In This Issue:  | | • | BUDGET DRAMA DRAGGING ON; I.O.U.S AHEAD - CALIFORNIA LEADERS CONTINUE IN THEIR FAILURE TO CREATE A BALANCED BUDGET. | | | • | CALIFORNIA EDUCATION CAN’T AFFORD MORE CUTS | | | • | PINK SLIPS HAVE A DEVASTATING IMPACT ON SCHOOLS | | | • | NO APOLOGY, NO DIPLOMA – A principal withholds graduation certificates over a student protest. | | | • | HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T FIT: The Rest of the Stories from Other Sources +BRUNO @ BHS! | | | • | EVENTS: Coming up next week... | | | • | What can YOU do? | |
Featured Links: | | | | REFORM IS DEAD. LONG LIVE REFORM.
– Slogan of the Iranian regime protesters.
SOMETIMES PRAGMATISM offers another way of considering the same thing from different perspectives. Sometimes it is bipolar. Bipolar isn't always disorderly; the earth itself has two poles.
THE AUTHOR OF THE CURRENT LAUSD BUDGET – the budget that fixes the three-days-to-go current school year and then addresses the next three years out with a combined $1.6 billion in cuts from the current inadequate and godforsaken spending levels – is Ramón Cortines. He insisted and insists upon it as the only way. He engineered the approval on Tuesday from the current board of education, itself with three days to run in its term of office. Yet Cortines is on record in numerous interviews stating that this budget is unacceptable; unacceptable for kids and for the future of public education in this district.
CORTINES INTERVIEW: http://media.scpr.org/audio/upload/2009/06/24/Big_Man_on_Campus.mp3
Why then do we/he/they accept it? Because it's "balanced"? What part of weighing the interest of children against AB1200 creates equilibrium?
• THE EDSOURCE DEFINITION OF AB1200: "Legislation passed in 1991 that defined a system of fiscal accountability for school districts and county offices of education to prevent bankruptcy. The law requires districts to do multiyear financial projections; identify sources of funding for substantial cost increases, such as employee raises; and make public the cost implications of such increases before approving employee contracts. County offices review district budgets and the state reviews countywide school districts." http://www.edsource.org/1071.html
EdSource says AB1200 calls for "financial projections", and identification of sources for "substantial cost increases". "Projections" are hardly "budgets" - and nobody anywhere has identified substantial cost increases - up-and-down the state school district budgets are cut, cut, cut! And the state, from which 90+% of school funding flows doesn't provide or project its budget three years out …indeed they can and do readjust funding semiannually by statute.
• And the Parcel Tax upon which all this turns …Cortines "only way out" was absent from Tuesday's budget deliberations. ¿What's with that?
• Incidentally Santa Cruz USD has refused to do a three year budget and the vox populi has hardly turned to the streets demanding SCUSD's compliance! The LAUSD Board had their opportunity to join the revolt – and instead meekly came up with a plan to further increase class size and eliminate arts education and full day kindergarten.
THE CAUSE(S) OF THE CURRENT BUDGET FIASCO IS QUITE ANOTHER THING. Some say its LAUSD's historical dysfunction. Some say the international economic collapse against the backdrop of California's socio-economic-political dysfunction; Democrats v. Republicans and the two-third rule, Props 13 and/or 98 or Serrano v. Priest, Brown v. Bd of Ed or the truly pivotal Mendez v. Westminster. Cortines points to the District's failure to implement his 1999 plan … in other words: It's Romer's fault.
Channeling Shakespeare/Cassius/Morrow: "The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves." And if we, underlings+ groundlings to history don't start paying attention we will pass our fault from generation-to-generation ad infinitum.
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4LAKIDS LOVES ARGUING WITH THE LA TIMES EDITORIAL BOARD: "The only thing more expensive than fixing health care would be not fixing health care." Nothing to argue with there.
But another opportunity presents: Thursday marked the end of the Times' "A Year at Locke" (see: MUCH DONE, MUCH TO DO AT THE L.A. CHARTER SCHOOL) - a fawning/gushing pretense of investigative journalism (or officially:"An occasional editorial series that examines the transformation of the troubled L.A. Unified campus as a charter school") None of us needthe Chicago Tribune/West to remind us: LAUSD's failures at Locke High School - once seen as phoenix risen from the Watts Riots - are infamous. But it's going to take more than a year of Green Dot's hype and self-promotion as fed to The Times to turn Locke around. The Times reports that the level of Green Dot's investment and open checkbook infusion of capital at Locke is unsustainable. A critical but supportive focus on reform at schools like Locke is necessary and desirable - a study of lessons-learned and best-practices welcome – but fairness and transparency need to be a component. For the sake of the kids and the community 4LAKids hopes and prays that Green Dot can and will turn Locke around …but years two and three - minus the spin and the open checkbook - will truly tell.
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THURSDAY EVENING STATE SENATOR GIL CEDILLO HOSTED AN EDUCATION BUDGET TOWN HALL IN MAYWOOD. (Cedillo was an excused absence - held in detention by Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg.) Here was a five-way collision of the State Budget, The LAUSD Budget, The Community College District Budget, CSU/UC Budgets and The Economy as a Whole. The result is a train wreck of cosmic proportion. The casualties are the children of California 0-5, K-12 and Community College, CSU and UC students - undergrad to post-grad. Or, if one of the metaphorical trains is Pelham 123: the future of the entire state is held hostage in-and-by the occupants of the State Capitol.
• LAUSD has eliminated Summer School except for credit recovery in high school.
• The LA Community Colleges have cancelled ALL summer school programs. That PE class your high schooler was going to make up at City College so she could be on the AccaDecca team? Forgetaboutit!
• The LAUSD building program continues to deliver new schools - relieving campus overcrowding. But the school district is increasing class size - pushing overcrowding to the classroom.
• The Community College District is also building - but cannot staff the campuses it has built. The new Glassell Park LACC campus will be rented to a charter school.
• LAUSD is firing ("laying-off", "RIFing", "down/rightsizing" or "streamlining" is - pardon my French - euphemistic merde) 2200 teachers and 2800 other staff.
• Administrators are being let go …not just the storied Beaudry Bureaucrats but assistant principals who serve Special Ed students, counselors and front office staff and lunch ladies and librarians and small school principals. Other experienced folks are being forced into early retirement.
• Community Colleges (The Los Angeles Community College District educates more students of color than the entire CSU and CC system combined!) are eliminating programs, cutting classes, reducing opportunity.and inevitably raising tuition. Those students who can afford it will be paying more for less.
• Subsidies for all college students -CC, CSU and UC -are on the verge of cutbacks and/or elimination.
• CALIFORNIA IS FAILING TO ADEQUATELY FUND PRESCHOOL PROGRAMS. State funded Early Ed programs are at a risk of having programs cut or eliminated. And starting next week preschools are at risk of having their funding paid by IOUs; directly subsidized parents will be given their payments in IOUs. Try paying teachers and electric bills with IOU's.
• WE ARE FAILING TO ADEQUATELY FUND K-12. California (formerly the 7th largest economy in the world, currently 8th) has dropped from 47th to 50th in per pupil funding. Textbooks are not being purchased. Class sizes are being increased, English Language Learners and Adult Ed and Student Transportation - legally mandated categorical programs are being "temporarily" eliminated in the name of flexibility. Cortines has said this is unacceptable …yet he led the charge for flex.
• In the blind rush to cut programs fully federally funded programs are being cut! Unacceptable+downright dumb.
• Community Colleges - which provide 77% of California's higher Ed - are being hammered. Outright elimination of CC's - which, among other things, supply the majority of CA nurses and healthcare workers - has been suggested. Unacceptable.
• The CSU and UC system are similarly threatened. Cal Grants scholarship and student aid programs are on the chopping block. Tuition will certainly raise even as more and more qualified students are turned away. Fewer will pay more for less. Unacceptable.
• Adult Ed - which teaches language and citizenship and parenting skills to P-14 parents - with programs that teach marketable job skills and provide high school and GED programs to working students are on the cusp of elimination. Unacceptable.
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YA GOTTA HAVE HOPE: July 1 marks a new fiscal and academic year, 2009-10.
Theoretically (…or at least statutorily) the state will have a new budget soon. A new school board will be empanelled as two new board members take office.
The storm flags are blowing as we change pilots.
4LAKids wishes farewell and Godspeed to two friends and colleagues - two fighters for kids in Julie Korenstein (twenty-two years of service) and Marline Canter (the bad food and the mayor [for the most part] kept out of LAUSD. Well done.
And we welcome new board members Nury Martinez and Steve Zimmer. We wish we could grant them fair winds and following seas. Instead it's batten down the hatches, all ahead full.
¡Onward/Hasta adelante! - smf
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◄►4LAKids ON THE RADIO: smf, incoming LAUSD Boardmember Steve Zimmer and others can be heard on a special edition of POLITICS OR PEDAGOGY with John Cromshow today Sunday June 28 @ 9AM • KPFK 90.7 FM Los Angeles • 98.7 FM Santa Barbara • and online at www.KPFK.org It's a call in - you can be on too! Call in (818) 985-5735
BUDGET DRAMA DRAGGING ON; I.O.U.S AHEAD - CALIFORNIA LEADERS CONTINUE IN THEIR FAILURE TO CREATE A BALANCED BUDGET.
Merced Sun-Star Editorial
Saturday, Jun. 27, 2009 -- In the latest remake of "We Don't Need a Balanced Budget," California legislators continue to dodge their responsibility to keep the state solvent.
If they keep going down this path, California will be paying its bills with IOUs and heading for bankruptcy court.
Let's all thank Assembly Speaker Karen Bass and Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg for not daring to break the pattern of their predecessors and get a balanced budget passed.
Steinberg now says he'll convene his house every day until there's a budget deal.
That's not quite as bullying as Jesse "Big Daddy" Unruh, who as speaker of the Assembly once locked his members in the house chambers until they voted for the budget.
But Steinberg has finally started to get serious. Bass seems clueless on how to proceed.
State Controller John Chiang, meanwhile, says he will start paying the government's bills with IOUs if there's no budget in place by next week.
If he follows through, the IOUs will bring back memories of 1992, the last time the state paid its bills with scrip.
The controller back then was also a Democrat, and he went on to become governor: Gray Davis.
Legislative Republicans will play their part in this rerun, sticking to their guns with what appears to be a universal "no new taxes" pledge.
In 1991, Republican Gov. Pete Wilson faced a similar wall of opposition when he tried to raise revenues.
Asked if he was going to twist Republican arms to get his proposal through, Wilson said he wouldn't just twist arms, he'd "break them."
Wilson got his taxes, though he later said he regretted it.
The one thing we won't get this summer is the traditional daily count on how late the budget is.
Lawmakers actually passed a budget months early, in February. But it is now horribly out of balance, and now they're trying to fix it.
If they do so, that would truly be a surprise ending to this otherwise dreary budget sequel.
CALIFORNIA EDUCATION CAN’T AFFORD MORE CUTS
by Ellinorianne in the Orange County Progressive
Mon Jun 22, 2009 at 11:39:45 AM PDT - This is what it's come down to? We really want to continue the downward spiral of our schools by deepening already severe budget cuts?
It's bleak for a reason, because California used to lead the way in education and almost everything else and right now it seems the only thing we are leading in is the doom and gloom of the current economic cloud that hangs over the entire Nation. We're leading the way in shrinking the Government to the size we can drown it in a toilet.
RICHMOND, Calif. (AP) - California's historic budget crisis threatens to devastate a public education system that was once considered a national model but now ranks near the bottom in school funding and academic achievement.
Deep budget cuts are forcing California school districts to lay off thousands of teachers, expand class sizes, close schools, eliminate bus service, cancel summer school programs, and possibly shorten the academic year.
...
"California used to lead the nation in education," U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan said during a recent visit to San Francisco. "Honestly, I think California has lost its way, and I think the long-term consequences of that are very troubling."
So what are our local [Orange County] Republican leaders saying about this?
Nothing new, that's for sure and still attempting to sell the same tired talking points.
Democrats want California schools to get billions that voters rejected reads the headline with nothing to support this supposition besides the same old tire excuses.
Sen. Mimi Walters, R-Laguna Niguel, said the proposal to commit $7.9 billion to schools directly contradicts the people's will.
"The voters have spoken and we need to listen," Walters said. "Unfortunately, the majority party in Sacramento isn't listening."
Democrats counter that a lawsuit already has been filed by the California Federation of Teachers over the disputed $7.9 billion and, if the state loses, it could be forced to begin payments much sooner than the proposed 2011-2012.
"The state is still at risk for owing the entire (amount) immediately," said Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento. "So what the conference committee action allows is for an easy payment plan."
I've spoken to your constituents Senator Walters and many of them are heart sick regarding the cuts to the education system, Republican and Democrat alike would rather pay more taxes than see our children's futures slashed even further by legislators in Sacramento who don't even have children in the public school system.
And there is a reason voters passed prop 98, so that in times like these we wouldn't jeopardize our public education system in the name of Howard Jarvis. We get that people feel taxed enough already, but there are huge segments of our population that are not taxed enough already.
TEA parties should start so that we can demand that corporations pay their fair share in property taxes. WE should demand that the tax code be far more progressive so that someone making $50,000 a year isn't paying the same rate as someone making $900,000 a year. Reagan got it, why can't the yacht party of no get it?
So here I go again, quoting the Binder Poll released right after the majority of the propositions failed in May. And in the poll, 57% of those questioned said they'd rather pay more in taxes than see education and health care services cut. FIFTY SEVEN PERCENT. Is that a landslide? No, but it's a simple majority and many of those people voted NO on Prop 1A and 1B.
• 75 percent support increasing taxes on alcoholic beverages (62 percent among 'No on 1A' voters)
• 74 percent support increasing taxes on tobacco (62 percent among 'No' voters)
• 73 percent support "imposing an oil extraction tax on oil companies just like every other oil producing state" (60 percent among 'No' voters)
• 63 percent support "closing the loophole that allows corporations to avoid reassessment of the value of new property they purchase" (58 percent among 'No' voters)
• 63 percent support "increasing the top bracket of the state income tax from 9.3 percent to 10 percent for families with taxable income over $272,000 a year and to eleven percent for families with taxable incomes over $544,000 a year (51 percent among 'No' voters)
• 59 percent support prohibiting corporations from using tax credits to offset more than fifty percent of the taxes they owe (55 percent among 'No' voters)
As Calitics puts it so eloquently, Facts Are Stupid Things, Californians would rather pay more in taxes than see the education system gutted.
Contrary to what the Governor is saying after the defeat of his proposals, Prop 1A did not fail because voters delivered a message to "go all out" in cutting government spending. The all-time record low turnout for a statewide special election clearly demonstrates the lack of depth to that argument. Prop 1A did not
generate a spike in turnout and taxes were not cited as the main reason why voters overwhelmingly rejected Prop 1A. Support for a state budget that relies solely on spending cuts is very limited - even among those voting no on Prop 1a.
...
Voters simply do not trust the leadership in Sacramento, and recognize that the failed special election was just another example of the inability to bring real solutions to voters. When given two choices, four out of five voters - even among those who voted 'Yes' on 1A - agreed that the special election was just another example of the failure of the Governor and Legislature, who should make the hard decisions necessary to really fix the budget. Only 20% agreed the special election was a sincere effort to fix the state's budget mess.
Stop blaming each other and start fixing this mess right now. Democrats have compromised far too much and Republicans refuse to budge. Just as the situation is complicated, so is the message that the voters sent on May 19th.
- Ellinorianne is the nom-de-blog of Heather Pritchard
PINK SLIPS HAVE A DEVASTATING IMPACT ON SCHOOLS
By Julie Van Winkle | California Progress Report
6/22 -- On Monday, June 22, 2009, I will join the California Federation of Teachers to launch a radio ad about the current California state budget crisis. I have been teaching for 5 years, the past two at Liechty Middle School in Pico-Union School District, in Los Angeles. I teach 6th and 7th grade Math and Science. I love my job and I love my students. I am also, one of many teachers across the state that has received a pink slip.
I specifically sought to teach in the Pico-Union School District and had hoped to work with these remarkable kids for years to come. Unfortunately, the governor and Republican legislators had other priorities than protecting public education. They prefer to protect oil companies and corporations, not education.
I have been devastated on several levels. A few days before I got my pink slip, I had been approved for a loan to buy my first home. Because I do not have definite employment for next year, I have had to put off fulfilling that dream.
42 other teachers at my school have received pink slips. Many of us have been teaching the same students for two years, and it's hard for the students - and for the teachers - to know that our school could change so drastically, and that relied-upon teachers may not be returning to their schools.
Being a teacher requires a lot of energy and enthusiasm. It's hard to go to school day after day and act confidant and in-control, when there is so much uncertainty.
I'm upset that this situation has been consuming my thoughts during the final days that I'll spend with my students.
That’s why I agreed to speak out. In the ad, I call upon the governor and Republican legislators to stop destroying our future. Today’s students are our future. Laying off their teachers dooms them to a lesser future than they deserve, and our state requires.
• Julie Van Winkle was a math and science teacher at Liechty Middle School in Pico-Union School District in Los Angeles before being pink slipped.
NO APOLOGY, NO DIPLOMA – A principal withholds graduation certificates over a student protest.
By JOHN CADIZ KLEMACK | KNBC News
Mon, Jun 22, 2009 -- Is it freedom of speech or lack of respect?
That's the question after Thursday's graduation ceremony at John Liechty Middle School.
Angry parents crowded the school's lobby demanding a meeting with Principal Jeanette Stevens to discuss the issue, but were turned away Monday morning.
It comes after 15 students chose to protest their graduation speaker, LAUSD Board President Monica Garcia. The students and their parents said they chose to do so to protest teacher layoffs and increased class sizes.
"We didn't stand up," said Ender Perez, who continues to refuse to apologize for Thursday's events, "we just sat in our seats and turned our backs to her."
Some parents said they backed their students for the idea. Olga Ochoa said the issue of respect goes both ways.
"They don't do nothing good for the students," she said, "because they cut the teachers and put a lot of students in the same room."
As the 15 students made their way across the stage and shook hands with the principal, they said they did not get their certificates and instead got a message.
"She squeezed my hand and said I wouldn't get my diploma."
The school district issued a statement saying, "The LAUSD's John Liechty Middle School works to provide students with an appropriate learning environment that includes being safe, being responsible and being respectful. During any school event, Liechty Middle School expects students to demonstrate respectful behavior. We have postponed distribution of approximately 15 eighth grade certificates until we are able to discuss the culmination events with those students and parents. Today, Monday, June 22, 2009, we are continuing to issue diplomas to all parents that come to school and meet with school officials. More than 500 culmination certificates were distributed at Friday’s event and this morning."
The principal at Liechty told parents Monday morning that even with a written apology from students, their acts at graduation will be considered their first warning when school starts up again in the fall.
●● The late John Liechty told me once after we had a public disagreement at a board meeting to never apologize when I know I’m right. I told that story at the dedication of his namesake school, maybe some of those students heard him.
The fact that Board President García hasn't intervened and got those students their certificates - and the similarly denied Accelerated valedictorian her diploma - says a lot about the self-styled champion for Latino student rights who often recounts 1968 Chicano student protests in Los Angeles. - smf
HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T FIT: The Rest of the Stories from Other Sources +BRUNO @ BHS!
"BRUNO" CAVORTING WITH LAUSD KIDS SPARKS PROBE
KNBC from City News Service
Sat, Jun 27, 2009 - The Los Angeles school superintendent is demanding an explanation how movie prankster Sacha Baron Cohen was allowed to do a publicity photo shoot at Birmingham High School, wearing not much more than a paper cup as a jockstrap and pretending to sexually abuse a prone football player.
Cohen apparently had school permission to pose with the Birmingham Patriot football team for an upcoming publicity campaign for his second major release, "Bruno," where he portrays an over-the-top gay fashion journalist.
The Daily News reported that photos of Cohen's character will appear as a part of a racy GQ magazine photo shoot with him wearing a shiny, form-fitting swim trunks, and an attached external athletic cup, working out with students in full uniform, the Daily News reported.
One of the photos features "Bruno" in a sexually-suggestive pose with a high school student, in uniform, doing pushups, the paper reported.
"I hold the principal and the athletic director accountable, and I have asked the local district superintendent to take appropriate action,'' said Los Angeles Unified School District superintendent Ramon Cortines, in an interview with the Daily News.
District officials told the newspaper that principal Marsha Coates and Athletic Director Richard Prizant were aware of the photo shoot.
"Permission was obtained from the athletic director, who is the school's point person for Film L.A. Ultimately, the principal is responsible," Jean Brown, the local district superintendent for schools in the West San Fernando Valley area of the district, told the Daily News.
"Bruno" is scheduled to be released in theaters July 10. As part of the publicity buildup for the movie, Cohen appeared on the MTV Movie Awards May 31 in a similarly revealing costume.
●● smf's 2¢: Some LAUSD History: At one point LAUSD had an office that coordinated film shoots and permits that produced income for the District. And Jean Brown, the local district superintendent for schools in the West San Fernando Valley area of the district has an office is on the campus at Birmingham High School. And Bruno's politically correct producers are deleting a Michael Jackson joke from their film. Apparently it's in bad taste!
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BRUNO PHOTOS AT BIRMINGHAM HIGH SCHOOL RAISE EYEBROWS
Saturday, June 27, 2009 1:41 PM
By Connie Llanos, Staff Writer LA Newspaper Group/Daily News Updated: 06/26/2009 10:26:18 PM PDT This is one of the GQ photos of Sasha Baron Cohen's Bruno character posing with members of the Birmingham High School football team. (Photo: Mark Seliger) Los Angeles Unified officials are demanding answers after "Bruno" star Sacha Baron Cohen and the Birmingham High football team appeared in…
PRESIDENT OBAMA, LAUSD BOARD OF EDUCATION RECOGNIZE CALIFORNIA ACADEMIC DECATHLETES
Friday, June 26, 2009 8:19 AM
SOURCE California Academic Decathlon SACRAMENTO, Calif., June 25, 2009 /PRNewswire-USNewswire via COMTEX/ ----LAUSD Board of Education passes resolution supporting the program while President Obama meets with the national champion team from Moorpark High School at the White House. President Obama honored the national champion Academic Decathlon team from Moorpark High School yesterday.
FLEXIBILITY KEY FOR LOCAL CHARTER SCHOOLS: Direct control allows school officials to avoid drastic cuts and layoffs.
Thursday, June 25, 2009 4:30 PM
By Paul Aranda Jr., EGP Staff Writer: Eastside Sun / Northeast Sun / Mexican American Sun / Bell Gardens Sun / City Terrace Comet / Commerce Comet / Montebello Comet / Monterey Park Comet / ELA Brookyln Belvedere Comet / Wyvernwood Chronicle / Vernon Sun With the effects of the ongoing budget cuts still to be determined, local charter schools appear to have weathered the storm that has hit their…
IVY ACADEMIA CHARTER SCHOOLS UNDER INVESTIGATION
Thursday, June 25, 2009 4:20 PM
By Connie Llanos, Staff Writer – Los Angeles Newspaper Group/Daily News 6/25 - The Los Angeles district attorney issued search warrants this week at several Ivy Academia campuses, one of the state's top performing charter schools, in connection with an ongoing investigation, officials said Wednesday. "A series of search warrants were issued at several locations (Tuesday)," said Sandi Gibbons,
VILLARAIGOSA SAYS HE’S STAYING PUT
Thursday, June 25, 2009 4:19 PM
EGP NEWS SERVICE: Eastside Sun / Northeast Sun / Mexican American Sun / Bell Gardens Sun / City Terrace Comet / Commerce Comet / Montebello Comet / Monterey Park Comet / ELA Brookyln Belvedere Comet / Wyvernwood Chronicle / Vernon Sun June 25, 2009 | 2:09 pm - Months of speculation came to an end Monday, when Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa took advantage of a national TV platform to…
BUDGET VIDEO FROM SPEAKER BASS: California faces the worst financial crisis since the depression, and the options are between bad and worse.
Thursday, June 25, 2009 8:31 AM
This video highlights what would happen if we accept the…
A Year @ Locke: MUCH DONE, MUCH TO DO AT L.A. CHARTER SCHOOL: There have been dramatic changes and gains as a charter school, but the challenges are still daunting.
Saturday, June 27, 2009 6:54 PM
Editorial from the Los Angeles Times June 25, 2009 - Teenagers never look more innocent than at their high school graduation. That was certainly true of the graduates of Locke High School, which a year ago was one of the most troubled schools in one of the nation's most troubled school districts. Off campus, many of them might wear gang colors, but on Wednesday they were draped in baby blue…
L.A. UNIFIED OKs $1.6 BILLION IN CUTS OVER THREE YEARS: Plan makes layoffs more likely for 4,000 teachers and staff, though union leaders are trying to save jobs.
Saturday, June 27, 2009 6:53 PM
By Jason Song | LA Times Ricardo DeAratanha/Los Angeles Times - Cafeteria worker Brenda Carson chants slogans outside L.A. Unified headquarters on Tuesday. Up to 2,000 school staffers could lose their jobs in cutbacks. June 24, 2009 - The Los Angeles Board of Education on Tuesday approved nearly $1.6 billion in cuts over the next three years that will result in layoffs and increased…
LAUSD Clippings 6/23
Tuesday, June 23, 2009 5:16 PM
LOS ANGELES TIMES ► Summer school programs in L.A. and Pasadena areas still have open seats 3:14 PM | June 22, 2009 After school districts across California, including Los Angeles Unified, slashed summer school offerings to deal with state budget cuts, parents have been scrambling to find summer placements for their children.
HOME and AWAY - 6/23
Tuesday, June 23, 2009 7:39 AM
Steve Sicula – Washington Post Writers Group
L.A. SCHOOLS: BOND PROGRAM CONTINUES TO BE VIABLE
Monday, June 22, 2009 4:46 PM
LA Newspaper Group | Daily News Wire Services Updated: 06/22/2009 02:26:02 PM PDT The Los Angeles Unified School District's bond program continues to be viable even though it is being impacted by the current economic crisis, the LAUSD announced today. Like most homes in Southern California, the assessed value of property within LAUSD is also declining, and that limits the ability to sell bonds
SUPREME COURT BACKS REIMBURSEMENT FOR PRIVATE IDEA TUITION
Monday, June 22, 2009 3:28 PM
By Mark Walsh and Erik W. Robelen | Education Week / Edweek.org. Published Online: June 22, 2009 -- Federal law authorizes reimbursements for private school tuition, even when a child has never received special education services from a public school, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled today. The justices ruled 6-3 in Forest Grove School District v. T.A. (Case No. 08-305)
VILLARAIGOSA SAYS HE WON’T RUN FOR GOVERNOR
Monday, June 22, 2009 2:03 PM
from the SacBee Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa took himself out of the race for governor of California today, telling a national television audience that he wants to concentrate, instead, on solving his city's problems.
TWO STUDENTS, TWO SCHOOLS -- 20 miles and a world apart
Monday, June 22, 2009 4:41 PM
Meet Kyle Gosselin and Henry Ramirez. Kyle attends La Cañada High; Henry was at South L.A.'s Jefferson High before moving to Texas. Their backgrounds may be worlds apart, but their dreams are similar. Henry Ramirez concentrates in his U.S. history class at South L.A.’s Jefferson High School. He has since moved for the second time to Spring, Texas
THE BIG CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION QUESTION: Who's going to fix California? We could appoint delegates or elect them, but just randomly selecting them might be the most promising idea.
Monday, June 22, 2009 4:41 PM
By Steven Hill | Opinion From the Los Angeles Times June 22, 2009 -- Is a constitutional convention in California's future? With the state's fiscal woes mounting and Sacramento seemingly frozen in place, a group of California leaders has proposed a constitutional convention as a way to fix the Golden State's deeply entrenched structural problems.
LA SCHOOLS CHIEF SAYS PARCEL TAX THE ONLY WAY TO BALANCE LA UNIFIED BUDGET + VOTERS TOSS SOUTH PASADENA SCHOOLS A LIFESAVER
Saturday, June 20, 2009 8:52 PM
LA SCHOOLS CHIEF SAYS PARCEL TAX THE ONLY WAY TO BALANCE LA UNIFIED BUDGET Adolfo Guzman-Lopez | KPCC Jun 19, 2009 -- Los Angeles Unified schools chief Ramon Cortines said today that a parcel tax on next year’s ballot might be the only way to balance the district’s budget in the coming years. The superintendent said he’s researching the details of the parcel tax proposal.
EVENTS: Coming up next week...
Wed July 1, 10AM
LAUSD BOARD OF EDUCATION ANNUAL MEETING- INAUGURATION OF NEW BOARD MEMBERS AND ELECTION OF OFFICERS
In the Boardroom @ 333 S. Beaudry.
*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.
• If you are eligible to become a citizen, BECOME ONE.
• If you a a citizen, REGISTER TO VOTE.
• If you are registered, VOTE LIKE THE FUTURE DEPENDS ON IT.
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