SACRAMENTO — State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell issued the following statement regarding Governor Schwarzenegger's veto of SB 1510, by Senator Elaine Alquist (D-Santa Clara), which would have improved communication between schools and parents by reducing redundancy and clarifying information that is provided to parents in the annual School Accountability Report Card (SARC).

"After hearing concerns from parents about the difficulty in accessing information contained in the School Accountability Report Card, I began a process more than a year ago to make comprehensive reforms to the SARC. The effort brought together education advocates, parents, teachers, and school administrators. After many, many hours of discussion we came up with recommendations to make the SARC more readable and easier to access. Throughout this process, we invited the Governor and his staff to join these discussions. They chose not to. In spite of this, my office continually provided updates on the status of this work to the Governor to bring him into the process. Never once did the Governor or his staff offer suggestions or comments privately or at any of the public hearings where this measure was discussed.

"I am extremely disappointed, that the Governor chose to engage in this issue for the first time through his veto of this bill. In his veto message, the Governor indicated that in the future he wants to engage in reformatting the SARC. I would remind the Governor that his own appointees to the State Board of Education voted earlier this year to approve my plan to revise the SARC template in order to make it more readable.

"In spite of this disappointing veto message, I remain committed to working with the Hewlett Foundation and other education advocates to make the SARC a more readable and useful tool to keep the public informed about our schools."

O'Connell also commented on Governor Schwarzenegger's veto of SB 1674, by Senator Kevin Murray (D-Culver City), which would have appropriated funding to pay for an increased state reimbursement rate allocated to preK-12 schools, county offices of education, and community colleges from $.15 to $.21 for all meals served to students through child nutrition programs. Educational agencies have been accepting this increased reimbursement rate since passage of the 2006-07 Fiscal Year budget that included language directing the California Department of Education to increase the reimbursement rate to $.21.

The bill also would have required schools to follow U.S. Department of Agriculture nutritional guidelines and, beginning July 1, 2007, not sell or serve any food item that is deep fried.

"Students who eat nutritious food, exercise, and get enough rest are able to concentrate on learning when they are in school," O'Connell said. "Many students rely on our school-based nutrition programs for what might be their only hot meal of the day. The funding in this bill was aimed at helping our schools provide healthier meals to students who would otherwise go hungry. I am glad that the Governor wants to make food served at schools healthier, but I am deeply disappointed that he chose not to approve this funding that is critically needed to help our schools implement the higher nutritional standards we have already enacted, and keep pace with inflation when they have not received a cost-of-living increase in nearly 15 years. In the coming year, I will continue to work with the Governor and the Legislature to ensure that we adequately fund school nutrition programs so that our schools can meet the standards we have already adopted, and then work together to provide even healthier food choices to students."