Education Forum Covers Wide Range of Topics

More than 50 people attended a forum held by the League of Women Voters of the Beach Cities and co-sponsored by the Woman's Club of Redondo Beach on Tuesday evening to discuss education.

The event, which was held at the Woman's Club facility on Broadway, served as a local kickoff for a national League of Women Voters study on the federal government's role in public education, according to organizer Harriet Chase. The study will look at equity, funding, and standards and assessments.

"An educated population is the backbone of a democracy," Beach Cities League Co-President Barbara Arlow, who moderated the forum, said in a news release.

Wiseburn School District Superintendent Emeritus Don Brann, Wiseburn School District Chief Business Official Tom Cox and Special Education Local Plan Area Southwest Director Bob Farran were all featured panelists.

Lennox Middle School Principal Debbie Johnson was originally scheduled to present; however, she was unable to make the event due to an emergency.

In the brief initial presentations, Brann discussed the brief history of federal funding for public education, Cox talked about demographics' effect on the funding streams, and Farran explained current proposals for the reauthorization of No Child Left Behind.

After the presentations, the mostly female audience asked a variety of questions on topics ranging from charter schools to standards for special education students.

Attendees asked "really good questions," said Chase, who lives in Manhattan Beach.

Woman's Club President Julia Rosenberg agreed, commenting that the audience members seemed to be "professional people," many of whom were current or former educators.

Hermosa Beach School Board member Ray Waters said it was "interesting to see what [the panelists] had to say."

"These charter schools are probably an interesting idea," he said, though he noted that he did not support the creation of charter schools in Hermosa Beach.

Charter schools may be a solution for low-performing districts, he added.

Nevertheless, his wife, Carolyn Waters, said she was interested in how the state's education code applied differently to charter schools than "traditional" public schools.

"The education code really needs some real work," Ray Waters replied.

Redondo Beach resident Sharyn Faltin said she attended the forum because she recently became an education surrogate for a foster child, and she wanted to learn more about public education.

"I just need to be smart about this stuff," she said, adding that she was "proud" of the high-performing schools in the South Bay.

Faltin also said she found the talk about No Child Left Behind, which requires schools meet certain testing benchmarks, fascinating. President Barack Obama has asked Congress to reauthorize the funding by fall.

"[No Child Left Behind]'s a huge monster that needs to be worked on continually," Faltin said.

For her part, Rosenberg was pleased with the event.

"I personally consider [the forum] a wonderful success," Rosenberg said. "We really are honored to have the League of Women Voters select us" as hosts.