They make orange jumpsuits for stuff like this …don’t they?

4LAKids: Sunday 26•June•2016 In This Issue:  •  EDUCATION ORGANIZATIONS MERGE TO EXPAND PROGRAMS IN LOS ANGELES COUNTY  •  FUND SET UP TO RAISE MONEY FOR L.A. UNIFIED MERGES WITH GROUP STARTING TWO CHARTER SCHOOLS  •  UNDER PRESSURE TO PRODUCE BETTER NUMBERS, SCHOOL OFFICIALS IN CALIFORNIA AND NATIONWIDE HAVE OFTEN DONE WHATEVER IT TAKES TO GET TO THOSE NUMBERS  •  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:  •  ► Friends4smf :: The GoFundMe campaign  •  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. Sometimes it isn’t about what went wrong at LAUSD last week. Sometimes [hopefully] it's about what went right/turned out well/shows promise. And sometimes it's about what’s been going on, institutionally …or just in the fringes – not below the radar -but certainly in the chaff. This week it’s a homework assignment+research project about two entities: THE L.A. FUND FOR PUBLIC EDUCATION. [lafund.org] and LA’s PROMISE [laspromise.org] FIRST: Read that first two articles (following). Consider the sources. . Google the two funds. Wikipedia them. Look up their Form 990’s. Copy your work to Julian Assange & Edward Snowden …though they undoubtedly already know – a secrets go this one isn't very! Add 4LAKids to the search string (…I'm one of my favorite authors on the subject!) As you dig into the sordid tale you will discover this is part of the SONY Pictures e-mail hack by North Korean cyber hackers! LAUSD shenanigans; the international incident! Please do the research. Please do the homework. Please tell me if you don't conclude that: 1. THE L.A. FUND FOR PUBLIC EDUCATION and L.A.’s PROMISE are and always have been pretty much the same entity/cast o’ characters/unusual suspects up to their usual mischief with as little of their own money and as much as the public’s as possible. 2. and that this “merger” is: A. a not-clever-enough-by-half way to “repurpose” tax-exempt donated funds intended to assist LAUSD schools+students TO B. assist charter schools+students …and to perhaps enrich the principals and further their goals, programs and business enterprises. Just sayin’. ¡Onward/Adelante! - smf EDUCATION ORGANIZATIONS MERGE TO EXPAND PROGRAMS IN LOS ANGELES COUNTY By Michael Janofsky | EdSource | http://bit.ly/28VnDnQ June 23, 2016 :: Two nonprofit educational organizations said Thursday they are merging, with plans to expand their programs that largely operate in the Los Angeles Unified school district to districts countywide. The two groups, LA’s Promise and the Los Angeles Fund for Public Education, said the new organization, the LA Promise Fund for Public Schools, will offer their current programs to the 80 other school districts within Los Angeles County, the most populous in California. The aim is to enhance academic and career prospects through enrichment programs for a greater number of students. “Today is day one,” said Veronica Melvin, the CEO of LA’s Promise, who will lead the new organization. “Our approach will be to engage one-on-one with superintendents or board members across the county to let them know how we can help them grow.” Thursday’s announcement is the second in recent months by private organizations embarking on a fundraising drive to help students in and around Los Angeles. It follows the creation of Great Public Schools Now, whose goal is to identify successful programs within L.A. Unified, the second-largest school district in the country, and replicate them through financial grants in high-poverty neighborhoods within the district. The two efforts are unrelated, but taken together, they reflect a willingness of outside organizations to aid public school districts at a time when many of them are pressing to balance a high demand for quality education with budgetary constraints. The L.A. Unified board this week approved a $7.6 billion budget for the coming school year, but district officials have warned of a possible deficit by 2018-2019. The new entity will continue to run three schools in south Los Angeles that have been managed by LA’s Promise since 2006. Those schools are the result of a negotiated arrangement with the district that differentiates them from traditional L.A.Unified schools in how they’re run in an effort to improve academic performance. The schools – two large South L.A. high schools (Manual Arts and West Adams Prep) and one middle school (John Muir) – have greater autonomy over budget, curriculum, instruction, schedule and staffing, but all employees are members of unions. The L.A. Unified board recently denied the group’s application to open two charter schools, a middle school for the coming school year and a high school for the 2017-18 school year, but that decision was overturned on appeal by the Los Angeles County Board of Education. The LA Fund managed a range of in-school programs throughout Los Angeles County, including Girls Build LA, an empowerment program that has reached more than 7,000 girls; The Intern Project, a paid internship program for high school students at companies like SpaceX and Participant Media; #ArtsMatter, an advocacy program that integrates arts and creativity into core curriculum; andGrants HQ, which offers personalized training and support to thousands of educators seeking additional classroom resources. Melvin said the new LA Promise Fund intends to spend the next three months identifying specific goals, strategies for implementing them and fundraising. Each of the merging organizations has an annual budget of $3 million. “Over the past several years, LA’s Promise and the LA Fund have both compiled impressive track records with programs that empower students both inside and outside the classroom,” Megan Chernin, who serves on the boards of both merging organizations, said in a statement. “The new enterprise formed by the combination of these two extraordinary organizations will be in a unique position to seed great programs that can then be developed and rolled out across the county.” Without specifically citing the new organization, L.A. unified Superintendent Michelle King said in a statement, “The District is always open to new strategies for improving our schools, and we look forward to discussions that will help us better serve our students.” FUND SET UP TO RAISE MONEY FOR L.A. UNIFIED MERGES WITH GROUP STARTING TWO CHARTER SCHOOLS by Howard Blume and Zahira Torres | LA Times | http://lat.ms/28WNuLr June 23, 2016 :: Former L.A. Unified Supt. John Deasy and Hollywood philanthropist Megan Chernin had ambitious goals in 2011 when they announced the creation of a nonprofit that in five years would raise $200 million for district students. see: EFFORT LAUNCHED TO RAISE $200 MILLION FOR L.A. PUBLIC SCHOOLS - latimes - http://lat.ms/28XEN8u They said the Los Angeles Fund for Education, with fundraising prowess and freedom from bureaucratic constraints, would help revolutionize a district that had long struggled to educate its children. The nonprofit fell far short of that fundraising goal, drawing about $7 million in donations from its inception to 2014, according to the most recent tax documents available. Now, the LA Fund has announced a merger that shifts its mission away from an exclusive focus on the district. The LA Fund has joined forces with LA’s Promise, a nonprofit that manages three district schools, to create LA Promise Fund, a new organization whose goals will include forming charter schools. “We were left no other option” but to open charter schools, said Chernin, who serves on the boards of both groups. “We just want to have a larger impact and we want to be more efficient about our impact.” Chernin said the merger is, in part, a reflection of the groups’ limited ability to work successfully with L.A. Unified, for which she faults the school district. The new nonprofit’s leaders say the decision also will reduce operating costs, allowing it to serve more students across the county who live in poverty. But the new direction offers another sign that philanthropists who were attempting to overhaul the nation’s second-largest school district from within now are looking for other avenues. “We want to create the maximum opportunities for the most disenfranchised youth of Los Angeles and we realized that together we could have a great impact,” said Veronica Melvin, the chief executive of LA’s Promise, who will head the new group. The decision comes as Los Angeles Unified contends with another reform effort, originally spearheaded by the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation, that sought to more than double the number of charter schools in the city over eight years, a move that would slash the district’s enrollment and state funding. That proposal evolved into a plan put forward last week by the nonprofit Great Public Schools Now, which says it wants to hand out grant money to expand not just charters but any effective schools in L.A.’s low-income neighborhoods – even potentially expanding good traditional public schools. The LA Promise Fund could be among the organizations that benefit. L.A. Unified officials recently rejected a bid by LA’s Promise to start two charter schools, saying the organization needed to concentrate instead on improving achievement at the schools it already manages for the district. The charters later were approved by the county. “I hope this new effort is about collaboration and not competition,” Board President Steve Zimmer said about the merger. “My door, our door, is always open to collaboration. What we’ve learned is that conflict and competition does not help kids.” Deasy came up with the LA Fund and pursued donors interested in seeing a specific set of reforms at the district. But after he resigned under pressure in October 2014, a political shift in the school board left donors who supported his goals without a powerful ally to pursue their favored reforms, which included making test scores a key factor in teacher evaluations and opening more charter schools. Some blamed Deasy’s departure for the LA Fund’s anemic fundraising. But even while he was in office, the donations didn’t pour in. To raise an amount like $200 million, “you have to be responsive, you have to work very carefully with your donors, you have to listen to your donors,” said Antonia Hernandez, president and CEO of the California Community Foundation, who said she applauds Chernin’s efforts and supports the merger. She added that previously “the conditions were not ideal for conveying a sense of confidence to the people giving money that it would be well spent.” The LA Fund helped launch Breakfast in the Classroom, a program to provide food to all students at the start of the school day, which brought in additional federal funding. Previously students had the option of arriving before school to receive a free breakfast. The fund also paid for an advertising campaign that stressed the importance of arts education and sponsored teams of girls at 44 schools that competed to develop solutions to community problems. Another of the nonprofit’s initiatives linked teachers to classroom grant opportunities and students to internships. Leaders of the newly merged organization say the projects will continue and will be open to schools throughout L.A. County. While L.A. Unified students are expected to derive some benefit, the mega-district now is left without an outside foundation devoted to supporting the 550,000 students in district-operated schools. By contrast, the target of the Beverly Hills Education Foundation is to raise an average of $1,000 per student, or about $4 million annually for its more than 4,000 students. The LA Promise Fund, which will have a budget of about $6 million, hopes to create a pipeline of schools, extending from kindergarten through 12th grade. “We wanted and would still love to do that with LAUSD, but it wasn’t on the table for us,” Chernin said. “So we figured we could create charters.” Times staff writer Joy Resmovits contributed to this report. ►LA TIMES EDITOR'S NOTE: The Times’ Education Matters initiative receives funding from a number of foundations, including one or more mentioned in this article. The California Community Foundation and United Way of Greater Los Angeles administer grants from the Baxter Family Foundation, the Broad Foundation, the California Endowment and the Wasserman Foundation. Under terms of the grants, The Times retains complete control over editorial content. UNDER PRESSURE TO PRODUCE BETTER NUMBERS, SCHOOL OFFICIALS IN CALIFORNIA AND NATIONWIDE HAVE OFTEN DONE WHATEVER IT TAKES TO GET TO THOSE NUMBERS Editorial by The LA Times Editorial Board | http://lat.ms/28WRk7n 26 June 2016 :: In 2014, the Los Angeles Unified School District announced a spectacular improvement in its graduation rate: Fully 77% of students who had come in as 9th graders four years earlier were now going to graduate as seniors. But there was a bit of a trick behind the number: It included only students who attended what are called “comprehensive” high schools. Those who had been transferred to alternative programs — the students most at risk of dropping out — weren’t counted. If they had been factored in, the rate would have been 67% — still good, but not nearly as flashy a number. Here’s another example of a misleading number: In May of this year, the California Department of Education reported a rise in the statewide graduation rate, to 82%. But one reason for that was the cancellation of the high school exit exam, which used to be required for graduation and which students could pass only if they had attained a modicum of understanding of algebra and English skills. In a time when most middle-class jobs require at least some training beyond 12th grade, raising the number of high school graduates is considered essential. Dropouts are not only more likely to be unemployed, but more likely to be imprisoned. That’s why the newly passed federal education law, optimistically titled the Every Student Succeeds Act, requires states to hold high schools accountable for improving graduation rates. The question, though, is whether schools will bring those numbers up the hard way, by improving the quality of education – or by falling back on shortcuts and gimmicks. Early indications suggest that they’ll do a combination of both. States and school districts, not just locally but across the nation, have already come up with a wide array of ways to make graduation rates look good on paper: -- When large numbers of students across the country failed high school exit exams over the past decade, states made it easier for them to pass. California devised a simpler test; in New Jersey, students who failed were permitted to take a far easier exam that asked them only one question for each subject area. And if they still failed, they could appeal by doing an essay or another project. Last year in Camden, N.J., after nearly half the students flunked the initial exam, almost all of them were able to get their diplomas through one of the other routes. -- Several states, including California, have eliminated their high school exit exams altogether. And California was among at least six states — including Texas and Georgia — to award retroactive diplomas to students who had failed their exit exams in previous years. -- In Chicago, low-performing public school students were counseled to leave school for job-training or graduate-equivalency programs, and then counted as transfers rather than dropouts. When an outcry ensued, the school district lowered its previously inflated graduation rates in 2015. --Texas allows schools to count students as “leavers” rather than dropouts if they say they’re moving elsewhere or doing home-schooling, without checking into whether those assertions are true. -- Perhaps the newest and most widespread method that schools are using to boost graduation rates are online credit-recovery courses such as the ones that L.A. Unified offered this academic year when only about 54% of seniors were on track to graduate. After a hefty dose of online credit-recovery courses and other efforts, the latest but still preliminary figure is now reported to be 74%. These courses can be rigorous and valuable educational tools – but they also sometimes allow students to too quickly and too easily make up the courses they have failed. Russell Rumberger, director of the California Dropout Research Project at UC Santa Barbara, is not a fan of measuring a school’s success by its graduation rate for precisely that reason: Doing so encourages schools to lower their standards or to use misleading numbers or to find ways to get failing students out of their schools without having to count them as dropouts. In any case, he says, “a diploma is a blunt instrument” for measuring learning; one study found that low-income students need to show better mastery of the material than merely a pass in order to have a real shot at reaching the middle class. Under pressure to produce better numbers, school officials in California and nationwide have often done whatever it takes to get to those numbers. Like it or not, Rumberger says, higher standards — such as those in the Common Core curriculum standards recently adopted in California and most other states — tend to mean lower graduation rates, and it’s disingenuous for states to say they can raise both at once, and quickly. It’s not that schools, including those at L.A. Unified, haven’t made some authentic progress in graduating more students. The district deserves credit for taking steps to follow up on absent students before they become chronically truant. It has eliminated out-of-school suspensions for relatively minor misbehavior. (Rumberger was involved in a recent study showing that suspension increases a student’s risk of dropping out.) These days, high school staff at many schools seem to be more personally familiar with students than they used to be, and the students in turn seem more comfortable interacting with the adults. Counselors more often take the initiative, sitting students down to talk about how they will make up missing credits. And the district has been offering after-school and Saturday makeup classes as well as the online credit-recovery courses. But under pressure to produce better numbers, school officials in California and nationwide have often done whatever it takes to get to those numbers, including lowering standards while pretending to raise them, and reclassifying students instead of educating them. These students then go on to college or the workplace, mistakenly thinking they have the skills they’ll need. The irony is that the school-reform movement that has been leading the push for higher graduation rates got its start years ago in a struggle to raise academic standards. It arose in response to complaints from employers that a high school diploma hardly meant anything anymore. School reformers and Chamber of Commerce representatives complained that high school graduates couldn’t pass the written test to become delivery drivers or construction apprentices. Standardized tests, including high school exit exams, were supposed to ensure that students reached at least a minimal level of proficiency. But schools in some areas — Texas and New York City were infamous examples — started pushing out low-performing students. That led to greater recognition that schools nationwide were, if not going as far as Texas by actively discouraging the students who most needed their help, also not doing much to get them to stay and raise their academic ambitions. The federal No Child Left Behind Act, which never did much to encourage higher graduation rates, might be dead, but its successor will have little chance of succeeding if policymakers aren’t realistic about the work and patience required to raise standards, test scores and graduation rates. It’s slow, hard, incremental work without magic solutions, and improved numbers aren’t always evidence of better-educated students. This piece is the second in a two-part series. Read part one here. HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T FIT: The Rest (but not necessarily the best) of the Stories from Other Sources NEW STATE AGENCY GETS INFUSION OF $24 MILLION TO PROMOTE SCHOOL SUCCESS + LCFF ACCOUNTABILITY | EdSource | https://t.co/PGjYqhI17f PARENTS+PRINCIPALS WILL WEIGH IN ON PROP 39 CHARTER CO-LOCATIONS AT L.A. SCHOOL CAMPUSES | LA Times | https://t.co/jfEsKCIOZx Were they ever really two groups?: FUND SET UP TO RAISE $200 MILLION FOR LAUSD MERGES WITH CHARTER GROUP | LA Times | https://t.co/RcLL7TR2wX JUST IN: Teacher jail numbers rise to 181, costing LA Unified $15 million - LA School Report | https://t.co/ewJzuliadE FIVE SIGNS OF A PRIVATIZED CHARTER SCHOOL | @TPM | http://talkingpointsmemo.com/fivepoints/five-signs-of-privatized-charter-school | https://t.co/jJCnTYWpgV… ROY COHN: WHAT DONALD TRUMP LEARNED FROM JOE McCARTHY'S RIGHT HAND MAN | NY Times | https://t.co/x6giA07F60 BILL GATES HINTS AT SUPPORT FOR CLINTON | https://t.co/LDV8DV1jMs EVENTS: Coming up next week... • Tues. June 28, 2016 - 11:00 a.m. SPECIAL BOARD MEETING - - Including Closed Session Items • Tues. June 28, 2016 - 1:00 P.M. - COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - *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: Scott.Schmerelson@lausd.net • 213-241-8333 Monica.Garcia@lausd.net • 213-241-6180 Ref.Rodriguez@lausd.net • 213-241-5555 George.McKenna@lausd.net • 213-241-6382 Monica.Ratliff@lausd.net • 213-241-6388 Richard.Vladovic@lausd.net • 213-241-6385 Steve.Zimmer@lausd.net • 213-241-6387 ...or the Superintendent: superintendent@lausd.net • 213-241-7000 ...or your city councilperson, mayor, county supervisor, state legislator, 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. Volunteer in the classroom. Join your PTA. Serve on a School Site Council. Be there for a child - and ultimately: For all children. • If you are eligible to become a citizen, BECOME ONE. • If you a a citizen, REGISTER TO VOTE at http://registertovote.ca.gov/ • 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 was Parent/Volunteer of the Year for 2010-11 for Los Angeles County. • He is Past President of Los Angeles Tenth District PTSA and has represented PTA on the LAUSD Construction Bond Citizen's Oversight Committee for over 13 years. He currently serves as Vice President for Health, is a Legislation Action Committee member and a member of the Board of Directors 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 "WHO" Gold Award and the ACSA Regional Ferd Kiesel Memorial Distinguished Service Award - honors 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. 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.

Grieve. Mourn. Repeat.

4LAKids: Sunday 19•June•2016 In This Issue:  •  WHAT PAMELA ANDERSON’S NIGHT VISIT TO THE LA UNIFIED SCHOOL BOARD WAS ALL ABOUT  •  Editorial: WHAT’S REALLY IN LAUSD’S ONLINE CREDIT RECOVERY COURSES?  •  EVENTS: Coming up next week...  •  What can YOU do? Featured Links:  •  ► Friends4smf :: The GoFundMe campaign  •  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. Orlando. San Bernardino. Charlotte. Sandy Hook. REMARKS OF PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA AS DELIVERED IN HIS WEEKLY RADIO ADDRESS The White House | June 18, 2016 :: It’s been less than a week since the deadliest mass shooting in American history. And foremost in all of our minds has been the loss and the grief felt by the people of Orlando, especially our friends who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender. I visited with the families of many of the victims on Thursday. And one thing I told them is that they’re not alone. The American people, and people all over the world, are standing with them – and we always will. The investigation is ongoing, but we know that the killer was an angry and disturbed individual who took in extremist information and propaganda over the internet, and became radicalized. During his killing spree, he pledged allegiance to ISIL, a group that’s called on people around the world to attack innocent civilians. We are and we will keep doing everything in our power to stop these kinds of attacks, and to ultimately destroy ISIL. The extraordinary people in our intelligence, military, homeland security, and law enforcement communities have already prevented many attacks, saved many lives, and we won’t let up. Alongside the stories of bravery and healing and coming together over the past week, we’ve also seen a renewed focus on reducing gun violence. As I said a few days ago, being tough on terrorism requires more than talk. Being tough on terrorism, particularly the sorts of homegrown terrorism that we’ve seen now in Orlando and San Bernardino, means making it harder for people who want to kill Americans to get their hands on assault weapons that are capable of killing dozens of innocents as quickly as possible. That’s something I’ll continue to talk about in the weeks ahead. It’s also part of something that I’ve been thinking a lot about this week – and that’s the responsibilities we have to each other. That’s certainly true with Father’s Day upon us. I grew up without my father around. While I wonder what my life would have been like if he had been a greater presence, I’ve also tried extra hard to be a good dad for my own daughters. Like all dads, I worry about my girls’ safety all the time. Especially when we see preventable violence in places our sons and daughters go every day – their schools and houses of worship, movie theaters, nightclubs, as they get older. It’s unconscionable that we allow easy access to weapons of war in these places – and then, even after we see parents grieve for their children, the fact that we as a country do nothing to prevent the next heartbreak makes no sense. So this past week, I’ve also thought a lot about dads and moms around the country who’ve had to explain to their children what happened in Orlando. Time and again, we’ve observed moments of silence for victims of terror and gun violence. Too often, those moments have been followed by months of silence. By inaction that is simply inexcusable. If we’re going to raise our kids in a safer, more loving world, we need to speak up for it. We need our kids to hear us speak up about the risks guns pose to our communities, and against a status quo that doesn’t make sense. They need to hear us say these things even when those who disagree are loud and are powerful. We need our kids to hear from us why tolerance and equality matter – about the times their absence has scarred our history and how greater understanding will better the future they will inherit. We need our kids to hear our words – and also see us live our own lives with love. And we can’t forget our responsibility to remind our kids of the role models whose light shines through in times of darkness. The police and first responders, the lifesaving bystanders and blood donors. Those who comfort mourners and visit the wounded. The victims whose last acts on this earth helped others to safety. They’re not just role models for our kids – their actions are examples for all of us. To be a parent is to come to realize not everything is in our control. But as parents, we should remember there’s one responsibility that’s always in our power to fulfill: our obligation to give our children unconditional love and support; to show them the difference between right and wrong; to teach them to love, not to hate; and to appreciate our differences not as something to fear, but as a great gift to cherish. To me, fatherhood means being there. So in the days ahead, let’s be there for each other. Let’s be there for our families, and for those that are hurting. Let’s come together in our communities and as a country. And let’s never forget how much good we can achieve simply by loving one another. Happy Father’s Day to all the dads out there, and have a great weekend. YOU MAY NOTE THAT THIS WEEK’S 4LAKIDS IS ABRIDGED. 1. I was writing of the pending District Budget/LCFF/LCAP – saved by a deus-ex-machina/last-minute-letter from the Superintendent of Public Instruction 2. …plus Eli Broad’s magical reanimation of his Great Schools Now Plan! 3. I had a well-researched-yet-dripping with-vitriol rant about how the Beaudry Building is the Most Visitor Unfriendly Building on the Planet! 4. But it is Sunday afternoon and I am feeling unwell …and nothing I write can compare to the tale of the wonderful+enchanted Tuesday night visit of Pamela Anderson to the LAUSD Board of Education! ¡Onward/Adelante! - smf WHAT PAMELA ANDERSON’S NIGHT VISIT TO THE LA UNIFIED SCHOOL BOARD WAS ALL ABOUT Posted on LA School Report Mike Szymanski | http://bit.ly/1UWgtBe June 17, 2016. 11:16 am. :: Sometimes staying late at the LA Unified school board meetings has its benefits. Particularly when quirky things happen in only-in-LA moments. About 8:45 p.m. Tuesday late into the meeting, most of the audience members had cleared out of the school board auditorium and the 200 or so protesters outside were gone. There were almost as many people up on the horseshoe dais as there were watching. Board President Steve Zimmer kidded about seeming a bit loopy because his cold medicine was kicking in. Then, the school police officers stirred, the board members stopped talking and a blur of diverse people marched down the aisle of the auditorium. Up front was blonde bombshell Pamela Anderson, looking as stunning as she did in her “Baywatch” days two decades ago. In a tight black top and flowered skirt, she brushed back her characteristic blonde locks and prepared herself to address the school board for the first time. In the pressroom watching on closed-circuit TV, reporters were surprised and snickering about why she was there. The LA Unified communications team didn’t have any idea. Along with the actress, there were TV journalist Jane Velez-Mitchell and 9-year-old actress Felix Hemstreet, as well as a triathlete, a cardiologist, a best-selling author, a dietician, a doctor of 40 years and Torre Washington, who bills himself as “a professional vegan bodybuilder.” The circus of presenters was inspired by 14-year-old Lila Copeland from Paul Revere Middle School who wants to have a regular vegan option on the menu in the nation’s second-largest school district. It appeared she had an impact on the board, and she had already met with Laura Benavidez, of the district’s Food Services division, who seemed open to the idea. “This school district is at the forefront of offering good nutritious food for the students, so we just want them to be aware of allowing vegan options for the students too and helping us have a healthy future for this planet,” Copeland said. “We want the district to provide a vegan option.” The experts spewed statistics and anecdotes. They brought up methane caused by cows, the drought, global warming, childhood obesity and ethical reasons for being vegan. They talked about how eating meat can cause heart disease and strokes, they detailed the outmoded federal nutritional standards and brought in packets of vegan meal samples for each of the seven school board members prepared by plant-based protein company Gardein’s chef Jason Stefanko. Anderson spoke for two minutes about milk and water and the United Nations. She said, “Kids today are appalled to learn that animals killed for cheeseburgers and chicken nuggets live in crowded dark filthy sheds by the thousands and are mutilated and slaughtered by having their throats slit while they’re still conscious.” Lila met this week with Zimmer and fellow school board member Ref Rodriguez as well as with the food services officials. The district already has a “Meatless Mondays” program and has taken the lead in requiring antibiotic and hormone-free chicken and turkey and is considering inexpensive low-fat options created by student chefs. On the other hand, the most animated part of a school board meeting two weeks ago centered on bringing back chocolate milk . “I’m impressed with what I’ve been told, but maybe I’m too old to change, maybe I’m not,” said 75-year-old board member George McKenna. “I’ve learned that everything I eat and love is not supposed to be healthy.” McKenna, who grew up in New Orleans, confessed his love for po’boys and beignets and said he just ate a ham sandwich. “I’m hooked on meat and ice cream.” But, he added, “I’m enlightened, and you make the case for healthy children. At least I’ll think about what I eat. Maybe you’ll change our behaviors, and maybe mine.” Zimmer quipped to his fellow board member, “We’ll go out for a veggie burger soon.” It didn’t go unnoticed to the school board that young Lila brought together a virtual Who’s Who of vegan experts, including vegan cardiologist Dr. Kim Williams, Dr. Michael Klaper, Kawani Brown, Dr. Heather Shenkman, Sharon Palmer and others. Of course, Anderson was a highlight, and although there wasn’t much of an audience, the school board meeting will be rebroadcast on Sunday morning at KLCS Television Channel 58 in between children’s shows such as “Dora the Explorer.” This time around, the show will feature an appearance by Pamela Anderson, and also a rant of a student earlier during Tuesday’s public comments that had a great deal of four-letter words while he described creating his own barber shop. Anderson’s talk is toward the end of the broadcast (at the 5:08:48 mark), which is now available on the LA Unified website. “I’ve learned so much from these people,” Anderson told LA School Report. “These are the experts. This is my first time to speak to the LA school board, and I think it’s so important to teach children to be vegan.” Anderson’s children went to schools in the Malibu school district, and she said she allowed her children to make their own choices. “As a mother, we are always trying to raise healthy kids, and this is one of the serious environmental problems. I’m here as a mom.” Velez-Mitchell said she came as a journalist but felt she had to speak out about some of the food served at the district. “The food that is served in this school district causes cancer. Give them an option to choose foods that will not cause them cancer.” Ultimately, the team offered to talk to any of the school board members. Zimmer quickly said, “I’m always happy to talk. And thank you for the samples, they were really good.” The next step is to get a resolution from the school board, and Lila thinks that will happen. Lila concluded: “No animal wants to die to become our food.” ●●smf: Not to argue Lila Copeland's point, but I refer us all to: Children's Book Review: ARLENE SARDINE Author+Illustrator Chris Raschka, Scholastic $15.95 (40p) ISBN 978-0-531-30111-1 http://bit.ly/1PBaFc2 Editorial: WHAT’S REALLY IN LAUSD’S ONLINE CREDIT RECOVERY COURSES? By The LA Times Editorial Board | http://lat.ms/1PBaflZ 19 June 2016 :: Because of new rules designed to raise graduation standards, officials of the Los Angeles Unified School District woke up in December to the grim news that only half of its students were on track to graduate, down from 74% the year before. The problem was that this was the first year all students had to pass the full range of college-prep courses — known as the A through G sequence – required by the University of California and California State University for admission. But just a couple of months later, the situation suddenly, startlingly improved, with 63% on track to graduate. By the end of March, 68% had completed their A-G courses, and an additional 15% were close enough that they might be able to make it. The actual graduation rate will not be known for several months. How did this remarkable turnaround happen, and what does it mean? Partly, it was that Michelle King, LA Unified’s new superintendent, moved swiftly and decisively, plunging the district’s high schools into a full-bore effort to bring students up to snuff, with extra counseling, Saturday classes and after-school classes. But also, the district relied heavily on what are known as online credit-recovery classes. These courses, which have helped boost graduation rates locally and across the country, have grown quickly from a barely known concept a decade ago to one of the biggest and most controversial new trends in education. This is how they work: Students who flunk a course can make up the credit by taking classes either in computer-equipped rooms at school, or at home if they have the equipment and Internet access. Teachers lecture on videos, the computer displays the readings or practice problems, and students take tests that are automatically graded. Written work is supposed to be reviewed by a district teacher. The courses have certain benefits: Students can replay a lecture for missed material, something that can’t happen in a regular classroom. When they can’t concentrate any longer, they can put the course on hold and take a break. But professors and other education experts are concerned that there is too little quality control to ensure that students have completed the equivalent of a regular classroom experience. Considering all the credit-recovery courses provided by educational publishers, it’s impossible to say as a rule whether these courses are sufficiently rigorous. Only one large-scale study has been published: Researchers reported in April that Chicago students who were randomly assigned to take an online Algebra I makeup course fared somewhat worse than those who were assigned to classroom makeup courses, with lower pass rates and lower scores on an end-of-course assessment. And an online credit-recovery course observed by Russell Rumberger, director of the California Dropout Research Project at UC Santa Barbara, required only 12 hours of computer time and the reading of one book. LAUSD maintains that’s not the case with its programs, which it says are rigorous and effective and take about 60 hours of work. A Los Angeles Times editorial writer arranged to take one of the courses... The results were at the same time reassuring and potentially disturbing. In order to get a closer look, a Los Angeles Times editorial writer arranged to take one of the courses offered to students at LAUSD: English Language Arts 11A, commonly known as the first semester of junior-year English. The results were at the same time reassuring and potentially disturbing. Any student who actually takes the full course — sits through each lesson, answers the questions and completes the assignments — gets a meaningful education. That’s why UC accepts the course, produced by Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Edgenuity, as a college-prep class. The reading excerpts come from fine and often challenging literature — “Moby-Dick,” “The Scarlet Letter,” great poetry and the like. Video lectures give the background of the works and teach lessons about tone, setting, vocabulary choice and so forth. There are four writing assignments during each semester. All in all, it would easily take 50 or 60 hours or more. The catch is that taking the full course isn’t always necessary. Some students are able to pre-test out of much of the course, including the writing. A 10-question multiple-choice quiz is given at the beginning of each of the three-dozen units. With a score of 60% or better — six of the questions — a student passes the unit, without having to go through the lectures, read the full materials or write the essays. Opening up other tabs on the computer to search for answers on the Internet is allowed. That’s not really cheating: The questions aren’t about straightforward facts. Students must interpret passages, for instance. But there’s plenty of help online via Sparks notes and other resources, and a full hour is given to answer the 10 questions. A second problem with the course is that no full books are assigned in the first semester; the second semester requires just one book. That’s the minimum required by UC, but significantly fewer than most junior-year classroom-based courses. Carol Alexander, director of college-prep requirements at LAUSD, said there’s only one book required because the students have already taken the course in class and read books there. But if they flunked the course in class, what reason is there to believe that they did the reading or understood it? Frances Gipson, the district’s chief academic officer, said that not all students get the opportunity to pre-test out of all the units in the course. Students are not supposed to be allowed to skip sections that they did poorly on the first time, she said. That might be true. But two students at Fremont High School who took the same junior English course described nearly identical experiences. Both said they had pre-tested out of most of the units. One said he had been given only one writing assignment, and the other said he had been given one or two over both semesters — only a fraction of those the course supposedly requires. L.A. Unified appears to be setting the bar lower than most districts across the nation. Edgenuity says that of the 1,900 districts using the company’s credit-recovery courses, most will not allow students in English classes to pre-test out of units. Districts that do allow skipping of units through pre-testing often require the students at least to do the writing assignments, and they monitor the tests so students can’t search the Internet for clues. And most districts set the passing grade for the pre-test at 70% or higher in contrast to L.A. Unified’s 60%. The big issue is the lack of accountability... Who checks that students are getting enough online coursework to receive a meaningful education? The big issue is the lack of accountability. The district has a vested interest in raising graduation rates and making the A-G policy look good. But who checks that students are getting enough online coursework to receive a meaningful education? Who sets the standard, if there is any standard, for the minimum amount of work that must be put into an online course to receive credit? A UC official also was surprised to learn that students might be pre-testing out of most of the units in any course. Monica Lin, associate director for undergraduate admissions, said UC doesn’t supervise how local school districts use their courses and doesn’t have the time and resources to conduct regular audits even if it wanted to. She added that the university would reconsider approval if it knew that large numbers of students were pre-testing their way through most of the course. Her instincts are right. If large numbers of students are indeed testing out of significant portions of these courses — which is difficult to ascertain — and if they’re skipping writing assignments on a regular basis, then those students are being done a serious disservice. If they’re just reading one book in a year in what’s supposed to be the equivalent of a junior-year English course, that’s unacceptable too — and raises worrisome questions about the rest of the credit-recovery courses being offered as well. L.A. Unified deserves credit for its intensive attempt to raise its graduation rates. Online credit recovery can and should be a helpful tool, giving students independence, flexibility and a chance to make up for past mistakes. But the district needs to get a handle on these courses. It — along with UC and the State Board of Education — needs to set minimum standards, including how much of a course must be completed without pre-testing in order to earn credit. The new federal school-accountability law that replaced the No Child Left Behind Act places considerable pressure on low-performing high schools and their districts to raise graduation rates. But that’s a worthy goal only if students are better educated than they were as dropouts. No one is doing teenagers a favor by sending them to college or into the work world thinking they have skills that are still lacking. COST OF SUSPENSIONS IS HIGH FOR STUDENTS WHO DROP OUT AFTER DISCIPLINE, REPORT FINDS | EdSource http://bit.ly/200VtLf STATE GIVES LA UNIFIED AN EXTRA YEAR TO ACCOUNT FOR SPENDING ON NEEDY KIDS | 89.3 KPCC http://bit.ly/1UIOHFG JUST IN: GREAT PUBLIC SCHOOLS NOW UNVEILS PLAN TO FUND EXPANSION OF SUCCESSFUL SCHOOLS TO SERVE 160,000 LOW-INCOME LA STUDENTS - LA School Report http://bit.ly/24ZBrll PHILLY’S SODA TAX MAY BE TURNING POINT http://www.politico.com/story/2016/06/soda-tax-philadelphia-224442 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: Scott.Schmerelson@lausd.net • 213-241-8333 Monica.Garcia@lausd.net • 213-241-6180 Ref.Rodriguez@lausd.net • 213-241-5555 George.McKenna@lausd.net • 213-241-6382 Monica.Ratliff@lausd.net • 213-241-6388 Richard.Vladovic@lausd.net • 213-241-6385 Steve.Zimmer@lausd.net • 213-241-6387 ...or the Superintendent: superintendent@lausd.net • 213-241-7000 ...or your city councilperson, mayor, county supervisor, state legislator, 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. Volunteer in the classroom. Join your PTA. Serve on a School Site Council. Be there for a child - and ultimately: For all children. • If you are eligible to become a citizen, BECOME ONE. • If you a a citizen, REGISTER TO VOTE at http://registertovote.ca.gov/ • 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 was Parent/Volunteer of the Year for 2010-11 for Los Angeles County. • He is Past President of Los Angeles Tenth District PTSA and has represented PTA on the LAUSD Construction Bond Citizen's Oversight Committee for over 13 years. He currently serves as Vice President for Health, is a Legislation Action Committee member and a member of the Board of Directors 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 "WHO" Gold Award and the ACSA Regional Ferd Kiesel Memorial Distinguished Service Award - honors 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. 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.

On the merit+worthiness of stargazing+strategizing+heavy lifting

4LAKids: Sunday 12•June•2016 In This Issue:  •  Op-Ed :: BERNIE LOST. WHAT DO LIBERAL CALIFORNIANS DO NOW?  •  Art+Rhyme & Art+Story: BEFORE BROAD MUSEUM OPENS FOR BUSINESS, L.A. STUDENTS HAVE IT TO THEMSELVES, AND THE POETRY FLOWS  •  WHY SCHOOL START TIMES PLAY A HUGE ROLE IN KIDS’ SUCCESS  •  EVENTS: Coming up next week...  •  What can YOU do? Featured Links:  •  ► Friends4smf :: The GoFundMe campaign  •  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. “Destiny guides our fortunes more favorably than we could have expected. Look there, Sancho Panza, my friend, and see those thirty or so wild giants, with whom I intend to do battle and kill each and all of them, so with their stolen booty we can begin to enrich ourselves. This is noble, righteous warfare, for it is wonderfully useful to God to have such an evil race wiped from the face of the earth." "What giants?" Asked Sancho Panza. "The ones you can see over there," answered his master, "with the huge arms, some of which are very nearly two leagues long." "Now look, your grace," said Sancho, "what you see over there aren't giants, but windmills, and what seems to be arms are just their sails, that go around in the wind and turn the millstone." "Obviously," replied Don Quijote, "you don't know much about adventures.” ― Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote There is a movement afoot to improve Civics Education in the U.S. | http://bit.ly/1PQPOGY. …actually there are more than one: www.iCivics.org. ►ANOTHER HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATION REQUIREMENT ON THE HORIZON From the AALA Update/ http://bit.ly/1XOxRMg Week of 13June | Thirteen states have passed legislation since 2014 that requires students to pass a citizenship test prior to receiving a diploma. The map below [http://bit.ly/24It9yn] Education Week, June 7, 2016) shows where such legislation is already in place and where similar requirements are being considered. Arizona and North Dakota were the first states to implement this requirement and are utilizing the same questions that are asked of those applying for U.S. citizenship. The Civics Education Initiative from the Joe Foss Institute in Arizona is pushing for this requirement to be in every state by 2017. A representative from the Institute said that the goal of the Initiative is to bring attention to a quiet crisis. We see it as a good first step toward balancing curriculum in [the] classroom and bringing emphasis to soft disciplines…subjects like social studies and civics [are] getting short shrift in schools. Improving the nonexistent is always fertile ground for ‘meaningful change’. One need only invest a little chin music (“Raise the Standards!!”) with an appropriately furrowed brow to get in on the Golden Sponsorship Level! A nice ball cap might help: “Make American Civics Great Again! (Embroidered is better than printed, but never underestimate the marketing potential of an inexpensive baseball cap). ▲QUIZ: Civics Education In California:: EDUCATION FUNDING A. In California the K-12 Education Budget is centered on THE LEGISLATIVE PROCESS. The Governor proposes a State Budget in January and a Revision in May based on anticipated state revenue and legislative priorities. The two legislative houses propose, discuss, debate and amend legislation – The June 15 Budget Bill must be passed by midnight June 15. The Governor approves, vetoes and line-item-vetoes bills B. In California the K-12 Education Budget is centered on the LOCAL SCHOOL DISTRICT; locally elected boards of education control education expenditures in their own districts, overseen by the State Office of Education and the County Offices of Ed. - making sure that budgets are balanced, prudent and comply with state and federal regulations. C. It’s even more local than that! Gov. Brown’s Prop 30 Educational Reform Initiative empowered Boards of Ed, Individual Schools and Elected+Appointed Parent Advisory Councils to cooperatively+collaboratively write and implement LOCAL CONTROL ACCOUNTABITY PLANS (Budgets) that put in place THE LOCAL CONTROL FUNDING FORMULA …which changed California Education Funding forever! D. Last weekend THE BIG THREE: the Governor, the Speaker of the Assembly and the President pro Tempore of the Senate got together behind closed doors and hammered out a budget deal. For the answer, let’s turn to an article in the LA Times: ▲GOV. JERRY BROWN AND LAWMAKERS STRIKE CALIFORNIA BUDGET DEAL THAT ADDS MONEY FOR HOUSING AND CHILD CARE By Liam Dillon, Chris Megerian and John Myers | LA Times | http://lat.ms/1Un71Il June 10, 2016 :: Gov. Jerry Brown and legislative leaders reached an agreement Thursday on a new budget to fund state government, a proposal highlighted by $400 million in low-income housing subsidies as well as expanded funding for child care and early learning programs. The plan received its first public vetting by the Legislature’s budget conference committee Thursday evening. A formal vote by both the state Senate and Assembly would come later, though the timing remains unclear. California’s new fiscal year begins July 1. "We’re on a very good path right now and I think we can all be proud of what we’re going to be delivering to the people of California," said state Sen. Mark Leno (D-San Francisco). The housing money would come with strings attached, according to administration officials who had been briefed on the details, and it could not be spent unless lawmakers loosened regulations on homebuilders. Housing has been one of the most talked about issues during the spring budget season at the state Capitol, and Brown has urged lawmakers to streamline the process for building new housing units. The agreement comes almost one week before the constitutional deadline for a new budget, an early compromise that’s likely a sign of just how few contentious issues there were between Brown and his fellow Democrats. The governor offered a concession to Democrats when revising his budget last month, agreeing to a $2-billion bond measure aimed at mental health needs for the homeless. Legislators responded by embracing Brown’s January proposal to divert an extra $2 billion into the state’s rainy-day fund, an effort to cushion against any economic downturn that might be on the horizon. Both of those items are in the final agreement reached Thursday. As part of the budget deal, rates paid to state-subsidized child care providers are being ramped up to keep pace with California’s increasing minimum wage. The extra funding is expected to total $500 million annually starting in 2019. News of the expanded effort on child care programs for low-income families was welcomed by members of the Legislative Women’s Caucus, which made the issue its top priority. “This is going to be the biggest appropriation in a decade,” said Assemblywoman Cristina Garcia (D-Bell Gardens), the caucus’ vice chairwoman. “We’re trying to be progressive and think about the future.” Lawmakers would also repeal a 20-year-old rule known as the maximum family grant, which prevents mothers from receiving additional welfare assistance if they have another child. “It’s been a long overdue process of eliminating a rule that everyone knew was unfair,” said Chris Hoene, executive director of the California Budget & Policy Center, a nonprofit that advocates for programs aimed at low-income families. “It’s good news that they’re finally doing that.” Under the change, families would receive an extra $136 per month per child. An estimated 130,000 children in 95,000 families would benefit. “It’s the difference between making a rent payment or being put out on the street,” said Frank Mecca, executive director of the County Welfare Directors Assn. of California. “For a family living on or below the edge, it’s going to make a huge difference.” The budget agreement boosts funding for both the University of California and California State University systems if more in-state students are admitted. UC’s money requires the system to place a new cap on out-of-state student enrollment. On housing, the budget deal represents a promise to address the priorities of both Democratic legislators and Brown. Democrats in the Assembly had pushed for the new housing subsidies money as the state’s affordability crisis has continued to spiral. Brown had resisted, saying subsidies didn’t deliver enough bang for the buck. Instead, he proposed clearing some local regulatory hurdles for developers if they reserved units in their projects for low-income residents. The budget now incorporates both demands, as the new housing money is contingent on lawmakers approving Brown’s proposal at a later date. :: SO LONG …AND THANKS FOR ALL THE FISH!: Maybe you’re working late at Beaudry or in school office or at home over your part of the Budget – whether to fill in a blank cell in a spreadsheet or to justify an entire new program – or continue a successful one; more successfully but with less money. Whether you are providing a dozen slides of a Board Informative slide deck or perhaps formulating a Strategic Master Plan Moving Forward – or even suggesting how get the Parent Advisory Council’s advice just listened-to: Thanks but no thanks. The deal is done/The ship, sailed. The strategy is set; it’s all tactics+operations+logistics from here-on-out. That entrepreneurism looked good on you; file it in the pantry with the cupcakes. That big budget meeting on Tuesday at the Board of Ed? The Big Vote before the deadline? Just like last year and the year before – and all the fat+lean years before+ since. Exercises in civic theater and non-participatory democracy.; Come up with new questions for the answers arrived-at last weekend – and be sure to phase your answer as a question …that way it’s debate! Thank you for the work; I hope we didn’t get your hopes up too far! Don't you love farce? My fault, I fear. I thought that you'd want what I want – sorry, my dear. But where are the clowns? Quick, send in the clowns. Don't bother, they're here. SEE Op-Ed: BERNIE LOST. WHAT DO LIBERAL CALIFORNIANS DO NOW? by Harold Meyerson/LA Times| http://lat.ms/1S0j7Bk [Meyerson concludes: ] June 10, 2015 :: Over the past two years, oil companies and “education reform” billionaires have been funding campaigns for obliging Democratic candidates running against their more progressive co-partisans under the state’s “top-two” election process. In this week’s primary, independent committees spent at least $24 million, with most of that money flowing to Democrats who opposed Gov. Jerry Brown’s effort to halve motorists’ use of fossil fuels by 2030, and a substantial sum going to Democrats who support expanding charter schools. Charter School ‘independent’ Political Action Committee money from PAC going to a single assembly candidate for in AD 43 is a case in point. In Assembly District 43 Candidate Ardy Kassakhian is critical of the more than $1.2 million of independent expenditures spent by the previously spectacularly egregious “Parent Teacher Alliance”, which is sponsored by the California Charter Schools Assn. in favor of Laura Friedman. CANDIDATES CRITICIZE, DEFEND CONTRIBUTIONS IN STATE ASSEMBLY RACE - Glendale News-Press | http://lat.ms/1XOlQGJ In the primary Friedman made the runoff, eliminating Kassakhian. They are both Democrats – though I bet a have five pounds o’ flyers that say Kassakhian is – once was (or heads a sleeper cell) of Republicans awaiting the accession of King Donald! In “EDUCATION REFORM-BACKED CANDIDATES SWEEP CALIFORNIA PRIMARY ELECTIONS” http://bit.ly/1Yk0BLk - the LA School Reports gets some righteous+angry quotes from LAUSD Board President Zimmer over CCSA’s Big Money PAC …and the the LASR/CCSA apparent conflict o’ interest (being bought+piad-for with the same check) is delightfully answered: DISCLOSURE: LA School Report is the West Coast bureau of The74Million.org, which is funded in part by foundations whose board members have also contributed to the CCSA Advocates Independent Expenditure Committee and EdVoice. Last election cycle both California State PTA and National PTA sent ‘cease+desist’ letters requesting that the California Charter Schools Association’s so-called independent Political Action Committee/Bogus PTA stop violating PTA’s copyright+trademark. Crickets. Sunday Steve Lopez published a column BEFORE BROAD MUSEUM OPENS FOR BUSINESS, L.A. STUDENTS HAVE IT TO THEMSELVES, AND THE POETRY FLOWS (follows) This gives me permission+opportunity to thank our Ed ®eform Philanthropists when they do the right things …and also to print two LAUSD student poets: A student named Astrid took a hard look at Jean-Michel Basquiat’s "suggestive dichotomies” and wrote: Obnoxious liberals You stand in the middle Of racial suffrage and rich Insufferable men Holding hands high While Samson is chained Against his will as time Passes by. Juleny Duenez, a junior at Animo Leadership High in Inglewood wrote: “Weep weep because you aren’t free. Speak speak because you aren’t free. Pray pray because you aren’t free. Don’t stop don’t stop until you are free.” ¡Onward/Adelante! - smf Op-Ed :: BERNIE LOST. WHAT DO LIBERAL CALIFORNIANS DO NOW? Harold Meyerson | LA Times | http://lat.ms/1S0j7Bk Jun 10, 2016 :: What should California’s Bernie Brigades do now? How should they proceed with the revolution once the Democratic convention formally bestows its nomination on Hillary Clinton? If Sanders backers (or, for that matter, Clinton supporters) want to involve themselves in politics, there are a number of elections right here in California in which a keystone issue of the socialist’s campaign – breaking the hold that big money has on our system – is effectively on the ballot. For even as Sanders was thundering against the corrosive role of money in politics and Clinton was condemning the plutocratic consequences of the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision, corporate money was carving an ever larger role for itself in California politics – California Democratic politics. Over the past two years, oil companies and “education reform” billionaires have been funding campaigns for obliging Democratic candidates running against their more progressive co-partisans under the state’s “top-two” election process. In this week’s primary, independent committees spent at least $24 million, with most of that money flowing to Democrats who opposed Gov. Jerry Brown’s effort to halve motorists’ use of fossil fuels by 2030, and a substantial sum going to Democrats who support expanding charter schools. Six years ago, according to the Associated Press, just one legislative primary race had more than $1 million in outside spending, and four had more than $500,000. This year, eight races saw more than $1 million in such spending, and 15 more than $500,000. In a heavily Democratic district outside Sacramento, a November state Senate runoff will pit Democratic Assemblyman Bill Dodd, who opposed Brown’s legislation, against former Democratic Assemblywoman Mariko Yamada. Dodd has already benefited from one independent campaign funded by Chevron and other energy companies to the tune of more than $270,000, and from an education reform campaign funded by charter school proponents such as billionaire Eli Broad in the amount of $1.68 million. The combination of [a] top-two election system with free-flowing outside spending has given rise to a new birth of corporate power in Sacramento. In a nearby overwhelmingly Democratic assembly district, two Democratic candidates with strong environmental credentials lost out in this week’s primary to a Republican and a Democrat who benefited from more than $1.2 million from charter school advocates and an additional $650,000 from Chevron, Tesoro, Valero and other oil companies. A similar dynamic has shaped a San Bernardino Assembly contest in which Democratic incumbent Cheryl Brown has been bolstered by major oil company expenditures in her race against Democrat Eloise Reyes. These contests reflect the new reality of California politics. Businesses that previously would have backed Republicans – oil companies and real estate investors in particular – have responded to the GOP’s electoral eclipse by shifting their contributions to malleable, more conservative Democrats. These Democrats would not prevail in a closed primary system, but have a better chance than Republicans in a general election because they’re not associated with that toxic – to Californians – brand. (They appeal to some Democratic voters and to some Republican ones, who have no better choice.) In this sense, the top-two system helps corporate interests like Chevron. In some races, unions and such wealthy environmentalists as Tom Steyer have answered the flood of corporate money with a torrent of their own, but the balance remains heavily weighted toward business. The combination of this top-two election system with free-flowing outside spending has given rise to a new birth of corporate power in Sacramento, in the form of the self-proclaimed Moderate Caucus of Democrats. Aligning themselves with their Republican colleagues, caucus members have blocked a range of environmental and pro-worker reforms. Late last year, Assemblyman Henry Perea of Fresno, who’d headed the caucus since 2012, resigned to take a government relations job with Chevron. So what’s a California Bernie bro – or for that matter, a Hillary sis – to do? Joining together (because the environmental and liberal groups that backed Clinton oppose the Moderate Caucus’ handiwork as much as the Sanderistas do), they should support the progressive legislative candidates whom the oil companies and charter school advocates seek to defeat. They should work to repeal the top-two primary, through which organized money has increased its clout in Sacramento. And they should work to elect a presidential candidate – her name is Clinton – who will appoint justices who will overturn Citizens United. You say you want a revolution? This would be a good place to start. Harold Meyerson is executive editor of the American Prospect. He is a contributing writer to Opinion. Art+Rhyme & Art+Story: BEFORE BROAD MUSEUM OPENS FOR BUSINESS, L.A. STUDENTS HAVE IT TO THEMSELVES, AND THE POETRY FLOWS Steve Lopez, LA Times | http://lat.ms/1Pn7uED June 12, 2016 :: It’s early in the morning in the house where Jean-Michel Basquiat lives down the hall from Marlene Dumas and not far from Ed Ruscha. And now some visitors are at the door. One group of students is from Belmont High’s Multimedia Academy. Almost three dozen ninth-graders. Another group has bused in from Animo Leadership High in Inglewood. More than 60 11th-graders. What a deal they’ve got. Before the Broad Museum opens for business, this coliseum of creativity is theirs. No crowds, no lines, no noise but the echoes of their own voices. But the free pass has a few strings attached. The students can’t just wander off on their own. They have to take seats in front of provocative paintings, learn something about them, discuss. And then write. Since the program began in January, 3,200 students have ogled the art and Picassoed the images into words. The Broad Museum teams with local schools and 826LA, a nonprofit writing and tutoring center, to tap creativity that is too often idled by lack of exposure. These students have never been to the Broad. Many have never been to a museum. “I’ve actually been wanting to come here for so long, but I know tickets are overbooked,” says Juleny Duenez of Animo. “Once I knew we were having a field trip here, I was ecstatic.” When elementary school students visit, they study Jeff Koons’ “Balloon Dog,” Robert Therrien’s “Under the Table” or Ruscha’s “Norm’s La Cienega on Fire.” Then they write a story. The older students study works including Roy Lichtenstein’s “Mirror #1,” Barbara Kruger’s “(Untitled) Your Body is a Battleground,” Glenn Ligon’s “Double America 2,” and Basquiat’s “Obnoxious Liberals.” Then they write a poem. The range in quality is vast; the bar is high. On an earlier visit, a student named Astrid took a hard look at Basquiat and wrote: Obnoxious liberals You stand in the middle Of racial suffrage and rich Insufferable men Holding hands high While Samson is chained Against his will as time Passes by. Scrawled in the lower center of “Obnoxious Liberals” are the words “Not For Sale.” Kristin Lorey, an 826LA director who helped design the program, says one student keyed on that phrase in an earlier visit. “It was someone well-versed in art history who knew what it was like for Basquiat to sell his own artwork, and [the student] talked about obnoxious liberals as people who might buy artwork and turn it from something special into something commonplace,” Lorey says. “That’s not my take, but what I love about this program is that … there are no wrong answers. They respond to what they see, their interpretation of it, and that’s what we want.” Art can be intimidating for all of us, especially for youngsters who don’t frequent museums. Ed Patuto, director of audience engagement at the Broad, is trying to blot out the fear factor. Students are handed prompts to get them thinking and talking. With Ligon’s “Double America,” in which the word “America” is both upright and inverted, Patuto says the prompts are along the lines of: “Why did the artist make one of them upside down and backwards? What is he saying about America?” An Animo student thinks on that for a moment and then volunteers an answer. “Maybe,” she says, “America has two faces.” A Belmont 9th-grader named Yancey examines Lichtenstein’s “Mirror” and quickly catches on. It isn’t a mirror, but a set of questions: What do you see? What do you want to see? What do you not want to see? Yancey sees the future. “I have my job. I have my family. My hair is curled.” Animo teacher Erin Woods brought her history class to the Broad because “in history we talk about art” as a trip to another time. “I think they can relate more to a different period if they can hear the music and see the poetry.” Stephanie Lopez, one of her students, sits on the floor in front of Kruger’s “Untitled (Your Body Is A Battleground).” It depicts a woman’s face split by positive and negative exposures, and the image was an emblem in a women’s reproductive rights march on Washington in 1989. “We’ve been talking in Miss Woods’ class about civil rights, and this has a lot to do with the feminist movement,” Stephanie says. “In my opinion, women should have the right to choose what they do with their own bodies. There’s society’s expectation that you should be a certain way or look a certain way. But you should be the things you want to be.” Lopez tells me she wants to study political science in college and run for office. Maybe governor, I ask? “I want to be president of the United States,” she says. “I tell everyone that and they say, ‘You’re crazy.’ But I think I have the potential.” At Dumas’ “Wall Weeping,” nine men stand facing a wall, their hands up. Are they praying? Are they under arrest? Manny Villanueva guesses this is a scene from Jerusalem because the blocks of the wall look ancient. Another student knows it’s not in America because the men don’t have baggy pants. Several students say they’ve seen similar images in their neighborhoods during arrests. “I’m a minority in which being a majority is the big priority,” writes Ismael Rodriguez. Juleny Duenez writes: “Weep weep because you aren’t free. Speak speak because you aren’t free. Pray pray because you aren’t free. Don’t stop don’t stop until you are free.” The Art+Rhyme and Art+Story program is now on summer vacation but will continue in the fall. To apply, teachers should send an email to schoolvisits@thebroad.org. WHY SCHOOL START TIMES PLAY A HUGE ROLE IN KIDS’ SUCCESS TEENS ARE SEVERELY SLEEP-DEPRIVED. THIS NEEDS TO CHANGE. Rebecca Klein Editor, HuffPost Education| https://t.co/zInVJoy29W 06/09/2016 02:05 pm ET :: Fairfax County Public Schools in Virginia did it. Seattle Public Schools is doing it. Madison School District in Wisconsin is considering doing it. Around the country, more school districts are moving to delay their start times. Here’s why: Teens currently aren’t getting enough sleep. And this lack of sleep is having a detrimental effect on their grades and mental health. Terra Ziporyn Snider, co-founder of the nonprofit Start School Later, has been documenting this problem and advocating changes to fix it since 2011. She started the organization after posting an online petition asking authorities to establish 8 a.m. as the earliest allowable school start time. Within a month, she’d received nearly 2,000 signatures from all over the country. Now, there are close to 75 local chapters of Start School Later, all educating communities about the importance of making school hours compatible with teens’ sleep needs. “I think educated public opinion is very much in favor of this. Even a vast majority of people who know anything about the issue, if they’ve done any homework or read about it, are for later start times, in theory,” said Snider. “When it comes to specific changes in their school system, there’s much more debate.” A range of small and large school districts in at least 44 states have taken steps to push back school start times in order to maximize students’ sleep time. In April, Maryland passed a bill incentivizing schools to delay school start times, and New Jersey lawmakers are currently studying the issue. Here’s why Snider, pediatricians and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention think more districts and states should follow suit. MOST SCHOOLS START REALLY EARLY In 2014, the American Academy of Pediatrics released a policy statement recommending that middle and high schools start classes after 8:30 a.m. According to Department of Education data from the 2011-2012 school year analyzed by the CDC, only a small share of districts were doing so. About 17.7 percent of middle and high schools started after 8:30. The average start time was 8:03 a.m., with 75 to 100 percent of schools in 42 different states starting classes before 8:30 a.m. Early start times like these cause teens to be severely sleep-deprived. The AAP recommends that teens get 8.5 to 9.5 hours of sleep a night, but over 90 percent of of teens are chronically sleep-deprived, according to a 2014 report. SLEEP DEPRIVATION IS BAD FOR LEARNING A lack of sleep can have a devastating impact on kids’ futures. Sleep-deprived students are more likely to be overweight, anxious, depressed, have suicidal thoughts, perform poorly academically and engage in risky behaviors, according to the CDC. Later school start times are proven to improve academic performance. A 2012 study found that students who started school an hour later than usual saw their math scores on standardized tests increase an average 2.2 percentage points and reading scores increase an average 1.5 percentage points. They also watched less television, spent more time on homework and had fewer absences, the research found. “Start times really do matter,” Finley Edwards, author of the study, told The Huffington Post in 2012. “We can see clear increases of academic performance from just starting school later.” Snider, who has a Ph.D. in the history of medicine, first learned about this issue as a medical writer in the 1980s, but it started to hit home as she raised her three kids. She learned that schools didn’t always start so early and that this type of sleep deprivation was a relatively new phenomenon. “Nobody is going to tell you it’s good for kids’ health or safety or learning to start class at 7 in the morning,” Snider said. THE REASON THERE’S RESISTANCE TO CHANGING THE SYSTEM When Snider’s kids were in school, she worked hard to push school times later, with little success. School start times deeply impact many aspects of community life and are difficult to change, she learned. “School hours affect everybody in the community, whether or not you have kids. The time the public school runs will affect what time the parks and recreation department can have after-school classes, what times the sports leagues can run, what times school athletics can practice, what time daycare hours are, what time traffic gets bad because of the school buses, what time local employers can hire kids after school; it affects the whole town,” she said. “It’s those sorts of interests, which are perfectly understandable, and fears which lead people to say, ‘Don’t change, because I had to jump through hoops to make my life work, and now you’re going to change my life,’” Snider said. Still, delaying school start times doesn’t always mean that kids will get more sleep. Students may just stay up later, according to a study published this year in the journal Sleep. The efforts can also end up being costly. In 2015, Fairfax County spent $5 million to delay school start times nearly an hour, according to the Capital Gazette. But advocates argue that the benefits outweigh the costs. EVENTS: Coming up next week... REGULAR BOARD MEETING - June 14, 2016 - 8:00 a.m. - Including Closed Session Items AGENDA: http://laschoolboard.org/sites/default/files/%2006-14-16RegBdCSOB-Rev.pdf REGULAR BOARD MEETING - June 14, 2016 - 1:00 p.m. AGENDA: http://laschoolboard.org/sites/default/files/06-14-16RegOBpost.pdf *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: Scott.Schmerelson@lausd.net • 213-241-8333 Monica.Garcia@lausd.net • 213-241-6180 Ref.Rodriguez@lausd.net • 213-241-5555 George.McKenna@lausd.net • 213-241-6382 Monica.Ratliff@lausd.net • 213-241-6388 Richard.Vladovic@lausd.net • 213-241-6385 Steve.Zimmer@lausd.net • 213-241-6387 ...or the Superintendent: superintendent@lausd.net • 213-241-7000 ...or your city councilperson, mayor, county supervisor, state legislator, 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. Volunteer in the classroom. Join your PTA. Serve on a School Site Council. Be there for a child - and ultimately: For all children. • If you are eligible to become a citizen, BECOME ONE. • If you a a citizen, REGISTER TO VOTE at http://registertovote.ca.gov/ • 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 was Parent/Volunteer of the Year for 2010-11 for Los Angeles County. • He is Past President of Los Angeles Tenth District PTSA and has represented PTA on the LAUSD Construction Bond Citizen's Oversight Committee for over 13 years. He currently serves as Vice President for Health, is a Legislation Action Committee member and a member of the Board of Directors 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 "WHO" Gold Award and the ACSA Regional Ferd Kiesel Memorial Distinguished Service Award - honors 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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