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# Santa Monica schools get national attention By Daily Press staff
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/santa-monica-schools-get-national-attention-by-daily-press-staff/
- Published: 2004-02-04T16:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T03:43:52.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: Education, Malibu, #archive-import

The local school district will be put in the national spotlight this week during a PBS documentary, chronicling the rise and fall of California’s public schools.

Superintendent John Deasy and the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District are featured prominently in the documentary, “First to Worst,” hosted by journalist John Merrow. The program focuses on the state’s educational system — the largest in the nation and home to one of every eight American students.

“First to Worst” explores the roots of California’s current education crisis, tracing it to the anti-tax movement of the 1970s and ’80s, and to civil rights lawsuits that aimed to equalize school spending but resulted instead in disastrous funding limits on schools.

The program will be aired on KOCE-TV on Feb. 4 at 9 p.m. and KCET-TV on Feb. 5 at 10 p.m.

For further information log on to www.pbs.org/merrow.

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on February 4, 2004.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/020404.pdf?ref=smdp.com)