Sunday, March 27, 2011

Take charter schools. Please.


4LAKids: Sunday 27•March•2011
In This Issue:
THE TEACHER AS PUBLIC ENEMY #1, A RESPONSE: New Approaches to Art Education in these most Uncivil Times
THE CHOICE THEY DON’T WANT YOU TO HAVE
INCOMING L.A. UNIFIED CHIEF TO TAKE LOWER PAY + LAUSD SUPERINTENDENT DEASY SAYS HE'LL GIVE UP $55,000 RAISE
Reed Middle School: AWARD WINNING MUSIC PROGRAM ON CHOPPING BLOCK - More than 800 students will lose music instruction
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?


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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.
A friend in the charter school movement took me to task on Monday for the rhetoric in last week's 4LAKids - she found it hurtful. My intent is not the pain - there is pain enough in this world. I want to do like the late Jack LaLanne: I want you to get out and move!

I chose LaLanne because he was real. I really wanted to choose Howard Beale, Paddy Chayefsky's fictional 'Network' anchorman. "I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!" YouTube: http://bit.ly/e3YLhC. Fiction is something that never happened - not something that isn't true. 'Network' is a story about a deranged newsman whose paranoid on-camera ramblings drives the network's ratings over the top. This was dark comedy in 1976.

My critical friend is an excellent educational leader - aware of the politics but trying nobly to fly above them. I am a political animal who sees everything through that lens. When Mayor Tony first tried to take over LAUSD in 2006 we opponents donned T-shirts that read "Parents not Politics". I wore mine ...but I didn't believe it for a moment!

Larry DiCarlo writes in the Shanker Institute blog this week: "Given the overt politicization of the charter school discussion, the public desperately needs a move away from the pro/anti-charter framework, towards a more useful conversation about how and why particular schools do or don’t work." I'm forced to agree - as long as we agree that we take our look at all schools - and as long as we aren't witch-hunting for what went wrong rather than what works and what's replicable.. There are nine million children in California, nine million challenges for education, nine million reasons why we must succeed.

_________

With the craziness in Wisconsin and the marchers in LA and Cesar Chavez Birthday next Thursday and Last Friday's centennial of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire (the very day Mayor Villaraigosa announced his "breakthrough" labor contract negotiations) it's time to look at organized labor and collective bargaining both in terms of the past and in the clear light of this moment - but always focused that point beyond the limb of the horizon. Because that's where these kids we are raising and educating will live their lives. And they need to be looking beyond their horizons. Like the Romans we are building a highway that crosses the ages. The mayor and city unions agreement - if ratified by the rank-and-file and the city council - and if bought-into by other city unions - and relicated in places like LAUSD -are a step in the right direction. But all rely upon good faith, good work in Sacramento and by the electorate - and on economic recovery continuing and accelerating.

That said - Public Education is no more about Teachers' Unions than it is about Charter Schools or boogieman Bad Teachers or the height of the flagpole. Right now public education is tragically defined by its lack of funding and a lack of commitment to it by the folks - benighted or otherwise - who hold the purse strings. You will read in this issue about how we need more or less charter schools, magnet schools, teachers, union members, legislation and parent involvement; a focus on teaching, learning, curriculum, instruction, breakfast, taxes, spending cuts and choice.

Maybe we need to put one of those giant Post-It notes that meeting facilitators use up on the wall, look around the room and stare long and hard into that blank empty page. Even before we brainstorm we need to call the meeting to decide what to brainstorm about.

This is Blue Sky:

We are in the room with a lot of other caring, passionate, bright folks.
What is the mission?
What is the objective?
What do we want to accomplish?

(This is like Afghanistan/Iraq/Libya. ...these are good questions to ask in any meeting)

Is the mission to educate these children?
Or is the mission to reform public education?
Because, gentle readers, those two missions may be mutually exclusive. And right now there isn't enough money, time, or of-us-standing to do both.

Do we want to improve test scores and accumulate data?
Or do we want young people who are prepared and ready for 2012 ...and beyond?

Looking around the room, armed with our care and passion and collective brilliance - and our blank page and our marker - and admitting to the facts that:
1. we are destitute in a bad economy and
2. that our recorder is not a master engraver from the Bureau of Printing and Engraving
....what do we do?

WE NEED TO AGREE ON THE MISSION - AND I SUBMIT THAT THAT IS TO EDUCATE THE CHILDREN - AS CLOSE TO ALL OF THEN AS WE POSSIBLY CAN. Write that down.

"No Child Left Behind" is a battlefield metaphor. There will be casualties - but we go back in and bring them out.

The mission is not reinvent public education or create new paradigms of this-that-or-the-other-thing; that may be the process, but it isn't the mission.

We need to accept that the way we used to do it may not work any more (if it ever did) - but at the same time we need to keep the parts of it that do.

We need to write that down.

There were parts of No Child Left Behind that worked, there were parts that didn't. It's a good way of looking at ourselves and what we were and are doing - but NCLB is about measurement and punishing and rewarding outcomes - and as such is similar to to phrenology [http://bit.ly/hgAoPK]. Ask any tailor or carpenter, measuring is important - but it isn't tailoring or carpentry.

NCLB became another federal regulatory program that didn't have enough funding to finance what it regulates; Race to the Top - essentially the mirror image/kinder-gentler/evil twin of NCLB encourages cash-starved districts to compete with other cash-starved districts for not-enough-money. It's "Fight Club" - or the marathon dance contests of "They Shoot Horses...".

Much was made of the parent involvement component in NCLB - we saw very little of it in LAUSD. Much was made of "Choice" -- again there was little choice beyond the magnet schools and limited open enrollment in LA - and the rush to charterization.The Belmont Zone of Choice remains unique (and unrelated to NCLB). LA's Public School Choice is a well meant effort within the NCLB framework - but in the end became a give-away of new schools to outside operators - with the public having no role in the choice at all ...beyond being horrified/outraged.

I was a part of a web call-in Friday evening. with Dr. Yang Zhao - a leading anti-current-reform dissident/blogger/scholar/troublemaker - and there was much kvelling+kvetching on the sidebar and in the Q&A about current directions in Ed Reform - I was right at home. One on the participants put out the cry:"Where are the Public Intellectuals on these false reforms?"- which engendered a lot of agreement from the choir being preached to.

And got me thinking: Where are the Public Intellectuals? Are they hiding, surrendering their ground to the Public Philanthropist/Billionaire Change Agents? Where is Noam Chomsky when we need him?

I Googled Chomsky and K-12 and got the YouTube video http://bit.ly/hAXOnm (from '89!) that skewers NCLB a decade before-the-fact. The goal of education, Chomsky argues, is to produce free human beings whose values are not accumulation and domination, but rather free association on terms of equality. Thinking doesn’t get less-scripted, high-stakes-tested, measured-and-categorized, manufactured ...or more critical than that.

And across the page on the same website I found Elizabeth Delacruz' "The Teacher as Public Enemy #1, A Response".

The public intellect is out there.

¡Onward/Adelante! - smf


THE TEACHER AS PUBLIC ENEMY #1, A RESPONSE: New Approaches to Art Education in these most Uncivil Times
by Elizabeth M. Delacruz, Ph. D. | http://scr.bi/dT3Ao5

(Acceptance speech given on the occasion of receiving the United States Society for Education through Art (USSEA) 2011 National Ziegfeld Award, March 20, 2011)


Thank you for this incredible award, and to my good friend Alice Arnold, thank you for nominating me. I also want to thank Laura Chapman, who has long been an inspiration to me. I begin with a heartfelt prayer for the people of Japan.

I want to use my time today to comment on recent events in public education in the US, and to offer my insights about how we might respond as a community of art educators.

Public education today is mired in controversy… fraught with well-orchestrated attacks on teachers at every level, from Head Start to higher education. As pointed out by leading educational theorists Henry Giroux and Diane Ravitch, under the guise of fiscal responsibility, powerful interests in this country have been able to convince large sectors of the public that educators (pre-k through higher education) and young people are now the enemy within, a drain on resources, expendable, untrustworthy and undeserving of public support. These attacks that have little to do with genuine accountability, educational excellence, or fiscal responsibility, and everything to do with furthering the personal fortunes and political agendas of the already obscenely rich and powerful. Media scholar and cultural critic Naomi Klein and many others observe, these are also attacks on women, who do the bulk of teaching and care giving in this country, and on our children, our most precious “commodity”. As third wave feminist scholar and cofounder of the Woodhull Institute for Ethical Leadership Naomi Wolf observes, all of this is taking place through the artifice and hype of what she identifies as fake patriotism, fake democracy, and fake crisis.

Harry Boyte, civil rights activist and Director of the Hubert Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota, observes that US schools in towns across America were once vibrant places for community gatherings, town hall meetings, adult education, and social events for all sorts of people. Today, far too many of our schools are dilapidated, locked down, inhospitable, and in neighborhoods serving poor and minority communities, outright dangerous. I am reminded of the investigative reporting and poignant case studies written by journalist Jonathon Kozol in his book Savage Inequalities. Kozol provides a biting critique and historical analysis of the inherent injustice of municipal, state, and federal tax and funding policies that gave rise to the shocking conditions of education and community life in the poorest and most racially segregated neighborhoods of East St. Louis, Washington DC, Chicago, New York City, and elsewhere. Today, 20 years later, these injustices persist throughout the nation.

The orchestrated erosion of support for our public school sector in the past decade, in particular, is without shame. And the more recent Obama/Duncan administration's misguided initiatives, including “Race to the Top”, championing of mandate-free publicly funded charter schools, and this administration’s unchallenged reliance on an outrageously expensive standardized testing system are equally troubling. As Laura Chapman noted to me in a recent email, we are witnessing a triumph of econometric thinking over all other frames for addressing today’s complex issues. These programs measure and reward or punish teachers and schools in what Laura referred to as a “value-added system”, and what Diane Ravitch finds to be a pernicious and punitive system that places all bets on student standardized math and reading test scores to the detriment of other forms of learning that should be taking place in schools–science, social studies, history, literature, and the arts. Moreover, as Ravitch and others point out, despite empirical evidence to the contrary that for-profit corporations and publicly funded charter schools can do a better job of educating our failing students, this thinking persists. Public school administrators, people who really should know better, are either silent, or buying-in wholesale. I note the lone dissenting voice of Philadelphia Schools Superintendent Arlene Ackerman, who wrote the in the Washington Post in October 2010 the following:

The truth is our public schools have been asked not only to educate children but also to solve many of the ills that the larger society either cannot or will not fix. I am speaking of issues directly related to poverty -- like hunger, violence, homelessness, and unchecked childhood diseases. In spite of these challenges, there are thousands of dedicated and committed educators who are working hard to make access to a quality education for all children who attend public schools a reality.

What our K-12 colleagues may not know, but we in this room are fully aware of, the higher education sector is also under attack, with concerted and successful efforts to privatize higher education; abolish the tenure system; deny educators their rights to academic freedom, due process, health care, and retirement benefits; to transfer the teaching of our courses to armies of underpaid part-time adjuncts; and to convert the public higher education enterprise in the US into a market-driven cash-commodity limited-liability venture. Despite my own privileged position in the academy, I must admit, I too often find this environment brutal and demoralizing.

At the same time, I would add to this depressing observation my belief that art educators in post-secondary institutions now need to champion, support, mentor, and collaborate with local k-12 teachers in and around our communities, as –together–we refine our own tools, strategies, and resources for developing reasoned and persuasive political speech, and for tapping into influential power structures at the local and state levels. This is a very grass roots endeavor, fraught with difficulties and setbacks. But we are not without our own resources and devices. We have our vote, our voice, our intellectual skills, our compassion, and each other in our collective endeavors to inform and shape the public debate over education. Moreover, our professional associations, publications, conferences, and social media give us greater opportunities to engage these issues. We are, in fact, what social learning theorist and business consultant Etienne Wegner identifies as a “community of practice”. We are a multifaceted, many-layered, amply talented community of practice dedicated to common aims and engaged in learning from one another in furtherance of these common aims. And we have a new generation of scholars and artists and educators to mentor and groom for the rough road ahead.

With this in mind, I suggest four frameworks that might facilitate this work.

#1. We need to reassert how we envision ourselves as teachers. Many of us have set forth a notion of the "publicly engaged artist/scholar/teacher". After teacher educator Marilyn Cochran-Smith at Boston College, I see teachers as local "public intellectuals" in their own communities (although positioning the teacher as a "public intellectual" is hardly a catchy phrase in the current anti-intellectual fervor that appears to have taken hold in the this country.) Teachers have many of the same skills and dispositions that public intellectuals in civic life have, and they play a vital role in the life of a community. Both teachers and public intellectuals pursue cross-disciplinary understandings. Teachers and public intellectuals have the ability to communicate well to general audiences, and they encourage their audiences to ask difficult questions – questions such as “Why?” “Why not?” and “What if?” And they consider both ethical and pragmatic implications of actions and inactions – local, regional, and global, understanding that it’s not an us/them scenario, rather, we’re all in this together. Intellectual rigor, inquiry, imagination, and civic engagement permeate everything teachers do.

This is no simple task. Teachers’ plates are already full, and they/we are untrained in the sophisticated ways and frenzied pace of the media-muddled world of US public discourse today. This is compounded by the fact that in US public life, we don’t have conversations, we have shout-outs and slap downs, carefully vetted (as pointed out to me by Laura Chapman) through well-endowed political think tanks and focus groups for just the right effect on just the right faction of an increasingly fractured public. As social historian Jean Bethke Elshtain from the University of Chicago warns, “Without an engaged public, there can be no true public conversations, and no true public intellectuals”. We so desperately need an intellectually and morally engaged public.

#2. We need to borrow from a framework already well regarded in the world of corporate capitalism, the language of entrepreneurship. Borrowing from a recent paper I wrote, an entrepreneurial disposition refers both to a conceptual outlook and a cluster of behaviors that include the following: ability to understand particular needs in particular contexts, to discern meaningful patterns, to think big, to innovate, to envision something new and useful, and the ability to conceptualize, design, and carry forward concrete plans of action with specific intended outcomes. Entrepreneurs are good at creative problem solving, social networking, and resource development. Impediments are challenges to overcome, and fear of failure does not truncate entrepreneurial thinking. Most importantly, entrepreneurs create something of value to others.

These are also dispositions identified by Daniel Pink and Richard Florida as attributes of the creative class, or cultural creatives, who Florida argues will be the driving force of economic development in the 21st century. These are the skills and dispositions we hope to foster in our students. If ever we needed to educate both our students and the wider public about how essential it is to be innovative, creative, critically informed, and ethically engaged citizens, it’s now. An entrepreneurial disposition will also include thinking outside of the box in our efforts to shape public perception about the value of publicly supporting those teachers and schools in pursuit of such aims.

#3. I call this framework “DIY meets the Cloud”, or, pardon the mixed metaphor “pie in the sky”. New social media is a game-changer in the enterprise of education. Despite adherence in this country to a social Darwinian myth of rugged individualism, and despite the seductive belief that one can do-it-yourself, the fact is we just can’t to this alone. Peer-to-peer teaching and learning, creative and cultural production, design thinking, and problem solving are now immensely more powerful through collaboration in online social networks. Henry Jenkins, former Director of the MIT Comparative Media Studies Program and now USC media and communications scholar, describes something quite remarkable that is happening online, something he believes to be a distinct yet still emerging form of human intellectual and social evolution. Jenkins sees rich and powerful online behaviors and the knowledge it produces as a form of distributed cognition. I rather like that concept. It is not just about working together across geographic, cultural, and disciplinary enclaves. Rather, it’s both the individual and the collective. It’s about synergy, and the power of we.

#4. Fourth, and most importantly, I want to advocate for a notion of the commons and the pursuit of global civil society. In olden days, the commons was the meadow, the park, and the public square. These were our shared places that were decidedly public, accessible to all, and, importantly, requiring careful stewardship. Today, our commons, or common public assets, include green spaces in our municipalities, the air we breath, protected wilderness habitats, outer space, the Internet, architectural and artistic monuments, the global knowledge commons, and public education. Our very survival now depends on this stewardship. It requires the joint efforts of civil society, which has been broadly defined as that realm of public and private individuals and entities working for the common public good. “Business as usual” clearly cannot continue. We need to come together across ideological, disciplinary, and cultural boundaries to craft new solutions for old problems. In the aftermath of what is now referred to as the Great Recession (our current global economic meltdown), and in these most uncivil times where the mean-spirited but well-vetted sound bite, gotcha journalism, spectacle politics, and public rancor rule the day, this is no easy task. But we have in our midst some public intellectuals that suggest some ways re-envision our future. In addition to those I have mentioned in this throughout this speech (Naomi Klein, Naomi Wolf, Diane Ravitch, Laura Chapman, and others) I site as another example, Stewart Brand, one of the founders of the Whole Earth Catalogue. Brand tells us that the environmental movement needs to move forward in concert with business and industry interests. Environmentalists and for profit-corporations working together? Is he serious? Communications scholar Howard Rheingold observes that the tools for cultural production are in the hands of 14 year olds who know more about emerging technologies than their teachers. Rheingold’s point is not just that kids are tech savvy, rather it’s that because of this fact, teachers now have a new and more important role to play–teaching ethical behavior and cultural citizenship. We need to excite students about the notion of being a globally connected and ethically charged citizen, as a means of facilitating our creative, educational, and civic goals as a society and as world citizens.

My argument here is that grooming our own public intellectuals, utilizing entrepreneurial thinking, networking, and promoting civil society is now part of our business as art educators –in the creation of what former Executive Director of Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility and senior lecturer at the LBJ School of Public Affairs Gary Chapman called the “good life” for all citizens of the world. We start with the children in our classrooms, and work our way up to their parents, to fellow teachers and community and business leaders, and to those public servants who make, administer, and judge the laws by which we organize ourselves as a society

I end this commentary where I began. Education is a public venture of utmost concern. In USSEA, in the NAEA, and beyond, we need both address the present situation and to shape our collective future as a society. We need to strategize about how to pursue these aims with our best minds, young and old. These are troubling times, powerful beliefs, and it’s now time to roll up our sleeves and get a little messy.

In closing, thank you again for this award, an award I am quite sure that I am most undeserving of receiving. I promise you that in return for your trust and kindness, I plan to leverage this distinction to the utmost of my ability on behalf of our mutual aims as art educators, public intellectuals, and change agents for a better society through art.


ABOUT ELIZABETH DELACRUZ

Elizabeth Delacruz is associate professor of art education, Editor of Visual Arts Research, and former Chair of art education at UIUC. She received her B.F.A. and M.A. in Art Education from the UIUC, an Ed. S. in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Florida, and a Ph. D. in Art Education from Florida State University. Her research focuses on the interface of visual arts education with contemporary art practices, social theory, multicultural education and community, and new media/technology.


THE CHOICE THEY DON’T WANT YOU TO HAVE
by Chris Liebig in A Blog About School: a parent’s thoughts about school, in Iowa City and beyond | http://bit.ly/gbV8FD

Tuesday, March 1, 2011 - I always feel a certain irony when I hear proposals for “school choice.”

Many of the people advocating for school choice, after all, are the same people who brought us the No Child Left Behind Act, which was designed to coerce school districts into adopting policies that they otherwise would not choose to adopt. Not exactly a choice-friendly concept.

Under No Child Left Behind, my local public schools -- and all public schools in America, in fact -- now must pursue the policy of raising standardized test scores at all costs. School officials who don’t raise standardized test scores can end up losing their jobs. But if they turn out kids with no intellectual curiosity, kids who see reading as a chore, kids who perform just to please the teacher and get by, kids who’ve never learned how to use good judgment, ask a good question, or make a good decision, kids who see adults as adversaries, kids who take no pleasure in learning -- nothing bad will happen to them.

When I complain about the effects of that policy -- for example, about the fact that my kids’ lunch periods have been cut back to fifteen minutes or less, in the name of maximizing instructional time -- I can count on local school officials to sympathize with me, and then to patiently explain that they are just responding to No Child Left Behind’s pressure to raise test scores. If I’m concerned about what’s happening in my kids’ elementary school, I should write to President Obama. Not exactly empowering.

Yet many so-called school choice advocates are fine with all that. In fact, their “choice” proposals require you to choose a school that operates on No Child Left Behind’s premises. They remind me of Henry Ford’s policy about the Model T: You can choose any color you want, as long as it’s black.

Take charter schools. The government gives charter schools an exemption from many of the laws and regulations governing other public schools -- but only in exchange for a commitment to be accountable for student performance, as measured by the same standardized testing criteria that other public schools must meet. For a parent who objects to the whole idea of letting standardized test scores drive educational policy, charter schools offer no choice at all. “We want to give you lots of choices,” charter school advocates seem to say, “as long as it doesn’t interfere with our imposition of a uniform concept of education [http://bit.ly/ejSWxr] on the entire country.”

Here’s the school choice experiment I’d like to see tried. Let our school district require every parent to make an initial choice between two options. If the parents want to put their kids in a classroom governed by policies dictated by the federal government, they could choose the Federal Option. If the parents would prefer classrooms that are governed by policies chosen by the local community, they could choose the Local Option.

For the kids in the Federal Option, school would look a lot like it does now. No Child Left Behind would be in full force, and the district and its school personnel would have to meet NCLB’s standardized testing benchmarks or face the statutory penalties. In these classrooms, the district would do whatever it takes to raise math and reading test scores, regardless of the other values that might have to be sacrificed. Subjects with no direct bearing on standardized test results, such as art and music, would be cut back as necessary. Recess and lunch would be minimized. Untestable qualities such as curiosity, skepticism, creativity, and initiative would not be pursued. Whether the kids actually enjoy learning would be a secondary concern, at best. To keep the kids from squirming during their lengthy test prep sessions -- er, I mean, lessons -- the teachers would instruct them on the importance of unquestioning compliance with rules, and would single out the quiet and obedient students for special praise and rewards.

Down the hall, though, would be the Local Option classrooms. What would they be like? That would be entirely up to the people of our district. Maybe they would decide that there is more to being well-educated than what is measured by standardized tests. Maybe they’d give the teachers more autonomy over what and how to teach. Maybe they’d put more emphasis on developing the kids’ intrinsic motivation and pleasure in learning, and less emphasis on external rewards. Maybe they’d challenge the kids to think critically about the world around them. Maybe they’d recognize that kids need downtime, physical activity, and a decent lunch to learn well and to develop social skills. Maybe they’d treat the kids more like kids and less like employees [http://bit.ly/dJ6HNe]. Maybe they’d take a few lessons from Finland [http://bit.ly/hZOzRi]. Or maybe they’d do none of those things, and come up with their own ideas. Who knows what our community might choose. It’s been so long since anyone asked.

I suppose there could be some awkward moments, when the kids in the Federal Option classrooms, with their ongoing math and reading drills and their nightly worksheets and their behavior charts and their abbreviated recesses and quiet fifteen-minute lunches, saw their friends down the hall having what would likely be a more meaningful -- not to mention enjoyable -- educational experience. Since the Federal Option classrooms would, by definition, be less likely to reflect the parents’ preferences, it might be hard for parents to choose those classrooms for their kids. But as things stand now, we all choose them every day. We’re just not constantly reminded that there could be another way.

Right now, of course, this experiment is impossible. My district could set up Local Option classrooms, but it couldn’t use tax money to pay for them. Why? Because the people who brought us charter schools don’t really believe that communities should be allowed to run their own schools.

What do these people have against choice?
.
- Chris Liebig is a parent of three and teaches at the University of Iowa College of Law.


INCOMING L.A. UNIFIED CHIEF TO TAKE LOWER PAY + LAUSD SUPERINTENDENT DEASY SAYS HE'LL GIVE UP $55,000 RAISE

INCOMING L.A. UNIFIED CHIEF TO TAKE LOWER PAY
BY JASON SONG - LA TIMES/LA Now | http://lat.ms/fqHNZn

March 26, 2011 | 6:40 pm | Incoming Los Angeles schools Supt. John Deasy told the school board Saturday that he wants the district to withhold part of his annual $330,000 salary because of a projected budget shortfall.

In an email, Deasy said he has been meeting with employees to explain potential budget scenarios. Last month, the board approved sending preliminary layoff notices to almost 7,000 teachers.

“All of our work and plans for restoration are in serious peril,” Deasy wrote. “This is remarkably painful and emotional. As such, given our current circumstances, at this time I respectfully will not accept the salary offered in your contract.”

Deasy will not forgo his entire salary and will instead take a pay cut to the $275,000 he earned when serving as deputy superintendent. The $55,000 cut represents a nearly 17% reduction.

“I will instruct payroll to hold the difference between my current salary as deputy superintendent and that of the superintendent,” he wrote.

It does not appear that the board would have to approve the reduction.

A.J. Duffy, president of the teachers union, said: “Bravo John, you did the right thing.”
_________________________________________

smf's 2CENTS:: per the LA Times: [Dec. 16, 2008 | http://lat.ms/dPAgCT] Supt. Cortines salary is $250,000 a year — unchanged from his previous salary as the district's No. 2 man and $50,000 less than his predecessor. According to the Washington Post [July 7, 2007| http://wapo.st/fvstG2] Deasy’s salary when he was superintendent of Prince George County (MD) Public Schools was $273,000. Deasy left PGCPS in 2008.

_________________________________________

LAUSD SUPERINTENDENT DEASY SAYS HE'LL GIVE UP $55,000 RAISE

By Connie Llanos Staff Writer - LA Daily News | http://bit.ly/hPNYPo

3/26/2011 05:45:17 PM PDT/Updated: 03/26/2011 07:32:46 PM PDT - Leading by example in tough times, Los Angeles Unified Deputy Superintendent-elect John Deasy said Saturday he wants to forgo the $55,000 raise he would get when he takes over as superintendent next month.

In a letter the school board members Saturday, Deasy said he wants to continue earning his $275,000 salary when he takes over from Superintendent Ramon Cortines on April 15.

Cortines makes $250,000 a year.

"Given our fiscal situation, I simply cannot at this time take the salary offered," Deasy wrote to the school board.

Deasy signed a $330,000-a-year contract in December to lead the nation's second-largest school district. He said he would accept that larger salary once financial conditions improve at the district. Deasy's contract does not include a buyout clause, but it does include full benefits and retirement packages.

LAUSD faces a $408 million deficit in the 2011-12 school year and could have to lay off up to 5,200 teachers to close the gap.

Some labor unions had criticized Deasy for taking a salary so much higher than Cortines, especially in these challenging times for school districts.

On Saturday, union leaders were happy with Deasy's announcement.

"Bravo John," said United Teachers Los Angeles President A.J. Duffy. "You did the right thing."

In his letter to the school board, Deasy also mentioned his desire to negotiate with labor for financial solutions that could help save jobs. He also said he would like unions to negotiate on limiting the use of seniority as the sole criteria for laying off teachers in tight budget conditions.

"It will be my hope that our unions, but especially UTLA, will promptly negotiate terms of an agreement that will both save the jobs of their membership and put in place an evaluation system that is robust, fair and offers us and the membership ways to make decisions about hiring, placement, promotion, and (when necessary) layoffs that are NOT quality blind," Deasy wrote.

"The last-in-first-out, way of doing business is a terrible, arcane situation... I hope we can all work together quickly to serve both the membership and the youth."


Reed Middle School: AWARD WINNING MUSIC PROGRAM ON CHOPPING BLOCK - More than 800 students will lose music instruction
By JAMES HOURANI – KNBC News | http://bit.ly/hw59M2

Mar 25, 2011 1:50 PM PDT/ Updated Sat. Mar 26, 2011 10:59 AM PDT | The ongoing budget crisis gutting public schools across Los Angeles is threatening to demolish an award-winning music program that serves more than 800 middle school students.

Just days after the music program at Walter Reed Middle School was honored with a Los Angeles Music Center Bravo Award for excellence, the two teachers in charge of the school's musical instrument courses received pink slips from the Los Angeles Unified School District.

If they are laid off, one voice teacher will be all that remains of the school's music department.

"Being cut or being given a pink slip pretty much says to you, we aren't appreciated," said Jessica Johnson, one of the recipients of the music award. "No one could believe that two-thirds of our department was going to get cut."

Johnson, who teaches beginning winds, beginning strings, 7th grade band and 8th grade wind ensemble, said the music department at her school is well-acquainted with tight budgets. Students share instruments, and class size can easily run 60 students or more.

"We really feel like we have something special," Johnson said. "We deserve to be really looked at and evaluated based on our merits and our amazing tradition that we have here."

Stephen McDonough, the chair of the school's music department, also received a pink slip. He questioned the proportion of music teachers who received pink slips, formally known as Reduction in Force notices.

"It really seems to me that they are going after music," McDonough said. "I think it's because they don't really know what music does for students."

Debra Vantongeren, whose 7th-grade son learned cello and vibes with McDonough, said the music program at Walter Reed bridges cultural gaps, bringing students together through their shared musical experiences.

"In Mr. McDonough's jazz band class, he has kids that speak all different home languages and are from are all different areas of Los Angeles," Vantongeren said. "But when they leave his class they speak jazz, and they don't care where they came from."

District-wide, 7,000 RIFS went out. Of those, 167 went to music teachers. While that number may seem small compared to the total, it represents nearly half of all music teachers in LAUSD. At an estimated 58 middle and high schools, the entire music staff received pink slips.

"We suspect that music is being disproportionately affected," said Robin Lithgow, administrative coordinator of the district's arts education branch. "We're trying to get that information ourselves."

The best hope for a reprieve is getting Gov. Jerry Brown's tax extension on the ballot, which would provide the district with a much-needed cash infusion, Lithgow said.

A protest led by United Teachers Los Angeles is scheduled for 10 a.m. Saturday at the Los Angeles Convention Center and culminates with a rally in Pershing Square at 12:30.


VIDEO OF THIS STORY



HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T FIT: The Rest of the Stories from Other Sources
IMPROVING TEACHING AND LEARNING MUST DRIVE EFFORTS OF REFORM: By Bill Honig in Thoughts on Public Education/TOP... http://bit.ly/g8n4t6

THE CUTS, CUTTING CLOSE TO HOME: The local news: from Google News Carson High Trailblazer: Carson takes multipl... http://bit.ly/i7GhV7

WILL WESTCHESTER HIGH’S MAGNET PLAN STICK?: By Melissa Pamer, Staff Writer, Daily Breeze | http://bit.ly/i17y2J ... http://bit.ly/gB4v5h

NEW HEAD OF CALIFORNIA FEDERATION OF TEACHERS CALLS ON GOV. BROWN TO EXTEND TAX INCREASES: By Howard Blume, LA T... http://bit.ly/eescKl

LAUSD REPORTS DETAIL POTENTIAL IMPACT OF LAYOFF NOTICES: By Connie Llanos + Melissa Pamer Staff Writers | Daily ... http://bit.ly/hwsBqt

AMONG CHARTER SCHOOLS, INCONSISTENCY BEGETS OPPORTUNITY: By Matthew Di Carlo | The Shanker blog, the voice of Al... http://bit.ly/eVELqP

CÉSAR CHÁVEZ REMINDS US: Themes in the News for the week of March 21-24, 2011by UCLA IDEA | http://bit.ly/h4MKkj... http://bit.ly/eRZcl3

LACCD Hi-jinks: VAN DE KAMPS COALITION CRIES FOUL OVER COMMUNITY COLLEGE USE OF PUBLIC FUNDS: Coalition says $12... http://bit.ly/fOoW55

SEPARATE AND UNEQUAL: “We pretend that no one’s a racist anymore, but it’s easier to talk about pornography in p... http://bit.ly/fwUAdw

I AM AN EDUCATOR, HEAR ME ROAR! An Interview with John Kuhn + Video + ‘Letter from Alamo’: by Anthony Cody in Ed... http://bit.ly/goaIH2

SCHOOL HAS STARTED FOR 2012 GOP WHITE HOUSE HOPEFULS + Patrick Riccards on the 2012 Election: PUBLIC SCHOOLS OR ... http://bit.ly/fXt5Xx

SPEND FRIDAY EVENING WITH YONG ZHAO: email from www.SaveOurSchoolsMarch.org| Gentle Readers, Join Like-minde... http://bit.ly/hNMDpd

The Revolving Door: SENIOR GATES FOUNDATION OFFICIAL JOINS PARTNERSHIP FOR LOS ANGELES SCHOOLS AS CHIEF ACADEMIC... http://bit.ly/g5NXVC

WILL THE JUNE ELECTION HAPPEN? K-14 Ed funding next year depends on lawmakers' decisions re: Gov. Brown's tax e... http://bit.ly/enQ4mt

NUTRITION IS ELEMENTARY IN NO KID HUNGRY CAMPAIGN: An LAUSD kickoff event advocates the use of funding that's al... http://bit.ly/eiRzqi

WARREN CHRISTOPHER, HHS class of ‘42: letter to the editor of the LA Times | http://lat.ms/gqr641 Re Warren Chr... http://bit.ly/h8DOFJ

ARTS+MUSIC ED UPDATE: From California Alliance for Arts Education ArtsEdmail | March 23, 2011 HELP SPREAD THE W... http://bit.ly/fTKYFR

GETTY MUSEUM K-5 ART & LANGUAGE ARTS PROGRAM: from California Alliance for Arts Education ArtsEd Mail: 23 March ... http://bit.ly/hi8F5t

NOT-SO-PUBLIC EDUCATION: A Colorado school voucher program seems likely to benefit mostly middle-class students ... http://bit.ly/eJgpos

YOUR $260. COULD SAVE THE STATE! (+ JERRY BROWN’S YouTube): Approving Gov. Brown's proposal to extend sales, veh... http://bit.ly/fskQJ4

Report - DIVIDED WE FAIL: Segregation and Inequality in the Southland's Schools: ‘educator’ comments in the Time... http://bit.ly/glKOk0

EDUCATION SECRETARY DUNCAN, IN L.A., CALLS FOR OVERHAUL OF NCLB, BASHES LAUSD: "L.A. is a world class city but d... http://bit.ly/dNw7oL

EDUCATION SECRETARY DUNCAN TO PARTICIPATE IN MONTHLY WHITE HOUSE DISABILITY CALL ON 3/31: Email From: White Hous... http://bit.ly/hl0Jpp

LAYOFF NOTICES AT NEARLY 1,000 LAUSD SCHOOLS WOULD MEAN A HEAVY LOSS OF CERTIFICATED POSITIONS: 193 OF 287 Valle... http://bit.ly/h0ECpf

March 20-26: NATIONAL TSUNAMI AWARENESS + PREPAREDNESS WEEK - FREE tsunami education materials and activity idea... http://bit.ly/giql9T

GRIEF BEYOND MEASURE: Parents in Japan comb through school that's now a graveyard + smf’s 2¢: By John M. Glionna... http://bit.ly/ge6x4n

Demolishing Dropout Factories: BUILDING A GRAD NATION: 2010—2011 Annual Update + News + California Data: from th... http://bit.ly/ie2VzT

AN AGE OF HYPOCRISY: When a policy fails again and again (like merit pay) and you push it through anyway, that's... http://bit.ly/dDYcOR

WHERE ARE THE CHAMPIONS OF EDUCATION REFORM AS SCHOOL FUNDING COLLAPSES?: By Anthony Cody|EdWeek Teacher/Living ... http://bit.ly/e33kHr

TOP US EDUCATION CHIEF TOUTS REFORM IN L.A. VISIT: By The Associated Press | San Diego Union Tribune | http://bi... http://bit.ly/gkX5Oa

"Free Fall: Educational Opportunities in 2011.": REPORT SHOWS CALIFORNIA BUDGET CUTS HIT POOR SCHOOLS HARDER + E... http://bit.ly/hmBjup

TORLAKSON CALLS FOR EDUCATION REFORM, DISCUSSES NEW INITIATVES: The State Schools Superintendent previewed a ser... http://bit.ly/dJG0Qp

LAUSD Board Seat #5 Run-off off to a premature and acrimonious start: LAUSD RUN-OFF CANDIDATE KAYSER CALLS ON SA... http://bit.ly/gkdAj1

RECESSION, BUDGET CRISIS HITTING CALIFORNIA SCHOOLS HARD: 30% of the state's 6 million K-12 students are attendi... http://bit.ly/empJM0

HELP WANTED: SCHOOL BREAKFAST CHAMPIONS NEEDED IN YOUR AREA: Perspective By: Ellen Braff-Guajardo, California S... http://bit.ly/gXjIyk

LET KIDS RULE THE SCHOOL: By Op-Ed Contributor SUSAN ENGEL, New York Times | http://nyti.ms/exwC4M March 14, 20... http://bit.ly/fqBfyX

Letters to the Editor of the Daily News: VALLEY SCHOOLS SHOULD GO CHARTER + SUPPORTING L.A. SCHOOL SYSTEM: 21 Ma... http://bit.ly/g5y06g

REPORT: REPEATING A GRADE HELPS YOUNG STUDENTS MASTER SKILLS + Summary & Report: Corey G. Johnson | California W... http://bit.ly/eiaAFW


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:
Yolie.Flores.Aguilar@lausd.net • 213-241-6383
Tamar.Galatzan@lausd.net • 213-241-6386
Monica.Garcia@lausd.net • 213-241-6180
Marguerite.LaMotte@lausd.net • 213-241-6382
Nury.Martinez@lausd.net • 213-241-6388
Richard.Vladovic@lausd.net • 213-241-6385
Steve.Zimmer@lausd.net • 213-241-6387
...or your city councilperson, mayor, the governor, member of congress, senator - or the president. Tell them what you really think! • Find your state legislator based on your home address. Just go to: http://bit.ly/dqFdq2 • There are 26 mayors and five county supervisors representing jurisdictions within LAUSD, the mayor of LA can be reached at mayor@lacity.org • 213.978.0600
• Call or e-mail Governor 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.
• If you are eligible to become a citizen, BECOME ONE.
• If you a a citizen, REGISTER TO VOTE.
• If you are registered, VOTE LIKE THE FUTURE DEPENDS ON IT.


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




Scott Folsom is a parent leader in LAUSD and is Parent/Volunteer of the Year for 2010-11 for Los Angeles County. • He is Past President of Los Angeles Tenth District PTSA and represents PTA on the LAUSD Construction Bond Citizen's Oversight Committee. He is a Health Commissioner, Legislation Team member and a member of the Board of Managers of the California State PTA. He serves on numerous school district advisory and policy committees and has served as a PTA officer and governance council member at three LAUSD schools. He is the recipient of the UTLA/AFT 2009 "WHO" Gold Award for his support of education and public schools - an honor he hopes to someday deserve. • In this forum his opinions are his own and your opinions and feedback are invited. Quoted and/or cited content copyright © the original author and/or publisher. All other material copyright © 4LAKids.
• FAIR USE NOTICE: This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. 4LAKids makes such material available in an effort to advance understanding of education issues vital to parents, teachers, students and community members in a democracy. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
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Sunday, March 20, 2011

The choice of choice

Onward 4LAKids!
4LAKids: Sunday 20•Mar•2011 The Vernal Equinox
In This Issue:
PSC 2.0: CHARTER SCHOOL OPERATORS TO RUN 7 MORE L.A. UNIFIED CAMPUSES + CHARTER SCHOOLS WIN OUT IN LATEST ROUND OF REFORM EFFORT + more + smf's 2�
A CALL TO ACTION – THE HAMILTON HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT WALK-OUT:
REPORT DETAILS SHARP GROWTH IN PRACTICES THAT PUSH STUDENTS OUT OF SCHOOLS AND INTO THE JUVENILE AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEMS + Report
VALEDICTION
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:
Follow 4 LAKids on Twitter - or get instant updates via text message by texting "Follow 4LAKids" to 40404
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.
WARREN CHRISTOPHER (Oct 27, 1925 - March 18, 2011, Hollywood High School Class of '42) has passed away, memorialized by President Obama as 'a resolute pursuer of peace', - and by President Carter as 'the best public servant I ever knew'. Christopher pursued that peace in the Middle East - it was he that negotiated the end of the Iran Hostage Crisis - in the Balkans and Viet Nam and on the mean streets of Los Angeles in the aftermaths of both the Watts Riots and the Rodney King Affair. Hollywood High School has produced more famous graduates - but none more important or statesmanlike - or true to HHS's motto of "Achieve the Honorable". His Times obit is here: http://lat.ms/gzEWza. Godspeed.

_______

IN THE NAME OF REFORM - driven by expedience couched as 'urgency', pressed by budgetary bean-counters and the agenda of charter school proponents - we are undoing the most powerful and successful Parent Choice and achievement-driven educational program in the nation: Magnet Schools.

The evidence - no matter how you measure it - is out there: Magnet Schools work. They improve the performance of the students in them and they improve the performance and programs of the mainstream schools that house them.

Parents and students continue to apply-for and attend magnet schools ...magnets are the "choice" of choice.

The waiting lists for Magnets (which don't just serve gifted students) are larger than the total applicant pool for charter schools. Magnet programs coexist happily and cooperatively on campuses alongside traditional programs without the acrimony of charter school co-locations.

Magnet Programs Work. They outperform most charters, pilots and partnership schools. They enhance and encourage parental involvement. They graduate students. Magnets are a 'Best Practice' - and they are being systematically cut-and-eliminated instead of being encouraged-and-replicated. It is true they cost a little more � mainly for transportation costs � but their bang-for-the-buck/return-on-investment is proven. Nothing succeeds like success.

The Hamilton High School student organizers of Friday's walk out describe the LAUSD magnet program as "one of the most democratic and effective systems ever created in public education".

What Magnet schools are NOT are Charter Schools � with the-built in big-bucks PR+political support. They are not sexy or 'this weeks flavor' of ed reform. They are not promoted by entrepreneurial philanthropists, billionaires and venture capitalists because they are not revenue engines � instead they are successful paradigms of success ...and - like the electric cars of the mid-'90's - the competition!

Look at magnet costs realistically: The cost to he District of a student in a magnet program is far less than the cost to the District of the loss of a student to a charter program. Or a drop out. Or the cost to society of a young person in jail.
______________

The Week That Was -MONDAY STARTED WELL: Granada Hills Charter High School (a real stand-alone charter school outside the CMO model) won the California Academic Decathlon.

ALSO ON MONDAY LAUSD FACILITIES CHIEF JAMES SOHN'S RESIGNATION WAS ACCEPTED. Sohn's tenure has been turbulent; he was Superintendent Cortines' facilities chief � filling a Cortines-created vacancy. Some of his decisions drew ire within the district � from employees, boardmembers and the Inspector General; his previous employment at the Community College District drew fire from The Times. A new superintendent is coming in � it was time for Sohn to go.

AS TUESDAY'S BOARD OF ED MEETING ON PUBLIC SCHOOL CHOICE v.2.0 OPENED, Steve Zimmer spoke about how this was his most hopeful meeting ever as a boardmember. When I spoke to him 21 hours later in the same room he recounted that the day before had been his darkest day on the board.

Deeper in this issue [see GRAB+GO and accounts by others] you will read of what happened. Of how parents and teachers and community members were betrayed. Additionally betrayed was Superintendent Cortines ...unbetrayed was Mayor Tony � his will be done � supported by the best school board his friends' � and charter school proponents' � money could buy.

AS DARK AS TUESDAY WAS, LET US ALL FIND HOPE IN FRIDAY � when students at Hamilton High School (and at other schools) led as-good-of-a protest rally against everything wrong with public education as ever I've been a part of. I've been a parent leader in LAUSD for over fifteen years � and nothing made me happier than to be led by Hami students of Friday morning.

We need to be following the kids more often. They walked out to preserve their Magnet Schools. For Arts and Music Programs. They marched to protect teachers' jobs and their own educations. To protest underfunding from Sacramento. To empower themselves. To put the tax extensions on the ballot. I stood with reporters and teachers and cops on the sidelines � listening to the truth being told eloquently ...and we agreed that it just doesn't get any better or more organized or real!

For all of our talk about accountability and transparency and being informed-by-data let us not forget Authenticity. A couple of thousand high school kids on the lawn in the sun with guitars and a marching band � speaking The Truth for everyone to hear � it doesn't get any more authentic.

MARCH 25, 1911 - Tuesday's vote, the 7300 LAUSD RIFs and 19,000 education RIFs in California (if LA Unified is 20% of California K-12, why do we have 38% of workforce reduction?), the privatization of public education by corporate charters, the attacks on collective bargaining and the rash of anti-labor sentiment all need to be seen through the historical lens and the teachable moment. Next Friday marks the 100th anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire and the 146 martyred heroes - some as young as fifteen - of that tragedy. see: http://bit.ly/icn8FY + http://lat.ms/geF2Nj + http://bit.ly/hnu9mr


"We're from Beaudry, we're here to help...": WELCOME TO THE ONE-STOP EMPLOYEE REDUCTION IN FORCE (RIF) AND CHANGE IN BASIS SUPPORT CENTER: If you have received a Reduction in Force Notice and have questions, please call (213) 241-6315. | http://bit.ly/hEcmCG

GRAB+GO: Mayor Tony flexed his political muscle Tuesday and his will was done by his bought-and-paid-for school board.

Last time out the board for the most part followed Superintendent Cortines recommendations on Public School Choice v.1.0. And for the most part the public's will was done: Schools were given over to community supported groups of teachers.

Mayor Tony was not happy - and Superintendent Cortines - his own hand-picked superintendent - fell further from Tony's favor.

Now there is a new superintendent more to Antonio's current liking, waiting in the wings.

And this time Mayor Tony's will was done. "More Charter Schools" he wanted - and - the heck with the "Public" or the "Choice" � More charter schools he got!

School board president Monica Garcia stepped out her chair to offer 'a few amendments' to the superintendent's plans - and undid the whole thing, overruling months of public input, community buy-in and hard work. "Not enough parents showed up to vote", the board members complained (in agreement with the 'election advisors' brought in by Gates, Broad + Co.) ...not an argument they made when they were elected with 11%-and-less turnouts!

And the big Charter Management Organizations - the big-box/chain-stores of quasi-public education - Green Dot and The Alliance and Aspire and Camino Nuevo were given hundreds of millions of dollars worth of brand new public schools to run with their private agendas, schools the public will be paying for over the next thirty or forty years. How do they and we ever thank you, Mayor Tony?

Tuesday's action will see 10 new campuses and three existing lower performance schools transformed into charter schools, affecting more than 20,000 students. The new campuses represent hundreds of millions of dollars in voter approved/taxpayer investment - NOT billionaire philanthropists' - turned over to private operators with little oversight or accountability

There were exceptions: State AcaDeca champions Granada Hills Charter High School won't get to operate the new school it wanted in the Valley. But Granada Hills is not a big charter school management organization/supporter of Mayor Tony.

MATTIE Academy Charter School didn't get to operate South Region High School No. 4, - but SRHS#4 is located in Long Beach and serves students in Carson. What does Mayor Tony care about Long Beach or Carson?

Conspicuously noted: The big Charter School Management Organizations didn't apply en masse for the so-called "focus schools" � 'used' underperforming schools ...opting instead to choose the new schools. I thought he idea of charter schools is to improve existing programs ...but why bother when offered a brand new facility for free? Or, perhaps, for a political contribution or two.

WHERE IS THE 'CHOICE'? Charter schools are supposed to be a local-driven bottom-up reform as educators and the community take control of their neighborhood school and parents elect or don't elect to participate. Tuesday's board action was as top-down as it gets: 20,000 students assigned to corporate-run charters by board fiat.

(When I was younger and dinosaurs roamed the earth you could buy the Italian cars called Fiats in the U.S,; the joke was the name stood for "Fix It Again, Tony". Irony ...or farce?)

I don't know about you but I have far more faith in kids out on the lawn in the sun than the folks in the boardrooms and the backrooms with their not-so-well-hidden agendas and deals.

Sing it: "We will...we will... Rock you!"

ïOnward/Adelante! - smf


PSC 2.0: CHARTER SCHOOL OPERATORS TO RUN 7 MORE L.A. UNIFIED CAMPUSES + CHARTER SCHOOLS WIN OUT IN LATEST ROUND OF REFORM EFFORT + more + smf's 2�
CHARTER SCHOOL OPERATORS TO RUN 7 MORE L.A. UNIFIED CAMPUSES
By Howard Blume, Los Angeles Times | http://lat.ms/dLQLpH
The school board divvies up or relinquishes 10 new campuses, including seven new high schools, and three low-performing schools. Not all were sought by charters; some go to teachers and district-led groups.

March 16, 2011 - Major charter-school organizations won the right Tuesday to operate at seven of 13 schools under a policy that allows bidders inside and outside the Los Angeles Unified School District to take control of new and academically struggling campuses.

Charter schools got most of what they wanted by the end of a 5 1/2-hour meeting in which the Board of Education divvied up or relinquished 10 new campuses, including seven new high schools, and three low-performing schools. About 20,000 students will be attending those schools next year.

District officials were lobbied hard to support more charter schools than last year, when groups of district teachers, often working with administrators, prevailed on most plans. This year, the recommendations of L.A. schools Supt. Ramon C. Cortines included more charters, and a board majority went even further to cede control of district schools to outside organizations.

Cortines, for example, had wanted low-achieving Clay Middle School, in Athens, to be split between a team from the school and Green Dot Public Schools, a charter organization. He talked of the potential to demonstrate how a charter and a district operation could collaborate; charters are publicly funded and independently run.

Board President Monica Garcia pushed instead to have the entire school turned over to Green Dot.

Garcia, the closest ally of L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, was joined by the mayor's other allies in approving the full handover. Villaraigosa has spoken frequently of schools going to groups with "proven track records," a veritable mantra of charter-school applicants.

The board also overruled Cortines by giving a new Echo Park elementary school to the Camino Nuevo charter. He had favored a local group of teachers and residents because, he said, the charter's emphasis on teaching in Spanish in the early grades was not the right fit for all the students who would be attending that school.

But the board upheld Cortines' recommendation to give a much-contested new west San Fernando Valley high school to a district- and teacher-led proposal that includes a performing arts academy. Losing out was Granada Hills Charter High School, a high performer that just won the state's Academic Decathlon and has a waiting list of about 2,000 students.

"This is one of the hardest recommendations and votes I have taken," said board member Tamar Galatzan. Granada Hills is "really one of the jewels in my board district." The district plan "filled a gap we have in the Valley. We don't have a performing arts high school."

However, she also expressed concern about whether the district could afford such a program amid an ongoing budget crisis that could include the layoffs of thousands of teachers.

Altogether, seven of 11 charter school proposals prevailed. Other charter winners included: Synergy, Alliance College-Ready Public Schools, PUC and Aspire � all well-established charter organizations. Teachers and district-led groups also prevailed; there weren't charter bids for every campus.

Another beneficiary of the board's aggressive posture was MLA Partner Schools, a nonprofit that won the right to control Muir Middle School, where employees will be required to re-interview for their jobs. Cortines recommended against MLA because of what he characterized as the group's mixed record at two high schools already under its control. He also noted that, as of next year, Muir will no longer feed into Manual Arts High School, an MLA campus.

MLA, which isn't a charter, operates schools under the union contract, so it has faced less opposition from charter-school opponents, including some leaders of the teachers union.

The MLA bid was resurrected by Garcia. MLA officials co-hosted a January fundraiser for Garcia's chief of staff Luis Sanchez, who is in a runoff for a school board seat. That event also raised money for Eric Lee, who unsuccessfully tried to defeat board member Marguerite Poindexter LaMotte.

The day's events infuriated LaMotte. She was the lone vote against the entire final motion and expressed dismay at the overriding of Cortines.

"What's the purpose of this if we're not going to listen to the man," she said. "You need to get this political stuff out of your heads."

smf's 2 cents: - LEST YOU MISSED IT: Another beneficiary of the board's aggressive posture was MLA Partner Schools, a nonprofit that won the right to control Muir Middle School, where employees will be required to re-interview for their jobs. Cortines recommended against MLA because of what he characterized as the group's mixed record at two high schools already under its control. He also noted that, as of next year, Muir will no longer feed into Manual Arts High School, an MLA campus.

MLA, which isn't a charter, operates schools under the union contract, so it has faced less opposition from charter-school opponents, including some leaders of the teachers union.

The MLA bid was resurrected by Garcia. MLA officials co-hosted a January fundraiser for Garcia's chief of staff Luis Sanchez, who is in a runoff for a school board seat. That event also raised money for Eric Lee, who unsuccessfully tried to defeat board member Marguerite Poindexter LaMotte.�

THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE:

1. Go to the Ethics Commission website and search campaign contributions for Luis Sanchez http://bit.ly/fEBSbp
2. Cross reference it with the MLA Board of Directors. http://bit.ly/icaTWo Include spouses.
3. What other charter and partnership operators � or companies with business before the Bd of Ed - have contributed who stood to benefit � or did benefit � from Tuesday�s vote?
4. Don�t limit your search to Sanchez, check out all the board members. http://bit.ly/hrWxyE Search by candidate/officeholder or search by contributor.
5. Don�t forget to check out Independent Campaign Expenditures to Board candidates http://bit.ly/eNjZyp � that�s where the real money is. Again, search by candidate [ Sanchez: http://bit.ly/eNjZyp ] or contributor [Coalition for School Reform to Support Galatzan, Sanchez, and Vladovic for Board of Education 2011 http://bit.ly/eNjZyp - and United Teachers Los Angeles - PACE (Political Action Council of Educators) http://bit.ly/eNjZyp are special interests to watch:
6. Don�t do this on school district or your employers time!


CHARTER SCHOOLS WIN OUT IN LATEST ROUND OF REFORM EFFORT
By Connie Llanos, Staff Writer, LA Daily News| http://bit.ly/egG0B4

16 March 2011 - The Los Angeles Unified school board exerted its political muscle Tuesday, reversing several recommendations from outgoing Superintendent Ramon Cortines by placing more charter operators in charge of district schools.

Following a packed five-hour hearing, the board gave charters control of schools representing nearly a quarter of the students in the Public School Choice reform plan. Cortines had recommended that more of those schools be managed under teams led by district employees.

The school board also asked that three chronically low-performing campuses be overhauled, forcing all employees at those schools to reapply for their jobs. Cortines had only recommended one school for an overhaul.

It also requested for one school to go through the School Choice process again, after Cortines recommended it stay under district control.

"I am much more satisfied this year than I was last year," said school board member Yolie Flores, who authored the School Choice process.

"I think we took more seriously our sense of urgency and the quality of the plans."

Cortines, who is set to retire on April 15, looked sullen at times as the school board members made changes to almost all of his recommendations.

He also made a point to state several times during the meeting that he would not be in charge of implementing the decisions made by the school board. Deputy Superintendent John Deasy will take over LAUSD after Cortines' retirement.

After the meeting, however, Cortines said he did his job "and the board did theirs."

The School Choice program allows outside groups to compete with district-led teams for management authority over new and under-performing schools.

In the first round last year, most of the schools were given to district-led teams. The board's decision Tuesday was seen by some as a rejection of last year's heavily-criticized decision.

Thirteen campuses - divided collectively into 28 smaller schools - were up for bid in this round.

Charter operators, which run schools free of most district and state mandates and do not have to hire LAUSD employees, submitted 11 applications. The board chose eight, representing about 4,700 students, while Cortines had recommended six.

"Thanks to the school board, almost 5,000 more Los Angeles children will now have the opportunity to attend charter schools with proven records of success and the proven ability to reduce the achievement gap that too often plagues children from low income families," said Jed Wallace, president of the California Charter Schools Association.

The remaining schools were given to district led groups, including Valley Region High School #4 in Granada Hills.

Also four small schools on the campus of Valley Region High School #5, in San Fernando went to teacher-led groups.

Advocates for the reform community applauded the school board's vote Tuesday, including Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who was one the district's loudest critics last year.

"Today, the lives of more than 20,000 students and their families will change for the better," Villaraigosa said in a written statement.

"The opportunity to attend a revitalized school will set students on the course to a brighter future."

Some felt the political influence placed on the board by the reform community, however, compromised the process.

"There is huge pressure on the board majority from the mayor's office," said A.J. Duffy, president of United Teachers Los Angeles.

"Everybody expects the board to make up for what they have been told was a lapse in judgment the first time around by not giving more schools to charters."

At the end of the lengthy meeting, several teachers chided the board, accusing them of "giving away schools."

One board member, Marguerite La Motte, voted against all of the plans because the other members reversed so many of Cortines' recommendations.

One decision that surprised many community members was the board's decision to keep the district in charge of a new high school opening this fall in Granada Hills.

That campus was hotly sought after by Granada Hills Charter High School and had the support of many in the community, who even paid to raise billboards promoting the charter's proposal.

District officials have accused Granada Hills Charter of recruiting the best students - and transferring out lower performing kids.

But Brian Bauer, executive director of Granada, said his enrollment patterns match other neighboring schools and refuted accusations of cherry-picking students.

FIVE ACADEMIES CHOSEN FOR TAYLOR YARD HIGH SCHOOL
Patch.com - David Fonseca - http://bit.ly/eDEb7i
The Los Angeles Unified School District's Board of Trustees decided on Tuesday afternoon which five learning academies will be allowed to operate in Central Region High School #13, better known as the Taylor ...

LAUSD TRUSTEES PICK CAMINO NUEVO TO RUN ECHO PARK'S NEW MIDDLE SCHOOL
Patch.com - Anthea Raymond - http://bit.ly/eJCQSN
The Los Angeles Unified School District board of trustees voted Tuesday to select an established charter operator to run the new middle school in Echo Park. The board selected Camino Nuevo Charter Academy on a 4 -3 vote against the ...

LAUSD WILL RUN NEW SECONDARY SCHOOL NEAR CARSON
Daily Breeze - Melissa Pamer ‎- http://bit.ly/eiuxdW
A new secondary campus near Carson set to open in September will be run by Los Angeles Unified School District rather than a charter organization, the school board decided Tuesday. As part of the second round of decisions ...

PSC v2.0: L.A.SCHOOL BOARD TO DECIDE WHO WILL RUN NEW SCHOOLS -Various groups are vying to run the 7 new high s... http://bit.ly/fGM1i5


Additional Stories/crime scene photos, etc.



A CALL TO ACTION – THE HAMILTON HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT WALK-OUT:
For Immediate Release

This Friday at 9am, we. the 3,400 students of Hamilton High School will be walking out of our classrooms, signs in hand, wearing "Save Hami" T-shirts to demand an education. This is not a school wide "Ditch Day". We are walking out not to avoid our classrooms, but to save them. To protest the terrible budget cuts our school could face. To protest the 22 pink slips handed out to our beloved teachers, to protest the potential closure of our school library. We are walking out to protest to protest the increase of class sizes by 50% or more. And we will walk out to stop our magnets from facing a 90% loss in funding.

LAUSD stands to lose $500 million in funding. To compensate for that loss, LAUSD plans to make extremely deep, disastrous cuts–90% of our funding is in danger of going away. These cuts would almost entirely eliminate instructional funds used for computers, field trips, guidance counselors, libraries, books, nurses and psychologists and magnet-coordinators. These cuts would dismantle one of the most democratic and effective systems ever created in public education.

The students of Hamilton High School will not stand for the destruction of the classes, teachers, administrators and programs that we love. We will not stand idly by as our education is slashed to the point of no return. We are a committed, organized and intellectual grass-roots movement of students. And on Friday we walk to preserve our right and the rights of our younger brother and sisters to a quality public education.

Hamilton High School
2955 S. Robertson, Los Angeles, CA, 90034
9 A.M.
Friday March 18, 2011.

________________________
news coverage:

HAMILTON HIGH STUDENTS WALK OUT TO PROTEST CUTS, TEACHER LAYOFF NOTICES + STUDENTS WALK OUT OF CLASS TO PROTEST ... http://bit.ly/eTLn3t

smf tweets: as a parent leader for 15 years it's great to be led by students @ the hamilton hs walk out! Onward Hopefully! -smf Friday, March 18, 2011 9:40:09 AM via twitter

STUDENT WALKOUTS PLANNED TO PROTEST LAUSD LAYOFFS: Thousands of employees are slated to receive pink slips. KT... http://bit.ly/gxKxbP

HAMILTON HIGH STUDENTS’ BRILLIANT POLITICAL ORGANIZING COUP: by Bill Boyarsky • LA Observed | http://bit.ly/gNA1... http://bit.ly/i8wcfo

RALLY IN FRONT OF HAMILTON HIGH SCHOOL TO SAVE MUSIC+ARTS EDUCATION IN LAUSD @ 9AM FRIDAY18 MARCH - 2955 S. Robertson Blvd BeThere+PassItOn!

L.A. STUDENTS FIGHT FOR QUALITY EDUCATION AS THEIR TEACHERS GET LAYOFF NOTICES: By Steve Lopez | LA Times columni... http://bit.ly/gv6dWR Thursday, March 17, 2011

WALTER REED MIDDLE SCHOOL OUTRAGE: Award-Winning Music Teachers Get Their Walking Papers - Only a few days after... http://bit.ly/hOpg1q


REPORT DETAILS SHARP GROWTH IN PRACTICES THAT PUSH STUDENTS OUT OF SCHOOLS AND INTO THE JUVENILE AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEMS + Report
from FOCUS: a publication of the National Association for the Education of African American Children with Learning Disabilities | http://www.aacld.org/

NEW REPORT SHOWS HIGH-STAKES TESTING AND ZERO-TOLERANCE POLICIES IN NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND CATALYZES "SCHOOL-TO-PRISON PIPELINE"

MARCH 18, 2011 - Washington, DC - A report released today details the sharp growth in practices that push K-12 students out of schools and into the juvenile and criminal justice systems, with especially alarming effects on students of color and youth with disabilities. Federal Policy, ESEA Reauthorization, and the School-to-Prison Pipeline, the result of a year-long collaboration of research, education, civil rights, and juvenile justice organizations, also offers policy solutions for ways that federal law can reduce the pushout and over-criminalization of students. Nearly 150 organizations have endorsed the paper.

"As Congress works to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), it is essential to examine how No Child Left Behind (NCLB) has itself contributed to the School-to-Prison Pipeline," states the report. "Indeed, No Child Left Behind's 'get-tough' approach to accountability has led to more students being left even further behind, thus feeding the dropout crisis and the School-to-Prison Pipeline."

The report's detailed analysis shows that NCLB worsened the learning environment and made schools less effective. It led to decreased graduation rates, slower rates of academic improvement and of closing racial achievement gaps, as well as an increased burden on the justice system and wasted tax dollars.

The paper calls for an improved federal role in education, in which the public will be given a more accurate and meaningful assessment of schools' strengths and weaknesses, schools will provided more tools for improving their performance, and students' educational opportunities will be better protected.

"By focusing accountability almost exclusively on test scores and attaching high stakes to them, NCLB has given schools a perverse incentive to allow or even encourage students to leave," explained George Wood, Executive Director of the Forum for Education and Democracy.

"NCLB has led to the dramatic narrowing and weakening of curriculum," added Monty Neill, Executive Director of FairTest. "Because so much of the school day is focused on test preparation instead of well-rounded instruction, more students become alienated, making the jobs of teachers even harder."

The report also points out that NCLB directly encourages the use of zero-tolerance school discipline policies and the referral of students to law enforcement for disciplinary infractions. The result has been the over-criminalization of students across the country.

These policies have contributed to record-high suspension and expulsion rates, sharp rises in the use of school-based arrests and referral of students to law enforcement, and declining graduation rates. "The effects have been particularly severe for students of color and students with disabilities," said Len Rieser, Executive Director of Education Law Center - PA. "Racial disparities in school discipline have actually gotten worse. Our education system is becoming less equitable than it was only ten years ago."

"Moreover, NCLB has not done nearly enough to allow young people who are not in school to re-enter the education system. Many are left without a place to turn as they attempt to realize their goals," said Robert Schwartz, Executive Director of Juvenile Law Center.

According to Jim Freeman, Director of the Ending the Schoolhouse to Jailhouse Track Program at Advancement Project, "The increased reliance on these two 'get-tough' strategies - high-stakes testing and zero tolerance - is alarming. There is clear evidence that they have failed to achieve their intended results. Instead, they cause significant harm, especially to students of color and low-income communities. They combine to create unhealthy and unproductive school environments that fuel the School-to-Prison Pipeline."

Damon Hewitt, Director of the Education Practice at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund pointed out the historical significance of these developments. "The original Elementary and Secondary Act of 1965 was a civil rights statute at its core, intended to reduce inequitable educational opportunities experienced by poor children and children of color. The current version of that law - NCLB - actually contributes to those inequities. But with common-sense amendments, a revised ESEA can recapture its original purpose."

The report describes reauthorization of the ESEA as an important opportunity to begin dismantling the School-to-Prison Pipeline, and makes a number of recommendations to Congress:

* Create a stronger, more effective school and student assessment and accountability system capable of recognizing multiple forms of success and offering useful information for school improvement.
* Provide funding and incentives aimed at improving school climate, reducing the use of exclusionary discipline, and limiting the flow of students from schools to the juvenile and criminal justice systems.
* Facilitate the re-enrollment, re-entry, and proper education of students returning to school from expulsion and juvenile justice system placements.


Advancement Project School-to-Prison-Pipeline Position Paper



VALEDICTION
by smf - Termed out, Wednesday was my last meeting of the Bond Oversight Committee. To paraphrase Archimedes: "Give me a microphone with a long enough cord and a platform on which to place it, and I shall bore the world." This is what I said:

This is my valedictory as I leave the Bond Oversight Committee. I assure you that I was not the valedictorian at my high school. The fact that I graduated at all was an affront to my nemesis: the boy's vice principal at Hollywood High School. I was a spectacular under-achiever, he was a petty martinet: we deserved each other. Perhaps LAUSD's greatest reform is that boy's vice principals have been dispensed with

The Bond Oversight Committee is a noble concept: a group of public citizens advising the board and reporting to the voters and taxpayers on the expenditure of public funds in furtherance of the public's goals in the bond language. We wax poetic at times about the bond language -but we need to remember that the bond language is not board or district policy - It is The Law. That message was forgotten at the Community College District

When I came to this body ten years ago we were deep in the quagmire that was the Belmont Learning Center. We were busing kids out of their neighborhoods. We were on year 'round calendars. We were overcrowded. We had built zero new schools in thirty years We had incompetents managing school modernization. The only thing keeping the folks running the E-Rate program out of jail is the fact that cluelessness is apparently not a federal crime. That Sixty Minutes missed this story amazes me as a filmmaker.

Led by Roy Romer and James McConnell and Guy Mehula -a culture of excellence - and a 'can-do'-mission took over the Facilities Services Division -- all three words in STRATEGIC EXECUTION PLANS were implemented. That mission and vision was supported by the Board of Ed and this committee - and Together We (that adverb and that pronoun, inclusive and first person plural are inseparable and mission critical) built and modernized schools for then, current and future schoolchildren - and did so in the best interests of parents, voters and taxpayers.

Together we built a mega-construction program second to none. Effective, excellent, dynamic and accountable.

Did we do a perfect job? Hell no.
Did we exceed expectations? Hell yes.
Did we succeed? Not yet.

Colleagues, in my work with you on the BOC I have had three places where I'm happy with the outcomes of discussions I began.

I pushed for CORE FACILITIES - that all schools should have food service and libraries and auditoria and gymnasia. We got this included in the bond language and facilities mission.

I pushed for FULL DAY KINDERGARTEN districtwide - and that has happened.

And I pushed for SAFETY AND HEALTH INITIATIVES - and for SEISMIC SAFETY in schools where recently discovered earthquake faults might - might - endanger students. Good work has happened in that direction at University High and Burbank Middle.

LAST FRIDAY AT 2:46 PM LOCAL TIME the most devastating earthquake in Japan's modern history struck - followed by a tsunami and fires. The devastation was almost total in some localities.. At 2:46 on a Friday afternoon school was in session.

But if you look at the horrific photographs you do not see the pictures we saw from China three years ago -of adults pulling dead and maimed children from pancaked schools.

That's because Japan knows how to build schools. Build to survive and withstand quakes -protect their young occupants and hopefully serve as emergency community shelters in the aftermath. That is the intent of the Field Act - California’s rigorous school building standards and inspection regime.

Last Friday we saw this in action as Crescent City Schools were closed and reopened as tsunami shelters - effectively meeting that community's needs.

The recent failures of this Facilities Service Division to comply with the Field Act,failing to have Inspectors of Record in place -and failing to remedy the situation when it was documented - at over 100 of 300 projects. I do not use the word "failure" lightly -it is a loaded word in education- but this level of failure is total and cataclysmic. I do not mean to imply that the failure of inspection put children in peril - but it could have - and that is a failure of management and legal compliance that is inexcusable.

I question other decisions made of late over Maintenance and Operations and the cleaning of schools that directly effect health and safety. I fear that this superintendent and this board are overcommitted to cost cutting and budget reduction and place test scores over student safety.

Change is inevitable. Many of us are leaving. There will soon be a new Superintendent and a new Chief facilities Executive. The corrections to the inspection program will happen. Sooner or later there will be budget reform and the economy will come back. Political winds will change. We will be able to sell bonds again. Eventually LAUSD will be all it can be.

Connie Rice wrote an Op-Ed in the Times on Sunday that suggests that this district is incapable of managing its construction and modernization program. A decade ago Connie and I would probably have agreed. Five or Six or Seven or Eight years ago we would have said the District was doing it right and excellently.

"Don't let it be forgot That once there was a spot
For one brief shining moment that was known as Camelot. ."

Today,as we step aside,I've got to agree that Connie is right again. The politics and the self interest and the reality of the economy - and a failure of management and leadership provides little hope. Yesterday's meeting at this very horseshoe was seven adults poorly dividing thirteen schools by seven -with the singular possessive pronoun "my schools" too much in evidence and "Together We" not heard at all. There is hope - but that hope comes from outside - a direction suggested by Ms. Rice - a joint powers construction authority administered by the state.

Thank you colleagues for your service and friendship, thank you for doing your homework and for caring about the kids that go to and will go to these schools. Thank you also all the folks who have shared the mission - staff and educators, bureaucrats and overpaid consultants. Thanks to the men and women in hard hats who build the buildings and the teachers and educators who make them schools. Thank you Michaeal Lehrer, who was here when I came aboard and taught me the sheer joy of speaking truth to power. Thank you Tom and Gary and Frank. Thank you librarians and counselors and school nurses - hopefully you are not the passenger pigeons of public education. Thank you parents and voters and taxpayers. And if there are kids watching -thank you for making this all worthwhile. Now change the channel - there must be something better on.

Thank you. And onward into tomorrow.


HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T FIT: The Rest of the Stories from Other Sources
Video: PINK SLIPPED TEACHER RAPS ABOUT LAUSD LAYOFFS. WORD.: from LAist + YouTube | http://bit.ly/eLYDwf With t... http://bit.ly/eNhwHy

LET’S MOVE! CAN IT MAKE A DENT IN THE CHILDHOOD OBESITY PROBLEM?: Jessica Pauline Ogilvie, L.A. Times | http://l... http://bit.ly/ijy6Gm

HAMILTON HIGH STUDENTS WALK OUT TO PROTEST CUTS, TEACHER LAYOFF NOTICES + STUDENTS WALK OUT OF CLASS TO PROTEST ... http://bit.ly/eTLn3t

NOT EXACTLY A CUT …BUT DELAYED SCHOOL PAYMENTS HAVE A COST: Greg Lucas – California’s Capitol | http://bit.ly/fc... http://bit.ly/dZcvUf

REPORT DETAILS SHARP GROWTH IN PRACTICES THAT PUSH STUDENTS OUT OF SCHOOLS AND INTO THE JUVENILE AND CRIMINAL JU... http://bit.ly/eSS0q6

as a parent leader for 15 years it's great to be led by students @ the hamilton hs walk out! Onward Hopefully! -smf Friday, March 18, 2011 9:40:09 AM via twitter

STUDENT WALKOUTS PLANNED TO PROTEST LAUSD LAYOFFS: Thousands of employees are slated to receive pink slips. KT... http://bit.ly/gxKxbP

THE VIEW FROM ECHO PARK: Five Academies Chosen for Taylor Yard High School + LAUSD Trustees Pick Camino Nuevo to... http://bit.ly/h593cR

COLLEGE BOARD RELEASES AP REPORT TO THE NATION: Eagle Rock H.S. one of top schools U.S.: from Urban Educator | T... http://bit.ly/f9SSay

BUDGET UPDATE: LAWMAKERS TAKE $1 BILLION FROM FIRST 5: Published on First 5 LA (http://www.first5la.org) 17 Au... http://bit.ly/ejCdfK

"Free Fall: Educational Opportunities in 2011": NEW UCLA REPORT SHOWS EXTENT OF BUDGET CUTS ON CALIFORNIA HIGH S... http://bit.ly/g8tkQT

HAMILTON HIGH STUDENTS’ BRILLIANT POLITICAL ORGANIZING COUP: by Bill Boyarsky • LA Observed | http://bit.ly/gNA1... http://bit.ly/i8wcfo

RALLY IN FRONT OF HAMILTON HIGH SCHOOL TO SAVE MUSIC+ARTS EDUCATION IN LAUSD @ 9AM FRIDAY18 MARCH - 2955 S. Robertson Blvd BeThere+PassItOn!

L.A. STUDENTS FIGHT FOR QULITY EDUCATION AS THEIR TEACHERS GET LAYOFF NOTICES: By Steve Lopez | LA Times columni... http://bit.ly/gv6dWR Thursday, March 17, 2011

REMEDY TO PROBLEMS REGARDING PROP. 39 AND COLOCATION COULD BE DECIDED BY LEGAL ACTION SAYS LAUSD BOARD MEMBER ZI... http://bit.ly/heaDhM

TOP TEN TIPS FOR ASSESSING PROJECT-BASED LEARNING: Cindy Johanson, Executive Director of The George Lucas Educat... http://bit.ly/i9OKil

PARENTS ACROSS AMERICA PRESS RELEASE ON “PARENT TRIGGER” LEGISLATION: from Leonie Haimson | Parents Across Ameri... http://bit.ly/eLQh3f

PSC 2.0: CHARTER SCHOOL OPERATORS TO RUN 7 MORE L.A. UNIFIED CAMPUSES + CHARTER SCHOOLS WIN OUT IN LATEST ROUND ... http://bit.ly/gXyfwC

DAY OF UPHEAVAL AT LAUSD: Teachers, unions protest as LAUSD sends last of 7,300 pink slips: By Connie Llanos,... http://bit.ly/hwSZjl

Breaking News Alert: LEGISLATURE TO VOTE ON BUDGET TOMORROW/WEDNESDAY: from SacBee CapitolAlert | http://bit.ly/... http://bit.ly/hNTxrB

Sohn out, Shortly in: LAUSD CHIEF FACILITIES EXECUTIVE JAMES D. SOHN ANNOUNCES RESIGNATION: INTERIM TO BE NAMED ... http://bit.ly/dUcs68

WALTER REED MIDDLE SCHOOL OUTRAGE: Award-Winning Music Teachers Get Their Walking Papers - Only a few days after... http://bit.ly/hOpg1q

PSC v2.0: L.A.SCHOOL BOARD TO DECIDE WHO WILL RUN NEW SCHOOLS -Various groups are vying to run the 7 new hi:gh s... http://bit.ly/fGM1i5

Orange County: WHAT BUDGET CUTS IS YOUR DISTRICT MAKING?: By FERMIN LEAL and SCOTT MARTINDALE,THE ORANGE COUNTY ... http://bit.ly/igl1GL

SAN FERNANDO HIGH MAKES SCHOOL’S FIRST APPEARANCE AT STATE ACADEMIC DECATHLON: San Fernando High School students... http://bit.ly/ij5WTK


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:
Yolie.Flores.Aguilar@lausd.net • 213-241-6383
Tamar.Galatzan@lausd.net • 213-241-6386
Monica.Garcia@lausd.net • 213-241-6180
Marguerite.LaMotte@lausd.net • 213-241-6382
Nury.Martinez@lausd.net • 213-241-6388
Richard.Vladovic@lausd.net • 213-241-6385
Steve.Zimmer@lausd.net • 213-241-6387
...or your city councilperson, mayor, the governor, member of congress, senator - or the president. Tell them what you really think! • Find your state legislator based on your home address. Just go to: http://bit.ly/dqFdq2 • There are 26 mayors and five county supervisors representing jurisdictions within LAUSD, the mayor of LA can be reached at mayor@lacity.org • 213.978.0600
• Call or e-mail Governor 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.
• If you are eligible to become a citizen, BECOME ONE.
• If you a a citizen, REGISTER TO VOTE.
• If you are registered, VOTE LIKE THE FUTURE DEPENDS ON IT.


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




Scott Folsom is a parent leader in LAUSD and is Parent/Volunteer of the Year for 2010-11 for Los Angeles County. • He is Past President of Los Angeles Tenth District PTSA and represents PTA on the LAUSD Construction Bond Citizen's Oversight Committee. He is a Health Commissioner, Legislation Team member and a member of the Board of Managers of the California State PTA. He serves on numerous school district advisory and policy committees and has served as a PTA officer and governance council member at three LAUSD schools. He is the recipient of the UTLA/AFT 2009 "WHO" Gold Award for his support of education and public schools - an honor he hopes to someday deserve. • In this forum his opinions are his own and your opinions and feedback are invited. Quoted and/or cited content copyright © the original author and/or publisher. All other material copyright © 4LAKids.
• FAIR USE NOTICE: This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. 4LAKids makes such material available in an effort to advance understanding of education issues vital to parents, teachers, students and community members in a democracy. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
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