3½ Mayors

4LAKids:Sunday 24•Feb•2013 Special Oscar Preview In This Issue:  •  Darling-Hammond: CALIFORNIA TEACHERS LEAD WAY IN STRESS LEVELS + smf’s 2¢  •  OUTSIDE/INSIDE/NO INTEREST@ALL?: 2 attempts at sanity from Steve Lopez + UCLA/IDEA  •  HUGE SPENDING GAPS BETWEEN SCHOOL DISTRICTS, STUDY FINDS: South San Francisco spends less than $7K per student, across the bay Sausalito spends $29K  •  THOUSANDS OF CHILDREN COULD LOSE HEAD START SERVICES UNDER SEQUESTRATION  •  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. ®EFORM GOT ITS START IN LA WITH MAYOR RICHARD RIORDAN: A millionaire venture capitalist who made his fortune in leveraged buyouts, supermarket investments and Hot Wheels and Barbie - marketing to kids (see Consuming Kids: Protecting Our Children from the Onslaught of Marketing & Advertising http://amzn.to/W3r6HP). He was fed up with LAUSD’s dysfunctionality (it still is) and figured it needed an injection of business-school know-how. Along with UCLA business guru William Ouchi (whose scholarship on school reform brought us “Making Schools Work” - the bible for school reform the ®eformers cite but rarely follow) Riordan set out to buy the best school board his money could buy. He pretty much was pretty successful at it – getting Genethia Hayes and Caprice Young and Mike Lansing elected – along with support for loose-cannon David Tokofsky. (Not that loose cannonage is a bad thing – school boards are not men o’ war!) Riordan’s board – which was initially proposed to support Superintendent Zacharias – dispensed with Zacharias and brought Ramon Cortines in as an interim replacement and Roy Romer as the permanent. Roy is a Democrat and Riordan a Republican – but the non-partisan poles in LA politics are rarely Red v. Blue. They are Developer v. Treehugger, Busing v. Non-Busing, Growth v. No Growth, Westside v. Valley. In other words: We pick sides+issues on the playground and it’s Us. v. Them. The first time I ever spoke with Riordan he was big on the “F” word. Not that F word, or even “Failure” – he was for “firing” incompetent teachers, principals and bureaucrats. And not all of them. “Just fire a few and the rest will fall into line.” I don’t remember that lesson from business school. I think I learned that from a boy’s vice-principal in junior high on the application of corporal punishment back in the Golden Age of California Education. Anyway, Riordan’s enlightened philosophy of ed. reform brought about the ®eform v. UTLA bipolarity. But it wasn’t always that way …and it didn’t have to be. The real hope for real reform bloomed briefly. For a brief moment there was LEARN. For eight years the Los Angeles Educational Alliance for Restructuring Now - a reaction to proposed wholesale breakup of the District - born of the extremely unlikely partnership of Riordan and UTLA President Helen Bernstein thrived. LEARN brought parents, teachers, administrators and the community together on governing boards of 375 schools - nearly half of the LAUSD. As third-leg-on-the-stool LEARN partner Mike Roos said in a 2006 interview: "All the ideas that are currently being proposed [mayoral control, reconstitution and corporate charterization] suffer from the lack of genuine community engagement." "Ours was a much different approach. We brought everybody we possibly could into the room, but we really were very quiet until we were ready with a consensus plan. There were very few dissenters. "We found that if you're locked out of the room, it just breeds contempt and suspicion and it devolves trust. We went the opposite way. Everybody was in the room - parent groups, leaders in the business community, leaders in the nonprofit community - we had every organization head that had anything to do with children." But Cortines – and after him Romer - didn’t believe in LEARN’s decentralization. Roos left, Bernstein was killed in an accident and Riordan left office. Riordan’s efforts continued into the Hahn administration …though Jimmy Hahn isn’t one of our title 3½ mayors. UTLA picked off Hayes and then Caprice in subsequent elections. Riordan’s infatuation with Tokofsky (“David is the Winston Churchill of LAUSD.”) evaporated. But Romer served on, maintaining that LAUSD’s main problem was overcrowding and until that was solved transformation was impossible. Romer’s strength was passing local construction bonds and building an effective team to built, fix and modernize schools. And them doing the job. Meanwhile up in Sacramento Assembly Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa passed the largest state school construction bond in history and snuck a merit-pay/teacher evaluation law past the teachers’ union – from which he had come. In short order the teachers’ unions pounded a stake through the heart of merit pay/teacher evaluation – and the Advancement Project sued to get LAUSD students (and the building program) their part of the state bond. Out of office Riordan wasn’t as effective. UTLA gained a board majority. And Hahn gave way to Villaraigosa (Mayor #2) …and all hell broke loose! MAYOR TONY whimpered that other big city mayors ran their school districts. In LA the city council actually runs the city, so Tony must’ve figured he’d have time on his hands – so he went to Sacramento and convinced his former colleagues to give him LAUSD to run. He briefly co-opted UTLA and got their support. While we are letting Tony be Tony, let me be frank: • LAUSD was by then operating the biggest public works program in the nation, building over 125 new schools and fixing up the rest. $20 billion was in play. Builders and developers have been running Los Angeles since the first draft of the movie “Chinatown” was written in the LA Times in the 1920’s. Those builders were supporters of Tony – and they wanted a piece of that action! • Just because you write it on a legal pad doesn’t mean it’s legal. The California Constitution was and is explicit: Municipal governments cannot operate public schools. The courts (Superior, Appeal and Supreme) ruled that the Constitution trumps Mayor Tony’s desire to be like the other big city mayors. He lost. Tony then set out to do it like Riordan did. He bought his own school board …though in true Hollywood fashion: With someone else’s money! Romer was forced out. The old board brought in David Brewer as superintendent – but Tony’s picks: Richard Vladovic plus “Tony’s girls”: Flores, Galatzan and Martinez complemented Tony stalwart Monica Garcia and grabbed the majority. The departure of Tokofsky brought the advent of Steve Zimmer – a more introspective loose cannon. (David and Steve both were teachers at Marshall High School – as was Bernstein. There is something at Marshall that encourages independent thought – something to consider when choosing a high school for your child or an education leader for your slate mailer.) Tony’s majority gave him and his supporters what they wanted. He got some schools to run in his PLAS partnership. He forced Brewer out and got to bring in Cortines again. He wrote some school district policy from word processors in city hall for a while – and new schools were given away to charter operators and other supporters. Charters were awarded piecemeal. He looked the other way and developer friends made a killing at LAUSD’s expense and strong leadership in the Facilities Division was replaced by folks a little less independent and a bit more compliant. Along the way Mayor Tony managed to pass the biggest local school construction bond in history (….this is a theme!). But slowly UTLA clawed its way back, picked off a board seat and won some and lost some in the collective bargaining arena. Villaraigosa & Co. forced Cortines out and replaced him with John Deasy – handpicked and well trained by both the Broad and Gates Foundations. Reformers forced some change through the courts. And essentially, nobody got everything they wanted. Huge change is ahead for both LAUSD and The City of Los Angeles. Villaraigosa is termed out as is a majority of the city council. One seat is open on the Board of Ed – and two others are contested. Zimmer has upset the charter school community subset of ®eform Inc. for asking that they be accountable - and they are out to get him. The spectacularly unpopular Monica Garcia is challenged by a clutch of little-knowns – but if a runoff is forced Monica will be in real trouble. THIS BRINGS US TO MAYOR #3: MICHAEL BLOOMBERG OF NEW YORK CITY – who has donated a million dollars at Mayor Tony’s request to perpetuate Tony’s majority. Mayor Mike is a billionaire philanthropist and he invests his philanthropy in all kinds of things – mostly good – in bought-and-paid-for social engineering/checkbook politics. He doesn’t like smoking in public places. He doesn’t like large sodas, salty foods or transfats – all are illegal in NYC. Not discouraged – illegal. He gives money to local candidates nationwide who oppose NRA policy. He also runs the schools in New York City with a single will and an iron fist; no school board and no parental involvement – “If parents don’t like the way I run the schools they can boo me at parades.” AND MAYOR #3½?: SACRAMENTO MAYOR KEVIN JOHNSON – a former basketball star and charter school operator who’s having trouble holding onto the basketball team in his city. He is married to former District of Columbia chancellor Michelle Rhee, the Dragon Lady/Tiger Mom of ®eform Inc. “Johnson is facing increased scrutiny over his repeated infractions of financial disclosure rules, especially as they involve education initiatives tied to his wife's work.” [http://bit.ly/YRlXNZ] On Monday in an interview with Charlie Rose ROSE: Do school boards need more power? RHEE: Well, I would say no to that question because school boards in my opinion, I think that school boards in this country have been very susceptible to the political process, so often times, and they certainly haven't moved us forward... ROSE: So what would you do to change that? RHEE: Well, I'm a big believer in mayoral control of schools, I operated under that model. [http://bit.ly/YpSFat] This week Michelle gave a quarter of a million dollars to Mayor Tony’s Coalition to Perpetuate Mayor Tony’s Agenda, 2013*. But how do I really feel? ¡Onward/Adelante! - smf ________ * Real Name: Coalition for School Reform to Support García, Anderson and Sanchez for Board of Education 2013 Preview: OSCAR NOMINATED SHORT FILM “FRESH GUACAMOLE” Darling-Hammond: CALIFORNIA TEACHERS LEAD WAY IN STRESS LEVELS + smf’s 2¢ By Susan Frey, EdSource Today | http://bit.ly/YoqsRq February 22nd, 2013 :: Against the backdrop of a national survey showing half of teachers experiencing “great stress” on the job, the head of California’s teacher credentialing commission says that stress levels among the state’s teachers are likely to be even higher. “I would think California would be at the forefront of this group (of stressed-out teachers) and teachers’ stress levels here even higher,” said Linda Darling-Hammond, professor of Education at Stanford University’s School of Education and chair of the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing. “California’s teachers are undoubtedly stressed and very concerned about the level of support for children and schools and teachers in this society.” The 29th annual MetLife Survey of the American Teacher, the most authoritative gauge of teacher attitudes, was released this week. The MetLife report is based on the survey responses of 1,000 teachers across the nation, reached by phone in October and November 2012. It indicates that teacher satisfaction is at its lowest level in 25 years. Teacher satisfaction peaked in 2008, just before the Great Recession, with 62 percent reporting they were very satisfied. But that number has been dropping ever since, to just 39 percent this year. The report noted that budget decreases were associated with lower morale and greater stress among teachers. Some 51 percent of teachers feel under “great stress” at least several days a week. Stress levels are greatest for elementary school teachers, with 59 percent reporting “great stress” compared with 35 percent in the 1985 survey. Teachers who work with low-income students and who are in schools that have to cope with budget cutbacks experience even more stress. California teachers have had to endure five years of sustained budget cuts, which they’ve experienced in numerous forms: massive layoffs, unpaid furlough days, freezes on cost-of-living increases, and the trimming or elimination of support programs, professional development and class preparation time. At least 30,000 teachers have lost their jobs in California over the past five years – some 10 percent of the teaching force. But as EdSource’s “Schools Under Stress” [http://bit.ly/YOBJup] report noted, Just the threat of layoffs can demoralize staff, with a rippling effect in classrooms and throughout a district, potentially affecting student academic outcomes. Thus, even when teachers are rehired, the issuing of layoff notices can inflict significant damage on the culture of a school. During the same time period, teachers have collectively been the target of relentless criticism, including from the Obama administration, that they are a major cause – and in some cases, the major cause – of low student achievement. That, Darling-Hammond said, has also contributed to plummeting satisfaction levels. “The huge dive in teacher satisfaction has to be correlated with the teacher bashing that’s been going on for the past four years – beginning at the White House,” said Darling-Hammond. “Teachers are dealing with racial issues, poverty, violence, homelessness. Then they are subjected to a continual refrain that ‘teachers are the problem, let’s get rid of the bad teachers’ without acknowledging society’s role in taking care of kids.” Ellen Moir, executive director of the national New Teacher Center, which works with new teachers to help them become more effective, is worried that the low satisfaction rates and high levels of stress reported by teachers could have a dampening impact on attracting – and retaining – new teachers. The MetLife survey, she said, “is particularly worrying given there is a need to recruit 2 million new teachers into the profession over the next 10 years. It highlights how important it is to make sure every new teacher gets the support he or she needs to improve student learning and to remain committed to teaching.” Dean Vogel, president of the California Teachers Association (CTA), said the survey results are not surprising considering the combination of budget cutbacks and the inability of teachers to control what they teach in the classroom. Teachers want to “instill a love of learning” rather than preparing students for tests, he said. “Teachers are not supported in doing what they know is essential and right in maintaining and sustaining positive learning environments for kids. Teachers believe what they are being forced to do is counterproductive, and they feel complicit in it.” Vogel said elementary school teachers experience higher levels of stress because high school teachers, who generally report to a department chair, feel more in control of their classroom. Besides having to teach all the subjects, elementary school teachers are much more responsible for the psychological well-being of their students, he said. Despite dipping satisfaction levels, teachers appear to be embracing the Common Core state standards. More than two-thirds of the teachers surveyed (69 percent) reported feeling “confident” or “very confident” in the new standards, and 71 percent agreed that the new standards will better prepare students for college and the workforce than their state’s prior standards. And 93 percent felt that their colleagues had the ability to teach to the new standards. Martha Infante is a history teacher at LA Academy Middle School in South Central Los Angeles and a member of the Educator Excellence Task Force appointed by Superintendent of Public Instuction Tom Torlakson. She said teachers are always willing to implement new approaches like the Common Core standards. But she said the many unknowns teachers face, including the imminent introduction of the Common Core, contributes to the stresses they feel. “We don’t know what’s coming next,” she said. “We don’t know where the profession is headed.” ••smf: I have a lot of fun speaking truth to power and being snarky with the powers-that-be. My commitment to the safety, health and wellbeing of children in paramount – but the emotional strain and stress upon classroom teachers and school staff caused by the total war upon their profession by the flavor-of-the-week reformers and corporate privatizers concerns me greatly. No one becomes a teacher for the money, fame or glory – being a teacher is a calling and a mission. The absolute and total lack-of-respect shown to educators – the constant meddling, tweaking, budget cutting, bashing, furloughs, name calling and all the rest brings a toll. That this war is being waged by “philanthropists” extends irony into Orwellian doublespeak. 1984 is so 29 year ago. Morale is at an all time low. Respect from the powers-that-be is missing. Job security is absent. When a teacher gets a RIF notice (Not the final layoff notice but just that notice that says you MAY be subject to RIF) your credit rating goes to zero. Your self worth with it. The only uncertainty is uncertainty itself. When it seems like no one respects your work how can you respect yourself? “You became a teacher? What were you thinking?” The words “Failure” and “Bad Teacher” are hand grenades tossed into every dark space the would-be change agents can find – they are hateful words as loaded as any epithet hurled at anyone who is different in race, ethnicity, religion or sexual orientation. They are markers of ignorance when the real enemy is ignorance itself. I am not arguing for neither political correctness nor the status quo here. There are teachers who teach badly and there are educators who do bad things. There is failure out there. Neither is acceptable. Bad things happen in the name of teachers unions and school reform. But name calling to effect policy change is hateful and the war itself is harmful. And the children are watching. The 29th annual MetLife Survey of the American Teacher OUTSIDE/INSIDE/NO INTEREST@ALL?: 2 attempts at sanity from Steve Lopez + UCLA/IDEA …almost certainly too little/too late. ►L.A. MUST VOTE Themes in the News by UCLA IDEA/Week of Feb. 18-22, 2013| http://bit.ly/Yoncpo 02-22-2013 :: Are Los Angeles schools unduly influenced by “outside interests”? How about “inside interests”? Or maybe, no interest at all? According to Warren Fletcher, president of United Teachers of Los Angeles, “voters do not need outsiders deciding who is best to sit on the LAUSD Board of Education" (Los Angeles Times). Those outsiders include nationally prominent, deep-pocketed figures and spokespersons such as Washington, D.C. public schools ex-chancellor Michelle Rhee and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg. They and other “reformers” want more charter schools, less involvement of teachers and the community, and minuscule participation of unions in the operations of public schools. Their agenda is not primarily focused on Los Angeles, but rather national. Bloomberg has made a $1-million contribution to the L.A. races, and Rhee’s organization has put in $250,000, which she said could advance school reform statewide (Los Angeles Times). But these outsiders are also joined by a fair number of Los Angeles “insiders”—locals-with-money—who are lining up behind school board candidates who support Superintendent John Deasy. Deasy has made it clear that he believes that many teachers, along with their union, are serious obstacles to better education and that he needs the tools to fire and transfer teachers and proceed with reforms. The tools include tough teacher evaluations, school transformations, charters, “choice,” and more (Los Angeles Daily News). On the other hand, many teachers and community members believe that Deasy pays too little attention to schools’ lack of and distribution of resources and that he tolerates incompetent and arbitrary district-level management. Many believe that Deasy’s first option for improving low-performing schools is to close them and blame the teachers. The teachers’ union has shown in recent elections that it is not without resources to mount a campaign. It can raise money from its members that allows it to sponsor some TV ads and send mailers. But perhaps more important, the union has numbers. It exerts the greatest strength when its members are knocking on doors. And what of Los Angeles parents and residents? How are they shaping the school board election? How do they enact power? Maybe the most salient figures regarding both the last and forthcoming school board elections are the voter turnouts. The turnout for the last (2011) school board election was 7.41 percent. In other words, 92.59 percent of eligible voters declined a role in determining who would decide on the district’s programs and curriculum, leadership, labor relations, and more. More than $2 million has been raised already for current candidates competing for the very few votes that will be cast in three of the seven available seats in the next board election. It’s hard to pin down exactly why LA (non)voters show so little interest in school board elections. Perhaps they believe that their vote just doesn’t matter. In the last few decades fewer of the fundamental decisions that affect students’ experiences have been made at the local school district level. School funding, curricula, and standardized tests are increasingly decided from afar by the state or the federal government. Nonstop funding crises have overshadowed the occasional positive news. Or possibly the public has become wary of the logic and data behind many “magic bullet” schemes that dominate education “reforms” locally and nationwide; for example, charters, school reconstituting, standardized testing, union-busting, and so on. Whatever the cause for voter disaffection, voter turnout matters. If high voter turnout signals public interest in and commitment to local schools, low voter turnout speaks to a crisis of legitimacy. Low turnout means that there may be very little relationship between what elected representatives hope to do and what most of their constituents want them to do. It means that organized money—whether it comes from outside or inside the district—will have undue influence on the democratic process. The problem here is not simply that we diminish democracy when we privilege fundraising over voting. Campaigns characterized by huge donations and tiny turnouts may leave the appearance that those with a financial stake in decisions before the school board have too much sway over the composition of that board. We can admire and sympathize with elected public officials who must constantly struggle to balance their responsibilities and allegiances to a) the public; b) the advocates whose campaign support (ideas, money, energy) is necessary for election; and c) the officials' personal perspectives and values that might in any one case differ from others'. These tensions are inevitable and, in the larger scheme, productive—but not if the voters (or some smallish representation of them) are so weak as not to enter into the "balancing act." So how can potential voters be persuaded to make their way to the polls in greater numbers than before? School board candidates, their supporters, and members of the press need to build a case for why voting in this election matters. They all have a responsibility to talk about not just the issues that divide, but also the shared value of engaging in the democratic process. The next 10 days represent a teachable moment. The stakes are great for selecting leaders who can work together respectfully; doing the hard, daily grind of making difficult decisions to improve schooling without wrecking the good and powerful work that is already underway and without undermining the legions of school personnel who are doing outstanding work against difficult odds. __________________________ ►Lopez: BLOOMBERG'S MEDDLING IN L.A. UNIFIED RACES IS PAYING FOR JUNK ADS The wealthy New York mayor's $1-million contribution to the Coalition for School Reform is helping fund attack ads in L.A. that distort the truth and misinform voters. By Steve Lopez, LA Times columnist | http://lat.ms/YuxQbX February 23, 2013, 4:55 p.m. :: If you're like me, your mailbox is getting stuffed with political mailers. What to do? The best course of action is to take a shovel and dig a hole in the backyard, toss the mailers in and set them ablaze. At best, they're filled with useless simplifications and generalizations about candidates and issues, and a lot of them contain gross exaggerations or distortions, if not outright lies. If you live in Los Angeles and it seems like you're getting more of this junk than ever, it's because millions of dollars are being spent by committees to either support or demolish candidates for City Council, mayor and school board. Not only for mailers, of course, but also for equally vapid and nasty TV ads. This is how democracy works, courtesy of the U.S. Supreme Court, which lifted limits on so-called independent expenditures, thereby turning elections into cash-driven free-for-alls in which candidates are almost beside the point. Take the current campaigns for seats on the Los Angeles Unified Board of Education. Three spots are up for grabs, but this is less an election than a local skirmish in a national war that's raging over control of public schools. In the current battle, the local teachers' union and its allies are taking on the "reformers" and their supporters, some of whom live far, far from Los Angeles. I kept hearing last week from readers who were having conniptions over New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg's $1-million donation to the local Coalition for School Reform. They said he should mind his own business, and they called this another example of an attempt by rich guys to privatize public schools, or at least turn them over to their charter school cronies. Actually, it was Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa who helped shake down Bloomberg. But I called Bloomberg's office to find out if he was aware that at least part of his money is being spent to distort the truth and misinform voters, which I'll explain in a minute. "Mike Bloomberg is proud to help level the playing field on behalf of children and their families," a Bloomberg spokesman responded. "The union may not like it, but they should get used to it because he is just getting started." That's more than a threat; it's a live grenade. To be honest, I welcome anyone — including outsiders — whose goal is to improve public education. But the conversation has become so philosophically and politically polarized that it's hard to know who, if anyone, is acting most purely in the interest of kids. On the contentious issue of charter schools, I think it's fair to say some do pretty well and some don't. And although some of L.A. Unified's shortcomings can be blamed on union inflexibility, some is also due to administrative inefficiency and to parents who don't pay enough attention to their kids' academics. And all those problems are dwarfed by the fact that California is near the bottom when it comes to school funding. I'd like to see more union give on teacher evaluations, work rules and tenure. But I'd also like anti-union forces to quit scapegoating teachers, because we owe the majority of them a debt of gratitude. In Los Angeles, the stakes are high because L.A. Unified Supt. John Deasy seems to have convinced enough people that he may get ousted if this election doesn't go his way, even though that's an unlikely, long-shot scenario. Deasy is a creative and effective leader who ought to keep doing what he's been doing, for the most part. But I don't agree with him on everything, and I don't think we're well served if everyone on the board stands up and bows every time he speaks. That goes the other way too. It'd be disaster, for sure, if everyone on the board were a union lackey. That brings me to incumbent board member and former teacher Steve Zimmer, who has been nobody's stooge. Zimmer, at times, has tried to bridge differences among the warring parties, winning supporters and making enemies on both sides in the process. But there's a price to pay for independence, it seems. Zimmer is under attack by the Villaraigosa-aligned Coalition for School Reform, which supports Zimmer's opponent Kate Anderson. They see Anderson, an attorney and L.A. Unified parent, as more inclined to butt heads with the union and more likely to support Deasy. Even some of his supporters say Zimmer can be an angst-ridden, hand-wringing worrier who takes too long to decide where he stands. But I respect his answer to that charge. "I've spent my life immersed in these issues, and when a game-changing vote or policy issue comes up, I damn well should wring my hands." And it's not as if Zimmer is rabidly pro-union and anti-Deasy. He's proclaimed his support for the superintendent and has ticked off the union because of it. But in a game of lesser evils, the unions have thrown in their lot with Zimmer, which has made his opponents all the more determined to drive him out. The way I see it, we've got two capable people running who both seem to care passionately about L.A. Unified's 600,000-plus students. But politics being what it is, campaign strategists on each side have polluted mailboxes and airwaves with exaggeration and distortion. It's a dirty game, and you either sling mud or get buried alive. Are you paying attention, kids? The hit pieces on Zimmer are paid for in part by Bloomberg, whose name is on mailers, and the stink bombs dropped on Anderson are paid for in part by United Teachers Los Angeles. If you'd prefer to make up your own mind about who Zimmer and Anderson are, or if you want to learn about the candidates for the other two seats, you can watch all three debates at http://www.unitedwayla.org. And as for the junk mail headed your way in the next two weeks, you know what to do with it. HUGE SPENDING GAPS BETWEEN SCHOOL DISTRICTS, STUDY FINDS: South San Francisco spends less than $7K per student, across the bay Sausalito spends $29K by Howard Blume, LA Times | http://lat.ms/1550iah February 19, 2013 | 5:26 pm :: Vast inequities still exist in education funding across the nation, contributing to an academic achievement gap that separates the students at well-funded schools from those who attend campuses with fewer resources, according to a report released Tuesday The funding disparities are “as wide as ever despite decades of effort,” said Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar, a Stanford law professor who co-chaired the Equity and Excellence Commission, a federal panel that examined funding and other issues over two years of research and testimony. Analysts have frequently put California near the bottom of states in education dollars when the cost of living is factored in, but the report found that there also are huge spending differences within the state. School systems that spend less than $7,000 per student include South San Francisco Unified and Gilroy Unified, south of the Bay area, said Stanford professor Linda Darling-Hammond, who compiled data from the 2009-10 school year. At the other end of the spectrum, Sausalito Marin City School District spends $29,000 per student. Other relatively big spenders include Mendocino Unified ($21,000 per student) and Pacific Grove Unified near Monterey ($17,000 per student). L.A. Unified spends about $11,063 per student, about $300 less than Beverly Hills, but Beverly Hills also benefits from substantial city support and parent fundraising — and serves a much lower percentage of students who are learning English or who belong to low-income families. Besides calling for funding equity, the commission report supported President Obama’s call for more early childhood education. It also called for improving the effectiveness of teachers and principals, through such measures as higher salaries and improved training. The commission was established by Congress and organized under the supervision of the U.S. Department of Education. Report: FOR EACH & EVERY CHILD THOUSANDS OF CHILDREN COULD LOSE HEAD START SERVICES UNDER SEQUESTRATION Deepa Fernandes | Pass / Fail : 89.3 KPCC http://bit.ly/WagM0G February 21st, 2013, 6:00am :: Just one week after promising to inject funds into early childhood education in his State of the Union address, President Obama is warning that the Head Start program will instead face cuts if lawmakers fail to reach a compromise over the budget. Advocates for early childhood education warn sequestration would have an immediate effect on Los Angeles’s poorest families. “We’re estimating that, statewide, sequestration would amount in 6,000 children being cut from head start services,” said Rick Mockler, Executive Director of the California Head Start Association. He said families that rely on the program for childcare and other services could lose that help overnight. “Head start children are the most vulnerable children in the state of California," Mockler added. "They come from the absolute poorest families." Congress has until March 1 to reach a deal to avoid automatic across-the-board spending cuts. Head Start funds come from Washington and are funneled through large local agencies that pick which programs and pre-school centers to support. Locally, it's hard to know how cuts will ultimately affect services, said Laura Escobedo, of the Los Angeles County Office of Childcare, which focuses on quality child care. She says the county office that oversees spending, Los Angeles County Office of Education, would decide how much it could absorb and how much to pass on to providers. “We don’t really know what it means for us at this stage,” said Kostas Kalaitzidis, a spokesman for the county office of education. He called it a “very complicated affair.” The Child Care Resource Center is already cutting back on expenses to prepare for the worst. The center operates 18 Head Start centers serving 1,500 children in the San Fernando, Santa Clarita and the Antelope valleys. Its president and CEO, Michael Olenick, expects a $300,000 cut between March and June should sequestration go into effect. “We’re not sure if we’ll be able to continue the school year through June or if we’ll have to end the school year early,” he said. The Child Care Resource Center has already lost 20 percent of its operating budget over the last two years due to statewide budget cuts to early childhood programs. The lack of certainty about whether more cuts are around the corner is hard on his staff and parents who use the center's services. “What makes it so difficult is that it's hard to know whether to believe it or not, given that the last two fiscal crises have been overcome," Olenick said. "So is it really going to happen or is this just another fire-drill?” HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T FIT: The Rest (but not necessarily the best) of the Stories from Other Sources OSCAR NOMINATED SHORT FILM “FRESH GUACAMOLE”: Be a Hollywood Insider with your screenerhttp://bit.ly/Ys8IGR Common Core Testing: BILL TO SUSPEND STAR NEXT YEAR COMES AS CA SCHOOLS PILOT NEW TESTING. Rival bill postpone... http://bit.ly/UYXZUz The proposal formerly known as weighted student formula: STUDY COMPLIMENTS AND QUESTIONS BROWN’S FUNDING FORMU... http://bit.ly/X7f2SK The ‘Academic Proficiency Cliff’: COUNCIL OF GREAT CITY SCHOOLS ON THE EDUCATIONAL IMPACT OF SEQUESTRATION: F... http://bit.ly/YmqafI THOUSANDS OF CHILDREN COULD LOSE HEAD START SERVICES UNDER SEQUESTRATION: Deepa Fernandes | Pass / Fail : 89.... http://bit.ly/Ymj76N BROWN’S PROPOSED SCHOOL FUNDING FORMULA WOULD AID POORER DISTRICTS: Beau Yarbrough, Staff Writer - Inland Val... http://bit.ly/VYuhAK Election 2013/The best democracy money can buy:: Could a single school board race determine LAUSD's future? V... http://bit.ly/VYqyDl LAUSD CONSIDERS CARPENTER E.S. FOR PILOT PROGRAM TO COMBAT ENROLLMENT FRAUD + smf’’s 2¢: See some of the emoti... http://bit.ly/XIdWwM THE 4LAKids KEEP CALM & CARRY ON CAMPAIGN 2013: “A little patience, and we shall see the reign of witches pass ov... http://bit.ly/YEUcJC The California Office to ®eform Education: LAUSD SUPERINTENDENT SEEKS NCLB WAIVER FOR HIS DISTRICT AND NINE OT... http://bit.ly/13mY6Iz The best Bd of Ed $ can buy?: FORMER DC SCHOOLS CHANCELLOR MICHELLE RHEE JOINS LIST OF DONORS TO LAUSD SCHOOL ... http://bit.ly/VODKdO MICHELLE ®HEE INC. DONATES $250,000 to ®EFORM INC. CANDIDATES IN LAUSD RACES: A quarter-of-a-million dollars ... http://bit.ly/VODKdJ L.A. COMMUNITY COLLEGE CHANCELLOR RESIGNS UNDER FIRE: by Carla Rivera, LA Times | http://lat.ms/WQ9bB6 February... http://bit.ly/Y7qkHP FAA GREENLIGHTS $1 LEASE FOR LAUSD AVIATION SCHOOL AT VAN NUYS AIRPORT: By Dana Bartholomew, Staff Writer, LA Da... http://bit.ly/XvOIl7 HUGE SPENDING GAPS BETWEEN SCHOOL DISTRICTS, STUDY FINDS: South San Francisco spends less than $7K per student, ... http://bit.ly/XvOJFJ LAUSD SCHOOL BOARD RACE DRAWS BIG MONEY: Primary has drawn over $4 million ….$2 million from outside sources: “... http://bit.ly/13dhuYo MARIA CANO: 4LAKids endorsed School Board Candidate Wine Tasting Fundraisers!: smf notes there isn’t a lot of o... http://bit.ly/13dhuYn 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.

Upfront

4LAKids: Sunday 17•Feb•2013 President's Weekend In This Issue:  •  Pretzel Logic: L.A. TIMES ENDORSEMENTS FOR SCHOOL BOARD  •  LAUSD’S DEASY, UNION SPAR OVER TEACHER EVALUATION MEASURES  •  EDUCATION REFORM - IT’S REALLY ABOUT POLITICS, POWER AND PROFIT  •  THE STATE OF THE UNION: Early Childhood Ed, Career+Technical Education and STEM, Higher Ed, Gun Violence and Citizenship  •  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. FROM THE LA TIMES: “We'll be upfront about this: We consider Garcia a poor choice for the school board, and we always have. In her last reelection bid, we endorsed her only because there were no candidates running against her. “Garcia is a divisive and sometimes careless force on the board who lacks grace and thoughtfulness as its leader. Her positions seem less considered than reactive. Her concerns over whether schools are improving have not extended to underperforming charter schools, and her response when challenged on this is simply unacceptable: She says the district doesn't have enough money to oversee the charters properly and she doesn't want to do more to police them. Likewise, her retort about a serious conflict of interest involving former Supt. Ramon C. Cortines — "I don't know what is interesting here," she said in an interview with The Times' editorial board — reflects a dismissiveness and lack of basic understanding that is truly disturbing.” THAT, GENTLE READER, IS THE LA TIMES POSITIVE ENDORSEMENT OF MONICA GARCIA! (Imagine if they didn’t like her.) And watch her campaign ads: Endorsed by the L.A. Times! The Times editorial board continues, spouting their typical anti-union/pro-®eform rhetoric: “The three UTLA-backed candidates spout typical anti-reform rhetoric and would set the district back years.” …AND OFFERS THE FOLLOWING NON-ENDORSEMENT: “We had hopes for Isabel Vazquez, a first-grade teacher in the district who is backed by neither UTLA nor big-money reformers. She espouses a more balanced and nuanced approach to improving schools and has a refreshing ground-level perspective on how reform plays out in the classroom. But Vazquez has made it clear that she would not vote to extend Deasy's contract once it expires. That's too great an obstacle to overlook. If it were clear that Deasy had enough support on the board to protect him, Vazquez's position might be a minor issue, but his situation is potentially precarious. The superintendent is far more important to the schools than the quality of any single board member.” The Times believes Superintendent Deasy is more important than: • Garcia being a poor choice both historically and currently? • Garcia’s divisiveness, carelessness, lack of grace and thoughtfulness? • Her reactionary lack of consideration? • Her championship of underperforming charter schools? (The Times doesn’t quite go this far – but one only needs to consider the case of Academia Semillas del Pueblo (http://lat.ms/Vs11St) and then track Academia Semillas’ financial support of her campaign. (http://bit.ly/XgkUZE) • LAUSD doesn’t have enough money to oversee charters …but charters have enough money to support Monica’s reelection? • Monica’s failure as a public trustee to NOT JUST RECOGNIZE THE APPEARANCE OF A CONFLICT OF INTEREST – BUT TO TOLERATE A “PROLONGED, BLATANT AND LUCRATIVE CONFLICT OF INTEREST” in Supt. Cortines’ concurrent employment as LAUSD superintendent and a paid member-of-the-board-and-stockholder-in a textbook publishing company doing business with the District? http://lat.ms/XPpy1U/ http://bit.ly/Z5Sy4y • Never mind that Monica then went on to force the naming of a school after Cortines over the objection of the parents, students and school community? Quoting the Times: Garcia “reflects a dismissiveness and lack of basic understanding that is truly disturbing.” That dismissiveness+lack of understanding extends to district employees, teachers, parents, students, policy and the law. She just doesn’t get it! Fundraising and insider special interest politics-as-unusual? The care and feeding of billionaires? Those Monica accepts and understands. 4LAKIDS NOTES THAT SUPERINTENDENT DEASY IS NOT ON THE BALLOT. But the Times Editorial Board sets him up as “The Write-off Candidate” Dr. Deasy’s record of failing to monitor and report child abuse is not on the ballot. His failure to address oversight of charter schools is not on the ballot. His reconstitution of schools that continue to fail - and give-away of new schools - is not on the ballot. His failure to respond to parents, school communities and his own employees in favor of his “my way or the highway leadership” is not on the ballot. His scheme to redirect $500+ million in construction+repair bond funds to tablet computers is not on the ballot. His layoff of 7000 teachers last year – increasing class size – is not on the ballot. Dr Deasy has eliminated, decimated and/or eviscerated programs such as Adult Education, Early Childhood Education, Arts and Music Ed, Health Ed, Electives, After School Programs. His current policy is to make LAUSD highly popular and respected and successful Magnet Program a weapon to reconstitute schools. Those issues are not on the ballot. The ®eforms that Deasy is for are: Improving test scores, Measuring teacher performance and Firing bad teachers. Yet Deasy&Co. waffle on what “bad teachers” even are. Are they teachers who are incompetent and don’t know their subject matter? Are they teachers who give too many ‘A’s? …or ‘D’s and ‘F’s? Algebraically: Do they teach in schools where the API is less than x? …or the AYP isn’t more than y? …or the PI status is more than z? Are they third grade teachers whose students don’t read at grade level? Are they perverts and child molesters? Are they identified by test scores or peer review or random visits by the superintendent himself on the second day of school? Deasy, per his supporters, is a game changer – and he changed the game again this week with his newest re-interpretation of the Teacher Assessment Agreement reached with UTLA last month, (see LA Unified to Use Test Scores to Rate Teachers - following) Dr. Deasy is not on the ballot …but the Times Editorial Board makes Deasy a litmus test for their endorsement. He is their indispensable man – with a cult of personality attached - as long as having an unblinking monomaniacal focus on Value Added Teacher Assessment and Standardized Test Scores can be interpreted as a personality trait. Dr. Deasy is not on the ballot. But to paraphrase President Obama: Dr. Deasy deserves a vote. And that’s what we have. If Monica Garcia is defeated in District 2, if Steve Zimmer is re-elected in District 4 and a new board member is seated from District 6 Dr. Deasy’s days are numbered – July 1 probably being his last day. 4LAKids believes the electorate needs to re-write that previous sentence: “WHEN Monica Garcia is defeated, WHEN Steve Zimmer is re-elected and a new board member is seated from District 6 Dr. Deasy’s days are numbered …. ____________ Please read LA Times Endorsement Editorial – which follows – in its entirely. The pretzel logic applied in their endorsement of Monica Garcia twists+turns to a lesser extreme in their other endorsements. And please consider 4LAKids endorsements: DISTRICT 2: Contrary to previous threats, I will not be a write in candidate. 4LAKids endorsement is: Anyone but Monica! Personally I’m voting for Isabel Vazquez – but a vote for any other of the candidates on the ballot is a quantum improvement on the status quo for all the reasons The Times lists. Any vote against Monica matters! [And all seriousness aside: if you choose to vote for Monica please remember that your special date to vote is Wednesday March 6th!] The Times contends the candidates they oppose would set the district back years. QUESTION: Would those be the years with smaller class sizes? Librarians in libraries? Nurses in nurse’s offices? Counselors? Plant managers? Arts and Music and Health Ed? Quality Early Childhood Ed? Adult Ed? Clean restrooms? Reform is not a destination or a brand or an outcome – it’s a process. It’s like evolution – it’s been going on forever and will go on forever ….and would’ve gone on even if Darwin had raised Beagles rather than sailed on one. Change is inevitable; bring it on. DISTRICT 4: Steve Zimmer. Zimmer is the antithesis of Monica Garcia – he’s thoughtful and careful and inclusive. He listens. He respects. When faced with a difficult decision he agonizes. The Times criticizes him for having been sometimes ineffectual – but in a functional/respectful as opposed to dysfunctional/disrespectful Board of Ed his voice of reason and classroom experience will be needed. His opponent is a passionate supporter of Dr. Deasy, a ®ubberstamper of ®eform - a politician with springboard aspirations – supported by special interests, charter schools and – in case you didn’t notice: the billionaire mayor of New York City! DISTRICT 6: Maria Cano. Maria is a hard worker with a deep understanding-of and commitment-to her community and quality public education - and experience in internal LAUSD politics and how things work at Beaudry. The Times’ favorite is an excellent teacher teaching in a great program in a fine inner city school (in District 2). The kids need her in that classroom! And the other candidate is a favorite of special interests, charter schools and – in case you didn’t notice, the billionaire mayor of New York City! ¡Onward/Adelante! - smf Just when I was about to cancel my subscription: The Times' endorsement - GARCETTI FOR MAYOR! Pretzel Logic: L.A. TIMES ENDORSEMENTS FOR SCHOOL BOARD LA Times Editorial | http://lat.ms/VW4dpr February 15, 2013 :: The teachers union once had a virtual lock on the Los Angeles Unified school board, and the results weren't pretty. Truly awful schools operated without accountability; the board worked harder to please teachers than to protect students. Today, with more reform-oriented members on the board — thanks to the support of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and like-minded organizations — the situation is very different. Schools are working harder than ever to improve. Charter schools have been welcomed with open arms. Yet this still isn't the school board that L.A. Unified needs and deserves. At times, the reform movement is given to its own unproductive extremes. As a result, the board has switched from animosity toward charters to such a warm embrace that it fails to oversee them properly. A decade ago, the board did nothing for those disadvantaged students who were routinely channeled into vocational education instead of college-preparatory classes. But the reform adopted to address that — a policy requiring all students to pass college-prep courses with a grade of at least C — could prove just as damaging. Meanwhile, the close allies of United Teachers Los Angeles are as hostile to reform as ever. The reform camp whispers that if the union's allies gain a majority, they'll fire L.A. Unified's hard-charging superintendent, John Deasy. That would be a terrible mistake. We periodically disagree with Deasy and think that the board should be looking at some of his proposals more critically, but at the same time, his impatience with the status quo has brought welcome new energy to the district. Much better to have a superintendent who occasionally needs to be reined in than one who isn't striving, every day, to improve the future for impoverished black and Latino students. ENDORSEMENTS: Los Angeles City Elections 2013 In other words, the current board is sharply divided along ideological lines, with members too often focused on scoring political points and talking as though they're channeling either UTLA leadership or the most rigid of reformers, rather than thinking independently to come up with rational ideas that advance the cause of sound education. We would prefer to see more candidates who fall between the two ideological poles, but the realities of L.A. Unified politics sometimes make this impossible. In March, voters will choose board members for three of the seven seats. Elections are by district. Steve Zimmer, who is generally considered to be more union-aligned but who does not follow a strict line one way or the other, is trying to keep his seat in District 4; board President Monica Garcia, the most closely allied with the mayor and the reform movement, also is up for reelection. Nury Martinez is leaving the board to pursue an opening on the Los Angeles City Council. District 2: Monica Garcia We'll be upfront about this: We consider Garcia a poor choice for the school board, and we always have. In her last reelection bid, we endorsed her only because there were no candidates running against her. Now, thorn in the side of UTLA that she is, she faces four opponents, three of them endorsed by the union. UTLA leadership is reportedly ready to go all out to unseat Garcia, and the moneyed sources that back school reform are waging a fierce battle to keep her. New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg alone donated $1 million to help Garcia and the other reform candidates. To give her due credit, as board president Garcia has shortened the once unwieldy meetings, and she is known for the long hours and dedication she puts into her job. Her steady support for reform, though we sometimes disagree with her, is preferable to the knee-jerk positions of the union-allied board members who consistently block charter schools and fight any efforts to hold teachers accountable. But Garcia is a divisive and sometimes careless force on the board who lacks grace and thoughtfulness as its leader. Her positions seem less considered than reactive. Her concerns over whether schools are improving have not extended to underperforming charter schools, and her response when challenged on this is simply unacceptable: She says the district doesn't have enough money to oversee the charters properly and she doesn't want to do more to police them. Likewise, her retort about a serious conflict of interest involving former Supt. Ramon C. Cortines — "I don't know what is interesting here," she said in an interview with The Times' editorial board — reflects a dismissiveness and lack of basic understanding that is truly disturbing. Yet we see no real alternative. The three UTLA-backed candidates spout typical anti-reform rhetoric and would set the district back years. We had hopes for Isabel Vazquez, a first-grade teacher in the district who is backed by neither UTLA nor big-money reformers. She espouses a more balanced and nuanced approach to improving schools and has a refreshing ground-level perspective on how reform plays out in the classroom. But Vazquez has made it clear that she would not vote to extend Deasy's contract once it expires. That's too great an obstacle to overlook. If it were clear that Deasy had enough support on the board to protect him, Vazquez's position might be a minor issue, but his situation is potentially precarious. The superintendent is far more important to the schools than the quality of any single board member. District 4: Kate Anderson Anderson, who has worked in politics more than in education, is clearly a reform-minded candidate. She opposes some teacher seniority rules and supports legislation making it easier to fire abusive teachers. But she also demonstrates the intellectual ability to form her own opinions and articulates strong and varied positions on education that don't always hew to the straight reform agenda. She is an attorney who works for Children Now, a nonprofit advocacy group on children's issues, including both health and education. She is the stronger of the two candidates in District 4, which includes the Westside and the west San Fernando Valley. Her opponent, incumbent Steve Zimmer, has been a thoughtful board member with a yearning to bridge the gap between union and reform camps, but he has fallen short in the execution of his goals, with proposals that smacked of trying to please union bosses. Zimmer's proposal to tighten oversight of charter schools, for example — a reform that's badly needed — came with a poison-pill provision establishing a moratorium on all new charters until the district developed a new monitoring system. That wasn't just a destructive attack on charter schools; it was almost certainly illegal under state law. As a result, an important proposal went down in flames. We have some concerns about Anderson as well. In her work with Children Now, she fought for legislation on teacher dismissals that she clearly didn't fully understand, and, in an interview with the editorial board, gave an inaccurate description of how it would work. She was quick to own up to the mistake, but it's disturbing that a lawyer would lobby for a bill without having vetted it thoroughly. If elected, she'll need to do better. District 6: Monica Ratliff Ratliff, a fifth-grade teacher at an inner-city L.A. Unified school that has steadily raised its standardized test scores, has the background, smarts and independence of mind to become a true leader in the district. A former lawyer for a public-interest legal organization, she switched to teaching 12 years ago. All but one of the students at her school, San Pedro Street Elementary, are impoverished and most are not fluent in English, according to the state's database, yet the school's most recent Academic Performance Index score was 814, above the state target of 800. Obviously Ratliff knows how a successful public school operates, and she expresses a strong belief that schools cannot cite their students' disadvantaged backgrounds as an excuse for low achievement. She has practical suggestions for improving teacher training and evaluation, and she supports streamlining the procedure for firing perpetual underperformers, but in ways that are fair to teachers as well. She also calls for a longer time period before teachers gain tenure. Personable, articulate and sharp, she strikes us as a candidate who would think her positions through carefully and debate with an open mind. If only there were more candidates like her running for the school board. All three candidates in this district, which includes the East San Fernando Valley, have UTLA's support. Ratliff's opponents, Antonio Sanchez and Maria Cano, are engaging enough but come off as lightweight, and they cannot match Ratliff's energy, thoughtfulness and thorough grasp of district issues. Cano has trouble even answering questions directly. Sanchez, who worked in Villaraigosa's office and then for the L.A. Federation of Labor, has the mayor's support, but he's far from ready for a seat on the school board. His understanding of district issues is shallow; he tends to provide answers that are politically expedient — trying to give both sides what they want, even when that's not possible — rather than making the tough decisions. He offers little in the way of new or workable ideas. ____________ They say the times are changing but I just don't know These things are gone forever over a long time ago. - Steely Dan: Pretzel Logic LAUSD’S DEASY, UNION SPAR OVER TEACHER EVALUATION MEASURES A HIGH-PROFILE TEACHER EVALUATION AGREEMENT WAS BUT DAYS OLD FRIDAY WHEN LOS ANGELES UNIFIED SUPERINTENDENT JOHN DEASY AND THE DISTRICT’S TEACHERS UNION EXPRESSED SHARP DISAGREEMENT OVER A CONTENTIOUS PROVISION By John Fensterwald, EdSource Today | http://bit.ly/Z678ZS February 16th, 2013 :: United Teachers Los Angeles accused Deasy of breaking a binding agreement by requiring that “data-driven” measures of student achievement be given a “weight limited to 30 percent” of a teacher’s final evaluation. Deasy referred to the figure in guidelines he issued to principals on how to conduct evaluations. In a statement, he said that classroom observations and other similar factors “will remain the primary and controlling factors.” Deasy “is free to express his opinions, but any attempt to require principals to assign a specific weight to student test data in a teacher’s evaluation is a violation of the protections in an agreement between UTLA and the District,” UTLA responded in a statement. The dispute came three days after LAUSD’s school board ratified the evaluation agreement that the district and UTLA reached in November. Under a court-ordered deadline, both sides agreed to include measures of student academic progress, including the use of state standardized test scores. UTLA members ratified the agreement last month. That agreement did not mention specific percentages for the components of an evaluation. It said that scores on California Standards Tests and other non-state test measures, including district assessments and samples of students’ work, “are to be considered an important but clearly limited part of the overall performance evaluation process.” They are not to be considered the “sole, primary or controlling factors” in a final evaluation. A maximum 30 percent weight for gauging student performance would appear a reasonable reading of the agreement, but UTLA argues that’s for principals, working with teachers, to determine on a site-by-site basis, not for Deasy to dictate. Deasy, in his memo, was asserting the authority to set a uniform standard for administrators. Deasy had called for using a district-developed, value-added method of interpreting a teacher’s impact on students’ test scores, taking into account a student’s family income and ethnicity. It’s called Academic Growth over Time, and the UTLA succeeded in keeping it out of the agreement on individual teachers’ evaluations. Some UTLA members wanted standardized tests scores excluded altogether, but the union had no choice. A Los Angeles Superior Court judge ruled last fall that current state law on teacher evaluations, known as the Stull Act, requires that students’ state standardized test results be used in evaluating teachers. Judge James Chalfant left it to UTLA and the district to negotiate details. What happens next may be determined in the school board elections on March 5, with candidates supporting Deasy and those backed by UTLA competing for three open seats. A handful of wealthy donors, led by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s $1 million contribution, have given more than $2.5 million to pro-Deasy candidates. Meanwhile, the Sacramento-based non-profit that brought the suit dealing with the Stull Act issued a cautious statement on Deasy’s guidelines to principals. “The key question is whether or not the actual progress of pupils toward grade level expectations is included as part of the job performance evaluation. If indeed it is, it’s a historic day for LAUSD,” wrote Bill Lucia, CEO of EdVoice. EdVoice has reserved the right to return to court if the agreement falters. Deasy said in his statement that all principals will be trained in using a multi-measure evaluation system by the start of 2013-14. “I look forward to working with the teachers’ union and principals in successfully implementing this system.” LAUSD STATEMENT: ►Superintendent Issues Doe V. Deasy Guidelines DATA ON PUPIL PROGRESS NOW A FACTOR IN TEACHER EVALUATION http://bit.ly/ZiErNa February 15, 2013 LOS ANGELES – Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) Superintendent John Deasy today issued guidelines to all principals in the District to take steps to comply with the Doe v Deasy court ruling. Effective immediately, LAUSD administrators must explicitly include and consider data of pupil progress during the initial goal-setting phase with teachers and used when determining the overall performance in the final evaluation. In the released guidance to principals, the assessment of student progress and other student data-driven results will carry a weight limited to 30% of the total evaluation determination. Observed classroom performance and other similar factors will remain the primary and controlling factors. “These guidelines are a vital step in our continuing effort to provide students with the highest-performing teachers,” said Deasy. “I look forward to working with the teacher’s union and principals in successfully implementing this system.” This directive is a result of the Supplement Agreement ratified by members of UTLA on January 19, 2013 and adopted by the LAUSD Board of Education on February 12, 2013. The Supplemental Agreement was reached in response to the Doe v. Deasy Court Order enforcing the requirements of the Stull Act, which compel the District to evaluate teacher performance as it reasonably relates to student growth and progress toward District standards and State standards for pupil achievement, as measured by State-adopted criterion-referenced student testing results under the California State Testing program (the “CSTs”). The District has consistently maintained that measures of student achievement should not be used as the sole means of measuring quality or effectiveness of instruction. By the start of the 2013/14 school year, all principals will be trained to implement a full multiple-measure system, which includes the pupil progress factor (or Contributions to Student Outcomes), comprised of both individual classroom level and school-wide assessment of pupil progress. Details about the other measures include in the full multiple-measure system will be released throughout the remainder of the school year, as discussions with the District’s labor partners progress, and as policy and implementation decisions are finalized. “It is critical that we not only learn from the classrooms and schools where exceptional teaching and learning is taking place, but that we provide an organized opportunity for teachers to receive useful feedback about their practice and provide meaningful pathways. UTLA RESPONSE: ►NO PERCENTAGES IN TEACHER EVALUATIONS http://www.utla.net/node/3982 UTLA issued the following statement on the teacher evaluation implementation process. Feb 15, 2013- Superintendent John Deasy may not unilaterally impose percentages into the teacher evaluation process. He is free to express his opinions, but any attempt to require principals to assign a specific weight to student test data in a teacher’s evaluation is a violation of the protections in an agreement between UTLA and the District. The Evaluation Procedures Supplement agreement reached in November complies with the Doe v Deasy court order, while not setting any percentages. Our members ratified that agreement in January and UTLA is adamant that the Superintendent live up to the terms and spirit of that agreement. UTLA President Warren Fletcher said, “The Superintendent doesn’t get to sign binding agreements and then pretend they are not binding.” Deasy wanted 30% of a teacher’s evaluation to be based solely on student test scores. UTLA pushed back during negotiations and the Superintendent took that off the table. To see this percentage now being floated again is unacceptable. We believe principals and teachers are in the best position to determine how student test data should be considered in each teacher’s individual evaluation process. Our negotiating team bargained in good faith to bring back an agreement to our members that included multiple measures of student progress and did not include the use of individual AGT (Academic Growth Over Time) scores as part of a teacher’s final evaluation. The agreement has been seen as a model for other school districts in the nation. We do not wish to see the evaluation process set back by the Superintendent’s personal agenda. ►Additional coverage: Deasy wants 30% of teacher evaluations based on test scores Los Angeles Times | http://lat.ms/VXrPde LAUSD issues guidelines on teacher evaluations, sparking new controversy 89.3 KPCC (blog) | http://bit.ly/XFNX6t LAUSD to count student test scores as 30 percent of teachers' evaluation Contra Costa Times/LA Daily News‎ | ‎http://bit.ly/UslHbs EDUCATION REFORM - IT’S REALLY ABOUT POLITICS, POWER AND PROFIT EDUCATION REFORM - IT’S REALLY ABOUT POLITICS, POWER AND PROFIT Associated Administrators of Los Angeles Weekly Update | Week of February 18, 2013 | http://bit.ly/XPSQ0w 14 February 2013 :: New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg donated $1 million to the Coalition for School Reform, which, according to its website, is “a group of parents, educators and business and nonprofit leaders dedicated to reforming and improving public schools in the LA Unified School District.” The reality is that the Coalition is controlled by a few very wealthy donors who are campaigning for three specific candidates in the upcoming race for seats on the Board of Education: Mónica García, Kate Anderson and Antonio Sanchez. Prior to the donation from Mayor Bloomberg, in a deal brokered by Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, the Coalition’s largest donors were Eli Broad, philanthropist, and Jerry Perenchio, former head of Univision. Each of them contributed a mere $250,000. A total of more than $2.5 million has been raised by a small cadre to influence the outcome of this Board race. The Los Angeles Times (February 13, 2013) said that the group “is seeking … to protect Superintendent John Deasy’s policies…” By (1) ensuring the defeat of Steve Zimmer, whom AALA supports; (2) eliminating the chance of a run-off between Ms. Garcia and AALA endorsees, Robert Skeels or Isabel Vázquez; and (3) preventing the election of either Monica Ratliff or Maria Cano, both of whom AALA has endorsed, the Coalition will guarantee that Dr. Deasy receives little Board opposition to his initiatives. According to the Los Angeles Ethics Office, additional donors to the Coalition for School Reform include: • Jamie Alter Lynton, wife of the CEO of Sony Pictures, board member of L.A. Fund, $100,000 • Elizabeth Alter, $100,000 • Meg Chernin, CEO of L.A. Fund, wife of former president of News Corp. (owned by Rupert Murdoch), $100,000 • Andrew Hauptman, board member of L.A. Fund and BSN SPORTS, the largest manufacturer, marketer and distributor of sporting goods products directly to the institutional and team sports marketplace, $50,000 • John Kissick, board member of L.A.’s Promise (“manages” West Adams and Manual Arts high schools and John Muir MS), $50,000 • Emerson Education Fund, Walnut Creek, $100,000 • David Fisher, CEO of The Capital Group, $37,500; Marianna J. Fisher, $12,500 • Jane and Marc Nathanson, Chairman of Mapleton Investments, $100,000 • Frank Marshall, board member of L.A.’s Promise, Hollywood producer, husband of Kathleen Kennedy, $100,000 • Jeffrey Katzenberg, CEO of DreamWorks Animation, $50,000 According to KPCC, Southern California public radio station, Mrs. Chernin has solicited and received significant individual financial support for Mónica García from Hollywood players, such as Kathleen Kennedy, Jeffrey Katzenberg, Wes Craven, David Geffen and others. Joel Klein, former NYC Schools Chancellor and current head of Rupert Murdoch’s education division, Amplify, has donated to the Coalition. Murdoch also owns Wireless Generation, part of Amplify, a leading provider of innovative education software, data systems, and assessment tools. Maybe that is why Rupert Murdoch says, “Public education is a $500 billion market waiting desperately to be transformed.” Why is the mayor of New York so interested in LAUSD? Why are other wealthy, politically connected entrepreneurs who have no children in the District trying to buy an election? How did Michael Bloomberg become, according to Mayor Villaraigosa, “the most important voice in education reform today”? How did these people, who have not been in a school, since college, get to be education reformers? The answers are complex and unsettling and speak to the increased privatization of public education. In light of the relationships cited above, and being aware that Los Angeles is not the only city in which this is occurring, it is no surprise that many of these education reformers influence policies and regulations that have improved the bottom line of their corporate benefactors, bringing the culture and values of the corporate world into school districts across the nation. For example, mandated testing has become a major industry. A nonprofit resource center, In the Public Interest, recently released information showing how some school reformers in Texas had urged school districts to use a company in which some of the donors had large investments. As a group, many of the so-called reformers advocate for charter schools, the takeover of low-performing schools and rating teachers and administrators based on test scores. They generally support efforts to reduce the influence of employee unions in elections. In New York, the mayor controls the schools and, fortunately, the L.A. mayor was unsuccessful in his attempt to do so during his first term. Is the Coalition for School Reform another route to the same goal? The Los Angeles Times article had a particularly insightful quote from Dr. Diane Ravitch, noted researcher and professor at NYU, “The prospect that the mayor of New York City might use his vast wealth to choose the school board for the people of Los Angeles is repugnant and an affront to democracy.” We, at AALA, agree and find it disturbing and distasteful that the District is trying to be bought by a handful of people who are bent on permanently changing the face of public education to the detriment of the very children it serves. ________________ ••smf: We have followed the money. We have connected the dots. What does this all mean? And how to we use this information For "Good”? • The Coalition for School Reform is a SuperPAC – as identified in the infamous Citizens United Decision. • The Coalition for School Reform (technically the Coalition for School Reform to Support Garcia, Anderson and Sanchez for Board of Education 2013) – was the Coalition for School Reform to Support Sanchez 2011 in the last election (Different Sanchez). In 2011 they substantially outspent their opponent and the PAC’s that supported him in that race – and lost. Because it isn’t about the money – it’s about the message, the activism of the support, and the votes cast. Karl Rove's infamous SuperPAC: American Crossroads raised and spent $105 million dollars in last November’s national election. • No candidate they supported was elected. Success rate 0%. • Only 1,29% of the candidates they opposed were defeated, Success rate (in the negative) 1.29%, • Moral of the Story: If you have Hope – and you have the truth on your side, there is Hope. Because in a democracy the majority, not the money, rules. THE STATE OF THE UNION: Early Childhood Ed, Career+Technical Education and STEM, Higher Ed, Gun Violence and Citizenship Excerpts from Tuesday night’s State of the Union Address by President Obama | 2013 State of the Union Address: An annotated transcript | Marketplace.org http://bit.ly/12fSF2f Lincoln’s Birthday, February 12, 2013 • ON EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION Study after study shows that the sooner a child begins learning, the better he or she does down the road. But today, fewer than 3 in 10 four year-olds are enrolled in a high-quality preschool program. Most middle-class parents can’t afford a few hundred bucks a week for private preschool. And for poor kids who need help the most, this lack of access to preschool education can shadow them for the rest of their lives. Tonight, I propose working with states to make high-quality preschool available to every child in America. Every dollar we invest in high-quality early education can save more than seven dollars later on – by boosting graduation rates, reducing teen pregnancy, even reducing violent crime. In states that make it a priority to educate our youngest children, like Georgia or Oklahoma, studies show students grow up more likely to read and do math at grade level, graduate high school, hold a job, and form more stable families of their own. So let’s do what works, and make sure none of our children start the race of life already behind. Let’s give our kids that chance. • ON CAREER+TECHNICAL EDUCATION AND STEM Let’s also make sure that a high school diploma puts our kids on a path to a good job. Right now, countries like Germany focus on graduating their high school students with the equivalent of a technical degree from one of our community colleges, so that they’re ready for a job. At schools like P-Tech in Brooklyn, a collaboration between New York Public Schools, the City University of New York, and IBM, students will graduate with a high school diploma and an associate degree in computers or engineering. We need to give every American student opportunities like this. Four years ago, we started Race to the Top – a competition that convinced almost every state to develop smarter curricula and higher standards, for about 1 percent of what we spend on education each year. Tonight, I’m announcing a new challenge to redesign America’s high schools so they better equip graduates for the demands of a high-tech economy. We’ll reward schools that develop new partnerships with colleges and employers, and create classes that focus on science, technology, engineering, and math – the skills today’s employers are looking for to fill jobs right now and in the future. • ON HIGHER EDUCATION Now, even with better high schools, most young people will need some higher education. It’s a simple fact: the more education you have, the more likely you are to have a job and work your way into the middle class. But today, skyrocketing costs price way too many young people out of a higher education, or saddle them with unsustainable debt. Through tax credits, grants, and better loans, we have made college more affordable for millions of students and families over the last few years. But taxpayers cannot continue to subsidize the soaring cost of higher education. Colleges must do their part to keep costs down, and it’s our job to make sure they do. Tonight, I ask Congress to change the Higher Education Act, so that affordability and value are included in determining which colleges receive certain types of federal aid. And tomorrow, my Administration will release a new “College Scorecard” that parents and students can use to compare schools based on a simple criteria: where you can get the most bang for your educational buck. To grow our middle class, our citizens must have access to the education and training that today’s jobs require. But we also have to make sure that America remains a place where everyone who’s willing to work hard has the chance to get ahead. Of course, what I’ve said tonight matters little if we don’t come together to protect our most precious resource – our children. • ON GUN VIOLENCE It has been two months since Newtown. I know this is not the first time this country has debated how to reduce gun violence. But this time is different. Overwhelming majorities of Americans – Americans who believe in the 2nd Amendment – have come together around commonsense reform – like background checks that will make it harder for criminals to get their hands on a gun. Senators of both parties are working together on tough new laws to prevent anyone from buying guns for resale to criminals. Police chiefs are asking our help to get weapons of war and massive ammunition magazines off our streets, because they are tired of being outgunned. Each of these proposals deserves a vote in Congress. If you want to vote no, that’s your choice. But these proposals deserve a vote. Because in the two months since Newtown, more than a thousand birthdays, graduations, and anniversaries have been stolen from our lives by a bullet from a gun. One of those we lost was a young girl named Hadiya Pendleton. She was 15 years old. She loved Fig Newtons and lip gloss. She was a majorette. She was so good to her friends, they all thought they were her best friend. Just three weeks ago, she was here, in Washington, with her classmates, performing for her country at my inauguration. And a week later, she was shot and killed in a Chicago park after school, just a mile away from my house. Hadiya’s parents, Nate and Cleo, are in this chamber tonight, along with more than two dozen Americans whose lives have been torn apart by gun violence. They deserve a vote. Gabby Giffords deserves a vote. The families of Newtown deserve a vote. The families of Aurora deserve a vote. The families of Oak Creek, and Tucson, and Blacksburg, and the countless other communities ripped open by gun violence – they deserve a simple vote. Our actions will not prevent every senseless act of violence in this country. Indeed, no laws, no initiatives, no administrative acts will perfectly solve all the challenges I’ve outlined tonight. But we were never sent here to be perfect. We were sent here to make what difference we can, to secure this nation, expand opportunity, and uphold our ideals through the hard, often frustrating, but absolutely necessary work of self-government. We were sent here to look out for our fellow Americans the same way they look out for one another, every single day, usually without fanfare, all across this country. • ON CITIZENSHIP We may do different jobs, and wear different uniforms, and hold different views than the person beside us. But as Americans, we all share the same proud title: We are citizens. It’s a word that doesn’t just describe our nationality or legal status. It describes the way we’re made. It describes what we believe. It captures the enduring idea that this country only works when we accept certain obligations to one another and to future generations; that our rights are wrapped up in the rights of others; and that well into our third century as a nation, it remains the task of us all, as citizens of these United States, to be the authors of the next great chapter in our American story. Thank you, God bless you, and God bless the United States of America. HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T FIT: The Rest (but not necessarily the best) of the Stories from Other Sources FEATURED: First, Protect the Children: REPORT EXCORIATES L.A. COUNTY AGENCY IN CHILD DEATHS Thirteen recent child deaths might not have happened if Department of Children and Family Services social workers had taken basic steps to assess the risks, an investigation finds. By Jason Song and Garrett Therolf, Los Angeles Times | http://bit.ly/Uvdt2m ____________________ GPA CAN BE CONTAGIOUS AMONG HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS, STUDY FINDS By Karen Kaplan, L.A. Times |  http://bit.ly/Zkv5kd     UTLA WINS RIGHT TO REPRESENT VALLEY CHARTER SCHOOL: -- Howard Blume - http://latimes.com  http://lat.ms/VnYjee  ... http://bit.ly/XhHEIR |     OBAMA URGES BIG PRESCHOOL PUSH IN STATE OF THE UNION + WHITE HOUSE OUTLINES PRESCHOOL PLAN: Obama Urges Big Pres... http://bit.ly/WALOLG     CALIFORNIA DROPS OUT OF ELL ASSESSMENT CONSORTIUM: By Lesli A. Maxwell - Learning the Language - Education Week ... http://bit.ly/XhvX4V     HARASSMENT SUIT AGAINST EX-LAUSD HEAD DISMISSED: The Associated Press | Times-Standard Online http://bit.ly/XGb ... http://bit.ly/XhtO9l     API REWRITE GETTING FAST TRACKED, GRAD RATES COME FIRST: By Kimberly Beltran SI&A Cabinet Report – News & Resour... http://bit.ly/12vDwKn     BROWN’S BUDGET PLAN TAKES ANOTHER SHOT AT ELIMINATING BIP MANDATE FOR SPECIAL ED STUDENTS:   By Lee Funk | SI... http://bit.ly/VtjUVb     HOLDING STATES AND SCHOOLS ACCOUNTABLE: Debate Over Federal Role in Public School Policy: News Analysis By MOTOK... http://bit.ly/12TS81F     LAUSD PETITIONS FOR SWEEPING RELIEF FROM QEIA CLASS SIZE REQUIREMENTS + smf’s 2¢:   By Tom Chorneau | SI&A Ca... http://bit.ly/VtfGNr     LA Times: “We'll be upfront about this: We consider Garcia a poor choice for the school board…” but we’re endor... http://bit.ly/XL8wlN     SCHOOL BOARD CANDIDATES DEBATE BLOOMBERG’S $1 MILLION DONATION: -- Howard Blume /LA Times/LA Now | http://... http://bit.ly/XbTdBp     The Spin, The Spin!: LAUSD, DEASY FIND SOLUTION TO SAVE 200+ JOBS + smf’s 2¢:   http://abc7.com  http://bit.... http://bit.ly/XbTfZZ     IS OKLAHOMA THE RIGHT MODEL FROR UNIVERSAL PRE-K?: Posted by Suzy Khimm , Washington Post WonkBlog  | http://wap... http://bit.ly/Wr31Hp     L.A. UNIFIED SCHOOL BOARD RACE COULD BREAK FUNDRAISING RECORDS THIS ELECTION: Adolfo Guzman-Lopez | Pass / Fail ... http://bit.ly/UjrQ9C     #MikeBloomberg trying to buy the #LAUSD Board of Ed election: "If parents don't like the way I run the schools they can boo me in parades!"     UTLA TO EXPAND TEACHER TRAINING CAMP FOR MANAGING SCHOOLS: ●●smf: Who will train parents in the shared-managemen... http://bit.ly/12l1F6d     CORTINES CLAIMS STATUTE OF LIMITATIONS HAS EXPIRED ON ALLEGED HARASSMENT: Judge may dismiss sex lawsuit against ... http://bit.ly/12kFBZB     MONICA GARCIA + L.A. FUND FOR PUBLIC EDUCATION REMOVE OFFENSIVE, ILLEGITIMATE, UNETHICAL & SELF–SERVING BILLBOAR... http://bit.ly/12C3dnV     @MikeBloomberg: The 2013 State of the City address will be at noon Thurs 2/14 at the @barclayscenter. Q:How well is that LAUSD buyout going?     "It's not fair, ' K?" - Video: Kindergartener asks board not to close his school http://bit.ly/12LKMSj  [See http://bit.ly/11Gpo1l  ]     POTUS: "Every $1 we invest in ECE can save more than $7 later on by boosting grad rates/reducing teen pregnancy/even reducing violent crime"     THE STATE OF THE UNION: Early Childhood Ed, Career+Technical Education and STEM, Higher Ed, Gun Violence and Cit... http://bit.ly/XAiFSe     The schools of L.A. for sale to the highest bidder?: N.Y. MAYOR GIVES $1 MILLION TO BACK L.A. SCHOOL BOARD SLATE... http://bit.ly/V9nALO     Ravitch: The prospect that the NYC mayor might use his vast wealth to choose the school board for LA is repugnant & an affront to democracy.     Tamar Galatzan: L.A. SCHOOLS NEED TECHNOLOGY, BUT HOW SHOULD WE PAY FOR IT? + smf’s 2¢: Op-Ed By Tamar Galatzan ... http://bit.ly/12eiVKu     PARENT TRIGGER PETITION PASSES LAUSD SCHOOL BOARD: By Beau Yarbrough - San Bernardino County Sun | http://... http://bit.ly/Uc3sa4     Mayor Mike picks up where Mayor Tony leaves off(ice): NEW YORK CITY MAYOR BLOOMBERG POURS $1 MILLION INTO LAUSD ... http://bit.ly/XxBNAj     On a wing and a prayer: $100K GIFT KEEPS LAUSD AVIATION MECHANICS SCHOOL IN VAN NUYS ALOFT:   L.A. Unified avia... http://bit.ly/XxBNAe     Deasy+Monica Blink/Nuri absent: LAUSD Supe & Board of Ed has pulled the 208 proposed RIFs. School psychs, social workers, librarians saved!     LAUSD SCHOOL BOARD TO CONSIDER LAYING OFF NEARLY 200: smf: When I do the math 208 is more than 200! Vanessa Rom... http://bit.ly/WZ3QY5     School Board on School Mental Health: “DON’T BELIEVE WHAT WE DO …BELIEVE WHAT WE BELIEVE!”: “Everybody has to be... http://bit.ly/12sDLkI     SCHOOL BOARD EXPECTED TO VOTE TOMORROW TO CUT MORE THAN 200 POSITIONS: psychiatric social workers, school psycho... http://bit.ly/12oVo4Z     BAD NEWS FROM SACRAMENTO: By dianerav @ the Diane Ravitch blog | http://bit.ly/XDAttB  February 10, 2013  ::  A ... http://bit.ly/U7eUUm     OUTSIDE GROUPS TRYING TO INFLUENCE L.A. SCHOOL BOARD RACES. Eli Broad’s in for a quarter-of-a-million + smf’s 2¢... http://bit.ly/U5TZkr 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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