In This Issue:  | | • | SCHOOL DISTRICTS GET $4 BILLION IN IOUs INSTEAD OF CASH | | | • | CORTINES LAYS DOWN THE LAW: The LAUSD superintendent tells teachers that they will administer benchmark tests -- or else. | | | • | L.A. CITY, TRADE-TECHNICAL COLLEGES PLACED ON PROBATION: Accrediting body faults them for inadequate planning and evaluation of program effectiveness | | | • | L.A. UNIFIED AND THE PRICE OF SCHOOL MONEY: Before school district officials put a parcel tax on the ballot, they must show they'll change their ways | | | • | 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: | | | | As far as I can see here's what's going on:
• AN LA TIMES EDITORIAL BEGINS: "OUR SYMPATHIES ARE WITH THE CHILDREN."
...unfortunately our tax dollars are with the prison guards.
• THE STATE IS PAYING SCHOOL DISTRICTS WITH IOUs.
Not for current operations but for money owed from last year. Not only did they cut payments to schools mid-year last year, they didn't even pay what they said they'd pay when they said they'd pay it. These are IOUs on IOU's. Ad infinitum/Ad nauseam.
• THE GOVERNOR WANTS TO SUSPEND PROP 98.
This guarantees a minimum (minimum!) threshold of funding for schools. And he's using his favorite gambit: "Stop me (…or them) before I (…or they) do it again."
Like Tom Lehrer's Irish Ballad (Rickety-Tickety-in): "We should never have let him begin."
• SUPERINTENDENT CORTINES AND UTLA ENDED THEIR FIGHT OVER PERIODIC ASSESSMENTS AND THE BOYCOTT THEREOF.
• THE GOVERNOR WANTS TO END (…or reduce 70%) HEALTHCARE AND WELFARE PROGRAMS FOR CHILDREN
…programs the federal government funds 2/3rds of. He will save California taxpayers 1/3rd and send the 2/3rds back to DC.
• LOS ANGELES CITY COLLEGE AND LOS ANGELES TRADE TECHNICAL COLLEGES, ALREADY FISCALLY CHALLENGED, ARE IN TROUBLE ON THEIR ACCREDITATION.
• THERE WAS AN INTERESTING IF SKEWED-LEFT DEBATE ON KCRW's LEFT, RIGHT AND CENTER ON FRIDAY.
The Right was on vacation - as was the Undefined/Indefinable/Radical/Libertarian voice of Ariana Huffington - moving the discussion to the Progressive Center and Left.
It is good to hear the progressives discuss, because in public education the current debate is among and between the progressives. The question seems to be whether urban districts will be controlled by the teacher's union leadership model or by the charter school/mayoral control leadership model.
Arne Duncan and the Obama Dept of Ed team are of the latter ilk - and ilk not that far removed from the Rob Paige/Margaret Spelling 'Texas Miracle': "We have seen the future and the future is CHOICE!" ilk. Duncan controls the discretionary purse strings right now and he has the undivided attention of educators because of the color of his money rather than the correctness of his truth.
The reality is that neither of these models are workable or working - not in LA. If test scores are the way of measuring outcomes charters and non-charters and the mayor's partnership are foundering (un)equally.
Public Education not about politics or power or labor v. management; it shouldn't or needn't be about budgets and economics.
IT TAKES A VILLAGE and the villagers are parents and the community and teachers and administrators focused on the classroom and the child. Not on the Ed Code or test scores or Beaudry or City Hall or UTLA or Green Dot or US Dept of Ed HQ. We villagers are not data driven or curriculum driven - we are driven by the Dream of a Big Bright Beautiful Tomorrow.
It is not a "Race to the Top" …but a lot of hard work and stick-to-it-ativity by all of us.
It's about children and their future; a future they will spend more time in then we talking, blogging, ranting heads will. The outcome is not API or AYP or graduation rates. It's that singular kid with a diploma and hope and a future; times 700,000. And if some teachers have done their job well that kid with hope and a future comes back to the school and picks up the whiteboard marker and the teacher's edition of the textbook and takes up the challenge anew.
¡Onward/Hasta adelante! - smf
SCHOOL DISTRICTS GET $4 BILLION IN IOUs INSTEAD OF CASH
by Howard Blume | LA Times LA Now blog
6:16 PM | July 10, 2009 -- Officials announced today that the state budget crisis has caused a delay in payments to school districts, but were hopeful that no school system would experience cash-flow problems as a result.
This delay marks the second time this year that the delivery of school funding has been postponed. A February legislative deal put off paying $2 billion that was due at that time so the state could keep its books balanced. But California's worsening financial condition has resulted in an additional postponement applying to these dollars as well as another $2 billion that would have gone out to school districts today.
Instead, those funds, totaling about $4 billion, will be released July 30 to ensure that the state has sufficient cash on hand.
"I have no option but to delay payments and issue IOUs that push the state's problems onto schools, taxpayers, businesses and local governments," state Controller John Chiang said in a joint release with state Supt. of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell.
Word of the latest delay was "a bit of a surprise," said Ken Shelton, an assistant superintendent for the Los Angeles County Office of Education, which oversees the financial condition of school districts in the county. "My big concern is the ability of school districts to meet payroll. This may not be overly significant. Most districts are OK for the moment."
School systems can obtain short-term loans or borrow from other funds, including federal stimulus money, to cover the cash shortfall, which is presumably temporary. Over the last year, districts statewide have slashed programs and laid off thousands to offset state funding reductions.
Two cash-strapped county school systems, Wilsona and South Whittier, already had applied for a waiver that would allow them to receive their state funding sooner, Shelton said.
CORTINES LAYS DOWN THE LAW: The LAUSD superintendent tells teachers that they will administer benchmark tests -- or else.
Editorial from the Los Angeles Times
July 10, 2009 - With the Los Angeles Unified School District in financial peril, schools need strong direction more than ever. Recent letters to the instructional staff from Supt. Ramon C. Cortines provide it, by making clear that the district will not tolerate teachers' failure to administer benchmark tests throughout the school year.
The tests, called periodic assessments, are intended to give teachers and administrators snapshots of how students are progressing, what they're learning and where they're struggling. It's more useful to find out in December, say, that most students in a class didn't grasp the Pythagorean theorem than to discover it belatedly in May. That's why the tests are more than a district policy; they are detailed under an agreement L.A. Unified reached with the state as part of its accountability requirements. Many teachers find the tests useful; others loathe them as one more standardized mandate from on high. Either way, periodic assessments became a victim of contract negotiations in January, when United Teachers Los Angeles called on its members to boycott them.
Cortines, a strong believer in the tests, has nonetheless soft-pedaled the issue for months, which means that the students lost out as usual. As this page has pointed out, teachers at the Green Dot charter Locke High School administer, analyze and use benchmark tests as a routine matter; it is unthinkable that they would ignore a basic requirement of their job. Yet significant numbers of L.A. Unified teachers were allowed to ignore the tests or withhold the results from supervisors.
In letters dated July 1, Cortines struck a new, do-it-or-else tone. The tests are vital, he wrote, and teachers' performance evaluations will reflect whether they carry out this duty. "Failure to comply with this directive will result in discipline," one letter warned.
On Thursday, the teachers union suspended its boycott.
District and union leaders will start talks in September about having teachers create new benchmark tests -- an offer that Cortines made months ago, with no response from the union. Teachers have at times found the tests out of step with the curriculum, and it makes sense for them to draw up more useful ones -- which is what Green Dot's teachers do.
These are discouraging days for teachers, who understandably worry more about layoffs and bigger class sizes than giving standardized tests. But that's no excuse for giving up on excellence or accountability. Cortines was slow to stand up to the union, but we are glad he did.
L.A. CITY, TRADE-TECHNICAL COLLEGES PLACED ON PROBATION: Accrediting body faults them for inadequate planning and evaluation of program effectiveness
by Gale Holland | LA Times
July 10, 2009 -- Two Los Angeles community colleges have been placed on probation by a regional accrediting commission, which faulted L.A. City and Trade-Technical colleges for inadequate planning and evaluation of the effectiveness of student programs.
The sanction is the second of four increasingly serious actions that can be brought by the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges, which has jurisdiction over institutions in California, Hawaii and elsewhere. Failure to correct the problems could result in the colleges losing their accreditation, although that rarely happens, educators said.
Officials at Trade-Tech, south of downtown, and L.A. City College in Los Feliz, said the problems the commission identified did not reflect on the quality of instruction at their institutions.
"They really are sort of technical issues," said Gary Colombo, vice chancellor for institutional effectiveness at the Los Angeles Community College District, which operates nine campuses, including Trade-Tech and L.A. City College.
"Would we think a hospital review of a patient death was just a technicality?" responded Barbara Beno, president of the accrediting commission. "Two-year colleges have a lot of students entering, but by the time they get to graduation, the numbers are way down . . . We want to get institutions to focus on student success, and I don't consider it to be a technical issue."
The commission in recent years has raised its standards, resulting in more scrutiny of how well two-year colleges educate students and whether students complete certificate and degree programs or go on to four-year institutions, several educators said. At its June meeting, the group issued warnings to nine institutions, including East Los Angeles and Pasadena City colleges, and extended earlier warnings for four others. Los Angeles Southwest College, placed on probation in June 2008, had that sanction lifted at the meeting.
"In this era of a huge push to get people through [college], it's no longer good enough to say we don't know who's there for what, and what happens to them," said Nancy Shulock, executive director of the Institute for Higher Education Leadership and Policy at Cal State Sacramento.
The commission said L.A. City College needed to better utilize research and program review to improve student learning and support services. Trade-Tech was told to forge stronger links between its program review and its planning functions and allocation of resources, and to restructure how the campus is governed.
Marcy Drummond, acting president at Trade-Tech, said Thursday the college was already working on the problems and expected to be off probation by next year.
"We have a game plan, and we've been implementing the game plan," she said. "The accrediting commission has really upped their standards, and I agree with the standards. We strive for excellence, and these are excellent standards."
L.A. City College administrators could not be reached for comment. Colombo said he anticipated L.A. City College's sanction to be removed by next June.
When a college loses its accreditation, its course credits are not recognized by other institutions in the state and it cannot award financial aid. Compton Community College is one of the few two-year colleges in the state to have had its accreditation pulled. The college was taken over by the state in 2004 and has become a satellite of El Camino College in Torrance.
•• 4LAKids wonders if this was a factor in the resignation of Mark Drummond, Chancellor of the Community College District?
http://www.laccd.edu/news/Dr-Drummond-is-stepping-down.htm
L.A. UNIFIED AND THE PRICE OF SCHOOL MONEY: Before school district officials put a parcel tax on the ballot, they must show they'll change their ways
L.A. UNIFIED AND THE PRICE OF SCHOOL MONEY: Before school district officials put a parcel tax on the ballot, they must show they'll change their ways + smf's 2¢
Editorial from the Los Angeles Times
July 11, 2009 -- Our sympathies are with the children. As schools bend to the task of cutting teachers and programs, we wince at the thought of students lost academically in a class of 35 to 40, or unable to sign up for a summer school course, or making do with a shabby, outdated textbook. At the same time, few of us are in the financial position these days to shell out extra cash, and if we do, we want assurances that we're getting value for our money.
Caught in this conundrum is the Los Angeles Unified School District, a school system that has been notoriously inefficient and political in its use of money, but that nonetheless is in danger of losing recent academic gains as it excises more than $1 billion from its budget over the next couple of years. Supt. Ramon C. Cortines is asking the school board to place a parcel tax on the ballot to help pay for day-to-day operations. At this point, the amount of the tax is undetermined, as are details about how it would be spent. But if the district's leaders want voters to invest more money in the schools, they have a lot of explaining to do first.
The board displayed a dismaying lack of regard for the public's dollars in November when it placed a $7-billion bond measure on the ballot, more than twice as much money as it needed to build new schools and refurbish old classrooms. Billions of dollars of the bonds weren't earmarked for any particular projects, but rather created a slush fund for future expenditures in a district that is losing enrollment.
None of that money can be used for teachers, textbooks or educational programs, all of which were short of funds even before California's disastrous crash. The reasons for the bond measure's over-inflated size had little to do with real need and much to do with polls that showed once voters were considering billions of dollars, they didn't seem to differentiate between a couple of billion or an amount two or three times that.
This page advised the board to split the sum between two measures, a bond issue for construction and a parcel tax for educational programs and personnel. Instead, the board went the politically expedient route -- a bond measure is much easier to pass, with a 55% majority instead of the two-thirds needed for a tax -- and ended up with more money than it knows what to do with for building beautiful facilities, but too little money to staff even the schools it has.
If the board goes to voters again pleading its case for more money, it will face a markedly changed electorate from November's, when Barack Obama's presidential campaign brought a sense of optimism to election day. That electorate approved $7 billion for local schools, but since then many voters have fallen on harder times and resent any mention of higher taxes. Moreover, the bond measure didn't actually increase property taxes, instead spreading the payments over a much longer span of years. A parcel tax would impose higher payments at a time when homeowners are less able to afford them than they have been in decades.
And yet voters in the district have repeatedly shown that they care about students and schools. That gives district leaders a chance to convince those voters that a new tax is necessary and would be wisely spent. They will probably try to do that in the most convenient way, with a heart-tugging campaign about lost summer-school and preschool classes. It's "about the children," the mailers will say, even though L.A. Unified tends to operate more for the benefit of bureaucrats and unions.
Here's an alternative: Those same leaders could use the schools' current hardship as an opportunity to reexamine and reinvent the district's role in educating children. Cortines and the board could start by reimagining the relationship between United Teachers Los Angeles, whose members would be the most obvious beneficiaries of a parcel tax, and the needs of students.
It would be shameful if new money were poured into a continuation of the district's old, unsustainable pension commitment, overly expensive medical plans, restrictive work rules and a contract that makes it nearly impossible to discipline bad teachers. A parcel-tax proposal should spell out new restrictions on how this money should be used -- perhaps, for example, on merit pay rather than step increases. This would require a new political courage from the board.
The district could also use this moment to engage in a heartfelt self-examination to determine whether it is better off retaining its "central shop" system in which district employees, paid higher-than-prevailing wages, perform most repairs at district schools. Might it be more efficient and frugal, as well as a boost to small business, to downsize this operation considerably and imitate charter schools by allowing a school principal to call a couple of local operations when, say, a window is broken, to get the best quote and have the work done that day? Before the district goes trolling for taxpayer dollars, it should demonstrate that it has seriously considered potentially significant cost-saving ideas, even -- or perhaps especially -- if those ideas sound revolutionary.
A parcel tax should come with the proviso that it will decrease in years when enrollment falls. Otherwise the money would be spent to expand programs or create new ones, which then would require greater sums of money to sustain when enrollment picks up again. More questions: Would the tax sunset or shrink when state funding picks up? What sort of independent oversight would there be, as with the school-bond oversight committee, to make sure the money is funneled to classrooms rather than to political agendas or bloated bureaucracies?
Cortines has displayed a refreshing willingness to take on some of the district's sacred cows, but he has not reached the point of rethinking the district in more fundamental ways. Voters should insist on nothing less before approving a new round of funding for L.A. Unified.
_________________
●●smf's 2¢: THE TIMES EDITORIAL BOARD IS RIGHT. It was right about splitting Measure Q into two measures for operations and construction. It is however wrong (or perhaps guilty of selective memory) about the history of the run-up to the placement of the plumped-up measure on the ballot.
The mayor of Los Angeles was the one who suggested the inflation of what became Measure Q from three to seven billion dollars (…he actually suggested ten billion). He did this at a surprise news conference, one he forgot to invite the superintendent to. The polling data used to justify the increase was about his own re-electability as mayor - and by (il)logical extension his electability as governor. Being the author of the 'largest local school construction bond in history' enhanced both in those simpler times.
That argument is now moot. The Measure Q bonds cannot be sold as the economy, property values and tax collections tank. The mayor was reelected, the governorship is out of reach. It will be four or five years before those bonds can be sold and the half-baked promises made in Q can be addressed.
One recalls the comedo-tragic public board debate over the division of the anticipated Measure Q largesse - even $7 billion wasn't enough to satisfy agendae and special interests. It was a scene from a "B" pirate movie as the booty was divided among the buccaneer crew - minus both swash and buckle.
Reality intervenes. Greed overtakes the greedy; high hopes and great expectations collide with limited imagination and poor planning. Now, as The Times suggests, is the time for rethinking the unthought about, for contemplating transparency, accountability and oversight. For (God forbid!): A long range plan.
There will be a food fight. The charter community will balk if they are not included in a parcel tax. They, who have fought to be outside the realm of control, transparency and accountability, will nevertheless want their Kate …and Edith too!
Echoing the Times, it will be shameful if the parcel tax continues the district's laudable commitment to employee health but fails to address student health. In DC some in Congress sets the bar for public health care to as good as their own. What a concept!
Change gonna come... and we are going to be asked to pay for it. Let's make it changeful.
HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T FIT: The Rest of the Stories from Other Sources
LAWSUIT FILED TO BLOCK BIRMINGHAM HIGH SCHOOL CHARTER: An e-mail to the Birmingham community from charter opponent Steve Shapiro
Thursday, 9 July, 2008
Dear Birmingham,
This e mail is to inform you all that a lawsuit has been filed today in Superior Court. This is the first of several lawsuits that are designed to rectify many of the wrongs that have taken place over the past year.
On Monday morning, July 13, 2009, at 8:30 A.M. Superior Court, Department 85, located at 111 N. Hill St, Downtown Los Angeles, the case will be heard by the Superior Court judge. In essence, we are seeking a court order to immediately block the charter at Birmingham.
STOP TEARING THE HEART OUT OF L.A.
Saturday, July 11, 2009 11:06 AM
Kamala Lopez in the Huffington Post| Photos by Benjamin Alfaro Posted: July 11, 2009 12:21 PM I first met Rocio Martinez at a St. Patrick's Day Party. She sat across from me, an attractive Latina woman with an underlying edge, and after staring past each other uncomfortably for a while we struck up a conversation. My first thought, when she told me that she was a Youth Relations Associate
US OFFICIALS PLANNING H1N1 SCHOOL VACCINE PROGRAM
Friday, July 10, 2009 8:53 AM
By Jennifer Corbett Dooren of Dow Jones Newswires from the Wall Street Journal July 10, 2009 -- WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)--Top U.S. government officials are planning an H1N1 influenza vaccination campaign aimed at school-age children that could start in October. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said there's a possibility that vaccinations could be offered at schools and
REAL LIFE SCIENCE AND MATH PROJECT LAUNCHED IN BOYLE HEIGHTS SCHOOLS
Friday, July 10, 2009 7:50 AM
By Gloria Angelina Castillo, Eastern Group Publications Staff Writer JULY 10 - An initiative to arm Latino students with skills to lead the country and set the pace for other young people in the world of technology was launched in Boyle Heights on Monday. STEM-Up, a pilot program funded by the United States Department of Defense (DoD), is the first of it’s kind in the nation, and aims to
CAL STATE UNIVERSITY SYSTEM TO HALT MOST SPRING ENROLLMENT
Friday, July 10, 2009 7:50 AM
by Larry Gordon in LA Times | California Briefing July 10 - In a move to cut enrollment because of the state budget deficit, the 23-campus Cal State University system announced Thursday that, with few exceptions, it will not allow students to start at the university next spring. Cal State usually admits about 35,000 freshmen, undergraduate transfers and graduate students in the spring,
UTLA RE: PERIODIC ASSESSMENTS - Boycott suspended pending talks with LAUSD
Friday, July 10, 2009 7:48 AM
UTLA press release and fax to chapter chairs Beginning July 9th, UTLA is suspending its boycott of periodic assessments to focus on discussions with LAUSD on making adjustments to the program. UTLA members have been boycotting the assessments since January to highlight their concerns about the cost, content, and overall number of Periodic Assessments. The strong support for the boycotts by
RACING FOR AN EARLY EDGE: States jockey for position as the U.S. Education Department readies billions of dollars in 'Race to the Top' awards—the stimulus program's grand prize.
Thursday, July 09, 2009 7:34 PM
By Michele McNeil | Education Week | Published Online: July 9, 2009 July 15, 2009 -- Even before they've finished spending their first block of federal stimulus aid, states are getting a head start in a national "race to the top" for better public education, without even knowing rules to the game. With up to $4.35 billion in competitive grants for education reform at stake, the most aggressive
ISRAELI, PALESTINIAN & LAUSD HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS COLLABORATE ON FILM THIS SUMMER
Thursday, July 09, 2009 4:56 PM
from the Galatzan Gazette, LAUSD Boardmember Galatzan's weekly e-newsletter July 9 - As President Obama struggles with jumpstarting the Middle East peace process, a group of Cleveland High School students is participating in a project bringing together Israeli and Palestinian students. From July 6 through August 14, 15-20 Cleveland students will collaborate with their Palestinian and Israelis
HARDER THAN IT LOOKS: VILLARAIGOSA’S MODEL SCHOOLS BITE BACK: Meanwhile, the LAUSD dropout rate soars citywide
Thursday, July 09, 2009 7:15 AM
By David Ferrell | LA Weekly “Teachers are in revolt at all but one of the schools Villaraigosa now controls… The ultimate insult came when teachers at nine of the 10 campuses gave Villaraigosa’s reform teams a “no-confidence” vote. At the 10th campus, a vote supporting his policies was being disputed because of voting irregularities.” Illustration by Fred Noland July 09, 2009 –Ronni
GAO: Few stimulus dollars are dedicated to education reform
Thursday, July 09, 2009 12:00 AM
AASA School Business SmartBrief | 07/08/2009 States largely used federal stimulus funds to fill short-term budget gaps rather than engage in long-term investments in education and other areas, says a Government Accountability Office report to be released today. http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-09-829 The Obama administration had expressed hope in February that stimulus funds would lead to needed
The end of mayoral control as he knows it: AS LAW EXPIRES, BLOOMBERG MOVES TO KEEP AUTHORITY OVER SCHOOLS + CHANCELLOR AVOIDS ARREST + MR. MAYOR, MEET CARL JUNG
Wednesday, July 08, 2009 4:22 PM
By JAVIER C. HERNANDEZ – New York Times July 1, 2009 -- Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg was set to lose control of the New York City school system at midnight Tuesday, but despite dire predictions of chaos from the mayor and others, it appeared that the nation’s largest school district would continue to operate largely as usual. The shift of power, from Mr. Bloomberg’s hands to the clutches of
NEW YORKER PROFILE OF GREEN DOT CHARTER SCHOOL CHIEF STEVE BARR IS PROPAGANDA, NOT REPORTING
Wednesday, July 08, 2009 3:37 PM
by Susan Ohanian – Substance News smf notes: Without going all Tipper Gore, the following article contains questionable language – it would never pass mustard with the LAUSD e-mail server! Mr. Barr, the subject of the article, is prone thereto – and obviously he’s been a poor influence on Ms. Ohanian. As the article is over a month old I probably should be leaving well enough alone. But
Be afraid, be very afraid: WHY NEW JERSEY IS IN WORSE SHAPE THAN GOV. ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER’S CALIFORNIA
Wednesday, July 08, 2009 12:49 PM
by Paul Mulshine/ The Star-Ledger (Newark, NJ) ●●smf’s 2¢: There is nothing positive in being the laughingstock/paradigm of dysfunction in headlines like the above …even if there were a number of such headlines last week – comparing NJ, New York, Ohio and Chicago/Illinois to California’s budget plight. (In all candor, the dysfunction in Albany does make Sacramento look like an amateur
IN CALIFORNIA, EVEN THE I.O.U.’s ARE OWED
Wednesday, July 08, 2009 12:48 PM
By JENNIFER STEINHAUER | New York Times Registered warrants are being issued instead of checks. | photo: Max Whittaker/Reuters July 8, 2009 -- LOS ANGELES — The only thing worse than being issued an i.o.u. rather than a check from the State of California may be not getting the i.o.u. at all — at least in time to meet the deadline of your bank. But across California on Tuesday,
STATE EDUCATION LEADERS DECRY GOVERNOR’S PROPOSAL TO SUSPEND PROPOSITION 98
Wednesday, July 08, 2009 12:47 PM
Gentle Readers: It’s always the Unintended Consequences. Gov. Schwarzenegger ending of the Car Tax has cost the state about $6billion a year; the state’s revenue shortfall amounts to almost exactly $6billion per year of the Schwarzenegger administration. In our haste to do away with the 2/3rds rule to pass a budget and raise taxes let’s not forget that it also
California’s B-B-Blues in the Night: FITCH DOWNGRADES CALIFORNIA GENERAL OBLIGATION BONDS TO ‘BBB’; MAINTAINS WAITING WATCH NEGATIVE
Monday, July 06, 2009 10:21 PM
THE DOWNGRADE TO 'BBB' is based on the state's continued inability to achieve timely agreement on budgetary and cash flow solutions to its severe fiscal crisis THE RATING WATCH NEGATIVE reflects the short-term risk that institutional gridlock could persist, further aggravating the state's already severe economic, revenue and liquidity challenges and weighing on the
News Analysis from China: WHO IS TO BLAME ON CALIFORNIA’S BUDGET CRISIS?
Monday, July 06, 2009 2:02 PM
In as succinct a short explanation as possible, the Xinhua News agency writes: “It seems that the California budget crisis is mixed with impacts of the recession, the struggle between legislators from different parties, structural problems of the state legislature, decisions from the voters and ability of the governor to lead”.
CHANGE GONNA COME: That was the two weeks ago that was
Sunday, July 05, 2009 5:41 PM
by Kevin W. Riley from the EdWeek LeaderTalk blog Riley is the principal/’lead learner’ at ‘El Milagro’ - Mueller Charter School located in Chula Vista, California - seven miles from the border with Tijuana, Mexico. June 20, 2009 - What a compelling confluence of events this week: • Iranian patriots riding Twitter to their next revolution. • California in near collapse as they face a
TEACHER EVALUATIONS & THE LAKE WOBEGON EFFECT
Sunday, July 05, 2009 12:25 PM
by Terry Holliday | Superintendent - Iredell Statesville [NC] Schools [20,000 K-12 students)|2008 Baldrige National Quality Award Recipient | Posted on EdWeek LeaderTalk at June 28, 2009 I caught Secretary Duncan on NPR this week talking about teacher evaluations and other key issues surrounding education reform. Secretary Duncan talked about several studies that were recently featured in
IN THE AGE OF TESTING, CAN SCHOOLS TEACH CRITICAL THINKING?
Sunday, July 05, 2009 11:54 AM
Stories by Sherry Posnick-Goodwin • Photos by Scott Buschman | From California Educator - the publication of The California Teachers’ Association| Volume 13, Issue 9 - June 2009| Are students learning how to think critically? A - Yes, if students perform well on standardized tests. B - No, schools just teach students to fill in the bubbles. C -
KID’S VIDEO ABOUT THE BUDGET CRISIS AT THEIR SCHOOL: "We Ain't Got the Do Re Mi" by the South Pasadena Unified Grade "A" Jug Bandand
Saturday, July 04, 2009 11:11 PM
National Education Accountability Requires Overhaul: NEW BROADER BOLDER APPROACH CAMPAIGN REPORT OUTLINES COMPREHENSIVE VIEW OF ACCOUNTABILITY IN POST NCLB ERA
Saturday, July 04, 2009 10:57 PM
Deborah Meier writes in EdWeek (7/2): I think it would be fair to argue that an institution that is funded by public monies must defend itself on the grounds that it serves, first and foremost, a public purpose—one which by its nature is held in common by all citizens, voters, and their offspring. Here’s my suggestion. They must serve to prepare future voters to be knowledgeable and skilled
EVENTS: Coming up next week...
• Wednesday July 15 is ST. SWITHUN'S DAY.
St Swithun's day if thou dost rain
For forty days it will remain
St Swithun's day if thou be fair
For forty days 'twill rain na mair
Now you know.
*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
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.
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