EDITORIAL

Jul 30, 2010 — San Jose Mercury News

Jul. 30, 2010 (McClatchy-Tribune Regional News delivered by Newstex) -- A tiny federal commission announced this week stands to have a big impact on one of the most difficult problems facing California and the nation: closing the achievement gap.

Education Secretary Arne Duncan on Wednesday heralded the formation of the Equity and Excellence Commission, which will gather public input about disparities in school financing and how they exacerbate the achievement gap between white and minority students -- a gap that exists regardless of income levels. The commission will make recommendations to Congress and the Education Department in 2012.

The 15-member commission was partly the brainchild of U.S. Rep. Mike Honda, D-San Jose. Gideon Bragin, Honda's legislative aide for education, calls the commission the "missing piece" in a series of education reforms advanced by Duncan and the Obama administration to turn around the nation's lowest-performing schools.

Honda is particularly concerned that school financing systems fail to account for the true cost of providing an adequate education to different kinds of students. "We need an approach where we look at each kid's individual needs and we provide the resources needed to meet those needs," Bragin says.

Though the vast majority of school funding comes from the states, the federal government has great influence through initiatives like Race to the Top and No Child Left Behind. We hope the commission can help create a national consensus about how

schools should be financed, and then push the federal government to use the carrots at its disposal to ensure that school budgets no longer stand in the way of student success.

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