school very quickly will get their act together, because they get paid per student. You know, that's how it works. So, therefore, they will get and improve their school and their system in that school.

QUESTION:                                                  Governor we're midway into July, well into the fiscal year and there's no budget. You have more experience than any of the Big Four in negotiating a budget, yet you're not involved in the process and they're not getting anywhere. Does it seem time for you to step in and make something happen on this?

GOVERNOR:                                               Well, you're making an assumption, now, right?

QUESTION:                                                  M-hmm.

GOVERNOR:                                               Good. I'm glad that you admit that. (Laughter) Because the fact of the matter is that this office is as involved in the negotiations as always. But there is a certain process that you go through. That is, the governor has to come up with the budget for the May Revision, or January 10th for the budget. And we work on that very hard, the whole team, everyone works together to put that budget together. Then that is the governor's proposal.

Then it goes to the legislators and now the legislators have their process they go through. They don't interfere with my process and they don't like it when you interfere with their process. They go and have their meetings and they have their hearings and they go through your budget and comb through it and then they have, of course, their committee meetings and all of those things. And they just closed out, as a matter of fact, a meeting just recently.

So, as soon as you remember, when I said, "Guys, come in early. Don't wait until after the May Revise. We know already that we have a lot of challenges ahead." And I said already in February, in my town hall meetings and in March and in April, every time I talked I said the legislators should come in early to start negotiating. Senator Perata then said, "Well, if he wants to make decisions over our Legislature, he should run for a legislative seat." But I didn't really want to interfere with their process, I just wanted to inspire them, to just say look, it's very complicated this year because we do have a big deficit and we do have -- we talk about budget reform and all of those kinds of things. So let's get together early.

They didn't feel to do that. They wanted to go through their regular process and schedule. But now, because of that, we are running late because it is a complicated issue. It's very, very difficult to make those decisions and to make the kind of sacrifices that people have to make and to be willing to meet in the middle. Because, as I always said, that's where the action is. I mean, if you ask one side, that you've got to make major cuts, then you have to be able to ask the other side, then you come up with extra revenues. Because there are $17 billion, you cannot solve with just one or the other. You have to solve it with having both of those kinds of things together. So I inspire them to go and say work, work, work. We need a budget. The people of California demand a budget now and people are frustrated. There is already enough bad news out there with the economy nationwide, worldwide and in our state. I think at least let's give the people something positive. Let's solve the problems with the water, let's solve the problems with health care, let's solve the budget problem. Let's solve those things. We have time to do it. We can work together.

Yes, please.

QUESTION:                                                  Governor, you'll have the opportunity tomorrow to meet with the President. What kind of assistance are you going to be asking for from him for California?

GOVERNOR:                                               The President and the administration in this particular thing have been very forthcoming. They have been extraordinary partners always -- if it was the fire that we had last year, when the President was on the phone with me and asked me that anything I need I should call and pick up the phone, he will always be ready. And I even joked about it, that I did call him back a half hour later to see if, in fact, he would take the call. (Laughter)

QUESTION:                                                  And did he?

GOVERNOR:                                               And he did. And we worked out when he's going to come out and visit. This year was the same thing. Immediately when the fires started, all the various different secretaries of the various different departments have called us, we were on the phone with them, we worked it out. And I remember that, as a matter of fact, Secretary Kempthorne was even out here visiting some of the fires and Chertoff, Secretary Chertoff, was really showing great leadership on this. And he always said the President, anything you need, he wanted me to let you know that you get. And now 80 percent of the resources, of the national resources on fighting those fires, are out here in California -- 80 percent of the whole United States resources, of the national resources, are out here in California. So that is really extraordinary help that we are getting.

Another key thing is and why I want the President to come out here and why I'm looking forward to seeing him, is follow up and follow through is very important. Because fires -- the first thing you do is you try to get rid of the fires and try to put them out and contain them and all those things. But the next most important thing is to rebuild people's homes and their businesses and the structures and their lives. And FEMA is a very important player in that and so we want to show the President -- it's always important when leaders see when they walk through the ashes, when they see everything burned down and they see why we need their assistance and why we need it right away.

QUESTION:                                                  Governor, the dropout rates -- what do you know about the numbers and what do you think they say about the status of California's education system?

GOVERNOR:                                               Well, I think that there will be -- I think Jack O'Connell, our Superintendent, is going to do a presentation, I think -- is it 1:00 o'clock or so?

SUPERINTENDENT GORDON:              1:00 o'clock.

GOVERNOR:                                               1:00 o'clock. So he will be -- he should have the privilege to give all the numbers and explain the numbers and all those kinds of things. But I think that it is definitely -- what I have heard so far is that it's not good news. And I think that the important thing is, as we look at the numbers, is that we don't just look at numbers, because with numbers, we can't do much.

It's good information but what we need to know is and what we need to find out is, what is the reason for the dropouts? Is it that parents -- is it parenting, a lack of parenting? Is it that we don't have enough after school programs to help the kids with their homework and with schoolwork and academic work? Is it that the teaching that is going on is too boring, that when they now are all on the Web site -- and I know from my kids, it's very difficult for my kids, for instance, to go to school and to see the regular kind of teaching in the school, because they are going from their Web site and from the computer and all this quick action that is going on, on the computer and then go and they have to rest and sit down and for an hour sit there. It's very challenging, because they get so into their computer and the fast action.

So they need, maybe, more like in England, when Tony Blair took me around to schools in London, they had -- the blackboard didn't exist anymore in those schools that I visited. It was all just computer and it was fast-moving images and there was a totally new way of educating kids, to get them excited and to stay excited. So is it maybe that? I don't know yet. But I think it will be important to find out and to do those studies as much as we get the numbers of what the dropout rate is, because we've got to find out what the reason is and then we can work on that to eliminate those problems.

Just like -- you remember when we found out that the obesity problem amongst kids; we found that the average body weight of a kid aged 10 has gained 10 pounds over the last 20 years. So we found out that it was the junk food in the schools and a lack of physical education, so we did something about it and we passed laws and we are the first state, we were the first state in the Union to pass a law saying no more junk food in the vending machines and no more sodas and none of those things. We're going to ban it and we're going to serve healthy lunches. And this is going to turn slowly everything around, including adding more physical education teachers. So if you know the reason why, then you can work on it. And that's what we have to do also with after school programs.

But maybe Jack O'Connell has also some answer about that.

QUESTION:                                                  Governor, you introduced a water bond compromise proposal last week that includes 3 billion for water storage. Given the budget crisis that the state is facing and the fact that the state's own studies show that things like recharging underground water supplies and conservation result in more usable water than dams, per dollar, many environmentalists and Democrats are saying, why are we still talking about dams?

GOVERNOR:                                               Well, first of all, let me just say that when the economy is in a downturn and when you have a budget problem should not mean that we should stop any of the projects, because the projects that we are talking about are supposed to be there for 100 years or more. So just because we have a temporary budget problem should not mean that we should not have safe and secure water and reliable water in 30, 40, 50 years from now.

So, as you know that even when there was a budget crisis in 2002 they passed bond measures here to build more schools. And luckily so, because, you know, we have an increase in population, we need more schools in this state and they continued building them even though there was a budget crisis. So it was a great decision that the people of California made and the legislators have made. And I think we have to do the same thing here. We've got to go -- because the dams are not going to be done and the water delivery system and the ecosystem of the Delta and the Delta, all of those things are not going to be fixed until 10, 15 years from now. So we cannot let people look back, or kids look back because we have no water and say, well, they had a budget crisis in 2008. That doesn't work. So that's number one, so we have to move forward.

The same is with health care reform. I don't believe that we should stop health care reform. We've got to do health care reform because it's forever. It's going to be historic. And the same is with water. The same is also, like Senator Perata has had a great idea about rebuilding and building some additional courthouse buildings. So we need to do that, because we have an increase in population. So that's number one.

Number two, I think water storage is extremely important, because we see now with two years in a row with droughts, we see the reservoirs are down 50 to 75 percent, some of them and we are running out of water. We need more water. So we need to capture that water that comes down from the mountains and we need a very good water delivery system and we need to have a comprehensive water package. We are working with Senator Perata and also with Assemblywoman Bass and she has been terrific, working with her. So we hope we get that together.

I know that people have the tendency of being scared and being worried because of the budget problem. But when it comes to those big issues, you've got to have big visions. We want to build California, we want to rebuild. We want to add on to what Pat Brown and Earl Warren have done in this state, which is such great historic work that they have done. We've got to add on and we've got to adjust to the new population. And it will create great jobs. It's the best economic stimulator that we can find. So let's make the decision and let's go to work.

QUESTION:                                                  Governor, on long-term budget reform, you've been advocating a spending cap, a loose spending cap. The Republican legislative leaders want a tight spending cap. Democrats, on the other hand, don't want a spending cap.

GOVERNOR:                                               Exactly.

QUESTION:                                                  Speaker Bass and others have been advocating a reform of the tax structure to produce a more even flow of revenue. Is that an acceptable form of long-term reform?

GOVERNOR:                                               Look. I cut to the chase. I know what the Democrats like and I know what the Republicans like. So I say let's meet somewhere in the middle. You know, the Republicans like a tight cap and the Democrats don't like a cap. So I say, well let's forget about the cap, let's do just -- let's say we're going to spend our 5 percent increase every year, spending increase every year and the rest of the money we put in the rainy day fund so if there is a decline in revenues because of an economic downturn, we have money available for those downturns and we don't have to always go to the people and say we need extra revenues, we need to raise taxes. Let us be fiscally responsible. The people say live within your means. That is the important thing. And, of course, I understand that some people have a problem with that but I think this is a good way of going, is to do a softer version of it and not to put a tight cap on it. And I think, therefore, it could be doable.

Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you. Thank you all.