Governor’s Panel Choices Drawn From School Staffs

SACRAMENTO —  Gov. George Deukmejian chose mostly teachers and administrators from the public school system Saturday in making a final round of appointments to a new 15-member commission created to study kindergarten through high school education programs.

Three teachers and three administrators are among the final group of seven people named by Deukmejian to the panel, being called the California Commission on Educational Quality.

None of the people named Saturday are as well known as some of those already selected for the commission--former San Francisco Mayor George Christopher, past state Schools Supt. Wilson C. Riles, and B.T. Collins, former chief of staff to former Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr.

But the generous sprinkling of public school officials drew praise from state Supt. of Public Instruction Bill Honig, a frequent critic of the governor and the man whose policies the commission will be asked to examine.

Honig said the new appointees are “a much more school-oriented” group than those appointed to the commission earlier. “These people know education and they have a history of delivering on the local level,” Honig said after the governor’s announcement Saturday.

Deukmejian, who has been engaged in a political fight with Honig and other members of the state’s powerful education lobby for the last seven months over financial aid to the schools, announced the latest round of commission appointments in his weekly radio address.

The governor’s tone was markedly restrained, free of the sharp bite that has accompanied some of his past pronouncements on public school issues.

The Republican governor stressed that he expects the commission to determine whether state education dollars are being efficiently spent, but he also said he wants the panel “to assist us in answering the question, ‘Where do we go from here?’ ”

Urges a Look Ahead

“It’s time to look ahead,” Deukmejian added. “We want to know what still needs to be done, what reforms have worked, how we can make better use of our funds and how do we facilitate effective teaching and learning.”

The newest members of the panel are:

- Frank J. (Jake) Abbott, 56, superintendent of the Mount Diablo Unified School District in Walnut Creek.

- Peter Dauterive, 68, a Los Angeles businessman.

- Cecila Jimenez, 46, a Sacramento elementary school teacher.

- Lucila Luevana, 33, also of Los Angeles, an elementary school teacher in the Pasadena School District.

- Bob Mange, 43, principal of Folsom Junior High School near Sacramento and California Teacher of the Year in 1986.

- George McKenna, 46, principal at Washington High School in Los Angeles.

- Rosa Maria Rossier, 45, of Montebello, an elementary bilingual teacher in the Alhambra School District.

Criticism From Brown

On another issue, Deukmejian’s proposal to borrow $2.3 billion to finance transportation programs was sharply criticized Saturday by Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco).

Brown, in his own radio commentary, called Deukmejian’s plan to submit $2.3 billion in transportation bond proposals to voters next year “costly and foolhardy.”

The Speaker said he would rather use existing gas tax revenues and spend them in “a pay-as-you-go approach.”

Deukmejian’s program would be financed by general obligation bonds, with the principal and interest payments coming from general state tax receipts, thus putting highway construction projects in competition with education, health and other programs for tax dollars.

Traditionally, highway construction projects have been financed by a special tax on gasoline and other user taxes and fees.

Compromise Suggested

The Speaker said he hopes the governor will “sit down with the Legislature and with the private sector (to) forge a compromise over this issue.”

The governor’s program is contained in legislation carried by Sen. Wadie P. Deddeh (D-Chula Vista) that was approved by the Senate 23 to 7 last month. The bill now awaits action in the Assembly.

A spokesman for the governor, Press Secretary Kevin Brett, noted that Brown in the past has supported general obligation bond financing for a variety of construction projects.

“The Speaker has supported bond proposal after bond proposal. The only difference now is that this is the governor’s proposal,” Brett said.