Drilling and testing

4LAKids: Sunday, July 26, 2009 In This Issue: • CALIFORNIA BUDGET DEAL (almost!) CLOSES $26 BILLION GAP – No drilling, No stealing from local gas taxes – but plenty of begging, borrowing & stealing • DAE'VON BAILEY 2003 - 2009 • ONLINE SCHOOLS APPROVED IN ROWLAND HEIGHTS: The Rowland Unified board Tuesday approved a middle and high school that will exist almost entirely Online • THE WILDERNESS OF CHILDHOOD by Michael Chabon • 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: • 4 LAKids on Twitter • PUBLIC SCHOOLS: an investment we can't afford to cut! - The Education Coalition Website • 4LAKids Anthology: All the Past Issues, solved, resolved and unsolved! • 4LAKidsNews: a compendium of recent items of interest - news stories, scurrilous rumors, links, academic papers, rants and amusing anecdotes, etc. Midweek headline in The Times: OPPOSITION TO BUDGET DEAL ERUPTS - LA COUNTY THREATENS TO SUE, A STATE WORKERS' UNION MAY STRIKE AND GOP PROTESTS RELEASE OF PRISON INMATES. On Friday the Lege passed the wretched budget. They blinked over the issues where the counties and cities might sue. They backed away from "Drill Baby, Drill"-ing …but not missing a chance to double an entendre: they drilled us all. They certainly drilled education, pre, K-12 and higher. They drilled poor children and their families who need health care. They drilled recipients of home health care. They drilled the cities and counties …just not as bad as they threatened to. Furloughed state workers will get additional opportunities to do some chillin' in the next year - while the Gübernator and the Lege keep on drillin'. But taxes were not raised. Unless you actually figure out that getting less government services over less days from less employees at less offices and parks for the same tax rates as ever actually equals a tax increase. Thankfully that kind of economic reasoning escapes us. We went to public schools where the standards, we are told, are low. NOWHERE IN THE STATE CONSTITUTION does it say: "The Big Five shall retire to a secret room and come up with the state budget". In the meshugas over the budget process and the resultant call for a constitutional convention maybe we Californians should first think unconventionally …and get rid of the unconstitutional? The idea, seemingly set in the granite and marble of the Capitol itself - that The Big Five write the state budget all by themselves is only two budget cycles old …and failed miserably both times. Will the third time be the charm - or are we out? 'Failed miserably' is Pollyannaish overstatement - California hasn't had a budget that passes the 'sniff test' of balance in recent memory …certainly not in Schwarzenegger Administration or the last few years of the Davis. The concept of The Big Five retiring incommunicado without consulting with the rest of the legislature was dreamt-up by the last Big Five (only one of whom remains) to expedite the process of the '07-08 budget -- an infamous moment of expedience at the expense of democracy. "We'll eliminate the middlemen and cut to the chase." The middlemen/muddlemen - being the elected representatives of the people. That the Small 116 (the assembly and the senate minus the minority and majority leadership) go along makes them complicit. • July 17, 2007, a day that coincides roughly with the advent of the "Let the Big Five Do It Plan", was the last day California had a balanced cash flow with equal receipts and expenses. • Cash flow reflects actual money being actually raised and spent; a budget is just a plan. • And the '07-08 Budget, if you'll recall, was rejected by Wall Street and returned to Sacramento marked NSF. The result is an all-chase disaster movie. And the children/taxpayers/voters/citizenry of the state are the hapless pushcart vendor stacking produce at the side of the road as the heroes and bad guys barrel down in a screech of tires and a flood of testosterone. I come from Hollywood: No one ever saved a bad script in post production. PUNDIT-PROVOCATEUR DAN WALTERS - Dean of the Sacramento Reporters - opened his SacBee column Wednesday: "Were California a corporation, rather than a state, its officers would be playing tiddlywinks with Bernie Madoff in the federal slammer, having engaged in years of hide-the-pea accounting tricks, under-the-table loans and other gimmicks to cover up the state's perpetual operating deficits." http://www.sacbee.com/walters/story/2041808.html (Madoff brings to mind Michael Millken. Read on, he appears later in this issue of 4LAKids.) The Lege and the Gübernator didn't see the global economic collapse coming. But they did build their house o' cards in the Sacramento floodplain …and they haven't done a thing to bolster the levees in years. We can blame it on Props 13 and 98 and term limits, safe seats and the 2/3rds rule. Or we can blame ourselves for bad decision making in the ballot box. Because, gentle readers: We the People voted for the Lege and the Gov and those things. Throwing all the metaphors into the blender: Our elected representatives failed to learn the First Law of Economics learned by every preschooler and kept-at-home-kid with a bubble wand and bottle of soap solution: Every Bubble Bursts. ELSEWHERE (in DC) our President allowed himself to get drawn off topic (about healthcare) and weighed in and said aloud what we all were thinking but knew better than to say vis a vis racial profiling in Cambridge Mass. "I don't know, not having been there and not seeing all the facts" …."the Cambridge police acted stupidly…" Hard words to work into truly presidential thinking. Suddenly the media criticism of "too much Obama a lot of the time" rings true. Off topic, distracted, backtracking and retracting. Suddenly "No drama Obama" is playing like bad improv. I had thought Joe Biden spoke my lines. OBAMA AGAIN, ON FRIDAY, at a press event about education reform: “In too many places we have no way, at least no good way, of distinguishing good teachers from bad ones,” [schools need to] “use data effectively to reward effective teachers, to support teachers who are struggling and, when necessary, to replace teachers who aren’t up to the job.” Education reform isn't about good teachers v. bad teachers, it's about outcomes. Barack Obama, one of the great communicators/ rhetoricians of the age, needs to raise the rhetoric above "good" and "bad" teachers if we are ever to get anywhere -- and for the very reason that the argument isn't just semantic and that outcomes are not test scores or data collection. Data are bits and bytes, waypoints and milestones. Outcomes are productive young people well on the road of lifelong leaning. WE ARE FRUSTRATED IN L.A. AND CALIFORNIA because we are laying off presumed-good-until-proven-otherwise teachers based exclusively on (a lack of) seniority. Yet there are folks in teacher jail suspected of criminal activity with guaranteed employment. As there are apparently folks in teacher jail for the political high-crime-and-misdemeanor of falling afoul of the Partnership for LA Schools. • Are all teachers who didn't have seniority on June 30 "bad teachers" …or just unemployed? • Are teachers who are suspected of wrongdoing but innocent-until-proven-guilty "good" or "bad"? • Are teachers who don't fit in at PLAS "bad"? Someone at 200 N. Spring Street thinks so. Ms. Roisterdoister teaches fourth grade in an inner city school. Her students enterrd her class in September averaging one year below grade level and not knowing their multiplication tables. In the course of the year she gets them caught up so they can master the third grade curriculum and they learn their multiplication tables …all thirty-some odd of them -- 70% English language learners, 86% free and reduced lunch. In May they take the CST and most of them are below basic because they haven't mastered the fourth grade standards - they can multiply but division is beyond them. Are those kids failures? Is Ms. R a bad teacher because she didn't teach them two years of stuff in one year in her overcrowded underfunded classroom? Mr. Veeblefetzer down the hall at the same school is teaching a similar fourth grade class and follows the fourth grade script and teaches the fourth grade curriculum to the kids that didn't master the third grade content - teaching to the test rather than the child. His kids will do better is the CST because they have a familiarity with the test questions. They are informed multiple choosers even though they really can't read and certainly can't divide. How can they? …they can't multiply. Is Mr. V a good teacher? Does he deserve his job more than does Ms. R? Does he deserve merit pay for following the script? The Roiserdoister-Veeblefetzer Dilemma is very real, only the names are funny. We must come to grips with this - both classes are behind where they should be. And so are most similar classrooms in most inner city schools in most cities in the country. Data isn't the answer, it's an indicator. The carrot of merit pay or the stick of removal or replacement are not the answers. Whether school districts are governed by boards of ed or mayors of cities is a distraction. Supporting teachers who are struggling is part of the answer - as is identifying lessons learned and best practice; we are not doing enough of any of it! LAST WEEK THE LONG BEACH BOARD OF ED put a parcel tax on the November ballot; last week the LAUSD Board of Ed went on vacation. Onward relentlessly! - smf CALIFORNIA BUDGET DEAL (almost!) CLOSES $26 BILLION GAP – No drilling, No stealing from local gas taxes – but plenty of begging, borrowing & stealing By JENNIFER STEINHAUER | New York Times Published: July 24, 2009 — LOS ANGELES — After several days of nearly endless debate, California lawmakers on Friday signed off on a budget deal that closes a $26 billion gap and shores up state finances, for now. The budget, an agreement made earlier in the week in near secrecy among party leaders and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, contains more than $15 billion in cuts to services, but spares local governments from serving as unwilling cash machines for the state's general fund, and discards a plan to drill for oil off the coast of Santa Barbara. Legislation mirroring the deal cobbled together by the leaders was approved by the State Senate early Friday morning after an original failure to get the two-thirds vote needed to pass. State Assembly members settled midafternoon on a final deal that no longer contained a nearly $1 billion reserve from earlier versions, but also discarded plans to take gasoline tax revenues away from local governments, a plan that had enraged mayors and county leaders and invited lawsuits. Mr. Schwarznegger, a Republican, will sign the document next week. "It's not an easy budget; it's a tough budget; but it's a necessary budget," he said in a news conference immediately after the deal was sealed. The budget contains a vast array of spending cuts that will soon be felt throughout the state. The K-12 education budget, which also includes community colleges, lost $6.1 billion from its roughly $58 billion base, and higher education took a $2 billion hit. The state will save $1.3 billion by furloughing state workers three days out of the month. Medicaid took a $1.3 billion cut, not including a $129 million trim to the state's program that insures children whose families make too much for them to receive Medicaid. There were accounting tricks, like $1.2 billion that will be saved in a one-time deferment of state worker paychecks for one day, moving them into the next fiscal year. The Senate had signed off on measures to move about $4.7 billion of local government monies into the state's fund. But now the state will borrow about $2 billion from local governments, which has to be repaid within three years, and which those governments can borrow against in the short term. There will also be a $1.7 billion shift from local redevelopment agencies into state funds, which is likely to anger local governments, who were placated by the return of other money. The money previously planned to come from localities will now be made up by dipping into a nearly $1 billion planned reserve. "In no way should this be misconstrued as kicking the can down the road," said the Assembly speaker, Karen Bass, in prepared remarks. "Where local government, and the communities we serve are concerned, it's more like we're throwing a hand grenade out of the foxhole." The Assembly rejected a revenue-raising measure to drill for oil off Santa Barbara, blowing another $100 million hole in the plan that is likely to be compensated for in line-item vetoes made by the governor. The state's nebulous way of managing its budget negotiations, as well as other oddities of its fiscal situation, are almost certain to be taken on by outside groups this year who wish to change the state's tax system and perhaps its entire Constitution. ______________________ ►BUDGET DEAL HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: Friday, July 24, 2009 at 4:03 a.m. Highlights of details of the agreement between Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the four legislative leaders to close California's $26.3 billion budget deficit: SPENDING REDUCTIONS • Cuts $6 billion from K-12 schools and community colleges over two years. • Cuts nearly $3 billion from the University of California and California State University systems. Although the federal stimulus program fills some of the gap, the depth of the cuts will mean higher student fees, fewer students and furloughs for employees. • Cuts $1.3 billion from Medi-Cal, the state's health-care program for the poor; most of the savings would be through a proposal to bill the federal government for more money. In February, the state eliminated adult dental and eye care for recipients, a move that is being challenged in court. • Saves $1.3 billion by retaining three unpaid furlough days a month for state workers, which is the equivalent of a 14 percent pay cut. • Includes $1.2 billion in unallocated cuts to the state Department of Corrections. • Cuts $528 million from CalWORKS, state's welfare-to-work program, partly by increasing sanctions for families that fail to meet work requirements. Schwarzenegger had proposed eliminating the program entirely. • Cuts $124 million from Healthy Families, a program that provides health insurance for 930,000 low-income children. Lawmakers hope nonprofit groups, foundations and other organizations can fill in some of the losses. The program already has stopped accepting new applicants, the first time it has done so in its 12-year history. • Cuts $226 million from state's in-home supportive services program for the frail and disabled. The governor initially proposed removing 90 percent of the 440,000 people enrolled in the program, but the budget compromise will eliminate care only for those who are more independent and able to do their own cooking and cleaning. It also includes Schwarzenegger's proposal to require fingerprinting of caregivers and most recipients, and would require caregivers to undergo background checks. • Cuts about $8 million from state parks, allowing the majority of state parks, beaches and attractions to stay open. Some parks are likely to close, based on popularity and use. OTHER MEASURES • Borrows about $2 billion from local governments' property tax revenue, money that would have to be repaid with interest in three years. As a concession to angry city and county officials, the deal would prioritize repayment of the so-called Proposition 1A money after schools and bondholders are paid. • Takes $1 billion in redevelopment money from local governments. • Takes $1 billion in transportation funding from local governments. • Speeds up collection of 2010 personal income and corporate taxes to bring in revenue earlier than anticipated. • Sells off part of the State Compensation Insurance Fund, which the administration values at $1 billion. The fund is a quasi-governmental agency that is the state's largest writer of workers' compensation insurance. • Allows limited expansion of oil drilling off Santa Barbara County, which the governor's office says will generate $100 million in the current fiscal year. • Eliminates the Integrated Waste Management Board and the Board of Geologists and Geophysicists, which Schwarzenegger had targeted as wasteful and unnecessary. • Gives school districts option of cutting the school year by five days. • Defers state employee paychecks by one day for a savings on paper of $1.2 billion, which has been criticized by some as a gimmick. Instead of being issued on June 30, 2010, the paychecks would be issued on July 1, the start of the 2010-2011 fiscal year. • Gives governor authority to pursue the sale of the Orange County Fairgrounds and about 10 state-owned office buildings as a potential revenue source in future years. The California Public Utilities Commission Building in San Francisco and the Ronald Reagan State Office Building in Los Angeles are among those that will be considered for sale. • Rejects Schwarzenegger's proposal for a surcharge on homeowner insurance policies, which would have boosted funding for emergency services. The surcharge would have averaged about $48 a year per homeowner. Related NY Times Topics: CALIFORNIA BUDGET CRISIS (2008-09) DAE'VON BAILEY 2003 - 2009 by smf for 4LALAKids The Village That it Takes To Raise A Child failed 6 year old Dae'von Bailey last week. Dae'von died - apparently abused - already the subject of over a dozen child abuse complaints made to child welfare and the police. Complaints made, investigations completed, reports filed. A whole lot of people failed Dae'von, his parents, family members, the child welfare system, social workers, the police, the community. At six Dae'von probably was a kindergartener entering the first grade - if he was teachers and nurses and school staff at his school should've had him on their radar screen. The Times article describes Dae'vons quet neighborhood of stucco houses and tree lined streets, a community not in the gang crosshairs. Dae'von had a chance. He has five surviving siblings, a younger sister at five and four older kids - all now in protective custody. One would like to believe that with the attention his brothers and sisters now have a better chance. It would be nice to believe that; it would be nice to be able to believe that. But the Times article that is Dae'vons obituary tells of fourteen children in LA County who died last year after their cases were reviewed by the system. Dae'von's anagished neighbor says "Man, they killed that boy." Man, we killed that boy - with program cuts and case overload and bad decisions and failure to communicate and outright utter complete ineptitude. At six Dae'von Bailey is dead; he won't get any older than that. LA Times: SOUTH L.A. BOY DIED AFTER PREVIOUS REPORTS OF ABUSE, by Hector Becerra and Garrett Therolf July 25, 2009 ONLINE SCHOOLS APPROVED IN ROWLAND HEIGHTS: The Rowland Unified board Tuesday approved a middle and high school that will exist almost entirely Online Corina Knoll - LA Times/LA Now Blog 1:46 PM | July 22, 2009 Updated 7:51 p.m. [LA Times]: An earlier version of this posting, as well as its headline, stated incorrectly that the online school was the first created in the state. The earlier post also failed to mention that middle school grades would be included. •• smf: 4LAKids did not post earlier versions of this story because we knew the 'first in the state claim' to be incorrect. •• more smf: THE PLAYERS, THE SCORECARD & CONNECT THE DOTS/FOLLOW THE MONEY: iQ Academy – a private/for-profit cooperation - is a brand of KC Distance Learning, KC Distance Learning, Inc. operates as a subsidiary of Knowledge Learning Corp – a wholly-Owned Subsidiary of Knowledge Universe, Inc. •• Former LAUSD Board President/former California Charter Schools Association President Caprice Young is the President and CEO of KC Distance Learning and was formerly Vice President of Business Development and Alliances of Knowledge Universe. •• Former Junk Bond King Michael Milken is Co-Founder and Chairman of Knowledge Universe THE TIMES ARTICLE: The virtual campus, a charter school that will be known as iQ Academy California-Los Angeles, will operate out of Rowland Heights and will be open to students in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and Ventura counties. "In our mission statement for our district we talk about being innovative," said school board President Robert Hidalgo, who is also a high school history teacher. "A charter school is technically still a public school, but it is kind of a laboratory for experimentation. We saw that as an opportunity to be cutting edge and to be a pioneer in the online-virtual world." Full-time students will be given a laptop and access to wireless Internet and will be able meet with their teachers via webcasts or in person. Those who attend a traditional brick-and-mortar high school can still utilize iQ Academy for supplemental classes or summer school. Parents will also be able to log on and look over their child's progress. A downside is that students will experience a limited social life because they aren't physically going to school. But Hidalgo said the academy will offer networking opportunities to make up for that. "Initially, I was a little bit apprehensive, only because you don't have that face-to-face experience," he said. "But after I saw some of the demonstrations and did some more research on it, I began to realize that kids learn in different environments. This is more of a self-paced, interactive type of school that might better accommodate some students." Lisa McClure, director of iQ Academy, said a virtual high school is an easy concept to grasp for the current generation. "Many school districts have already dabbled in online learning, and teachers coming out of universities now have taken courses online so they're totally tuned into this," she said. McClure said she expects about 500 students to enroll for the fall season, which will begin Sept. 8. The academy has opened schools in eight other states. Complete Article from 4LAKidsNews ...with dots to connect! THE WILDERNESS OF CHILDHOOD by Michael Chabon THE WILDERNESS OF CHILDHOOD by Michael Chabon ●●smf: Telling the story of education and the lives of children doesn't limit ones subject much; it isn't all about politics and pedagogy and the budget …about adults behaving like adults. Sometimes, at its best, it's about children behaving like children should: exploring their own imaginations - a world where the only limits are adulthood and mortality, two imposters with the same dark face. In this essay Chabon explores the darkness under the bed and in the woods - places sometimes visited by Barrie and The Brothers Grimm, by Sedak and Roald Dahl and others Chabon names; imaginary places inhabited by and populated by real children with magical reality. Always the child of the sixties I remember that Neil Young told us (at nineteen) "You can't be twenty on Sugar Mountain - though you're thinking that you're leaving there too soon". Children in their imagining relive the very moment that first make us a human - when we took the gift of fire and of language and stood guard against the night. When we looked beyond the light of the fire and told stories about the unknown beyond. With education the reach of the light of the fire has expanded, we adults can see and name the dangers and explain almost all the way back to The Big Bang. But we'll never know it all - and the brightest smallest lights among us can imagine their-and-our-way into-and-out-of the dark. For this we must give praise and encouragement. ¡Onward! THE WILDERNESS OF CHILDHOOD By Michael Chabon - This essay is from the July 16 New York Review of Books and The Last Word in this Week's (July 31, 2009) The Week Magazine and will appear in Chabon's forthcoming collection of essays: Manhood for Amateurs. When I was growing up, our house backed onto woods, a thin two-acre remnant of a once-mighty wilderness. This was in a Maryland city where the enlightened planners had provided a number of such lingering swaths of green. They were tame as can be, our woods, and yet at night they still filled with unfathomable shadows. In the winter they lay deep in snow and seemed to absorb, to swallow whole, all the ordinary noises of your body and your world. Scary things could still be imagined to take place in those woods. It was the place into which the bad boys fled after they egged your windows on Halloween and left your pumpkins pulped in the driveway. There were no Indians in those woods, but there had been once. We learned about them in school. Patuxent Indians, they'd been called. Swift, straight-shooting, silent as deer. Gone but for their lovely place names: Patapsco, Wicomico, Patuxent. A minor but undeniable aura of romance was attached to the history of Maryland, my home state: refugee Catholic Englishmen, cavaliers in ringlets and ruffs, pirates, battles, the sack of Washington, "The Star-Spangled Banner," Harriet Tubman, Antietam. And when you went out into those woods behind our house, you could feel all that history, those battles and dramas and romances, those stories. You could work it into your games, your imaginings, your lonely flights from the turmoil or torpor of your life at home. My friends and I spent hours there, braves, crusaders, commandos, blues and grays. Little Bookroom / Go Slow England But the Wilderness of Childhood, as any kid could attest who grew up, like my father, on the streets of Flatbush in the Forties, had nothing to do with trees or nature. I could lose myself on vacant lots and playgrounds, in the alleyway behind the Wawa, in the neighbors' yards, on the sidewalks. Anywhere, in short, I could reach on my bicycle, a 1970 Schwinn Typhoon, Coke-can red with a banana seat, a sissy bar, and ape-hanger handlebars. On it I covered the neighborhood in a regular route for half a mile in every direction. I knew the locations of all my classmates' houses, the number of pets and siblings they had, the brand of popsicle they served, the potential dangerousness of their fathers. Matt Groening once did a great Life in Hell strip that took the form of a map of Bongo's neighborhood. At one end of a street that wound among yards and houses stood Bongo, the little one-eared rabbit boy. At the other stood his mother, about to blow her stack—Bongo was late for dinner again. Between mother and son lay the hazards—labeled angry dogs, roving gang of hooligans, girl with a crush on bongo—of any journey through the Wilderness: deadly animals, antagonistic humans, lures and snares. It captured perfectly the mental maps of their worlds that children endlessly revise and refine. Childhood is a branch of cartography. Most great stories of adventure, from The Hobbit to Seven Pillars of Wisdom, come furnished with a map. That's because every story of adventure is in part the story of a landscape, of the interrelationship between human beings (or Hobbits, as the case may be) and topography. Every adventure story is conceivable only with reference to the particular set of geographical features that in each case sets the course, literally, of the tale. But I think there is another, deeper reason for the reliable presence of maps in the pages, or on the endpapers, of an adventure story, whether that story is imaginatively or factually true. We have this idea of armchair traveling, of the reader who seeks in the pages of a ripping yarn or a memoir of polar exploration the kind of heroism and danger, in unknown, half-legendary lands, that he or she could never hope to find in life. This is a mistaken notion, in my view. People read stories of adventure—and write them—because they have themselves been adventurers. Childhood is, or has been, or ought to be, the great original adventure, a tale of privation, courage, constant vigilance, danger, and sometimes calamity. For the most part the young adventurer sets forth equipped only with the fragmentary map—marked here there be tygers and mean kid with air rifle—that he or she has been able to construct out of a patchwork of personal misfortune, bedtime reading, and the accumulated local lore of the neighborhood children. A striking feature of literature for children is the number of stories, many of them classics of the genre, that feature the adventures of a child, more often a group of children, acting in a world where adults, particularly parents, are completely or effectively out of the picture. Think of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, The Railway Children, or Charles Schulz's Peanuts. Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy presents a chilling version of this world in its depiction of Cittàgazze, a city whose adults have all been stolen away. Then there is the very rich vein of children's literature featuring ordinary contemporary children navigating and adventuring through a contemporary, nonfantastical world that is nonetheless beyond the direct influence of adults, at least some of the time. I'm thinking of the Encyclopedia Brown books, the Great Brain books, the Henry Reed and Homer Price books, the stories of the Mad Scientists' Club, a fair share of the early works of Beverly Cleary. As a kid, I was extremely fond of a series of biographies, largely fictional, I'm sure, that dramatized the lives of famous Americans—Washington, Jefferson, Kit Carson, Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, Daniel Boone—when they were children. (Boys, for the most part, though I do remember reading one about Clara Barton.) One element that was almost universal in these stories was the vast amounts of time the famous historical boys were alleged to have spent wandering with bosom companions, with friendly Indian boys or a devoted slave, through the once-mighty wilderness, the Wilderness of Childhood, entirely free of adult supervision. Though the wilderness available to me had shrunk to a mere green scrap of its former enormousness, though so much about childhood had changed in the years between the days of young George Washington's adventuring on his side of the Potomac and my own suburban exploits on mine, there was still a connectedness there, a continuum of childhood. Eighteenth-century Virginia, twentieth-century Maryland, tenth-century Britain, Narnia, Neverland, Prydain—it was all the same Wilderness. Those legendary wanderings of Boone and Carson and young Daniel Beard (the father of the Boy Scouts of America), those games of war and exploration I read about, those frightening encounters with genuine menace, far from the help or interference of mother and father, seemed to me at the time—and I think this is my key point—absolutely familiar to me. The thing that strikes me now when I think about the Wilderness of Childhood is the incredible degree of freedom my parents gave me to adventure there. A very grave, very significant shift in our idea of childhood has occurred since then. The Wilderness of Childhood is gone; the days of adventure are past. The land ruled by children, to which a kid might exile himself for at least some portion of every day from the neighboring kingdom of adulthood, has in large part been taken over, co-opted, colonized, and finally absorbed by the neighbors. The traveler soon learns that the only way to come to know a city, to form a mental map of it, however provisional, and begin to find his or her own way around it is to visit it alone, preferably on foot, and then become as lost as one possibly can. I have been to Chicago maybe a half-dozen times in my life, on book tours, and yet I still don't know my North Shore from my North Side, because every time I've visited, I have been picked up and driven around, and taken to see the sights by someone far more versed than I in the city's wonders and hazards. State Street, Halsted Street, the Loop—to me it's all a vast jumbled lot of stage sets and backdrops passing by the window of a car. This is the kind of door-to-door, all-encompassing escort service that we adults have contrived to provide for our children. We schedule their encounters for them, driving them to and from one another's houses so they never get a chance to discover the unexplored lands between. If they are lucky, we send them out to play in the backyard, where they can be safely fenced in and even, in extreme cases, monitored with security cameras. When my family and I moved onto our street in Berkeley, the family next door included a nine-year-old girl; in the house two doors down the other way, there was a nine-year-old boy, her exact contemporary and, like her, a lifelong resident of the street. They had never met. The sandlots and creek beds, the alleys and woodlands have been abandoned in favor of a system of reservations—Chuck E. Cheese, the Jungle, the Discovery Zone: jolly internment centers mapped and planned by adults with no blank spots aside from doors marked staff only. When children roller-skate or ride their bikes, they go forth armored as for battle, and their parents typically stand nearby. There are reasons for all of this. The helmeting and monitoring, the corralling of children into certified zones of safety, is in part the product of the Consumer Reports mentality, the generally increased consciousness, in America, of safety and danger. To this one might add the growing demands of insurance actuarials and the national pastime of torts. But the primary reason for this curtailing of adventure, this closing off of Wilderness, is the increased anxiety we all feel over the abduction of children by strangers; we fear the wolves in the Wilderness. This is not a rational fear; in 1999, for example, according to the Justice Department, the number of abductions by strangers in the United States was 115. Such crimes have always occurred at about the same rate; being a child is exactly no more and no less dangerous than it ever was. What has changed is that the horror is so much better known. At times it seems as if parents are being deliberately encouraged to fear for their children's lives, though only a cynic would suggest there was money to be made in doing so. The endangerment of children—that persistent theme of our lives, arts, and literature over the past twenty years—resonates so strongly because, as parents, as members of preceding generations, we look at the poisoned legacy of modern industrial society and its ills, at the world of strife and radioactivity, climatological disaster, overpopulation, and commodification, and feel guilty. As the national feeling of guilt over the extermination of the Indians led to the creation of a kind of cult of the Indian, so our children have become cult objects to us, too precious to be risked. At the same time they have become fetishes, the objects of an unhealthy and diseased fixation. And once something is fetishized, capitalism steps in and finds a way to sell it. What is the impact of the closing down of the Wilderness on the development of children's imaginations? This is what I worry about the most. I grew up with a freedom, a liberty that now seems breathtaking and almost impossible. Recently, my younger daughter, after the usual struggle and exhilaration, learned to ride her bicycle. Her joy at her achievement was rapidly followed by a creeping sense of puzzlement and disappointment as it became clear to both of us that there was nowhere for her to ride it—nowhere that I was willing to let her go. Should I send my children out to play? There is a small grocery store around the corner, not over two hundred yards from our front door. Can I let her ride there alone to experience the singular pleasure of buying herself an ice cream on a hot summer day and eating it on the sidewalk, alone with her thoughts? Soon after she learned to ride, we went out together after dinner, she on her bike, with me following along at a safe distance behind. What struck me at once on that lovely summer evening, as we wandered the streets of our lovely residential neighborhood at that after-dinner hour that had once represented the peak moment, the magic hour of my own childhood, was that we didn't encounter a single other child. Even if I do send them out, will there be anyone to play with? Art is a form of exploration, of sailing off into the unknown alone, heading for those unmarked places on the map. If children are not permitted—not taught—to be adventurers and explorers as children, what will become of the world of adventure, of stories, of literature itself? ● Chabon is the author of: The Mysteries of Pittsburgh (1988), Wonder Boys (1995) The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay (2000), Summerland (2002) & The Yiddish Policemen's Union (2007) HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T FIT: The Rest of the Stories from Other Sources OBAMA MAY DISQUALIFY SOME STATES – INCLUDING CALIFORNIA & NEW YORK - FROM SCHOOL GRANTS Friday, July 24, 2009 10:04 PM By Molly Peterson | Bloomberg.com CALIFORNIA THREATENED WITH LOSS OF FUNDS IF IT DOESN'T USE TEST SCORES IN EVALUATING TEACHERS: U.S. education secretary is expected to withhold millions of dollars in education stimulus money if the state doesn't comply with his demand. Friday, July 24, 2009 9:16 AM By Jason Felch and Jason Song From the Los Angeles Times CALIFORNIA SENATE PASSES BUDGET-BALANCING PLAN + BUDGET DEAL HIGH(LOW)LIGHTS Friday, July 24, 2009 8:01 AM BY JUDY LIN | ASSOCIATED PRESS FROM THE SANTA ROSA PRESS DEMOCRAT CALIFORNIA LAWMAKERS BEGIN VOTING ON BUDGET PACKAGE Thursday, July 23, 2009 10:14 PM By JUDY LIN | ASSOCIATED PRESS 23 JULY | 9:45 PM PDT SACRAMENTO, Calif. 2 MAJOR STICKING POINTS STILL HOLDING UP STATE BUDGET DEAL Thursday, July 23, 2009 10:14 PM Shane Goldmacher in LA Times LANow Blog VILLARAIGOSA SAYS ‘CYNICAL’ STATE BUDGET WILL ‘KNEECAP’ OBAMA’S STIMULUS PACKAGE Thursday, July 23, 2009 10:13 PM LATimes LANow Blog -- Phil Willon at L.A. City Hall DRAFT ‘COLLEGE-AND-CAREER-READINESS’ CONTENT STANDARDS ELICIT MIXED REVIEWS Thursday, July 23, 2009 10:13 PM By Sean Cavanagh and Catherine Gewertz | EdWeek ‘RACE TO THE TOP’ GUIDELINES STRESS USE OF TEST DATA Thursday, July 23, 2009 10:12 PM By Michele McNeil EdWeek | Steve Lopez: COULD PARENTS SCREAMS JOLT L.A. UNIFIED INTO ACTION? + A letter to Steve Wednesday, July 22, 2009 11:29 AM LA UNIFIED SCRAMBLING TO DECODE EFFECT OF BUDGET DEAL Wednesday, July 22, 2009 9:55 AM Howard Blume | LA Times LANow Blog LONG BEACH UNIFIED TO PUT PARCEL TAX ON NOVEMBER BALLOT Tuesday, July 21, 2009 10:30 PM By Kevin Butler, Staff Writer | Long Beach Press-Telegram CALIFORNIA’S EDUCATION SYSTEM TAKES ANOTHER HIT Tuesday, July 21, 2009 10:13 PM By Katy Murphy and Theresa Harrington | MediaNews staff | San Jose Mercury News LAWMAKERS STILL WAIT ON DETAILS OF FISCAL PACKAGE Tuesday, July 21, 2009 9:57 PM James Rufus Koren, Staff Writer | Redlands Daily Facts [LA Newspaper Group] COURT WON’T HALT NEW LAUSD HIGH SCHOOL IN CARSON …O.K., Long Beach Tuesday, July 21, 2009 9:45 PM The Daily Breeze | from staff reports BUDGET AGREEMENT PUTS CALIFORNIA DREAM ON HOLD Tuesday, July 21, 2009 3:29 PM By JENNIFER STEINHAUER | News Analysis| New York Times CSU INCREASES FEES BY 20% Tuesday, July 21, 2009 3:24 PM by Miles Nevin | Report Card | Long Beach Post A KEY TEST FOR L.A.’s COMMUNITY COLLEGES: Two institutions are on probation for failing to conduct 'program review.' Though that sounds like a minor administrative matter, it helps schools answer a big question: Do our programs work? Tuesday, July 21, 2009 8:14 AM Editorial From the Los Angeles Times PIERCE COLLEGE PRESIDENT ANNOUNCES RESIGNATION + GARBER LEAVES PIERCE Tuesday, July 21, 2009 8:15 AM Pierce College president announces resignation By Dana Bartholomew, Staff Writer | LA Daily News ‘Agri-tainment’ or Education?: VALLEY FAIR, PIERCE COLLEGE VYING TO LEASE CAMPUS LAND LAND. Tuesday, July 21, 2009 8:13 AM By Dana Bartholomew, Staff Writer | LA Daily News “HOUSTON, WE HAVE A BUDGET” …unfortunately it’s one for California Tuesday, July 21, 2009 7:44 AM LA Times: ‘The plan is not yet formally released’ …but they have a chart of the cuts (kids’ health insurance) & a chart of the not cuts (kids’ health insurance not eliminated!). WHAT FRANK McCOURT COULD TEACH JOEL KLEIN AND ARNE DUNCAN Monday, July 20, 2009 3:08 PM …what he could teach Antonio Villaraigosa, Ramon Cortines and 121 slow learners in Sacramento – what he could teach us all if we only listened. by Leonie Haimson Executive Director, Class Size Matters in The Huffington Post The news that didn't fit from July 26 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 • LAUSD BOARD OF EDUCATION & COMMITTEES MEETING CALENDAR What can YOU do? • E-mail, call or write your school board member: Yolie.Flores.Aguilar@lausd.net • 213-241-6383 Tamar.Galatzan@lausd.net • 213-241-6386 Monica.Garcia@lausd.net • 213-241-6180 Marguerite.LaMotte@lausd.net • 213-241-6382 Nury.Martinez@lausd.net • 213-241-6388 Richard.Vladovic@lausd.net • 213-241-6385 Steve.Zimmer@lausd.net • 213-241-6387 ...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. Who are your elected federal & state representatives? How do you contact them? Scott Folsom is a parent leader in LAUSD. He is Past President of Los Angeles Tenth District PTSA and represents PTA on the LAUSD Construction Bond Citizen's Oversight Committee and the BOC on the Board of Education Facilities Committee. He is the president of his neighborhood council. He is a Health Commissioner, Legislation Team member and a member of the Board of Managers of the California State PTA. He serves on numerous school district advisory and policy committees and has served a PTA officer and governance council member at three LAUSD schools. He is the recipient of the UTLA/AFT 2009 "WHO" Gold Award for his support of education and public schools - an honor he hopes to someday deserve. • 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 SUBSCRIPTION LIST E-MAIL smfolsom@aol.com with "SUBSCRIBE" AS THE SUBJECT. Thank you.

Out of the loop

4LAKids: Sunday, July 19, 2009 In This Issue: • BOTTOM LINE: POLITICIANS AND ACTIVISTS DEMAND EQUAL EDUCATION ON WATTS CAMPUS • OBAMA STRESSES EDUCATION IN SPEECH TO NAACP • PUBLIC SCHOOL CHOICE: A NEW WAY AT LAUSD + INNOVATION AND THE LAUSD + L.A. UNIFIED DELAYS BIDS ON SCHOOLS + CONTROVERSIAL SCHOOL PLAN VOTE POSTPONED • THE EDUCATION REVOLUTION: Cookie Cutter Kids? • 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: • 4 LAKids on Twitter • PUBLIC SCHOOLS: an investment we can't afford to cut! - The Education Coalition Website • 4LAKids Anthology: All the Past Issues, solved, resolved and unsolved! • 4LAKidsNews: a compendium of recent items of interest - news stories, scurrilous rumors, links, academic papers, rants and amusing anecdotes, etc. "Make no mistake: The pain of discrimination is still felt in America," President Obama told the audience at this week's national NAACP convention. "Race," someone opined at the Sotomayor hearings, "is a lie about a lie." Words like equity and equality, phrases like 'equal access' and 'achievement gap' dance around the semantic periphery of race. The very ugly discussion this week about denying the citizenship of children born in this country to undocumented parents - and the debate at city hall about the 'complexion of the community' in Van Nuys v. Sherman Oaks were certainly about race. The 'us v. them' at Ritter Elementary School over teaching summer school in Spanish only – and offering no classes in English – is about race. Not about racism – maybe not even discrimination -- but certainly about insensitivity. If you run insensitivity through the thesaurus you get selfishness and thoughtlessness and inconsiderateness and tactlessness and inattentiveness. Neither discrimination nor prejudice ...but guilty nonetheless on all counts. The student population at Ritter: API 664, ranked 1 (lowest) on the state's 1-10 API scale, and PI year 6 -- needs all the help and sensitivity they can get – 76% Hispanic, 23% African-American, 83% free and reduced lunch. Test scores, API and PI and socio-economic breakdowns are only data and children are not data points. 100% of the kids at Ritter need 100% of the help they can get. That is the promise made and not kept by the Mayor's Partnership. The abrupt cancellation of the "low-quality" dual-language immersion education program in place at Ritter ( a decision made at City Hall and not in the community) and the subsequent attempt to make up for it with this Spanish Only summer school program demonstrates more desperation and compliance than reform – and utter insensitivity to the underlying Black and Brown tension in the community. "If America is a melting pot then somebody forgot to tell the inhabitants of Los Angeles." said a movie review of the film "Crash". The hiccup at Ritter doesn't compare with the Watts Riots or Rodney King …or the wholesale lynching of somewhere between 18 and 23 Chinese one night in 1871. It comes closer to the Student Walkouts of '68. Those lessons may not be forgotten …but they are not well remembered. The truly tragic voice of King himself – flawed almost beyond redemption – speaks to us from 1992: "Why can't we all just get along?" 4LAKids followed but did not report the Ritter story last week in the LA Wave – that was a mistake. This week's article in The Wave ('Bottom Line', below) gives us this quote: "Ramon Cortines, superintendent of the LAUSD, said Monday that he and his district have no jurisdiction over the mayor's Partnership Schools and, consequently, are not in the loop about anything they do." Anything. If LAUSD doesn't have jurisdiction over the mayor's partnership schools – or i-Divsion Schools and/or the ever increasing number of charter schools - who does? These are public schools spending the public's money educating the public's children. The so called School Choice Resolution being debated at the Board of Ed proposes to give choice to the communities …to run the newest - the 'choicest' schools. When the school building program is complete and all the new schools delivered only 10% of LAUSD kids will be in new schools. What about the rest of the schools, what about the rest of the kids. The ones that don't get chosen first. The ones that need all our help. And ultimately, who IS in the loop? Who exactly is accountable …and to whom? ¡Onward/Hasta adelante! - smf 7/18 5 PM► The AP Reports A BUDGET DEAL POSSIBLE SUNDAY. Don't hold your breath... when the deal IS made it will not have been worth waiting fpr. BOTTOM LINE: POLITICIANS AND ACTIVISTS DEMAND EQUAL EDUCATION ON WATTS CAMPUS By Betty Pleasant, Contributing Editor | Los Angeles Wave July 16, 2009 -- As the result of last week’s column [link follows] on the “Spanish only” summer program at John Ritter Elementary School, LAUSD board member Marguerite LaMotte presented a motion at Tuesday’s board meeting calling for access and equity for all students in the school district. The motion, which was co-authored by board members Richard Vladovic and Steven Zimmer, specifically addresses the revelation that a four-week summer school session for Spanish-speaking students only is under way at the Watts-area Ritter School while no summer instruction is being provided to English-speaking students. The Ritter School is one of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s Partnership for Los Angeles schools — a group of 10 public schools carved out of the LAUSD system and given to the mayor to operate. A furor has erupted in the city’s non-Spanish speaking population over Ritter’s special summer class, especially in light of the fact that no elementary and middle school summer classes are being provided for public school children anywhere else in the district, as they were all canceled because of the district’s catastrophic shortage of funds. The Rev. Eric Lee, executive director of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference-Los Angeles, was livid when he learned of Ritter’s Spanish-only summer school, and vowed: “We’re going to do something about this.” He said he spoke with Marshall Tuck, the CEO of the mayor’s Partnership Schools system, and listened to his explanations for the program. “It still doesn’t make any sense to me,” Lee said. “If they were committed to have a Spanish-language instruction program, then they should have at least had an English-language instruction program as well.” Lee, along with Adrian Dove, head of the California Congress of Racial Equality, met with the Black Education Task Force on the issue Monday and Lee said the group is demanding that Partnership Schools amass enough resources to have an English-language summer school at Ritter. The National Association for Equal Justice in America (NAEJA) is scheduled to take up the Ritter summer school issue at its membership meeting Saturday, and the Urban Roundtable has issued a scathing indictment of the separate, but in-no-way equal, educational activity under way at Ritter and has vowed to fight it. Ramon Cortines, superintendent of the LAUSD, said Monday that he and his district have no jurisdiction over the mayor’s Partnership Schools and, consequently, are not in the loop about anything they do. “But I want to make it plain that I never have believed and do not now believe in ‘separate but equal’ anything — certainly not a separate education,” Cortines said. LaMotte, the only African-American on the LAUSD school board, angrily denounced the goings-on at Ritter. “The Partnership Schools are still district-owned schools and are subject to all laws and policies of all district schools,” LaMotte said. “It is unacceptable and unconscionable that this has occurred in an LAUSD school. Although Partnership Schools have greater flexibility in their operation, this does not give them the right to discriminate in any way, and I personally, apologize to the students and parents who were denied access and appeal to the district and the Partnership to publicly do the same." As to the LaMotte/Vladovic/Zimmer motion, it reads as follows: “Whereas the alleged incident at an LAUSD IDesign Partnership School and other incidents have brought to light the disturbing reality that racism and social injustice continue to exist in the educational community, as well as the community at large; and “Whereas, the Equal Protection clause of the U.S. Constitution, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and state doctrines, such as the California Constitution demand and guarantee equality of treatment, social justice, protection of civil rights and freedom from racial discrimination; and “Whereas, the Los Angeles Unified School District is involved in a process to transform schools to improve student academic achievement and social behavior by having all students college prepared, career ready and performing at proficiency and advanced levels. Therefore, be it “Resolved that the LAUSD Board of Education publicly recognizes its responsibility as the governing board of one of this nation’s leading educational institutions to serve as committed advocates for equality of every student, to be champions of social justice and civil rights and to hold accountable all parties involved in IDesign [Partnership] and the transformation process to adhere to these same access and non-discriminatory standards; and be it finally “Resolved that a statement of agreement with the district’s position on access and equity will be specifically incorporated in all MOU’s and signed by all parties prior to the approval/acceptance of any LAUSD partnership or joint venture involving students.” This resolution will be debated by the school board at its Aug. 25 meeting. Original LA Wave article (7/9): THE BOTTOM LINE: AT THIS SUMMER SESSION IN WATTS, BLACK STUDENTS NEED NOT APPLY OBAMA STRESSES EDUCATION IN SPEECH TO NAACP By The Associated Press from EdWeek Online July 17, 2009 -- New York -- Saying that civil rights leaders from decades past paved the way for his election as the nation's first black commander in chief, President Barack Obama paid homage to the NAACP Thursday and advised members that their work remains unfinished as the group celebrated its 100th convention. Obama's remarks, steeped in his personal biography as the son of a white mother from Kansas and black father from Kenya, challenged the audience — those in the room and those beyond — to take greater responsibility for their own future. Obama said a "first rate" education was the right of all Americans, and promised to make the United States the leader in granting college degrees by 2020. "We want everybody to participate in the American dream," Obama said. "That is what the NAACP is all about." He urged parents to take a more active role, residents to pay better attention to their schools and students to aspire beyond basketball stars and rappers. "I want them aspiring to be scientists and engineers, doctors and teachers, not just ballers and rappers," Obama said. "I want them aspiring to be a Supreme Court justice. I want them aspiring to be president of the United States." With that line, Obama drove the hotel ballroom audience to its feet. Throughout his comments, Obama sought a balance, contending that the government must foster equality but individuals must take charge of their own lives. It was reminiscent of earlier Obama speeches, calling on fathers to help their children and adopting a tone that at times seemed drawn from the pulpit. "We have to say to our children, 'Yes, if you're African-American, the odds of growing up amid crime and gangs are higher. Yes, if you live in a poor neighborhood, you will face challenges that somebody in a wealthy suburb does not have to face," Obama said, returning to his tough-love message familiar from his two-year presidential campaign. "But that's not a reason to get bad grades, that's not a reason to cut class, that's not a reason to give up on your education and drop out of school. No one has written your destiny for you. Your destiny is in your hands." Today, Obama said, it is not prejudice or discrimination that presents the greatest obstacles for blacks, but rather structural inequities— in areas such as education and health care. Still, he said discrimination persists — and not just for blacks — and chided those who may contend otherwise. Obama traced his historic rise to power to the vigor and valor of black civil rights leaders, telling the nation's oldest civil rights organization Thursday night that their sacrifice "began the journey that has led me here." He also prodded them to look beyond simply African-American rights. "Make no mistake: The pain of discrimination is still felt in America," the president told the friendly audience that erupted in standing applause and the occasional "Amen" during his remarks. Rousing his audience, Obama offered his most direct speech on race since winning the White House, a mix of personal reflection and policy promotion. He had worked on the address for about two weeks and revised it until shortly before he spoke, his aides said, underscoring the importance of his message and his audience. Implicit in his appearance was that he is seeking the backing of the powerful NAACP and its members for his ambitious domestic agenda. He also is careful not to forget a groundswell of black voters who reshaped the electoral map, although they didn't singularly deliver him to the White House. Painting himself as the beneficiary of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People's work, Obama cited historical figures from W.E.B. DuBois to Thurgood Marshall, Martin Luther King Jr. to Emmet Till to explain how the path to the presidency was cleared by visionaries. Despite the racial progress exemplified by his own election, Obama said African-Americans must overcome a disproportionate share of struggles, including being more likely to suffer from many diseases and having a higher proportion of children end up in jail. "They're very different from the barriers faced by earlier generations. They're very different from the ones faced when fire hoses and dogs were being turned on young marchers," Obama said. "But what's required to overcome today's barriers is the same as what was needed then. The same commitment. The same sense of urgency." Obama expanded his message of equal rights beyond the black communities. He said many Americans still face discrimination and suggested the NAACP — looking to declare a mission for its second century — might embrace a broader mandate in coming years. © 2009 Associated Press - Material from the McClatchy-Tribune News Service was included in this report. PUBLIC SCHOOL CHOICE: A NEW WAY AT LAUSD + INNOVATION AND THE LAUSD + L.A. UNIFIED DELAYS BIDS ON SCHOOLS + CONTROVERSIAL SCHOOL PLAN VOTE POSTPONED ●●smf's 2¢: The media drumbeat for Boardmember Flores Aguilar's resolution to hand over operation of new schools to the communities they serve – a lovely concept conceptually – opened the week. With the Mayor, The Camber of Commerce, The Times and the Daily News on board – and an alphabet soup of community activists clamoring, on-script and on-message – how could it be wrong? It was a done deal except for tallying the votes. The Parent Revolution aka The LA Parent Union aka Green Dot packed the board room with the usual suspects in new blue T shirts; a chorus of charter school parents outside the purview and jurisdiction of the school board telling it what to do on behalf of parents who actually have kids in LAUSD. The media says it was union opposition that stopped the steamroller. But in truth it was the-truth-well-told-that held it up. Oh sure, the school employee unions were heard from - …but so were the building trades. Jackie Goldberg spoke of how it isn't the new schools that need fixing, but the old ones. Parent voices said that NCLB actually gives the superintendent and the Board of Ed the authority to do the things they propose here at failing schools: Why fix the ones that aren't broke yet? The Bond Oversight Committee chair pointed out that this massive repurposing of bond funds was being made policy without consulting them as is required by law. The superintendent made his lack of support quite evident. Board President Garcia fumed. In her world four votes make things happen. But truth be told, despite the urgency the four votes weren't there. Nor can, I submit, even a unanimous vote of the board overrule the vote of the people in five different school bond elections. Otherwise, the hypothetical proposed by Superior Court Judge Dzintra Janavs in her hearing of LAUSD v. Villaraigosa would come to pass -- and schools could be given over to Jiffy Lube to run. Nor was the urgency urgent enough to forgo the board's planned August recess.● ___________________________________________ ►"PUBLIC SCHOOL CHOICE: A NEW WAY AT LAUSD": LAUSD VOTING ON PLAN TO LET PUBLIC HAVE MORE SAY By Connie Llanos, Staff Writer | LA Newspaper Group/Daily News 7/14 -- The Los Angeles Unified school board is scheduled to vote today on a bold plan that would transfer the power of deciding how new schools operate from the district to the community. With some 70 campuses set to open in the next three years, the plan would invite proposals from community members including educators, charter operators and union leaders. Parents and community members would then decide on the proposals, including whether they want a magnet, pilot, charter or other type of school. "This resolution is an effort to try something new and desperately needed," said LAUSD board member Yolie Flores Aguilar, who wrote the plan. "We've found a way to include those people most involved in determining how we get academic (success)." Supporters of the controversial plan say it is part of a much-needed reform effort that takes decision-making out of the hands of bureaucrats and special interests and puts it in the hands of parents and the community. But critics fear it would take on more reform than the district is ready to handle, at a time when the district is struggling to survive financially. The plan, entitled "Public School Choice: A New Way at LAUSD," is a key shift in the way the district does business, said Ben Austin, who was involved in writing the resolution and is executive director of LAUSD's Parent Union. "The collective decisions of hundreds of thousands of parents doing right by their own child gets us to a better place than where we are now ... completely captured by bureaucrats and special interests," said Austin, who also works for Green Dot, a charter school operator that runs 17 schools in LAUSD and has pushed for the takeover of several low-performing district schools. "There are risks associated with change, but a whole lot more risk associated with the status quo." Union officials, however, worry the plan could unleash a competitive bidding process among private sector school operators that would ultimately lead to the demise of the district. "What this district and this board is doing, is doing away with their responsibility and giving public schools away to the private sector instead of the district holding bureaucrats' and middle managers' feet to the fire," said A.J. Duffy, president of United Teachers Los Angeles. "They did not get the help of every union to build schools (only) to give them away to private enterprise." LAUSD has more than 150 charter schools, the largest number of any district in the nation. Duffy, who echoed the sentiments of several district employee unions, including Associated Administrators of Los Angeles, said while the idea of giving more power to parents and educators seemed novel, failing to take the steps in a strategic manner could lead to "mass chaos." "Reform needs to be done in a logical sensible sequential way," Duffy added. Modeled after similar initiatives in Philadelphia, Oakland and New York City, the Public School Choice resolution is rooted in an idea of turning around failing schools and encouraging healthy competition. Matt Hill, an aide to LAUSD Superintendent Ramon Cortines, also said the plan mirrors many of the reforms laid out in the school chief's "First 100 days" plan. "This began as a strategy to replace very large high schools that had very low graduation rates," said Melody Meyer, spokeswoman for the New York City department of education. Since the program launched in 2002, New York has opened 400 new schools, a majority of them failing schools that were reformed and reopened. "Now, at our new schools, we consistently graduate about 75 percent of our kids in four years," Meyer said. Districtwide, New York has also seen its overall graduation rate increase from under 60 percent to 66 percent since the start of the new school plan. But unlike the Los Angeles proposal, New York instituted its plan in phases, starting out with only failing high schools and rolling it out slowly to all new schools. Also, in New York there is a cap on the number of charter schools that can be opened, and they only have two models for parents to pick from - either a district school or a charter. LAUSD board member Tamar Galatzan expressed her hesitation to sign off on a resolution that fails to explain the details of such an ambitious plan. "This resolution taps into a desperate need for reform at L.A. Unified, and I wholeheartedly agree reform is not happening fast enough," Galatzan said. "I just want to make sure reform isn't messier than the underlying problem. I have a lot of questions about how this process works: Who exactly is the community? ... What criteria will the community use to weigh competing proposals?" Galatzan asked. The resolution specifically calls for the creation of a new position, to be paid for with foundation funding. Hill said a local organization has pledged to fund this and other reform efforts included in Cortines' plan, but he said he could not yet disclose the name of group. If approved, district staff would develop the criteria that will be used to evaluate school proposals, with the goal of rolling out the plan by the fall of 2010. ►INNOVATION AND THE LAUSD: A proposal to let groups bid to run 50 new L.A. schools is just the kind of fresh thinking the district needs. LA Times Editorial July 14, 2009 -- An attention-piquing item on today’s agenda for the Los Angeles Unified school board: a resolution to allow the operation of 50 newly built schools over the next four years by assorted groups, inside and outside the district. Charters, organized labor, parent organizations and community associations could submit plans to run the schools, with the district picking from among competing proposals. To be frank, this idea, advanced by board Vice President Yolie Flores Aguilar, comes with all sorts of pitfalls: In a school district so politicized, there are too many opportunities for choices to be made on the basis of favoritism rather than merit. The district already does a lackluster job of tracking charters; how will it monitor these experimental schools? The proposal also raises worrisome questions about borderline organizations that might campaign to run a school. We like it anyway. In fact, Flores Aguilar's proposal is one of the most intriguing ideas to come along in many years. Without creating upheaval at existing schools, it opens up a portion of the district to groups that might reinvent local education. Its fair-minded provisions allow the teachers union, which has long complained about charter schools, to show that a teacher-managed school can do better. The district itself can propose running any of these schools, giving staff incentive to think creatively. And instead of sticking charters with the most rundown facilities, Flores Aguilar would let them share equally in the district's bond-funded construction, as state law decrees. There has been significant push-back from United Teachers Los Angeles, concerned that charters, which are enormously popular with parents, would have the edge in this competition. Expect pressure today to delay Flores Aguilar's resolution. That wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing, and if it happens, we would like to see the time used to develop stipulations that ensure fairness and accountability. There must be objective criteria for judging applicants and assessing their performance. Managers of these schools should have tight deadlines for improvement as well as clear guarantees of freedom to operate with minimal interference. Schools that fall short must not be allowed to stumble along for years; the district needs well-defined procedures and timelines for reclaiming them. Not acceptable, though, would be using a delay to water down the proposal, which is what happened during the postponement of former board member Marlene Canter's resolution to streamline the firing of the worst teachers. Fear -- and even lack of confidence in the district's adeptness -- cannot be used as an excuse to block innovation. ►L.A. UNIFIED DELAYS BIDS ON SCHOOLS: Plan to let district, charters and other groups compete for new facilities draws union opposition. By Howard Blume | LA Times July 15, 2009 -- Faced with unrelenting union opposition, the Los Angeles Board of Education put on hold Tuesday a proposal that would have allowed charter operators and other outside groups to bid for control of 50 new schools scheduled to open over the next four years. The plan, led by board member Yolie Flores Aguilar, would have made available, through a competitive process, new schools that are part of the nation's largest school construction project. The district could compete to run these campuses, along with independently run charter schools, the mayor's office and other institutions and nonprofit groups. The biggest prize would be the collection of schools at the Wilshire Boulevard site of the Ambassador Hotel, one of the nation's most expensive school construction efforts. Charter operators see in the resolution a chance at new school facilities that are largely unavailable to them now. Some supporters also perceive the motion as a first step allowing the takeover of any school regarded as "failing." "Choice is an important lever for change and innovation, both of which are needed," Flores Aguilar said. "This resolution is in response to the growing chorus for change and reform." Part of that chorus was in attendance at Tuesday's board meeting. But board members were tuned in at least as closely to the critics. "You've made a 'yes' vote to choice [into] a 'no' vote to labor and that is what is what we are opposed to," said Adriana Salazar, the business representative for Teamsters Local 572, which negotiates for about 3,500 district employees, including plant and cafeteria managers. But she said later that her union might see things differently if these campuses remained under contract with district unions. Most charter schools are nonunion. In a letter to the board, seven unions, including Associated Administrators of Los Angeles, called the proposal "an insult to these children and their families to outsource education to charters and other private entities." Board member Richard Vladovic co-sponsored the resolution, but he's also a traditional ally of Local 99 of the Service Employees International Union, which backed his bid for office. At Tuesday's meeting, he told Flores Aguilar that he supported the "concept" of the resolution, an apparent tactical retreat, and joined a general call for change. Board President Monica Garcia, also a past union ally, stuck with Flores Aguilar, saying she was prepared to support the plan. Garcia and Flores Aguilar have been recent targets of recall threats by activists with United Teachers Los Angeles. It's not clear how serious this threat is. United Teachers Los Angeles President A.J. Duffy said he saw the hand of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa in the effort -- as a way to get more schools under his control. The mayor's office said it strongly supports the resolution, but Villaraigosa's school board allies could not reach a majority vote this week. Flores Aguilar vowed to accept ideas and revisions but not a dilution of her proposal. District Supt. Ramon C. Cortines, who has his own reform plan, was notably noncommittal, but said he would work to reach consensus with the school board. Parents and others spoke for and against the measure during a nearly two-hour debate. "It's criminal what's happening right now," said George Cole, who represents Bell for a coalition of cities in southeast Los Angeles County. The district "ought to be prosecuted for educational malfeasance." Cole has been among civic leaders who sought out Flores Aguilar after watching new schools open and immediately produce low test scores and high dropout rates. "Right now schools can be open forever and fail forever," said charter parent Corri Tate Ravare, a vice president for charter operator ICEF. She pledged community support for board members who stood up to opposition: "We got your back." The resolution is expected to return to the board Aug. 25. ►VOTE ON CONTROVERSIAL SCHOOL PLAN POSTPONED By Connie Llanos, Staff Writer | LA Newspaper Group/Daily News 7/15 -- Facing opposition from employee unions and some community leaders, the Los Angeles Unified school board postponed voting Tuesday on a controversial plan that would let the community decide how new schools operate. Board member Yolie Flores Aguilar, who authored the proposal, said she would delay the vote until next month's board meeting to get feedback from her colleagues and community members, but she fully intends to move forward with the plan. "I will in no way accept in my resolution a watering down," Flores Aguilar said. "The next step of our work has to be about choice and competition." Focusing on the 70 new schools that LAUSD expects to open in the next three years, Flores Aguilar's plan would open the campuses to a bidding process among educators, community organizations, parents and charter operators. Parents and community members would then have the power to decide which school model fits their campus best under the plan. Opponents complained that the proposal left out existing schools that are failing. "They are responding to the community groups who have applied political pressure while ignoring the hundreds of parents who have worked so hard on their school sites for years to try to improve their schools," said Bill Ring, a long-time parent advocate. Declining to endorse or support the resolution, LAUSD Superintendent Ramon Cortines said he supported the idea of taking the plan and enhancing it to include all schools, taking a special look at schools that have failed to meet their federal and state standards in testing. Under No Child Left Behind, schools that have failed to meet these standards can be shut down and restaffed, or given to charter operators. Jackie Goldberg, a former LAUSD board member and community leader, also raised concerns that using the district's construction bond funds could be a violation of the law, if charters could receive new campuses in a competitive process. Her statements were echoed by the district bond oversight committee. As written, charter schools have a cap on the amount of funds they can receive from the district's construction program. "If you're going to open this process to everyone, then let the games begin with program improvement schools. They need it the most," Goldberg said. Board member Steve Zimmer also asked to add an element to Flores Aguilar's plan that would allow for an 11-member panel, consisting of board members, parents, union members and community leaders, to meet to discuss how all schools could be included and how current district options could be better used to provide parents more choice. Appearing frustrated by the postponement of the vote, LAUSD board president Monica Garcia urged opponents of the plan to bring forward a different option - and quickly. "In my world, four votes make things happen," Garcia said. "I want to know now we are doing everything we can to improve this district." In the eyes of many parents, like East L.A. resident and mother of two Alejandra Mu oz, improving the district now requires more freedom of choice. "For many years we have been working to make our school better and still our kids are failing and dropping out," she said. complete taxt - The Flores Aguilar Resolution: PUBLIC SCHOOL CHOICE: A NEW WAY AT LAUSD THE EDUCATION REVOLUTION: Cookie Cutter Kids? By Diana L. Chapman | Random Thoughts column in CityWatch: an insider look @ LA I have a sickening and increasing fear of the new education revolution that has charter schools popping up everywhere in Los Angeles– especially now that our mayor has endorsed this as the gateway to fixing public schools. It stems from scary stories like this: High School senior, Aurora Ponce, a class president, straight “A” student headed for a UC university, sat in a silent protest regarding enlarging class sizes and the elimination of college prep courses at her charter campus. After she did so, the Accelerated School (several South Los Angeles charters) suspended her for two days and tried to bar her from giving a valedictorian speech. Scores of protests forced the charter to allow her the opportunity she deserved. Two teachers, during Black History Month, put together a program to remember 14-year-old Emmett Till, hanged in 1955 in Mississippi for whistling at a white woman. The program included placing a wreath down for Emmett at Celerity Nascent charters. The 7th grade math teacher, Marisol Alba, and co-teacher, Sean Strauss, were both fired. School officials declared that telling Emmett’s story was too horrific for young students. I signed the petition to rehire those teachers. This is the type of program I don’t only expect – but demand from good teachers. These Los Angeles stories, and many others like them around the nation, bother me deeply that we are murdering our public education system and leaving behind our American values as individuals; the right to protest, the right to free speech, the right to learn about tolerance – which we’ve always learned at schools. And more so, the right to learn our history. During my junior high school years, I learned about Native American Indians living on reservations, the brutality of the Civil Rights Movement and about the Klu Klux Klan. Not once did I believe these stories were too much for me to learn. In fact, those lessons helped shape me and taught me tolerance. I want our children – our future – to be analytical and to know our history – no matter how dark it is. If we avoid the Emmett Till story, will we ignore slavery too? How about the Lincoln assassination? Should we discuss JFK then? What about the Holocaust? Even when charter test scores are high, I wonder what we eliminate: perhaps we destroy the concept of students thinking for themselves. I gagged when I read about the American Indian Public Charter schools in Oakland. These students live with strict military-style discipline at the school and achieved some of the highest test scores in the state – 976 – out of a 1000 on the API (Academic Performance Index). Mostly, strict academics are part of the structure such as math. But my question is: at what costs? While public schools are teaching to the tests as well, teachers are often chagrined by this and continue their attempts to instill values, tolerance --- and our history. Maybe then we won’t repeat some of the same ugly mistakes we’ve already made. As a parent, I took a short dip in and out of a charter school in San Pedro for my son, Ryan. It definitely was not the school for us for a variety of reasons, but in particular odd discipline policies and the amount of control the principal and executive director had was bothersome. After that, the only recourse was to go to the board. And students were not encouraged to speak up. We didn’t make it past the first semester, especially after Ryan was disciplined with an eight hour in-house suspension for wearing the wrong shirt to school. At this point, I decided this campus just didn’t fit us. It did, however, suit other students who blossomed and flourished at the smaller school. Still, what I fear most coming out of charters is the cookie-cutter approach to teaching, especially at charters that are wedded to the basics, and want to squash what their students say out loud. It’s almost a dumbing-down of students, intimidating them to not speak out vocally or become the way most of us are as Americans: believing we have the right to speak. Jose Cole-Gutierrez, heads all 156 charter schools for Los Angeles Unified which currently serves 60,000 students. In the end, charters have wound up operating similar to public schools – some are excellent, some are average and some have failed. What they did offer the school district is a need for competition, Cole-Gutierrez explained and for parents -- options. The school district does not, in essence, manage day-to-day operations, Cole-Gutierrez said, but what has come out of the charter movement – which this district has the highest number of than any other in the nation – is offering choice to parents. The district now offers magnet, pilot and smaller learning communities to its students and the district now has “the competition we need at all schools. We need to compete and give better choices,” he explained. “We continue to be committed to high quality choices, providing charter schools with the autonomy allowed under the law and the accountability for which they are responsible,” the administrator emailed me. David Kooper, the chief of staff for LAUSD Board Member Richard Vladovic, agreed and said the district will move toward forming small schools to compete against charters. The small schools, which may reside on currently large campuses, will have their own counseling office and administration. “We’ve decided to go with smaller schools and help them establish their own identity,” This is good news – because like most of education’s ills, charters are only a part of the solution. • Diana L. Chapman was a journalist for 15 years with the Daily Breeze and the San Diego Union. She can be reached hartchap@cox.net. HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T FIT: The Rest of the Stories from Other Sources “…and that’s the way it was.” smf for LAKids As a passionate insider – the least trustworthy of reporters – I cannot allow the most trusted one to pass without notice. Walter Cronkite was of the generation one of his colleagues called the greatest. SCHWARZENEGGER APPOINTS LAUSD LAWYER TO SUPERIOR COURT By a MetNews Staff Writer | Metropolitan News-Enterprise [edited by 4LAKids] Friday, July 17, 2009 -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger yesterday announced the appointment of new superior court judges. Included in those tapped to fill local vacancies are LAUSD Assistant General Counsel Stephanie M. Bowick. PROP 98 IS TESTED AGAIN: In the tug of war over state's deficit, Schwarzenegger would like to suspend it. The California Teacher's Assn. wants reassurances. By Eric Bailey | From the Los Angeles Times July 17, 2009 [Updated] MORE THAN 300 LOCAL SCHOOL BUSES TO BENEFIT AFTER PROPOSITION 1B IS RE-INSTATED School Transportation News DIAMOND BAR, Calif. (July 16, 2009) — Los Angeles Unified School District will replace 260 of its oldest diesel buses with new CNG and propane vehicles following a $43 million vehicle replacement grant from the South Coast Air Quality Management District CALL TO ACTION: Save Early Education [don’t let the feds so what we didn’t let the state do!] from noschoolforsam.org/pre[k]now A subcommittee in the House of Representatives took a BIG step backward last week when it came up $900 million short of President Obama's proposed early education budget. EDUCATION SQUABBLE STALLS CALIFORNIA BUDGET DEAL: Schwarzenegger offers his promise that school money would be restored when the economy rebounds. Democrats want it in writing By Evan Halper and Eric Bailey |LA Times Online -- Fresh off a disappointing evening of budget negotiations that halted amid simmering frustration, legislative leaders and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vowed to forge ahead today in hopes of settling on a final package LAUSD SHOULD BUCK THE STATUS QUO AND LET COMMUNITIES DESIGN THEIR SCHOOLS LA Daily News Editorial 16 July 2009 -- HERE'S an apparently controversial statement: Communities should decide how to operate their local schools. CALIFORNIA COLLEGE CRUNCH: Budget cuts, fee hikes, forced days off -- the Cal State system is under siege + UC system: Lay-offs, not pay cuts Budget cuts, fee hikes, forced days off -- the Cal State system is under siege. CAL STATE CHANCELLOR CRITICIZES LOW STANDARDS AT HIGH SCHOOLS by Howard Blume | LA Times LA Now blog 1:45 PM | July 15, 2009 -- California State University Chancellor Charles B. Reed said that what passes for algebra in high schools is really “algebra light,” and characterized as “outrageous” that school districts don’t require more of their students. Dan Walters: OUT-OF-STATERS GLEEFULLY DELVE INTO CALIFORNIA’S WOES By Dan Walters | Sacramento Bee Wed, Jul. 15, 2009 -- National Public Radio is running a series of broadcasts this week called "California in Crisis”. And NPR is not alone. WSJ: CALIFORNIA CLOSE TO NEW BUDGET DEAL By STU WOO | The Wall Street Journal JULY 16, 2009 - California leaders say they are near a compromise on fixing the state's $26 billion budget shortfall, signaling the end of a weeks-long impasse that has forced officials to issue IOUs to keep the state out of default. UTLA: LAUSD MAY REHIRE 2000 LAID-OFF TEACHERS Text Story by: Associated Press Posted on MyFoxLA.com by: Dennis Lovelace Los Angeles (myFOXla.com) - The head of the Los Angeles teachers union says talks are under way that could lead to the rehiring of 2,000 teachers laid off in June. DEAL COULD RESTORE JOBS TO MANY LAID-OFF LOS ANGELES TEACHERS by Howard Blume | LA Times LA Now blog 11:33 AM | July 14, 2009 : Los Angeles teachers would surrender some compensation in exchange for preserving jobs under terms being negotiated between the teachers union and the Los Angeles Unified School District, T LAUSD SHOULD FOCUS ON IMPROVING TEACHING SKILLS, NOT FIRING ‘BAD’ TEACHERS. Op-Ed By John Perez | LA Newspaper Group/Daily News Sunday, 12 July 2009 -- DURING 36 years as a teacher and union leader in the Los Angeles Unified School District, I ran across teachers who clearly should not have been at the head of a classroom. They were, however, far fewer than commonly thought. LAWSUIT FILED TO BLOCK BIRMINGHAM HIGH SCHOOL CHARTER. a lawsuit has been filed today in Superior Court. On Monday morning, July 13, 2009, at 8:30 A.M. Superior Court The news that didn’t fit from July 19 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 • LAUSD BOARD OF EDUCATION & COMMITTEES MEETING CALENDAR What can YOU do? • E-mail, call or write your school board member: Yolie.Flores.Aguilar@lausd.net • 213-241-6383 Tamar.Galatzan@lausd.net • 213-241-6386 Monica.Garcia@lausd.net • 213-241-6180 Marguerite.LaMotte@lausd.net • 213-241-6382 Nury.Martinez@lausd.net • 213-241-6388 Richard.Vladovic@lausd.net • 213-241-6385 Steve.Zimmer@lausd.net • 213-241-6387 ...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. Who are your elected federal & state representatives? How do you contact them? Scott Folsom is a parent leader in LAUSD. He is Past President of Los Angeles Tenth District PTSA and represents PTA on the LAUSD Construction Bond Citizen's Oversight Committee and the BOC on the Board of Education Facilities Committee. He is the president of his neighborhood council. He is a Health Commissioner, Legislation Team member and a member of the Board of Managers of the California State PTA. He serves on numerous school district advisory and policy committees and has served a PTA officer and governance council member at three LAUSD schools. He is the recipient of the UTLA/AFT 2009 "WHO" Gold Award for his support of education and public schools - an honor he hopes to someday deserve. • 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. 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