Ever since he took office last January, Edmund G. ("Jerry") Brown has shocked California's education establishment by posing irreverent and hostilebut basicquestions. "Why is it better to have a smaller number of students in each class?" he demanded of the University of California regents. He frequently asks: "Why are administrators paid more than teachers if the business of schools is teaching?"
This attitude does not endear him to administrators of California's schools or colleges. Indeed, a few are wondering if Brown, who they thought was a liberal Democrat, is more anti-education than was his conservative Republican predecessor, Ronald Reagan.
Before his election, Brown...