Jerry Brown School Funding Will make funding of public schools and colleges a top priority. Supports Prop. 98, the state's minimum school funding law, as a floor and not a ceiling. Believes education reform must be done with collaboration among educators, administrators and parents deciding how best to meet the needs for students in each neighborhood school. Believes it is fundamental that teachers be given authority to teach. Opposes using punitive and wholesale takeover of troubled schools. Supports using proven, meaningful reforms to help struggling schools, not simplistic formulas such as in No Child Left Behind. Opposes converting CalSTRS and CalPERS retirement systems from secure, defined benefit plans to risky 401(k) contribution plans. Employee Rights As governor, signed the first collective bargaining bill in California's history, allowing teachers to be full partners in educating children and in the governing process. Believes teachers' pay and working conditions are a matter of collective bargaining. Opposes "paycheck deception" initiative Meg Whitman (Declined formal Interview) Wants to immediately cut $15 billion from the state budget, which means taking another $7 billion from our schools and colleges. Believes California has a spending problem and has enough resources. Supports merit pay for teachers using standardized test scores. Wants to grade all public schools A to F based on standardized test scores. Rather than helping to improve neighborhood public schools, supports mandatory conversion of all struggling schools to charter schools. Wants to remove the state's cap on charter schools. Supports a two-tier retirement system, converting the secure, defined benefit pension plans to 401(k)s for all new public employees. Supports increasing minimum retirement age from 55 to 65 for most public employees. Supports "paycheck deception" proposals that would silence the voices of workers and limit union participation in the political process. Supports reducing public employee workforce by 40,000.