December 17, 2007

Long Beach Mayor Bob Foster hosted the inaugural meeting of the California Mayors’ Education Roundtable held in Long Beach on November 16. Santa Ana Mayor Miguel Pulido, Pasadena Mayor Bill Bogaard, San Bernardino Mayor Patrick Morris and mayors’ advisors from eight other cities attended the meeting.

At this meeting the Roundtable issued a statement entitled “Reframing the Vision: Addressing the Needs of Urban Youth,” signed by fourteen urban mayors from across California that called for the expansion of the state’s education reform efforts to meet the needs of urban youth. The list of cities where mayors signed the statement are Long Beach, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Fresno, Oakland, Pasadena, Santa Ana, San Bernardino, Riverside, Chula Vista, Berkeley, Sacramento, Santa Barbara and Modesto.

The intent of this Roundtable is to provide a means for California’s large city mayors to discuss common education problems; hear lessons learned and best practices; and consider new practices, programs and policies in their cities. It also provides an opportunity for the mayors to find common ground from which they can work on statewide education and related issues. “While we do not have jurisdiction over the schools, we nevertheless face common education issues in our cities,” said Foster. “Mayors are held responsible for the health, safety, economy and education of their cities whether or not we have responsibility for these areas.” The participating cities believe they should begin to eliminate the barriers and taboos that have remained too long between general purpose government, social and human services, and education. One of the Roundtable purposes is to provide mayors with an opportunity to begin to break down the walls.

In an effort to begin to start the broader conversation, the mayors invited California Secretary of Education David Long, Secretary of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell, and Chief Deputy Superintendent Gavin Payne to participate in the Roundtable meeting. Long invited the mayors to have the next Roundtable meeting in Sacramento. Long encouraged the mayors by suggesting the possibility of California Governor Arnold Schwarzennegger meeting with the roundtable.

“There is a tradition of cooperation and partnership between the school district, city government and health and human services in Long Beach,” said Foster. Having been in office just over one year, he has been able to build on this foundation. Establishing a strong working partnership Foster, working with the schools created a new high school program focused on architecture, engineering and construction skills to meet the economic development and growth needs of Long Beach.

It became very clear from the outset of the discussion that the mayors felt the Roundtable had enormous potential to help bring about improved local working relationships and new opportunities to talk with state officials. The discussion did not focus solely on K-12 education; it includes the wide scope of social and human services that affected the quality of life of urban youth and their educational opportunities. The mayors expressed that this needs to be a strong focus of the Roundtables’ efforts and future meetings.

The basic goal agreed upon at the meeting is that the time is now for mayors to join with leaders of education systems in their cities and the state to help improve the lives of California’s children. The vision statement issued by the group of mayors is the foundation from which to work toward this goal. This will be the focus of all of the Roundtable’s efforts over the next several years.

The Roundtable is being supported by a grant from The James Irvine Foundation.