Features

SACRAMENTO — Legislation to give California’s worst public schools an extra $200 million to try to boost student test scores was signed into law Friday by Gov. Gray Davis. 

Davis also approved another education bill that will allocate $80 million a year for four years to train teachers and instructional aides how to meet new state math and reading standards. 

“We intend on training every teacher so our children can be successful,” said Kerry Mazzoni, Davis’ education secretary. 

But the governor vetoed bills to  

train substitute teacher, increase physical education classes, allow more school districts to receive busing money and  

extend a program that provides schools with $250 million a year to buy  

instructional material.  

The bills were among dozens of measures that the Democratic governor considered as he worked toward a Sunday deadline to sign or veto bills approved by lawmakers in the last hectic days of their 2001 session. 

Any bills not acted on by then will become law without his signature. 

The school improvement measure, by Assemblyman Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, will allow approximately 500 schools with the worst test scores to qualify for $400 per pupil for three years. 

The money will be in addition to other state support, said Andrea Jackson, a spokeswoman for Steinberg. 

Schools in the program will have to develop plans to boost students achievement, attract and retain good teachers and principals and increase parental involvement. 

Steinberg said the bill will give those schools “the flexibility to focus on the particular learning needs of their student populations.” 

The teacher training bill, by Assemblywoman Virginia Strom-Martin, D-Duncans Mills, will provide 120 hours of training for 176,000 teachers and 22,000 classroom aides in reading and math instruction. 

Davis vetoed a bill by Assembly Speaker Robert Hertzberg, D-Van Nuys, that would have extended the instructional materials program another four years, from 2002-03 through the 2005-06 fiscal year. 

He said providing students with appropriate textbooks and other instructional materials was one of his highest priorities, but that the state couldn’t afford the additional expense. 

Davis cited the slump in the economy and state revenues to also veto bills that would have doubled physical education requirements for seventh and eighth graders, set up at least three programs to train substitute teachers working at low-performing schools and allow more school districts to receive student transportation money from the state. 

Davis also signed legislation Friday to: 

— Set up a state-maintained list of potential organ and tissue donors that could be tapped by federally designated organ procurement organizations and tissue banks. 

— Allow the state Medical Board to fine doctors up to $2,500 if they fail to tell their female patients how to detect gynecological cancers. 

— Require the installation of solar energy systems on all state buildings and parking garages. 

— Give local governments more clout to force property owners to clean small contaminated urban parcels commonly known as brownfields. 

— Require large air districts to use at least half of the $48 million appropriated to three diesel-emission reduction programs in low-income communities with high levels of pollution.