Saturday, August 30, 2008

Milestones, mileposts, landmarks and landfall; The New School Year


4LAKids: Sun, Aug 31, 2008 62 Days w/o a Budget!
In This Issue:
DISTRICT GEARS UP FOR SCHOOL — LAUSD: Brewer announces new efforts to principals, others at annual address.
PRINCIPALS SKEPTICAL OF REFORM:
WESTCHESTER SCHOOL PRINCIPALS MOVE ON
PAYROLL TROUBLE CUTS OFF HEALTHCARE BENEFITS FOR 1,300 L.A. UNIFIED EMPLOYEES
HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T FIT: The Rest of the Stories from Other Sources
EVENTS: Coming up next week...
What can YOU do?


Featured Links:
FLUNK THE BUDGET, NOT OUR CHILDREN Website
PUBLIC SCHOOLS: an investment we can't afford to cut! - The Education Coalition Website
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.
ON THURSDAY SUPERINTENDENT BREWER DELIVERED THE SECOND BEST SPEECH OF THE DAY when he addressed the assembled administrators of the district. Much of what he said is covered below ("District Gears Up for School") but four things ring out:

1. On sexual abuse of students the District has a new policy: Zero Tolerance. Tolerators will be treated as the abusers themselves. If you know or suspect and you don't report, you're gone.
2. Superintendent Brewer better defined the shared roles of him and Senior Deputy Superintendent Cortines: "The David & Ray Show" he called it. Now that the show has it has a name we will watch it carefully - and soon the ratings will be coming in.
3. He acknowledged a Gender Gap that runs parallel to the Achievement Gap. Boys are not doing as well as girls in school, Black girls outperform Black boys, the same is true for Latinos, Whites and Asians. That more girls are going to college is good, that fewer boys are going is bad. Bad for boys and for girls and for society.
4. Finally he recognized and acknowledged schools and staff that are making real progress in closing the Achievement Gap; there were many and certainly all assembled appreciated the recognition. Those schools are to be commended, as is the effort to recognize them. Ultimately all successes - at schools that always have been successful as well as those that show improvement - must be recognized. Universal excellence is the goal.

THE BUDGET OR LACK THEREOF IN SACRAMENTO slowly rotates like a meteorological disturbance in the mid-Atlantic, the tempest grows in its perfection though the tropical taxonomy: Depression : Named Storm : Hurricane …and upward through the roman-numerated categories.

Today's milestone, 62 Days Without a Budget, ties the record — tomorrow brings us to Category VI - California's never been 63 days without a budget. There is danger amply described in articles linked-to below — but there is another, greater danger: the great pressure to reach resolution - to compromise and throw the babies out with the bathwater is building.

We saw that on Friday in Sacramento (and to those who wrote and called, Thank you!) - read Senator Perata's justification for his thankfully defeated proposal (Perata's Floor Speech). He lays out a good case for a bad compromise; to rush into anything to meet an arbitrary milestone or deadline at the expense of the future of children could be disastrous. The truly frightening aspect of Friday's vote was that the Democrat majority voted as a block the wrong way. No! was the correct vote.

The filibuster by the minority must be broken but the unintended consequences and the collateral damage of expedient compromise must be carefully considered. The Conference Committee Report is the best option out there — the taxpayers are willing to pay with their taxes for the education our children need; we are unwilling to pay with the very futures of those children for anything less.

IT DOESN'T HAVE MUCH TO DO WITH EDUCATION - other than being a huge civics lesson - but the California State Court of Appeals heard the challenge to Measure R "The City Government, Responsibility, Lobbying and Ethics Reform Act of 2006 " on Tuesday morning August 26.

The challenge is based on a seemingly esoteric point of law - whether a measure can go on the ballot that addresses two separate items - in this case:
1. Changing Term Limits and
2. Lobbyist/Ethics Reform.

We know that an initiative cannot do this on the state ballot - and indeed the legislature is forbidden to enact a law that does this. The latter has been in the state constitution since it was a rough draft, the first was added later. This restriction on state government "The Single Subject Rule" has grown by amendment and judicial interpretation over the years. The rationale is that the voters should not be faced with all or nothing decisions in the ballot box.

The appellants say the City Council cannot do what is denied to the legislature. The plaintiffs - in this case the City of LA - say "Show me where it says that."

The political reality is of course largely at odds from the legal case; city councilpeople saw an opportunity to extend their terms to a third term - forbidden in the city charter - and wrapped it in the flag of lobbying reform. Note how it doesn't mention term limits in the title of the measure. The voters approved the wrenched business by 59% - and the court is faced with deciding whether any or all of this is somewhat close enough to legal to 'pass mustard'. Whatever the decision, it's gonna take some condiments to get it down.

Read Ron Kaye's comments referenced below - he sat in the courtroom with me and takes it far more personally and angrily than I do. My interest - to be transparent as can be - is that if Measure R is bad law then so is Measure L ("Term Limits, Campaign Finance Rules, Compensation Review - Los Angeles Unified School District Charter Amendment") - which imposed term limits on the LAUSD Board while simultaneously reforming their ethics and getting them a pay raise

When and if you read Kaye, consider this: Attorney Kaufman - who championed Prop R at the Court of Appeals - defended Councilman Huizar, the first councilperson to run afoul of its provisions, in an action earlier this month.

¡Onward/Hasta adelante! - smf




Ron Kaye: MEASURE R AND THE LAW: If you don't like City Hall corruption, you better do something about it



DISTRICT GEARS UP FOR SCHOOL — LAUSD: Brewer announces new efforts to principals, others at annual address.
by George B. Sanchez, Staff Writer | Daily News/Daily Breeze


08/29/2008 — Welcoming administrators back to school Thursday, Los Angeles Unified Superintendent David Brewer III outlined new measures to track student performance and urged educators to work harder to improve test scores.

Also, following a school year in which there were several reported cases of sexual abuse by teachers, Brewer said the district has developed a new system to report abuse.

About 1,800 principals, assistant principals and administrators attended Brewer's annual address, held at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

While Brewer said individual schools had shown improvement, he noted there is still a deep achievement gap between white students and Latinos and African-Americans.

"Let me tell you what this is about," he said. "We have to hold ourselves accountable.

"This is the future of America," he said. "If we don't solve this, we will be a second-rate nation by 2020."

Strutting across the stage and speaking without the aid of a script, Brewer borrowed a quote from a preacher, telling his audience: "If you want to walk on water, you got to get out of the boat."

Educators, he said, need to leave behind the status quo, move beyond complacency and work to improve student achievement with the support of the community.

Debra Burris, an assistant principal at Woodland Hills Academy, said it was important that Brewer expressed faith in individual campus leaders.

"The important message is the belief in us that we can raise student achievement and that he has empowered us at our schools," Burris said.

LAUSD board member Julie Korenstein said, "He made people comfortable and he recognized them, which is the first time I've seen a superintendent do that."

In January the district will make available to parents and staff what Brewer called comprehensive school report cards tracking student achievement and post-graduation activity.

Also to be rolled out this year at 30 schools in the district is a Web-based program he termed "mydata," which will provide instant access to achievement rates for school sites, subgroups and individual students.

The program will be developed with principals and teachers, he said.

Brewer opened the address on that note, saying educators cannot break the trust of students and the community by allowing child abuse to go unnoticed.

Protecting an abuser, he warned, makes you an accessory in the eyes of the law and, he added, the issue will come out in the courts.

He urged educators to report suspected cases of abuse to authorities.

Brewer said a new system to report suspected abuse has been developed that involves principals, local superintendents and ultimately himself.

"Child abuse is going to be front and center in terms of your training and your development," he said.

Dee Apodaca, a field nurse coordinator, said she was glad to hear the connection between student safety and education.

"All of this supports the bottom line, which is student achievement," she said.

• The 2008 Superintendent’s Annual Address will be rebroadcast on KLCS on the following dates and times:

August 31, 7 a.m. & 4 p.m.
September 1, 10 a.m.
September 2, 10 a.m.


PRINCIPALS SKEPTICAL OF REFORM:
By George B. Sánchez, Staff Writer | Daily News

August 25 -- As Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's school partnership takes over 10 of Los Angeles' lowest-performing schools, his ambitious reform plan is being met on the campuses with both skepticism and hope.

Seven of the 10 schools' principals decided they didn't want to be part of the mayor's experiment and asked for transfers to other campuses just months before classes started.

The others remained, and the mayor has now brought in his own administrators to implement his vision. But while some of those who left said they were just looking for a different challenge or planning to retire soon anyway, others said they didn't have faith in the mayor's vision or methods.

They also felt left out in planning the fate of their own campuses.

"I'm totally for getting behind grass-roots reform, but what's the reform and how is it going to work?" said Verna Stroud, former principal of Markham Middle School. "It felt like, to me, it wasn't a partnership, it was a takeover."

The seven newly hired principals, some of them fresh to Los Angeles Unified, will be part of an untested plan - based on a framework created by the partnership, but ultimately one that is to be fine-tuned by the staff at each school.

Set against an LAUSD bureaucracy that has traditionally functioned under a strict chain of command, there is bound to be confusion.

There also likely will be discord.

The mayor's Partnership for Los Angeles Schools told principals they could stay on if they wanted. But they also expected some would choose to leave.

"We were very direct. We were honest," said Marshall Tuck, chief executive officer for the partnership. "Frankly, our job was to make sure people know what this was about. We expected people to leave."

Despite plans to free them from LAUSD headquarters, the mayor's partnership schools are not completely autonomous.

New principals could not be recruited until July 1, when the partnership contract began, Tuck said. Ideally, new principals would have been hired in April and arrive on campus before the end of the school year.

New principals were announced last week, and new assistant principals will be announced this week. But some of the old principals question whether they were ever considered.

While parents and teachers were allowed to vote on whether their campuses should leave the district and join the partnership, principals and classified employees were not offered a say.

Seasoned educators were skeptical of the latest education reform effort.

"The thing about the partnership is it's an unknown. There's no track record," said Karina Salazar, who asked for a transfer after serving as principal of 99th Street Elementary School for the past four years.

"Even though it's called a partnership, how can you call it a partnership and exclude the administrators?"

Tuck said it's unfortunate principals didn't have a vote but said they would have likely solidified support for the change.

That would have been the case with Teresa Hurtado, who was principal at Stevenson Middle School.

"I didn't want to leave. I was open from the beginning to the transformation," she said.

In retrospect, she said, it seemed the partnership was interested in new leadership.

"Sure, I made the decision to leave, but what else am I going to do?" she said. "You have to have a good working relationship with your supervisor."

Stroud said no one told the principals to leave, but communication problems and a lack of collaborative opportunities led some principals to draw their own conclusions.

But the connection between the partnership and principals can drive education reform, one expert said.

"What is important in school reform is that leadership is in sync with one another from the superintendent to the principals to the teachers," said Harold Levine, dean of the school of education at University of California, Davis.

"As long as senior management and the principals are in sync, you have a much better chance for real change to benefit students. That's the bottom line."

A.J. Duffy, president of the district's teachers union, said principals should have been allowed to vote on the transformation. But their role within this vision of education reform, he said, should not be what it was.

"What we're trying to create is a completely new model and yes, the role of administrators is different because they no longer make the ultimate decision," Duffy said.

Duffy did not know if any teachers requested transfers out of the mayor's partnership schools. But if they had, their decision should be honored, to benefit students and staff alike, he said.

"We don't want teachers who are not going to buy into this, to be forced into anything," he said. "We want to make sure everyone is excited."

The actual plan for schools within the partnership was also unclear to some principals.

The partnership's vision, contained within a slim, 32-page document, Tuck said, is purposefully loose because it's meant to allow teachers and community members the opportunity to do what works, instead of being told what to do.

Stroud said that idea isn't fair.

"Everybody needs some type of leadership," she said. "I can't imagine any organization that would just give itself over to the employees and say, go do it."

The vision was just that, she said - a philosophy without a plan or instruction.

"The question was always how," she said.

But the vision appeals to some, despite only a few weeks to prepare for a new school within a new system.

Tim Sullivan, who was appointed by the partnership to take over Markham Middle School on Aug. 18, said he has followed education reform since the late 1990s and is excited by the partnership.

"This is my 18th year in education and will be one of the more exciting years in my career," he said.

Most of Sullivan's experience in education is as an administrator.

That's the key to the change in leadership, said Robert Cooper, an associate professor of education at UCLA.

"I think the concern ought to be, are people ready to take over leadership roles at those institutions," he said. "It's not just an issue of if they're new. It's about what experience they have."

The process that moved the schools out of the district and into the partnership was rushed and haphazard, said Mike O'Sullivan, president of the principals union.

There are concerns for the new principals and the support they will get, O'Sullivan said, and not necessarily who they are.

"We're cautiously optimistic things will be fine," he said. "Schools are strong institutions that are almost impossible to mess up."


THE PARTNERSHIP SPIN: 4LAKids' Previous coverage



WESTCHESTER SCHOOL PRINCIPALS MOVE ON
By Melissa Pamer Staff Writer | Daily Breeze

August 27, 2008 -- Six administrators at two Westchester public schools voluntarily left their posts in recent months, just as the campuses were preparing for the upcoming academic year and a newly realized independence from Los Angeles Unified.

The principals and assistant principals have quit at Westchester High School and Orville Wright Middle School - two of the five campuses that make up the Loyola Marymount University Family of Schools.

The university in July formalized a partnership with LAUSD that gives the schools greater autonomy, flexibility and accountability, under the wing of the LMU's School of Education and the district's year-old innovation-focused iDesign division.

Stephen Rochelle, former principal at Wright, left his job to embrace the partnership as the district's director of learning and leadership for the Family of Schools.

He called the position a "bigger challenge" that would encompass K-12 education.

Westchester's former principal, Anita Barner, quit to become principal at Van Nuys Middle School.

The assistant principals at the two schools also left - for administrative positions at other campuses. An LMU official said those departures occurred because of better job opportunities.

It's not clear what motivated Barner's departure, which took LMU officials by surprise since she had been a part of reform efforts.

"In the month leading up to her leaving, she was involved," said LMU's Drew Furedi,
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executive director of the Family of Schools. "There's a fundamental shift in the way decisions are made. I'm not going to speculate if that was a direction she did not want to be under."

Barner, who had been at Westchester during a four-year period that saw overall declining test scores, could not be reached for comment.

The leadership changes come as the two campuses - along with Cowan, Kentwood and Westport Heights elementary schools - have assembled transition teams of teachers, staff, parents, students and community members to guide the year of change.

Those teams see the openings at Westchester and Wright as a chance to hire administrators who will fit in with the schools' new direction, Furedi said.

"The transition team is seeing this as an opportunity to re-envision what characteristics the school leader would have," Furedi said. "It's a great thing for all the schools. It makes some of the (reform) stuff real for people."

It's also the first time that the schools' communities will have any say in the hiring process - and they've already begun to exercise that control.

A committee of parents, teachers, students and staff at Wright has selected a new principal and is in the process of hiring its two assistant principals, Rochelle said.

Jim Stapleton, the former assistant principal of LAUSD's Paul Revere Charter Middle School in Brentwood, will become principal at Wright.

Westchester's committee named the retired former principal of Hollywood High School, Fonna Bishop, as the interim principal. Jennifer Tedford, who co-chaired Beverly Hills High School's English department, will be an assistant principal.

A permanent principal for Westchester should be named within a month, Rochelle said.

The committee-based hiring method is in marked contrast to how most traditional LAUSD schools get new administrators. They're usually assigned by district higher-ups at headquarters in downtown Los Angeles with no input from the school community.

"That's a sea change," Furedi said. "Just that has a significant effect: Here's the different way that things are happening."

But ultimately it's not about who is in charge that matters, Rochelle said.

"While leadership is important, it is by no means the end game of the change we're looking for. We're looking for outcomes," said Rochelle, who successfully pushed to have his office at the Westchester High School campus instead of at district headquarters.

The two other LAUSD campuses in Westchester - Loyola Village and Paseo del Rey elementary schools - may join the Family of Schools in the coming year, Furedi said.

______________________
●●smf 2¢ - The "innovative" model described for selecting principals and administrators is the old LEARN (Los Angeles Educational Alliance for Reform Now) model. LEARN never really ended, it just had its funding cut out from underneath it from the top until there was none - LEARN was always popular at the grassroots. LEARN stopped being anything but a memory of the way reform might've been early in the Romer superintendency - though it was probably doomed when Ramon Cortines was superintendent the first time in 2000 and first proposed the "Cortines Plan" …another innovation returned to LAUSD.

LMU's embrace of the LEARN process might come from the fact that LMU is the keeper of the LEARN archives. http://www.lmu.edu/Page4906.aspx.

It is thought-provoking that Robin Kramer, then president of LAAMP/LEARN Regional Alliance and now the mayor's chief of staff and point person on education did not embrace the LEARN model in selecting principals for the mayor's partnership schools -see PRINCIPALS SKEPTICAL (above) - opting for central office appointment - albeit a city hall central office.

Some LEARN schools (because the program never ended the schools remain LEARN schools) still use this method if the Local District Superintendent permits it.

However, with the recent decentralization many administrators who recently worked at the LAUSD central office at Beaudry are being reassigned to schoolsites. And whether we choose to call them "must-place" or "dancing lemons" — or just "good people without a job" — they are as-usually assigned to schools based on seniority rather than following the LEARN process.


PAYROLL TROUBLE CUTS OFF HEALTHCARE BENEFITS FOR 1,300 L.A. UNIFIED EMPLOYEES
•Mostly substitute teachers are affected by the latest glitch in the district's problem-plagued payroll system
•THE BENEFITS ARE EXPECTED TO BE RESTORED WITHOUT A LAPSE IN COVERAGE.

By Jason Song | Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

August 30, 2008 -- The Los Angeles Unified School District's problem-plagued payroll system inadvertently cut off healthcare benefits to about 1,300 employees, mostly substitute teachers, who didn't work in July.

Substitutes who work the equivalent of 100 days during a school year are eligible for medical, dental and vision benefits the following year if they are still teaching, but the district sent a letter to some employees late last week informing them that their coverage had ended July 31.

District officials apologized for the error in a letter Aug. 28 and promised that medical benefits would be restored without a break in coverage, although some employees said Friday they still haven't been able to use their insurance cards to fill prescriptions or visit a doctor.

"They scared the hell out of 1,300 people," said A.J. Duffy, president of United Teachers Los Angeles.

District officials said the problem occurred because L.A. Unified's payroll system was incorrectly programmed to cut off employees who are not on active status. Because many substitutes didn't work during July, the system sent them letters saying their medical coverage had been rescinded.

Some of the employees who received letters were not eligible for continued benefits and were appropriately dropped, L.A. Unified officials said, although they said they did not yet know how many fell into that group.

The officials said they are still working on glitches in the payroll system, which was launched in January 2007 and resulted in massive problems, including thousands of teachers being paid too much, too little or not at all.

Payment problems have since largely been resolved, district officials said.

"We'll continue to have some of these issues that crop up from time to time, and the only thing we can do is be prepared for knowing we'll occasionally encounter errors . . . and fix them quickly," said David Holmquist, the district's chief operating officer.

Duffy and other teachers union administrators said some members were forced to cancel medical procedures, including a skin cancer surgery. Many others had to forgo getting medical prescriptions.

Lauren Mora, who has been an L.A. Unified teacher for seven years, found out that her health coverage had lapsed when she tried to order birth control pills online Tuesday and was denied.

"I had a freakout. They're really important," she said.

Although summer months are generally slower for substitute teachers, there is less work this year because many campuses have stopped using year-round calendars and switched to a traditional schedule because of declining student enrollment.

Mora estimated that she worked about three days a week last summer, mainly at Broadous Elementary in Pacoima, but since the school switched to a traditional calendar in June, she said she hasn't taught at all.

"I'm just waiting for the first week of school and for the phone to ring," she said.

Holmquist said all employees should have their medical coverage restored by now, but Mora said she still hasn't been able to get her medication.

●●smf's 2¢: I can only add that if perhaps some real people - one or two of those 'bureaucrats' – or even a 'high-priced-BTS-consultant' that UTLA likes to malign – had taken a look at the letters the computer sent out…..?


HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T FIT: The Rest of the Stories from Other Sources
►SPECIALISTS COSTING LAUSD
by George Sanchez, Staff Writer | Daily News
August 30, 2008 - Even while grappling with funding shortfalls, the Los Angeles Unified School District is employing more than 800 consultants - paid, on average, more than twice as much as regular employees - to oversee school construction.

►WHAT PRICE SECURITY?
by A.J. Duffy from United Teacher
Aug 15 -- If you’ve been to the Beaudry building lately, you may have noticed that LAUSD has installed a pricey, state-of-the-art security system for headquarters—a building that I don’t need to remind you houses people who work far away from students.
..and, surprise, smf agrees with A.J.!

►IN THE NEWS: QUICK READS ON ISSUES TEACHERS CARE ABOUT.
From United Teacher | 8/15

►SENATE COMPROMISE FAILS

►BUDGET VOTE FAILS
Capitol Alert/ Sac Bee

►URGENT ALERT -- SENATE VOTE THIS MORNING WILL MAKE DEEPER CUTS -- CALL LEGISLATORS IMMEDIATELY TO OPPOSE THE SENATE PROPOSAL
A message from 4LAKids the California State PTA and The Education Coalition.

►LAUSD SAT SCORES GO DOWN IN MATH AND WRITING
LA Daily News
August 27, 2008 - Los Angeles Unified School District students' college application scores continue to lag behind national and state averages, according to results released today.

►E-TEXTBOOKS MAY NOT BE CHEAPER THAN PRINTED ONES, REPORT SAYS
By Gale Holland, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
A sharply critical report released Monday asserts that commercial publishers are going about the digital textbook revolution the wrong way. Researchers find that since students can re-sell printed books, the price is roughly the same, and that expiration dates on e-texts make them a less viable alternative for some students.

►FOCUS ON CHARACTER BOOSTS ACADEMIC SUCCESS AT CATHOLIC HIGH SCHOOL: St. Genevieve's innovative program has turned the school around -- improving academic performance, increasing college enrollment and attracting more students from all over L.A. County.
By Carla Rivera, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
August 26, 2008 -- With classes in Mandarin, overseas trips to China and France, bus transportation for commuters and individualized fitness instruction that includes salsa and tai chi, new students at St. Genevieve High School quickly come to realize that things are a bit different at this Panorama City campus.

►Philadelphia: NEW CITY SCHOOLS CHIEF OUTLINES HER TO-DO LIST
By Kristen A. Graham - Philadelphia Inquirer Staff Writer
Posted on Fri, Aug. 22, 2008 -- Building small high schools was a costly exercise in inequality. Teacher pay should be revamped, with financial rewards for special skills, not just longevity.

►DEMOCRATS AIR DUELING IDEAS ON EDUCATION
By David J. Hoff | Education Week
Democrats are almost certain to leave their convention in Denver united behind Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois as their nominee for president.
But it less likely that they’ll settle an intraparty disagreement over the most pressing question in K-12 education policy: How much can the public expect of schools?
The stark differences emerged the week after Sen. Obama secured enough delegates to claim the nomination in June. On back-to-back days, two groups released public statements outlining approaches for improving K-12 achievement.
• • One argued that policymakers need to invest in health care and other social programs before schools can deliver large increases in student achievement,
• while the other said that increased accountability, the expansion of charter schools, and other education policies would result in better student outcomes.

►BACK TO SCHOOL: AILING ECONOMY STRAINS STUDENTS, PARENTS
By Kimberly S. Wetzel - Contra Costa Times/San Jose Mercury News
August 25 -- Children across the country will return to school this year to face a money-hungry bully: the unstable economy.
Soaring food prices will extract more lunch money from students, while higher pump prices mean children will either pay more to ride a gas-guzzling bus or won't get a seat at all. Field trips are being reduced or scrapped altogether to save fuel.
It doesn't stop there.
California budget cuts mean students will compete for the attention of fewer teachers. Some electives will be nixed, and booster clubs and education foundations, which raise money for such things as classroom projects, are collecting less as businesses cut back and parents fret over job security.

____________________________________________________
A STATE WITHOUT A BUDGET

►A STATE WITHOUT A BUDGET: DAY 61 - TWO FROM THE SAC BEE — IT MAY ALL COME DOWN TO A WHOLE LOT OF BORROWING – AGAIN + DEMOCRATS' SHIFT COULD CRACK BUDGET IMPASSE

►SENATE COMPROMISE FAILS

►BOWEN: DEADLINE HAS PASSED FOR FALL BALLOT

Capitol Alert/ Sac Bee | Published 4:29 PM Friday, August 29, 2008 by Shane Goldmacher

Secretary of State Debra Bowen declared Friday that it is now too late to add any more measures to the November ballot, saying "any more changes would seriously jeopardize the integrity of the election." ... (more)

►BUDGET VOTE FAILS
Capitol Alert/ Sac Bee | Published 1:29 PM Friday, August 29, 2008 by Shane Goldmacher
Though the tally isn't final yet, the state Senate budget vote failed along party lines, with 24 votes in favor and 15 against.
The lone abstention was moderate Democratic Sen. Lou Correa of Orange County.


►PERATA'S FLOOR SPEECH
Capitol Alert/ Sac Bee | Published 12:48 PM Friday, August 29, 2008 by Amy Chance
Here's what Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata had to say about the budget he put up on the Senate floor this morning.


►A STATE WITHOUT A BUDGET: DAY 60@11:49AM - GOVERNOR PRAISES NEW DEMOCRATIC BUDGET
CAPITOL ALERT/SAC BEE: Posted by Dan Walters on August 29, 2008 11:49 AM
August 29, 2008 - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger today praised a new Democratic version of the state budget as "very courageous" and urged Republican senators to vote for it.

►URGENT ALERT -- SENATE VOTE THIS MORNING WILL MAKE DEEPER CUTS -- CALL LEGISLATORS IMMEDIATELY TO OPPOSE THE SENATE PROPOSAL
A message from 4LAKids the California State PTA and The Education Coalition.
The Senate has announced a budget vote for 10 am Friday -- at stake are deep cuts to vital services for all Californians, both now and into the future.
The Assembly may vote shortly thereafter.

►Day 60: CALIFORNIA SENATE DEMOCRATS TO INTRODUCE BUDGET PLAN: The proposal includes a sales tax increase and controls on future state spending.
It is unclear whether the proposal has the support of any Republicans.
By Evan Halper, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
August 29, 2008 -- SACRAMENTO -- -- Democrats in the state Senate said they would attempt to break the budget impasse today by offering their own spending plan for a vote.
It would be the first floor vote on the budget in that house since the fiscal year began 60 days ago.

►BREAKING NEWS: CALIFORNIA SENATE TO VOTE ON COMPROMISE BUDGET TOMORROW (THURSDAY AUG 29) MORNING AT 10 A.M
Details of Proposed Compromise Emerging
By Frank D. Russo - California Progress report
Thursday Aug 28 7PM - Word has just been received that Democratic President pro Tem Don Perata has scheduled a vote on a compromise proposal to end the budget stalemate that has California on the verge of setting a record for the longest delay beyond the fiscal year for passing a budget. The vote is scheduled to take place tomorrow morning, August 29, at 10 a.m.

►EVERYTHING - OR MORE THAN- YOU EVER WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT THE BUDGET IMPASSE: ON THE ROCKY ROAD TO THE 2008-09 BUDGET
by Dan Walters from the Sacramento Bee - published Wednesday, August 20, 2008 ...and still true today
Dan Walters walks us through some key mileposts on the road to this year's state budget stalemate, and offers some key statistics to help you get to the bottom of the debate.

►Day 59½ - LAIRD ANSWERS THE QUESTION: 'WHY CAN'T WE GET A STATE BUDGET?'
By John Laird | Chair Assembly Budget | Committee
FROM THE CALIFORNIA progress report
Aug 28 /1PM - The state budget is now nearly two months late. Republican legislative leaders refuse to offer a budget for consideration, let alone level with California about the need to increase revenue in order to prevent very deep, draconian cuts.

►A STATE WITHOUT A BUDGET: DAY 59 - CALIFORNIA BUDGET BATTLE GOING NOWHERE FAST
By Dan Walters - Sacramento Bee Columnist
August 28 - So where is the state of California's struggle with a long-overdue, deficit-ridden state budget headed? Nowhere fast.

►A STATE WITHOUT A BUDGET: DAY 58 - SCHWARZENEGGER COULD BE NO SHOW AT GOP CONVENTION
By JULIET WILLIAMS – Associated Press
August 27 - SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — When the Republican convention opens Monday night, its prime-time lineup could be missing one of its biggest draws: California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

►A STATE WITHOUT A BUDGET: DAY 56 ...AND COUNTING - FEDERAL JUDGE ORDERS STATE TO EXPLAIN DELAY IN IMPLEMENTING ORDER TO RESTORE MEDI-CAL RATES
California Budget Crisis - Day 56: Federal Judge Orders State to Explain Delay in Implementing Order to Restore Medi-Cal Rates - full article in California Progress Report

►A STATE WITHOUT A BUDGET: DAY 56½ - CALIF. SPEAKER CHANGES MIND, RESCHEDULES SESSIONS
The Associated Press | san Jose Mercury News
08/25/2008 12:15:42 PM PDT -- SACRAMENTO—Assembly Speaker Karen Bass has abandoned her plan not to hold sessions on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, a move that would have freed fellow Democrats to attend the party's national convention in Denver.

►A STATE WITHOUT A BUDGET: DAY 56 - WHY ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER SAID YES TO TAXES
The LA Now Blog in the LA Times -- from Veronique de Turenne
10:55 AM, August 25, 2008 -- Tick-tock, tick-tock -- 56 days and counting without a state budget. Our own George Skelton sits down with California's governor to talk money, politics and (in the nicest way) says "I told you so" about raising taxes.

►CONFRONTED BY REALITIES, SCHWARZENEGGER TURNS TO TAX HIKE: WITH THE STATE BUDGET 56 DAYS OVERDUE, THE GOVERNOR EXPLAINS HIS SHIFT ON TAXES.
George Skelton, LA Times | Capitol Journal
August 25, 2008 -- SACRAMENTO -- It can't be done, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger was insisting, staring at me over a table in his office. You can't have a responsible, honest state budget without a tax increase. Not this year.




Link to the news that didn't fit from August 31st



EVENTS: Coming up next week...
Wednesday Sep 3, 2008
SOUTH REGION ELEMENTARY SCHOOL #4:
Pre-Construction Community Meeting
Time: 6:00 p.m.
Location:
Bryson Elementary School - Auditorium
4470 Missouri Ave.
South Gate, CA 90280

Thursday Sep 4, 2008
SOUTH REGION HIGH SCHOOL #15:
CEQA Draft Environmental Impact Report Meeting and Presentation of Design Development Drawings
6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.
Barton Hill Elementary School - Auditorium
423 N Pacific Ave,
San Pedro, CA 90731

Thursday Sep 4, 2008
VALLEY REGION ELEMENTARY SCHOOL #13:
Preliminary Environmental Assessment (PEA) Hearing
Time: 6:30 p.m.
Location:
Burke High School
14630 Lanark St
Panorama City, CA 91402

*Dates and times subject to change. ________________________________________
• SCHOOL CONSTRUCTION BOND OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE:
http://www.laschools.org/bond/
Phone: 213-241-5183
____________________________________________________
• LAUSD FACILITIES COMMUNITY OUTREACH CALENDAR:
http://www.laschools.org/happenings/
Phone: 213-893-6800


• LAUSD BOARD OF EDUCATION & COMMITTEES MEETING CALENDAR



What can YOU do?
• E-mail, call or write your school board member:
Yolie.Flores.Aguilar@lausd.net • 213-241-6383
Marlene.Canter@lausd.net • 213-241-6387
Tamar.Galatzan@lausd.net • 213-241-6386
Monica.Garcia@lausd.net • 213-241-6180
Julie.Korenstein@lausd.net • 213-241-6388
Marguerite.LaMotte@lausd.net • 213-241-6382
Richard.Vladovic@lausd.net • 213-241-6385

...or your city councilperson, mayor, the governor, member of congress, senator - or the president. Tell them what you really think! • There are 26 mayors and five county supervisors representing jurisdictions within LAUSD, the mayor of LA can be reached at mayor@lacity.org • 213.978.0600
• Call or e-mail Governor Schwarzenegger: 213-897-0322 e-mail: http://www.govmail.ca.gov/
• Open the dialogue. Write a letter to the editor. Circulate these thoughts. Talk to the principal and teachers at your local school.
• Speak with your friends, neighbors and coworkers. Stay on top of education issues. Don't take my word for it!
• Get involved at your neighborhood school. Join your PTA. Serve on a School Site Council. Be there for a child.
• Register.
• Vote.


Who are your elected federal & state representatives? How do you contact them?




Scott Folsom is a parent and parent leader in LAUSD. He is immediate past President of Los Angeles Tenth District PTSA and represents PTA as Vice-chair on the LAUSD Construction Bond Citizen's Oversight Committee. He is a Community Concerns Commissioner, Legislation Team member and a member of the Board of Managers of the California State PTA. He serves on various school district advisory and policy committees and is a PTA officer and/or governance council member at three LAUSD schools.
• 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 SUBCRIPTION LIST E-MAIL smfolsom@aol.com with "SUBSCRIBE" AS THE SUBJECT. Thank you.

Friday, August 29, 2008

Urgent Alert

A message from 4LAKids the California State PTA and The Education Coalition.

Urgent Alert -- Senate Vote this morning will make deeper cuts -- Call Legislators Immediately to Oppose the Senate Proposal

The Senate has announced a budget vote for 10 am Friday -- at stake are deep cuts to vital services for all Californians, both now and into the future.

The Assembly may vote shortly thereafter.

CALL YOUR 2 LEGISLATORS THIS MORNING -- and forward this message on!

1. Call 1-888-268-4334, the "Cuts Hurt Hotline" (Special hotline provided by CTA, as we need action now!)

2. Press 1, to be connected directly to your Senator

3. Tell your Senator:

"OPPOSE the Senate budget proposal because:

-- it makes MORE cuts to our schools, hospitals, and communities, now and into the future

-- it does NOT include the responsible, stable revenues needed to prevent deeper cuts and invest in the future."

4. Call again, pressing 2 to be connected directly to your Assembly member and tell them of your opposition to the Senate Budget Proposal.

Thanks to those of you who have called so many times already this very important (and very long) budget season. Why call again NOW? Two reasons:

· First, this weekend is the final deadline for any budget deal that would include items for the November 4th ballot, so the pressure is high for a final deal to be struck.

· Second, it's clear that all your calls, visits, letters, and direct actions in districts across the state have made a difference in holding the line on cuts to vital services and forcing reasonable revenue proposals into the conversation.

Now, our Senators and Assembly members must lead the charge to pass a responsible, compassionate budget. Let them hear from you NOW!

The somewhat latest budget news.




Sunday, August 24, 2008

A state without a budget, a government without a clue


4LAKids: Sunday, August 24, 2008
In This Issue:
FROM SUMMER BLISS TO SCHOOL DAY FEARS
WHEN PENSIONS AND TEACHERS COLLIDE: Professionals should not have to put their Social Security benefits at risk when they become teachers.
Just what we need …another 4LAKids Blog: A STATE WITHOUT A BUDGET, A GOVERNMENT WITHOUT A CLUE
Learning from the Mavericks: LESSONS FOR DISTRICTS FROM SMALL URBAN HIGH SCHOOLS
HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T FIT: The Rest of the Stories from Other Sources
EVENTS: Coming up next week...
What can YOU do?


Featured Links:
FLUNK THE BUDGET, NOT OUR CHILDREN Website
PUBLIC SCHOOLS: an investment we can't afford to cut! - The Education Coalition Website
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.
LAST SUNDAY the Assembly met to vote on a budget; while no budget passed there was great rhetorical commitment to pass one the governor and the legislators made noises like they would stay in session until they got one - the political conventions notwithstanding.

Alas, "conventional wisdom" prevailed and nothing of the kind is going to happen! The Democrats will head off the Denver next week; the Republicans to Minneapolis- St. Paul the week after being careful to be is session just long enough to get paid for the days they're away - raising campaign funds!

Those budgets are being taken care of.

The Lege pulled the plug on education benefits for National Guardsmen and Women - whether they serve on the border, in the Middle East or the fire lines.

Meanwhile American Express sent notices to state employees warning they might pull the plug on the state's credit cards. Hopefully no legislator-delegates will have to rely on the kindness of lobbyists to pay their dinner tabs or hotel bills!

The governor - all of his budget proposals being ignored by Democrats and Republicans alike - is now threatening a special election to settle all of this. The last time he called a special election it cost us $50 Million and all eight issues he put on the ballot failed.


I HAD A LOVELY RUBBER CHICKEN LUNCHEON at the Convention Center last week as the construction industry celebrated itself and its commitment to greening, conservation and renewable resources. A couple of the luncheon speakers talked about the need for better preparation of public education students for the building trades; a message the LAUSD college-prep-for-all proponents (who had just left) need to hear. There were easily six hundred of us enjoying the conversation and the repast at the city-owned-and-operated facility with the Department of Water and Power as a host �where we all got illegal glasses of water without asking.

This has nothing to do with Education or the budget - but as I was driving through the four level interchange on my way home from that lunch a NPR story prattled on about the great supermarket plastic bag debate in Seattle. As it was rush hour I stared out through my dirty window (part of my personal water conservation effort) and started counting the bags in the freeway daisies and ice plant on the freeway median. If we ever get education and the budget and the war and the economy back on track there will still be challenges.

Forever onward - smf


FROM SUMMER BLISS TO SCHOOL DAY FEARS
Tim Schlosser, a teacher at Southeast Middle School, writes the LA Times Homeroom Blog:

August 18, 2008 - My summer of reading, writing, and reflection is already starting to feel like a misty memory.

Late August — anxiety season — has struck. Southeast Middle School has seen some major off-season changes: Our principal and assistant principal are both leaving, enrollment is down, several teaching positions have been cut, and our funding for supplementary programs is at risk under the new state budget.

This adds to the general sense of disquiet I have about my new responsibilities next year. I’m chair of the English Department? They want me to plan professional development? Serve as an example of excellent teaching? I often feel that I’ve bitten off more than I can chew. As I flip through the pile of professional literature I set aside — Content Area Reading, Strategies That Work, Reading for Understanding -- I am often depressed by its conservatism, its endless practicality, its exhaustive collections of graphic organizers to help English language learners navigate expository texts.

A part of me recoils at these nitty-gritty teaching manuals and longs for the more idealistic pedagogical literature, like Jonathan Kozol’s "Savage Inequalities" or Paolo Freire’s "Pedagogy of the Oppressed. "

And still another part of me doesn’t even want that. This part of me graduated from college two years ago and isn't even positive that he's supposed to be a teacher. To succeed next year, I guess I have to push those parts of myself to the side. I have to read chapters with such titles as “Inferential Thinking: Reading Between the Lines” and, somehow, find ways to connect them to concrete classroom practices. I have to schedule field trips, buy posters, create a classroom management plan that moves kids’ reading levels up and attitude levels down. I’ve got to make another attempt at playing the role of the kind, wise teacher I’ve always wanted to be.

When I meet my new students, all of this will feel exciting, I hope. But right now it is a little bit terrifying.


WHEN PENSIONS AND TEACHERS COLLIDE: Professionals should not have to put their Social Security benefits at risk when they become teachers.
LA Times Editorial

August 22, 2008 -- Strange to say, one problem plaguing teachers is the size of their pensions. Not the usual, hefty pensions that threaten to sink school districts such as Los Angeles Unified, but the ones that shortchange teachers who enter the field later in life.

Under little-known provisions of the Social Security Act, people who make mid-career switches to teaching or certain other public-sector work can lose a significant portion of their federal retirement benefits. The rules don't affect people who paid into Social Security for a full 30 years, but they do cut into the benefits of those who make the switch earlier. Even if a teacher's spouse has paid into Social Security for three decades, survivor benefits for the teacher would be reduced.

One of these measures, the so-called windfall elimination provision, was adopted in 1983 to prevent people from piling up public pensions from, say, careers in the military and law enforcement, from which employees can retire at relatively young ages with sizable pensions, and then adding a full Social Security retirement package by working jobs covered by the federal program. But for teachers and some other public servants, the biggest share of pension money kicks in during the last few years of work. With partial pensions and shrunken Social Security benefits, those who work in these sectors for a limited number of years could end up worse off than if they had never switched careers.

The windfall provision reduces benefits for workers who have "substantial earnings" from jobs that were covered by Social Security if they later receive public pensions from jobs in which they did not pay into the federal system. The formula is complicated, but the average loss to affected teachers in California has been estimated at $3,900 a year. A separate provision reduces spousal and survivor benefits when one spouse has a government pension.

The issue has gained urgency in recent years because schools are trying to recruit more math and science teachers, and hope to woo them from the ranks of people who already work in related fields. Most of these people make higher salaries in the private sector; the pension hit is another disincentive for them to consider teaching.

As a matter of fairness, Social Security shouldn't punish people for switching jobs. As a matter of smart public policy, the federal government should encourage qualified professionals to enter teaching. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) is leading the congressional effort to fix this, but her Social Security Fairness Act would go too far, repealing the provisions altogether and costing $60 billion over 10 years.

Overly generous public pensions are crippling government budgets, and the future funding of Social Security is in doubt. The provisions should be tweaked toward fairness, not thrown out completely.


Just what we need …another 4LAKids Blog: A STATE WITHOUT A BUDGET, A GOVERNMENT WITHOUT A CLUE
http://www.NoCalBudget.blogspot.com — An extension of what passes for news from the 4LAKids blogs about the current California Budget Crisis — as the Legislators and Governor struggle to do the one constitutionally mandated thing they must do every year by July 1.

Do the math to see how late they are! If Election Day rolls around without a budget I say we vote every one of 'em out and write in Gene Krischer's cat!

Hopefully we will get a budget soon - and an improved budget process ...and this blog can expire in irrelevancy! - smf

THIS WEEK'S CONTENT ...or more than you ever wanted to know about the Sacramento budget shenanigans:

►CLUELESS IN SACRAMENTO

►A State Without a Budget: Day 54½ - AMERICAN EXPRESS COULD SUSPEND AmEx CARD SERVICE TO STATE EMPLOYEES IF BUDGET DELAY DRAGS IN
With California's budget impasse approaching its 54th day, financial services giant American Express Co. has warned the state that its workers may have to leave home without their state AmEx travel card if the dispute drags on too long.

►A State Without a Budget: Day 55 - DEMOCRATS IN CALIFORNIA ASSEMBLY TO TAKE 3-DAY VACATION DESPITE BUDGET IMPASSE
Their time away from the Capitol coincides with the Democratic National Convention, but one official says that has nothing to do with their decision not to hold sessions.

►A State Without a Budget: Day 54 - CALIF. LAWMAKERS OPT NOT TO MEET DURING CONVENTION Lawmakers in the state Assembly have opted not to meet for most of next week, despite a state budget that's nearly two months late and a looming deadline for hundreds of bills to pass out of both houses.

►CALIF. LAWMAKERS OPT NOT TO MEET DURING CONVENTION
Lawmakers in the state Assembly have opted not to meet for most of next week, despite a state budget that's nearly two months late and a looming deadline for hundreds of bills to pass out of both houses.

►A State Without a Budget: Day 53 and counting - WHAT HAPPENS NOW?
Despite the requests from the Governor to stay at their desks and not go to their respective conventions - and assurances from the legislators that they would stay on the job ...and rumors that they would work through the weekend - none of the above seems destined to happen.
• Assembly Will Finish Up Work On Bills Aug 31
• Assembly Will Meet Monday and Then No Session Until Friday
• Senate Schedule Not Certain
+ NEXT STEPS

►A State Without a Budget: Day 53 GOVERNOR MAY SEEK SPECIAL ELECTION FOR BUDGET
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's budget has gained no support. The last special election in California was in 2005 and cost the state about $50 million; California voters rejected all eight ballot propositions.

►A State Without a Budget: Day 52 STATE SUPERINTENDENT TO LEGISLATORS: "OPPOSE ANY FURTHER COMPROMISE TO THE 'BUDGET COMPROMISE'".
A letter to the Legislators from Jack O'Connell - the only elected official in the State Constitution charged with oversight of public education

►A State Without a Budget: Day 52 CALIFORNIA GOVERNMENT HAS FAILED US
California's government suffers from drastic dysfunction - our prisons overflow, our water system teeters on collapse, our once proud schools are criminally poor, our financing system is bankrupt, our democracy produces ideologically extreme legislators who can pass neither budget nor reforms, and we have no recourse in the system to right these wrongs. Drastic times call for drastic measures.
It is our duty to declare that our California government is not only broken, it has become destructive to our future. Therefore, are we not obligated to nullify our government and institute a new one?

►A State Without A Budget: Day 52: CALL SCHWARZENEGGER'S BLUFF - LET DEADLINE FOR BALLOT MEASURES PASS
Earlier this month, Governor Schwarzenegger vowed he wouldn’t sign any legislation before a budget was passed, an obvious attempt to blackmail Democrats into hurrying along the process and accepting a Republican-driven result. Since then, mainstream coverage of the budget battle consistently includes hand-wringing over the looming deadline – this Saturday – for placing or altering measures on November’s ballot. This sort of coverage goes on to cite all the ‘major’ initiatives that wouldn’t go before voters due to the current logjam. Yet of the four big initiatives that must meet Saturday’s deadline to move forward, none are essential to a progressive Democratic agenda, and all were initiated at least in part by Schwarzenegger himself. State legislators should let the deadline pass … and let the Governor eat crow.

►A State Without a Budget: Day 52 CALIFORNIA'S BUDGET BILLIONS
No matter what budget Sacramento comes up with, California voters will probably increase the deficit in 10 weeks.
There's little chance that the state budget eventually passed in Sacramento will actually rid California of its stubborn $15.2-billion deficit. But in the improbable event that the Legislature and governor balance the budget without resorting to such gimmicks as raiding other accounts, enjoy the moment. In just 10 weeks, California voters will likely throw it out of whack again.

►A State Without a Budget: Day 52 LEGISLATORS NOT OPTIMISTIC ON BUDGET - North Coast Democrats grim as state fiscal impasse reaches 8th week
The 2008 state budget impasse is now among the fifth longest in the 22-year run of busted deadlines, and North Coast legislators -- all Democrats -- generally see little likelihood of a quick resolution.

►A State Without a Budget: Day 51 SCHWARZENEGGER'S PUSH TO HIKE SALES TAX RILES GOP: The governor says a temporary increase could help close the budget gap. But his party's leaders want to borrow.
Borrowing proposals involve diverting money specifically set aside by voters for local governments, road and other transportation projects, mental health programs and early childhood education.

►A State Without a Budget: Day 51 CALIFORNIA NATIONAL GUARD LOSING BUDGET BATTLE IN LEGISLATURE: Democrats in the state Senate block a $3.3-million allocation to give educational benefits to Guard members
California is the only state that gives no educational benefit to National Guard members.
While they have been beating back wildfires across the state and fighting wars on two fronts overseas, the citizen soldiers of the California National Guard have also been waging a battle in the Legislature -- and losing.
For the second year in a row, state lawmakers have rebuffed the Guard's effort to win state money to help cover the cost of college for its members. State military officials say their only hope now is that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will prevail upon Democratic legislators to include money for tuition assistance in the budget that is 49 days overdue and more than $15 billion in the red.

►A State Without a Budget: Day 50 Schwarzenegger to Legislature: "YOU'RE GROUNDED"
In which the Governator threatens to keep the Democrats in Sacramento for the Democratic convention ...even though it's the Republicans that are holding up the budget! How Republican of him.
No state budget? Then no national political conventions for you, the Governator told state lawmakers today.

►A State Without a Budget: Day 50 STATE'S DEMS SHOULD HOLD STRONG ON BUDGET
"What’s important is that Democrats should cease trying to pass a compromise budget when the people they’re negotiating with obviously have no intention of compromising. They should instead focus their efforts on convincing Californians that the reason they’re refusing to capitulate is to protect and defend the interests of the state’s residents."

►A State Without a Budget: Day 50 CALIFORNIA BUDGET IMPASSE PERSISTS AS GOP REFUSES INCOME TAX RISE
California's months-long budget standoff hit a low when an emergency State Assembly meeting failed to produce a compromise between Democrats and Republicans over how to compensate for a shortfall exceeding $15 billion.

►A State Without a Budget: Day 49 ASSEMBLY DEMOCRATS BUDGET BILL FAILS + CALIF. GOP LAWMAKERS KILL DEMS $6.6B TAX PACKAGE + SACRAMENTO'S FUNDRAISING FOLLIES
• from the AP: "California is the last state in the nation on a July fiscal calendar to enact a budget. "
• The LA Times editorializes: "The state budget is past due, so why are lawmakers spending time raising big bucks from donors?"
• At a party Sunday afternoon a friend opined that "all the lawmakers, Republican and Democrat alike, should be tossed out". 4LAKids would like to second the motion.

►A State Without a Budget: Day 48: ASSEMBLYMAN SWANSON: "California must stand for something. Education needs to be a priority."
Delivered on the Assembly Floor - Sunday, Aug. 17th.

►A State Without a Budget - Day 48 - NO END IN SIGHT FOR BUDGET BATTLE
A vote will be held today on the state budget, but East Bay lawmakers don't expect the standoff — now in its 48th day — to end any time soon.
Heading into today's 3 p.m. Assembly session, a wide chasm still divides Democrats and Republicans on the major sticking points in negotiating a budget that must pare down an estimated $15.2 billion deficit.
"I think it's a 50-50 chance this could go into September," said Assemblyman Sandre Swanson, D-Oakland, "because some of us are not willing to balance the budget on the backs of children, and Republicans have not abandoned their cuts-only approach."


The Blog: A STATE WITHOUT A BUDGET, A GOVERNMENT WITHOUT A CLUE



Learning from the Mavericks: LESSONS FOR DISTRICTS FROM SMALL URBAN HIGH SCHOOLS
Commentary By Regis Shields & Karen Hawley Miles | Education Week

August 5, 2008 -- Creating new small high schools out of large failing ones continues to be a popular strategy for tackling high dropout rates and low performance in urban high schools. But, too often, districts create high-cost mini-versions of their large failing high schools because they do not have a vision of how small schools might “do school” in new ways, or how they would have to change their own practice and systems to support them.

Case studies of resource use in nine leading-edge small urban high schools can offer lessons for districts that are not satisfied with just a few examples of outstanding schools, but want to create entire systems of them.

We studied a set of widely recognized small urban schools—all with enrollments of 500 or fewer students—that represent a range of instructional, organizational, and governance models. These “Leading Edge Schools” serve student populations similar to their districts’, but outperform most local large high schools. Our sample included two state charter schools, four in-district charter schools, and three district-run schools located in Boston; Chicago; San Diego; Oakland, Calif.; and Worcester, Mass.

Here are four of the most salient lessons gleaned from our findings:

• There’s no one way, but there is a strategic way to organize schools.

Schools can best create high-performing organizations — or strategic designs — when they have the flexibility to organize resources along with guidance and support on best practices.

Rather than accept traditional schedules, staffing ratios, and job descriptions, Leading Edge Schools deliberately organize people, time, and money to support their instructional models and meet their students’ needs. Operating largely with public funds, they make tough resource trade-offs to prioritize teaching quality, core academic time, and individual student attention. Though these schools look very different from one another, they share a set of common practices that distinguish them from typical large urban high schools.

Principals carefully select teaching-staff members to fit their specific school needs, for example. Students spend an average of 20 percent more time in school each year—and 233 more days over four years—on core academics than their peers in traditional high schools do. And teachers devote an average of five times more hours to collaboration and professional development than local districts require.

• Strategic school design depends on resource-savvy principals.

The principals of Leading Edge Schools are savvy resource managers. They understand that deftly crafting resources to align with their instructional models and ever-changing student and teacher needs is key to their schools’ success. Not all principals bring these same skills to the job. To create strategic-resource schools at scale, schools leaders need help in figuring out and implementing new approaches. This suggests a new paradigm for supervising and supporting schools—especially as they are outlining their improvement plans, budgets, and staffing needs each year.

In this new paradigm, supervision would be less about enforcing a specific use of resources, and much more about enabling schools to more effectively match hiring, staff assignment, student grouping, and schedules to their particular challenges. This will require training for both principals and school supervisors in strategic resource use. It will also require districts to create templates for school designs that work within their funding levels at different school sizes and student populations. Though the Leading Edge Schools create their strategic designs from the ground up, there is no need for all schools to begin with a blank slate.

• Small high schools will require a workforce shift to include more-flexible teachers of core academic subjects.

Small size creates its own set of opportunities and constraints. Leading Edge Schools capitalize on smallness to create vibrant professional learning communities. But small size limits resources in two ways. First, the smallest schools—those with under 250 students—spend a significantly larger portion of their budgets on leadership and pupil support than larger schools do, leaving less money for teachers. In addition, the smaller staff size makes it harder to hire full-time teachers to play highly specialized roles teaching electives and advanced subjects or serving students with special needs.

Leading Edge Schools have three conditions that enable them to create their strategic designs. First, they are able to select core academic teachers with the expertise and desire to play the range of roles their small-school designs require. In eight out of nine Leading Edge Schools, 84 percent or more of all classroom teachers are “core academic” teachers. In contrast, at the typical high school, 60 percent or fewer of the teaching-staff members play these roles. Second, Leading Edge Schools can define teaching roles, allowing core academic teachers to play multiple roles and using community partners to expand course offerings and services. Third, they have the flexibility to define their own limited set of course offerings to maximize academic courses.

These conditions have implications for district practices around recruiting, staffing, course requirements, and partnerships. Schools will need far more math, science, history, and English teachers and fewer who teach only electives. Further, systems must find more cost-effective ways to deliver noncore subjects, including partnerships and part-time teachers.

• Union contracts and administrative practices need to change.

Given that the common practices described above often require significant flexibility to depart from teachers’ union contract provisions and administrative policies, it is not surprising that most of the Leading Edge Schools are charter or in-district charter schools. The lesson for school systems is that teachers are not interchangeable parts, and that teacher and student schedules cannot be universally or rigidly defined. Supporting schools will mean changing district policies and union contracts that control hiring, staffing, and scheduling.

The important idea here is that it’s not about creating flexibility for the sake of freedom. The goal of allowing more school leader discretion is to enable more effective school designs and empower leaders to make adjustments that balance limited and always-changing resources in ways that fit constantly changing student needs. Not all urban principals have the high level of expertise and experience that Leading Edge principals do, and they will require training, support, and, potentially, templates of organizational models.

As the Leading Edge Schools show, creating high-performing, successful small high schools is about so much more than size. Schools can best create high-performing organizations—or strategic designs—when they have the flexibility to organize resources along with guidance and support on best practices. They need resource-savvy leaders, who have the flexibility to hire whomoever they need, and to organize their available student time and teachers effectively.

While the Leading Edge Schools are all small urban high schools, these lessons for practice apply to schools of all sizes and types—making small school reform a powerful lever of system change.

Regis Shields is the director and Karen Hawley Miles is the president and executive director of Education Resource Strategies, a nonprofit organization based in Watertown, Mass., that works with urban schools and districts on strategic resource allocation. Their essay uses findings from “Strategic Designs: Lessons From Leading Edge Small Urban High Schools,” a study funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.


Strategic Designs: Lessons From Leading Edge Small Urban High Schools



HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T FIT: The Rest of the Stories from Other Sources
► CALL ON COLLEGE PRESIDENTS TO SUPPORT THE 21 MINIMUM LEGAL DRINKING AGE
MADD/Mothers Against Drunk Driving - writes 4LAKids:

Dear Friend,

An estimated 25,000 lives have been saved by the 21 Minimum Legal Drinking Age (MLDA), which is why we were gravely concerned to learn that the college and university presidents and representatives listed below have added their names to a misguided initiative aimed at attacking the minimum drinking age of 21.

► Campaign '08: POLL GIVES OBAMA EDGE ON IMPROVING SCHOOLS
A greater proportion of Americans think that Sen. Barack Obama would be more likely than Sen. John McCain to improve public schools as president, according to a poll being released today.
The survey, conducted by Phi Delta Kappa International and the Gallup Organization, reports that 46 percent of respondents viewed Sen. Obama as the candidate for the White House better able to strengthen public education, compared with 29 percent for Sen. McCain. Twenty-five percent of respondents said they didn’t know which candidate would be better able to handle school policy.

► Prop 6/The Runner Initiative: STEALTH INITIATIVE THREATENS CALIFORNIA YOUTH, IMMIGRANTS
Silent but deadly, Prop. 6 is the ballot measure that no one has heard of, but that could have catastrophic effects on young people in California, writes Kevin Weston.
With Proposition 6 on the California ballot this November, young people in the Golden State have a reason to vote that trumps putting the first non-white man in the White House.
The Runner Initiative – or the “Safe Neighborhood Act” – is the single worst thing that could happen to California youth since the passage of Proposition 21 allowed 16 year-olds to be tried as adults. Prop. 6 does Prop. 21 one better – it would allow 14-year-old “gang members” to be tried as adults.

► COMPETITION KEY TO EDUCATION EXCELLENCE + OUR GOAL: STRONG SCHOOLS
●●smf's 2¢: No one disputes the value of competition or the goal of strong schools. I feel strange defending Roy Romer - I miss him sometimes but he could always defend himself! What is going on here however in insidious; Rep Tancredo is using the technique of 'The Big Lie' - stating personally held belief as proven fact and arming himself and his cause with spurious and suspect proof.
THOSE WHO DO NOT STUDY HISTORY WILL INEVITABLY MISSTATE IT: Fuzzy thinking proves noting except perhaps the inferiority of fuzzy thought and the absurdity of fuzzy thinkers.
Let us begin with Tancredo's description of Romer: "Romer left Colorado to become superintendent of schools for the Los Angeles Unified School District, a job he held for more than a decade. That district's school board was controlled by the teachers union and he had a friendly City Council as well."
Really? Whatever Rep. Tancredo taught when he was a teacher - and thankfully he's not teaching now - it must not have been history! Romer was Chairman of the DNC after he left Colorado. Romer's LAUSD superintendency lasted six years. Six, count 'em: six! And he had a 'friendly city council' as well? The only three times the city council had anything to do with LAUSD (the state constitution and the city charter forbid them meddling therewith):
1. They voted unanimously to support the mayor's (illegal) takeover of the school district under AB1381 - in direct opposition to Romer.
2. They helped appoint a commission to investigate the governance of the school district.
3. They put a ballot measure on the ballot that:
• raised school board members salaries
• and limited the terms of school board.
(Wait: two things in one ballot measure? ...isn't that illegal? Oh well, another windmill for another time)
• When Romer became superintendent the school board was not 'controlled' by the teachers union; if anything the opposite was true. A majority was 'supported' by [anti teacher's union] Mayor Riordan and Eli Broad.
• And the teacher's union - it must be remembered - also broke with the board they 'controlled' and supported AB 1361.
The rest of Tencredo's argument is similarly and substantially hogwash.

► COMPETITION KEY TO EDUCATION EXCELLENCE
By U S Rep Tom Tancredo (R/CO) : OpEd in the Rocky Mountain News (Denver)
Last week, Gov. Bill Ritter and former Gov. Roy Romer wrote a column about the state of education in America. In it, I believe they've unwittingly made a powerful argument for precisely the kind of educational reform that they have publicly opposed for many years: school choice.
In 10 years, the governors want to cut the high school dropout rate in half and double the number of college degrees awarded to in- state Colorado students. These are great goals for our state but the only way to achieve them is through a competitive educational system.

► OUR GOAL: STRONG SCHOOLS
By Gov. Bill Ritter and Roy Romer: OpEd: The Denver Post
Next weekend, the Democrats will gather in Denver and one of their first priorities will be to adopt a party platform. The following week, the Republicans will gather in Minneapolis with a similar mission. The parties' final platforms will likely note rising energy costs, increasing unemployment rates and this nation's ongoing housing crisis — all important issues.
But amid this discussion, we need a clear and reasoned voice to continually make the case that strong public education is the best driver of future economic growth.

► NEW PRINCIPALS BEGIN WORK IN L.A. MAYOR'S SCHOOLS PARTNERSHIP + IN L.A., MAJORITY OF `MAYOR'S SCHOOL' PRINCIPALS TRANSFERRED OUT
Compare and Contrast the spin: The Times and the Daily News

► CALIFORNIA CHARTER SCHOOLS ASSN. HEAD EXPECTED TO STEP DOWN

Caprice Young, the head of the California Charter Schools Assn. and former Los Angeles school board member, is expected to announce this morning that she is stepping down to take a new job at an education company.
Young is credited by both critics and supporters of charter schools with spearheading the movement in California, which grew during her five-year tenure to more than 300 publicly financed, independently run campuses.

► MANAGING FOR RESULTS IN AMERICA'S GREAT CITY SCHOOLS: A Report of the Performance Measurement and Benchmarking Project
By Lesli A. Maxwell | EdWeek
For the second year, the Council of the Great City Schools has released detailed data on the business performance of the nation’s largest school districts—part of an initiative designed to help urban educators improve noninstructional operations of their districts.
The report features two years of data on transportation, food services, procurement, security, and maintenance from many of the 66 large school districts that are members of the council, a Washington-based organization that created the multiyear project to identify key indicators and best practices to guide districts on how to perform more efficiently.
The report also includes first-time benchmark data on budgeting and finance, human resources, and information technology. It presents city-by-city data so that member districts can see how they stack up against high-performing systems.

► SCHOOL CAFETERIAS STRUGGLING TO KEEP FOOD ON THE TABLE
By Greg Toppo, USA TODAY
Rising costs for fuel, food and labor are forcing school cafeterias nationwide to raise prices, cut jobs and, in some cases, dip into "rainy day" funds to put food on trays, according to congressional testimony to be delivered today.
The U.S. Agriculture Department chipped in an extra dime a meal last week to help schools pay for lunches. The new maximum rate is now $2.57, up from $2.47 in 2007.
But school nutrition directors say that doesn't keep pace with costs, which will climb 30 cents a meal this year to a national average of $2.88, the School Nutrition Association says.

► ANOTHER SHOT IN THE MATH WARS -or- who says Jack O'Connell doesn't have a sense of humor?
"The algebra mandate is, and will always be, as pointless as it is unrealistic. But issue a stupid order and, as O'Connell almost said, you deserve a stupid response."
Last week, O'Connell, the state superintendent of public instruction, called for an additional $3.1 billion a year to allow California's middle schools to meet a three-year deadline by which all students must take (and presumably pass) algebra in the eighth grade.
That, for at least a short spell, made him the funniest man in Sacramento. And it was all done with a straight face. O'Connell called it his "Algebra I Success Initiative" and launched it with a press conference backed by the requisite spear carriers from the education establishment, a budget, and all the other paraphernalia appertaining to serious public business.

► LA UNIFIED'S GARDENING PROGRAM MAY BE UPROOTED: The effort that has flourished among students could get cut amid the district's budget woes.
The seeds of a thousand lessons are sown in five acres of North Hollywood dirt, tended by a man named Mud.
Here in this little-known oasis, Mud Baron and urban teenagers with a heretofore unknown penchant for rare flowers toil under a blazing sun to raise lemon verbena, tomatoes, lettuce and other greenery that hundreds of Los Angeles schools will use to jump-start their gardens this fall. They also cultivate exotic plants, including exuberantly colored dahlias the size of dinner plates, to sell at farmers markets.

► YouTube - THE FLUNKING REPUBLICANS CHANNEL
The California Faculty Association has launched a strategic campaign targeting Republicans in open swing seat districts that are ripe for Democrats to win in November. The goal of the campaign is to stop Republicans who seem determined to slash our public education system and burn our economic future.


The news that didn't fit from August 24th



EVENTS: Coming up next week...
*Dates and times subject to change. ________________________________________
• SCHOOL CONSTRUCTION BOND OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE:
http://www.laschools.org/bond/
Phone: 213-241-5183
____________________________________________________
• LAUSD FACILITIES COMMUNITY OUTREACH CALENDAR:
http://www.laschools.org/happenings/
Phone: 213-893-6800


• LAUSD BOARD OF EDUCATION & COMMITTEES MEETING CALENDAR



What can YOU do?
• E-mail, call or write your school board member:
Yolie.Flores.Aguilar@lausd.net • 213-241-6383
Marlene.Canter@lausd.net • 213-241-6387
Tamar.Galatzan@lausd.net • 213-241-6386
Monica.Garcia@lausd.net • 213-241-6180
Julie.Korenstein@lausd.net • 213-241-6388
Marguerite.LaMotte@lausd.net • 213-241-6382
Richard.Vladovic@lausd.net • 213-241-6385

...or your city councilperson, mayor, the governor, member of congress, senator - or the president. Tell them what you really think! • There are 26 mayors and five county supervisors representing jurisdictions within LAUSD, the mayor of LA can be reached at mayor@lacity.org • 213.978.0600
• Call or e-mail Governor Schwarzenegger: 213-897-0322 e-mail: http://www.govmail.ca.gov/
• Open the dialogue. Write a letter to the editor. Circulate these thoughts. Talk to the principal and teachers at your local school.
• Speak with your friends, neighbors and coworkers. Stay on top of education issues. Don't take my word for it!
• Get involved at your neighborhood school. Join your PTA. Serve on a School Site Council. Be there for a child.
• Register.
• Vote.


Who are your elected federal & state representatives? How do you contact them?




Scott Folsom is a parent and parent leader in LAUSD. He is immediate past President of Los Angeles Tenth District PTSA and represents PTA as Vice-chair on the LAUSD Construction Bond Citizen's Oversight Committee. He is a Community Concerns Commissioner, Legislation Team member and a member of the Board of Managers of the California State PTA. He serves on various school district advisory and policy committees and is a PTA officer and/or governance council member at three LAUSD schools.
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