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| 4LAKids Special: Tuesday, June 27, 2006 |  | | | In This Issue: | | • | HELP STOP AB 1381 - THE LAUSD TAKEOVER BILL! | | | • | LAUSD PARENTS AGAINST TAKEOVER Do we really want to our schools to be run like a city department or the MTA? That is what the Mayor said will happen! | | | • | What kind if whine goes w/that? YOU'RE SITTING NEXT TO U.S. EDUCATION SECRETARY MARGARET SPELLINGS AT A DINNER PARTY. WHAT DO YOU SAY TO HER? | | | • | What can YOU do? | |
Featured Links: | | | | You are probably getting tired of hearing from 4LAKids on the issue of Mayoral Takeover and/or Control of LAUSD – I am getting tired of ranting about it.
This issue coulda/woulda/shoulda been solved a week ago Monday.
By all rights the Mayor ought to have been firmly but politely turned away by the legislature as his efforts to gain control of LAUSD began to lose support. And that time was the perfect opportunity for all the right folk to engage: Parents, Teachers, the School Board, Local Government, the Mayor, Businesspeople and the Greater Community. We could've found common ground, a renewed purpose and a new superintendent for the District.
A great new wonderful tomorrow was narrowly avoided.
Instead a deal was forged in a Sacramento back room (or maybe behind a closed door in a front room) between the teacher's union leadership and the mayor to accomplish their shared aims at the expense (or at least in the absence) of the other partners they claim to have and represent.
Strange bedfellows indeed: The Broad Foundation/Riordan Coalition for Kids supported mayor's team – the very ones who begat the current reform régime and brought Roy Romer, scripted learning, periodic assessments, learning walks and centralized command-and-control to LAUSD …and UTLA, their boogyman-in-chief opponents.
Both sides (which are now - sans Roy - the same side) say it isn't about the Money or the Power. But be assured: It isn't about kids, parents or empowering school site decision making. And it isn't really about reducing the bureaucracy.
Bob Sipchen in his LATimes School Me! column (4LAKIDS:6/26/06)tells of the Pacific Dining Car meeting observed between UTLA President Duffy and Robin Kramer – the mayor's chief of staff on-loan-from-the-Broad Foundation. UTLA bristles, a chance meeting – nothing more. Except in politics Perception is Reality – and the meeting was quite real. And the outcome is the battle we now face.
• The best those who favor a elected board-of-education, accountable to the people ….the kind that is guaranteed under the State Constitution to every (other) school district in the state – is for lawmakers to face facts and send this legislation to where bad legislation goes. That can happen as soon as tomorrow – but the Senate Education Committee is going to want to "send a message" to LAUSD to shape up – so that prob'ly ain't gonna happen!
• The next best that can happen is for the Senate Education Committee to order a series of public hearings throughout greater Los Angeles. That would "send a message" to BOTH the Mayor and The Board of Ed and at least would allow public input and some media face time and sound bytes for the politicos.
• In all likelihood the Senate Ed Committee will vote AB 1381 out, sending The Big Message. The Legislative Analyst will rule on its constitutionality or lack therof, the losing side will find an attorney to say the leg analyst needs to go back to law school …and the sorry mess will play out in the halls of Sacramento – four hundred miles from where real people really care about the outcome.
• The bill failing is the really the only acceptable outcome – save Fabian Nuñez amending it back to its original language about school gardens and nutrition! If it passes 1381 will face court challenges – and even though the bill says in its language that it is constitutional, saying it don't make it so. —smf
HELP STOP AB 1381 - THE LAUSD TAKEOVER BILL!
The following is the text of the letter that CALIFORNIA SCHOOL BOARDS ASSOCIATION sent to the members of the Senate Education Committee on June 23, 2006. Copies of the letter were also sent to the Democratic and Republican leadership in both houses and the Governor.
Dear Senator Scott:
The California School Boards Association (CSBA), which represents nearly 1,000 school districts and county boards of education statewide, is strongly opposed to AB 1381 (Nunez), as amended on June 21. This bill would shift authority for much of the governance of the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) from the elected school board to the mayor of Los Angeles and his or her sanctioned superintendent. Our concerns with the bill are as follows:
IT WOULD REDUCE—NOT INCREASE—ACCOUNTABILITY. Under AB 1381, LAUSD would be governed by a four-headed Hydra consisting of the elected governing board, a superintendent whose appointment would be subject to approval by the mayor, the mayor himself, and a Council of Mayors. Authority for the approval of budgets, fiscal management, collective bargaining, personnel decisions, facilities, and other matters would be split among the four heads. In addition, a fifth entity, “The Los Angeles Mayor’s Community Partnership for School Excellence,” (Community Partnership) would have “oversight” over three clusters of schools. “Oversight” is not defined, and the bill does not specify the boundaries (if any) between the responsibility of the Community Partnership and the responsibility of the district with respect to these schools.
All of this would result in a complex spider’s web of administrative and managerial confusion in which accountability would be blurred at best and nonexistent at worst. It’s no wonder the LA Times concluded that “this deal spreads responsibility so thin that it’s hard to know who has it.” Under AB 1381, the district would become a virtual Petri dish for passing the buck.
IT DISENFRANCHISES FAMILIES AND VOTERS. By stripping authority away from the elected school board, voters will have their voices weakened. The 20 percent of LAUSD families that live outside of the City of Los Angeles—and therefore do not vote for the mayor—will be completely disenfranchised. The Council of Mayors is a weak substitute for true representation, because, with votes proportional to each city’s enrollment in LAUSD, the Los Angeles mayor would have 80 percent of the votes.
IT WOULD DISRUPT A SIX-YEAR TREND OF IMPRESSIVE STUDENT GAINS IN LAUSD. Contrary to conventional wisdom and much of the rhetoric surrounding this issue, LAUSD has outperformed not only other urban districts in California but the state as a whole in terms of improvements on the state’s Academic Performance Index. LAUSD has achieved these impressive results despite serving a student population that has higher risk factors than students elsewhere in California, such as increased homelessness, poverty, hunger, undiagnosed and/or untreated health problems, and a greater likelihood to be English language learners. The changes contained in AB 1381 are likely to be highly disruptive and run the risk of slowing—or even reversing—the gains that have already been realized.
IT CREATES CONFLICTS OF INTEREST. Especially with respect to facilities and litigation, AB 1381 gives the mayor or his/her superintendent carte blanche over matters where the city and school district might come into conflict. Decisions regarding the selection of new school sites, for example, are often the subject of intense negotiations between school districts and cities. The outcomes of these negotiations typically contain compromises in which the interests of the district’s students and families are balanced against the interests of the city. By shifting all authority for such decisions to the mayor, no one will have responsibility for standing up for the students and their families—or the authority to do so.
IT EXPANDS THE SCOPE OF COLLECTIVE BARGAINING. AB 1381 provides that, with respect to the clusters of schools overseen by the Community Partnership, “teachers and parents are full partners in the decisions that affect the schools.” Elsewhere (Section 35931 [a]), the bill provides that “employee organizations” shall share oversight as part of the Community Partnership. Taken together, these provide an even greater expansion of the scope of collective bargaining than was contained in AB 2160 (Goldberg) several years ago.
IT IS POOR EDUCATIONAL POLICY. School site decision making is a popular mantra, but its viability in the real world is not without limits. The striking success that LAUSD has realized over the past several years is due in large part to standardizing a district-wide curriculum and providing instructional materials and professional development around that curriculum. The students in LAUSD are highly transient. In many schools, more than half of the students in attendance at the beginning of the year are in a different school at the end of the year. Therefore, it is vitally important for student success that there be some consistency between the curriculum, instruction, and materials between schools so that when students (and sometimes teachers) move from school to school there is continuity in their educational experience.
AB 1381 would disrupt this continuity by allowing teachers at each school site to select that school’s instructional materials, curriculum, and methods of instruction. We know that this disruption has a negative effect on the achievement of students who experience it.
For these reasons, CSBA strongly opposes AB 1381 (Nunez) and respectfully urges your “NO” vote on this measure. If you have any questions about our position, please feel free to call me at 325-4020.
Sincerely,
Richard W. Pratt
Assistant Executive Director
Governmental Relations
LAUSD PARENTS AGAINST TAKEOVER Do we really want to our schools to be run like a city department or the MTA? That is what the Mayor said will happen!
The City Hall of takeover of our schools is a back-room deal between the Mayor and the teachers’ union. Parents, employees, rank and file teachers, principals, School Board members, legislators, and local elected officials were left out of this plan.
The future of over 700,000 children is at stake! Our kids are too important for a plan that will be rushed through the legislative process and receive little public input or analysis.
The people who will be affected most by this bill – students, parents, classroom teachers, and principals – should weigh in before any changes are adopted. Something this important requires thoughtful deliberation.
THERE ARE NO SPECIFICS IN THIS PLAN! What does the Mayor plan to do about students with Special Needs? He called them leftovers in his plan and HE HAS STILL SAID NOTHING ABOUT THEM!
Even worse, this bill is exactly the opposite of what the Mayor promised to do. Instead of more accountability, creates a bureaucratic maze with a: Board of Education, Superintendent, Mayor of Los Angeles, 26 member Council of Mayors, and the Mayor’s Community Partnership for School Excellence.
When our kids are having trouble in school, who are we supposed to call?
Parents must speak for our kids! Call your elected officials today! Make sure your State Senators, Assemblymembers, and Councilmembers hear from parents! The Senate Education Committee will be the first to act on this bill. Their numbers are below. Attached is a list of other elected officials in the LAUSD service area. Make your voice heard!
Senate Education Committee Members
Senator Jack Scott (Chair) 916-651-4021
Senator Abel Maldonado (Vice-Chair) 916-651-4015
Senator Elaine Alquist 916-651-4013
Senator Jeff Denham 916-651-4012
Senator Alan Lowenthal 916-651-4027
Senator Bill Morrow 916-651-4038
Senator Gloria Romero 916-651-4024
Senator Joe Simitian 916-651-4011
Senator Nell Soto 916-651-4032
Senator Jackie Speier 916-651-4008
Senator Tom Torlakson 916-651-4007
___________________
smf notes: With apologies to the author, this is not a "CITY HALL TAKEOVER" …because no part of City Hall EXCEPT THE MAYOR — not the City Council, City Controller, City Attorney, Rec & Parks, Libraries, Health Department, Commission on Youth and their Families, LAPD …or any other city agency has any role, accountability or oversight in this power grab. And any time, effort or expense made by the mayor or his staff or any city agency (or the mayors, staffs and agencies of the 26 other "Council of Mayors") on behalf of LAUSD must be by law reimbursed by LAUSD.
What kind if whine goes w/that? YOU'RE SITTING NEXT TO U.S. EDUCATION SECRETARY MARGARET SPELLINGS AT A DINNER PARTY. WHAT DO YOU SAY TO HER?
• I'd ask why legislation such as the No Child Left Behind Act is passed without any financial support. The NCLB makes demands of educational systems, yet President Bush continues to cut educational funding, especially in the area of technology. I'd ask, "Are you concerned about America being so behind in technology?"
JOY BURROUGHS
COMPUTER TEACHER, HOLBROOK JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL
HOLBROOK, ARIZONA
• I would tell her that until the federal government uses grassroots educators to formulate policy and direction for education, we will continue to experience mediocrity. Politicians may have the best of intentions, but they do not have the expertise to design and formulate sound education policy that will make a difference. The key is to let educators design the policy for our educational system and have politicians focus their energies on making decisions for today that ensure a sound educational system ten years into the future.
GREGORY THOMPSON
HISTORY TEACHER, COLLEGE COUNSELOR
MADISON COUNTRY DAY SCHOOL
WAUNAKEE,WISCONSIN
• "What issues are you most passionate about in education?" "How have your educational experiences shaped your vision for education today?" "What do you think education will look like in 2030?" "What is your favorite store to shop in?"
CATHY ZAVALA
PROJECT LEAD, POWERSCHOOL
KING CITY UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT, REEDLEY, CALIFORNIA
• I would talk about how teachers are accountable for so much more than classroom instruction, including counseling, mentoring, and nursing. I would discuss their accountability and that of students, and point out that parent accountability is left out of the circle of education.
I would share studies of meetings for which 2,000 letters have been sent home, followed by reminder phone calls, and only 125 parents attend.
I would discuss special education teachers who work with students with no measurable IQ and feed them with tubes and change their diapers and are left out of incentive systems because their students don't participate in the state assessment.
Also, we are so worried about numbers and scores that we've lost sight of student-teacher ratios and necessary materials and technology for the classrooms.
I'm not sure the secretary would want to sit next to me for very long, but I would try to discuss the reality of teaching rather than blame the teacher, and fix the problem. Teaching is a group effort that requires student, parent, and teacher accountability.
CHARLOTTE SIMPSON
TEACHER, SPECIAL EDUCATION DEPT. CHAIR
HASTINGS HIGH SCHOOL
HOUSTON,TEXAS
• I'd tell her to keep funding technology and bring back the fine arts! We must prepare our students to live and work in the twenty-first century. The resources to meet this need must be available -- not on a special-use or sign-out basis but as natural, integral educational components. We need to encourage and challenge our students to become creative, innovative thinkers, designers, and consumers. The classroom cannot be restricted to a room with walls and maybe a few windows. The world of information and research needs to be the driving force. Education in the arts improves skills in academic core areas. Students need a well-rounded education.
DIANA ACKLEY
INSTRUCTIONAL-TECHNOLOGY RESOURCE TEACHER
KANSAS CITY MISSOURI SCHOOL DISTRICT, KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI
• I'd tell her states need to fund programs and pay increases, and I'd note that they must be used for that purpose, and not for administrators' raises.
LINDA YANCEY
TECHNOLOGY TEACHER AND NETWORK COORDINATOR
MORIARTY SCHOOLS, MORIARTY, NEW MEXICO
• "Tell me about the best teacher you ever had."
JOE GERZINA
EDUCATIONAL CONSULTANT
OIL CITY, PENNSYLVANIA
• I'd ask, "Have schools instituted a comprehensive data-security plan that includes off-site backups? If so, where are the best examples? Is there a manual for this? If not, will they, and how will you help them do that?" This seem important to me, given the situation resulting from Hurricane Katrina and tornadoes and other natural events.
BARRIE JO PRICE
PROFESSOR, INSTITUTE FOR INTERACTIVE TECHNOLOGY
UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA,TUSCALOOSA,ALABAMA
• "Where are all the computers?"
MILLIE ERVIN
SUBSTITUTE TEACHER
HUMBLE INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT
HUMBLE,TEXAS
• I'd say, "Why are you not fighting for full funding of the federal education laws? Why do you not make the Washington, DC, public schools a model of excellence in urban education? After all, Congress votes the budget for the schools in DC, and you have a major voice in what that budget should be! You should put public education as the top priority in the budget that goes before Congress, as the children are our future!"
RICHARD GOODMAN
RETIRED EDUCATOR
HAMPTON, NEW HAMPSHIRE
• I'd say, "Education reform isn't really hard. The concepts are straightforward and really quite simple. The problem lies in the politics of it all. The U.S. Department of Education holds our future in its mitts, and right now it is seriously dropping the ball."
MARYROSE HART
EARLY-CHILDHOOD EDUCATOR/ WRITER
WESTCHESTER COUNTY, NEW YORK
What can YOU do?
►CALL THE MEMBERS OF THE SENATE EDUCATION COMMITTEE (numbers above). If they are not going to oppose this bill ask them AT THE VERY LEAST to hold a series of public hearings throughout greater Los Angeles on this legislation.
►CONTACT YOUR ASSEMBLYPERSON AND STATE SENATOR [link below to find them]. Tell them what you think about their wasting their time, effort and the taxpayer's money on the mayor's attempt at takeover or makeover – an effort that is patently unconstitutional and will never survive a court challenge. Their time, the mayor's time, the board of education's time – all of our time, thinking and hard work - is better spent working together rather than at odds to continue and support the very real efforts at reform already begun. Their time is better spent helping LAUSD find a new superintendent, guaranteeing an improved funding stream for all California schools and helping kids in the classroom, on the playground; during, before and after school.
• LAUSD ASSEMBLY DELEGATION
Assemblymember.Richman@assembly.ca.gov
Assemblymember.Montanez@assembly.ca.gov
Assemblymember.Levine@assembly.ca.gov
Assemblymember.Pavley@assembly.ca.gov
Assemblymember.Koretz@assembly.ca.gov
Assemblymember.Frommer@assembly.ca.gov
Assemblymember.Liu@assembly.ca.gov
Assemblymember.Goldberg@assembly.ca.gov
Assemblymember.Nunez@assembly.ca.gov
Assemblymember.Bass@assembly.ca.gov
Assemblymember.Ridley-Thomas@assembly.ca.gov
Assemblymember.Chu@assembly.ca.gov
Assemblymember.DeLaTorre@assembly.ca.gov
Assemblymember.Richman@assembly.ca.gov
Assemblymember.Horton@assembly.ca.gov
Assemblymember.Lieu@assembly.ca.gov
Assemblymember.Karnette@assembly.ca.gov
Assemblymember.Oropeza@assembly.ca.gov
• LAUSD SENATE DELEGATION
Senator.Alarcon@senate.ca.gov
Senator.Scott@senate.ca.gov
Senator.Cedillo@senate.ca.gov
Senator.Kuehl@senate.ca.gov
Senator.Romero@senate.ca.gov
Senator.Vincent@senate.ca.gov
Senator.Murray@senate.ca.gov
Senator.Lowenthal@senate.ca.gov
Senator.Bowen@senate.ca.gov
Senator.Escutia@senate.ca.gov
• TO DETERMINE WHO YOUR ASSEMBLYPERSON & SENATOR IS & GET THEIR ADDRESS PHONE & FAX NUMBERS:
http://192.234.213.69/smapsearch/framepage.asp
• E-mail, call or write your school board member:
Marlene.Canter@lausd.net • 213-241-6387
- office vacant - • 213-241-6180
Julie.Korenstein@lausd.net • 213-241-6388
Marguerite.LaMotte@lausd.net • 213-241-6382
Mike.Lansing@lausd.net • 213-241-6385
Jon.Lauritzen@lausd.net • 213-241-6386
David.Tokofsky@lausd.net • 213-241-6383
...or your city councilperson, mayor, the governor, member of congress, senator - or the president. Tell them what you really think!
Call or e-mail Governor Schwarzenegger: 213-897-0322 e-mail: http://www.govmail.ca.gov/
• 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.
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| Scott Folsom is a parent and parent leader in LAUSD. He is President of Los Angeles 10th District PTSA and represents PTA as Vice-chair the LAUSD Construction Bond Citizen's Oversight Committee. He serves on various school district advisory and policy committees and is a PTA officer and/or governance council member at three 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. Quoted and/or cited content copyright © the original author and/or publisher. All other material copyright © 4LAKids.
• FAIR USE NOTICE: This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. 4LAKids makes such material available in an effort to advance understanding of education issues vital to parents, teachers, students and community members in a democracy. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
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