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| 4LAKids: Sunday, August 24, 2008 |  | | | In This Issue: | | • | FROM SUMMER BLISS TO SCHOOL DAY FEARS | | | • | WHEN PENSIONS AND TEACHERS COLLIDE: Professionals should not have to put their Social Security benefits at risk when they become teachers. | | | • | Just what we need …another 4LAKids Blog: A STATE WITHOUT A BUDGET, A GOVERNMENT WITHOUT A CLUE | | | • | Learning from the Mavericks: LESSONS FOR DISTRICTS FROM SMALL URBAN HIGH SCHOOLS | | | • | HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T FIT: The Rest of the Stories from Other Sources | | | • | EVENTS: Coming up next week... | | | • | What can YOU do? | |
Featured Links: | | | | LAST SUNDAY the Assembly met to vote on a budget; while no budget passed there was great rhetorical commitment to pass one the governor and the legislators made noises like they would stay in session until they got one - the political conventions notwithstanding.
Alas, "conventional wisdom" prevailed and nothing of the kind is going to happen! The Democrats will head off the Denver next week; the Republicans to Minneapolis- St. Paul the week after being careful to be is session just long enough to get paid for the days they're away - raising campaign funds!
Those budgets are being taken care of.
The Lege pulled the plug on education benefits for National Guardsmen and Women - whether they serve on the border, in the Middle East or the fire lines.
Meanwhile American Express sent notices to state employees warning they might pull the plug on the state's credit cards. Hopefully no legislator-delegates will have to rely on the kindness of lobbyists to pay their dinner tabs or hotel bills!
The governor - all of his budget proposals being ignored by Democrats and Republicans alike - is now threatening a special election to settle all of this. The last time he called a special election it cost us $50 Million and all eight issues he put on the ballot failed.
I HAD A LOVELY RUBBER CHICKEN LUNCHEON at the Convention Center last week as the construction industry celebrated itself and its commitment to greening, conservation and renewable resources. A couple of the luncheon speakers talked about the need for better preparation of public education students for the building trades; a message the LAUSD college-prep-for-all proponents (who had just left) need to hear. There were easily six hundred of us enjoying the conversation and the repast at the city-owned-and-operated facility with the Department of Water and Power as a host �where we all got illegal glasses of water without asking.
This has nothing to do with Education or the budget - but as I was driving through the four level interchange on my way home from that lunch a NPR story prattled on about the great supermarket plastic bag debate in Seattle. As it was rush hour I stared out through my dirty window (part of my personal water conservation effort) and started counting the bags in the freeway daisies and ice plant on the freeway median. If we ever get education and the budget and the war and the economy back on track there will still be challenges.
Forever onward - smf
FROM SUMMER BLISS TO SCHOOL DAY FEARS
Tim Schlosser, a teacher at Southeast Middle School, writes the LA Times Homeroom Blog:
August 18, 2008 - My summer of reading, writing, and reflection is already starting to feel like a misty memory.
Late August — anxiety season — has struck. Southeast Middle School has seen some major off-season changes: Our principal and assistant principal are both leaving, enrollment is down, several teaching positions have been cut, and our funding for supplementary programs is at risk under the new state budget.
This adds to the general sense of disquiet I have about my new responsibilities next year. I’m chair of the English Department? They want me to plan professional development? Serve as an example of excellent teaching? I often feel that I’ve bitten off more than I can chew. As I flip through the pile of professional literature I set aside — Content Area Reading, Strategies That Work, Reading for Understanding -- I am often depressed by its conservatism, its endless practicality, its exhaustive collections of graphic organizers to help English language learners navigate expository texts.
A part of me recoils at these nitty-gritty teaching manuals and longs for the more idealistic pedagogical literature, like Jonathan Kozol’s "Savage Inequalities" or Paolo Freire’s "Pedagogy of the Oppressed. "
And still another part of me doesn’t even want that. This part of me graduated from college two years ago and isn't even positive that he's supposed to be a teacher. To succeed next year, I guess I have to push those parts of myself to the side. I have to read chapters with such titles as “Inferential Thinking: Reading Between the Lines” and, somehow, find ways to connect them to concrete classroom practices. I have to schedule field trips, buy posters, create a classroom management plan that moves kids’ reading levels up and attitude levels down. I’ve got to make another attempt at playing the role of the kind, wise teacher I’ve always wanted to be.
When I meet my new students, all of this will feel exciting, I hope. But right now it is a little bit terrifying.
WHEN PENSIONS AND TEACHERS COLLIDE: Professionals should not have to put their Social Security benefits at risk when they become teachers.
LA Times Editorial
August 22, 2008 -- Strange to say, one problem plaguing teachers is the size of their pensions. Not the usual, hefty pensions that threaten to sink school districts such as Los Angeles Unified, but the ones that shortchange teachers who enter the field later in life.
Under little-known provisions of the Social Security Act, people who make mid-career switches to teaching or certain other public-sector work can lose a significant portion of their federal retirement benefits. The rules don't affect people who paid into Social Security for a full 30 years, but they do cut into the benefits of those who make the switch earlier. Even if a teacher's spouse has paid into Social Security for three decades, survivor benefits for the teacher would be reduced.
One of these measures, the so-called windfall elimination provision, was adopted in 1983 to prevent people from piling up public pensions from, say, careers in the military and law enforcement, from which employees can retire at relatively young ages with sizable pensions, and then adding a full Social Security retirement package by working jobs covered by the federal program. But for teachers and some other public servants, the biggest share of pension money kicks in during the last few years of work. With partial pensions and shrunken Social Security benefits, those who work in these sectors for a limited number of years could end up worse off than if they had never switched careers.
The windfall provision reduces benefits for workers who have "substantial earnings" from jobs that were covered by Social Security if they later receive public pensions from jobs in which they did not pay into the federal system. The formula is complicated, but the average loss to affected teachers in California has been estimated at $3,900 a year. A separate provision reduces spousal and survivor benefits when one spouse has a government pension.
The issue has gained urgency in recent years because schools are trying to recruit more math and science teachers, and hope to woo them from the ranks of people who already work in related fields. Most of these people make higher salaries in the private sector; the pension hit is another disincentive for them to consider teaching.
As a matter of fairness, Social Security shouldn't punish people for switching jobs. As a matter of smart public policy, the federal government should encourage qualified professionals to enter teaching. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) is leading the congressional effort to fix this, but her Social Security Fairness Act would go too far, repealing the provisions altogether and costing $60 billion over 10 years.
Overly generous public pensions are crippling government budgets, and the future funding of Social Security is in doubt. The provisions should be tweaked toward fairness, not thrown out completely.
Just what we need …another 4LAKids Blog: A STATE WITHOUT A BUDGET, A GOVERNMENT WITHOUT A CLUE
http://www.NoCalBudget.blogspot.com — An extension of what passes for news from the 4LAKids blogs about the current California Budget Crisis — as the Legislators and Governor struggle to do the one constitutionally mandated thing they must do every year by July 1.
Do the math to see how late they are! If Election Day rolls around without a budget I say we vote every one of 'em out and write in Gene Krischer's cat!
Hopefully we will get a budget soon - and an improved budget process ...and this blog can expire in irrelevancy! - smf
THIS WEEK'S CONTENT ...or more than you ever wanted to know about the Sacramento budget shenanigans:
►CLUELESS IN SACRAMENTO
►A State Without a Budget: Day 54½ - AMERICAN EXPRESS COULD SUSPEND AmEx CARD SERVICE TO STATE EMPLOYEES IF BUDGET DELAY DRAGS IN
With California's budget impasse approaching its 54th day, financial services giant American Express Co. has warned the state that its workers may have to leave home without their state AmEx travel card if the dispute drags on too long.
►A State Without a Budget: Day 55 - DEMOCRATS IN CALIFORNIA ASSEMBLY TO TAKE 3-DAY VACATION DESPITE BUDGET IMPASSE
Their time away from the Capitol coincides with the Democratic National Convention, but one official says that has nothing to do with their decision not to hold sessions.
►A State Without a Budget: Day 54 - CALIF. LAWMAKERS OPT NOT TO MEET DURING CONVENTION Lawmakers in the state Assembly have opted not to meet for most of next week, despite a state budget that's nearly two months late and a looming deadline for hundreds of bills to pass out of both houses.
►CALIF. LAWMAKERS OPT NOT TO MEET DURING CONVENTION
Lawmakers in the state Assembly have opted not to meet for most of next week, despite a state budget that's nearly two months late and a looming deadline for hundreds of bills to pass out of both houses.
►A State Without a Budget: Day 53 and counting - WHAT HAPPENS NOW?
Despite the requests from the Governor to stay at their desks and not go to their respective conventions - and assurances from the legislators that they would stay on the job ...and rumors that they would work through the weekend - none of the above seems destined to happen.
• Assembly Will Finish Up Work On Bills Aug 31
• Assembly Will Meet Monday and Then No Session Until Friday
• Senate Schedule Not Certain
+ NEXT STEPS
►A State Without a Budget: Day 53 GOVERNOR MAY SEEK SPECIAL ELECTION FOR BUDGET
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's budget has gained no support. The last special election in California was in 2005 and cost the state about $50 million; California voters rejected all eight ballot propositions.
►A State Without a Budget: Day 52 STATE SUPERINTENDENT TO LEGISLATORS: "OPPOSE ANY FURTHER COMPROMISE TO THE 'BUDGET COMPROMISE'".
A letter to the Legislators from Jack O'Connell - the only elected official in the State Constitution charged with oversight of public education
►A State Without a Budget: Day 52 CALIFORNIA GOVERNMENT HAS FAILED US
California's government suffers from drastic dysfunction - our prisons overflow, our water system teeters on collapse, our once proud schools are criminally poor, our financing system is bankrupt, our democracy produces ideologically extreme legislators who can pass neither budget nor reforms, and we have no recourse in the system to right these wrongs. Drastic times call for drastic measures.
It is our duty to declare that our California government is not only broken, it has become destructive to our future. Therefore, are we not obligated to nullify our government and institute a new one?
►A State Without A Budget: Day 52: CALL SCHWARZENEGGER'S BLUFF - LET DEADLINE FOR BALLOT MEASURES PASS
Earlier this month, Governor Schwarzenegger vowed he wouldn’t sign any legislation before a budget was passed, an obvious attempt to blackmail Democrats into hurrying along the process and accepting a Republican-driven result. Since then, mainstream coverage of the budget battle consistently includes hand-wringing over the looming deadline – this Saturday – for placing or altering measures on November’s ballot. This sort of coverage goes on to cite all the ‘major’ initiatives that wouldn’t go before voters due to the current logjam. Yet of the four big initiatives that must meet Saturday’s deadline to move forward, none are essential to a progressive Democratic agenda, and all were initiated at least in part by Schwarzenegger himself. State legislators should let the deadline pass … and let the Governor eat crow.
►A State Without a Budget: Day 52 CALIFORNIA'S BUDGET BILLIONS
No matter what budget Sacramento comes up with, California voters will probably increase the deficit in 10 weeks.
There's little chance that the state budget eventually passed in Sacramento will actually rid California of its stubborn $15.2-billion deficit. But in the improbable event that the Legislature and governor balance the budget without resorting to such gimmicks as raiding other accounts, enjoy the moment. In just 10 weeks, California voters will likely throw it out of whack again.
►A State Without a Budget: Day 52 LEGISLATORS NOT OPTIMISTIC ON BUDGET - North Coast Democrats grim as state fiscal impasse reaches 8th week
The 2008 state budget impasse is now among the fifth longest in the 22-year run of busted deadlines, and North Coast legislators -- all Democrats -- generally see little likelihood of a quick resolution.
►A State Without a Budget: Day 51 SCHWARZENEGGER'S PUSH TO HIKE SALES TAX RILES GOP: The governor says a temporary increase could help close the budget gap. But his party's leaders want to borrow.
Borrowing proposals involve diverting money specifically set aside by voters for local governments, road and other transportation projects, mental health programs and early childhood education.
►A State Without a Budget: Day 51 CALIFORNIA NATIONAL GUARD LOSING BUDGET BATTLE IN LEGISLATURE: Democrats in the state Senate block a $3.3-million allocation to give educational benefits to Guard members
California is the only state that gives no educational benefit to National Guard members.
While they have been beating back wildfires across the state and fighting wars on two fronts overseas, the citizen soldiers of the California National Guard have also been waging a battle in the Legislature -- and losing.
For the second year in a row, state lawmakers have rebuffed the Guard's effort to win state money to help cover the cost of college for its members. State military officials say their only hope now is that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will prevail upon Democratic legislators to include money for tuition assistance in the budget that is 49 days overdue and more than $15 billion in the red.
►A State Without a Budget: Day 50 Schwarzenegger to Legislature: "YOU'RE GROUNDED"
In which the Governator threatens to keep the Democrats in Sacramento for the Democratic convention ...even though it's the Republicans that are holding up the budget! How Republican of him.
No state budget? Then no national political conventions for you, the Governator told state lawmakers today.
►A State Without a Budget: Day 50 STATE'S DEMS SHOULD HOLD STRONG ON BUDGET
"What’s important is that Democrats should cease trying to pass a compromise budget when the people they’re negotiating with obviously have no intention of compromising. They should instead focus their efforts on convincing Californians that the reason they’re refusing to capitulate is to protect and defend the interests of the state’s residents."
►A State Without a Budget: Day 50 CALIFORNIA BUDGET IMPASSE PERSISTS AS GOP REFUSES INCOME TAX RISE
California's months-long budget standoff hit a low when an emergency State Assembly meeting failed to produce a compromise between Democrats and Republicans over how to compensate for a shortfall exceeding $15 billion.
►A State Without a Budget: Day 49 ASSEMBLY DEMOCRATS BUDGET BILL FAILS + CALIF. GOP LAWMAKERS KILL DEMS $6.6B TAX PACKAGE + SACRAMENTO'S FUNDRAISING FOLLIES
• from the AP: "California is the last state in the nation on a July fiscal calendar to enact a budget. "
• The LA Times editorializes: "The state budget is past due, so why are lawmakers spending time raising big bucks from donors?"
• At a party Sunday afternoon a friend opined that "all the lawmakers, Republican and Democrat alike, should be tossed out". 4LAKids would like to second the motion.
►A State Without a Budget: Day 48: ASSEMBLYMAN SWANSON: "California must stand for something. Education needs to be a priority."
Delivered on the Assembly Floor - Sunday, Aug. 17th.
►A State Without a Budget - Day 48 - NO END IN SIGHT FOR BUDGET BATTLE
A vote will be held today on the state budget, but East Bay lawmakers don't expect the standoff — now in its 48th day — to end any time soon.
Heading into today's 3 p.m. Assembly session, a wide chasm still divides Democrats and Republicans on the major sticking points in negotiating a budget that must pare down an estimated $15.2 billion deficit.
"I think it's a 50-50 chance this could go into September," said Assemblyman Sandre Swanson, D-Oakland, "because some of us are not willing to balance the budget on the backs of children, and Republicans have not abandoned their cuts-only approach."
Learning from the Mavericks: LESSONS FOR DISTRICTS FROM SMALL URBAN HIGH SCHOOLS
Commentary By Regis Shields & Karen Hawley Miles | Education Week
August 5, 2008 -- Creating new small high schools out of large failing ones continues to be a popular strategy for tackling high dropout rates and low performance in urban high schools. But, too often, districts create high-cost mini-versions of their large failing high schools because they do not have a vision of how small schools might “do school” in new ways, or how they would have to change their own practice and systems to support them.
Case studies of resource use in nine leading-edge small urban high schools can offer lessons for districts that are not satisfied with just a few examples of outstanding schools, but want to create entire systems of them.
We studied a set of widely recognized small urban schools—all with enrollments of 500 or fewer students—that represent a range of instructional, organizational, and governance models. These “Leading Edge Schools” serve student populations similar to their districts’, but outperform most local large high schools. Our sample included two state charter schools, four in-district charter schools, and three district-run schools located in Boston; Chicago; San Diego; Oakland, Calif.; and Worcester, Mass.
Here are four of the most salient lessons gleaned from our findings:
• There’s no one way, but there is a strategic way to organize schools.
Schools can best create high-performing organizations — or strategic designs — when they have the flexibility to organize resources along with guidance and support on best practices.
Rather than accept traditional schedules, staffing ratios, and job descriptions, Leading Edge Schools deliberately organize people, time, and money to support their instructional models and meet their students’ needs. Operating largely with public funds, they make tough resource trade-offs to prioritize teaching quality, core academic time, and individual student attention. Though these schools look very different from one another, they share a set of common practices that distinguish them from typical large urban high schools.
Principals carefully select teaching-staff members to fit their specific school needs, for example. Students spend an average of 20 percent more time in school each year—and 233 more days over four years—on core academics than their peers in traditional high schools do. And teachers devote an average of five times more hours to collaboration and professional development than local districts require.
• Strategic school design depends on resource-savvy principals.
The principals of Leading Edge Schools are savvy resource managers. They understand that deftly crafting resources to align with their instructional models and ever-changing student and teacher needs is key to their schools’ success. Not all principals bring these same skills to the job. To create strategic-resource schools at scale, schools leaders need help in figuring out and implementing new approaches. This suggests a new paradigm for supervising and supporting schools—especially as they are outlining their improvement plans, budgets, and staffing needs each year.
In this new paradigm, supervision would be less about enforcing a specific use of resources, and much more about enabling schools to more effectively match hiring, staff assignment, student grouping, and schedules to their particular challenges. This will require training for both principals and school supervisors in strategic resource use. It will also require districts to create templates for school designs that work within their funding levels at different school sizes and student populations. Though the Leading Edge Schools create their strategic designs from the ground up, there is no need for all schools to begin with a blank slate.
• Small high schools will require a workforce shift to include more-flexible teachers of core academic subjects.
Small size creates its own set of opportunities and constraints. Leading Edge Schools capitalize on smallness to create vibrant professional learning communities. But small size limits resources in two ways. First, the smallest schools—those with under 250 students—spend a significantly larger portion of their budgets on leadership and pupil support than larger schools do, leaving less money for teachers. In addition, the smaller staff size makes it harder to hire full-time teachers to play highly specialized roles teaching electives and advanced subjects or serving students with special needs.
Leading Edge Schools have three conditions that enable them to create their strategic designs. First, they are able to select core academic teachers with the expertise and desire to play the range of roles their small-school designs require. In eight out of nine Leading Edge Schools, 84 percent or more of all classroom teachers are “core academic” teachers. In contrast, at the typical high school, 60 percent or fewer of the teaching-staff members play these roles. Second, Leading Edge Schools can define teaching roles, allowing core academic teachers to play multiple roles and using community partners to expand course offerings and services. Third, they have the flexibility to define their own limited set of course offerings to maximize academic courses.
These conditions have implications for district practices around recruiting, staffing, course requirements, and partnerships. Schools will need far more math, science, history, and English teachers and fewer who teach only electives. Further, systems must find more cost-effective ways to deliver noncore subjects, including partnerships and part-time teachers.
• Union contracts and administrative practices need to change.
Given that the common practices described above often require significant flexibility to depart from teachers’ union contract provisions and administrative policies, it is not surprising that most of the Leading Edge Schools are charter or in-district charter schools. The lesson for school systems is that teachers are not interchangeable parts, and that teacher and student schedules cannot be universally or rigidly defined. Supporting schools will mean changing district policies and union contracts that control hiring, staffing, and scheduling.
The important idea here is that it’s not about creating flexibility for the sake of freedom. The goal of allowing more school leader discretion is to enable more effective school designs and empower leaders to make adjustments that balance limited and always-changing resources in ways that fit constantly changing student needs. Not all urban principals have the high level of expertise and experience that Leading Edge principals do, and they will require training, support, and, potentially, templates of organizational models.
As the Leading Edge Schools show, creating high-performing, successful small high schools is about so much more than size. Schools can best create high-performing organizations—or strategic designs—when they have the flexibility to organize resources along with guidance and support on best practices. They need resource-savvy leaders, who have the flexibility to hire whomoever they need, and to organize their available student time and teachers effectively.
While the Leading Edge Schools are all small urban high schools, these lessons for practice apply to schools of all sizes and types—making small school reform a powerful lever of system change.
Regis Shields is the director and Karen Hawley Miles is the president and executive director of Education Resource Strategies, a nonprofit organization based in Watertown, Mass., that works with urban schools and districts on strategic resource allocation. Their essay uses findings from “Strategic Designs: Lessons From Leading Edge Small Urban High Schools,” a study funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T FIT: The Rest of the Stories from Other Sources
► CALL ON COLLEGE PRESIDENTS TO SUPPORT THE 21 MINIMUM LEGAL DRINKING AGE
MADD/Mothers Against Drunk Driving - writes 4LAKids:
Dear Friend,
An estimated 25,000 lives have been saved by the 21 Minimum Legal Drinking Age (MLDA), which is why we were gravely concerned to learn that the college and university presidents and representatives listed below have added their names to a misguided initiative aimed at attacking the minimum drinking age of 21.
► Campaign '08: POLL GIVES OBAMA EDGE ON IMPROVING SCHOOLS
A greater proportion of Americans think that Sen. Barack Obama would be more likely than Sen. John McCain to improve public schools as president, according to a poll being released today.
The survey, conducted by Phi Delta Kappa International and the Gallup Organization, reports that 46 percent of respondents viewed Sen. Obama as the candidate for the White House better able to strengthen public education, compared with 29 percent for Sen. McCain. Twenty-five percent of respondents said they didn’t know which candidate would be better able to handle school policy.
► Prop 6/The Runner Initiative: STEALTH INITIATIVE THREATENS CALIFORNIA YOUTH, IMMIGRANTS
Silent but deadly, Prop. 6 is the ballot measure that no one has heard of, but that could have catastrophic effects on young people in California, writes Kevin Weston.
With Proposition 6 on the California ballot this November, young people in the Golden State have a reason to vote that trumps putting the first non-white man in the White House.
The Runner Initiative – or the “Safe Neighborhood Act” – is the single worst thing that could happen to California youth since the passage of Proposition 21 allowed 16 year-olds to be tried as adults. Prop. 6 does Prop. 21 one better – it would allow 14-year-old “gang members” to be tried as adults.
► COMPETITION KEY TO EDUCATION EXCELLENCE + OUR GOAL: STRONG SCHOOLS
●●smf's 2¢: No one disputes the value of competition or the goal of strong schools. I feel strange defending Roy Romer - I miss him sometimes but he could always defend himself! What is going on here however in insidious; Rep Tancredo is using the technique of 'The Big Lie' - stating personally held belief as proven fact and arming himself and his cause with spurious and suspect proof.
THOSE WHO DO NOT STUDY HISTORY WILL INEVITABLY MISSTATE IT: Fuzzy thinking proves noting except perhaps the inferiority of fuzzy thought and the absurdity of fuzzy thinkers.
Let us begin with Tancredo's description of Romer: "Romer left Colorado to become superintendent of schools for the Los Angeles Unified School District, a job he held for more than a decade. That district's school board was controlled by the teachers union and he had a friendly City Council as well."
Really? Whatever Rep. Tancredo taught when he was a teacher - and thankfully he's not teaching now - it must not have been history! Romer was Chairman of the DNC after he left Colorado. Romer's LAUSD superintendency lasted six years. Six, count 'em: six! And he had a 'friendly city council' as well? The only three times the city council had anything to do with LAUSD (the state constitution and the city charter forbid them meddling therewith):
1. They voted unanimously to support the mayor's (illegal) takeover of the school district under AB1381 - in direct opposition to Romer.
2. They helped appoint a commission to investigate the governance of the school district.
3. They put a ballot measure on the ballot that:
• raised school board members salaries
• and limited the terms of school board.
(Wait: two things in one ballot measure? ...isn't that illegal? Oh well, another windmill for another time)
• When Romer became superintendent the school board was not 'controlled' by the teachers union; if anything the opposite was true. A majority was 'supported' by [anti teacher's union] Mayor Riordan and Eli Broad.
• And the teacher's union - it must be remembered - also broke with the board they 'controlled' and supported AB 1361.
The rest of Tencredo's argument is similarly and substantially hogwash.
► COMPETITION KEY TO EDUCATION EXCELLENCE
By U S Rep Tom Tancredo (R/CO) : OpEd in the Rocky Mountain News (Denver)
Last week, Gov. Bill Ritter and former Gov. Roy Romer wrote a column about the state of education in America. In it, I believe they've unwittingly made a powerful argument for precisely the kind of educational reform that they have publicly opposed for many years: school choice.
In 10 years, the governors want to cut the high school dropout rate in half and double the number of college degrees awarded to in- state Colorado students. These are great goals for our state but the only way to achieve them is through a competitive educational system.
► OUR GOAL: STRONG SCHOOLS
By Gov. Bill Ritter and Roy Romer: OpEd: The Denver Post
Next weekend, the Democrats will gather in Denver and one of their first priorities will be to adopt a party platform. The following week, the Republicans will gather in Minneapolis with a similar mission. The parties' final platforms will likely note rising energy costs, increasing unemployment rates and this nation's ongoing housing crisis — all important issues.
But amid this discussion, we need a clear and reasoned voice to continually make the case that strong public education is the best driver of future economic growth.
► NEW PRINCIPALS BEGIN WORK IN L.A. MAYOR'S SCHOOLS PARTNERSHIP + IN L.A., MAJORITY OF `MAYOR'S SCHOOL' PRINCIPALS TRANSFERRED OUT
Compare and Contrast the spin: The Times and the Daily News
► CALIFORNIA CHARTER SCHOOLS ASSN. HEAD EXPECTED TO STEP DOWN
Caprice Young, the head of the California Charter Schools Assn. and former Los Angeles school board member, is expected to announce this morning that she is stepping down to take a new job at an education company.
Young is credited by both critics and supporters of charter schools with spearheading the movement in California, which grew during her five-year tenure to more than 300 publicly financed, independently run campuses.
► MANAGING FOR RESULTS IN AMERICA'S GREAT CITY SCHOOLS: A Report of the Performance Measurement and Benchmarking Project
By Lesli A. Maxwell | EdWeek
For the second year, the Council of the Great City Schools has released detailed data on the business performance of the nation’s largest school districts—part of an initiative designed to help urban educators improve noninstructional operations of their districts.
The report features two years of data on transportation, food services, procurement, security, and maintenance from many of the 66 large school districts that are members of the council, a Washington-based organization that created the multiyear project to identify key indicators and best practices to guide districts on how to perform more efficiently.
The report also includes first-time benchmark data on budgeting and finance, human resources, and information technology. It presents city-by-city data so that member districts can see how they stack up against high-performing systems.
► SCHOOL CAFETERIAS STRUGGLING TO KEEP FOOD ON THE TABLE
By Greg Toppo, USA TODAY
Rising costs for fuel, food and labor are forcing school cafeterias nationwide to raise prices, cut jobs and, in some cases, dip into "rainy day" funds to put food on trays, according to congressional testimony to be delivered today.
The U.S. Agriculture Department chipped in an extra dime a meal last week to help schools pay for lunches. The new maximum rate is now $2.57, up from $2.47 in 2007.
But school nutrition directors say that doesn't keep pace with costs, which will climb 30 cents a meal this year to a national average of $2.88, the School Nutrition Association says.
► ANOTHER SHOT IN THE MATH WARS -or- who says Jack O'Connell doesn't have a sense of humor?
"The algebra mandate is, and will always be, as pointless as it is unrealistic. But issue a stupid order and, as O'Connell almost said, you deserve a stupid response."
Last week, O'Connell, the state superintendent of public instruction, called for an additional $3.1 billion a year to allow California's middle schools to meet a three-year deadline by which all students must take (and presumably pass) algebra in the eighth grade.
That, for at least a short spell, made him the funniest man in Sacramento. And it was all done with a straight face. O'Connell called it his "Algebra I Success Initiative" and launched it with a press conference backed by the requisite spear carriers from the education establishment, a budget, and all the other paraphernalia appertaining to serious public business.
► LA UNIFIED'S GARDENING PROGRAM MAY BE UPROOTED: The effort that has flourished among students could get cut amid the district's budget woes.
The seeds of a thousand lessons are sown in five acres of North Hollywood dirt, tended by a man named Mud.
Here in this little-known oasis, Mud Baron and urban teenagers with a heretofore unknown penchant for rare flowers toil under a blazing sun to raise lemon verbena, tomatoes, lettuce and other greenery that hundreds of Los Angeles schools will use to jump-start their gardens this fall. They also cultivate exotic plants, including exuberantly colored dahlias the size of dinner plates, to sell at farmers markets.
► YouTube - THE FLUNKING REPUBLICANS CHANNEL
The California Faculty Association has launched a strategic campaign targeting Republicans in open swing seat districts that are ripe for Democrats to win in November. The goal of the campaign is to stop Republicans who seem determined to slash our public education system and burn our economic future.
EVENTS: Coming up next week...
*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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| Scott Folsom is a parent and parent leader in LAUSD. He is immediate past President of Los Angeles Tenth District PTSA and represents PTA as Vice-chair on the LAUSD Construction Bond Citizen's Oversight Committee. He is a Community Concerns Commissioner, Legislation Team member and a member of the Board of Managers of the California State PTA. He serves on various school district advisory and policy committees and is a PTA officer and/or governance council member at three LAUSD schools.
• 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.
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