Paper or Plastic?

4LAKids: Sunday 26•Aug•2012 In This Issue:  •  Value Added Teacher Assessments - MATHEMATICAL INTIMIDATION: DRIVEN BY THE DATA  •  PUBLIC EDUCATION IN THE UNITED STATES: A NATION DIVIDED - The New Phi Beta Kappa/Gallup Poll On Public Education :: What we can learn  •  Teacher Evaluation: FUENTES AGREES TO COMPROMISES ON AB 5: ARE THEY ENOUGH?  •  I AM PROP 38 … BECAUSE EDUCATION IS A CIVIL RIGHT  •  HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T FIT: The Rest (but not necessarily the best) of the Stories from Other Sources  •  EVENTS: Coming up next week...  •  What can YOU do? Featured Links:  •  OUR CHILDREN, OUR FUTURE: What will California schoolchildren, your school district and YOUR School get when the initiative passes?  •  Follow 4 LAKids on Twitter - or get instant updates via text message by texting  •  4LAKids Anthology: All the Past Issues, solved, resolved and unsolved!  •  4LAKidsNews: a compendium of recent items of interest - news stories, scurrilous rumors, links, academic papers, rants and amusing anecdotes, etc. So – there seems to be a disconnect between AT&T and my new apartment owner – which means I still don’t have phone service or internet connectivity a week after moving. The law in California says the landlord is responsible for the providing and maintaining the connection between where the phone wire enters the building and my new abode [California Civil Code Section 1941.4]. This has all the beginnings of a small claims action or a bad episode of Judge Judy. Stay tuned This means is that I go online in coffee houses, McDonalds or public libraries - so I am over caffeinated, getting too much sodium and saturated fat and at the mercy of LAPL’s strange hours. Remember how Mayor Tony, when he was The Technology Mayor, was going to provide universal wireless access to the citizenry? I guess I never got the access code. IN SACRAMENTO THE LEGE IS BENDING LIKE A PRETZEL TO COMPROMISE with the Teacher’s Unions and Arne Duncan on coming up with a teacher assessment model that will pass muster with both. Add to this they need something the governor might sign and will be revenue-neutral – and that they need the done-deal by next Friday – and you can see the problem. (Gratuitous Parenthetical Internet Factoid: Pretzels have been around for almost 1,400 years. History has their origin about A.D. 610 when a baker in a monastery in southern France or northern Italy twisted leftover strips of bread dough into the shape of a person's arms crossed in prayer, traditional posture for prayer in those days.) And the Just Say Nay(sayers) like Diane Ravitch and the friends and fellow travelers o’ 4LAKids who email me offer no help. One teacher forwarded me a peer reviewed scholarly study from the Notices of American Mathematical Society about how Value Added Modeling in teacher assessment is bogus (if not downright evil) math – Mathematical Intimidation: Driven by the Data (highlighted following) While another teacher responded on Facebook (whose stock value has halved – remember how the FB IPO was going to save the California Budget?) opined on test-based teacher assessment at the individual teacher/student level: "The problem with using CST scores is the kids really have no stake in their results. In terms of reciprocal accountability, it would be the only fair way to include them in any teacher evaluation. If the kids like a teacher, they may be motivated to do well. But if they don't, they may rationalize blowing off the test in hopes it will reflect badly on the teacher & get him/her fired. In the 1990s, LAUSD kids used to complete a ‘stakeholder satisfaction survey’, For the most part; the data reflected how kids respected their teachers and felt safe at school. Unfortunately, the forces vested in the negative stereotype of LAUSD's ‘failing schools’ (educational consultants like IFL [Institute for Learning]) were quick to dismiss anything that looked like ‘good news’.” ON TUESDAY THE BOARD OF ED HAD THEIR FIRST MEETING OF THE NEW SCHOOL YEAR. (OK, their first two meetings – they met twice; once at 9AM – and again at noon. They are not paid by the meeting – but they do get their pay docked for missing a meeting!) In three different resolutions they voted unanimously to support both the governor’s tax initiative, Prop 30 (which if it passes increases funding for everything under the-Sacramento sun …and if it fails cuts funding for education only) – and the PTA/Munger Initiative, Prop 38, which raises taxes and increases funding for Pre-K-12 schools, avoiding Sacramento. And they voted to no longer Mk use of one-use-only/landfill-unfriendly Styrofoam trays in school food service in favor of much more expensive one-use-only recycled paper trays. This new policy has three curious aspects: • It was based on a study+project by students at Thomas Starr King Middle School. • The policy is already in place districtwide, beginning on the first day o’ school. • …and wouldn’t it be even more ecologically correct and fiscally prudent to wash and reuse hard plastic or metal trays as was done in olden days? TWO INTERESTING AND PROVOCATIVE PUBLIC OPINION POLLS CAME OUT THIS WEEK: The annual Phi Beta Kappa/Gallup national survey on the Public’s Perceptions of Public Education and also the USC Study on the two California Education Tax Initiatives. Read Diane Ravitch’s take on the first – and SIA Cabinet Report take on the second. And then drill down and review the data for yourself; find your own answers to the questions – and the deeper question of “What does all of this mean?” – in the context of today and the context of the future. AND IF YOU REALLY WANT TO FEEL GOOD ABOUT DOING WELL - 7673 good words about the future: EVERYTHING YOU’VE HEARD ABOUT FAILING SCHOOLS IS WRONG: Attendance: up. Dropout rates: plummeting. College acceptance: through the roof. My mind-blowing year inside a "low-performing" school; from the Sept/Oct issue of Mother Jones | ttp://t.co/CwT5MFfG ¡Onward/Adelante! - smf Value Added Teacher Assessments - MATHEMATICAL INTIMIDATION: DRIVEN BY THE DATA from a paper by Dr. John Ewing published in the Notices of the American Mathematical Society, May 2011 | http://bit.ly/PhyhU8 ●● Thank you to a 4LAKids reader for forwarding this article. “The most common misuse of mathematics is simpler, more pervasive, and (alas) more insidious: mathematics employed as a rhetorical weapon—an intellectual credential to convince the public that an idea or a process is “objective” and hence better than other competing ideas or processes. “This is mathematical intimidation. “It is especially persuasive because so many people are awed by mathematics and yet do not understand it—a dangerous combination. “The latest instance of the phenomenon is valued-added modeling (VAM), used to interpret test data. Value-added modeling pops up everywhere today, from newspapers to television to political campaigns. VAM is heavily promoted with unbridled and uncritical enthusiasm by the press, by politicians, and even by (some) educational experts, and it is touted as the modern, “scientific” way to measure educational success in everything from charter schools to individual teachers. “Yet most of those promoting value-added modeling are ill-equipped to judge either its effectiveness or its limitations. Some of those who are equipped make extravagant claims without much detail, reassuring us that someone has checked into our concerns and we shouldn’t worry. Value-added modeling is promoted because it has the right pedigree—because it is based on “sophisticated mathematics”. The entire article - MATHEMATICAL INTIMIDATION: DRIVEN BY THE DATA PUBLIC EDUCATION IN THE UNITED STATES: A NATION DIVIDED - The New Phi Beta Kappa/Gallup Poll On Public Education :: What we can learn by Diane Ravitch, from her blog | http://bit.ly/Nm9B18 August 22, 2012 :: The annual Phi Delta Kappa-Gallup Poll of the Public’s Attitudes Toward the Public Schools was released today. (follows) The sponsors characterize public opinion as split, which is true for many issues. We must see this poll in the context of an unprecedented, well-funded campaign to demonize public schools and their teachers over at least the past two years, and by some reckoning, even longer. The media has parroted endlessly the assertion that our public schools are failures, they are (as Bill Gates memorably said to the nation’s governors in 2005) “obsolete,” and “the system is broken.” How many times have you heard those phrases? How many television specials have you seen claiming that our education system is disastrous? And along comes “Waiting for ‘Superman’” with its propagandistic attack on public education in cities and suburbs alike and its appeal for privatization. Add to that Arne Duncan’s faithful parroting of the claims of the critics. That is the context, and it is remarkable that Americans continue to believe in the schools they know best and to understand what their most critical need is. Here are the salient findings: 1. Americans have a low opinion of American education (how could they not, given the bombardment of criticism?): only 18% give it an A or B. And here is the real accomplishment of the corporate reformers: Those who judge American education as a D or F have increased from 22% to 30% in the past 20 years. Actually, their success in smearing U.S. education is even greater, because in 2002, before the implementation of NCLB, only 16% judged the nation’s schools so harshly. So the reform campaign has doubled the proportion of Americans who think the nation’s schools deserve a D or F. 2. When asked to evaluate the schools in their own community, 48% give them an A or B, which is the highest rating in 20 years. 3. When asked to evaluate the school their oldest child attends, an astonishing 77% give it an A or B. This is the highest rating in 20 years. Only 6% give it a D or F. This question elicits the views of informed consumers, the people who refer to a real school, not the hypothetical school system that is lambasted every other day in the national press or condemned as “obsolete” by Bill Gates. 4. When asked whether they have trust and confidence in teachers, 71% said yes. Americans continue to respect and admire teachers, despite the nonstop public bashing of them in the media. 5. When asked whether standardized test scores should be used to evaluate teachers, opinion split 52-47 in favor. Considering that the public has heard nonstop endorsements of this bad idea from President Obama, Secretary Duncan, and most other political figures–and very limited dissent–it is surprising that opinion is almost equally divided. How did so many Americans manage to figure out that this idea is problematic at best? 6. When people were asked to describe the teachers who had the greatest influence in their lives, they used words like caring, compassionate, motivating, and inspiring. Interesting that few remembered the teachers who raised their test scores. 7. There has been a big change in what the public sees as the biggest problems facing the schools today. Ten years ago, the biggest concerns were about discipline (fighting, gangs, drugs, lack of discipline, overcrowding). Today, the biggest problem that the public sees, by far, is lack of financial support. 35% chose that option. Among public school parents, it was 43%. Concerns about discipline almost faded away in comparison to concerns about the lack of financial support for the schools. 8. On the subject of vouchers, there was a surprising increase in the proportion who would support “allowing students to choose a private school at public expense.” It increased from 34% to 44%, which is a big jump. I recommend that future questioning ask about support to allow students “to choose a private or religious school at public expense.” That would be closer to the reality of voucher programs in Milwaukee, Cleveland, D.C., Louisiana, Ohio, and Indiana. 9. On the subject of charters, public opinion dipped, from an approval rating of 70% in 2011 to 66% in 2012. It will be interesting to see where this number goes as the public begins to understand more about charters in their own communities. 10. A question about the parent trigger was so vacuous as to be misleading. The question was “Some states are considering laws that allow parents to petition to remove the leadership and staff at failing schools. Do you favor or oppose such laws?” 70% favor, 76% of public school parents favor. This is a misleading question, however, as the parent trigger is not a matter of simply allowing parents to sign a petition, but of allowing parents to take control of a public school and hand it over to private management. My guess is that the public doesn’t know much about the parent trigger concept and hasn’t heard a discussion about the pros and cons. So, I don’t put much stock in the response–after all, why shouldn’t parents have the right to sign a petition to change the staff at their school? It does show how clever the corporate reformers are in framing issues that advance privatization and doing it in ways that are deceptive and alluring. 11. In a series of questions about the Common Core standards, most people believe they are a good thing and that they will make the nation more competitive globally; about half think they will improve the quality of education while 40% think they will have no effect. These answers exemplify why polls of this kind must be viewed with caution. I am willing to bet that the majority of respondents has no idea what the Common Core standards are; and willing to bet that 98% have never read them. In future versions of the poll, I hope that questions will be asked about for-profit schools, privatization, and vouchers for religious schools. These are big issues today, and the poll should ask about them. My takeaway from the 2012 poll is that the corporate reform movement has succeeded in increasing support for vouchers, but that the American public continues to have a remarkably high opinion of the schools and teachers they know best despite the concerted efforts of the reformers to undermine those beliefs. This is an instance where evidence trumps ideology. The reformers have not yet been able to destroy the bonds between the American people and their community’s schools. THE FULL REPORT: The 2012 Phi Delta Kappa-Gallup Poll of the Public’s Attitudes Toward the Public Schools Teacher Evaluation: FUENTES AGREES TO COMPROMISES ON AB 5: ARE THEY ENOUGH? By John Fensterwald. EdSource Today | http://bit.ly/PHmfUH August 24th, 2012 | At the 11th hour, the author of the bill to rewrite the teacher evaluation law has offered compromises intended to placate opponents and to qualify the state for a waiver from the No Child Left Behind law. The latter may work, but probably not the former. Key amendments to AB 5 that Assembymember Felipe Fuentes released Thursday (see link below in “Going Deeper” for the amendments) don’t appear to have softened the opposition of organizations representing school administrators, school boards, and some student advocacy groups. They say the biggest problem with the bill remains: It makes every aspect of evaluations subject to negotiations with teachers unions, eroding power that districts assert they have had to unilaterally set the criteria and standards for evaluations. “EdVoice still strongly opposes AB 5,” Bill Lucia, president and CEO of the Sacramento nonprofit wrote in a statement Thursday night. It’s premature to say whether passage of AB 5 would clear the path to a much desired NCLB waiver that’s already been granted to 33 states. A waiver would freeze penalties against low-performing districts and loosen restrictions on $350 million of California’s Title I money for low-income districts. But several of Fuentes’ changes respond directly to requirements that U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and the Department of Education had set for a wavier. These include: The requirement that districts adopt at least three performance levels. The current law, the Stull Act, has only two: Satisfactory and Unsatisfactory. The adding of a third, such as Excellent, could enable districts to reward the best teachers and shield them from layoffs and bumping rights. The mandatory use of state standardized test scores as one of several factors that measure a teacher’s contribution toward student academic growth. The Stull Act had required this but AB 5 until now had proposed that the use of state test scores be optional in evaluations. The feds, in listing requirements for a waiver, want test scores to be a “significant” component in measuring student growth. AB 5 does not include that word; each district and union would determine how much weight to give test scores, as well as factors such as student portfolios and presentations. The California Teachers Association had taken the position that the California Standards Tests were not designed for teacher evaluations and therefore were inappropriate, and that the new Common Core assessments, developed by the Smarter Balanced Consortium of states, would have to be studied as to their suitability. However, among the new amendments, AB 5 would declare those assessments perfectly valid: “It is the intent of the Legislature that any assessments developed by a national consortium and adopted by the State Board and used for the purposes of this section meet statistical and psychometric standards appropriate for this use.” The creation of model teacher evaluation systems by the State Board of Education for possible adoption by districts. The idea behind it is that the models would provide guidance that could eliminate protracted deliberations on difficult issues like establishing guidelines for teacher observations and developing consistency in training administrators on conducting evaluations. Sue Burr, executive director of the State Board, said last week that federal education officials had suggested the Board adopt these models as part of a waiver application. In May, the State Board submitted a NCLB waiver application that ignored the requirements for teacher evaluations and other conditions. The state has yet to hear back from Duncan, and he has not publicly commented on it. Instead, he has announced plans to invite districts in states without a waiver to submit their own waiver proposals. If AB 5 passes and Gov. Jerry Brown signs it, the State Board is expected to file another waiver – one that conforms with the Department’s rules. The Board would have to approve the waiver at its Sept. 12 board meeting to meet the federal deadline. Objections remain AB 5 would establish an evaluation system based on best teaching practices as defined by the California Standards for the Teaching Profession. All sides agree this would be a significant step forward. And advocacy groups like EdVoice and Education Trust-West had called for some of the latest amendments that Fuentes agreed to. But they, the Association of California School Administrators, and the California School Boards Association are expected to continue to oppose the bill for one or both of the following reasons: High costs of a new mandate. The state already reimburses districts about $18 million each year to cover reimbursement for negotiations under the Stull Act. AB 5 would broaden who would be evaluated and how often, along with adding costs from principal training and the expense of several teacher observations. This year, these costs will be included in a block grant of $28 per student covering teacher evaluations and other education mandates. Districts know that the new evaluation system will be expensive – how much isn’t clear – and are worried that the governor and Legislature won’t increase the block grant, leaving them holding the bag when AB 5 takes effect on July 1, 2014. Fuentes is proposing to shift $60 million next year from a program for improving the lowest-performing schools, QEIA, to prepare those schools for the new evaluation system. Other schools and districts would not have any one-time startup money for the new system. Subjecting all aspects of evaluations to collective bargaining. The Stull Act requires school boards of every district to establish standards of expected student achievement at each grade level in every area of study and to evaluate teachers based on students’ progress in meeting the standards. AB 5 would repeal this section of the law. In its place would be recommendations for best practices that would have to be negotiated between the district and the local teachers union. In a statement, Lucia of EdVoice said, “AB 5 eliminates the only provision in the state Education Code giving local districts control over standards. In doing so, it now opens the door to require districts to bargain over grade level standard expectations of pupils in each area of study at each grade level, since grade level expectations are the anchors for gauging progress of student learning and student learning must be assessed … in the job performance evaluations of teachers.” Los Angeles Unified’s argument asserting the district’s right under the Stull Act to decide standards and criteria for evaluating teachers. Whether school boards have the unilateral power under the Stull Act to determine the factors behind an evaluation and how much weight to give them has not been tested in court. Los Angeles Unified is pushing its authority in creating a voluntary pilot program for teachers at the same it is negotiating with United Teachers Los Angeles to implement it. An attorney for the district has written a brief laying out the district’s authority. The CTA has issued a rebuttal (which I have not seen). The union argues the primary goal of an evaluation system should be to guide teachers to perform better. That requires trust, which can’t be built by imposing a system on teachers. Negotiations prevent bad systems, such as the disproportionate use of standardized test scores to judge teachers. Districts argue that they should have the power to set the criteria on which teacher performance will be determined. Otherwise, there will be a weak system of expectations. Fuentes is expected to introduce the amendments on Friday. The bill is expected to return to the Senate Education Committee early next week for a public hearing. I AM PROP 38 … BECAUSE EDUCATION IS A CIVIL RIGHT By Rick Najera, from City Watch and The Huffington Post | http://bit.ly/NowlaV 8.20.2012 :: CALIFORNIA’S FUTURE: I'm at my children's school fundraiser. I'm eating pizza and holding coupons in my hand, wondering how many of these I have to attend to fund my children's education. In front of me I see a person inside a hot thermal mouse costume dancing around my kids. This person is Chuck E. Cheese, and he (or "it") is helping fund my children's elementary school's education. Laughing children surround this pizza-loving rodent. He is in the fifth level of minimum wage hell, but I'm not laughing because as a parent I know that funding public schools is the most important investment I can make. Public K-12 education has been gutted in the past three years, and I'm particularly angry because these school children are most likely -- at least in California -- to be Latino. I'm Mexican-American and a second generation Californian. Propositions have always been strange politics for us natives because it is nearly impossible to differentiate the truth from a politician's agenda. However, according to Sandy Escobedo, Senior Policy Analyst at the Advancement Project: The Latino K-12 population in California was over 1 million students, or 25.8 percent in 1981. By 2010, the number increased to over 3 million students, making Latino students more than half of the total K-12 population in California. Those statistics are not part of an agenda; they are simply the truth. My children are merely 3 of that 3 million Latino number. I have three children who are half Mexican-American and half Irish-American. I call them "Mixicans," and they are an important part of our state's future. Twenty years from now, their education, or lack thereof, will determine if they are the problem or the solution to problems of California. The National Education Association, an organization for education professionals, tracks the decline in per-student funding on a national and state basis. Based on their analysis, in 1981, the state of California spent over $500 per year more per student in comparison to the rest of the nation. By 2009, the rest of the nation spent over $1,500 more per student per year in comparison to California. Yet, it gets worse. In the last three years alone, California cut education by $20 billion. With numbers like these, it is no wonder that California now ranks 47th in per student funding and 50th in classroom size, resulting in over 40,000 educators without a job. This is the truth, not agenda. Furthermore, Latino high school graduation in California is estimated to be 63 percent, according to the California Longitudinal Pupil Achievement Data System. At this current rate, improving high school graduation rates for Latinos would take a little over a decade. The Education Trust-West, a statewide education civil-rights organization, advocates on behalf of schools, parents, and students to reverse this trend. Arun Ramanathan, Executive Director of Ed Trust-West, states: [http://bit.ly/PFulgD] Tens of thousands of dropouts represent a large scale-tragedy for the California economy and our state's future prosperity. It's time we stopped talking about this problem and invested in the strategies that top districts and schools are using to fix it. So what can we do to fix it? This November, Latinos in California have an opportunity to address this crisis by educating ourselves on the differences between the propositions on the ballot: Prop 30 and Prop 38, respectively. Prop 38 is the only initiative on the ballot that guarantees funding directly to schools on a per-student basis. The initiative is designed to last 12 years so that for the first time, in a long time, Latino students in our public schools receive the funding that they need to compete for jobs in the twenty-first century. One might argue that the propositions are tax increases, and that we as a state cannot afford that. After all, what have the politicos done with our money before? Whatever happened to all the money the Lottery was going to give our public school? That is the brilliance of voting Yes on 38: it makes it a crime for any politician to divert money away from the schools. A vote for Prop 30 will solve the adult issues of our state, such as funding prison guard pensions, but it does not put the children first. The biggest problem we need to address is that of education vs. incarceration. Education costs us around $7,500 per K-12 public school student a year where as a prisoner costs us around $50,000 a year per incarcerated adult. The difference for an incarcerated youth is much more staggering. A recent Legislative Analyst’s Office report noted that the state spent $179,000 in 2011-2012 per incarcerated youth! In essence, the state spends $171,500 MORE incarcerating our kids than it does educating them. Moreover, according to retiring San Francisco State President Robert Corrigan, California spends as much on prisons ($8.7 billion, or 9.45% of its budget), as it does on all of higher education ($9.3 billion, or 10.1% of its budget). It was actually then-governor Jerry Brown that started the jail-building boom in California. Ironically enough, during Brown's first administration there were 44,000 people in prison. Today there are 44,000 prison guards! If that does not make you angry consider this: in the last 30 years, California has built 22 new prisons versus one new University and one State University. Victor Hugo said it best when he stated: "He who opens a school door, closes a prison." Education is the most important civil rights issue today. We are living in a time of more and more economic segregation. If we put three million Latino students in underfunded schools, is that not economic segregation? Is that not "ghettoizing" our youth? Is California having the most crowded class sizes in the nation not a civil rights issue? As a parent, I see this issue as the civil rights issue of our time. Without an education that will lead to a good job, my kids -- along with many other minority children -- will slip further into poverty; further slipping into an underdeveloped working class with no escape. We may now sit anywhere on the bus, but if we cannot afford a good education then we may never get a job that will give us the paycheck to buy a ticket to ride that bus. That is economic segregation! Prop 38 acknowledges that education is a civil right and it forces our governor and his fellow politicos in Sacramento to fund our schools. One might argue that we need to let the governor fix California's economic problem and that Prop 30 is that fix, but if they were to read the small print they would learn that Prop 30 does not do what Prop 38 can. Prop 30 is a compromise and I will not let my children's future be compromised any longer. Prop 30 comes with a threat of more cuts if not passed, whereas Prop 38 is a promise for California's future. Prop 30 redirects some of the public school money, whereas Prop 38 forces Sacramento to give 100% of the school funding to local schools. That is why I am voting "Yes on 38" and hoping never to see Chuck E. Cheese as the answer to my children's lack of education funding. And, as I sit at this fundraiser eating pizza and slugging down sugary drinks, I wonder if the person dancing in the Chuck E. Cheese costume might be working in a better paying job had they not been educated in California. (Rick Najera is an Award-winning Mexican American writer, actor, producer and director. This column was posted first at huffingtonpost.com HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T FIT: The Rest (but not necessarily the best) of the Stories from Other Sources EVERYTHING YOU’VE HEARD ABOUT FAILING SCHOOLS IS WRONG: Attendance: up. Dropout rates: plummeting. College accep... http://bit.ly/Qf5iVe Value Added Teacher Assessments - MATHEMATICAL INTIMIDATION: DRIVEN BY THE DATA: from a paper by Dr. John Ewing ... http://bit.ly/QbdIgx POLL SHOWS VOTER UNCERTAINTY OVER ONLINE LEARNING, CAREER TECH: By Tom Chorneau, SI&A Cabinet Report. | http://b... http://bit.ly/P9vMYu Teacher Evaluation: FUENTES AGREES TO COMPROMISES ON AB 5: ARE THEY ENOUGH?: By John Fensterwald. EdSource Today... http://bit.ly/QaTO59 PUBLIC EDUCATION IN THE UNITED STATES: A NATION DIVIDED - The New Phi Beta Kappa/Gallup Poll On Public Education... http://bit.ly/P9qOLj Press releases we never finished reading: MAJOR MOTION PICTURE ON EDUCATION ®EFORM INSPIRED BY REAL EVENTS http://bit.ly/T5wTow PROP 38 … BECAUSE EDUCATION IS A CIVIL RIGHT: By Rick Najera, from City Watch and The Huffington Post | http://bit.ly/P5i9cA PRESS CONFERENCE WELCOMES LAUSD’s SUPPORT FOR PROP 38: Remarks by Scott Folsom, Member of the California State P... http://bit.ly/T0qefu Student Viewpoint: OBJECTIVE TEACHER EVALUATION: By Shyam Senthilkumar | Posted in Opinion,Web Exclusive South ... http://bit.ly/O8AVec Diane Ravitch: IS THIS THE TRUE GOAL OF “®EFORM” TODAY?: from Diane Ravitch’ blog | ht... http://bit.ly/Q0amNc LEGISLATURE BACKS ENGLISH LEARNER RECLASSIFICATION BILL: By Kimberly Beltran, SI&A Cabinet Report | http://bit.ly/OTYpTB DUSTUP BETWEEN DEMS THREATENS TAX MEASURES: By Tom Chorneau, SI&A Cabinet Report | http://bit.ly/OTYpTz AB 5 FALLS SHORT OF MEETING NCLB WAIVER REQUIREMENTS: By John Fensterwald | EdSource Today | http://bit.ly/O5VIyR L.A. SCHOOL BOARD BACKS TWO RIVAL TAX HIKES ON FALL BALLOT: The Board of Education supports Gov. Jerry Brown's b... http://bit.ly/SUTdRL L.A. SCHOOLS LAG BEHIND REST OF STATE IN EXIT EXAMS AS 12% OF SENIORS FAIL TO PASS + CDE Press Release: By Sammy... http://bit.ly/O5SRWO STUDENT ATTENDANCE IMPROVES AT LAUSD: Administrators continue to work for further improvement in attendance numb... http://bit.ly/OTLG3i MAYOR TONY HOPES HIS PARTNERSHIP FOR SCHOOLS SURVIVES HIS EXIT FROM OFFICE: By Rick Orlov, Staff Writer, LA Dail... http://bit.ly/SbxKYT 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 • LAUSD BOARD OF EDUCATION & COMMITTEES MEETING CALENDAR What can YOU do? • E-mail, call or write your school board member: Tamar.Galatzan@lausd.net • 213-241-6386 Monica.Garcia@lausd.net • 213-241-6180 Bennett.Kayser@lausd.net • 213-241-5555 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!. Who are your elected federal & state representatives? How do you contact them? Scott Folsom is a parent leader in LAUSD and is Parent/Volunteer of the Year for 2010-11 for Los Angeles County. • He is Past President of Los Angeles Tenth District PTSA and represented PTA on the LAUSD Construction Bond Citizen's Oversight Committee for ten years. He is a Health Commissioner, Legislation Team member and a member of the Board of Managers of the California State PTA. He serves on numerous school district advisory and policy committees and has served as a PTA officer and governance council member at three LAUSD schools. He is the recipient of the UTLA/AFT 2009 "WHO" Gold Award for his support of education and public schools - an honor he hopes to someday deserve. • In this forum his opinions are his own and your opinions and feedback are invited. Quoted and/or cited content copyright © the original author and/or publisher. All other material copyright © 4LAKids. • FAIR USE NOTICE: This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. 4LAKids makes such material available in an effort to advance understanding of education issues vital to parents, teachers, students and community members in a democracy. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. • To SUBSCRIBE e-mail: 4LAKids-subscribe@topica.email-publisher.com - or -TO ADD YOUR OR ANOTHER'S NAME TO THE 4LAKids SUBSCRIPTION LIST E-MAIL smfolsom@aol.com with "SUBSCRIBE" AS THE SUBJECT. Thank you.

The first week o’ school …or it’s usually hottest in September.

4LAKids: Sunday 19•Aug•2012 In This Issue:  •  MAYOR TONY HOPES HIS PARTNERSHIP FOR SCHOOLS SURVIVES HIS EXIT FROM OFFICE  •  How Good News Happened: $20 BILLION IN BUILDING HAS BOOSTED LAUSD ELEMENTARY STUDENT TEST SCORES, STUDY FINDS  •  STRUGGLING DISTRICTS, CHARTERS AWARDED EXEMPTION FROM STATE FUNDING DEFERRALS: LAUSD Not One of Them  •  Terms that would make Countywide blush: SCHOOLS PASS DEBT TO THE NEXT GENERATION  •  HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T FIT: The Rest (but not necessarily the best) of the Stories from Other Sources  •  EVENTS: Coming up next week...  •  What can YOU do? Featured Links:  •  OUR CHILDREN, OUR FUTURE: What will California schoolchildren, your school district and YOUR School get when the initiative passes?  •  Follow 4 LAKids on Twitter - or get instant updates via text message by texting  •  4LAKids Anthology: All the Past Issues, solved, resolved and unsolved!  •  4LAKidsNews: a compendium of recent items of interest - news stories, scurrilous rumors, links, academic papers, rants and amusing anecdotes, etc. For a guy who lives and dies in the pages of daily newsprint and constantly updated online newsfeeds I have been out of the iLoop. Moving my humble (but way too many) belongings to a new abode and waiting for AT&T to connect me back up to the web. My call is important to them, please continue to hold. Or, to save time I can go to att.com and…. Where is Joseph Heller, he who gave The Catchy Number of The Beast of Institutional Irony, when you need him? On my not-very-smart phone I got the twitterpated hyperbolic warbling from @DrDeasyLAUSD [http://bit.ly/NRDSTu] . The school district is actually paying a social media director to direct: “Really appreciated tour of the amazing new facilities at South Region HS #12, and loved the excitement of students and staff.” I’m cranky, it’s hot, I hate moving. But please! I am writing and editing this issue of 4LAKids from my local branch library, after free public schools America’s gift to civilization. Which raises another question: Will our libraries have the bandwidth to support all the students who go to the library after school, each with their new iPad? THE SCHOOL BOARD IS TRYING SOMETHING NEW IN THEIR CONSTANT QUEST FOR IN-ACCOUNTABILITY AND NON- TRANSPARENCY. Board rules require an issue to be first discussed at one meeting, with final discussion and vote at a second – this allows for informed public input. Next Tuesday they will have the first meeting at 9AM and the second at noon …on the same day? That’s all very convenient – if you are a board member. Or a superintendent on a mission in a hurry. Not so much if you are a member of the public. Like, maybe, a parent or a student, or a teacher or an administrator at a school ….or a member of the community, who just might be affected by – or have a question about stuff the board of education might do. Of course, you could call your boardmember – or email …between the meetings. AND THERE IS STRANGENESS AFOOT. There are unsubstantiated and probably insubstantial rumors abounding about misdeeds and skullduggery by senior staff in Maintenance and Operations (M&O) in the Facilities Division (see 4LAKids last week and "Wrongsizing"/follows) – and on the agenda of the secret closed session of the first meeting there is this: Bd. of Ed. Closed Session Meeting - Order of Business, 9:00 a.m., 08-21-12 - v8-15-12 4. Personnel (Government Code Section 54957) Public Employment Deputy Director of Facilities, Maintenance and Operations Employee Discipline/Dismissal/Release Employee Evaluation Superintendent …..which seems to indicate someone is in trouble…. though the official story is that someone else is about to have their interim job made permanent …under the heading of Employee Discipline/Dismissal/Release? And then on Friday the District’s General Council sends an email to the Superintendent and the Board ordering that the item be removed from the agenda! “ ‘Curiouser and curiouser!’ Cried Alice (she was so much surprised, that for the moment she quite forgot how to speak good English).” IN OTHER DEVELOPMENTS: • (Some of) the teachers returned to Miramonte. • The NY Times panned the August Start Calendar. (By the way, ask the students and staff at Nobel Middle or Kennedy High Schools how well the air conditioning held up for the convergence of Early Start and the heat wave.) • A report says all the new schools in LAUSD are benefiting elementary school students: “Strong Returns form a $19.5 billion investment”. • Some school districts and lots of charter schools – but not LAUSD – won’t get their payments from the state deferred next year. Though this does mean that the amount deferred to the rest will be more. • The legislature pushed the Teacher Evaluation Bill forward – over @DrDeasyLAUSD (and the rest of ®eform Inc.)’s objections • The state says charter schools must do Transitional Kindergarten – and the Charter School Association is pretty much saying “You can’t make us!” • Poway Unified figured a way to get kids who benefit from new schools to pay for them, saving current taxpayers the bother and expense. • …and Mayor Tony is worried about his Partnership for L.A. Schools and legacy as The Education Mayor. His legacy as The Pothole Mayor and The 10,000 Policeofficer Mayor and The Transportation Mayor and The Million Trees Mayor is apparently secure. And so it goes. ¡Onward/Adelante! - smf MAYOR TONY HOPES HIS PARTNERSHIP FOR SCHOOLS SURVIVES HIS EXIT FROM OFFICE By Rick Orlov, Staff Writer, LA Daily News | http://bit.ly/NySkNG Updated: 8/19/2012 12:37:13 AM PDT :: Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's experiment in managing some of the city's toughest schools ends its first five-year term next year — just as he leaves office under term limits. Villaraigosa fought a two-year political and court battle to finally win authority over 22 schools with 16,500 students that became the Partnership for Los Angeles Schools in 2008. As his tenure ends, the mayor said he'll urge the Los Angeles Unified School District to issue a new memorandum of understanding to allow the Partnership to continue independently managing the schools into the future. "We have become the laboratory for the school district," Villaraigosa said. "We have become the area where best practices are put into effect and where we can experiment with programs that the district can test." Among the initiatives started at his schools are individual score cards that report on test scores, attendance and graduation rates, teacher performance standards and blended education programs using computers. Even though he is leaving office next year, Villaraigosa said he hopes to see the Partnership schools adopted by the next mayor and become part of the city structure*, much like the LA's Best after-school program. ______________________________________ * –smf: The schools “becoming part of the city structure” is unconstitutional under California law. This was established in LAUSD v. California in the Superior Court and on appeal by the Court of Appeals and the State Supreme Court in a case the mayor should remember: Villaraigosa v. LAUSD. CAL CONSTITUTION Art.9, §6,¶3: “No school or college or any other part of the Public School System shall be, directly or indirectly, transferred from the Public School System or placed under the jurisdiction of any authority other than one included within the Public School System.” ______________________________________ "What's important about this is we will never be the world-class city we should be without a good educational system," Villaraigosa said. "Look at our unemployment rate. Part of the reason it is so high is that we don't have a higher number of high school and college graduates." Even after he leaves office, Villaraigosa said he will remain active with the Partnership schools and with pushing the LAUSD to continue to back reforms by remaining involved in school board elections. But officials with United Teachers of Los Angeles, which fought the mayor on the program, said they believe it is time to bring the experiment to an end. "The mayor will have to make the case to the district that the partnership schools should continue," UTLA President Warren Fletcher said. "When test scores came out a couple of years ago, these schools were a little behind. Mostly, they have performed largely the same as the rest of the district. "The challenges these schools faced a couple of years ago continue. They still have students with challenging educational lives." Fletcher said the union believes there has not been enough improvement in the schools to justify continuing the partnership. "We don't see any great rush of teachers to go to these schools," Fletcher said. "And I am not sure they have realized their goals to the extent it would justify continuing the experiment." Also, Fletcher said he views the partnership as just another experiment in reform. "I've been a teacher for 29 years and you see these things come and go," Fletcher said. "What I've found is a lot of reform looks good in a press release, but doesn't really change much." But Marshall Tuck, who has headed the program since its inception, believes the schools — even with modest gains in test scores and graduation rates — need to be continued as a nonprofit once Villaraigosa leaves office. "Our hope is that whoever the next mayor is that they will adopt the partnership and keep it in the Mayor's Office, much like LA's Best was started by Mayor Tom Bradley and remains in the Mayor's Office." Tuck said there have been improvements in attendance and graduation rates — two of the key measurements to a school's success. Also, the schools have done a great deal in working with parents, many of whom are unfamiliar with public education or were turned off of it when they were students. "We have report cards on how well our schools are doing and that's something the entire district has adopted as a way to tell parents how their schools are performing," Tuck said. "We have seen some solid results, although there is too much variability — that we are working on. We do expect our MOU to be renewed. We are on a good trajectory. We know we have more to do, but we are making progress." One of the biggest accomplishments has been the mayor's ability to raise money, which has gone into improving the schools and classrooms, creating parent centers and improving security. "When we took over the schools, you would see students walking all around the campus during class hours," Tuck said. "You don't see that anymore. They are in their classes." LAUSD school board president Monica Garcia, an ally of the mayor and a supporter of the Partnership schools, said they have played an important role in helping the entire district. "They created the parent college and parent centers that we are expanding through the district," Garcia said. "They are helping us go faster. I'm interested in continuing the partnership so that L.A. Unified can continue to increase our resources. "They have also brought in new thinking on what we can do to reduce our dropout rate, to return kids to classrooms." And, perhaps more importantly, she said, the Partnership has joined the city with the school district. "What's important is we need every mayor from now on to consider themselves an advocate for achievement and responsible for the civic interest in a successful school district. It's important we have a mayor who understands that to be a great city we need to transform the schools." How Good News Happened: $20 BILLION IN BUILDING HAS BOOSTED LAUSD ELEMENTARY STUDENT TEST SCORES, STUDY FINDS By Sammy Roth, Staff Writer. LA Daily News | http://bit.ly/PETRWF 8/14/2012 12:01:01 AM PDT :: A nearly $20-billion effort to reduce overcrowding in city schools has paid off -- at least for elementary school students, according to a new study. The Los Angeles Unified School District has built dozens of new schools since 2002, and researchers from the University of California, Berkeley, found that the initiative has sparked huge increases in elementary school students' test scores. The initiative has been less successful, though, at the high school level, with students' scores increasing little or not at all. The study was released at midnight Monday as LAUSD students head back to class after summer vacation. Researchers looked at the more than 20,000 students who moved into 73 new facilities built between 2002 and 2008, finding that elementary school students improved their scores as much as they would have if the school year was increased by 25 to 35 days. "We rarely see such eye-popping benefits from any kind of school reform," said Bruce Fuller, a Berkeley professor of education and public policy who worked on the study. While research has shown that reducing overcrowding improves achievement, nowhere else has building new facilities boosted test scores so much, Fuller said. He speculated that the huge gains for elementary school students were a result of the fact that LAUSD -- the nation's second-largest school district -- was so overcrowded to begin with. "It may be that the new-school effect stems from the fact that we had young kids packed like sardines in the classrooms, and overnight they moved to clean and tidy facilities staffed by younger, better-trained teachers," Fuller said. But meanwhile, high school students who moved to new schools saw a small average increase in their language arts scores, and a small but statistically insignificant decrease in their math scores. Fuller said that the researchers were unable to explain the disparity between elementary and high school students. John Rogers, an education professor at UCLA who was not involved with the study, said there were a few possible reasons the initiative has benefited elementary school students more than high schoolers. One possibility, he said, is that LAUSD's Small Learning Communities program -- an effort to forge intimate educational experiences in large, potentially impersonal high schools -- has already paid off, meaning high school students have less to gain from moving to smaller schools. But it's also possible, he added, that high schools are so large that it's impossible for them to replicate the kind of community possible at an elementary school. "One thing we may be seeing is that high schools are already so large that whether you have a 3,000- or 5,000-student high school, you're already at a size that you don't have a sense of intimacy, and a feeling that everybody knows each other," Rogers said. While the new-schools initiative has reduced the overall size of LAUSD schools, classroom size has stayed roughly the same since it began, according to state data. By the time the new-schools initiative is complete, LAUSD will have built about 130 new facilities over the course of a decade. The initiative has come with a hefty $19.5-billion price tag, making it the second-largest public works project in U.S. history, after the interstate highway system. But the simple fact of building a new school might be more important than how much money is spent to build that school, Fuller said. The study noted that students improved their test scores by the same amount regardless of how expensive the new facility they moved to, potentially indicating a way for LAUSD and other school districts to save money as they work to reduce overcrowding. "This is kind of a bright red flag to the district that as they finish the new schools, and as they move into renovating schools, they need to think much more carefully about cost-effective ways of refurbishing schools and improving the quality of facilities," Fuller said. LAUSD did not respond to requests for comment on the study. HOW GOOD NEWS HAPPENED Themes in the News by UCLA IDEA | Week of Aug. 13-17, 2012 | http://bit.ly/PvOqWz 8-17-2012 :: This week, University of California, Berkeley researchers reported that a $19.5 billion building project in Los Angeles Unified yielded significant academic gains at elementary schools, particularly for students who transferred from severely overcrowded campuses. New Schools, Overcrowding Relief, and Achievement Gains in Los Angeles - Strong Returns from a $19.5 Billion Investment analyzed the effects of Los Angeles' ambitious building plan—131 new schools—funded by voter-approved local and state bonds. This building program provided new facilities to thousands of students and reduced overcrowding in existing schools. On average, elementary school students who moved to new schools made gains that were equal to up to 35 instructional days. For students who were relieved of extreme overcrowding situations, the gains were 65 days. Students who remained in the previously overcrowded schools also experienced modest gains (Daily News, EdSource Today, Education Week). "It may be that the new-school effect stems from the fact that we had young kids packed like sardines in the classrooms, and overnight they moved to clean and tidy facilities staffed by younger, better-trained teachers," said Bruce Fuller, one of the authors (Daily News). Indeed in the 1990s, schools across California, and particularly in Los Angeles, had reached unprecedented levels of overcrowding, often with conditions more often associated with slum housing. More than one-third of California students had class in a portable or trailer. What were once gyms, computer labs and libraries became classrooms. Schools developed multi-track years to accommodate the influx. In Los Angeles, 25,000 students were bused to other schools. Some spent more than two hours commuting (Just Schools). These were some of the appalling conditions that led to Williams v. California, the path-breaking class-action lawsuit that alleged the state failed to provide millions of California students, primarily low income students and students of color, the bare essentials of an education, including safe and secure facilities. The suit also challenged a version of year-round education (“Concept 6”) that provided less instructional time to many of the same students. State officials initially dismissed these claims as unrelated to school quality. They denied that these conditions affected the ability of students to learn and teachers to teach. But a broad, statewide coalition of community groups, advocacy groups and civil rights lawyers continued to draw attention to the problems of overcrowded classrooms, substandard facilities, and an unequal instructional time for students in Los Angeles. That effort led to the 2004 Williams settlement, which set aside $800 million for facility repairs (Themes) and a deadline for ending “Concept 6” schedules that could only be met through a massive school construction effort. Responding to an advocacy campaign supported by many of the same groups and with expert assistance from the Advancement Project, voters in Los Angeles and statewide supported several ballot initiatives to fund new school facilities. The nearly $20 billion Los Angeles effort examined by PACE is the second-largest public works project in the nation. The UC Berkeley study reports on the impact of new construction on student test scores, but the new school buildings have had a broader effect as well. By creating new and improved conditions for teaching and learning, the new schools promote teacher morale and dramatically decrease teacher turnover. Harder to capture in numbers is the sense of pride students and parents feel in seeing state of the art public institutions in their own communities. These positive civic lessons are a powerful legacy of public investment and the broad-based civic activism that led to it. The Report: NEW SCHOOLS, OVERCROWDING RELIEF, AND ACHIEVEMENT GAINS IN LOS ANGELES - Strong Returns from a $19.5 Billion Investment STRUGGLING DISTRICTS, CHARTERS AWARDED EXEMPTION FROM STATE FUNDING DEFERRALS: LAUSD Not One of Them OF 33 DISTRICTS, 21 ARE IN L.A. COUNTY, OF 203 CHARTERS, 103 ARE IN L.A. COUNTY By Tom Chorneau, SI&A Cabinet Report | http://bit.ly/PmGxVU Tuesday, August 14, 2012 :: A total of 33 local educational agencies and 203 charter schools have been given an exemption from this year’s series of $3.5 billion in state payment deferrals, the California Department of Education announced. The payment delays, which have become a routine part of school budgeting in recent years, were authorized in legislation signed by Gov. Jerry Brown in May and necessary to help the state manage its cash flow needs during the 2012-13 fiscal year. The number of waivers comes as no surprise given the record number of LEAs reporting adoption of budgets at some risk of failing to meet all financial obligations this year as well as the next two. While the state uses very different criteria in evaluating school budgets and in deciding which districts need the deferral exemption, a comparison of the two lists suggests deteriorating conditions in some districts. Earlier this spring, 176 districts reported adopting a “qualified” budget, or one that might not cover all obligations this year and during the next two years. Another 12 reported adopting a “negative” budget –one in which they will be unable to pay all their bills this year and over the next two years. Already one of those districts, Inglewood Unified, has begun the process for getting a state bailout loan. But being listed as having a qualified or negative budget didn’t necessarily make LEAs eligible for the deferral exemption. The exemptions were granted by the CDE based on an application process that included a narrative or documentation showing that the school district has exhausted all internal and external barrowing sources and would otherwise meet the criteria for receiving a state emergency loan in order to meet financial obligations. Given that requirement, it is interesting to note that of the 33 deferral exemptions granted, 16 went to districts who reported a qualified budget –one not necessarily in trouble this year. Another 13 exemptions went to districts not listed as having either a qualified or negative budget. The remaining four exemptions went to districts on the negative list. Meanwhile, apportionment deferrals also went to more than 200 charter schools. While the number is once again not surprising, it also reflects the fiscal challenge charters are facing. “Charter schools, on the whole, get a lot less funding than do comparable districts and have less in reserve,” said Eric Premack, director of the Charter School Development Center – an advocacy and support group. “This is especially so for schools that pay for their own facilities as well as newer elementary schools that do not share in K-3 class-size reduction funding.” Premack also noted that charters have a harder time borrowing money anyway – largely because they pose a higher risk to the lenders – and when they can find a loan, they pay higher rates. The apportionment deferral began with the delay of $1.2 billion owed to K-12 schools in July. The state is scheduled to repay $700 million in September and $500 million more in January 2013. In August and October 2012, $600 million and $800 million, respectively, will be deferred to January 2013, and in March 2013, $900 million will be deferred to April 2013. The List of the Exempt Terms that would make Countywide blush: SCHOOLS PASS DEBT TO THE NEXT GENERATION POWAY UNIFIED BORROWED $105 MILLION IN 2011, BUT WON’T PAY ANYTHING UNTIL 2033. By FLOYD NORRIS, New York Times | http://nyti.ms/S6toAM August 16, 2012 :: The deleveraging of America is well under way, as individuals and companies recover from the excess borrowing that helped to produce the boom and left many people vulnerable when the bust arrived. Household debt is down nearly $900 billion over the last four years, partly from repayments and partly from defaults. During the crazy times, homeowners could get mortgages that allowed them to pay less than the full amount of interest being charged, with the rest added to the principal. Commercial property owners generally paid the full amount of interest, but did not have to repay any principal until the loan matured in five or 10 years. For both homes and commercial properties, lenders were willing to rely on extremely optimistic appraisals. For property buyers, those days are gone, But for some borrowers, it is still possible to borrow now and pay nothing for decades. There is a furor in California because the Poway Unified School District, in San Diego County, borrowed money last year on terms that even Countrywide would have laughed at during the boom. It will not pay a dime of interest or principal for more than two decades. Only then will it begin to service the bonds. It is paying a high price. Although it has a good credit rating — Aa2 at Moody’s and AA– at Standard & Poor’s — it will eventually pay tax-exempt interest of up to 6.8 percent for the borrowings. When it issued more conventional bonds last year, it paid rates that were much lower, ranging up to just 4.1 percent. For borrowing $105 million in 2011, taxpayers — or perhaps it would be more accurate to say the children and grandchildren of today’s taxpayers — will pay $877 million in interest between 2033 and 2051. In San Diego, the bond issue first gained attention on The Voice of San Diego, a Web-based publication, which published an article this month headlined “Where Borrowing $105 Million Will Cost $1 Billion: Poway Schools.” As the Voice noted, others, including Joel Thurtell, a Michigan blogger, had written outraged articles about the bond issue. But it was the Voice article that attracted national attention, including a report on CNBC. It turns out the Poway bond issue is not unique. This kind of borrowing has been going on for years, particularly in California, where the tax revolt that began with Proposition 13 in 1978 has made it harder and harder to finance education or other local government services. Assorted propositions approved by voters have made it very difficult to raise taxes at all. According to a Thomson Reuters database, school districts issued nearly $4 billion in such bonds last year, and have sold almost $3 billion more this year. Back in 2006, when the credit boom was in full bloom, $9 billion worth of so-called capital appreciation bonds were sold. The Poway issue is unusual in delaying interest payments for so long, but there have been others. Its neighbor, the San Diego Unified School District, borrowed $150 million in May, promising to begin payments in 2032. School districts’ logic for borrowing for construction projects always was that those who benefit should pay for a construction project. In the case of the Poway bond, however, it is at least possible that it will be the children of today’s students who end up paying the bill. By then, many of these school buildings may be obsolete, or at least in need of another refurbishing. In a statement, the Poway district pointed out that the bond issue was the fifth part of a plan to modernize the 24 oldest schools in the district, adding that while that bond “has a total repayment ratio of 9.3 times the principal amount,” the overall borrowing program has a repayment ratio of just 4.2. That means that for every dollar borrowed, $3.20 in interest will be paid. To put that into perspective, a 30-year mortgage at the same 6.8 percent interest rate would require $1.35 in lifetime interest payments for each dollar borrowed, or a repayment ratio of 2.35. “The most important value received from the building program that is difficult to quantify is the educational value of providing today’s students with quality learning facilities,” said John Collins, the superintendent of the district, which has 34,000 students. “It is also difficult to calculate the dollar value of savings realized by avoiding the inflated construction costs of postponing the completion of the building program for a decade or more.” Your guess may be as good as his as to just how inflated those costs will be. But it is hard to believe that the district would not have been better off borrowing on terms that called for repaying the loan more quickly. The interest rate would have been lower, and the power of compound interest would not have caused the total payments to rise into the stratosphere. But the option of getting reasonable financing may not have been available to the Poway district, or to many of the other districts that have resorted to these capital appreciation bonds. Poway officials had promised not to raise taxes, and this way they won’t have to. At least not until 2033. They set the payments to begin after earlier bonds are paid off. Nationally, it appears that fewer and fewer school districts have been able, or willing, to find ways to finance new buildings — or even to pay teachers, as property tax revenue plunged with the deflating of the housing bubble and pinched states reduced assistance. State and local governments are spending less and employing fewer people now than they were before the recession. Adjusted for inflation, state and local investment in buildings and other assets is at the lowest level since 1998. Over the last 30 months, the economy has gained about half a million jobs in manufacturing, and lost nearly as many in state and local government. Should districts issue such bonds? It is not an easy question to answer. Much of this expensive borrowing is a result of local officials searching for a way to meet their responsibilities at a time when opposition to taxes has become a mantra. This generation will not pay for what it needs, so some of its leaders have decided to saddle future generations with the bills. HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T FIT: The Rest (but not necessarily the best) of the Stories from Other Sources MAYOR TONY HOPES HIS PARTNERSHIP FOR SCHOOLS SURVIVES HIS EXIT FROM OFFICE: By Rick Orlov, Staff Writer, LA Dail... http://bit.ly/SbxKYT TEACHER EVALUATION BILL MOVES ON TO STATE SENATE: By John Fensterwald, Ed Source Today | http://bit.ly/OK8F6v A... http://bit.ly/PF9pd1 CHARTERS AND STATE AT ODDS OVER TRANSITIONAL KINDERGARTEN: By Kathryn Baron, Ed Source Today | http://bit.ly/M ... http://bit.ly/NRji2b 4 from KPCC: NO HO HS STUDENT WINS GOLD IN CHINA ALL-GIRL MATH CONTEST, INGLEWOOD USD TRIES TO DODGE BANKRUPTCY,... http://bit.ly/Qcb6ZZ PARENTS ATTEMPT TO NAVIGATE NEW SCHOOL DISTRICT BOUNDARIES: By Vanessa Romo | 89.3 KPCC http://bit.ly/PF17BP ... http://bit.ly/S6c4vx How Good News Happened: $20 BILLION IN BUILDING HAS BOOSTED LAUSD ELEMENTARY STUDENT TEST SCORES, STUDY FINDS: B... http://bit.ly/PEYvnB SCHOOL IN AUGUST GETS LOW GRADES: A Move by Some Districts to Reopen Before Labor Day Is Angering Parents, Stude... http://bit.ly/OJURci A GOOD TEACHER IS HARD TO KEEP: Too often, teachers who are consistently successful with students are not given ... http://bit.ly/Qc0474 UNION WINS CHALLENGE TO TEACHER LAYOFF DEAL: By ANNIE YOUDERIAN . Courthouse News Service | http://... http://bit.ly/NNi75s LAUSD, TEACHERS UNION SPAR OVER VOLUNTARY EVALUATION SYSTEM: The district hopes to train all administrators and ... http://bit.ly/NDmuA2 Day 2: WHERE IS KENNEDY HIGH'S MANNY ALVARADO? [Updated]: by Eric Sondheimer | Varsity Times Insider: L.A. Times... http://bit.ly/NDmuA1 National News: L.A. UNIFIED MOVES TEACHERS BACK TO MIRAMONTE SCHOOL: By CHRISTINA HOAG Associated Press from the... http://bit.ly/NDas9N WRONGSIZING: Respecting Workers, Keeping Kids Safe: By smf for 4LAKids News 11 August 2012 :: LAUSD has craftsp... http://bit.ly/NDauP1 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 • LAUSD BOARD OF EDUCATION & COMMITTEES MEETING CALENDAR What can YOU do? • E-mail, call or write your school board member: Tamar.Galatzan@lausd.net • 213-241-6386 Monica.Garcia@lausd.net • 213-241-6180 Bennett.Kayser@lausd.net • 213-241-5555 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!. Who are your elected federal & state representatives? How do you contact them? Scott Folsom is a parent leader in LAUSD and is Parent/Volunteer of the Year for 2010-11 for Los Angeles County. • He is Past President of Los Angeles Tenth District PTSA and represented PTA on the LAUSD Construction Bond Citizen's Oversight Committee for ten years. He is a Health Commissioner, Legislation Team member and a member of the Board of Managers of the California State PTA. He serves on numerous school district advisory and policy committees and has served as a PTA officer and governance council member at three LAUSD schools. He is the recipient of the UTLA/AFT 2009 "WHO" Gold Award for his support of education and public schools - an honor he hopes to someday deserve. • In this forum his opinions are his own and your opinions and feedback are invited. Quoted and/or cited content copyright © the original author and/or publisher. 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