 |
| 4LAKids: Sunday, Sept 28, 2008 |  | | | In This Issue: | | • | After 85 days …what?: JACK O'CONNELL COMMENTS ON FINAL BUDGET'S IMPACT ON PUBLIC EDUCATION + A STATE WITHOUT A BUDGET, A GOVERNMENT WITHOOUT A CLUE | | | • | CALIFORNIA’S NEW 8TH GRADE ALGEBRA RULE GETS SOME POOR MARKS | | | • | L.A. UNIFIED CLERKS MUST DO WINDOWS: School district office workers whose jobs were cut must show computer competence for a shot at reemployment. | | | • | CSBA, ACSA & CASBO FILE SUIT TO BLOCK PROP 39 CHARTER RULES FROM TAKING EFFECT THIS FALL | | | • | 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: | | | | Half the people are stoned,
and the other half are waiting for the next election.
Half the people are drowned,
And the other half are swimming in the wrong direction.
— from the Gloria of Leonard Bernstein's Mass, lyric by Paul Simon
______
4LAKids for the most part redistributes the news: What other people thought and wrote about events that appear to have relevance, significance or import to public education in Los Angeles. I read this stuff and forward it to you. I pick and choose based on a whim, add a thought or two of my own and that's it.
When the news media miss an event I thought was important I sometimes comment on the omission. I understand and chafe at the fact that good news doesn't sell newspapers or advertising. Imparting education to 700,000 children and 400,000 adults is good news. Doing it badly/wrong/indifferently is bad — ergo the news reported and forwarded is predominantly bad.
The real news, the authentic events, the stuff that happens day-today, day-in-and-day-out in classrooms and schools and even in the school boardroom is predominantly good. Welcome to the dichotomy.
Last Thursday I attended and spoke at two events that I wish the rare good-news reporters had covered – "good stuff happens/film at eleven!" …but alas. What I said or thought isn't important but what was being celebrated - and I mean that in the ecclesiastical context - is.
THURSDAY AT NOON there was a rubber chicken luncheon at the Biltmore - honoring the builders and contractors who have been building and modernizing our schools. They were honored for doing the jobs safely and well, on-time and on-budget, with quality and pride. Guys and rare gals in suits – some awkward in coats and rare ties – some comfortable in t-shirts and work boots, accepting awards for doing their jobs well. For building schools in communities that definitely need them for kids whose curiosity needs housing - but never containing. In building schools in those communities they are building the communities themselves; they are the building a foundation for the future and for future generations.
Good Job. Well Done. …not that you're done yet!
THURSDAY AFTERNOON was the dedication for Roy Romer Middle School in North Hollywood. Roy was there - back in his own work boots - and his singular contributions to this school district and the building program were recognized and honored by educators and public officials alike. Superintendent Brewer acknowledged that much of the credit for recent academic accomplishment rightly belongs to Superintendent Romer. More telling were the numbers of quality of folks who showed up to honor Roy: Builders of schools, business people, educators, politicians, and school boardmembers - friends of Roy who weren't on the program ….but were with the program.
The school itself is a proud structure - neither a monument nor a memorial but a living testament to Roy's vision. A slide show celebrated his accomplishments, an early campaign broadsheet when he was running for the Colorado Legislature said to "Remember your 3 'R's": Roy R. Romer. Readin', 'ritin and 'rithmetic; Rigor, Relevance and Relationships.
The highlight was when the enthusiastic eighth graders took the enthusiastic Romer on the grand tour; the excitement and appreciation and pure energy was mutual and contagious. By the end of the tour only the eighth graders, the namesake and the plant manager with her keys were still standing.
Good Job. Well done …not that you're done yet!
¡Onward/Hasta adelante! - smf
After 85 days …what?: JACK O'CONNELL COMMENTS ON FINAL BUDGET'S IMPACT ON PUBLIC EDUCATION + A STATE WITHOUT A BUDGET, A GOVERNMENT WITHOOUT A CLUE
STATE SUPERINTENDENT JACK O'CONNELL COMMENTS ON FINAL BUDGET'S IMPACT ON PUBLIC EDUCATION
California Department of Education Press Release
September 23, 2008 — SACRAMENTO — State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell today issued the following statement regarding the budget signed today by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and its impact on public schools.
"While no one will applaud the final budget agreement, it is a relief to have a state budget in place. I have directed my staff to immediately distribute funds owed to child care centers and schools that were on hold during the longest budget stalemate in our state's history.
"I am pleased that this budget includes an appropriation of federal funds intended for local education agencies that are in Program Improvement Corrective Action. I have directed my staff to work with districts and county offices of education, and to act with speed to appropriately direct these resources to minimize the funds that will revert back to the federal government.
"I am also pleased that the budget includes a one-time appropriation of $12.5 million for a collaboration between the California Department of Education and the California Community Colleges to develop California Partnership Academies focused on the development of green technology.
"While the budget that Governor Schwarzenegger signed today does include a modest cost of living adjustment, schools and districts continue to grapple with increasing costs and greater responsibilities under our state and federal accountability systems. With costs continuing to rise, budgets being squeezed, and the fact that this budget is predicated on uncertain revenues, the signing of the budget brings only temporary relief for local education agencies.
"The Governor and the Legislature must continue with budget discussions now to find ways to address the needs of our students. I urge policy makers to craft a budget for the next fiscal year that includes new revenues that will allow us to truly address the needs of students in our public education system. We must provide funding that will help us increase the achievement of all students, close the achievement gap, and prepare students for success in the increasingly competitive global economy."
▼For what?: The nightmare begins a new chapter:
THE WAKE FOR A STATE WITHOUT A BUDGET, A GOVERNMENT WITHOUT A CLUE
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
►WHY IS THIS MAN SMILING? WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE – AND WHY ARE THEY CLAPPING?
Photo: Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger holds a copy of the 2008-2009 state budget after signing it during a small ceremony in his Sacramento office. Representatives from California counties stand behind the governor.
LONG AGO, earlier this year in a meeting room in Sacramento the legislation team from the State PTA met and discussed the state budget as it impacts Education and the Welfare of Children - back when the budget was first proposed. Before the May Revise. Before the Crisis of 85 days. We were strong and we had powerful friends on our side: the legislative majority, almost a million members who are united and vocal - every one a likely voter. We had The Truth on our side; we were in the majority and we were set out to do the right thing for kids and the future of the state.
We also knew that politics is the Art of Compromise - and that ultimately we and the children would be compromised by our legislative friends. The Republican minority had signed a pledge to Not Raise Taxes …and we knew that that was not the workable option. That determination was shared by our friends and ultimately by the governor himself - we shared his dedication to reach a long term solution rather than a quick fix to postpone the crisis to next year. We were committed in his proclaimed Year of Education Reform to NOT do things the way things had always been done.
Now as the dust clears, we and the children have been compromised. The governor claims that Education has been kept whole - but Education hasn't been whole since 1978. It has been cut and reduced and slashed and nibbled at since the passage of Proposition 13. Proposition 98, which is supposed to be the floor for Education funding is looked at as being the ceiling by most - and as being an outrageous burden on the taxpayers by a few. It was that few who won in the end. Taxes were not raised. The problems were put off to next year. California moves a little lower into the Cellar of Education Funding, perhaps from 46th to 47th in the nation - it remains to be seen.
• 2007 was the year of Healthcare Reform.
• 2008 is the Year of Education Reform.
• 2009 will be the Year of Budget Reform.
• Don’t let me ruin it for you but I have a feeling I know how that turns out.
Onward nonetheless! - smf
►Day 85 and Done! CALIFORNIA BUDGET IS SIGNED, 85 DAYS LATE AND DESPISED
“The governor, however, proclaimed the budget a victory.”
By JENNIFER STEINHAUER – New York Times
September 24, 2008 -- LOS ANGELES — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Tuesday signed California’s budget, a document that was 85 days late and among state lawmakers, perhaps the most universally despised budget in the nation.
State Controller John Chiang used the occasion to move quickly to dispense with some 80,000 in claims that have gone unpaid since the state began its fiscal year on July 1.
“This record-setting budget stalemate has been an enormous burden on so many small businesses and health care providers who care for our most vulnerable Californians: the sick, elderly, disabled and children,” Mr. Chiang said in a statement. “I will quickly pay all backlogged claims, and I am asking state agencies for their assistance to ensure that we get payments into the hands of those who most desperately need them as quickly as possible.”
The $143 billion spending plan, which the governor signed without the usual public ceremony, was the subject of heated debate and intense last-minute haggling among Democrats, who control the Legislature, Republicans and the governor, a Republican who was at odds with lawmakers from both parties over how to close a $15 billion gap.
The budget, $68 million larger than last year’s, sets $1.7 billion in reserves should state revenues come in below estimates, highly likely in California’s, and the country’s, volatile economy.
Mr. Schwarzenegger also vetoed $510 million in line items, including $944,000 from the Department of Fair Employment and Housing, a cut that means the loss of nine enforcement jobs; $8 million from the state’s Alcohol and Drug Program’s program for preventing crystal meth trafficking; and $2 million from a California Conservation Corps work training program.
The budget relies heavily on accounting maneuvers — moving tax receipts from one year to a next — as well as a plan to borrow $5 billion against future lottery earnings, which requires the approval of voters in a ballot measure in a special election next year. If the lottery plan is defeated, midyear cuts and other measures to rein in spending are likely.
The government will also increase the penalty on corporations that understate their tax liability by at least $1 million, to add a 20 percent penalty in addition to a 10 percent interest rate on underreported taxes. But the spending plan contains no substantive changes to the state’s expenses or its revenue-raising structure, which might have staved off another hole next year.
“We have always said this really does just kick the can down the road,” said Alicia Trost, a spokeswoman for Don Perata, the Senate president pro tem, a Democrat. “The only thing good is that we fully fund education, we prevent borrowing, and we avoid the most onerous cuts to the neediest communities.”
The governor, however, proclaimed the budget a victory — one he squeezed from the Legislature after rejecting an earlier plan and after Democrats and Republicans could not agree on a sales tax increase.
He said he was particularly pleased by the budget’s proposed increase in the size of California’s rainy day fund, to 12.5 percent of the state’s general fund expenditures from 5 percent. That provision, too, requires a nod from voters in the special election.
Mr. Chiang’s office may begin writing checks as early as Friday, a spokeswoman said, beginning with $3.6 billion in Medicaid payments to hospitals, nursing homes and other health care providers that had been held up under the standoff. Further payments to vendors and other state creditors will follow.
Monday, September 22, 2008
►Day 84: CALIFORNIA’S BUDGET – EVERYONE IS A WINNER AND A LOSER
by Jon Fleischman -Publisher FlashReport | Fleischman is Vice Chairman (South) of the California Republican Party.
As Governor Schwarzenegger prepares to sign the California State Budget, we hear at the FlashReport are prepared to say that everyone involved in the process were winners AND losers.
The winners:
Legislative Republicans, led by Senate Republican Leader Dave Cogdill and Assembly Republican Leader Mike Villines, draw a bright line in the sand and said that the problems caused by massive over-spending in state government WILL NOT be resolved by increasing taxes on Californians. In the face of Democrats who made as a top priority a hike in the state's income taxes, and a Governor of their own party pushing a multi-billion dollar sales tax increase, GOP legislative solidarity won the day.
Legislative Democrats, due to their gerrymandered majority, managed to get through this budget season without a serious overhaul of California's government. Decades of dominance by liberals in Sacramento has grown state government into a grotesque and massive one - in need of serious reforms. Despite all of the hoopla, this new budget spends MORE than last year's - a testament to power of a party committed to growing government.
Governor Schwarzenegger's budget reform measures, after some political muscle-showing, were ultimately placed into this final package - which is to say that it will be placed before the voters (where presumably public-employee unions will pony up millions to try and kill it). While these reforms are short of the kind of absolute spending cap that is needed to reign in the insatiable appetite of Democrats to increase spending, they are certainly a step in the right direction.
Only in California are the winners also the losers...
The big loser was Arnold Schwarzenegger. First and foremost, the Governor demonstrated that his form of flip-flop governance only made him less relevant to the process. While he ultimately got a last-minute demand for some budget reform in the final budget, the only reason there is a budget is because eventually legislative leaders correctly saw the Governor as a nuisance and ineffective in putting together a budget deal. We'll write more on this in the weeks to come, but if the Governor wants to be relevant, he needs to be a part of a team, as opposed to trying to be all things to all people (or nothing to anyone, depending on your perspective). His gross violation of his no-new-taxes pledge has taken his credibility with the California political community, especially Republicans, to an all-time low.
The failure to increase taxes makes California Democrat legislators losers. Clearly Democrats were backed off of a strongly desired tax hike (or as they call it, "revenue increases") as part of a budget solution. They also caved to the Governor's demands for budget reform. Perhaps they are the biggest losers because this year's successful play by the GOP to fend off tax increases pretty much means no new taxes in the foreseeable future. Assembly Speaker Karen Bass was widely looked at as ineffectual and a "B" player in budget negotiations, with the more seasoned and spirited (despite being term-limited) Senate President Don Perata being looked at as the "King Fish" of the left.
Finally, legislative Republicans, despite the win on the tax issue, were forced to put up votes for a budget that increases total state government spending, fails to really include real reforms of the process, and largely continues the status-quo of California's modern-day welfare state. It is unclear if, given the partisan make-up of the legislature, any budget deal could have been better. But it doesn't change the fact that when you get passed the hoopla of holding the line in taxes, no Republican can be proud of the vote they were forced to cast on this budget.
►DAY 84 - STANDIN’ AROUND AN’ WAITIN’ FOR THE NEXT SHOE TO DROP: WHAT’S NEXT?
AM Alert: SacBee CapitolAlert | Mon Sept 22
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger could sign the state budget as early as today, a record 84 days into the fiscal year.
But state lawmakers are already looking at a multibillion-dollar deficit next year. And the year after that. And the year after that.
"I don't see much of a signing ceremony," Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared Friday, "because there's nothing to celebrate."
The next year's state budget will start out $1.5 billion in the hole.
And that includes $5 billion in funds borrowed from future state lottery earnings. If those don't materialize (the money depends on passage of a ballot measure that the education community is leery about), the state starts off in a $6.5 billion hole.
And that's if the economy holds up, which, well, who knows.
"We have simply rolled the problem into the next year," Senate President Pro Don Perata said last week.
Minority legislative Republicans, meanwhile, have been emboldened by the 2008 impasse, as they fended off calls for tax hikes from a GOP governor and from majority Democrats.
"So it's a W for the reps," wrote ex-Assemblyman Ray Haynes, a conservative Republican, on the FlashReport. "They should go home proud of their accomplishment, apologize to no one for what they have done, and gird their loins for next year's fight. It is going to be even nastier."
For their part, Democrats are ramping up the rhetoric to turn the Big Five into the Big Three, pushing a potential ballot measure to eliminate the two-thirds vote for passage of new taxes and budgets.
Such a measure could go on the 2009 special election ballot.
There's also the matter of the 800-plus bills lawmakers are dumping on Schwarzenegger's desk. He has until the end of the month to sign or veto them.
CALIFORNIA’S NEW 8TH GRADE ALGEBRA RULE GETS SOME POOR MARKS
CRITICS WARN THAT THE REQUIREMENT WILL BE BAD BOTH FOR STUDENTS WITH SOLID MATH SKILLS AND THE UNPREPARED
Critics warn that the requirement will be bad both for students with solid math skills and the unprepared.
By Howard Blume | Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
September 22, 2008 -- The new state policy of requiring algebra in the eighth grade will set up unprepared students for failure while holding back others with solid math skills, a new report has concluded.
These predictions, based on national data, come in the wake of an algebra mandate that the state Board of Education, under pressure from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, adopted in July. That decision won widespread praise from some reform advocates and the Bush administration, putting California out front in a national debate over improving mathematics instruction.
The policy also led to a lawsuit filed this month by groups representing school districts and school administrators. They contend that the state board adopted the new rules illegally. Their underlying concern is that the algebra policy is unworkable and unfunded.
The new study, released today by the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., looked at who is taking eighth-grade algebra and how they are doing.
And there was some ostensibly good news. Nationwide, more students are taking algebra than before. Over five years, the percentage of eighth-graders in advanced math -- algebra or higher -- went up by more than one-third. In total, about 37% of all U.S. students took advanced math in 2005, the most recent year in the analysis.
Yet some 120,000 of these students -- about 8% -- are scoring in the lowest 10% on the eighth-grade National Assessment of Educational Progress. Many thousands more are performing well below grade level.
And when students perform poorly in a math course where they don't belong, no one benefits, said Tom Lawless, a senior fellow at Brookings.
Across the country, "you have 120,000 kids sitting in algebra and geometry classes and they don't know how to multiply and divide," Lawless said. "That's an absurd situation. They're not going to learn anything. And the kids who are sitting next to them, who are well prepared, are not going to learn anything either" because their learning will be slowed down.
On average, there are at least two students in every eighth-grade algebra class with second-grade math skills. That number rises in urban school systems where these students are more likely to attend overcrowded schools with teachers who are less experienced and less likely to have math degrees or college-level advanced math. These students also are disproportionately low-income minorities.
For many, algebra has become a civil rights issue. Students who take algebra early have a leg up on college and career. And minorities and the poor have a glaringly lower enrollment rate in early algebra. But just taking the course is not enough.
As evidence, Lawless pointed to the District of Columbia, which rates near the top in eighth-grade algebra enrollment and dead last on the math portion of the eighth-grade national assessment. Near the top in math achievement are Vermont and North Dakota, which enroll a comparatively small percentage of students in advanced math. There is no correlation nationwide between eighth-grade algebra policies and performance in algebra, Lawless said.
At Horace Mann Middle School in Los Angeles, 214 eighth-graders, nearly half, took algebra and four tested as proficient.
Lawless attributed California's incremental progress to improved curriculum and standards. In 2008, 42% of eighth-graders in algebra tested as proficient, compared with 38% the year before. And in 2002 less than a third of eighth-graders took the class. Today, just over half do.
The underlying goal is learning algebra, Lawless said. And that should be reinforced by adding more-difficult algebra questions to the state's mandatory high school exit exam. He said the real work needs to be accomplished in elementary school, so students are ready for algebra.
The new California policy grew out of efforts to create a math test for all eighth-graders that would satisfy federal officials. The state could have developed a new test that incorporated less-challenging algebraic concepts.
But critics characterized this approach as "algebra lite," a watering-down of math instruction. Intensely lobbied from all sides, Schwarzenegger decided, just before the state board met, that all eighth-graders should take a full algebra test. And the governor-appointed state board granted his wish.
This last-minute decision is the basis for a lawsuit by the California School Boards Assn. and the Assn. of California School Administrators. They argue that the state board failed to vet the algebra policy, as required by law, and also illegally circumvented the state process for changing curriculum standards.
State Supt. of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell said he'd need more than $3 billion to get the schools ready for mandatory eighth-grade algebra by 2011. Such funding is unlikely given the state's budget woes.
State board member Yvonne Chan, a school principal, sided with Schwarzenegger. But even though she requires algebra of all eighth-graders, she said only 30% are testing as proficient at her school, the Vaughn Next Century Learning Center in San Fernando. She said she wished she could afford smaller classes, grouped by ability, where teachers could slow down and re-teach difficult material.
"And the shortage of math teachers exacerbates whatever you want to do," Chan said. "Everybody knows there needs to be resources. That has been very clear from Day 1."
L.A. UNIFIED CLERKS MUST DO WINDOWS: School district office workers whose jobs were cut must show computer competence for a shot at reemployment.
FOR SOME, IT'S A TALL ORDER.
by Jason Song, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
September 25, 2008 -- Seventy-one-year-old Peggy McIntyre needs to learn as much as she can about Windows before 8 a.m. Or else.
McIntyre is one of about 40 L.A. Unified School District employees, mainly women nearing retirement age, whose jobs were eliminated in budget cuts in June. For a chance at another position with the district, the clerks need to pass a test proving that they can manage a spreadsheet and type a letter.
That's a tall order for McIntyre, who's spent almost six years entering data by hand for the district's transportation department and has rarely used a computer during her career. Her son gave her one several years ago, but she mainly used it to surf the Internet and watch soap operas before it stopped working and she never replaced it.
McIntyre has been taking computer classes four times a week to prepare for the test, but she isn't sure if she can make up enough ground before today's test.
"She's really cramming, but she needs a little more time," said Ellena Anderson, an instructor at the Venice Skills Center who teaches McIntyre on Mondays and Wednesdays. "I wish I could take it for her."
As daunting as the upcoming test appears, it isn't unexpected. The district cut nearly $400 million from its budget in June, eliminating nearly 500 positions. The Board of Education wanted to keep cuts away from classrooms, so about half of the jobs lost were clerical, including 40 positions from the transportation department. At the same time, the district has been trying to automate its record-keeping.
Connie Moreno, a labor relations representative, said she knew this day was coming when the district implemented an expensive computer program last year to manage its complex payroll system. Although it was a fiasco, with thousands of employees being paid the wrong amount or not at all, Moreno said the writing was on the wall.
"I begged them to take computer classes," said Moreno, who sent a flier to her California School Employees Assn. members that read "Don't wait until you find a layoff notice in your mailbox."
"The secretaries of yesterday are gone," she said, "even in L.A. Unified."
With her hip sunglasses and fashionable retro half-boots -- "I think I got them in the 1970s," she said -- McIntyre doesn't look 61, much less 71. But, in any case, she says, "I'm too old for computers."
It didn't help that her district job entailed logging bus drivers' hours by hand in a small ledger. Virtually all of the test-takers worked for the transportation department, one of the least technology-reliant departments in the district.
Michele Bryant, 43, who also works as a transportation clerk and is due to take her test soon, said she has never had to use a computer. Although she has one at home, "I just use it for solitaire," Bryant said.
When McIntyre heard earlier this month that her job was in danger, she signed up for computer literacy courses in Gardena and Venice.
On a recent Wednesday, she took a seat at one of the 18 computers in Anderson's classroom. McIntyre quickly ran into problems when she tried to organize a column, but Anderson already was working with one of the other six students.
McIntyre leaned back in her chair.
"Teacher," she whispered. "Teacher, hey. Miss Anderson. . . . "
Finally, one of the other students came over to help, clicking a few buttons to make the column line up. "You have to go to 'preview,' then 'set up,' " she told McIntyre.
"Oh, you're so good," she replied as she scribbled notes.
Then McIntyre got off on the wrong foot when she started typing a letter.
"What's the first thing you do?" Anderson asked her. After McIntyre fumbled for the answer, Anderson told her to hit the "enter" button six times.
"Remember in the old days, when you had to roll the paper down on a typewriter? That's what you're doing here," she explained.
Even with numerous pointers from Anderson, it took McIntyre almost an hour to type two short letters. She did a small dance in her chair when she finished. "I even did the check spell," she said triumphantly.
"The spell check," Anderson said softly.
Later, McIntyre admitted she was worried.
"I gotta pass that test," she said. "I try to make light of it, but it's all up to me whether I pass it."
Employees can take the test once every four months, but they run the danger of their jobs being eliminated if they fail the first time.
McIntyre said she wasn't sure what she would do if she doesn't pass. She makes about $1,100 a month and already lives on a tight budget. She's taped the heel of her right boot rather than spend the money to repair it, and even if she gets hired at another district job, it could be a part-time position without benefits.
"A district job is my best option," she said.
Others are just as concerned.
Bryant spent nearly 15 years as a homemaker before getting a job with the district 2 1/2 years ago. She knows that she needs to take the computer literacy test but hasn't scheduled an appointment. She estimates she's only 40% ready, but she's not taking a class to help her prepare.
"If I don't get another position with the district, then it's unemployment," said Bryant, who has a teenage son and daughter.
Lydia Calhoun, 54, who has worked for the district for nearly 30 years and is the longest-tenured clerk, has been practicing her typing at night. "I'm up to about 40 or 50 words a minute," she said.
If employees don't pass the test, there is another district option available. L.A. Unified has some bus driver positions open, although the training would be unpaid and the hours difficult.
"I'm physically able to do it, Calhoun said, "but I'd really prefer not to.
CSBA, ACSA & CASBO FILE SUIT TO BLOCK PROP 39 CHARTER RULES FROM TAKING EFFECT THIS FALL
by smf for 4LAKids
The California School Boards Association (“CSBA”), together with its Education Legal Alliance and the Association of California School Administrators (“ACSA”) and the California Association of School Business Officers (“CASBO”), has filed a lawsuit to block new State regulations governing how school districts assign facilities to charter schools from taking effect this fall.
Prop. 39 requires school districts to provide facilities for students from their districts that attend charter schools located in the district. Despite the remaining concerns raised by CSBA and many other groups, the SBE approved the revised regulations at its January ['08] meeting, thus beginning the formal rulemaking process. The plaintiffs have filed suit to challenge implementation of the new regulations.
Plaintiff objects to certain proposals in the new regulations:
• The current requirement to furnish and equip charter facilities for in-district students has been expanded to include providing
o front office equipment
o and the nebulous phrase “student services that directly support classroom instruction.”
• The heart of the matter is the new regulations reduce district discretion over facilities requests.
The case will be heard in Sacramento County Superior Court on Oct 3rd.
►ACSA Press Release: PROP. 39 SUIT CASTS DOUBT ON CHARTER REGS
HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T FIT: The Rest of the Stories from Other Sources
►EARLY BEDTIMES WORK, TOO, FOR SLEEP-DEPRIVED TEENS + SLEEP ISSUE FOR HIGH-SCHOOLERS WON'T REST
from Columnist Jay Michaels education column EXTRA CREDIT in the Washington Post
BACKGROUND: Scientific Studies and Observed Reality (done correctly, the same thing!) show that adolescents are not morning people. Duh. Scientists with government and foundation grants have proved this obvious fact in recent years and have even proved why: Teenager's Circadian Cycles are still locked up in the bike rack back at school in the AM: their melatonin levels are all gaflooey (excuse the scientific jargon) in the morning.
And gentle readers, so are their test scores.
We obviously don’t care about teens' health and well being - look at the way we let them dress - but (excuse the algebra) Later Start Times = Better Student Achievement.
Often when scary Red Teams take over poor performing school districts the first thing they do is set start times later. And it works!
Of course teachers tend to be morning people - and they set bell schedules per their union contracts.
I am kinda/sorta the left coast correspondent for Fairfax County S.L.E.E.P. They have fought the battle against long odds - eventually getting a sympathetic school board elected. But the Early Bedtime/Status Quo/Change is Inconvenient contingent is up in arms!
If this rant has failed to antagonize anyone I apologize. - smf
►STATE, LAUSD, SOUTH BAY DROPOUT FIGURES IMPROVE – State Improves 3%, LAUSD 5%
Los Angeles Unified showed a drop to 27.5 percent. Critics have said districts are under-counting dropouts. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said in July he believed more than half of LAUSD students drop out. The district rates include charters which can have a higher number of dropouts.
By Melissa Pamer, Staff Writer | Daily Breeze
Sept 26 -- There were fewer public high school dropouts at most South Bay school districts than was recently reported by state education officials, according to revised data released this week.
The statewide dropout rate fell to 21.5 percent from the 24.2 percent reported two months ago, state schools Superintendent Jack O'Connell said Thursday.
"To see a reduction of about 3 percent is clearly a step in the right direction," O'Connell said. "But, that said, it's still too high. It's unacceptable."
►SAN FERNANDO, SYLMAR, ARLETA HIGH SCHOOLS WILL RECEIVE BENEFIT OF $2.2 MILLION TO IMPROVE GRADUATION RATES
by Diana Martinez, Editor | San Fernando Valley Sun
Thursday, 25 September 2008 -- Ellen Pais, Executive Director of the Urban Education Partnership based in Los Angeles describes the graduation rate at San Fernando, Sylmar and Arleta High Schools as "horrific" and starting next week the agency, with money from a federal grant, will begin work first at San Fernando High to identify resources that can help students graduate.
►L.A. UNIFIED CLERKS MUST DO WINDOWS: School district office workers whose jobs were cut must show computer competence for a shot at reemployment. For some, it's a tall order
by Jason Song, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
September 25, 2008 -- Seventy-one-year-old Peggy McIntyre needs to learn as much as she can about Windows before 8 a.m. Or else.
McIntyre is one of about 40 L.A. Unified School District employees, mainly women nearing retirement age, whose jobs were eliminated in budget cuts in June. For a chance at another position with the district, the clerks need to pass a test proving that they can manage a spreadsheet and type a letter.
►Dangerous Thinking: RESTRUCTURING INNER-CITY SCHOOLS FOR THE GLOBAL MARKETPLACE
by Reggie Dylan / Revolution / SF Bay Area Independent Web Collective
Tuesday Sep 23rd, 2008 3:30 PM -- Locke High School in Watts made national news last May when a fight broke out on campus between hundreds of Black and Latino students. The melee was reported in the New York Times, the Chicago Tribune, USA Today, and in Time Magazine. The Los Angeles Times treated it as though an alarm had been sounded—a radical solution to the problems at Locke and similar inner-city schools was urgently needed.
●SAVAGE INEQUALITIES
The conditions of the inner city schools today perfectly reflect the conditions of the inner cities.
●BRINGING FORWARD MODELS OF “REFORM”
The ruling class has approached this crisis in urban education not from the perspective of how to provide a good education for every child, but through a collection of changes that have made the situation worse.
●THE GREEN DOT MODEL: MAKING A BAD SITUATION WORSE
Green Dot Public Schools is among the many non-profit charters being championed and guided by some of the most influential and “far-sighted” of the business world, civic leaders and leaders of the education establishment, and people in the world of politics.
● “TOUGH CHOICES OR TOUGH TIMES”
“The New Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce,” a panel made up of former Cabinet secretaries and governors in addition to federal and state education officials and business and civic leaders, issued a report in December 2006 titled “Tough Choices or Tough Times.” The report “warned that unless improvements are made in the nation’s public schools and colleges by 2021, a large number of jobs would be lost to countries including India and China, where workers are better educated and paid much less than their U.S. counterparts.”
● “THEY MADE IT, WHY COULDN’T YOU?”
The rulers of this country believe they face a powerful compulsion, coming from the fundamental needs of this system, to raise the education level of the U.S. labor force as a whole. Not to enable everyone to become a “knowledge worker,” which they know is impossible, but in order to maintain this country’s competitiveness in the world economy as much as possible.
*****
● “Determination decides who makes it out of the ghetto—now there is a tired old cliché, at its worst, on every level. This is like looking at millions of people being put through a meatgrinder and instead of focusing on the fact that the great majority are chewed to pieces, concentrating instead on the few who slip through in one piece and then on top of it all, using this to say that “the meatgrinder works”!” -- Bob Avakian,
●●smf's 2¢: Just because 4LAKids republishes it doesn't mean I endorse it …and the Green Dot and Mayor's Partnership efforts have been very successful at getting their word out and into The Times on a weekly basis! The 'Dangerous Thinking' in the title might be about this article or it might be about the subject of the article; inevitably it is about both. But to not confront the dangerous thought is undoubtedly the most perilous pathway of all. The quote above - about Determination and the Meatgrinder - appeared as the coda in the article – but is pulled from revcom.com: the website of the Revolutionary Communist Party. If you've been ruined by this exposure to the Marxist Dialectic I apologize — but you've read this far and the Republicans are nationalizing Wall Street anyway!
►Day 85 and Done! CALIFORNIA BUDGET IS SIGNED, 85 DAYS LATE AND DESPISED
from The New York Times
“The governor, however, proclaimed the budget a victory.”
►WARY EYES MONITORING WALL STREET + TIME TO SELL REAL ESTATE ASSETS? + THE SELL OFF OF COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE BEGINS
After years of channeling money into in mortgage backed securities and collateralized debt obligations portfolios of mortgages bundled and sold as debt securities the total size of pension fund securitizations are massive. Thomas Martin, president of the Homeowners Consumer Center estimates pension funds will take a 1 trillion dollar hit from devalued securities.
The nation’s largest public pension fund - the California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPers) - could take a hit as large as their $2 Billion dollar residential mortgage portfolio.
►SCHOOLS FAIL TO MEET ‘NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND’ GOALS + Press release + Report
Tuesday, September 23, 2008 | 02:20 PDT -- If the system mandated by No Child Left Behind to fix thousands of failing schools were subjected to its own rigorous standards, it too could fail.
That's the conclusion of the first large study examining whether school-restructuring programs required by the federal No Child Left Behind education act are actually working.
►EDUCATION TAKES BACK SEAT IN ELECTION YEAR
Editorial | Visalia Times Delta/Tulare Advance-Register
●●smf 2¢: It’s no different in Visalia or Tulare. Schools have not attained the level of excellence we expect. There is further improvement needed in serving students. Schools don’t have the resources they need. Teachers are not fully trained and competent. Schools haven’t achieved the optimal ratio of administrators to teachers.
September 23, 2008 -- In an energetic election year with no loss of stimulating candidates and controversial issues, one issue has been missing: education.
►EDUCATION AND THE ARTS: Is it the job of our schools to create an appreciative audience for higher culture?
LA Times Editorial
►TUITION AND ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS: A court ruling that illegal immigrants can't get in-state tuition rates will harm many students.
LA Times Editorial
September 22, 2008 -- For the last seven years, illegal immigrants attending California's public university and community college systems have been eligible for in-state tuition rates. The thinking behind this practice was that, regardless of their parents' actions, children had no choice in crossing the border illegally; academically gifted immigrant students shouldn't be condemned to a permanent underclass.
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.
| |  |
| 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.
• 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.
• To SUBSCRIBE e-mail: 4LAKids-subscribe@topica.email-publisher.com - or -TO ADD YOUR OR ANOTHER'S NAME TO THE 4LAKids SUBCRIPTION LIST E-MAIL smfolsom@aol.com with "SUBSCRIBE" AS THE SUBJECT. Thank you. | | | | | |
