In This Issue:  | | • | LA UNIFIED MOVES FORWARD IN PROCESS TO CLOSE CRESCENDO SCHOOLS FOR CHEATING | | | • | Lopez: WITH LITTLE LEFT TO TRIM, L.A. UNIFIED NEEDS TO FIGHT FOR MORE MONEY + jsk0761’s 2¢ | | | • | LEAVE TEXTBOOKS TO EXPERTS | | | • | "SHARING THE SACRIFICE," "GLOBAL COMPETITIVENESS" AND CHILDREN | | | • | 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: | | | | "Many school district superintendents -- and the mayors who appointed them -- are demanding teachers be held up to closer scrutiny and tougher accountability while facing possible replacement." So opened a piece on the PBS NewsHour blog. [http://to.pbs.org/fbgLs3] Of course, a mayor appointing the superintendent would be unconstitutional in California. Who am I kidding? Our mayor - with a little help from his friends - has appointed the past two superintendents in LAUSD. And the latest isn't been IN yet ...let alone PAST!
APROPOS @ A DISTANCE OF 2462 MILES, a letter writer to the NY Times observes: "A steady exodus of senior education officials, a sudden resignation, the immediate appointment of a trusted mayoral aide: the fast-moving political soap opera masks a greater failure of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s educational agenda. " [http://nyti.ms/eXugn0] Mayor Bloomberg's finely tuned mayoral control in NYC is coming off the tracks as first Joel Klein and then the disastrous Cathie Black leave in quick succession. (The NY State Education Commissioner - who had granted the waiver for Black to be NYC chancellor - took an unexpected powder the same day as Black.)
How hard can being a superintendent be? The Broad Superintendent's Academy trains them up in six weekends (http://bit.ly/gGllav). Six weekends? It takes Teach4America five whole weeks to make recent college graduates into classroom teachers!
TUESDAY THE BOARD OF ED began the process to revoke the charters of the Crescendo Charter Schools (wait - didn't they do that back on March 1st?) ...but if you watch the rebroadcast carefully this morning (9AM, KLCS, channel 58.1/ online later @ http://bit.ly/fhFdCi) you will see the door being left wide open for the schools to keep their charters. I understand the parents' passion - but when one turns the spin-control off (I have never heard an unscripted parent or student refer to kids as "scholars"!) it is painfully obvious that the test cheating at Crescendo was a conspiracy to initially defraud the taxpayers and ultimately the very children victimized.
The bitter truth is that improved test score results are fungible.
If your read the USA Today series on Standardized Test Cheating Nationwide [http://bit.ly/gS0bMk] you will see that the cheating is not unique to Crescendo (the Crescendo episode looks like Amateur Hour in Dixie compared to D.C.). But a little checking of the documents shows that Crescendo wasn't exactly caught recently by whistle-blower/teachers as has been reported. The California Department of Ed (CDE) officially identified the problem and cited the illegality last July 14th:
"Based upon the evidence available at this time, my staff and concur with the charters conclusion that a violation of state law and/or regulations occurred (per California Education Code Section60605[g] and California Code of Regulations, Title 5 [5 Section 853). [http://bit.ly/fjyuIL]
...and then went on to thank Crescendo founder/conspirator-in-chief John Allen for his "patience and diligence in helping resolve this difficult issue".
The CDE letter reserves the right for further action by the CDE - and it is they that should act on the six school's charters and refer this case to law enforcement.
ON THURSDAY THE LA TIMES ANNOUNCED THAT THEY WOULD ROLL OUT VERSION TWO-POINT-OH OF THEIR VALUE-ADDED TEACHERS ASSESSMENTS. [http://bit.ly/hsgiYD] It doesn't seem to matter that very few people wanted version 1.0 - a process of public shame - cobbled together as it was by reporters and moonlighting think-tankers working outside the tank. The criticism of The Times effort has been near universal; from the right, left, academe, teachers and other journalists. Even those who support analyzing teacher performance based on students test scores never suggested that the assessments should be done by in major metropolitan newspapers -- that is what school districts and county and state offices of education are for. The Times was right in agitating that the work wasn't being done in California or LAUSD -- but to go out and accumulate the data and crunch it and print the results wasn't journalism. It was - and continues to be - 'gotcha' Vigilante Teacher Assessment.
The Times didn't just crunch the data; crunching data involves programming, source code and data files. It crunched actual flesh-and-blood, living, breathing teachers. And unfortunately drove one to suicide.
Now - on the eve of Superintendent Deasy's accession (Deasy is a supporter of the VA assessment model but a critic of The Times process) The Times has returned to The Well - and (employing incoming UTLA President Warren Fletcher's metaphor from his Patt Morrison Interview): Poisoned it anew.
One of the few that initially supported The Times VA assessments was PBS NewsHour education reporter Merrow, despite his warning that we must "abandon our fantasy that a magic solution exists just around the corner. Our fixation on instant cures is actually part of the problem".
Merrow is an education reformer driven (but not to distraction) by data - he is open to all data, not just the data he likes. (I prefer some anecdotal with my analytical - sweetened a bit by emotion. The data driven Ayn Rand Objectivist/Technocrats call me wrong; but reality cannot exist independent of consciousness.)
In his book "Below C Level: How American Education Encourages Mediocrity and What We Can Do About It [Amazon:http://amzn.to/gfFrXX] (most quotes and data here are therefrom) Merrow provides some information about educational spending. We are told we are spending more now than ever, Merrow offers comparison figures and then puts them in context:
YEAR OVERALL SPENDING % of GDP
1950 $100 billion 9%
2001 $500 billion 5.5%
In the glory days, Californians spent 5.6% of every dollar on schools; today it's less than four cents.
Yet the challenges today are greater. In the glory days Special Ed and Students with Disabilities were not part of the program. ADHD and Autism and Type II Diabetes (we don't even call it 'adult-onset' anymore), Chronic Obesity and Asthma were not epidemic in children. English Language Learners were not a significant population. And there is so much more to know and our expectations are higher.
MEANWHILE: The California Report Team alleges lax oversight by the Department of State Architect to in failing to inspect new school construction projects for compliance with the Field Act - California’s stringent earthquake/seismic building standards. | http://bit.ly/fINBPj
Even as Dr. Lucy Jones - California's unofficial seismologist-in-chief - takes the whole state to task in an Op Ed about What California Can Learn From the Chile, New Zealand and Japan Quakes | http://lat.ms/fV0oar
How many parents sending their children to charter schools know that those buildings are exempt from the Field Act?
● There probably aren't all that many bad teachers - but the state program to get rid of the criminal ones is underperforming. | http://bit.ly/gFP1Cw
● The NAACP released a study tying the underinvestment in public education to the overinvestment in prisons. | http://bit.ly/gDdxTK ...and Grover Norquist agrees! |http://bit.ly/e6BRQ0
● The LA Community College District is going to appoint a special committee to investigate their building program. Really. | http://bit.ly/glMDJv
● The LAUSD bargaining positions vis-a-vis its employee unions is leaking. | http://bit.ly/gFAqv1
● The state budget is going nowhere [http://bit.ly/dTrl35 ] ● Steve Lopez is on a tear [http://bit.ly/ejhk6I} ● The County isn't doing at that well looking after kids in their care [ http://lat.ms/gekiYa - http://bit.ly/fOfJmj - http://bit.ly/fabs8Y] ● First5 is suing [http://bit.ly/dRXWpK ] ● The Supreme Court is selling out to religious schools [ http://bit.ly/h1Vha0] ● and students are not signing up to learn to be teachers in droves [http://bit.ly/hb3qK9 ]
● And the journalism students at Daniel Pearl Journalism Magnet High School editorialize on how little the adults have to offer | http://bit.ly/gXlbps
Besides for that... ¡Onward/Adelante! - smf
LA UNIFIED MOVES FORWARD IN PROCESS TO CLOSE CRESCENDO SCHOOLS FOR CHEATING
by Howard Blume- LA Times/LA NOW | http://lat.ms/hhZJfs
April 5, 2011 | 9:07 pm - The Los Angeles Board of Education voted Tuesday to issue a formal notice of violations against each campus among a group of six South Los Angeles charter schools involved in a cheating scandal. But some board members and incoming L.A. Unified Supt. John Deasy left open the possibility that Crescendo charter schools could stay open if Crescendo responds appropriately.
The violation notices came in response to cheating that occurred before last year’s state standardized tests, when Crescendo Executive Director John Allen allegedly ordered principals to have teachers prepare students using the actual test questions.
The Crescendo “schools have the next step in their hands,” Deasy said. “Staff will work with you.”
The school board acted after listening for more than 90 minutes to impassioned pleas from parents, teachers, students and the head of Crescendo’s own board to keep the schools open. More than 150 Crescendo supporters demonstrated outside.
“They’re doing a great job at Crescendo teaching these students,” said parent Aaprel McGee, praising the teachers, some of whom came forward to report the cheating. The students shouldn’t lose their school “just because a knucklehead did something wrong.”
Speaking in Spanish, parent Jessica Lopez said that she’d returned to school herself to keep up with how fast her children are learning, and that they’d done worse academically in other schools.
“We teach our scholars how to act with honesty, integrity and trustworthiness,” said teacher Lisa Sims. To close the schools after teachers risked their jobs to report the problem tells children “that it does not pay to do the right thing,” she said. “That speaking out against injustice ... isn’t worth it.”
Board member Yolie Flores sounded persuaded, saying that she would be reluctant to vote for closing down the schools when it came time for a final vote, probably in late April.
“We are a board that says we put children first,” she said.
But board member Nury Martinez countered: “I love the passion that all of you displayed. [But] the fact that no adults were held accountable sends a horrible message to children.”
The Crescendo board fired Allen in March when a forced shutdown became likely. Principals allegedly involved in the cheating are still working at the schools. It isn’t clear how many teachers took part in cheating. Allen has not responded to requests for interviews.
A parent at the demonstration, who declined to give her name, blamed only Allen: “If your boss told you to do something, would you do it? I would. Everybody is scared to lose their jobs.”
She added: “Everybody cheats. They just got caught.”
Lopez: WITH LITTLE LEFT TO TRIM, L.A. UNIFIED NEEDS TO FIGHT FOR MORE MONEY + jsk0761’s 2¢
LAUSD, once fat and sloppy, has slimmed down, no doubt. But that doesn't mean the district is healthier.
By Steve Lopez | LA Times columnist | http://lat.ms/gYdMDh
April 4, 2011, 6:57 p.m. - Ray Cortines, the outgoing superintendent of Los Angeles Unified School District, told me a story recently. An acquaintance of his was riding up in the elevator with two school employees who were discussing the recent budget cuts.
When Cortines' name came up, one of the employees said to the other: "He's the Butcher of Beaudry."
Cortines cites the incident as proof that he's made painful cuts. But is that accurate? Did Cortines, who's wrapping up his 2½-year tenure and heading off into retirement, really take a cleaver to the district? And if so, were the cuts he made the right ones? Are students paying an unnecessary price in the classroom?
I ask because every time I write about L.A. Unified's budget mess and teacher layoffs, readers insist classroom jobs could be saved if the district instead cut administrative fat, reduced the pay and perks of administrators and fired the freeloaders. A.J. Duffy, outgoing president of the teachers union, has made a career for himself tossing those grenades.
Historically, there would have been a lot of truth to such arguments. When it comes to sloth, inefficiency and excess, LAUSD, like a lot of huge public bureaucracies, has had more than a few championship seasons.
The administrative staff and budget ballooned in the middle of the last decade. This is also the district that staggered through the Belmont boondoggle and the employee payroll scandal, each of which wasted hundreds of millions of dollars.
But things have changed a bit. Cortines, who complained early on of assistants reporting to assistants, really has swung a cleaver, both at headquarters and in the schools.
Not that he had much choice.
Temporary funding sources have dried up, state funding to LAUSD has been snipped by $1,100 per pupil since 2009 and the district has lost thousands of employees while shrinking its budget by $1.5 billion since the 2008-09 school year.
When I asked to have a closer look at the numbers, I ended up in the office of finance director Megan Reilly, perusing the tally. According to Reilly, the budget for running the central administration has gone from $644 million five years ago to a projected $305 million in the coming fiscal year. The budget for running regional district offices during that same time has gone from $54.7 million to $23.2 million. Millions in savings have come from reducing the number of leased offices and consolidating employees in district-owned properties.
Since the 2007-08 school year, 717 management positions have been eliminated, a 25% reduction. In addition, Anita M. Ford, the personnel director, told me that 10,746 classified (non-teaching) employees have been laid off or seen their wages, hours or status reduced.
Is there still some fat on the bone? Cortines himself said more streamlining has to be done. But even with student enrollment gradually dipping, he said, the nation's second-largest school district can't serve its 730 campuses and nearly 700,000 students without a central support staff for purchasing, accounting, policing, human resources, maintenance and other non-classroom duties.
School board member Tamar Galatzan recently told me she often hears people say you could balance the LAUSD budget by cutting out the administrative fat.
"I tell them to tell me where the fat is and I will cut it, but you could eliminate the entire district headquarters and not save enough to balance the budget," Galatzan said.
True or false?
It's true.
Without the temporary tax extensions Gov. Jerry Brown supports, K-12 education could take an additional $5-billion cut. If so, Reilly says, LAUSD's budget gap could be as high as $600 million or more, or twice the projected cost of the central office budget alone.
More than 7,000 layoff notices have been sent out, including 5,000 to teachers. We're a long way from knowing how many, if any, will actually lose their jobs. But things don't look good at the moment, and the district has already lost more than 5,000 teaching positions since 2007-08.
LAUSD, once fat and sloppy, has slimmed down, no doubt. But that doesn't mean the district is healthier. The loss of thousands of teachers, with more to follow, is nothing less than a tragedy. Might the teachers union be willing to make a deal on furlough days and benefits to save some of its own?
The job of assistant principal is becoming obsolete. Next year, Reilly's staff told me, only 12 of the more than 500 elementary schools will have an assistant principal. Class sizes will continue to grow. Support staff will continue to shrink. And students will continue to pay a price.
The situation has former LAUSD board member David Tokofsky puzzled. "Where is the fight?" he asks.
Tokofsky wasn't done asking questions.
Why isn't the district screaming about Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's efforts to hold on to redevelopment authority money the governor wanted to redirect to schools?
Why isn't the board mobilizing the magnet school parents with word of the class size increases and the ultimate end of magnets in two years?
Why are the charters silent on the crisis of public education?
If leaner is meaner, indeed, where is the fight?
The challenge for incoming Supt. John Deasy and the board won't be merely what to cut, but how to survive.
●● jsk0761 (an anonymous letter writer writes The Times, in response to today's Steve Lopez column ) at 2:24 AM April 05, 2011
YES! Finally someone gets it!
Los Angeles and Zimbabwe have so much in common. Both have a reckless minority leader in power with a penchant for beautiful women and nice suits, hell bent on maintaining control at all costs. However there are also some differences. There is the fact that one is a silver tongued and seasoned politician, a freedom fighter turned ruthless dictator who has been in control of his fiefdom for too long. The other is an African dictator.
Listen people, we are living in the greatest economic crisis of our lifetimes, in a very hard hit city, in one of the hardest hit states in the Union. We have found ourselves in a very big hole and we need to stop digging and fill it in. How we do that is important. First we should acknowledge that 1) we are fighting over money (and money is important) 2) politicians of all stripes are using this economic crisis to further their politics and political agenda (power trumps money any day of the week) 3) As with all crisis (economic or otherwise) that it is the weakest that suffer the most.
When we target cutting education, when we as a society target the very people who are entrusted to educate the children within the community whom we are going to rely on to be future leaders of our communities, what are we as a society hoping to achieve by this behavior? What do we expect the end results to be?
LEAVE TEXTBOOKS TO EXPERTS
The decision to include "the role and contributions" of gay Americans in our textbooks should be left to educators and textbook writers, not politicians.
LA Times Editorial | http://lat.ms/hclXdA
Illustration depicting ideologically tainted textbooks. (Tim Brinton/NewsArt.com)April 8, 2011 - Politicians don't write good textbooks, and they shouldn't try. That's true in Texas, where conservatives on the state Board of Education ordered up changes in history books, such as minimizing the racism inherent in the interning of 100,000 Japanese Americans during World War II, downplaying the role of founding father Thomas Jefferson in part because he coined the phrase "separation of church and state," and reducing references to Islam.
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It's also true in California, where liberals in the Legislature are pushing a bill that would require textbooks to include, according to Times reporter Patrick McGreevy, "the role and contributions of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans." A similar bill was vetoed by then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2006.
Does the idea have a better chance five years later, with Jerry Brown as governor? We hope not. Years ago, California made the wise decision to have experts draw up a balanced social studies curriculum that became a model for schools nationwide. Legislators aren't improving education in the state by stuffing the curriculum with new politically correct requirements, any more than Texas board members improved education there.
That's not to say textbooks shouldn't address the struggle against discrimination based on sexual orientation. Though there is still a long way to go, gays and lesbians have made huge gains in recent decades and are now making history with their quest for full marriage rights. These battles no doubt have a legitimate place in the social studies curriculum. But that's a decision for educators and textbook writers to make. If more is added to the social studies curriculum, something else will have to be deleted or treated more shallowly. Teachers already struggle to get through all the required material before the state's standardized tests are administered in the spring.
The bill, SB 48, adds to an overly long list of requirements, some more reasonable than others, that have been pressed upon the state's textbooks over the years. Minority groups, the elderly and the disabled must be represented proportionally and never portrayed in a bad light. People in poor countries aren't supposed to be shown as poor, lest they be stereotyped, and information on AIDS in Africa must not reflect negatively on the continent. So poor people aren't poor and the elderly are physically fit and financially sound, according to the textbooks — and we complain that students are poorly educated.
Fables don't make for solid instruction. History is the great story of people, groups and movements — their faults as well as their accomplishments — shaping the world up through the events of today. It is a story best told by historians, not by politicians.
"SHARING THE SACRIFICE," "GLOBAL COMPETITIVENESS" AND CHILDREN
Themes in the News for the week of April 4-8, 2011 by UCLA IDEA
04-08-2011 - Gov. Jerry Brown’s January budget proposal was tough on K-12 schools, but Brown was confident that California voters would extend temporary taxes in a special election this coming June. That extension, if passed, would have added $9 billion to the state’s coffers.
But there will be no special election this June, and that means voters won’t get a chance to breathe life into the schools. Late last month, hopes for the election crashed when Brown’s negotiations with Republican lawmakers broke down.
Without the June election, schools statewide are bracing for still another round of massive cuts and budget uncertainty as state officials attempt to close the $26 billion gap (Inland Valley Daily Bulletin|http://bit.ly/g0DRzU). The Legislative Analyst's Office reported schools could lose an additional $4.5 billion representing a fall of 20 percent since the 2007-08 school year (Educated Guess|http://bit.ly/htfsyK). Even before this new spate of bad news, more than 100 California school districts, enrolling 30 percent of the state’s K-12 students, stood on the brink of insolvency (California Department of Education|http://1.usa.gov/fruLQF, Daily Sound|http://bit.ly/h8SCxP).
Details of how recent funding cuts have played out at school campuses across California are provided in IDEA's recently released Educational Opportunity Report|http://bit.ly/h3BOxJ. Many principals report shorter school years, larger classrooms, and imposing obstacles to reform and student achievement. Conditions described in the report will not improve. With added funding there was some hope that the decline might stabilize, but as of this moment school officials and teachers are preparing for the likely event that next year will be worse.
While some still envision a legislative agreement before July that would extend the temporary taxes, the possibilities for such bipartisan action seem remote. The governor has placed hopes for some education relief later in the year, possibly September. “Breakdowns do lead to breakthroughs. It’s just a matter of patience and a certain degree of creativity,” Brown said (Educated Guess). In the meantime, schools will be firing teachers and cutting schedules well in advance of the school year.
As the governor renews his appeals on behalf of schools, he, lawmakers, and the public, would do well to scan the last several years of UCLA’s Educational Opportunity Reports|http://bit.ly/gdxmzd. These reports take education “numbers” (dollars, scores, averages, rankings, etc.) and put them in the contexts of communities, regions, classrooms, children and teachers. In particular, the “Ed Opp” reports show how, in times of general funding shortages, the greatest burdens fall upon the poorest and traditionally underserved students and communities.
Too often education’s claim on public support is diluted by arguments that all public services must “share the sacrifice” and the debates are marked by lofty abstractions like “global competitiveness” (KCRW|http://bit.ly/eN1lXK). Brown should bring the debate down to earth and focus Californians on what our children experience each day in schools, which communities are most impacted, and how each cut in school resources tangibly affects students’ lifelong opportunities.
HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T FIT: The Rest of the Stories from Other Sources
GOT DOUGH? GATES, BROAD, WALTON & CO.: HOW BILLIONAIRES RULE OUR SCHOOLS: Youtube video from MSNBC + ARTICLE FRO... http://bit.ly/gSuZIu
The student view of budget crisis from Daniel Pearl High School: LAYOFF NOTICES THREATEN POSITIONS OF CRUCIAL ST... http://bit.ly/gXlbps
Bastile Day:THE CRESCENDO SMOKING GUN: from the USA Today Standardized Testing Investigation Document Archive |h... http://bit.ly/fjyuIL
USA Today: STANDARIZED TESTING INVESTIGATION STORIES: It isn't just Crescendo Charters! A USA TODAY investigat... http://bit.ly/gS0bMk
RonKaye asks: Does it make much difference who is mayor of LA if the system itself is rotten to its core? (IT IS+IT DOES) http://bit.ly/dRJNay
LAX OVERSIGHT OF SCHOOL CONSTRUCTION RAISES DOUBTS ABOUT EARTHQUAKE SAFETY: INVESTGATIVE SERIES: ON SHAKY GROUN... http://bit.ly/fINBPj
LEAVE TEXTBOOKS TO EXPERTS …and two cartoonists: The decision to include "the role and contributions" of gay Ame... http://bit.ly/hAHyIN
AUDIT FINDS YEARS-LONG BACKLOG OF INVESTIGATIONS INTO ACCUSED TEACHERS + CRIMINAL TEACHERS ARE STILL IN THE CLAS... http://bit.ly/gFP1Cw
More on Black, out: IN NEW YORK, BLOOMBERG’S NEW SCHOOL CHIEF IS OUT: Former Hearst Magazines executive Cathie B... http://bit.ly/fhfrlh
L.A. UNIFIED WILL PROPOSE PAY CUTS AND LOANS TO CLOSE BUDGET GAP + AALA Bulletin + Update from the Blogosphere: ... http://bit.ly/gFAqv1
NYC CHANCELLOR CATHIE BLACK OUT AFTER THREE MONTHS: By Christina Samuels in EdWeek District Dossier | http://bit... http://bit.ly/hYnwze
JOHN MERROW ON ‘THE INFLUENCE OF TEACHERS’, EDUCATION DEBATE: “They haven't figured how to put the needs of kids... http://bit.ly/gkBm5f
MISPLACED PRIORITIES: Analysis with Benjamin Jealous of NAACP + Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform: It ... http://bit.ly/e6BRQ0
Report - MISPLACED PRIORITIES: OVER INCERCERATE/UNDER EDUCATE: A New Report From NAACP | http://bit.ly/fHBF0L ... http://bit.ly/gDdxTK
Cue the Britney Spears music: “Oops, we did it again!” :: L.A. TIMES TO CONTINUE IT’S OWN ‘VALUE-ADDLED” TEACHER... http://bit.ly/hsgiYD
TAKING A MEASURED APPROACH TO TENURE REFORM: L.A. Times Editorial | http://lat.ms/g1IXy8 A new Florida law dese... http://bit.ly/fuOjm6
CRESCENDO CHARTER SCHOOL PARENTS SPEAK OUT AT LAUSD MEETING: FOX 11 News video report | Reporter: Gigi Graciette... http://bit.ly/fWH1BQ
NEW PANEL TO REVIEW L.A. COMMUNITY COLLEGES’ FLAWED REBUILDING PROGRAM + smf’s 2¢: The committee will examine co... http://bit.ly/glMDJv
IN THE BASEMENT OF THE IVORY TOWER: An Academic Hit Man Brings More Bad News: book Review By DWIGHT GARNER | Ne... http://bit.ly/h5VQpS
LA UNIFIED MOVES FORWARD IN PROCESS TO CLOSE CRESCENDO SCHOOLS FOR CHEATING: -- Howard Blume- LA Times/LA NOW |... http://bit.ly/i45wgp
Budget Update: SCHOOLS FACE DEVASATING CUTS! LEGISLATURE STILL HAS THE POWER TO SAVE OUR SCHOOLS.: 5 April 2011... http://bit.ly/dTrl35
FIRST 5 AGENCIES SUE TO BLOCK $1 BILLON IN JERRY BROWN’S BUDGET: Posted by Kevin Yamamura, Sacramento Bee/Capito... http://bit.ly/dRXWpK
REPORT: L.A. COUNTY CHILD ABUSE DEATHS ARE ON DECLINE: By Christina Villacorte, Staff Writer | LA Daily News | h... http://bit.ly/fOfJmj
Lopez: WITH LITTLE LEFT TO TRIM, L.A. UNIFIED NEEDS TO FIGHT FOR MORE MONEY + jsk0761’s 2¢: LAUSD, once fat and ... http://bit.ly/ejhk6I
PUTTING A CHECK ON DEATHS OF FOSTER KIDS + Update: L.A, Times Editorial | http://lat.ms/gekiYa A new L.A. Count... http://bit.ly/fabs8Y
Preschool California Webinar Thurs, April 14: “ENSURING SCHOOL READINESS THROUGH SUCCESSFUL TRANSITIONS”: April ... http://bit.ly/g8o36c
SUPREME COURET OK’s ARIZONA TAX CREDIT FOR RELIGIOUS SCHOOLS: National Public Radio | Heard on All Things Consid... http://bit.ly/h1Vha0
AS TEACHERS GET PINK SLIPS, COLLEGE STUDENTS ARE GROWING RELUCTANT TO PURSUE DEGREES IN EDUCATION: Today's teac... http://bit.ly/hb3qK9
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: 213-241.8700
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! • Find your state legislator based on your home address. Just go to: http://bit.ly/dqFdq2 • 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 Brown: 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. THEY DO!.
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