In his second school visit in a series of statewide stops, Gov. Jerry Brown made apparent today the many ways a governor may measure academic achievement in California schools.
Brown asked first graders before a budget forum in Stockton if they could spell and how high they could count.
"What comes after 100?" he said. "What comes after 102?"
The 73-year-old governor, it would seem, strives for age-appropriateness. He asked fourth grade students last week in Riverside, "Does anybody here know the first Spaniard to come to California?"
They didn't. Brown told them it was Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo, the "first thing they're supposed to learn when you study California history."
He said he'd ask again next time.
Brown is taking his campaign for tax extensions on the road, and in a budget forum this afternoon the Democratic governor talked with adults about class sizes and teacher layoffs, school officials' traditional concerns.
The schools Brown visited in Riverside and Stockton are both in economically depressed areas. More than 98 percent of students at south Stockton's Van Buren Elementary School receive free or reduced-price lunches. The school is by a housing project and is low-performing by state standards.
Brown's visits outside Sacramento are meant to apply pressure to Republican lawmakers resistant to his budget plan. Meanwhile, he has been focusing attention on law enforcement officials, asking them to lean on Republicans.
After the budget forum, Brown met privately in a portable classroom with San Joaquin County's sheriff and other local officials.
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