Sunday, July 25, 2004

A Duck Joke + A Serious Survey


The cartoon says it all!

Survey : AMERICANS SEEK FAIRNESS IN PUBLIC SCHOOL FUNDING

Washington, D.C. (June 30, 2004) — A majority of
Americans recognize that there are significant differences
in the quality of schools in high- and low-income areas,
and they worry about an over-reliance on property taxes
as a way to fund schools, according to a national survey
released by Educational Testing Service (ETS).

These are among the findings of "Equity and Adequacy:
Americans Speak on Public School Funding," a public
opinion poll conducted by Democratic pollster Peter Hart
and the late Republican pollster Robert Teeter. This
fourth annual poll commissioned by ETS reveals
Americans’ attitudes about the fairness of the way in
which public schools are funded; education reform; and
how effectively the nation’s public schools are educating
students. During May and June, researchers surveyed
adults in general, parents of school children, and
education policy-makers as well as residents of electoral
battleground states.

According to the poll, nearly half (45%) of Americans
feel that schools need either major changes (30%) or a
complete overhaul (15%) to get on track. Parents give
their children’s school grades that average out to a B-,
and the average grade for the nation’s schools as a whole
is a C. The real concern is about schools in poor
neighborhoods, with 60 percent of the public saying that
schools in low-income areas are either inadequate or in
crisis.

Other important findings from the survey include:

• School assessments are unchanged - Parents give fairly
good grades to their neighborhood schools, but most
Americans see schools in low-income areas as inadequate.
• The public is split over NCLB - Real progress in
informing Americans has brought awareness of reforms to
half, compared with 37 percent a year earlier, but as many
are critical of reforms as welcome them.

• Accountability is in the eye of the beholder - While there
is great demand for education accountability, the public is
divided on how it defines accountability.

• Americans want fairness in school funding - They lean
toward a greater role for states in funding education as a
way to solve the problem in low-income schools.
Sixty-five percent of all adults say they believe it is
appropriate to allocate tax revenues raised in other areas
to schools in low-income areas. Policy-makers support
this by 68 percent.

• Americans are conflicted about how best to ensure
fairness in school funding - Policy differences are driven
by conflicting desires within and among individuals not
between groups (e.g., parents vs. nonparents). Majorities
want greater spending and lower taxes.

• The public may be willing to pay more for public
education - But only if they gain confidence that the
money will be targeted to unmet needs, and it will not be
wasted.

• Perceived waste limits support for tax hikes - As with
other areas of government spending, the public's view that
many education dollars are wasted lead many Americans
to challenge any tax increase proposals.

"Until America stops tying school funding so closely to
local wealth, fair and equitable funding for real school
reform will only be a dream," says ETS President and
CEO Kurt Landgraf. "This survey shows that parents and
policy-makers get it – education and fairness are
fundamental American values. We have to make sure the
way we fund our public schools reflects those values."

Download "Equity and Adequacy: Americans Speak on Public School Funding"

Friday, July 23, 2004

4LAKids: Saturday, July 24th, 2004

View Large Image
4LAKids: Saturday, July 24th, 2004
In This Issue:
FEDERAL GRAND JURY INVESTIGATES LAUSD HQ PURCHASE/SCHOOL BOARD RENEWS ROMER’S CONTRACT
READING TO KIDS. Be a Volunteer Hero the second Saturday of every month!
NO GOAT LEFT BEHIND
S.F. VOTERS TO DECIDE IF NONCITIZENS CAN VOTE IN SCHOOL BOARD ELECTIONS + TOWN WHERE VOTERS DON’T HAVE TO BE CITIZENS
EVENTS: Coming up next week...
4LAKids Book Club for June & July –CHOOSING EXCELLENCE: “Good Enough” Schools Are Not Good Enough
What can YOU do?


Featured Links:
THE 4LAKids ARCHIVE - Past Issues and added features
MAKING SCHOOLS WORK: Get the Book @ Amazon.com
THE BEST RESOURCE ON CALIFORNIA SCHOOL FUNDING ON THE WEB: The Sacramento Bee’s “Paying for Schools”
FIVE CENTS MAKES SENSE FOR EDUCATION- Target 5¢ from every federal tax dollar for Education
• I feel a little uneasy reporting the news when I am part
of the story. But the news media missed this one — and I
don’t think you’ll be hearing a lot about this from the
LAUSD PR office!

Last Wednesday the Bond Oversight Committee took up
the superintendent’s recommendations on using school
construction bond funds to defray costs in the LAUSD
budget. As part of its budget cutting efforts the
superintendent has proposed and the Board of Education
is considering making up some operating fund shortfalls
using the Prop BB and Measure K and R Bonds. This
opens a potential slippery slope — the upside is
short-term financial relief, the downside is a compromise
to the mission of building, modernizing and maintaining
schools.

• About $150 million in construction and modernization
debt financed through securities called Certificates of
Participation (COPs) - originally set to be paid back
though general fund revenues - will be moved into the
bonds. The Bond Oversight Committee approved this; it
is a legitimate use of bond funds and it was in the ballot
language presented to the voters.

• $5.4 million in election costs — the cost of printing
the ballots and running the election (NOT the campaign!)
billed to the District by the City of LA — was approved.
The BOC did request that in future elections the District
include these projected costs in the ballot language.

• The Bond Oversight Committee balked at approving
some other costs – including one million dollars to
implement the initial rollout of Full Day Kindergarten.
The BOC favors Full Day K - and indeed the voters
approved $100 million to implement it districtwide in
Measure R. However neither the BOC nor the Board of
Education has been presented with a long term plan and
budget to implement FDK and we cannot pre-approve
any expenditure of bond funds.

We remain attentive and cautious of the District’s
operating budget crisis, we respect the difficult challenges
the school board and the superintendent face. But do not
believe long term bonded indebtedness approved by the
voters for capital improvements can be used to pay
day-to-day operating costs. And we cannot approve any
expenditure absent a strategic execution plan and full
accountability. This restraint is our fiduciary responsibility
under our Charter and Memorandum of Understanding
and also according to the California law that mandated
bond oversight under Proposition 39.

• Our three-point litmus test before approving any
expenditure of bonds funds are these:

1. Is it a legal and legitimate use of bond funds?
2. Is there a plan in place with full transparency and
accountability?
3. It is in the best interest of the taxpayers, the voters, and the schoolchildren of Los Angeles?

— smf


FEDERAL GRAND JURY INVESTIGATES LAUSD HQ PURCHASE/SCHOOL BOARD RENEWS ROMER’S CONTRACT
• LA Times: SCHOOL HEADQUARTERS PURCHASE
INVESTIGATED: A federal grand jury is examining L.A.
Unified's $74.5-million acquisition of a downtown
high-rise, document shows.

By Cara Mia DiMassa - Times Staff Writer

July 23, 2004 - A federal grand jury is investigating the
Los Angeles Unified School District's much-debated
$74.5-million purchase of a downtown high-rise that is
now its administrative headquarters, according to a
district document.

In a memo sent Thursday to the board of education, the
school system's inspector general, Don Mullinax, wrote
that his office was cooperating with the federal
investigation at the request of the U.S. attorney's office in
Los Angeles. Reached by telephone, Mullinax said he
could not comment on the matter.

The 29-story structure, located at 333 S. Beaudry Ave.,
just west of the Harbor Freeway, had a history of disputes
over alleged construction defects before the district
purchased the building from Bank of America in 2001.
With an additional $73 million spent on improvements
and repairs for roofing problems and poor ventilation, the
district has spent about $147 million on the new
headquarters, a sum that the teachers union and other
critics allege has been a waste.

Last year, the Los Angeles County district attorney's
major fraud division launched an investigation into
whether the district overpaid for the Beaudry building to
bail out its past investors, which included the financial
services company pre- viously owned by billionaire Eli
Broad, who has been a force in school district politics.
That county investigation is continuing but is expected to
be resolved "in the not-too-distant future," said Sandi
Gibbons, a spokeswoman for the district attorney's office.

The school district financed its purchase through
certificates of participation and, as part of the acquisition,
paid $15 million to investors who held subordinated
bonds tied to the building, similar to second mortgages
issued by banks.

One of those secondary investors was Sun America, the
company previously owned by Broad. Before the
purchase, one real estate expert advised the district that it
did not have to pay all of the investors who held the
subordinated bonds, advice that district officials rejected.

The U.S. attorney's office declined to comment on the
federal investigation or to say which aspects in the
purchase of the 24-year-old building the grand jury is
probing.

Los Angeles schools Supt. Roy Romer said he was
surprised by the federal investigation. "I don't know of
anything that was illegal or inappropriate," he said of the
purchase.

District officials, while pledging cooperation with the
investigation, have denied that they made any special deal
for Broad or anyone else.

They said that, without the payments to all of the
bondholders, the deal could have collapsed or been
waylaid or canceled by lawsuits. Any delay in the
purchase, officials said, would have required the district
to pay more for other office space while it was turning its
old offices downtown into a school site.

But others have criticized the choice of the triangular
concrete and glass structure, citing problems with the
building's construction and location, just west of the
central part of downtown and away from major mass
transit corridors.

A previous tenant, Security Pacific Bank, had sued the
builder over alleged construction defects; that suit was
resolved in an undisclosed out-of-court settlement.

In the fall of 2001, Mullinax raised concerns about the
building's structural condition, particularly the strength of
its floors. In an internal report, he raised concerns that the
floors were uneven and too weak to support file cabinets
or other heavy equipment.

Board of education President Jose Huizar, who abstained
from the original vote on the purchase of the building,
said he was still convinced that, "from a financial and
location criteria, this wasn't the best possibility" for a
district headquarters.

He said he expects that members of the school board and
district staff will "fully cooperate" with the grand jury.
"I'm looking forward to the outcome," he said.

School board member David Tokofsky, who cast the sole
vote against the purchase financing in October 2001, said
he still had doubts about that deal and a new $40-million
plan to build additional parking space for the
headquarters. The property value has gone up, he
conceded, but so has all property in downtown Los
Angeles.

"The question is, did we pay the right price, and was all of
the information transparent and presented [to the board]
in a truly clear way?" Tokofsky said.


• LA Daily News: US GRAND JURY PROBING
LAUSD HEADQUARTERS BUY

By Jennifer Radcliffe - Staff Writer

Thursday, July 22, 2004 - A federal grand jury has
opened an investigation into the Los Angeles Unified
School District's controversial purchase of its downtown
Beaudry Avenue headquarters, a $74.5 million deal
pushed by Superintendent Roy Romer despite questions
about the high cost and the high-rise's structural integrity.

LAUSD Inspector General Don Mullinax, who raised
concerns about the building when it was bought three
years ago, disclosed the investigation in a memo to school
district officials Thursday.

"I am writing to inform you that at the request of the U.S.
Attorney's Office, Central District of California, the Office
of the Inspector General is providing assistance in a
federal grand jury investigation regarding the purchase of
the Beaudry building."

Neither Mullinax, an independent watchdog over the
district's finances and operations, nor a representative of
Central District U.S. Attorney Debra Yang would
comment further.

"This is a very serious situation," said board member
David Tokofsky, who cast the sole vote to oppose the
Beaudry building. "The U.S. attorney and the Board of
Education share a mutual concern for the public interest
against those who might or did take advantage of the
public's funds."

The LAUSD bought the 29-story, 928,000-square-foot
high-rise at 333 S. Beaudry Ave. for $74.5 million, with
an additional $80 million budgeted for renovations. The
district had to issue a total of $180 million in bonds to
fund the project, including the purchase price, repairs and
moving costs.

This month, the school board was set to consider
spending $40 million to build a parking garage for
workers in the building, but several board members on
Wednesday moved to put that on hold.

Built in 1982, the structure has serious problems,
including sagging concrete floors, poor ventilation and
seismic trouble leading some to refer to it as a "walking
dead" building.

A Daily News investigation in 2001 also raised questions
about a possible conflict of interest in the deal. The
building's owner, Beaudry I Investors, a
Connecticut-based corporation, was at one time
represented by attorney Cole Finegan, a friend of Romer's
from Colorado, where Romer served as governor. The
LAUSD's general counsel ruled that it was not a conflict
of interest.

Despite structural concerns, Romer insisted that the
building was safe and a great deal for the city.

On Thursday, he again defended the purchase.

"There was great, great attention given to this choice,"
Romer said. "I know of nothing improper. If anyone else
does, I'm very interested in knowing."

The school board voted 4-1 with two abstentions to
approve money for the Beaudry building. Jose Huizar,
who had just joined the board, and longtime member Julie
Korenstein abstained.

"I'm not in a position to know whether there was some
wrongdoing; however, I did think, from financial and
location criteria, this wasn't the best possibility," Huizar
said. "I'm looking forward to the outcome. I opposed and
continue to oppose the purchase of this building."

The LAUSD bought the Beaudry building to make room
for new high school academies at its former headquarters
at 450 N. Grand Ave. and its Third Street Annex building.

At the time of the purchase, Romer and Mullinax had
heated exchanges during public hearings over the merits
of the plan. In one letter to the district, a prominent real
estate developer noted that the building had twice won
the Lemon Award from a downtown business group.

Backed by the district's own engineering consultants who
vouched for the structure, Romer grew increasingly
frustrated over delays to approve funding for the new
headquarters.

Seventeen months after the deal went through, District
Attorney Steve Cooley's staff began an investigation of
the Beaudry purchase that should be completed "soon,"
Cooley spokeswoman Jane Robison said.

"All I can say is we are in the latter stages of this
investigation," she said, declining to elaborate on the
investigation or whether Cooley was working with the
Los Angeles-based U.S. attorney.

John Perez, president of United Teachers Los Angeles,
applauded the investigation.

"The whole thing is a mess. I don't know if there was
anything illegal about it, but it's a bad building, and it was
a bad decision. ... You can get seasick walking in that
building."


• LA Times: ROMER’S CONTRACT IS EXTENDED
TO 2007: Action is hailed as giving L.A. Unified stability.
His salary will stay at $250,000.

By Cara Mia DiMassa & Duke Helfand - Times Staff
Writers

July 23, 2004 - In a vote of confidence for Los Angeles
schools Supt. Roy Romer, the Board of Education on
Thursday extended his contract as leader of the nation's
second-largest school system until 2007.

Board President Jose Huizar said the action "brings
stability to the district, which this district very much
needs."

Since he joined the Los Angeles Unified School District in
2000, Romer has launched a massive school building
program and has pushed to improve academics.
Elementary and middle schools have shown significant
rises in standardized test scores, although high schools
have lagged behind.

Most details of the superintendent's contract will stay the
same, including his annual salary of $250,000 and a
$30,000 expense account for meals and entertainment.

The former governor of Colorado and chairman of the
Democratic National Committee, Romer turns 76 in
October. He said he did not want to retire yet and was
eager to finish his work in Los Angeles schools.

"My mind is active and my body is active," he said.

"It's tough work," he added. "But I happen to have
satisfaction in doing tough work these days…. And we
have really made remarkable gains in four years."

Romer's current contract, which expires in June 2005, will
be replaced by a new contract through June 2007. As part
of a compromise, either party can terminate the pact
before its third year.

That arrangement addresses some concerns expressed by
board members in previous weeks that an extension to
2007 would leave them little flexibility. Some trustees,
including Huizar, originally wanted to add a year at a time
to Romer's contract. But a 6-0 vote Thursday approved
the extension, with board member Marguerite
Poindexter-LaMotte abstaining.

Romer has been widely credited with refocusing
instructional programs, spearheading the aggressive
construction effort and energizing a bureaucracy long
ridiculed as inefficient — even as he drew the ire of
teachers who accused him of pushing centralized reforms
without listening to their concerns.

Romer hired experienced professionals to run the district's
key operations, such as facilities and procurement. He
pressed for centralized reading and math curriculums that
standardized instruction. And he launched two successful
bond campaigns, raising $14 billion for building new
schools to ease severe overcrowding.

At the same time, state budget crunches have meant that
Romer has presided over nearly $1 billion in cuts in the
last two years, reluctantly raising class sizes in grades 4
through 12 and slashing many support services.

In an interview Thursday, United Teachers Los Angeles
President John Perez said the superintendent would
succeed only if he included teachers in decisions that
affected classrooms.

"Most people like Romer tend to view teachers as
grown-up children who are best not heard," Perez said.
"We are going to try to continue educating the
superintendent about what goes on in the classroom.
We're not going to stop."

Former board President Caprice Young called the
contract extension a smart move, saying that "we'll all be
better off with three more years of Roy Romer." Young,
who was on the board when it hired Romer and now runs
a charter school organization, said the superintendent had
brought credibility to the district.



• LA Daily News: ROMER GIVEN EXTENSION ON
LAUSD PACT: 3rd year to be linked to goals

By Jennifer Radcliffe - Staff Writer

Thursday, July 22, 2004 - Despite recent disagreements
over money and the organization of the Los Angeles
Unified School District, the school board Thursday
extended Superintendent Roy Romer's contract in a move
that could keep the former Colorado governor at the helm
until 2007.

School board President Jose Huizar said that while he is
thrilled with the progress the LAUSD has made during
Romer's first four years, the board plans to hold the
75-year-old to tougher standards.

Romer will only be granted the third year of his
$250,000-a-year contract if he meets goals that the board
plans to set for him by mid-September.

"We're going to be more demanding in the coming years,"
Huizar said. "We want to continue the progress and we're
asking our superintendent to accelerate the progress."

The board voted 6-0-1, with board member Marguerite
LaMotte abstaining. LaMotte would not comment on
why she abstained.

Romer did not ask for and was not offered a raise from
his current $250,000 annual salary. His expense account
was also kept at $30,000 annually and he retains the
lifetime health care for himself and his wife.

He also has a personal driver, but that is not part of his
contract.

Romer's biggest accomplishment has been overseeing a
$14 billion construction program to build 160 new
schools. Elementary test scores have also increased under
Romer's tenure, in part because of the district's switch to
a phonics-based reading program.

Over the next two to three years, Romer said, he wants to
build more schools, improve test scores and lower the
high school dropout rate.

"I'm here because it's important work. It's not something
you do for recreation ... but I happen to have satisfaction
in doing tough work these days," he said. He joked that
he also isn't ready to leave Los Angeles. "I haven't learned
to surf yet."

Romer has faced tough opposition this year from teachers
union leaders, who pushed him relentlessly to cut the
LAUSD's local bureaucracy to reduce the district's $500
million shortfall.

John Perez, president of United Teachers Los Angeles,
complained that Romer refuses to partner with teachers
on professional development programs and consistently
tries to make them pay more of health care costs.

"The superintendent has to be more serious about dealing
with the people who make him look good. He turns his
back on us," he said.

But Perez said he's impressed with Romer's dedication
and energy, and plans to continue to try to work with the
superintendent.


READING TO KIDS. Be a Volunteer Hero the second Saturday of every month!
Reading to children and reading with children is the most
important step in promoting literacy. Two weeks ago I
participated in a program called Reading to Kids that
does just that: Reads to kids - in inner city elementary
schools on Saturday mornings.

R2K reads every second Saturday morning. Join us! Be
there!

It’s fun! It’s rewarding. There are free donuts! The big
three!

Reading to Kids is an organization committed to helping
children become better readers. Children who learn the
joy of reading have the potential for a brighter future, and
our hope is to spark that interest.

Reading to Kids gathers children and volunteers -
teachers, parents and college students - into reading
groups on the second Saturday of every month at
elementary schools near downtown Los Angeles and in
the Valley. We combine reading aloud with intellectual
games, craft projects, and social interaction. These
Saturday reading clubs utilize the well established
read-aloud program.

In conjunction with the program for the children, teachers
at the schools hold workshops for the parents on how
they can be good readers at home to their children.
Reading to Kids also donates books purchased for the
Reading Clubs to the school libraries and donates prize
books directly to the children. Since its inception,
Reading to Kids has given over 20,000 books to children
who attend the reading clubs and donated approximately
3,200 books to school libraries.

At the school level, the teachers and administrators are
essential in running the reading clubs. The principals,
assistant principals, teachers, and literacy coordinators
recruit the students each month, select the books that are
used in the program, and provide overall guidance as to
the needs of the schools. Teachers at the schools also lead
the training provided for volunteers and parents.

Several of the volunteers of Reading to Kids began a
relationship with Gratts Elementary School by organizing
periodic carnivals at the school. Looking to start an
additional program with the school that would emphasize
learning, the volunteers, teachers, and administrators
came up with the idea of the "Gratts Reading Club." This
reading club began in May 1999, and its success led to the
formation of Reading to Kids.

In March 2000, Reading to Kids expanded its program to
Esperanza Elementary School, and in March 2001, it
expanded again to Magnolia Elementary School. In 2003
R2K started at Noble Elementary in the Valley. In the
future, Reading to Kids hopes to expand this successful
program to other elementary schools in the greater Los
Angeles area.

Participating Schools:

Esperanza Elementary School (first reading club: March
2000)
680 Little Street
Los Angeles, California 90017

Gratts Elementary School (first reading club: May 1999)
309 S. Lucas Avenue
Los Angeles, California 90017

Magnolia Elementary School (first reading club: March
2001)
1626 S. Orchard Avenue
Los Angeles, California 90006
(213) 748-6281

Noble Elementary School (first reading club: April 2003)
8329 Noble Avenue
North Hills, California 91343


• SAVE THE DATE: The next reading clubs are:
Saturday, August 14, 2004 from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m.
(always the second Saturday of each month)



For more info and to sign up to read go to www.ReadingToKids.org.



NO GOAT LEFT BEHIND
• In the opening of Michael Moore’s “Fahrenheit 9/11”
we are treated to the raw news footage of President Bush
continuing to read to second graders after a staffer
informs him that the second airliner has crashed into the
World Trade Center on November 11th, 1991. Moore
plays this for pathos: The President of the United States
completely lost as to what to do as the two airliners still
aloft make their terrible final approaches.

When I first viewed the scene my heart sorta went out to
George W.

• He obviously didn’t know what to do ....and we now
know beyond a doubt (as he must’ve suspected all along)
that any intelligence he had – and any information he was
being fed – was wrong.
• I personally believe that reading to kids is the most
important thing anyone can do on any given day! (see:
Reading to Kids [above])
• ....and at least he wasn’t calling the Strategic Air
Command and ordering then to dial in the target codes for
The Axis of Evil! Not yet.

However, upon reading the following from this week’s
“New Yorker” I have had second thoughts. In all mock
seriousness we just may have uncovered the smoking gun
that ties the Bush Family to the Terrorist Attacks, No
Child Left Behind, the giant textbook cartel and the Open
Court Reading Program. Sure, five bad ideas in a row do
not add up to a conspiracy ...but they are still bad ideas!
—smf


DEPT. OF EDUCATION
• THE PET GOAT APPROACH
by Daniel Radosh
The New Yorker/Talk of the Town 7/26/04

Although you do not know his name, Siegfried (Zig)
Engelmann is one of the most talked-about authors in the
country right now. His most prominent work, which you
have not read, is a story for second graders. It begins, “A
girl got a pet goat.”

Engelmann’s story is the one that George W. Bush was
reading in a Florida classroom on the morning of
September 11, 2001, at the moment he learned of the
terrorist attacks. A videotape of the President holding the
book open while staring blankly into space for seven
minutes provides the most memorable scene in Michael
Moore’s movie “Fahrenheit 9/11.” Engelmann has not
seen the film, but when he heard about his secondhand
cameo he reread his story. “I don’t remember writing it,”
he said the other day from his office at the University of
Oregon, in Eugene. That may be because it is one of more
than a thousand he has written in the past thirty years.

Curious viewers of Moore’s film who have tried to track
down the book “My Pet Goat” have been unsuccessful,
for two reasons: Moore, in his voice-over, got the title
wrong—it is “The Pet Goat”—and it is not a book but an
exercise in a workbook called “Reading Mastery 2.” This
much was sussed out last month by a resourceful blogger
named Peter Smith after he studied the raw footage from
the Emma E. Booker Elementary School. Noticing that
the teacher repeatedly cued the class with the same
precise language (“Get ready to read these words the fast
way”), Smith guessed that some particular pedagogical
theory was at work. That’s what led him to Direct
Instruction, a controversial teaching model that
Engelmann developed in the nineteen-sixties.

“The whole idea is to do an efficient job with every single
kid,” Engelmann, who is seventy-two and is a professor
of education, said. His basic principle is that if a child isn’t
learning it is always because the teacher is doing
something to confuse him. Direct Instruction aims to
eliminate that problem by introducing bite-size concepts
that build directly on ones that have already been
mastered, and by scripting every word of every lesson,
including which words of encouragement teachers may
and may not use. As the D.I. Web site puts it, “The
popular valuing of teacher creativity and autonomy as
high priorities must give way to a willingness to follow
certain carefully prescribed instructional practices.”

“We don’t give a damn what the teacher thinks, what the
teacher feels,” Engelmann said. “On the teachers’ own
time they can hate it. We don’t care, as long as they do
it.” Engelmann claims that Direct Instruction is one of the
few teaching methods that have been consistently shown
to improve student achievement, especially among
disadvantaged children. “Traditionalists die over this,” he
said. “But in terms of data we whump the daylights out of
them.”

For years, Direct Instruction’s impressive performance in
large-scale studies did little to win over his critics, who
call his techniques “controlling” and “robotic.” D.I.’s
phonics-based reading curriculum—Engelmann has also
applied his principles to math, science, social studies, and
handwriting—sometimes requires children to chant words
in unison while a teacher snaps her fingers to keep time.

D.I.’s fortunes began to change in 2001, when Bush
introduced his No Child Left Behind legislation, which
mandated that only “scientifically based” educational
programs be eligible for federal funding. And here’s
where Michael Moore missed an opportunity. No Child
Left Behind has meant big profits for the publisher of the
D.I. curricula, McGraw-Hill. So it’s easy to imagine one
of Moore’s hallmark montages, spinning circumstantial
evidence into a conspirational web: a sepia-toned
photograph from the thirties of, say, Prescott Bush and
James McGraw, Jr., palling around on Florida’s Jupiter
Island; a film clip from the eighties of Harold McGraw,
Jr., joining the advisory panel of Barbara Bush’s literacy
foundation; Harold McGraw III posing with President
George W. Bush as part of his transition team; and, to tie
it all together, former McGraw-Hill executive
vice-president John Negroponte being sworn in as the
new Ambassador to Iraq.

One person who wouldn’t be included in such a
conspiracy is Zig Engelmann. Engelmann calls himself a
“political rebel,” but his inclinations are hard left. He
hasn’t decided if he will vote for John Kerry, Ralph
Nader, some alternative progressive party, or nobody at
all. He is not fond of Bush. “For whatever it’s worth, I
think Iraq is a total circle jerk,” he said. “I couldn’t think
of how to do it worse.”

• smf postcript: Normally I would have edited the comment
above to make it more suitable for student readers and
those easily offended. However I was so offended by Dr.
Engelmann’s “We don’t give a damn what the teacher
thinks....” quote I felt it should be left alone.

SRA, the McGraw Hill imprint that publishes the Reading
Mastery series also publishes Open Court Reading — the
officially mandated LAUSD flavor in the Direct
Instruction® curriculum offering. Perhaps it says
everything there is to know about the DI/scripted
block-reading methodology that the teacher was not
permitted to deviate from the curriculum even for a
classroom visit by the President of the United States!


The article on the New Yorker website



S.F. VOTERS TO DECIDE IF NONCITIZENS CAN VOTE IN SCHOOL BOARD ELECTIONS + TOWN WHERE VOTERS DON’T HAVE TO BE CITIZENS
• smf notes: Allowing non-citizen parents in vote in
school board elections in LAUSD could make a huge
difference in races where turnout is usually abysmally
low, especailly in light of the demographic reality of
LAUSD’s large enrollment of recent immigrants.
Noncitzen parents in Chicago, the nation’s third largest
school district vote. It might make sense here.


• S.F. Voters to Decide if Noncitizens Can Vote: Ballot
measure would affect only school board elections. A legal
challenge is expected.
By Robert Hollis, Marisa Lagos and Megan Garvey
Special to The LA Times

July 21, 2004 - SAN FRANCISCO: Testing state law for
the second time this year, San Francisco city leaders
approved a controversial ballot proposal Tuesday that
could allow noncitizens to vote in school board elections.

The proposal, the first in the state but not the nation,
would permit any adult with a child in public school —
parent, guardian or caretaker — to vote regardless of
citizenship status. Backers of the measure acknowledged
that it probably would face legal challenges since state
law limits voting to citizens. But they said a local
exemption was allowable because San Francisco is a
charter city that can set its own laws.

"Every time you're on the cutting edge of any issue you're
going to have legal issues," said Supervisor Matt
Gonzalez, a Green Party member who introduced the
proposal. "This body has taken a strong position on things
like gay marriage, domestic partnership…. I don't think
this is any different."

The city made national headlines in February when Mayor
Gavin Newsom allowed thousands of same-sex couples to
receive marriage licenses.

The state Supreme Court halted those unions; the issue
remains in the courts.

Even in this consistently left-leaning city that is
accustomed to pushing the boundaries on social issues,
the school matter has stirred strong opinions. Sen. Dianne
Feinstein, a Democrat and former San Francisco mayor,
issued a statement this week saying that "under no
circumstances" should noncitizens be allowed to vote
because it would discourage immigrants from becoming
citizens. Local Chinese American elected officials are
divided over the measure, while Latino leaders have
mostly remained silent.

Still, the Board of Supervisors' decision to put the matter
before voters on Nov. 2 passed 9-2, with little discussion.

The San Francisco Unified School District has 60,000
students, more than half of whom come from homes
where English is not their first language. Students of
Chinese heritage make up 31% of the student population,
the largest ethnic bloc, and 21% of students are Latino.

David Chiu, an early proponent of the ballot proposal,
said that at least one in three students in San Francisco's
public schools has an immigrant parent. Chiu, co-founder
of the public relations firm Grassroots Enterprise, said his
organization had pushed for voting rights in part because
long waits to become citizens had left immigrant parents
disenfranchised when their children were in school.

The push to allow noncitizens a say in the makeup of
school boards is viewed as a first step to broader voting
rights — both by those who say it is a good move that
will increase public participation and by those who argue
that it violates the spirit of American democracy.

The concept of noncitizen voters is not new. Limiting
voting privileges to American citizens has occurred only
since World War I. Noncitizens can vote in school board
elections in a few cities, including Chicago.

Gonzalez has said that he would like to see noncitizens
allowed to vote in all municipal elections, a practice in
place in Takoma Park, Md., and a few other cities.

Jim Rivaldo, a veteran San Francisco political consultant,
said the proposal would "obviously play well in liberal and
immigrant-heavy areas of the city."

"If it can succeed anywhere in California," Rivaldo said,
"it will be in San Francisco."

In a state where many cities have increasingly large
numbers of immigrants, legal and illegal, any extension of
voting privileges could have significant political
ramifications.

"If you give noncitizens the right to vote it has partisan
implications," said Steve Camarota, of the
Washington-based Center for Immigrant Studies, a
nonpartisan think tank that supports strict enforcement of
immigration laws. "You aren't going to see it proposed at
the statewide level in a bitterly divided state or in a city
closely divided on partisan lines."

At Tuesday's board meeting, Gonzalez took issue with the
perception that he backed such rights to expand the likely
voting base for progressives.

"First-generation immigrants tend to be more
conservative," he said.

In San Francisco, the proposal has pitted some on the far
left against relatively more conservative officials, with the
city attorney reportedly advising officials that such a
measure was unlikely to pass court tests even if put on the
November ballot.

Newsom had no comment on the issue.

There has been growing sentiment in some communities
for noncitizens voting in local elections. In New York,
where noncitizens voted in school board elections from
1968 until last year when Republican Mayor Michael
Bloomberg reorganized the school board, some
politicians have pushed for noncitizens to vote in all local
elections.

Those opposed to allowing noncitizens voting rights say
to do so would erode the meaning of citizenship.

Feinstein, in her statement, said that a better solution
would be to speed the process by which immigrants can
become citizens.

School board President Dan Kelly, who opposes the
proposal, said it has little to do with giving parents more
say in schools.

"It's not an issue about education. The issue is about
voting rights and citizenship," Kelly said. "The question
of who has the right to vote is ultimately tied to
citizenship, legitimately so."

He said he was "mystified" as to why school board
elections had been singled out. Kelly said the school
district sued to overturn Proposition 187, the 1994 ballot
initiative that had sought to prohibit illegal immigrants
from public services such as schools and medical care.

Kelly said the school district has avenues for participation
for noncitizen parents such as PTAs and school
committees. The district also provides Mandarin and
Spanish translators to keep parents informed and to help
them address school officials, he said.

But state Assemblyman Leland Yee (D-San Francisco)
supported the measure and said he would campaign for its
passage.

"About half the children in San Francisco are white yet
barely 10% are in public schools," he said. "It's clear to
me whites left the public schools and the only ones left
are minorities…. [Noncitizens'] children's future is in the
public schools and I think we should give them a voice."

San Francisco Supervisor Fiona Ma, however, opposed
the ballot proposal after repeatedly speaking against it.
Ma, whose parents became citizens after immigrating to
the United States from China, said "voting is a privilege
reserved for citizens."

Ma said she believed that her colleagues went ahead with
the measure, despite legal advice that it would not hold
up in the courts, because they hope that substantial
support for the proposal in November would put political
pressure on the state Legislature to change the state
Constitution. Further, she said she suspects that it is
intended to spur similar movements in Los Angeles and
other cities.

A broader move in San Francisco to allow noncitizens to
vote in all local elections fizzled out in 1996 after
then-city attorney Louise Renne persuaded a state judge
to block the initiative from appearing on the ballot,
arguing that it violated the state Constitution's
requirement that voters be citizens.

Renne has opposed the recent proposal, asking if it meant
Osama bin Laden could vote.

Others said the restriction should be challenged.

"More and more as the demographics of California are
shifting and there are more and more noncitizens who
comprise our communities, it is important that we allow
those persons an avenue to have a voice in the policies
and how they are formed — especially when it relates to
their children," said Steve Reyes, of the Los
Angeles-based Mexican American Legal Defense and
Education Fund.


• Rare Town Where Voters Don't Have to Be Citizens:
Few in the Washington suburb know that immigrants can
vote in municipal elections.
By Kathleen Hennessey - LA Times Staff Writer

July 22, 2004 – TAKOMA PARK, Md.: More than a
decade ago, this left-leaning suburb's decision to allow
noncitizens to vote made news across the country. Today
the fact that noncitizens here can vote is news to many
residents.

"Is that true?" said Israel Martinez, who moved seven
years ago to this leafy suburb just across the District of
Columbia line. "Really?"

In 1992, the City Council amended the city charter to
allow immigrants — regardless of documentation — to
vote in municipal elections. Of the six Maryland
communities where U.S. citizenship is not a requirement
for voting, Takoma Park, with more than 17,000
residents, is the largest.

A similar proposal, limited to school board elections, was
approved by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors on
Tuesday night. It is to go before voters this fall.

The Takoma Park City Council made its decision after a
well-organized campaign, a lengthy and heated public
debate about citizenship and the dangers of voter fraud, a
nonbinding resolution and threat of legal challenges.
Now, residents and experts who have studied Takoma
Park's voting experiment say the effect has been
underwhelming.

"The sky didn't fall. You haven't had a huge influx of
immigrants moving to take part in elections. You haven't
had voter fraud. Nothing happened," said Lisa Garcia
Bedolla, who teaches political science at UC Irvine and
has studied immigrant voting initiatives.

"I think the major impact of the noncitizen voting change
has been to transmit the message that Takoma Park is
welcoming to people who are not U.S. citizens," said
Mayor Kathy Porter. "In terms of practical effect, I don't
think there's been any election where a huge number of
noncitizens have voted."

In November 2003, 14 of the city's 494 registered
noncitizens voted in the local elections. Voter
participation for noncitizens matched those of citizens in
the elections just after the charter was amended, but the
statistics declined over the years.

"In one sense, the results have been kind of disappointing
for some of those who advocated for the change," said
Ronald Hayduk, assistant professor of political science at
Borough of Manhattan Community College in New York
and immigrant voting rights supporter. "Over time there's
just been a lot less education and mobilization."

Porter said her city had made an effort to reach out to its
foreign-born residents, who make up nearly one-third of
the population here, according to the 2000 census.
Organizers went door-to-door, speaking to residents in
their native languages, and the city hosted informational
meetings about the voting laws.

Although the notion of immigrants casting ballots sparks
controversy today, at several points in U.S. history
citizenship and enfranchisement were not so closely
linked.

In the 19th century, Congress allowed several Western
states to offer suffrage to immigrants as a way to entice
them to move to the territories, said Garcia Bedolla.
Suffrage was withdrawn in a wave of anti-immigrant
sentiment around the start of the 20th century. By 1928,
the vote was limited to U.S. citizens in federal and state
elections.

Maryland's constitution, however, does not require U.S.
citizenship for local elections, which is why communities
like Takoma Park and the village of Barnesville
(population 161) can legally allow noncitizens to vote.

"We've just never had a citizenship requirement," said
Barnesville Mayor Peter T. Menke. "I've heard the
pundits on TV and the talk shows blasting all of us, and I
get very infuriated. I have different feeling about a
statewide or national election, but in a local election
where you're directly involved and you're a taxpayer, it's
different. I have no problem with anybody who's
interested in the town and wants to cast a ballot."

Residents in Takoma Park said they felt the same way.

"This is were you live, this is where you spend your
money," said Duwa Mutharika, a Zimbabwe native who
had lived in Takoma Park for four months.

Mutharika, like several noncitizens here, was not aware
that she could vote. When told that she could, she
responded enthusiastically, "When you are here, you have
a responsibility to be part of the community."

Demographics play a part in the low turnout rate for
noncitizen voters in Takoma Park, said Garcia Bedolla.
"Most of the immigrants are poorer and less educate," she
said. "So even if you give them voting rights, you're not
going to have hundreds of thousands of immigrants
pouring into the polls."


EVENTS: Coming up next week...
• TUESDAY, JULY 27, 2004

• Central Region Elementary School #15 Phase II Site Selection Update Local District 4

Your participation is important! Please join at this meeting where we will review:

* Criteria used to select potential sites
* Sites suggested by community and by LAUSD, and
* We will present and discuss the most suitable site(s) for this new school project

6:00 to 7:30 p.m.
Magnolia Elementary School
Auditorium
1626 S. Orchard Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90006

• THURSDAY, JULY 29, 2004

• Miramonte Elementary School Addition
Ribbon-Cutting Ceremony

Please join us to celebrate the completion of your new classroom building!

Ceremony will begin at 10:00 a.m.

Miramonte Elementary School
1400 E. 68th Street
Los Angeles, CA 90001


• Menlo Elementary School Playground Expansion
Pre-Construction Meeting
6:00 to 8:00 p.m.
Menlo Avenue Elementary School
4156 Menlo Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90037

• Central Region Elementary School #13
Phase II Site Selection Update
Local District 3

Your participation is important! Please join at this meeting where we will review:

* Criteria used to select potential sites
* Sites suggested by community and by LAUSD, and
* We will present and discuss the most suitable site(s) for this new school project

6:30 to 8:00 p.m.
Pio Pico Span School
Auditorium
1512 S. Arlington Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90019

• South Region High School #4
Phase II Presentation of Recommended Preferred Site
Local District 8

At this meeting we will present and discuss the site that will be recommended to the LAUSD Board of education for this new school project.

6:30 to 8:30 p.m.
Dominguez Elementary School
Multipurpose Room
21250 Santa Fe Avenue
Carson, CA 90810

• Phase II Site Selection Update
Local District 2

Your participation is important! Please join at this meeting where we will review:

* Criteria used to select potential sites
* Sites suggested by community and by LAUSD, and
* We will present and discuss the most suitable site(s) for this new school project

6:30 to 8:00 p.m.
Arminta Elementary School Auditorium
11530 Strathern St.
North Hollywood, CA 91605

*Dates and times subject to change
____________________________________________________
• SCHOOL CONSTRUCTION BOND OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE:
http://www.laschools.org/bond/
Phone: 212.241.4700
____________________________________________________
• LAUSD FACILITIES COMMUNITY OUTREACH CALENDAR:
http://www.laschools.org/happenings/
Phone: 213.633.7616


• LAUSD BOARD OF EDUCATION & COMMITTEES MEETING CALENDAR



4LAKids Book Club for June & July –CHOOSING EXCELLENCE: “Good Enough” Schools Are Not Good Enough
John Merrow - the documentary filmmaker and
corespondent behind the Merrow Report series of
education broadcasts on NPR and PBS - spoke to the
California State PTA convention last month about his take
on public education issues. Much of what he said was
reported a month ago in 4LAKids (see: May 9th: “NOTES
FROM THE CALIFORNIA STATE PTA CONVENTION
& PARENT SYMPOSIUM IN LONG BEACH”)

Merrow’s thinking is further developed in CHOOSING
EXCELLENCE (Scarecrow Press, 207pp) — first
published in 2001 but is still very applicable today. Some of
his thoughts re: charter schools (which at the time were
totally unproved) probably need reworking as the data
becomes clearer – but his take is 98% on!

(‘Choice’ in LAUSD means particpation in the magnet
school program - the ultimate choice is often made by a
lottery – ‘choice’ becomes a matter of chance!)

“Choice” has become a political buzzword in education,
often it really means school vouchers and the privatization
of public education. Not here. Merrow’s call is for
nothing-less-than excellence in education, and his mantra
that “‘Good Enough’ Schools Are Never Good Enough”
resonates.

His critique of multiple choice standardized tests, his
description of the roles of parents, students and educators,
and his premise that excellence is a choice parents must
make – and his step-by-step guide on how to make the
choices – are well worth the read.

This is good stuff! —smf


Get CHOOSING EXCELLENCE from your local library, bookstore - or order it by clicking here.



What can YOU do?
• E-mail, call or write your school board member. Or your city councilperson, mayor, assemblyperson, state senator, the governor, member of congress, senator - or the president. Tell them what you really think.
• Open the dialogue. Write a letter to the editor. Circulate these thoughts. Talk to the principal and teachers at your local school.
• Speak with your friends, neighbors and coworkers. Stay on top of education issues. Don't take my word for it!
• Get involved at your neighborhood school. Join your PTA. Serve on a School Site Council. Be there for a child.
• Vote.


Contact your school board member




Scott Folsom is a parent and parent leader in LAUSD. He is Vice President for Education in Los Angeles 10th District PTSA and represents PTA on the LAUSD Construction Bond Citizen's Oversight Committee. He serves on various school district advisory and policy committees and is a PTA officer and governance council member at two LAUSD schools. He is also the elected Youth & Education boardmember on the Arroyo Seco Neighborhood Council.
• In this forum his opinions are his own and your opinions and feedback are invited.
• This and past Issues are available – with interactive feedback — at http://4lakids.blogspot.com/
• To SUBSCRIBE e-mail: 4LAKids-subscribe@topica.email-publisher.com - or -TO ADD YOUR OR ANOTHER'S NAME TO THE 4LAKids SUBCRIPTION LIST E-MAIL smfolsom@aol.com with "SUBSCRIBE" AS THE SUBJECT. Thank you.



Sunday, July 18, 2004

4LAKids: Sunday, July 18th, 2004

View Large Image
4LAKids: Sunday, July 18th, 2004
In This Issue:
PRESCHOOL: USE OF PROP 10 FUNDS FAULTED, A COMPROMISE ON PRESCHOOL PLAN & PRESCHOOL PLAN SHOULD RAISE MANY QUESTIONS
WILLIAMS v. CALIFORNIA—2 from the Times: Suit on Schools Near Resolution & 1 Teen's Action May Help Many
Daily News: ROMER TESTING THE TEST WATERS / LA Times: MORE SCHOOLS TURN TO SINGLE TRACK / LA Times: LAUSD PARKING PERK DRAWS FIRE FROM UNION
EVENTS: Coming up next week...
4LAKids Book Club for June & July –CHOOSING EXCELLENCE: “Good Enough” Schools Are Not Good Enough
What can YOU do?


Featured Links:
THE 4LAKids ARCHIVE - Past Issues and added features
MAKING SCHOOLS WORK: Get the Book @ Amazon.com
THE BEST RESOURCE ON CALIFORNIA SCHOOL FUNDING ON THE WEB: The Sacramento Bee’s “Paying for Schools”
FIVE CENTS MAKES SENSE FOR EDUCATION- Target 5¢ from every federal tax dollar for Education
• from the California Charter Schools Capitol Update
listserv: As newspapers have reported, the state budget is
at a standstill. On Wednesday, the Governor took his
plea to pass a budget to the Sacramento County Sheriff’s
deputies, asking them to put pressure on Democrats to
approve his deal with the cities and counties. Thursday
night, the Governor and the Speaker of the Assembly held
dueling press conferences blaming each other for the
budget stalemate.

[STOP PRESS: Gov. Schwartzenegger’s descent from rhetoric to gender-questioning in calling his opponents “Girlie Men” on Saturday would lead to immediate suspension or expulsion from LAUSD were he a student above the fourth-grade under LAUSD’s zero-tolerance of sexual harassment!]

Controller Steve Westly has indicated that the State could
function until July 28th without a budget. This allows
lawmakers additional time to push the envelope as close
to the 28th as possible in an effort to get what they want.

Local government funding is still an unresolved issue.
One of the new twists to the local government plan is a
new compromise presented by local government officials,
which involves a plan for allowing the state to take money
from local government twice in any ten year period upon
a declaration of a fiscal emergency and a supermajority
(three-fourths or four-fifths vote) of the Legislature. The
amounts taken would be treated as a loan to be repaid,
with interest, within three years. The outline of the latest
proposal was released in the past few days, and is the
subject of an intense statewide advocacy effort.

• smf notes: I have a real concern here, born of experience
in the mess that masquerades as school funding in
California and forged in the crucible of trying to make
mid-year downwardly-revised ‘here-are-the-real-numbers’
budgets work at schoolsites. Even though there is a voter
mandated “Constitutional Guarantee” that schools in
California will be funded at certain level it’s been very
easy for the legislature and governor to undo the
guarantee to spend the money on something else!
Something like prison guards.

It seems to me that the counties and municipalities are
being asked to follow this same funding paradigm — a
well documented and self perpetuating failure of
monumental proportions.

My personal caveat emptor to the mayors and
councilpeople and supervisors — and to their
stakeholders, the voters and taxpayers (‘That’s us,
folks!’), is this: The deal you are striking is with those
wonderful folks who brought you school funding!

If you think this budget mess is a spectator sport being
conducted for our amusement between the Actor and the
Politicians up in Sacramento, think again! They want to
pay for police officers and fire fighters the same way they
pay for teachers, schoolbooks and classroom supplies.

Get involved. Tell ‘em you’re not amused. Ask ‘em to
keep their old promises before they make new ones.

Please.


Contact your state legislators.



PRESCHOOL: USE OF PROP 10 FUNDS FAULTED, A COMPROMISE ON PRESCHOOL PLAN & PRESCHOOL PLAN SHOULD RAISE MANY QUESTIONS
smf notes: Pew Charitable Trusts research shows (and just plain ‘duh!’ observation confirms) that attending a high-quality preschool can have a substantial impact on a future child’s success in school.

Quality preschool programs:

• Improve the likelihood of learning to read by the third
grade.
• Reduce the chances of being held back for a grade.
• Reduce the chances of being placed in special education.
• Increase the possibility of graduating from high school.

Yet in this country, we have a fragmented system of early
education that is highly uneven in access, quality and the
financial burden imposed on families.

California’s First Five Initiative, funded by tobacco taxes
through Proposition 10 – has tried to make a difference in
our state. But in the end the process has been held
hostage by politics – and a political food fight over the
funding and who will control it.

It won’t be long before the taxpayers can add “What
happened to the 50¢ a pack for cigarettes?’ to “What
happened to the lottery money?” —smf


• LA Times: USE OF PROP 10 FUNDS FAULTED:
A state audit of five counties finds most money for child
programs unspent.

By Gabrielle Banks - Times Staff Writer

July 16, 2004 - SACRAMENTO — State auditors
criticized officials in five counties Thursday for failing to
properly spend more than $909 million intended for early
childhood development programs.

Auditors found that the counties, including Los Angeles
County, left unspent as much as 85% of the money they
had received since 1998, when voters agreed to a
statewide tax on tobacco products for the programs.

The report said some county panels set up to distribute
the Proposition 10 money kept incomplete records, did
not establish clear rules for hiring contractors or failed to
evaluate the effectiveness of the programs they did fund.

"They promised that every single penny was going to be
spent on children [ages] 0 to 5. To find out we're sitting
on a pile of cash — that doesn't do anything for a child in
Baldwin Park … or Compton," said Bakersfield-area Sen.
Dean Florez (D-Shafter), who sought the audit because of
concerns he had with how Kern County was using its
funds.

The ambitious 1998 ballot initiative championed by
filmmaker and child advocate Rob Reiner proposed to
funnel money from a 50-cents-per-pack tobacco tax into
health, education and child-care programs for some of the
neediest children in California.

In Los Angeles County, the group handing out the money
is called First 5. It has earmarked $600 million for
universal preschool for all 4-year-olds and $100 million
for universal healthcare up to age 5. But these programs
are not yet up and running, according to Executive
Director Evelyn Martinez.

The auditors found that the newly established
commissions generally lacked clear rules for governing
themselves. For example, the Santa Clara group set a
spending cap of $15,000 for unsolicited grants, but then
awarded $1 million to the Children's Discovery Museum.
Some commissions could not explain how they had
chosen contractors.

Florez condemned Kern County for its plan to spend
$1,400 on bronze plaques recognizing the commissioners
at 20 new tot lots.

All five of the commissions abided by local bidding laws
in handing out Proposition 10 money. They were not
required to consider all bidders. Some made sure their
bidding process was open to the public, but others kept
the process closed.

Martinez said that considering the size of the undertaking,
she thought L.A. County's commission fared well in the
audit. She said she expects the universal preschool
program to be ready to begin after Labor Day.

Reiner's aide Ben Austin agreed, saying, "Everybody is
pointing to this as a groundbreaking program. We want to
tighten it.

"We're very confident that money that has been allocated
has gone to children. If any public dollar is spent
improperly, that's something we have to look at."

Several commissions responded in the audit that they had
already begun to spend money on effective programs for
children.

A grand jury investigation in Santa Barbara last year
found that the county commission had misspent
Proposition 10 money in its haste to set up childhood
development programs.

Assemblywoman Wilma Chan (D-Alameda), chairwoman
of the legislative audit committee, said the county
commissions will need more oversight, but she
emphasized that the criticisms in the report were
"relatively minor."


• A COMPROMISE ON PRESCHOOL PLAN: After
weeks of debate, L.A. County officials agree on the
makeup of a new agency to oversee a $600-million
program funded by tobacco tax.

By Carla Rivera - LA Times Staff Writer

July 13, 2004 – After weeks of intense political
wrangling, Los Angeles County officials reached a
compromise Monday on the composition of a new agency
to control a $600-million tobacco tax-funded preschool
program and gave the Board of Supervisors a greater role
in its operations.

The new entity, Los Angeles Universal Preschool Inc.,
will have a 13-member board of directors. The five
members of the Board of Supervisors will each appoint a
representative and are expected to submit candidates by
Aug. 1, said Supervisor Don Knabe, who is also the
chairman of the panel that controls tobacco taxes locally.

That agency, First 5 Los Angeles, on Monday approved
eight members for the preschool board, all chosen by an
advisory committee that has been developing the program
for more than 18 months. As it stands, the new board
probably won't meet before September. Planners had
hoped to begin enrolling students in September but say
the last-minute infighting probably has pushed the launch
date to 2005.

The actions came after a weekend of lobbying by
filmmaker and children's advocate Rob Reiner and others
to placate county officials seeking greater control over
the program and members of the planning team, who had
feared too much county interference.

The spat raised questions about who is answerable for the
millions of dollars of public money raised through 1998's
voter-approved Proposition 10, which levied a
50-cent-per-pack tax on cigarettes to pay for preschool
and other early-childhood education and health programs.
A contract approved Monday strengthened the power of
the supervisors and First 5 Los Angeles to oversee the
nearly $600 million expected to be generated for
preschools over the next five years.

"I'm really pleased," said Reiner, the statewide First 5
chairman who early during Monday's meeting jokingly
suggested that no one would be allowed to leave without
an agreement. "Ultimately, it came down to people of
goodwill who at the end of the day cared more about
children than whatever parochial issues."

A key sticking point was the proposed size of the
governing body, with the planning team initially
submitting a 23-member list. Some county officials,
including Knabe, urged a more compact body of nine
members.

The sides settled on 13, although some on the advisory
team, including Nancy Daly Riordan, a children's
advocate and the wife of the state education secretary,
had insisted that number was too few for the massive
effort to enroll 150,000 children in preschool and raise
private and public funds to sustain the system. Riordan
was among those named to the new board.

The compromise also seeks to ensure that the board is
ethnically and geographically diverse. Two slots will be
given to early-childhood education experts and two to
parent representatives.

The agency will oversee a system being built from the
ground up. It was scheduled, before the delays, to begin
enrolling up to 5,000 children age 4 in the fall and up to
150,000 over the next decade. Home-based child care
providers and existing preschools such as Head Start will
be used to extend classes from half day to full day. Scores
of new centers are to be built.

Karen Hill-Scott, an education consultant who has led the
planning, said the new agency probably will be
independent once it is up and running.

"It saddens me that it takes so much struggle to agree on
issues of control and governance, but it's always that
way," said Hill-Scott. "This in a way was sort of like a
political campaign. I think initially it will be closely
monitored, and that as the system demonstrates its
accountability and ability to deliver on the master plan,
everyone will relax."

Besides Riordan, those named to the new board were
Shizuko Akasaki, director of special projects for the Los
Angeles Unified School District; Al Osborne, a UCLA
business professor and faculty director of a Head Start
training program; John Agoglia, former president of NBC
Enterprises and president of the Los Angeles Board of
Airport Commissioners (nominated as the interim
executive director of the preschool agency);
philanthropist Wallis Annenberg; Vilma Martinez,
attorney and former president of the Mexican American
Legal Defense and Educational Fund; Robert K. Ross,
president and chief executive of the California
Endowment; and Donald Tang, senior managing director
of Bear Stearns & Co.


• PRESCHOOL PLAN SHOULD RAISE MANY QUESTIONS

Letters to the Times: July 18, 2004 — The article on the "Preschool Plan" ("A Compromise on Preschool Plan," July 13) tells us plenty about the bureaucratic setup for running this First 5 activity, but it generates plenty of questions.

With all these people and all that money ($600 million), there's little information about what will the kids in the First 5 be doing. What do we expect them to learn? How will we know? Who will the teachers, directors, support staff, etc., be? And how will they be qualified?

What materials will the kids and their staffs be using? And where will this take place? Will the kids walk to school, get on buses, be delivered by parents?

With all that's at stake, where are the early childhood experts who should be on board from the start? I see plenty of "activists" and lots of chiefs, but precious few Indians.

Nathan Kravetz
Professor emeritus of education
City University of New York
Sherman Oaks


STATE AUDITORS REPORT 2003-123: California Childrens and Families Commissions



WILLIAMS v. CALIFORNIA—2 from the Times: Suit on Schools Near Resolution & 1 Teen's Action May Help Many
• SUIT ON SCHOOLS NEAR RESOLUTION: ACLU
had alleged inner-city children were shortchanged

By Duke Helfand and Cara Mia DiMassa
LA Times Staff Writers

July 10, 2004 - Lawyers for Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger and the American Civil Liberties Union
are close to settling a major lawsuit accusing the state of
denying poor children the well-trained teachers,
up-to-date textbooks and clean classrooms needed for a
decent education, according to people involved in the
talks.

Negotiators are expected to reach an agreement in the
coming weeks to provide more money for textbooks and
more state attention to urban campuses populated mostly
by low-income and minority students, many still learning
to speak English.

The ACLU's 4-year-old suit alleged problems that "shock
the conscience," including vermin-infested schools.

But given the state's weak fiscal outlook, the proposed
settlement is not expected to provide a massive infusion
of money to correct such problems. Instead, the
agreement would focus more on monitoring local
districts' efforts to provide highly qualified teachers and
use previously approved bond funds to build new
campuses.

"There are very serious talks going forward," said Mark
Rosenbaum, the ACLU's Southern California legal
director, who refused to discuss specifics about the
intensive effort to settle the class-action lawsuit, known
as Williams vs. California.

Schwarzenegger is pressing hard for a settlement, an
about-face from his predecessor, Gray Davis, whose
administration vigorously fought the case and racked up
more than $18 million in state legal bills.

Several sources familiar with the talks said the proposed
agreement would seek a one-time, $139-million fund this
year for the state's lowest-performing schools to buy extra
textbooks and instructional materials.

The draft agreement also would require the state's most
crowded schools to phase out by 2012 a controversial
calendar that shaves 17 days of instruction off the year,
sources said.

It would bar crowded campuses from converting to such
a calendar and would allow the state to appoint trustees
to oversee districts' building programs if they don't make
adequate progress by 2008 to ease overcrowding and
lengthen the school year.

Most of the schools on the shortened calendar are in the
Los Angeles Unified School District, which has 129 of
them. The district already is in the midst of a massive
school construction program intended to return all of its
students to a traditional, 180-day school year by 2012.

Negotiators, including representatives of the Los Angeles
district, are still haggling over the authority of the
trustees, one of the stickiest issues. And some education
officials in Sacramento and in Los Angeles are worried
that new layers of bureaucracy might be created without
the state supplying enough money to correct many school
deficiencies.

The state, the ACLU and other civil rights groups
involved in the settlement talks are rushing because they
want to give lawmakers in Sacramento time before
adjourning Sept. 1 to pass legislation implementing
aspects of the settlement, including the extra textbook
money.

In an appearance at a Sacramento high school last week,
Schwarzenegger said, "It is a shame that we as a state
have neglected the inner-city schools. It's terrible. It
should never have happened. Every child is guaranteed to
get equal education, equal quality teachers, equal
textbooks, homework material. All of this stuff ought to
be equal, but it hasn't been."

According to a transcript provided by his office Friday,
Schwarzenegger also said it was "crazy" for the state to
fight the lawsuit, adding: "We are very close in settling
that …."

Los Angeles school board President Jose Huizar said his
panel is expected to discuss the possible settlement in a
closed session next week.

"I am glad that the pending settlement is near," said
Huizar, who declined to offer details. "The case is long
overdue for settlement. It's obvious that education is not
where we want it to be in California or LAUSD, and the
plaintiffs pointed out areas that need improvement."

The lawsuit, filed in May 2000 in San Francisco Superior
Court, named 99 students from 18 schools in Los
Angeles, San Francisco and other California cities. The
case, named after a San Francisco middle school student,
Eliezer Williams, sought help for tens of thousands of
students.

According to the lawsuit, students in low-income schools
"lack the bare essentials" such as adequately trained
teachers, functioning toilets, proper heat and air
conditioning, and modern textbooks.

Many of the schools also were infested with "vermin,
including rats, mice and cockroaches," contended the suit,
which was also filed by the Mexican American Legal
Defense and Educational Fund and other public interest
groups and law firms.

The complaint said such conditions violated the California
Constitution's requirement that all students be offered a
free and equal public education.

Sweetie Williams, 52, father of plaintiff Eliezer Williams,
said he had received a letter from the ACLU in May
saying the case was likely to be settled rather than go to
court. He said he was not told of any details.

Williams, the father of seven and pastor of the 80-member
Samoan Pentecostal Church in San Francisco, said he and
his son had agreed to be a part of the lawsuit because
textbooks at Eliezer's Luther Burbank Middle School
were lacking or tattered, the ceiling tiles in classrooms
were falling down and the "academics were just lacking."

He said being a part of the suit somewhat eased his
frustrations. "We wanted to spearhead the issue and get
as much attention as we could," Williams said.

"My kids are my only assets. We can fix broken
computers, but when a kid breaks, you are looking at
prison.

"We just wanted to be a part of making sure that every
kid gets the proper eduction," Williams said. "Without it,
they don't have much of a future."

The principal of Luther Burbank MS (in San Francisco) could not be reached for comment.

Other plaintiffs spoke of similar conditions at their
campuses.

Abraham Osuna recalled that the bathrooms at Jefferson
High School in South Los Angeles were so disgusting
that he trained himself not to use the facilities while at
school.

Osuna, now a 21-year-old film major at UCLA, also said
his high school calculus book was 20 years old and that
math texts often were marred by scribbles and destroyed
by students who tore off page numbers.

"After a while, you end up having optimism washed away
from you," Osuna said.

Jefferson Principal Norm Morrow said the school has
taken steps to correct the textbook and bathroom
problems.

He said the staff now schedules regular bathroom
inspections and cleanings, paying for extra custodial staff
on weekends. And the school also makes sure every child
has the appropriate textbooks — relying on extra funding
from the school district.

"I think we are in pretty good shape today," Morrow said.
"It's just a matter of staying on top of it."

Times staff writer Stephanie Chavez contributed to this
report.



• 1 TEEN’S ACTION MAY HELP MANY: His
complaint led to a suit that may bring more funds to urban
schools.
By Stephanie Chavez
LA Times Staff Writer

July 11, 2004 - The final indignity for Sweetie Williams
hit the afternoon his son Eliezer brought home tattered
photocopied pages from an eighth-grade math book, not
the math book. This came after another son wrote an
essay about his San Francisco school titled "Too Many,"
for too many broken chairs, too many broken urinals, too
many old books.

So when the ACLU contacted Williams in 2000 and
asked if he would allow Eliezer, then 12, to be the lead
plaintiff in a class-action lawsuit against the state over
school inequities, the frustrated father said to sign up his
son.

The suit accused the state of denying poor children the
well-trained teachers, up-to-date textbooks and clean
schools needed for a decent education. After the
administration of Gov. Gray Davis spent $18 million to
fight the lawsuit, lawyers for Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger and the American Civil Liberties Union
are expected to reach an agreement within weeks,
according to people involved in the talks.

After joining the lawsuit four years ago, Williams sent
Eliezer to school with a disposable camera to photograph
broken rails, busted lockers and falling ceiling tiles. He
and Eliezer attended news conferences and stayed late for
interviews because "we wanted to get as much attention
as we could." And then the Williams side of the widely
watched Williams vs. California lawsuit continued on with
his schooling — and waited for results.

Although the settlement could involve more money for
books and more state attention to urban schools that
teach mostly low-income and minority students, the help
would arrive too late for Eliezer, who will be entering his
senior year in high school, the boy and his father said in
interviews Saturday.

"It's kind of disappointing," said Eliezer, who is 16.
Sweetie Williams, a father of six and pastor of the First
Samoan Full Gospel Pentecostal Church in San Francisco,
and his family were in Norwalk to attend a religious
meeting.

"It kind of confused me over the years. I thought they had
forgotten about me," the teenager said of the lawsuit. "I
thought it would be settled sooner. But at least now I
know it wasn't for nothing."

Now Eliezer isn't so worried about the deficiencies
alleged in the lawsuit: the roaches and other vermin in the
classroom, the lack of a school librarian, the social studies
textbook that did not reflect the breakup of the former
Soviet Union. They were a part of his adolescent years at
San Francisco Unified School District's Luther Burbank
Middle School.

As an incoming senior at Balboa High School, he worries
about his grades. He's a C-plus student. He's struggling
with U.S. history and physics because "there are just
things [in those classes] I've never heard of before."

And, at last, when he's found a passion for school because
of a new communications course and aspires to be a
cinematographer, the student known to many top
education officials simply as the Williams case wonders if
he will be able to get into a college.

"I'm going to try my hardest to make it into college," he
said. "But I'm worried about my grades."

Would a math textbook to take home from middle school
have made a difference?

Sweetie Williams, 52, explained it this way:

"As a pastor, I can preach and preach to my
congregation. But I want everyone to have a copy of the
Bible at home so they can read it, study it, and if they
have any questions, they can reference the chapters. The
same too has be available to the kids when it comes to
textbooks.

"These kids need to be provided with the right and proper
tools," Williams said.

Louise Renne, special counsel for the San Francisco
Unified School District, said the last five years have
brought a "sea change" of improvements to district
schools, including Luther Burbank, which has been
extensively remodeled. Also, a new maintenance and
instructional materials program has been put in place to
ensure that campuses are up to code and that there are
enough textbooks to go around.

Some of the improvements, she said, came not as the
direct results of lawsuits or legislation, but because San
Francisco voters passed a nearly $300-million school
bond issue last year. Renne said that the district had
disputed "a number of the allegations" in the suit and that
one claim about the lack of books from a student whom
she declined to name was overstated.

The call Sweetie Williams said he once got from his son's
high school further fueled his frustrations over the state of
public education, and spoke to one of the lawsuit's
contentions: that students from low-income schools lack
adequately trained teachers.

"I got a call from a teacher saying he was counseling my
son because he had been late three times," Williams said.
"I asked him if he was a counselor. He told me, no, he
was a coach. I told him to send my son home, I'll do the
counseling."

The elder Williams, named Sweetie by his mother because
"I was sweet," he said, is an airport screener supervisor at
San Francisco International Airport and leaves the family
apartment before 7:30 a.m. His wife, Talosaga, also
works as an airport screener. They juggle jobs and their
church responsibilities and expect their oldest children to
help out with baby-sitting their younger siblings.

The couple, who are from American Samoa, came to
California in 1997, in part to offer their children a better
education. "To my frustration, this has not been the case,"
Williams said.

Yet Eliezer spoke with enthusiasm about his senior year
at school, where he has found his niche in communication
arts. The student who didn't have a math book in middle
school to take home can now check out expensive video
and computer equipment. He credits his teacher, George
Lee, with jump-starting his enthusiasm. For Mother's
Day, Eliezer produced a video presentation that included
old family photos and a recorded message from his sister
in Texas.

"It blew my wife away," Sweetie Williams said. "And it's
all because my son has a good teacher. That's what counts
most."

As the years wore on, few in his school even knew Eliezer
was at the center of the Williams case. The notoriety of
the case in national education circles never translated to
special treatment in school for Eliezer. The father and son
don't even think of themselves as activists — just one
voice, albeit the lead name behind the 99 students and 18
schools named in the suit.

And Williams said one advantage of his big family —
children ages 29 to 3 — is that although the older boys
had to take remedial courses at a community college to
make up for lost time in middle and high school, there is
the youngest, Kealani.

"Maybe the settlement of this lawsuit will come in time to
help her," he said.


Daily News: ROMER TESTING THE TEST WATERS / LA Times: MORE SCHOOLS TURN TO SINGLE TRACK / LA Times: LAUSD PARKING PERK DRAWS FIRE FROM UNION
Daily News: ROMER TESTING THE TEST WATERS

• Science exam plan has some saying 'stop'

By Jennifer Radcliffe - Staff Writer

July 16, 2004 - A proposal that would require Los
Angeles Unified School District students to take another
batch of science tests is drawing heat from the teachers
union and at least one school board member who say
students are already inundated with standardized exams.

Superintendent Roy Romer's $1.8 million plan, which will
be considered by the school board next month, would
require fourth- through eighth- graders to take three
diagnostic science assessments each year.

Romer implemented similar tests in English and math in
2001, and plans to add social studies exams in 2005-06,
as a way to ensure that students are learning.

"We can tell whether a student is really progressing ... and
we can make corrections," Romer said.

But board member Jon Lauritzen said students are already
buried under an array of tests mandated by the federal No
Child Left Behind Act that are designed to show progress
in closing the achievement gap.

"The kids are just going to totally burn out," said
Lauritzen, a former teacher. "It's an endless string of
tests."

In addition to tests required by federal and state
lawmakers, students must wrestle with the high school
exit exam, while some of those bound for college also
face the SAT, ACT or Advanced Placement tests.

Some high school students spend nearly 50 percent of
their spring semesters being tested, he said.

"It's really a wonder that we do any teaching at all,"
Lauritzen said. "If you don't have any time to instruct
between the various tests, you lose out."

Lauritzen said he would like to see the number of district
assessments reduced to two per subject per year, and that
he would like teachers surveyed on the topic.

But Romer said three to four diagnostic tests a year is a
must. He said he sympathizes with Lauritzen's concern
that students are tested too much.

"I'm happy to get rid of some of the other kinds of tests,"
Romer said, adding that the other tests are mandated by
the state.
_____________________________________________________
STATE OR FEDERALLY MANDATED TESTS
LAUSD STUDENTS ALREADY MUST TAKE:

• California Achievement Tests/Reading: Grades 2-11.
• California Achievement Test/Spelling: Grades 2-8.
• California Achievement Test/Math: Grades 2-11.
• California Achievement Test/Science: Grades 9-11.
• California Standards Test/English: Grades 2-11.
• California Standards Test/ History: Grades 8, 10 and 11.
• California Standards Test/Science: Grades 5 and 9-11.
• California Standards Test/Math: Grades 2-11.
• California Writing Standards Test: Grades 4 and 7.
• California State University Early Assessment Program:
Grade 11.
• California Physical Fitness Test: Grades 5, 7 and 9.
• California High School Exit Examination: Grade 10.
• Standards-Based Assessments: Grade 9.
• National Assessment of Educational Progress: Grades 4,
8 and 12.
__________________________________________________

Board member Julie Korenstein said that while she
supports Romer's proposal, she agrees that students are
overtested.

"There's not enough time to teach for all the testing," she
said.

The assessments that Romer wants, however, are far
more useful than some of the state-mandated exams that
rate students and schools, she said.

"It's a tremendous teaching tool," Korenstein said of
Romer's assessments. "This is a much wiser way of
testing children."

Angelica Urquijo, a spokeswoman for United Teachers
Los Angeles, said the union is skeptical of these
additional tests, which adds stress to both teachers and
students.

"These are tests that are, in fact, overburdening kids," she
said. "It's not the testing. It's the type of tests that are
there sometimes to label kids as failures."

But Todd Ullah, the LAUSD's science coordinator, said
these low-stakes science tests -- designed to prepare
students for the standardized exams -- will not take much
time. And he noted that testing is a natural part of the
academic process.

"Of course I'm worried (about overtesting), but they are
in school. Sometimes people don't see the forest through
the trees."


LA Times: MORE SCHOOLS TURN TO SINGLE
TRACK

• New construction and slowed enrollment growth make
staggered schedules less crucial, but many districts will
keep year-round system.

By Joel Rubin - Times Staff Writer

July 11, 2004 - Liberated by slowing enrollment growth
and the construction of new campuses, California schools
are beginning to turn away from a practice that helps ease
crowding but is loathed by teachers, parents and students:
overlapping "multitrack" schedules.

But the move, which gained momentum this year, does
not necessarily mean a return to the long days of summer
fun for students. Among schools reverting to single
tracks, many are keeping year-round schedules that some
experts say improve learning.

"The traditional calendar is no longer sacrosanct," said
Tom Payne, who monitors year-round programs for the
state. "People have realized that there are advantages to
the year-round schedule."

Used primarily in elementary and middle schools,
multitrack schedules make the most of classroom space
by running year-round, with students divided into three or
four groups that operate on staggered schedules. Because
some students and teachers are always on vacation, the
convoluted schedule creates logistic nightmares:
Administrators struggle to schedule staff training sessions,
students become isolated from one another, and teachers
find collaboration difficult or impossible.

"The sense of school and community is challenged" with
multitrack schedules, said Cheryl Cohen, assistant
superintendent at the Orange Unified School District,
which is eliminating multitrack at several schools. "It was
a solution for certain circumstances, but clearly was not
ideal."

In a three-decade battle against persistent overcrowding,
California has relied on the strategy far more heavily than
any other state, education experts say. Multitrack
schedules proliferated in the early 1970s, and then again
throughout the 1990s, when enrollments surged.

During the recent wave, the number of the multitrack
schools in California soared as the enrollment crunch was
compounded by a shortage of money for school
construction. State lawmakers encouraged the trend by
giving priority for construction funds to districts that
agreed to open year-round schools.

Dependence on multitrack programs peaked in 1998,
when 1,027 schools used them. More than 1 million
California students — about 16% of the state total —
were affected.

The tide turned after voters approved a series of bonds
for school construction — most recently a $12.3-billion
initiative in March — and enrollment growth slowed.

What began as a slow decline in multitrack schedules
accelerated dramatically last year, when 142 schools
eliminated them. Only 39 schools — 11 from the same the
district — added multitrack schedules.

Some districts — especially Los Angeles Unified —
continue to struggle with crowding and are unable to
drop their multitrack programs. And education officials
are quick to point out that future enrollment gains could
force districts back onto the plan. But Payne, with the
California Department of Education, said he expects the
trend to continue at least over the next five years as
enrollment in elementary and middle schools declines.

Tiny Magnolia School District in the Anaheim area, for
example, has eliminated multitrack calendars at three of
its four year-round elementary schools for the coming
year. Nearby Orange Unified will do the same at five of
seven schools that use multitrack scheduling. Both
districts hope to eliminate multitrack schedules at
remaining schools as soon as possible.

Carol McGown, a first-grade teacher at Magnolia's Mattie
Lou Maxwell Elementary, said she is eager to start on a
single schedule in a few weeks.

"When you can collaborate with all the other teachers and
everyone is on the same page, it is a big benefit for the
children," she said.

But the change does not mean that McGown's students,
or those at Orange Unified, are free to frolic until
September. Like many districts throughout the state,
Magnolia and Orange Unified chose to keep their schools
on a year-round schedule, but without the hassle of
multiple tracks.

Instead of the typical 10-week summer break, school will
start Aug. 9 for the Magnolia schools and July 26 in
Orange. Students will have three nearly monthlong
vacations in summer, winter and spring.

Year-round supporters said the evenly spaced vacations
are better for students. "Kids do forget some of what
they've learned over the summer," said Harris Cooper,
director of the program in education at Duke University
and leading researcher on year-round schooling. Research
indicates that students lose about a month of learning
during a 10-week summer holiday, Cooper said — twice
as much as those on year-round schedules.

Summer's detrimental effect is especially pronounced,
educators said, at schools such as Maxwell, where more
than two-thirds of the students are English-learners who
often spend summer months speaking their native
language.

The monthlong winter break in year-round schedules also
can accommodate the traditional exodus of Latino pupils
to home countries over Christmas, while the short holiday
break on traditional calendars leads to absences and the
loss of attendance-based funding.

The new schedule "is the best of both worlds," said
Maxwell Principal Kristin Lasher. "Everyone is here at the
same time … and we don't waste classroom time
reteaching what students have already learned."

Year-round calendars, proponents said, also allow more
opportunities for teachers to help struggling students
without having to wait several months for summer school.
Year-round schools typically offer remedial classes and
tutoring during vacations.

Joanna Zug, president of the Magnolia PTA, said nearly
all parents had embraced the decision to stick with a
year-round schedule at the elementary schools.

"I think year-round works best for everybody — teachers
and students," Zug said. "There is an element of
momentum and routine. The schedule gives everyone a
nice rest, but then they're right back, and it is not such a
huge deal to gear the kids back up to go to school."

Not everyone agrees. Billee Bussard, who heads a
national anti-year-round advocacy group, Summer
Matters, said she is skeptical about research on the
disadvantages of summer vacation. Summers, she said,
give students the chance to pursue extracurricular
interests.

"The long break provides opportunities for learning that
kids do not get in the classroom," she said.

Indeed, nearly two-thirds of the schools that dropped
multitrack schedules this year opted to return to a
traditional calendar.

Among districts that favor the traditional school year is
Los Angeles Unified — which has by far the largest
number of year-round students in California. LAUSD
plans to return to a traditional calendar school by school
as overcrowding eases enough to drop multitrack
schedules.

Ronnie Ephraim, chief instruction officer for the district,
said the long summer break provides a needed
opportunity for students to repeat failed classes. But more
than anything, Ephraim said, echoing several other
educators, the preference for the old-style schedule comes
from ingrained rites of summer, such as camp, sports
leagues and family vacations.

"The whole community prepares itself for the kids in the
summer. They will just accept [the traditional schedule]
better," Ephraim said. "A lot of it is habit."

Though education officials disagree over whether
year-round schedules will ever become the norm, one
thing is certain: Few will miss the days of the multitrack.

"No one ever chooses a multitrack program for
educational reasons," said Priscilla Wohlstetter, director
of the education governance program at USC.

"Districts do it out of necessity."


• LA Times: LAUSD PARKING PERK DRAWS FIRE
FROM UNION

By Beth Barrett - Staff Writer

July 12th, 2004 – Incensed by the Los Angeles Unified
School District's plan to borrow nearly $40 million to
build a downtown garage for top bureaucrats, teachers
union officials on Monday called for an end to the free
parking privileges so the $4 million a year could be used
for education.

District officials defended the proposal, saying the annual
cost of paying off the certificates of participation for an
approximately 1,700-space parking garage at its Beaudry
Avenue headquarters and operating it, would be less than
what it currently pays in leased parking spaces.

But United Teachers Los Angeles President John Perez
said the garage -- to be considered by the board tonight in
closed session -- would still drain millions of dollars from
the general fund to service the debt at a time when scores
of teachers struggle to find street parking and the budget
has no money for raises.

"Thousands of teachers park on the streets and have to
worry about their cars being vandalized," Perez said.
"Teachers, particularly at elementary schools, sometimes
have to park three or four blocks away.

"Why build a $40 million parking structure for
administrators who make two or three times more than
teachers? This is another example of where the hierarchy
takes care of itself."

Perez also questioned why, after spending more than
$184 million to buy and renovate the controversial
building for its headquarters, the district now wants to
spend an additional $40 million to build a parking
structure on three nearby properties.

"My understanding was the parking in the building would
be sufficient for their needs, and that was supposedly why
they bought the building," Perez said. "I never heard them
talk about the parking being inadequate."

Board member David Tokofsky called the proposal
"unfinished business from the first Beaudry purchase."

"It's also salt on a no pay-raise wound," Tokofsky said.

District officials said owning the facility would result in
cost savings over the existing parking leases -- beginning
at about $174,000 a year, according to confidential
documents -- as it seeks to consolidate employees in other
leased properties, eventually expanding Beaudry from the
current 2,800 employees to about 4,000 employees as
floors now occupied by Bank of America become
available.

"It's a savings, that's the basic reason for doing it," said
LAUSD spokeswoman Stephanie Brady. "Any way we
can reduce savings is what we do."

Brady said while paid parking isn't stipulated in union
contracts, it has been the district's policy.

"It's an equity issue," Brady said, noting that parking is
free at schools and other facilities throughout the district.

She said the district was providing adequate parking at
new schools.

Michael O'Sullivan, president of Associated
Administrators of Los Angeles, said parking around
Beaudry is scattered at several facilities, creating a
"nightmare."

"Between the elevators and the parking, no one is happy
with Beaudry. As far as any parking for administrators or
anybody, the district provides free parking for teachers at
the schools."

District officials said there had always been an
understanding that leased parking space would be used
until that ceased to be a good business option.

"This is not a surprise," said Bruce Kendall, the LAUSD's
director of maintenance and operation. "We knew we had
to park employees. They made a decision to lease part of
the parking, and to later examine ... the decision."

Though district officials declined to discuss specifics of
the proposal, Brady said the district waited until there
were "suitable" options to leasing.

According to the board report, the properties under
consideration are on Boylston, 3rd and 4th streets near
the headquarters building.

• smf notes: By law the new LAUSD HQ/333 Beaudry
Building and the proposed parking structures are not –
and cannot be — paid for from school construction bond
funds! This may be good news to property taxpayers —
but it’s bad news for students; these costs are paid for
from the District’s operating budget - the money
earmarked for the education of children.

Two-and-a-half years ago folks from the LAUSD Real
Estate Branch testified before the Bond Oversight
Committee that the Beaudry Building had adequate
parking to meet present needs into the foreseeable future.

Because the old District HQ at 450 N. Grand — torn
down to become a new high school (because LAUSD
already owned the land the State did not provide any
‘matching funds’ for property acquisition) — was
“parking challenged” I questioned specifically on the
need to accommodate both staff and district visitors. I
was assured there would be no problem!

The Beaudry Building, with no level sidewalks on any
side is a horror in terms of access by people with limited
mobility. And nobody knew to question the building’s
feasibility regarding elevators! We have all since learned
the hard way that a building designed as a bank
headquarters does not adapt well to use as a school
district HQ — where people commute often between
floors and offices! The amount of productivity lost by
District Staff and visitors waiting for elevators (when they
work) must add up to thousands of person-hours per
month. Give the Beaudry Building a D minus, with U’s in
Work Habits and Cooperation ...and add to that the
ubiquitous: “Does not work well with others!”





EVENTS: Coming up next week...
• Tuesday Jul 20, 2004

• Ramona Opportunity High School CEQA Public Meeting

Please join us at this meeting to give your comments and ask questions about the Draft Mitigated Negative Declaration for this school project. This report evaluates the potential impacts the school project may have on the surrounding environment.

6:00 to 7:30 p.m.
Ramona Opportunity High School
Multipurpose Room
231 S. Alma Avenue
Los Angeles, California 90063


• Phase II Presentation Recommended Preferred Site
Local District 6

At this meeting we will present and discuss the site that will be recommended to the LAUSD Board of education for this new school project.

6:00 to 8:00 p.m.
South Gate Middle School
Auditorium
4100 Firestone Boulevard
South Gate, CA 90280

• Wednesday Jul 21, 2004

• South Region Span K-8 #1

Phase II Site Selection Update Local District 8

Your participation is important! Please join at this meeting where we will review:

* Criteria used to select potential sites
* Sites suggested by community and by LAUSD, and
* We will present and discuss the most suitable site(s) for this new school project

6:30 to 8:30 p.m.
Wilmington Middle School Auditorium
1700 Gulf Avenue
Wilmington, CA 90744

___________________________________________________
• LAUSD SCHOOL CONSTRUCTION BOND CITIZENS’ OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE:

Meets 10AM Wednesday July 21st
in the Board Room @ LAUSD HQ
333 S. Beaudry Street.
Los Angeles, 90010

Inconveniently located @ 3rd & Beaudry, West of the
Harbor Fwy. Park at designated parking lots on
Boyleston St., South and West of the Beaudry Building.
Validations are available in the rear of the meeting room
— which is thankfully located on the ground floor ...no
elevator rides required!

http://www.laschools.org/bond/ • Phone: 212.241.4700
____________________________________________________
• LAUSD FACILITIES COMMUNITY OUTREACH CALENDAR:
http://www.laschools.org/happenings/
Phone: 213.633.7616


• LAUSD BOARD OF EDUCATION & COMMITTEES MEETING CALENDAR



4LAKids Book Club for June & July –CHOOSING EXCELLENCE: “Good Enough” Schools Are Not Good Enough
John Merrow - the documentary filmmaker and
corespondent behind the Merrow Report series of
education broadcasts on NPR and PBS - spoke to the
California State PTA convention last month about his take
on public education issues. Much of what he said was
reported a month ago in 4LAKids (see: May 9th: “NOTES
FROM THE CALIFORNIA STATE PTA CONVENTION
& PARENT SYMPOSIUM IN LONG BEACH”)

Merrow’s thinking is further developed in CHOOSING
EXCELLENCE (Scarecrow Press, 207pp) — first
published in 2001 but is still very applicable today. Some of
his thoughts re: charter schools (which at the time were
totally unproved) probably need reworking as the data
becomes clearer – but his take is 98% on!

(‘Choice’ in LAUSD means particpation in the magnet
school program - the ultimate choice is often made by a
lottery – ‘choice’ becomes a matter of chance!)

“Choice” has become a political buzzword in education,
often it really means school vouchers and the privatization
of public education. Not here. Merrow’s call is for
nothing-less-than excellence in education, and his mantra
that “‘Good Enough’ Schools Are Never Good Enough”
resonates.

His critique of multiple choice standardized tests, his
description of the roles of parents, students and educators,
and his premise that excellence is a choice parents must
make – and his step-by-step guide on how to make the
choices – are well worth the read.

This is good stuff! —smf


Get CHOOSING EXCELLENCE from your local library, bookstore - or order it by clicking here.



What can YOU do?
• E-mail, call or write your school board member. Or your city councilperson, mayor, assemblyperson, state senator, the governor, member of congress, senator - or the president. Tell them what you really think.
• Open the dialogue. Write a letter to the editor. Circulate these thoughts. Talk to the principal and teachers at your local school.
• Speak with your friends, neighbors and coworkers. Stay on top of education issues. Don't take my word for it!
• Get involved at your neighborhood school. Join your PTA. Serve on a School Site Council. Be there for a child.
• Vote.


Contact your school board member




Scott Folsom is a parent and parent leader in LAUSD. He is Vice President for Education in Los Angeles 10th District PTSA and represents PTA on the LAUSD Construction Bond Citizen's Oversight Committee. He serves on various school district advisory and policy committees and is a PTA officer and governance council member at two LAUSD schools. He is also the elected Youth & Education boardmember on the Arroyo Seco Neighborhood Council.
• In this forum his opinions are his own and your opinions and feedback are invited.
• This and past Issues are available – with interactive feedback — at http://4lakids.blogspot.com/
• To SUBSCRIBE e-mail: 4LAKids-subscribe@topica.email-publisher.com - or -TO ADD YOUR OR ANOTHER'S NAME TO THE 4LAKids SUBCRIPTION LIST E-MAIL smfolsom@aol.com with "SUBSCRIBE" AS THE SUBJECT. Thank you.