safety in schools. our reporting has prompted new legislation that proposes to tighten seismic safety. now, we were the first to show you a pattern of failures in schools, revealing dangerous debris inside classrooms after earthquakes. and now, for the first time, sacramento takes up the issue. it doesn't take much to keep a classroom safe in the event of an earthquake. mark quattrocchi: so, if we open up the cabinet, we'll see that there are bolts, two in the bottom of each cabinet, two in the top of each one, and these are attached directly to framing inside the wall or blocking. this is--this is precisely what we want to see. jessica: what mark quattrocchi doesn't want to see is what he found inside napa schools after a 6.0 earthquake struck in the middle of the night. female: i know it's very scary, okay? i know, i know. jessica: bookshelves blocked exits. a file cabinet toppled onto a desk. a drill press fell to the floor. mark: and then also things that you really wouldn't expect, light fixtures. in a number of schools, they had light fixtures fail, and some fall. jessica; we were the first to show you the chaos inside classrooms. structural engineer maryann phipps saw our story. maryann phipps: if it had been another time of day, it would have been a completely different story, and we would have been mourning the loss of students. jessica: a report she wrote for fema doesn't mince words, noting, "at least three public schools experienced potentially life-threatening damage to classroom furnishings." prompted by what we saw, we reviewed more than five decades of seismic activity across the state, and uncovered a pattern of failures. equipment on the floor in a shop class, blocked classroom exits, more fallen lights, in calexico in 2010, northridge in 1994, coalinga in '83, even kern county back in 1952. each time, earthquakes struck outside school hours, when the classrooms were empty, just like in napa. bill: we just should thank our lucky stars that it was during the middle of the night. jessica: assembly member bill dodd represents napa. he's now proposing new seismic legislation in sacramento, prompted by our reporting. bill: that, frankly, was the impetus for our bill idea because we were--i don't think the word is outraged, but we were very concerned. jessica: dodd's bill would, for the first time, require school districts to inspect the contents of classrooms, inspect school equipment, and fix seismic hazards. bill: once this inspection is done, then they would be required to report it. and then the law will make sure that they're done and compliant with the law. and now no longer guidelines, but requirements. jessica: and this would be every school in the state? bill: every school in the state. jessica: superintendents would be charged with certifying school contents as safe. darren drake: obviously, it comes with a price tag. jessica: darren drake is the fire marshal in napa, and one of the first people we talked to after the napa quake. he backs the legislation. darren: school districts all have to look at that and base the corrections, the degree of corrections, on their capability, and triaging those schools that need most work or that are in dire need sooner than later. jessica: more than a year after the earth rumbled in napa, dangers persist in other districts. just last week, we found an unsecured television sitting on an upper shelf in a classroom in the south bay. mark: who in the world wouldn't support this? you know, who wouldn't see this as a good thing, and a great probability of saving injury, or worse yet, death in a school the next time a major earthquake comes? who wouldn't support that? jessica: as sacramento begins to debate the proposed legislation, one thing is for sure. another earthquake will happen, and it's only a matter of time. now, if the dodd bill passes, schools would have until 2019 to complete seismic inspections. that's for public schools. as we reported before in "class action," private schools aren't held to the same seismic standards as public schools. now, that doesn't necessarily mean that a private school is any less safe, but it does mean we know less about their earthquake readiness. san francisco, however, is taking steps to change that. the city has put in place the first law of its kind in california. private schools in san francisco have to evaluate seismic safety. here's an excerpt from our "class action" report. jessica: there are an estimated 113 private schools in san francisco, many in older buildings. schools occupy a movie theater, a victorian mansion, a former mayonnaise factory, a wide variety of campuses facing the same deadline. they have 2 years to complete the earthquake review. patrick otellini: the schools are going to do these evaluations, and they're probably not going to want to sit on them. jessica: that's exactly what happened at the archdiocese of san francisco, which operates more private schools than any other school group, 34 total. david finn: we got a call one day that an engineer had identified one of the sites as being in immediate risk based on the configuration of the building and the initial review. jessica: the classroom was a kindergarten located on the bottom floor of a building used for other parish purposes. it's permanently closed. david: the school was closed by the end of the day, that particular site, and the children removed. jessica: the archdiocese evaluated all of its schools ahead of the deadline. and it's not the only private school entity already correcting deficiencies. the fixes are voluntary. schools are not required to retrofit. the law simply doesn't go that far. patrick: to come up with a uniform standard, a way to retrofit this, it's not fair because some schools would be very cheap to retrofit given their construction type, other ones might be very expensive. jessica: now, we'll continue to examine earthquake safety in schools, public and private, and we'll continue to bring you our stories. well, coming up, the golden state, grading it. a new report doles out letter grades in education for california. [music] could be you've got the wrong bed. enter sleep number... she likes the bed soft. he's more hardcore. you can both adjust the bed for the best sleep of your life. only at a sleep number store, right now, all beds on sale. save 50% on the ultimate limited edition bed, know better sleep with sleep number. ell, californiy be the golden state, but a new report says we're missing out on a golden opportunity, that we should be doing more to intervene in the lives of children born into poverty. their health, brain development, and chances of success in school are on the line. and our programs just aren't keeping up. now, that is the basis of a new report card from children now, here it is. it's what it looks like, a national research and advocacy organization based in oakland. and ted lempert is the president of children now, and he joins me now to talk about these findings. so, you point out in this report card that california really is a very, very wealthy state, but that what we're providing for kids doesn't at all resemble the kind of economy that we have. ted lempert: absolutely. and it makes no sense for today or our future. and you know, one stat there is not only are we a wealthy state, we're a relatively high tax state, and yet our expenditures for kids, including education, are well below the national average. so, it really makes no sense that we're not doing more for really what should be the most important investment. jessica: and you say that's very--it's even more particularly important because it affects a class of vulnerable children, children that not only socio-economically may be not be up to par, but they're children that may have other disadvantages as well. ted: absolutely. i mean, there's so many kids with special needs, and kids in poverty, you know, need that extra support. and you know, what's really important is we as a society, you know, unlike 30, 40, 50 years ago, we need to make sure that every single kid gets a good education, or we're not going to have the economy and society that we need. you know, years ago, you know, some kids didn't get a great education, you know, we were fine. you know, our economy was fine. that's not the case today. jessica: right, so the long-term impact of that is not just on those children, but it's on the state as a whole. ted: absolutely. jessica: okay, let's check out the report card. i want to bring it up. now, the report card does cover health and child welfare, but we're going to focus on education. so, let's look at some of these grades. preschool in california gets a b-minus. transitional kindergarten and what you call kinder transition gets a b-minus. k-12 outcomes gets a d. school climate and discipline, a c. so, the best that california does is a b in linked learning. and linked learning i'm guessing is what we used to call, like, education, career education, or a lot call that rop, those type of things, right? ted: yeah. and actually, what linked learning especially, though, it does a better job of really integrating classroom instruction with that technical and career instruction. jessica: okay. the bottom line, no a's. ted: right. jessica: at all, not one single a. and we were discussing this. if one of our kids brought home this report card, you'd be like, "what's going on? you need to buckle down. something's got to change." ted: not a passable report card. jessica: so, why is it that we've gotten such mediocre scores overall? ted: well, i mean, one of the things this report does is do a quick national scan, and then look at the statistics, and then also look for progress. so, you know, some of those b grades you referenced, why we're still a ways from that a level and where we should be, we're recognizing the progress we made in this report. so, you know, preschools are an example where the state is making a commitment, saying all low-income kids should have access to preschool. and the state last year actually made some steps to really getting close to that reality. that said, you know, there's still a very small percentage of low-income kids who are in quality preschool programs in the state. jessica: and then the transitional kindergarten, that only got a b-minus. what was the issue there? ted: yeah, what we're highlighting there is that's a relatively new program in california, the tk program, and the fact that we've put in this new program that would allow for a big chunk of our 5-year-olds to have that extra support before they start kindergarten. you know, that step by the state should be recognized. again, though, you know, not close to that a level because there's so many kids who don't have access to that. jessica: okay, let's talk about that d because the d would really stand out to me. the d is in k through 12 outcomes. outcomes meaning preparation for college, preparation for after you leave high school? ted: yeah, and the most fair way to measure right now, apples to apples, is a lot of student achievement tests, or what that is really looking at is the test that kids took last year in math and english. jessica: okay, and why a d? ted: because their results are frightening, that two-thirds of our kids don't meet basic standards in math, two-thirds. jessica: and that was especially visible with african-american and latino students. ted: absolutely. in fact, we fortunately have made a focus on the achievement gap, and how our latino kids, african-american kids are not doing as well as caucasian and asian-american kids, that it's getting--that gap's actually getting a little worse now. jessica: worse? ted: yeah, with the news, tests and scores that were done, where it's measuring more college, career ready skills, and it's less memorization, so now the assessments actually do a better job measuring what's important. and when those scores came out, the achievement gap actually expanded a little bit. jessica: so, let's talk about the issue of accountability because a lot of those tests--a lot of the tests that we're used to as parents are going away. and they're going to have to look--we're going to have to figure out a different way of looking at whether schools are doing a good job for our children. it's a very political conversation about the way they're going to do it to replace it. what's your take on that? ted: yeah, there's a lot of misunderstanding out there. one, there's fewer tests now than there were, and i think that makes sense. we don't want to be over-testing. so, part of it is the quantity, and we're getting fewer tests. but the most important point that's gotten lost is, for the last 15 years, that we were testing the wrong thing. we were testing memorization, those bubble tests, exactly. and people had a right to complain about that, teachers, parents, students. we've actually made a big step forward, that the tests now, they're computer-adaptive, they're really measuring kids' thinking skills and be able to reason, explain a problem. so, now those tests are much better indicators of how well prepared kids are. and so, you know, are they perfect? no. are they a lot better? yes. and so, when you see so many kids not even making the basic standard, you know, that should be a wake-up call to all of us. and math is the worst, but in english language skills, less than half the kids are meeting the basic standards. what are we doing? jessica: right. let's transition to school climate and discipline. that got a c. there's a lot of focus now, people talking about what kinds of discipline there should be in school because there's an issue of whether race may play a role in discipline. ted: yeah, and just to be very clear here, you know, a kid threatens someone, brings a weapon, i mean, that's a different story and, you know, should be expelled and suspended. what we're talking about is an issue where a huge number of mostly african-american and latino kids were being expelled or suspended for what's called willful defiance, not threatening. jessica: talking back. ted: exactly. jessica: not showing up. ted: exactly, and that's the kind of thing where the school should come up with other ways of, you know, getting support to that kid, and not having them disruptive, but don't kick them out of school. jessica: right, because that puts them in a worse situation. ted: right. i mean, if the kid's not in school, they're not--you know, they're not going to learn. jessica: and you're putting a person on a track to eventually maybe end up in prison, which as we know, we spend more money on prison than we do on kids, and you highlight that in your report as well. ted: absolutely. and real major racial disparities in how the school discipline has been conducted. jessica: so, what is your hope for the report? what do you want people to take away from this in terms of what should be an action plan? ted: yeah, well, we urge folks to go online and read it. one, you'll see in the report not only the statistics and grades, but we put policy recommendations in each section. so, this is not some report to just look at and put on the shelf. and we deliver this to the governor, to legislators, to local education leaders, and really want a wake-up call. you know, look at some of these stats. you know, how can we be allowing these grades to be so poor for our kids? but then also some very specific steps that can be taken at the state level. jessica: and then what happens next with this report? you said you've given it to the governor, you've given it to some legislators. what can they use to move forward with this? ted: well, a number of things. i mean, one, make sure we have a better accountability system to really make sure we see what's going on in our schools. investments in preschool, early childhood is a big, big topic of debate in sacramento this year, and we really need to increase that access to quality programs. and then overall, it's just the point that, you know, if there's a dollar of government spending that's available, we need to make priorities. and what we're doing in this state is, you know, corrections and other government programs, you know, everything is sort of moving up at the same rate, as opposed to saying, "hey, let's really make kids the priority." because, you know, first of all, that's most of our priority, what we all feel. but it's just absolutely essential for our future. and so, it can't just be lip service, that the governor and legislators is there putting the budget together, really, truly making kids the priority. jessica: now, parents can find this online as well to read? ted: yeah, absolutely, childrennow.org. there's a lot in there, it covers a lot of ground, but we try to give you some really quick stats so it's more readable. jessica: great way for every parent to educate themselves. thank you, ted, for being with us. ted: my pleasure. jessica: we'll be right back. [music] jessica: welcome back to "class action." some follow-ups now on stories we've been covering. the new sat is right around the corner. we first told you about the overhaul of the test last spring. the college board is hoping to make the sat more open and accessible and fair for students of all backgrounds. among the changes, no more penalties for wrong answers, vocabulary words that are actually more relevant, and the essay will be optional. now, the new sat also returns to the old scoring system based on the 1600-point scale. that new test debuts in march. now to the tussle over teacher tenure. a high-profile lawsuit over teacher job protection is under appeal. you remember this, nine students are suing the state and the california teachers association, which is the largest teachers' union. they say that workplace rules like teacher tenure have a negative impact in schools. a superior court judge sided with the plaintiffs in 2014, but in an appeal, the defendants, the unions, are urging that the ruling be reversed. oral arguments in that case begin thursday, and a decision is expected by the end of may. and this could have far-reaching repercussions for teachers all across california. and then finally, computer science education may be getting a big boost. for the last couple of years, we've been telling you about code.org. it's an initiative to get more coding into the classroom. president obama is a big fan. and now, he's calling for a $4 billion investment in computer science education. that's aimed at making sure that every school in america offers cs classes. now, san francisco unified is already working on a plan to teach computer science to all of its students, starting, believe it or not, in preschool. back in a moment. [music] here in vineland, home of progresso, we figured out how to get rich ingredients like bacon into 22 light soups, so if you want 100 calories or less per serving without giving up rich flavor do what we do...make it progresso. are you eating lucky charms? no. this is a dream. they're magically delicious. jessica: local control funding formula, do you know what it is? do you know how it works? probably not, despite it being one of the biggest changes in schools in decades. now, we first told you about it last fall. the landmark change is already underway in schools all across the bay area. [bell ringing] the classroom is outdoors at fremont high school in oakland. male: today, we're making salsa and we're going to eat it with chips, i guess. jessica: these young men are part of the latino men and boys program. miguel salmeron: it's like a small circle where everybody is, like, pretty much in trust, so like--it's like a family circle pretty much. jessica: it's a circle that's about to get bigger thanks to extra dollars flowing in from the state. antwan wilson: we get targeted funding from the state in order to support our most needy students. jessica: for the first time, oakland unified is investing newly available money, $200,000, in the latino program. antwan: that's the most important piece, that those young men, that they graduate from high school. jessica: the money comes from the local control funding formula, a landmark law now being put into practice across california. angelica jongco: this is a historic change. it's the biggest change to our school funding system in the last 40 years. jessica: under lcff, many funding decisions shift from sacramento to local school districts. angelica: california is leading the country in terms of having a formula that provides more support for the students with the greatest need. jessica: districts with high needs kids get more money. the extra dollars are for english learners, foster youth, and low-income students. jerry brown: equal treatment for children in unequal situations is not justice. jessica: at oakland unified, where 80% of students are high needs, funding incrementally increases from $7,500 to almost $12,000 per student over the next 5 years. however, in more affluent san ramon valley unified, where just 8% of kids are high-needs, funding in 2021 tops out at a little more than $9,000. ryan: our biggest concern is that more people don't know about it. jessica: he's right, most voters have never heard of the funding law, even though for the first time ever, it requires community input on how that money is spent. ryan smith: in order to get this right, because there's more flexibility in how funds are spent at the local level, people have to get involved and hold districts accountable. jessica: back at fremont high, these students say they're just happy to see their program expand. miguel: i think it's good that it's finally getting the recognition that it needs because it's a really good program. male: that's good. male: take it. it's like what my mom makes. jessica: so, as you heard, accountability is a big part of this issue. now, part of the local control funding formula, districts have to show that they are actually gathering input from parents. it's part of that law. so, districts are hosting meetings and surveys to gather that feedback. you should go to your district, ask how you can get involved, and try to understand and get involved so you can be a part of it. now, you can see all of our "class action" reports by visiting our website at nbcbayarea.com. all you need to do is search "class action." that's going to do it for us tonight. thank you so much for watching this "class action" news special. we hope we'll see you--to see you next time. 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