In This Issue:  | | • | HOWARD ZINN 1922 - 2010 | | | • | CLASS WARRIOR: New Yorker Profile of Education Secretary Arne Duncan | | | • | LA SCHOOLS’ BIG EXPERIMENT | | | • | LAUSD MAY FACE BIGGER BUDGET HOLE: Cuts in state budget plan could mean loss of another $200 million. | | | • | 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: | | | | "If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth."
-- J.D. Salinger, the opening lines of the Catcher in the Rye
J.D. Salinger would not appreciate much being made of his passing this week — or of me sending out this sentence of his. As a writer he opened a door that others …Kerouac and Heller and Vonnegut walked through. Salinger wasn't happy with some of what he found and retreated back inside ...but he left us Holden Caulfield and the Glass Family. Bob Seger called his generation in music "Chuck (Berry)'s children, out there playing his licks". Salinger may not've taught the band to play … but he set the tone.
There is an irony that Salinger took his leave in the same week that enlightened school boards are attempting to censor Merriam-Webster ...but it's only irony.
Grasping for irony and mixing bathos and the bathwater: The New Yorker - which first brought us Salinger and Caulfield and the Glasses published a profile of Arne Duncan this week.
This week we also lost Howard Zinn, a voice of reason amidst unreasonableness. Zinn said both "Dissent is the highest form of patriotism." and “If the gods had intended for people to vote, they would have given us candidates".
That's a range of beliefs within which one can live a full life of truth, passion and humor.
We move onward/adelante! - smf
HOWARD ZINN 1922 - 2010
ZINN HAS DIED. LONG LIVE "ZINN"!
By Fred Branfman in the Huffington Post
January 28, 2010 -- I sit here in shock, having just read the Boston Globe headline, "Howard Zinn, historian who challenged status quo, dies at 87." I knew the day would come. I dreaded it. I flew to Boston last year to spend a day with him just so I wouldn't read a headline like this without having seen him at least one last time. And now I sit here. Devastated.
Much will and should be written about Howard's contributions to the world: how his People's History of the U.S. changed how many of us understand America and, like all great histories, shed the great light of Truth upon our present, explaining what cannot be understood by official propaganda; the pivotal role he played in the civil rights movement during the tough years when he, like so many others, took enormous physical risks for simply wanting justice, a period he told me was the highlight of his life; the thousands of people, well-known and not, whose lives were politically transformed by their encounters with him.
And the personal remembrances of Howard the human being will be no less moving and true. I have met many political people in my lifetime. Howard was by far the most honest, human, open, kind, generous, gracious, sweetest, humorous and charming of them all. By far. I am not the first to be reminded of Abraham Lincoln when talking with him, not only because of the physical resemblance but his profound humanity. His personal warmth and gentleness, combined with his political fire and passion, were entirely unique in my experience. He looked you in the eyes. He listened. He reacted appropriately to what you were saying. He was as interested in my ideas and experience when we talked last January as he had been 40 years ago. Looking back on his life he was as open and honest about his regrets as well as satisfactions as anyone I have ever met.
But to me there is an even more important aspect of his life, like that of his friend and colleague Noam Chomsky, that transcends the personal.
To many of us "Zinn" and "Chomsky" have not only been admirable human beings. They have been something far more, something difficult to put into words, something perhaps even risky to try and capture but something that, nonetheless, one feels driven to express at a moment like this.
Many of us were upended on the deepest possible level during the '60s. Growing up in the aftermath of the "Good War", many of us the children or grandchildren of immigrants who believed deeply in the America to which they owed their very lives, we profoundly believed in America's goodness and decency. And when we saw not only our leaders, but an entire older generation not only betray but spit upon and destroy these values in Indochina, we were undone. When we saw them mercilessly, pitilessly, amorally, criminally, deceitfully and undemocratically murder millions of innocent civilians over a period of weeks, months and years - each week a lifetime of agony - we were thrown into an emotional, intellectual and spiritual abyss, an abyss from which we have never really fully emerged. Our moral universe, the basic set of understandings needed to remain human, was shattered.
It was particularly during those morally chaotic years that "Zinn" and "Chomsky" became more than people to many of us. As elders who did not sell out, who acted as well as taught, who did not compromise, who did not abandon genuine American values and ideals, who did not lose their passion for social justice, who did not fail to side with the poor and downtrodden and victimized, and who above all spoke the truth, they became to many of us, quite simply, some of the most important nouns of our life. Even if we did not always agree this or that "position" they took, they represented something far higher.
"Zinn" and "Chomsky" represented a tradition and state of being that meant we were not entirely on our own, beacons of:
• The deepest possible compassion. At any given moment the world is divided into those who hear the screams of the innocent victims and those who do not. Most of us, certainly myself, go in and out of hearing the screams. We fight this injustice but ignore that one. "Zinn" and "Chomsky" is a state of being that consistently hears the screams, from Vietnam to inner city ghettoes, from East Timor to Haiti. It is a state that is unable to close itself off from the pain of the world.
• Intellectual clarity, as they have told their truths in their writings and speeches to millions, never compromising for the sake of political expediency like so many of their contemporaries. Many of us were terminally confused by the conflict between America's image and reality. "Zinn" and "Chomsky" provide explanations and understandings that helped keep us sane.
• Moral courage, as they went beyond mere speech-making and writing, and joined with those opposing the war, risking imprisonment or physical injury - as in our "affinity group" during Mayday when either could have been arrested, beaten up or maced in the eyes like Dan Ellsberg who was standing next to them, or when Chomsky was a leader of the draft resistance movement. "Zinn" and "Chomsky" mean "committed intellectuals" who do not compromise, intellectuals who align their bodies and actions with their minds and thoughts.
• Passion for social justice, an antiquated concept these days, in which a new generation of Americans has come to believe that "collateral damage" is inevitable in war, the very idea of war crimes irrelevant, and that the poor are responsible for their poverty. "Zinn" and "Chomsky" has meant never losing the passion for justice, a passion that began for Howard when he realized, as a bombardier in WWII, that he was often bombing the innocent not out of military necessity but mere inertia and indifference.
• Above all integrity, authenticity, wholeness. "Zinn" and "Chomsky" are embodiments of that word so often praised but so rarely practiced. They have practiced what they have preached. I have never seen either act out of character. I remember well when I first met Howard in Laos in 1968 as he and Dan Berrigan were on their way to Hanoi to escort U.S. POWs home. What political system did he believe in?, I asked. He smiled in his wry way, grinned his wide grin, and answered in that soft, Brooklyn-tinged but clear way of his: "I guess the closest is the kind of anarcho-syndicalism they had in the Spanish Civil War", he responded. As we talked I understood that he knew too much to put faith in any government, right or left, that "anarcho-syndicalism" was a way of saying he remained idealistic that humans could theoretically live sanely. But he never fell into the trap that many of us have of projecting our ideals onto the fallible humans who hold power in any system, left or right, and are inevitably corrupted by it.
The integrity conveyed by the words "Zinn" and "Chomsky" is, in the end, impossible to pin down. They have been cut from an older, different cloth. Their roots lie in an earlier time when those fighting for peace and social justice did so because of who they were, not because they sought personal power or to realize fantasies of "revolution". I asked Howard last January what kept him continuing to fight, write and speak for peace and social justice when it all seemed so hopeless. His answer was as simple as it was profound. "I couldn't live with myself if I didn't." The meaning of the words were far less important than the wave of feeling that moved through me as he said them, a wave of feeling that cut through the rationalizing and intellectualizing and connected with the deepest part of me that feels the same way.
The most important role that "Zinn" and "Chomsky" (whom I also met in Laos, in 1970) have played in my life has been to serve as nouns reminding me of my highest self. I cannot describe how often, consciously or unbidden, I have found myself thinking "how would Howard see this?," "what would Howard say?", "what would Noam do in this case?".
And the deepest role they have played in my life only became apparent to me in recent years, as I began to explore my unconscious. I realized that they represented a kind of moral center in my life, a compass, a guiding star. This or that politician in whom I had believed might turn out to have feet of clay. I might betray my own ideals. I might drop out for a while, become despairing. But knowing that "Zinn" and "Chomsky" did not, that they fought consistently for their ideas, did not get corrupted by the temptations of power, meant that somewhere, some place, there remained a still point of integrity in this world.
Somewhere, some place, it was possible to remain a human being with compassion, intellectual clarity, moral courage, a passion for social justice and, above all, integrity. Somewhere, someplace, the world was not entirely sick, corrupted, confused or compromised.
These "Zinn" and "Chomsky" states of being, which meant so much to me, also made me feel conflicted about the persons Zinn and Chomsky at various points in my life, particularly when I went into electoral politics in the 1980s. I projected onto them that they, who had kept their integrity, would look down on me for getting involved in electoral politics. I assumed they would find my rationale for doing so morally or intellectually compromised. I tended to avoid them during this period.
I also sometimes saw them as naive. When I talked to Howard shortly after John Kerry was nominated for President he said forcefully that Kerry had better run against the Iraq war if he wanted to win. My internal reaction was something along the lines of "oh, there he is, good old Howard, naive romantic to the end. Noone can hope to win the Presidency without supporting the Iraq war."
I did not foresee that Kerry's key losing moment of the campaign would be saying he voted for the Iraq war before he voted against it, or that Barack Obama would win the Presidency largely for opposing the Iraq war at a time when the conventional wisdom, embodied by Hillary Clinton, still held that supporting it was necessary to win. I did not foresee that a few years hence I would see myself as naive on this question, and Howard more realistic. Nor did I foresee that when I met with them again neither would judge me negatively for my forays into electoral politics. It had all been a projection on my part.
I also did not foresee that as the horrors of the Bush Years wore on, and the disappointment of Obama Year One would kick in, that I would find myself increasingly embracing what they have taught and what they have embodied; that they would be serving even more as a lodestone to me in these years than they did in my youth.
Howard's death is thus a shock transcending the normal death of a friend or even loved one. Yes, the personal memories come tumbling out: watching a theatrical presentation in a cave north of Hanoi as Nixon got elected in November 1972, marveling at the morale of the Vietnamese compared to the despair we felt at the prospect of four more years of killing; spending the night in adjoining jail cells during the Redress demonstration, being so buoyed in the morning by his cheerfulness, smiles, wry but never cynical humor; marching together in a small march in Lexington, Massachusetts, and then hearing him speak, out of the deepest possible knowledge and feeling, about how the ideals of the American Revolution, as contrasted with its reality, required opposing the Vietnam today; our emails, phone conversations and visits over these 40 years - with Howard always gracious, always committed, always kind, always interested, and always interesting.
But this feeling of devastation at his loss far transcends even these personal memories.
There is, you see, no "Zinn" or "Chomsky" among we baby-boomers, let alone the generations that follows us.
One of our beacons of integrity has now flickered out. Our world has suddenly become a little darker, a little colder, little more bitter, a litte more insane.
It is bad enough when a loved and admirable person dies and one realizes they can never be replaced, that there will never be another one remotely like them. It is worse when that person's death leaves a hole in the entire moral universe, that a spiritual vacuum has been created that can never be filled. The pain is more intense, the feeling of irreplaceable loss even stronger.
My only consolation at this moment is knowing that though Howard Zinn the man has died, "Zinn" has not. I know that many of us will continue to be sustained in the difficult years to come by the answers we will receive when we find ourselves asking:
• What would Howard think, how would he see it?
• What would Howard say?
• How would Howard feel?
And, most importantly:
• What would Howard do?
Zinn has died. Long live "Zinn".
CLASS WARRIOR: New Yorker Profile of Education Secretary Arne Duncan
►Block that mataphor: In his New Yorker profile (May 11, 2009|http://bit.ly/d0O15Y) , Steve Barr led "a crusade", Duncan is "a class warrior".
by Carlo Rotella, The New Yorker, February 1, 2010, p. 24
Excerpt: "How you read Duncan's record (in Chicago) depends to some extent on what you think of his approach to reform. His signature move as C.E,O. was the turnaround: shutting down a school that has a chronic record of poor performance and reopening it with an entirely new staff. (NY City Schools chancellor) Joel Klein told me, 'Closing a school is worse than a root canal. You're disrupting people's lives,' and it makes a superintendent very unpopular."
ABSTRACT: PROFILE of Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. President Obama has allotted Duncan more than seventy billion dollars in federal economic-stimulus funds to hand out to the states—more money “by a factor of a lot,” as Duncan puts it, than any Secretary of Education has had before him. The stimulus money and the close relationship Duncan, who was the C.E.O. of the Chicago Public Schools before coming to Washington with Obama, has to the President give him extraordinary leverage.
Duncan has the potential to be a uniquely influential Secretary of Education. Any state that wants its full share of stimulus money needs to give the Department of Education what are known as the “four assurances”: progress in raising standards; in recruiting and retaining effective teachers; in tracking students’ and teachers’ performance; and in turning around failing schools.
Duncan has played basketball with Barack Obama for nearly two decades, and first met him through Craig Robinson, Michelle Obama’s older brother, who now coaches Oregon State University’s men’s basketball team.
In the fight over education in America today, there are, roughly speaking, two major camps: free-market reformers, who believe that competition, choice, and incentives must have greater play in education; and liberal traditionalists who rally around teachers’ unions and education schools. Obama’s choice of Duncan was widely received as a compromise. His appointment was a loss for the unions.
Republicans approve of Duncan’s commitment to market-based reforms. Duncan must contend with critics on the right who don’t accept the federal government’s active role in education, and ones on the left who see him as a neoliberal enforcer, exploiting Obama’s Democratic bona fides to impose the free-market reform agenda on the unions.
Tells about Duncan’s childhood on the South Side of Chicago and the after-school program his mother ran and continues to run in North Kenwood-Oakland. After graduating from Harvard, Duncan played professional basketball in Australia before returning to Chicago. Describes Duncan’s career in Chicago, leading up to him being named C.E.O. of the Chicago Public Schools in 2001. Writer discusses Duncan’s tenure as C.E.O. and interviews several critics of his policies. Tells about the rules by which the stimulus finds will be awarded to states and considers the legacy of No Child Left Behind. Many people who voted for Obama are finding out that on education, as on other issues, he is more of a centrist than they ever imagined.
● Read the full text of this article in the digital edition | http://bit.ly/cnSm2b(Subscription required.)
● or listen to a podcast: http://bit.ly/btxFq5
LA SCHOOLS’ BIG EXPERIMENT
LA SCHOOLS’ BIG EXPERIMENT
by Charles Kerchner - Research Professor of Education at Claremont Graduate University | HUFFINGTON POST | http://bit.ly/b5T2r3
January 29, 2010 -- Think of it as a big chem lab experiment. The Los Angeles Unified School District is testing the hypothesis that allowing a bunch of people to compete for running schools will yield better ones. It's a starkly different idea than the traditional civil service model and probably the boldest experiment taking place in public education in America. So, what are the results so far?
Hypothesis 1: In a contest to run public schools, lots of teams will show up. Result: it depends. The public school choice resolution passed by the school board last summer, created two different contests. The first was for the operation of 18 newly constructed schools, built with bonds approved by voters several years ago. One would think that occupying a sparkling new school would be incentive enough to bring forward great numbers of charter school and other potential providers.
There is significant competition, but not as much as one might think. Charter school management companies that did not already operate schools did not jump into the game in large numbers. The only new-to-LA charter provider to submit a proposal was Aspire, which runs schools in Oakland and the San Francisco Bay area. The for-profit providers that operate multiple charters across the country are forbidden by law from applying, and so Los Angeles' education competition has a decidedly home-grown look.
The Sansei Foundation, a non-profit arm of a school consulting firm in Chicago that has ties to Paul Vallas, that city's peripatetic former superintendent who now heads schools in New Orleans, filed an intent-to-participate for all the schools, but was a dropout. The American Charter Schools Foundation that operates charters in Arizona also failed to submit any proposals.
In most new-school competitions, existing charter operators squared off against proposals from teams of administrators and teachers from LAUSD. The Julie Korenstein Elementary school in the San Fernando Valley has five competitors, for example, as does a new elementary school in South LA Four competitors vie to run the new Barack Obama Global Preparation Academy in South LA. There, the Inner City Education Foundation, which operates 10 schools in South Los Angeles, and sees its mission as drastically increasing the number of college graduates from the area, is competing with a District team and two other charters.
KIPP, whose charters have garnered media attention for their success among African-American students, did not submit a proposal. Green Dot, which has been depicted as a tidal wave, submitted only one proposal. It is in competition with the Alliance for College Ready Schools and others for one of the components of the newly constructed Esteban Torres high schools on the Eastside.
A second contest involves plans to run one of the 12 chronically underperforming schools, dubbed Focus Schools by LAUSD. These campuses have failed to meet their federal performance targets for more than three years, have proficiency rates of less than 21 percent in either math or English, and had no growth in state's Academic Performance Index last year. The chosen high schools also had greater than 10 percent dropout rates.
Nothing bright and shiny here: the prospect of running these schools offers only an invitation to run some of the toughest schools in America. As one might expect, there are fewer competitors.
Only the existing schools proposed to run Burbank Middle, Gardena High, Maywood High, and San Pedro High. But some of these proposals were quite innovative and sought to come to grips with the reasons achievement had lagged. The Partnership for Los Angeles Schools, begun by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, was the most vigorous competitor. It submitted proposals for three Focus schools including Jefferson High School on the near Southside. It faces vigorous contest by the existing faculty and staff. See Howard Blume's coverage [http://bit.ly/9HE7oo] of the community meetings where proposals were presented.
The most vigorous challenge from an existing charter operator is taking place at Hillcrest Elementary School where the Inner City Education Foundation, is competing with the existing school and another charter, Be the Change in Education Foundation. That proposal, co-sponsored by 100 Black Men of Los Angeles, anticipates separating students by gender, a practice used in the 100 Black Men charter school in New York.
Another potentially interesting contest may develop on the Eastside, where the Montebello Unified School District, which operates the schools just outside of LAUSD, has submitted a proposal to operate Garfield High School.
Hypothesis 2: Competition will yield strong and innovative proposals. Result: a qualified yes.
I was struck by the extent to which existing District administrator and teacher teams created coherent plans that targeted student achievement. Although there are some clunkers, as a group these plans were much stronger than those produced during the school reform era of the 1990s. For a history of this era, see Learning from L.A.: Institutional Change in American Education [http://bit.ly/aJhFxO]. Clearly, the participants have learned about targeting student achievement directly rather than assuming that rearranging what adults do would boost student outcomes. One of the legacies of past reform efforts is to give the schools a much higher capacity to focus on student achievement. Both District and charter proposals showed this capacity.
The stronger proposals also had linkages to resources outside the district. Some, like the ICEF middle school proposal, had strong ties to the University of Southern California. Several cited relationships with UCLA and some with CSU system schools and private colleges and universities. Many of the proposals link to community service providers. All reveal a network-of-experts organizational structure that I believe will become the essential structure for public education in the future, the alternative to an old fashioned hierarchy.
Perhaps the most interesting player in all this is United Teachers Los Angeles, which has had a schizophrenic relationship to the whole choice process. Violently opposed to it, UTLA is challenging its legality. At the same time it registered intents to propose in all the new schools. In the end only one teacher team submitted a new school proposal, the South Area Teacher Collaborative that bid for a newly constructed South Los Angeles middle school. Their proposal made a bow toward non-hierarchical management and greater involvement of parents and community in school operations, but it didn't sketch out a school where students would learn in radically different ways or where teachers would have radically different jobs. No updated Summerhill or John Dewey Lab School. No teachers' cooperative.
However, high teacher and union involvement can be seen in several of the proposals, including those at Burbank Middle School, where the existing staff seeks to transform the school into three smaller ones run on the Pilot school model that gives participants some flexibility to change their work rules. In other, proposals, such as the one for San Pedro High School, the union chapter chair emerges as one of the key participants in reorganization.
Yet, in the political bump and rub of proposal adoption, UTLA's raw union muscle has emerged. Boisterous and contentious community meetings have featured rough attempts at intimidation, prompting a blunt letter from Superintendent Ramon Cortines to union president A. J. Duffy.
All the proposals included ways to gather student achievement data from classrooms and make mid-course corrections during the school year and before the high-stakes state tests are given in the spring. All of them included ideas for linking on-going professional development with improving the schools. A close reading of these sections distinguishes the good from not so good proposals. (Full disclosure: I reviewed a handful of proposals for the District.)
All of the proposals recognize that parents, family and community are a student's first educators. And there are some inventive ideas about engaging families and using community resources.
But there was also an almost universal belief in programs rather than people. The proposal template itself, and most all of the proposals I perused placed great reliance on picking a set of proven programs. No one, even among the charter operators, said that their proposal would work because they had the capacity to assemble a better-trained, more dedicated staff than their competitors. Everyone gave a nod to accountability--it was required by the proposal template--but no one stood up and said in effect "if we can't teach these kids we'll step aside."
All these proposals are online [http://bit.ly/cJeuOS]. I have skimmed all of them, and read many of them carefully. You can too. It's also an experiment in local democracy, with public hearings, advisory votes, and ultimately a decision by Superintendent Cortines on February 23. The lives of 40,000 students are involved. It's time for your voice to be heard.
●●smf's 2¢: Heard… but as the votes are non-binding and advisory – not necessarily paid attention to.
LAUSD MAY FACE BIGGER BUDGET HOLE: Cuts in state budget plan could mean loss of another $200 million.
By Connie Llanos, Staff Writer | LA Daily News
01/26/2010 | 08:35:20 PM PST -- Already reeling from a series of financial hits in the past year, Los Angeles Unified School District officials recently learned that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's new state budget plan could chop an additional $200 million from the district next year.
_____________________________________
“After carving deeply into California’s K-12 budget over the past two years, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vowed Wednesday to spare schools from further cuts in the budget he will propose for fiscal 2011.” - Ed Week | Jan 6, 2010 | http://bit.ly/d6avDc
_____________________________________
LAUSD was already facing an expected budget deficit of $470 million next year. But officials found tucked in the fine print of the governor's budget an additional, unexpected cut of $250 per student for 2010-11, potentially raising the district's deficit to $670 million.
The discovery comes just six weeks before the district faces a state deadline to begin handing out pink slips to teachers and administrators who could be laid off next year.
LAUSD Chief Financial Officer Megan Reilly said while the governor's plan keeps education funding at last year's level, it also retains cuts that were supposed to be restored.
"More cuts will have to happen to address these hidden cuts to education," Reilly said.
The grim news comes a month after district officials approved a two-year budget plan that included eliminating some 5,000 jobs, including 1,400 teachers, 1,000 janitors and maintenance workers and 520 school office workers through 2012.
That plan also left K-3 student-teacher ratios at 29:1; slashed arts and music programs at elementary schools in half; and cut back school nurses, cops and aides.
LAUSD Board president Monica Garcia urged employee unions to share the pain and agree to other cuts that could help avoid another devastating round of layoffs.
LAUSD laid off about 2,500 teachers and 2,800 non-teaching school workers in 2009.
"The choices we face now are hard and we are at a place where no one wants to be," Garcia said.
"We need to work together with our bargaining units. ... In 2010 to tell a family that they do not have a job is a very serious thing."
Officials said the district can save $40 million for every 1percent salary cut approved by bargaining units. One furlough day saves about $15 million.
To date, SEIU Local 99, representing mostly custodians and cafeteria workers, has agreed to four furlough days for 2009-10 and the union's bus drivers have approved 10furlough days this year to prevent cuts to their unit.
Also, the California School Employees Association and the Building and Trades Council Unit E reached a tentative agreement last month for four unpaid work days.
A.J. Duffy, president of United Teachers Los Angeles - LAUSD's largest employee union - said teachers would not accept furloughs or pay cuts until district officials proved all other cuts had been made.
"We'll sit down and talk to the district about how we can help it find its way out of this financial crisis ... but only if they open their books and let us make suggestions on what else they can cut," Duffy said.
District officials have also talked about asking voters in November 2010 to approve a limited parcel tax, for up to $200 million.
HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T FIT: The Rest of the Stories from Other Sources
L.A. SCHOOLS WORRY ABOUT TOXIC PLAYGROUNDS: by ELIZABETH BANICKI | Courthouse News Service Friday, Ja... http://bit.ly/9X3SKe
e-mail from LAUSD(C):: In a message dated 01/27/10 22:14:55 Pacific Standard Time, The Los Angeles School Developm... http://bit.ly/arZ4RF
CSU SYSTEM TO PUSH STUDENTS TOWARDS GRADUATION: By Carla Rivera | LA Times | http://bit.ly/9Ff4tz Students are to... http://bit.ly/d9mU3P
LACC ACCUSED OF CENSORING STUDENT NEWSPAPER: "Finding a 1st Amendment violation at LACC is like looking for a need... http://bit.ly/c5ePWS
SUNDAY MORNING 31 JAN @ 7 AM -- Knowledge is Power 106: 4LAKids in Big Boy’s ‘hood!: Knowledge is Power hosted by Wendy Carrillo LIVE!! Will be fe... http://bit.ly/cg1veE
Re: New Yorker Article: PROTEST STUDIES - “Restoring [CA] state investment to a truly accountable system[ of high... http://bit.ly/bnQ38n
TEACHER BANNED FROM CLASS 7 YEARS AGO AND FIRED 6 YEARS AGO FINALLY FIRED …APPEAL PENDING: by Jason Song – LA Tim... http://bit.ly/beCGK5
Briefly: SCHOOL REPORT CARDS: Thursday AM Jan 28 LAUSD schools' grades are improving Los Angeles Daily News - Co... http://bit.ly/a9BQmr 3
NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS TO HELP OUR SCHOOLS: by A.J. Duffy, UTLA President – from United Teacher, the newspaper of ... http://bit.ly/c85dJc
Passed along: ADVISORY VOTE VOLUNTEER
PARENT POWER + smf’s 2¢: By Bill Boyarsky | Los Angeles Jewish Journal “Raw power, an unabashed transfer of polit... http://bit.ly/apzwyN
7th AND FINAL STATE OF EDUCATION ADDRESS BY SUPERINTENDENT OF PUBLIC INTRUCTION O’CONNELL: By Canan Tasci | In... http://bit.ly/7b8V68
FEMALE TEACHERS MAY PASS ON MATH ANXIETY TO GIRLS, STUDY FINDS: After a year in the classroom with female teachers... http://bit.ly/8c6cLj
SOME SCHOOL DISTRICTS UNSURE ABOUT ‘RACE TO THE TOP’ FUNDING: North County Times [North San Diego and Southwest Ri... http://bit.ly/6rtt4o 5
HIGH SCHOOL SPORTS: Los Angeles City Section faces $1.4-million budget cut | http://bit.ly/8evznW: The 20% loss in... http://bit.ly/4ZIe0v 5
TEACHERS PUSH GARDENA HIGH REFORMS – proposal ‘met with mixed reactions and some befuddlement’: By Melissa Pamer S... http://bit.ly/4Esojw
RECOMMENDATIONS THRICE REMOVED:PSC UPDATE: SUPERINTENDENT’S LETTER, REVISED SCHEDULE OF MEETINGS & ADVISORY VOTE SCHEDULE AND PROTOCOL. “As a reminder, advisory votes are only recommendations to me. They are not a binding vote. I will include the results of the advisory vote recommendations in my final recommendations to the board.” . http://bit.ly/7OCo74
The soft bigotry of low expectations v.2.0: BERKELEY HIGH MAY CUT SCIENCE LAB CLASSES TO FUND PROGRAMS FOR STRUGGLING STDENTS.. http://bit.ly/6CWLwY
EVENTS: Coming up next week...
*Dates and times subject to change. ________________________________________
• SCHOOL CONSTRUCTION BOND OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE:
http://www.laschools.org/bond/
Phone: 213-241-5183
____________________________________________________
• LAUSD FACILITIES COMMUNITY OUTREACH CALENDAR:
http://www.laschools.org/happenings/
Phone: 213-893-6800
What can YOU do?
• E-mail, call or write your school board member:
Yolie.Flores.Aguilar@lausd.net • 213-241-6383
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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