In This Issue:  | | • | COLLEGE BOUND OFFERS TEENS PATH TO SUCCESS | | | • | DISPATCHES FROM THE FRONT | | | • | U.S. ED SECRETARY PRAISES CALIFORNIA'S NO CHILD PLAN + NOT GIVING UP: 'YEAR OF EDUCATION' — TEMPERED BY REALISM | | | • | SCHWARZENEGGER PROPOSES TO BORROW HIS WAY TO BALANCED BUDGET + BUDGET ANALYST CRITICIZES SCHWARZENEGGER'S PLAN | | | • | LAUSD STAFFING LEVELS + CLASS SIZE | | | • | HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T FIT: The Rest of the Stories from Other Sources | | | • | VOLUNTEERS NEEDED FOR LAUSD ACADEMIC DECATHLON! + EVENTS: Coming up next week... | | | • | What can YOU do? | |
Featured Links: | | | | COLLEGE BOUND OFFERS TEENS PATH TO SUCCESS
by Steve Lopez from the Los Angeles Times
January 16, 2008 — She was headed down the wrong path and moving fast.
A 1.0 GPA in her first year of high school.
Zero ambition.
No role model.
No time for anything but taking care of younger siblings for an overworked mother who wasn't always around.
This story is about how Evelynn Santiago finally found her smile, a broad, lit-from-within glow that came from jumping all those hurdles.
The story begins, actually, with Mike Lansing looking out the window in San Pedro a few years back and seeing members of his Boys & Girls Club goofing off in the street when the nearby high school was in session.
"What's the dropout rate?" the former L.A. Unified school board member asked an aide.
About 50% of the kids attending the club don't finish high school, he was told.
"Then we're doing something wrong," said Lansing, who started the College Bound program in 2002.
"We had four seniors in the program the first year," says director Yesenia Aguilar. "And then eight the following year. And then 28. And then 44, and now it's just exploded. We have over 130 seniors this year."
The walls of College Bound's study room are plastered with college pennants. After-school tutoring and guidance are free, and the kids keep coming -- now about 500 of them in sixth through 12th grades. When kids get their college acceptance letters, their names and photos go up on a wall of fame.
Kids who go through College Bound are much more likely to finish high school. Their SAT scores are 78 points higher on average than non-participants'. And 86% of the seniors in the program have gone on to two- or four-year colleges.
Like Evelynn Santiago.
Evelynn was encouraged to forget about school so she could help out more at home, according to the grandmother who eventually took her in.
"I pretty much gave up," says Evelynn. Then she heard about College Bound.
"All we did was give her a path," Aguilar says.
This meant telling Evelynn she was intelligent and capable and free to decide for herself whether she wanted to graduate from high school and do something with her life other than settle for disappointment.
Aguilar drew up a list of the courses Evelynn needed in her last three years of high school and kept her on track. Evelynn feared that when her family moved to Harbor City, she'd have to drop out of the program. But the Boys & Girls Club athletic director, who had known her since she began hanging around the club as a 10-year-old, volunteered to drive her to and from College Bound each day.
"I had a similar family situation growing up," says Justin Owens, whose parents split up when he was young. "I think when she first had someone believe in her, that's when she started to turn it around."
As her 15th birthday approached, Evelynn had no doubt who should be her quinceañera godfather.
"I was kind of surprised because I didn't know I had meant that much to her," says Owens, who is African American.
He admits to having been nervous, because he didn't speak a word of Spanish, let alone know anything about the coming-of-age celebration. But he picked up enough of the language to get through the ceremony and be there for Evelynn.
"I felt like it was a responsibility I wanted, and it has helped me tremendously," says Owens, 25. "Until then in my life, it was always about me."
Evelynn says she worked harder than she ever had in school, and in 11th grade at Narbonne High in Harbor City, she began believing she might make it.
"I said, 'I'm going to do it. I'm going to go to college.' "
Five of the six schools she applied to last year were hours from Los Angeles. Evelynn wanted no family distractions.
But the days and weeks went by without a response from any of the colleges.
She waited, nervously, and waited some more. And finally she had a hunch.
Someone was tossing her mail before she could see it. Perhaps someone who wanted her to forgo college and stay home to help raise her younger siblings.
Evelynn asked the colleges to please send all correspondence to Aguilar's home, and last spring, the letters began arriving from college admissions offices in the California State University system.
Accepted. Accepted. Accepted. Accepted. Accepted. Accepted.
She was six for six.
Before making up her mind, she enrolled in a pre-college course at Sonoma State. Aguilar took her to catch the bus, and when they realized they had missed a connection, Justin Owens and another Boys & Girls Club employee, Johnny Walter, drove Evelynn all the way up north, just beating the clock to get her there in time.
Sonoma State was one of the schools that had accepted Evelynn, and she liked the feel of the place during that weeklong summer program.
This was it, she told herself. Nice campus, safe distance from home.
She chose Sonoma State over the other schools and began her freshman year in September, planning to major in criminal justice and dreaming of one day going on to law school.
"I absolutely love it," says Evelynn, who is home now on holiday break. She's spent her vacation working at a job where she's a natural.
She's a tutor in the College Bound program.
"I'm very proud of her," Owens says. "She's accomplished so much in a short time, and it proves that no matter what you have going on in your life, you can make it if you work hard and stay focused."
Bob DiPietro, principal of San Pedro High, says he has "nothing but positive things to say" about College Bound and its effect on his students. He'd like to be providing the service himself, but with more than 400 students per high school counselor, "and more education cuts looming," he needs help.
So does Lansing, whose fundraising mission never ends. He's trying to get College Bound expanded to the 26 other Boys & Girls Clubs that serve about 100,000 youths in the Los Angeles area, and anyone who wants to know more can see a video at www.bgclaharbor.org.
One day last week, before the high school kids began crowding into the room with all the college pennants, Evelynn and I drove over to see the grandmother she's now staying with near the Boys & Girls Club.
Maria Rivas had a stroke several years ago, but she couldn't afford to let it keep her down. She rides a bike every day to a physically demanding, low-paying job as a caretaker at a mental health center. As we sat in her kitchen, she talked about her move up from Mexico many years ago in search of a better life, and about the much-too-early pregnancy that put Evelynn's mother in a lifelong bind.
Evelynn will do better, Rivas said as afternoon light poured through the window. And a lot of the thanks, she said, goes to those good people who gave her granddaughter a push at the Boys & Girls Club. She said they have an open invitation any time they want a home-cooked meal.
▲ Thank you Steve Lopez for telling this story. Thank you Mike Lansing and Yesenia Aguilar and Justin Owens and Johnnie Walter and Bob DiPietro; you are that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens that Margaret Mead never doubted could change the world —The creative dedicated minority that Dr. King said almost always has made the world better. And to Evelynn Santaigo and Maria Rivas: Thank you for dreaming the American Dream and daring to live it.
Dream onward! - smf
DISPATCHES FROM THE FRONT
California State Board of Education
Public Meeting Regarding Corrective Action Plans under
No Child Left Behind
Thursday, January 17, 2008, from 1 – 4 pm
Los Angeles County Education Center, Downey, CA
AGENDA: The purpose of this meeting is to enable members of the State Board of Education to hear from school districts and their communities regarding the framework for corrective actions under No Child Left Behind and its potential impact on them. This is one of three meetings that State Board of Education members will hold in California regionally this week, and the general public may also attend. There will be additional opportunities for public input before the Board takes action on this matter.
State Board of Education Members Presiding
Ted Mitchell, President
Kenneth A. Noonan, Immediate Past President
also present: State School Board Interim Executive Director Gary Borden and members of the Governor's education staff
• Welcome and Introductions
• Discussion of Corrective Actions for Local Educational Agencies in Year 3 of Program Improvement under No Child Left Behind
____________________________________________
I attended this meeting in my capacity as Education VP of Tenth District PTA and a member of the LAUSD Superintendent's High Priority Schools Task Force.
The meeting was well attended, with school boardmembers, superintendents, assistant superintendents, senior staff and a smattering of parents from the PIY3 Districts in Southern California from as far away as Kern, Riverside and Diego Counties. LAUSD was represented by Senior Deputy Superintendent Donnalyn Jaque-Anton, Acting Chief Instructional Officer Robert Schiller, Julian Gorgoni from the legislative office, Zella Knight from the DAC and four other parents from the Parent Collaborative.
The meeting was not recorded and official minutes were not kept. Though it was a public meeting no one identified themselves as being from the press
The meeting ran long - until 5 o'clock, many stayed to the bitter end.
President Mitchell and Boardmember Noonan set out some parameters for discussion and laid out some of the Board's thinking in the introduction - describing the four levels of intervention the board anticipated - mandated by NCLB.
The state board's role was set in the law: Intervention is mandated under NCLB.
The board members promised all that each intervention for each of the 98 Districts (representing one third of California schoolchildren) would be specific to that district and its unique situation - there will be no one size fits all sanctions! The word "sanction" itself was not be used — but of course that was the word used in the official letters identifying the 98 districts - it was used in in testimony ...if not by the boardmembers.
FOUR LEVELS OF INTERVENTION, FROM MOST TO LEAST STRINGENT
1. Imposition of a DEIT (or DEITplus) [District Evaluation and Intervention Team] from Sacramento.
2. Creation of a DEIT in collaboration between the District, County Office and Sacramento.
3. A rewriting and revision of the Districts LEA (Local Educational Agency) Plan in cahoots with an outside provider.
4. Cooperative implementation of the existing LEA Plan in cahoots with an outside provider.
TIME LINES
1. There will be one additional informal meeting like this one at the Superindent's Conference in Monterey next week - by statute this must be a public meeting.
2. All districts are encouraged to submit written information.
3. There will be a full meeting of the Board for discussion - either at the next scheduled board meeting or at a special meeting.
4. Once the Board decides on corrective actions superintendents will be contacted by telephone and given a chance to respond.
5. The Board will publish the intervention plans for a thirty day public discussion.
6. The Board will meet and vote on implementation based on the comment and the implementation can begin.
The testimony that followed was insightful and revealing - and pretty well stayed on a common theme.
• Unique³. Every District is unique, in a unique situation and faces unique challenges.
• Most school districts missed their goals by a small amount and only by a couple of criteria or sub groups. The most prevalent were:
• English Language Learner scores
• Special Ed/Children with Disabilities
– To a lesser extent:
* Participation rate by subgroup.
* Graduation rate
• The incompatibility of two different evaluation systems: AYP v. API/Benchmarks v. Growth/Federal v. State/Standards v. Progress/Apples v. Oranges as models confuses and confounds almost everyone.
• There are two ten-ton gorillas in the room that impede progress and loom over the entire process:
* THE STATE BUDGET CRISIS and impending across-the-board funding cuts, this year and next.
* NCLB'S UNFUNDED MANDATE imposes additional financial hardship. The State has $29 million put away for this implementation - that's $295,000 per PI Year 3 District.
> There was advocacy for California joining the lawsuit in the US Sixth District (Pontiac v. Spellings) - and not just from me - which challenges the unfunded mandate of NCLB.
> The State Board of Ed seems unwilling to go there.
• Much was made of California's huge number of English language Learners …and the Catch 22 that the federal law actually punishes success by not counting ELL students who become proficient in the formula they use to measure "success"
• The revolving door/absence of longevity of superintendents and principals places many players on the low end of the learning curve.
• There is a unrealistic challenge of 63 of the 98 identified PI Year 3 Districts coming up with ESEA Title One (Education for Disadvantaged Students) plans at the same time as ESEA Title Three plans (Language Instruction for Limited English Proficient and Immigrant Students) — when the two are often the same challenge but require different specific solutions.
CONCLUSION
• We are at the metaphorical meeting of Cinderella and Hippocrates, seeking to find the perfect solution that fits each individual district with the caveat: "First, do no harm"
• Most of the districts desire help and support.
• Whatever the solutions, we must look for reform through an instruction lens, not a compliance lens.
• Interveners must be qualified, experienced and expert.
• Corrective actions must be targeted thematically and specifically.
• Collateral damage and unintended consequences must be anticipated and avoided.
• The state itself must do better - NCLB is data driven, CDE's data collection and evaluation - and therefore support - is sorely lacking.
• A data system to identify lessons learned and best practices is needed.
• Researchers must be engaged.
• We are chasing a receding target as the funding vanishes.
• The State Board is committed to providing flexibility in funding and time.
• Reform begun and progress made must be recognized.
• Preschool opportunities must be increased
▲MY CONCLUSION
It becomes obvious that the Corrective Actions/Sanctions will be driven by external entities; both County Offices of Education and private and public for-profit and non-profit providers ("State Approved DAIT Provider Organizations") - more of the "applying business school models/practices and tools to public education" so popular with NCLB reformers. The guarantee is that someone will make money; the hope is that some schools and districts will improve.
The 'carrot and stick' NCLB reform has failed already, it was failed when it was Rod Paige's Texas Miracle of testing and data/smoke and mirrors. Houston is still recovering from Paige's superintendency. When the federal government failed to fund NCLB it was doomed no matter how well-meant the intent. Even with adequate funding NCLB's goals of 100% success are impossible to realize no matter how noble.
One district claimed to have made the list of 98 for violating a business school management model: "The Case for 20-70-10" which creates performance categories of the top 20%, middle 70%, and bottom 10%, and then manages them "up or out" accordingly. Educators are neither assembly line factory workers nor drones in cubicles. Students are not widgets — they are the customer, not the product.
'Decimate' is the word from the Latin for this.
dec•i•mate
Pronunciation: ˈde-sə-ˌmāt
Function: transitive verb
Inflected Form(s): dec•i•mat•ed; dec•i•mat•ing
Etymology: Latin decimatus, past participle of decimare, from decimus tenth, from decem ten
Date: 1660
1: to select by lot and kill every tenth man of
2: to exact a tax of 10 percent from decimated Cavalier — John Dryden>
3 a: to reduce drastically especially in number decimated the population>
b: to cause great destruction or harm to decimated the city> decimated by recession>
- from Merriam-Webster Online
It is doubtful that Congress will reauthorize NCLB as we know it. If Congress were to reauthorize and fully fund NCLB the President would veto the funding. The federal court in Michigan has the funding piece in their sights.
Meanwhile, as the ship lists to starboard and rapidly takes on water, Secretary Spellings and Governor Schwarzenegger engaged in a "politics as unusual" love fest over the governor's plan (a deck chair realignment in the planning phase - see above) to shore up NCLB …which is disintegrating before our eyes! (see: U.S. ED SECRETARY PRAISES CALIFORNIA'S NO CHILD PLAN)
The vaunted Year of Education will be spent beginning what will be undone in the first year of the next administration in Washington.
That being said we need to do our up-and-walking level best for the kids who deserve far better. NCLB gave us disaggregated data; it gave us proof positive that the Achievement Gap exists - and defined how bad it is. I'm not fond of the speaker but agree with the sentiment: We cannot allow the soft bigotry of low expectations to succeed — the proper name for that success is failure.
Failure is not an option; success is the only standard.
¡Onward/Hasta adelante! - smf
_________________________________________________
"We should not be cutting funding for K-through-12 education. Who in the world in America thinks we have too much money invested in public education? This makes absolutely no sense." - John Edwards on the California Budget, Jan 17.
U.S. ED SECRETARY PRAISES CALIFORNIA'S NO CHILD PLAN + NOT GIVING UP: 'YEAR OF EDUCATION' — TEMPERED BY REALISM
• smf notes: I didn't write the "California's No Child Plan" headline …but that explains the declining enrollment in our schools! The SacBee editorial board says the governor's cutting the budget during his "Year of Ed" is not as contradictory as it might seem. Schwarzenegger admits that "we need to put money into education, as much as possible" — as he cuts the budget 10%. How unseemly does contradictory have to be to qualify?
__________________________________
► U.S. ED SECRETARY PRAISES CALIFORNIA'S NO CHILD PLAN
By JULIET WILLIAMS, Associated Press Writer | San Francisco Chronicle
January 19, 2008 — SACRAMENTO, (AP) — U.S. Education Secretary Margaret Spellings on Friday praised California's plan to hold 98 failing school districts accountable under the No Child Left Behind Act and pledged to allow states more flexibility in implementing the law.
Spellings, in San Diego to meet education and business leaders, talked with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger about his plan for the 98 California districts that face sanctions for the first time this year.
The governor has focused on his No Child Left Behind intervention plan as the state struggles with a $14.5 billion budget deficit, which has scuttled his larger plan for a year of education reform. It also forced him to propose cutting California's education budget by $4.8 billion.
The state's intervention plan would send teams of state experts into the districts to figure out what's not working and make varying changes.
Unlike previous initiatives in other states, California would implement a sliding scale of intervention actions depending on how poorly the districts have performed.
The most severe measures, such as replacing administrators or a state takeover, would be saved for districts that have consistently failed to raise achievement levels, particularly for black and Hispanic students.
"It is the raging fire in American education, this achievement gap that continues to plague us," Spellings told a business round-table at the San Diego Chamber of Commerce. "It's painful, it's uncomfortable to find out this stuff ... but we ought to have anxiety when only half our minority kids are getting out of high school on time."
The six-year-old federal law is credited with shining a light on the unequal quality of education. The 98 school districts listed as failing in California are those that have not met their benchmarks under the law for each of the past four years.
Other states also must take action against consistently underperforming school districts.
Spellings said the law is forcing schools to improve but conceded there have been problems, some of which will be addressed as Congress works to reauthorize it, perhaps this year.
Among the most promising changes, she said, has been the move to let more states measure the progress of individual students over time.
Under the current method, schools must compare different classes. For example, a fifth-grade class this year would be compared to the performance of the previous year's fifth-grade class in math and reading. School officials say that is an inaccurate measure and have sought to track individual students, although many states do not have enough data to do it.
But federal officials rejected California's approach, saying the state does not have an accurate way of tracking such progress. Spellings said new approaches must be rigorous and still aim to have all students proficient by 2014.
"We're going to have to pick up the pace. Any old growth every year is not going to get kids to grade level by 2014," she told the business forum.
Also Friday, Spellings sent a letter to states warning them they still must comply with the law, despite a recent court ruling allowing a lawsuit that challenges its funding.
She said her department will vigorously fight the Jan. 7 ruling by the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati, which revived a challenge to the federal law by allowing a lawsuit filed by school districts in three states and the nation's largest teachers union. The plaintiffs claim the No Child Left Behind law is an unfunded mandate.
"The Sixth Circuit's decision undermines the efforts we have made under NCLB to improve the education of our nation's children, particularly those children most in need," Spellings wrote to state education leaders. "If the decision stands, it would represent a fundamental shift in practice."
The Pontiac, Mich., school district, eight districts in Texas and Vermont, and National Education Association affiliates in several states filed the lawsuit. They argued that school districts should not have to comply with requirements that are not funded by the federal government.
__________________________________
►NOT GIVING UP: 'Year of Education' – tempered by realism
Sacramento Bee Editorial
Saturday, January 19, 2008 — Californians might be baffled by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's championing of 2008 as the "Year of Education" as he proposes to cut the education budget. But his approach is not as contradictory as it might seem.
Schwarzenegger sees a state budget shortfall of $14.5 billion as a "blip." And in fact, the current budget problem is small compared with the 1991 deficit during the tenure of Gov. Pete Wilson. The deficit is $14.5 billion of a $101 billion budget, compared with a $14.3 billion deficit of a $53 billion budget in 1991. Schwarzenegger believes all parties working together can solve the short-term problem without losing sight of the big issues facing the state.
So he's laid out a proposal for cuts, while saying he's open to other ideas: "If someone comes in with a better way, that's great. Let's find out what it is." He admits that "we need to put money into education, as much as possible." Let negotiations begin.
Schwarzenegger is straightforward that he wasn't able to launch as ambitious a rollout as he wanted for his 2008 Year of Education because the health care reform that he expected would be done in 2007 remains in negotiations. And, as he said Wednesday, you can't propose major education reforms, announce $4 billion in cuts and expect to get needed support from the education community.
So he sees 2008 as the year where California commits to education measures that have broad support: a world-class data system, a system for handling districts that persistently miss performance targets and creative public-private partnerships to address teacher shortages. Beyond that, he wants to use this year to bring all interested parties together to hammer out other reforms. Then, he says, we'll see a "big push" next year.
Despite the tough budget situation, Schwarzenegger's goals remain high for completing health care reform and launching an ambitious education agenda, a good thing for the long-term prosperity of the state. His approach is tempered by realism, but he's not giving up on bold solutions for California's education challenges. That's good news in a tough year.
SCHWARZENEGGER PROPOSES TO BORROW HIS WAY TO BALANCED BUDGET + BUDGET ANALYST CRITICIZES SCHWARZENEGGER'S PLAN
• smf opines: The legislature and the governor ignored Ms. Hill's warning that AB1381 was unconstitutional. Twice. This is a chance to see if the lesson was learned. In fairness, it may be a bit late for a legislative or budget analyst... we may have to send this poor sad puppy straight to the puzzle palace!
►SCHWARZENEGGER PROPOSES TO BORROW HIS WAY TO BALANCED BUDGET
Matthew Yi, San Francisco Chronicle Sacramento Bureau
Tuesday, January 15, 2008 — 04:00 PST Sacramento -- Despite deep cuts in Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposal to bridge the state's $14.5 billion deficit, nearly half of his budget-balancing plan involves borrowing money, deferring debt payments and counting future tax revenue, according to a report released Monday by the nonpartisan legislative analyst's office.
The governor is proposing to issue $3.3 billion in bonds, delay a scheduled early payment on debt worth $1.5 billion and shift $2 billion of tax revenue that would otherwise be counted in the 2009-10 fiscal year to the coming fiscal year, which begins July 1, the report says.
Legislative Analyst Elizabeth Hill questioned the shifting of revenues from one fiscal year to another.
"In our initial review, we have not yet been able to determine whether this proposal is a reasonable change in accounting practices or merely a convenient way to generate a one-time revenue bump," she wrote in her 23-page report released Monday.
H.D. Palmer, spokesman for the governor's Department of Finance, defended Schwarzenegger's plan, saying the $2 billion accounting change would simply bring the state's system of accounting in line with accounting principles largely used by publicly traded firms.
But some economists on Monday called it an accounting gimmick that wouldn't help solve the state's fiscal mess.
"This shows that even with the magnitude of the cuts that the governor has proposed, you can't solve the deficit with just the spending side of the budget," said Jean Ross, executive director of the California Budget Project.
Sen. Tom McClintock, R-Thousand Oaks, said that such accounting methods plus additional borrowing would only exacerbate the problems plaguing the state budget.
"It sets in motion events that will require even more painful cuts later precisely because of borrowing and accounting gimmicks," he said. "The first law of holes is very important. If you're in one, stop digging. That means stop borrowing, stop Enron-accounting ... and start dealing honestly with the budget."
Just how the governor and the Legislature will solve the fiscal crisis could have immediate impact on California's credit rating.
Fitch Ratings, a credit rating firm in New York, on Monday changed California from "stable outlook" to "rating watch negative," which is a warning to banks and investors that the state has identifiable risks that could potentially lead to lowering the state's current credit rating of "A+."
Most Republican lawmakers favor budget cuts over tax increases. And the governor's proposed spending plan has plenty of cuts across the board, including those that would result in closing 43 state parks, releasing tens of thousands of prisoners and taking billions of dollars from public schools.
But Democrats argue that slashing the budget alone will not be adequate to bridge the deficit.
Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez, D-Los Angeles, reiterated Monday that all options need to be considered, including closing tax loopholes and eliminating tax credits.
The legislative analyst's report "is more evidence that we should focus on a real and comprehensive approach that makes sure California's expenditures balance with revenues, and that our priorities balance with our values," Núñez said in a written statement.
The analyst also argued that another way to shave the budget deficit would be to cut this year's education budget to the minimum level required by Proposition 98, which sets school funding levels according to the state's revenue.
And with the state tax receipts faltering as a result of the slumping housing market and the overall economy, the state's Prop. 98 obligation is expected to be about $1.5 billion less than what was already approved when the governor signed the budget in August.
Hill said she believes the cuts are possible without hurting classroom instruction by either eliminating or delaying unspent education budget items.
But that's a significant chunk of the budget to overcome, said Kevin Gordon, an education lobbyist.
"There's no doubt that when (the legislative analyst) recommends trying to absorb $1.5 billion hit in the middle of the school year, that's going to send chills down the spine of every educator in this state," he said.
The legislative analyst's report also called the governor's proposal for a spending cap and to potentially expand his powers to make mid-year spending cuts "flawed," arguing that the Legislature should maintain the power to control the state's purse strings.
Department of Finance's Palmer disagreed.
"We think that the Legislature's role would actually be strengthened if the cap were adopted," he said, noting that under the terms of the proposal, the Legislature would be called on to identified areas of priority when cuts would need to be made.
"The Legislature would have the first crack at crafting the kinds of spending cuts to be made," he said.
Hill also said that the spending cap is not needed because most of the cuts could already be made if policymakers could agree.
But Palmer said the governor believes "fundamental reform" is needed.
___________________________________
►BUDGET ANALYST CRITICIZES SCHWARZENEGGER'S PLAN: Governor's proposal cuts too deeply, report says. Bond rating agency warns of possible downgrade.
By Evan Halper, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
January 15, 2008 — SACRAMENTO — The state's chief budget analyst warned Monday that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposals for closing a $14.5-billion budget gap fail to properly prioritize how the state should spend its money, use questionable accounting methods and would be unnecessarily disruptive to schools and community colleges.
Legislative Analyst Elizabeth G. Hill, whom Democratic and Republican legislators look to for unbiased advice on fiscal issues, is particularly critical of the governor's plan to spare almost no agency or program in calling for state spending to be cut immediately by 10%.
"It reflects little effort to prioritize and determine which state programs provide essential services or are most critical for California's future," Hill wrote in a report released Monday morning. She also said the proposed spending plan cuts too deeply into state services, and she called on the Legislature to offset some of the governor's suggested reductions by raising fees and taxes or by scaling back existing tax breaks.
The report is the Legislature's first assessment of the proposed budget that the governor unveiled Thursday. That blueprint, which covers the next 18 months, would rely on a series of deep reductions in government services to bring the state's books into balance.
An emergency proclamation the governor signed last week forces the Legislature to cut spending immediately. If legislators fail to act on the budget within 45 days, they will be required by law to stop all other legislative business until they do so.
Soon after Hill released her report, a major bond rating agency put the state on notice that it was at risk of a downgrade. Fitch Ratings, expressing concern that the Legislature would balk at the steep cuts advocated by the governor, said failure to take action to balance the budget soon could lead to a downgrade of California's rating on approximately $43 billion of outstanding debt.
Administration spokesman H.D. Palmer said the Fitch warning "is as clear a statement as I have seen that there will be consequences for inaction."
Palmer defended the governor's wish to cut across the board as a rational approach that allows the state to avoid eliminating any government services altogether and achieves its goal without burdening Californians with big tax increases.
"It is designed to protect essential services by spreading these reductions as broadly as possible," he said.
Hill's report, meanwhile, also takes aim at a proposal in the governor's budget to raid $2 billion in projected tax revenue next year that normally would be reserved for the fiscal 2009-2010 budget. She asks whether the plan is "a reasonable change in accounting practices or merely a convenient way to generate a one-time revenue bump."
Palmer said the federal government and other states already use the accounting method in question.
The governor's proposal to cut school funding by $4.4 billion -- more than $300 per student -- "has several shortcomings," Hill wrote.
Hill said the governor and legislators should take back $1.5 billion in extra cash that schools were allocated this year above what they are guaranteed under the state Constitution. That would automatically lower the amount guaranteed to schools next year without requiring legislators to suspend the spending formulas approved by voters.
School groups were skeptical that Hill's plan would be any better for them than the governor's, saying that both would cut too deep and ultimately hurt students.
"Either way you go about it, there is blood on the floor," said Kevin Gordon, a lobbyist for hundreds of school districts.
Hill was also critical of Schwarzenegger's proposal to put a cap on spending in years when state revenues soar and save that money in a rainy day fund. She described the plan, which would also give the governor unilateral power to make program cuts when the state budget falls out of balance, as a power grab.
It "represents a serious diminution of the Legislature's appropriation authority," she wrote.
Administration officials said the proposal would allow legislators first crack at making the cuts, giving the governor authority to act unilaterally only if lawmakers failed to reach a consensus.
And legislators should be prepared for the state's finances to get worse before they get better, Hill said. The economic forecasts that the administration used to make its revenue projections are already 2 months old, she noted, and there has been a lot of bad economic news in the meantime.
Reaction to her report in the Legislature was mixed. Democrats applauded Hill's rejection of across-the-board cuts and her call for more revenue. Republicans embraced the report's call for swift action but reiterated that they would block any proposal that included new taxes.
Assembly Budget Committee Vice Chairman Roger Niello (R-Fair Oaks) said: "Raising taxes to pay for Sacramento's poor spending choices is not the answer."
LAUSD STAFFING LEVELS + CLASS SIZE
As the budgeteers set to work to hack $450 million from the current LAUSD budget - and $4.5 billion-with-a-B from next year's - lets take a look a where we are now …or were as of February of last year - smf
THE CURRENT CLASS SIZE NORMS ARE:
Elementary Schools K-3 (All Schools) 20:1
Elementary Schools 4-6 (PHBAO* Schools) 30.5:1
Elementary Schools 4-6 (Desegregated Schools) 36:1
Middle Schools Academic Classes (PHBAO Schools) 32:1
Middle Schools Academic Classes (Desegregated Schools) 37.5:1
Middle Schools Non Academic Classes (All Schools) 40.5:1
High Schools 9-10 Academic Classes (PHBAO Schools) 32:1
High Schools 9-10 Academic Classes (Desegregated Schools) 37.5:1
High Schools 11-12 Academic Classes (All Schools) 40.5:1
High Schools 11-12 Non-Academic (All Schools) 40.5:1
* - smf: (PHBAO is Predominantly Hispanic, Black, Asian or Others. It is my favorite acronym to wrap political correctness around race. …if white folk are not "Others" what are we?)
SPECIAL EDUCATION TEACHERS AND ASSISTANTS – Assigned based on the needs of students. Class size depends on the nature and severity of the students’ disabilities.
SCHOOL ADMINISTRATORS – Assigned based on the type of school and enrollment. The Assistant Principal for Special Education is not included in the norm table below.
Elementary Schools 1-949 1 Administrator
Elementary 950-1,649 2 Administrators
Elementary 1,650-2,199 3 Administrators
Elementary 2,200+ 4 Administrators
Secondary 1-549 1 Administrator
Secondary 550-949 2 Administrators
Secondary 950-1,299 3 Administrators
Secondary 1,600-3,499 5 Administrators
Secondary 3,500+ 6 Administrators
OFFICE EMPLOYEES – Assigned based on type of school and enrollment. The norm for small secondary schools is under study.
Elementary Schools From 2 to 6 positions
Middle Schools From 5 to 11 positions
High Schools From 7 to 16 positions
CUSTODIAL NORMS – Assigned based on enrollment and square footage of the school site.
COUNSELORS – Assigned based on enrollment and TIIG status. New SB 1133 legislation provides extra funds and requires that selected high schools reduce their ratio to 300:1.
Middle School PHBAO From 1 to 8 positions
Middle School Desegretated From 1 to 6 positions
High School PHBAO From 1 to 10 positions
High School Desegregated From 1 to 6 positions
FOOD SERVICES – The Business Division determines how many staff are assigned to each site.
BUS DRIVERS – Assigned to routes not schools based on the number of students needing transportation in the special education, magnet, PWT, and Capacity Adjustment programs.Transportation is provided by both District and outside contractors.
LIBRARIANS – Assigned to every secondary school.
NURSES – Many schools purchase additional nursing time with their own funds. The District allocates:
Elementary Schools 1 day per week
Middle Schools 2 day per week
High Schools 3 days per week
SCHOOL POLICE
632 sworn officers
150 school safety officers.
Look back gentle readers: Look at those class sizes beyond K-3 in elementary, middle and high school. Consider that the NEA optimum is 15:1 K-12! Counselors are not expressed in terms oif student:counselor ratio but the most recent California average was 954:1. One nurse day a week in elementary? Luckilly kids are only sick or fall from the apparatus or need their prescription meds one day a week! Librarians - the teachers who teach in the most important classroom in the school are nonexistent in the budget for elementary. The School police would like to double their size to protect kids and schools, instead they will probably not get vacancies filled.
And Class Size Reduction was promised in the most recent UTLA Contract.
HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T FIT: The Rest of the Stories from Other Sources
►GRADUATING SENIORS: WANT TO GO TO COLLEGE? GET YOUR APPLICATION IN to CSU BY FEBRUARY 1ST!
Application denied. Fox News reports that's what about 10,000 prospective students applying to the Cal-State University system will hear if their applications are not in by February 1st.
The already under funded system moved up their application deadline to cope with the Governor's recent budget cuts. [story continues]
►LEGAL TUSSLE OVER LA NIGHTCLUB ENDS + SETTLEMENT DETAILS
The Associated Press reports he Los Angeles Unified School District has agreed to pay a historic preservation group $4 million to drop a lawsuit and allow for destruction of the last building standing on the site where Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated.
The school system wants to build a new campus on the site where the Ambassador Hotel once stood but now only houses the dilapidated Cocoanut Grove nightclub, part of the hotel complex that once attracted such headliners as Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby. [story continues]
►SCORES A PLUS FOR VALLEY SCHOOLS
The Daily News reports San Fernando Valley schools are continuing to improve and generally outperform others in Los Angeles Unified, county and statewide on key student achievement tests, according to a new report released Monday.
The LAUSD's Valley schools and the Burbank, Glendale and Las Virgenes school districts all scored better than the LAUSD's average Academic Performance Index score of 655 in 2006-07, according to the report by researchers at Cal State Northridge. [story continues]
►LAUSD EYES NEW SCHOOL ON LONG BEACH SITE
The Long Beach Press Telegraph said at a community meeting scheduled Wednesday, district planners will discuss demolition of a Long Beach warehouse to build a high school for Carson students.
The Los Angeles Unified School District's choice of location in the City of Long Beach approved by the board in April has riled neighbors and triggered a lawsuit from the city of Long Beach that could be decided in late February.
The high school with 67 classrooms and a sports stadium with 1,500 seats would be built at the 14-acre site at Carson Street and Santa Fe Avenue.would reduce crowding at maxed-out Carson High and Banning High in Wilmington. The school would open to 1,900 students in the fall of 2012. [story continues]
VOLUNTEERS NEEDED FOR LAUSD ACADEMIC DECATHLON! + EVENTS: Coming up next week...
The four-year-in-a-row National Champion LAUSD Academic Decathlon will hold its regional competition
• Saturday, January 26, at Bravo Magnet High and
• Saturday, February 2, 2008, at UCLA.
Volunteers are needed for all events.
Come out and see some of the brightest and most dedicated students in the Nation. The volunteer application and additional information are available at http://www.acadecala.net
Or contact:
Cliff Ker
LAUSD – Academic Decathlon
333 South Beaudry Ave., 18th Floor
Los Angeles, CA 90017
Voice…… 213.241.2901
Fax …… 213.241.8039
e-mail…… cliff.ker@lausd.net
________________________________________
Wednesday Jan 23, 2008
South Region Middle School #3: Site Selection Update Meeting
6:00 p.m.
Walnut Park Elementary School
2642 Olive Street
Huntington Park, CA 90255
Thursday Jan 24, 2008
South Region Elementary School #10: Site Selection Update Meeting #2
6:00 p.m.
Menlo Elementary School - Auditorium
4156 Menlo Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90037
*Dates and times subject to change. ________________________________________
• SCHOOL CONSTRUCTION BOND OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE:
http://www.laschools.org/bond/
Phone: 213-241-5183
____________________________________________________
• LAUSD FACILITIES COMMUNITY OUTREACH CALENDAR:
http://www.laschools.org/happenings/
Phone: 213-893-6800
What can YOU do?
• E-mail, call or write your school board member:
Yolie.Flores.Aguilar@lausd.net • 213-241-6383
Marlene.Canter@lausd.net • 213-241-6387
Tamar.Galatzan@lausd.net • 213-241-6386
Monica.Garcia@lausd.net • 213-241-6180
Julie.Korenstein@lausd.net • 213-241-6388
Marguerite.LaMotte@lausd.net • 213-241-6382
Richard.Vladovic@lausd.net • 213-241-6385
...or your city councilperson, mayor, the governor, member of congress, senator - or the president. Tell them what you really think! • There are 26 mayors and five county supervisors representing jurisdictions within LAUSD, the mayor of LA can be reached at mayor@lacity.org • 213.978.0600
• 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.
• Register.
• Vote.
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