Sunday, November 27, 2011

Frictos cum ista cupisna?

Onward! 4LAKids
4LAKids: Sunday 27•Nov•2011
In This Issue:
SCHOOL DISTRICTS FEAR SLASHED BUDGETS AFTER SUPERCOMMITTEE FAILS
THINK LONG PROPOSES CALIFORNIA TAX OVERHAUL, ATTACKS PUBLIC EDUCATION, CALLS FOR END TO PROP 98
DUNCAN TO CALIFORNIA: NO WAY ON ‘RACE TO THE TOP’ + STATE'S LATEST RttT BID FIZZLES
Fundraising: PUBLIC SCHOOLS, PRIVATE DONATIONS + AB 165/STUDENT FEE LITIGATION UPDATE
HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T FIT: The Rest (but not neccessariily the best) of the Stories from Other Sources
EVENTS: Coming up next week...
What can YOU do?


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Last week, a traditionally slow news week, proved rather busy – with things happening beyond Thanksgiving and Black Friday (which is slowly moving into Thursday afternoon). It was a big week for Pepper Spray; starting in Davis and ending at Wal-Mart.

Congress dropped the ball in the SUPER-DUPER-SECRET DEFICIT REDUCTION COMMITTEE, with the inevitability of the inevitable catching up with the predictable and the preordained. The markets wobbled, the credit rating agencies sharpened their pencils and adjusted their eyeshades. I'm with former Senator Alan Simpson on this: If you're so scared you might not get reelected that you can't come to a compromise to save the country you don't belong in Congress. There were twelve members of the supercommittee (the style used by the Washington Post, no space/no capitalization) and it would've only taken one to move the ball. One Man or Woman in the Arena.

Instead all twelve missed their Profiles in Courage moment.

So we now are faced with automatic/autopilot across-the-board cuts and reductions – and everyone can blame the other side. Wasn't that the plan in the first place? A fail-safe device is one that, in the event of failure, responds in a way that will cause no - or a minimum of harm. Of course, this Fail Safe device is more like the Doomsday Machine in Dr. Strangelove – capable of causing maximum harm. See: SCHOOL DISTRICTS FEAR SLASHED BUDGETS AFTER SUPERCOMMITTEE FAILS


But Congress wasn't content to rest on their laurels and coast on their 9% favorability rating. Last week they declared – in statute – that PIZZA IS A VEGETABLE. Their "reasoning" – encouraged by the Farm Lobby – is that the tomato sauce counts as a veggie (…never mind that tomatoes are fruit.)

When I say Farm Lobby, don't think American Family Farmers. Unless the families are Archer, Daniels and Midland or the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange. This is deja vu reminiscent of The Agriculture Department declaring ketchup a vegetable back in '81 – and gets the same laughs. Except that was a regulation and easily undone. This is a The Law of The Land: H.R. 2112 - The Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act of 2011-2012. Childhood Obesity is epidemic, junk food and sodas are reducing life expectancy of our kids, adult-onset diabetes is a children's disease – and pizza is a vegetable in the school meal program.

THE LA TIMES POLL proves that the public is aware of what we have known: converting the anecdotal into data. We like our neighborhood schools, we think other neighborhoods schools are the problem. There have been too many cuts to education; Californians are prepared to raise their taxes to help public education.

First out of the box with a proposed ballot-box-fix/statewide initiative is THINK LONG (Huey… is that you?) – yet another plan from yet another billionaire philanthropist which proposes to address the problem by: Reducing the taxes on rich people, Increasing sales taxes on everyone and quietly declaring that today's schools are miserable places and only the solutions of ®eform, Inc. (and ending Prop 98) will solve the problem. See: THINK LONG PROPOSES CALIFORNIA TAX OVERHAUL, ATTACKS PUBLIC EDUCATION, CALLS FOR END TO PROP 98
.

Meanwhile The US DEPARTMENT OF ED AND THE CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION ARE AT ODDS and so California is left out of Race to the Top. Again. As RttT is a sideshow to NCLB/AYP/API/TestTestTest/Blame the Teachers/Break the Unions and the ®eform Agenda it's hard to feel too bad. But now the fight is joined three ways - between the Feds and the State and CORE schools (of which LAUSD is a member whether we like it or not) – three sets of adults are fighting over not enough money and kids are in the middle. See: DUNCAN TO CALIFORNIA: NO WAY ON ‘RACE TO THE TOP’

PUBLIC SCHOOL CHOICE v 3.0 reached some sort of a milepost – and PUBLIC SCHOOL CHOICE v. 4.0 rolled out, proposing to reform one school that has already been reformed and another that isn't even designed yet.

And BUSINESS TOOLS FOR SCHOOLS (a/k/a:"The Great Payroll Fiasco") is back! LAUSD is going into the Ad Business. The Academic Decathlon teams are forming again. NBA Basketball will back for Christmas.

And DrDeasyLAUSD tweets: "Free $15 gift cards being sent 2 all schools next week 4 LAUSD parents. Lets not let any cards go unredeemed - http://bit.ly/uZxdYH"
Follow that link: "Thanks to a $4 million donation from the Wasserman Foundation, nearly 600,000 families will receive a FREE (all caps/bold/underline) $15 DonorsChooseLA.org gift card to support a classroom project of their choice. Cards will be available at school sites!"

Whenever I multiply 600,000 times $15. I get $9 million. ¿What's with that?

¡Onward/Adelante! - smf


SCHOOL DISTRICTS FEAR SLASHED BUDGETS AFTER SUPERCOMMITTEE FAILS
By Alyson Klein | Education Week |http://bit.ly/u8zsL7

November 22, 2011 2:46 PM - Education advocates and local school officials are nervously eyeing a series of draconian cuts set to hit just about every federal program in 2013—including Title I, special education, and money for teacher quality—now that a bipartisan panel tasked with making recommendations for trimming the nation's deficit has failed to reach agreement.

Quick recap: Over the summer, as part of an agreement to raise the debt ceiling, lawmakers decided to set up a bipartisan "supercommittee" which would include twelve members of the House and Senate, half Democrats and half Republicans. The panel was supposed to come up with at least $1.2 trillion in savings over 10 years. But lawmakers failed to reach agreement.

Now, a process known as sequestration, is set to kick in, beginning in January of 2013. It would mean an across-the-board cut of about 7.8 percent to most government programs, including many for education, advocates estimate.

That's on top of some very serious cuts already in place at the state and local level, particularly now that vast majority of the funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and the Education Jobs Fund is gone.

The possibilty of signficantly slashed federal aid is worrisome for Paul Durand, the superintendent of the 1,600-student Rockford County school district in Minnesota.

The proposed federal cuts "would come on the backs of issues we've had in our state. ... School districts in Minnesota are having to borrow money to make sure we can pay our bills." Further cuts to education at the federal level would be "very short-sighted and poor policy," he said.

The 7.8 percent cut would mean about a $3.5 billion decrease to the U.S. Department of Education's budget. To put that number in perspective, it's more than states get right now for Improving Teacher Quality State Grants (funded at $2.5 billion), but a little less than the competitive grant total for Race to the Top under the stimulus ($4 billion).

The National Education Association is estimating that sequestration would result in the loss of more than 24,000 jobs in elementary and secondary education.

"This is a huge deal," said Mary Kusler, the manager of federal advocacy for the union. These are "dramatic cuts that will be felt by every student and every school district at a time when state budget [cuts] are raising the importance of the limited federal dollars that are flowing."

Of course, Congress has a whole year before those major cuts are triggered. And lawmakers may well cook up a plan that would scrap the programmatic spending cuts, which are set to go into effect not just for domestic programs, but for defense, too.

Lawmakers may not come up with a plan to stop "sequestration" until after the 2012 election, said Joel Packer, a veteran education lobbyist who is now the executive director of the Committee for Education Funding.

"I think we are in for year-long fight about sequestration and everything else budget related," Packer said. "My personal guess is that nothing happens until after the election."

That may well make the cuts to domestic programs, including K-12 education, a centerpiece of the presidential campaign.

But that would leave school districts in the dark for a while about their federal funding, which can complicate local decisions, Durand said.

"The not-knowing what's happening is bad because you can't plan and you need to be able to plan," he said. "All of these things have real impact on children."

And already, district advocates are worried lawmakers may move to spare defense, but not education.

"If we get [the cuts], that is what would be very damaging for schools," said Noelle Ellerson, the assistant director of policy analysis and advocacy, for the American Association of School Administrators. But the worst case scenario, she said, would be if other programs, such as defense were exempted from the cuts, and education was not. That would mean the cuts to education would be even deeper and more damaging than anticipated, Ellerson said.

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan is worried, too.

We must reduce America's debt. But we must do so in a thoughtful and deliberate way that protects national priorities like education at such a critical time. Because the supercommittee failed to live up to its responsibility, education programs that affect young Americans across the country now face across-the-board cuts.

And Republicans are also upset about the failure of the committee to reach agreement. Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., said that he believed the money would eventually be cut but worried that it would be "done the wrong way"—he'd rather see major changes to entitlement programs, such as Medicare.


THINK LONG PROPOSES CALIFORNIA TAX OVERHAUL, ATTACKS PUBLIC EDUCATION, CALLS FOR END TO PROP 98

►THINK LONG PANEL PROPOSES CALIFORNIA TAX OVERHAUL

Joe Garofoli, San Francisco Chronicle Staff Writer | http://bit.ly/rOsbeU

November 20, 2011 | A well-funded team of top California political, business and civic leaders will propose a ballot measure that would overhaul the state's tax system by simultaneously cutting income taxes across the board while raising $10 billion a year by expanding the sales tax to include services.

The Think Long Committee for California also is ready to propose a ballot measure that would alter the state's initiative process by creating an independent, nonpartisan panel that would have the power to propose initiatives, according to a copy of the panel's 24-page plan [http://bit.ly/tSmoi1] that The Chronicle has obtained.

Ideas to reform California's dysfunctional government surface frequently, and just as often are ignored. What makes Think Long different is the bipartisan star power of its 17-member panel and the $20 million or more that its chairman, billionaire businessman Nicolas Berggruen, said he will spend in support of ballot measures.

Berggruen will be backed by committee members including former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt, Southern California billionaire developer Eli Broad, former San Francisco Mayor and Chronicle columnist Willie Brown and former California Supreme Court Chief Justice Ronald George.

Each is expected to raise money or manpower to back the ballot measures. Think Long, which shaped its proposals during private meetings held over the past year, plans to put at least two of its proposals on the November 2012 ballot.

While the panel's report includes a wide range of government and education reforms, one of its most provocative ideas is its tax overhaul proposal, which Think Long adviser Nathan Gardels called an "ideological hybrid" model that combines ideas from the political right and left.

The nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office has said that the state budget relies too heavily on personal income tax revenue, which makes the state subject to the boom-and-bust cycles of the economy. To remedy that, Think Long proposes to:

● Simplify the income tax code to two rates - 2 percent for couples filing jointly who make $45,000 to $95,000$ and 7.5 percent for those earning more, while retaining the 1 percent surcharge for Californians who earn more than $1 million. Couples who earn less than $45,000 would pay no personal income tax.

● Eliminate most credits and all itemized deductions, except mortgage interest, property taxes, charitable contributions and research and development. Taxpayers would receive an expanded standard deduction equal to $45,000 for joint filers and $27,000 for single filers.

● Reduce the state's corporation tax from one of the nation's highest rates at 8.84 percent to 7 percent, lower than the national average. The move would help attract business, the report said.

● Phase in a 5 percent sales tax on services over four years, exempting health care and education. Low-income households would get a sales tax rebate.

The estimated $10 billion that would be raised by the implementation of these proposals would be earmarked largely for public education and to pay down the state's debt.

Mindful of the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations against the inequity of the current financial system, Gardels said that under this proposal, the top 5 percent of state tax filers would pay 62 percent of all income taxes.

"It retains the state's progressive tax structure," he said.

In an era of partisan political gridlock from Sacramento to Washington, Berggruen said the committee he recruited has "shown that difficult bipartisan compromise can be reached if politics is set aside and the public interest is put first." The panel's recommendations were approved by consensus.

Los Angeles County Federation of Labor Secretary-Treasurer Maria Elena Durazo was the only member to abstain on the final recommendations. She did not respond to an interview request.


► THINK LONG ATTACKS PUBLIC EDUCATION: REPORT CALLS FOR END TO PROP 98

By Brian Leubitz, Calitics Blog | http://bit.ly/vpFkcR

Tue Nov 22, 2011 at 13:21:08 PM PST - Robert Cruickshank mentioned in "Billionaire Wants To Shift Tax Burden to Middle Class" [http://bit.ly/vy9fBK] the so-called Think Long report that proposes reducing taxes on the highest earners in favor of additional taxes on the middle class.

In case that wasn't enough to piss off the Left, there is this little treasure in the report: (via SacBee)

"We believe such new funding should not be automatically given to a system that is failing to educate millions of Californians. It instead should be tied to improving performance of K-12 schools, as a result of rigorous evaluation of teachers, as well as curbs on automatic teacher tenure and seniority."

So...in case No Child Left Behind didn't do enough to screw up the schools, we need to tie state school funding in a larger way to a deeply flawed system of test-first, test-last, and test-always that encourages teachers to teach to the test. The rest of that second sentence is merely rehashing Arnold Schwarzenegger proposals that voters soundly rejected at the polls.

What we have here is nothing really all that different from what California Forward and other similar corporate-leaning centrist organizations are pushing. And unsuprisingly it isn't getting great reviews. Here is Dean Vogel, current president of the California Teachers Association:

"The Think Long Committee Report was supposed to be a bipartisan path to rebuilding California's future, not a dangerous detour that would hurt students and the poor. Educators are alarmed by these recommendations to raise taxes on the poor, lower taxes for corporations, dismantle Proposition 98 - the state's minimum school funding law - and avoid repaying $10 billion already owed to public schools and students."

Without getting bogged down in NCLB, what really amazes me is that all these people want to look for causation only at teachers and schools. When they see a struggling school, they only see "failing teachers." They never stop to look around the neighborhoods to see the failing communities. The families torn apart by poverty. Parents who rarely see their children because they are working multiple jobs. Sure, Newt Gingrich has a plan to solve that problem, (let's create an army of 9 year old janitors!) but no solutions for addressing the inequality in our society seems to be present in the Think Long Report.

If you want to see better performing schools, teachers are merely an easy scapegoat. Some teachers are truly more gifted than others, and we should encourage teacher quality. However, that is only one small portion of the underlying problems. Causation is never an easy, but politicians and billionaires apparently share an interest in preferring easy answers over good, thoughtful policy.

Think Long has said that a repeal to Prop 98 will not be in their tax measure that they intend to bring to the ballot. However, their posture really goes to more than just Prop 98, it goes to the heart of our system of public education. Their attacks are certainly not the first, nor will they be the last as profit-seekers look to open up public education to corporate style earnings.


A BLUEPRINT TO RENEW CALIFORNIA: Report and Recommendations Presented by the Think Long Committee for California | The Nicolas Berggruen Institute



DUNCAN TO CALIFORNIA: NO WAY ON ‘RACE TO THE TOP’ + STATE'S LATEST RttT BID FIZZLES

DUNCAN TO CALIFORNIA: NO WAY ON ‘RACE TO THE TOP’ - HE GIVES BROWN THE BIG BIRD …OR WAS IT VICE VERSA?

By John Fensterwald - Educated Guess - TOP-Ed writer Kathy Baron co-wrote this post | http://bit.ly/rARXXK

Posted on 11/23/11 • In another cockfight between California and Washington over education, the U.S. Department of Education has rejected California’s application – and only California’s application – in the third round of Race to the Top. The denial exasperated the seven California school districts that led the state’s effort and were counting on $49 million earmarked for California as critical to do the work they had committed to do.

In a statement Wednesday, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson and State Board of Education President Michael Kirst each criticized the federal government’s inflexibility in not accepting what they described as California’s “innovative” approach of giving control of the reforms to local school districts. Seven unified districts, including Los Angeles, Frenso, and Long Beach, formed a coalition known as CORE, the California Office to Reform Education, to compete for round three and work together on the reform.

Torlakson also said the federal government failed to scale back its expectations for Race to the Top reforms during this fiscal crisis. “I had hoped the federal Administration would be mindful of the financial emergency facing California’s schools and the severe constraints it has placed on state resources,” he said. (In the third round of RTTT, the federal government slashed the available funding from $3.4 billion to $200 million. For California, that reduced the potential award from as much as $700 million to $50 million.)

The federal government saw things differently. In a statement congratulating the other seven states in line for the money, federal officials said California “submitted an incomplete application.”

As we reported here on Tuesday, Kirst, Torlakson, and Gov. Brown, who is vacationing this week, submitted only a two-page letter to U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan that indicated that the state was fine with just the seven districts undertaking the reforms.

What state officials didn’t do was submit and sign the official short application, which, the Department ruled Wednesday, disqualified California.

Failure to sign wasn’t simply an oversight; it reflected a fundamental disagreement about what California was asked to commit to. In the second round of RTTT, the state had agreed to four broad areas of reform:

● Implementing Common Core standards;
● Building data systems to measure student growth and success in order to improve instruction;
● Recruiting, training, and rewarding effective teachers and principals;
● Turning around the lowest-achieving schools.

In being asked to reaffirm these reforms for round three, the state and CORE districts had very different interpretations. The districts believed that nothing had changed; they remained committed to the four reform areas agreed to in the second round. All that Brown and the others had to do was simply acknowledge that the Legislature hadn’t passed any laws reversing the commitments made in round two.

“It was a unique application that only committed participating districts to reforms,” said Rick Miller, executive director of CORE, which represents the districts.

Brown and Torlakson objected to making any statewide commitments dealing with teacher effectiveness and how to treat failing schools. They also didn’t want to be tied to explicit reforms approved by Gov. Schwarzenegger in the second round application. One in particular, strongly opposed by the California Teachers Association, would have committed the CORE districts to linking standardized test scores to teacher evaluations.

State Board President Kirst agreed with that interpretation. “The issue is not what the districts committed to but what the state was committed to,” said Kirst. “The second round application was slippery in terms of what was committed; it mixed up state and local roles.”

Kirst, Torlaskson, and Sue Burr, executive director of the State Board of Education, have had ongoing conversations with top federal education officials. As recently as this week Kirst spoke with Duncan and expressed his reservations.

The state’s interpretation baffled Fresno Unified Superintendent Mike Hanson, who said he thought the CORE districts had an understanding with the governor to submit the round three application. “I find it hard to believe that whatever gap existed in the end could not have been bridged by having representatives from Sacramento, D.C., and CORE sit down and talk it out,” said Hanson.

Fresno and the other six districts were going to use the federal money to prepare teachers to make the transition to Common Core and build local data systems to share information and their successes. They’ve been starting to do this work using some small foundation grants, but Hanson said the $49 million would have been “jet propulsion for us,” and the results would have been available for all districts in the state.

“We missed a big opportunity, probably the last opportunity” for a major federal grant, said Hanson. “That money is now going to go to another state to help make those kids more competitive.”


STATE'S LATEST BID FOR RACE TO THE TOP FUNDS FIZZLES

By Valerie Gibbons - The Fresno Bee | http://bit.ly/rxKEwr

Wednesday, Nov. 23, 2011 | 08:55 PM - When does a four-page cover sheet cost $49 million? When it's part of California's application for the latest round of federal school improvement funding.

By signing the cover sheet, state officials would have been endorsing the establishment of statewide teacher evaluation methods – a commitment they would not make.

Federal education officials announced the state's bid for Race to the Top funds was denied Wednesday morning because its application was deemed to be "incomplete" by the U.S. Department of Education.

The money would have been used in seven school districts throughout the state to implement common math and English language standards, build a teacher assessment system and boost achievement at low-performing schools.

Education officials disagree on who is to blame for the scuttled application.


California students have been hit with wave upon wave of cuts in education because of the state's budgetary woes. Getting $49 million in federal Race to the Top money would have been "an incredible boost," Fresno Unified Superintendent Michael Hanson said.

"The money was ours for the asking," said Fresno Unified Superintendent Michael Hanson. "One million students were left out in the cold, and it didn't have to be this way."

A large part of the $49 million was slated to go to Fresno Unified, which already uses some of its $584.2 million annual general fund to develop student assessment and evaluation systems.

Hanson is president of the California Office of Reform Education, the group of seven districts – Fresno, Clovis, Sanger, Long Beach, Los Angeles, Sacramento and San Francisco – that spearheaded the state's second unsuccessful Race to the Top application last year and lobbied state officials to apply for this latest round of funding.

Clovis and Sanger officials could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

Hanson said the application was a four-page cover sheet and a copy of the strategies outlined in the state's previous application.

CORE officials say the application was denied because the state didn't turn in the federally required cover sheet that pledges, among other things, to tie teacher evaluations to test scores and use statewide methods to turn around low-performing schools.

State officials say they couldn't sign the cover sheet because teacher evaluations and school performance strategies are determined at the local level. State Department of Education spokesman Paul Hefner said federal officials should have allowed California some flexibility in its application.

Hefner wouldn't comment on whether the state's reluctance to sign the four-page cover sheet stemmed from political pressure by the state's teachers union.

So instead of signing and returning the cover sheet that would have committed California to work toward federal goals, state leaders sent a two-page letter to the U.S. Department of Education that was signed by Gov. Jerry Brown, state Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson and State Board of Education President Michael Kirst.

The letter assured federal officials that the state would move toward some of the federal requirements – adopting core standards in English and math and developing a statewide system to track student progress – but it stopped short of endorsing statewide teacher evaluation methods and strategies to turn around under-performing schools.

A spokesman for the California Teachers Association could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

Elizabeth Ashford, Brown's chief deputy press secretary, said the governor is away this week and referred all questions to the Department of Education.

Torlakson called the letter a "good faith effort" to apply for the federal money.

"I had hoped the federal administration would be mindful of the financial emergency facing California's schools and the severe constraints it has placed on state resources," he said in a statement.

Justin Hamilton, press secretary for the U.S. Department of Education, said the state's belief that its two-page letter was a suitable substitute for the application cover sheet was "incorrect." He said he was unable to elaborate.

Hanson said CORE will continue to work toward developing statewide student and teacher evaluation systems, with the help of $5 million from private foundations.

"But $49 million would've been an incredible boost to the work we're doing to try to improve our system," he said.


Fundraising: PUBLIC SCHOOLS, PRIVATE DONATIONS + AB 165/STUDENT FEE LITIGATION UPDATE

THE SANTA MONICA-MALIBU UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT IS TRYING TO BALANCE PARENTAL DONATIONS WITH THE NEED FOR EQUAL EDUCATION OPPORTUNITIES FOR ALL.

Los Angeles Times Editorial | http://lat.ms/sLHbgM

November 27, 2011 | If a well-heeled neighborhood of Los Angeles wanted better police protection, would it be OK for the residents to donate money to their local police station so it could assign an extra patrol car to their streets?

Most people would rightly say no. Law enforcement is a public service; taxpayers support it for the safety of all, to be deployed as needed to provide the best protection for the city. Residents might hire a private security guard for their neighborhood, but they cannot reshape public allocations of resources to benefit themselves through private donations.

So is it all right, then, for parents to lavish donations on one school, providing it with art and music classes, instructional aides and extra library hours, while a neighboring school in the same district might have none of those?

This question is being asked more often in these times of inadequate funding for public schools and increased donations to make up for lost programs. It came up, briefly, in the U.S. Department of Education's civil rights investigation of the Los Angeles Unified School District, where schools attended mostly by black students lack the library books, computers and other amenities found at mostly white schools — not because the district distributes public money unfairly but because of parental donations in white neighborhoods.

And the question is being asked with particular vehemence in the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District, where PTA donations add up to more than $2,100 per student at Point Dume Marine Science Elementary School in Malibu but only $96 at McKinley Elementary in Santa Monica. Point Dume, where 2% of the students are poor, uses that money for classroom aides, a reading program, choral music and other extras. McKinley, where 41% of students are poor, makes do with far less.

The school board is considering following the lead of several other districts by centralizing much of the fundraising. Donations for personnel would go to a districtwide nonprofit, which would distribute the money more evenly among schools. Donations for supplies and other extras — assemblies or field trips — would remain at each school. Under this formula, about half of Point Dume's parent donations would go into the community pot.

Parents at the more richly endowed schools — which tend to be in Malibu — often answer the equity question by saying, "It's our money, and no one can tell us where to give it." But they cannot universally apply private sector rules to the public schools, a system in which, California courts have ruled time and again, there is supposed to be an equitable distribution of resources regardless of students' race or family wealth. Allowing parents to provide all the extras they want at one particular school is akin to a voucher system: The parents get their allowance from the state, then add to it to create a semi-private education.

Parents already accept all sorts of limits on donations. A wealthy father wouldn't be allowed to treat his son's fourth-grade classroom to a school week at a deluxe science camp in Hawaii while another fourth-grade teacher's class did without trips.

That said, it doesn't help poorer schools for more affluent ones to be stripped of extras. And various Malibu families have threatened to stop contributing if their largesse is pooled among all the schools. Point Dume would receive a fraction of its parents' donations under centralized fundraising; many parents might wonder why they're bothering to donate large sums if it makes little difference at their children's school. (They should keep in mind, however, that the city of Santa Monica recently passed a sales tax, of which half the proceeds, or an expected $6 million a year, go to the school district. That money is distributed to all district schools, not just those in Santa Monica.) The district's PTAs already are supposed to put 15% of their donations into a common "equity fund," but not all of them do, district officials say. And some high-donation schools actually have a greater proportion of impoverished students — and lower state test scores — than low-donation schools. Parents could validly question where the equity is if they're picking up more of the burden for schools where parents appear less willing.

Donations rose substantially in the Palo Alto and Manhattan Beach school districts after they switched to a shared system. But not all school districts are the same. Those two districts have higher ratios of affluent to lower-income families, making it easier to help the have-nots. In L.A. Unified, by way of contrast, centralized parental donations would be virtually useless. There are so few affluent schools compared with impoverished ones, no school would realize a noticeable benefit if the donations were shared.

Yet school officials must insist on equalizing at least the core educational functions at all schools. Several years ago, the trustees of the Capistrano Unified School District in South Orange County refused to allow parents at more affluent schools to raise money for 20-student classes in primary grades unless enough money was found overall to retain the smaller class sizes. at less well-off schools. That was the right decision, and the parents rose to the occasion. It's unacceptable for huge educational disparities to afflict students based on their address.

At Santa Monica-Malibu Unified, district leaders have been moving their pooled-funding policy through the approval system without having adequately addressed legitimate concerns. They should stick to their goal, but when it comes to redistributing people's money, details matter. Perhaps they could use some of the new sales tax money to even things out, or organize more Hollywood fundraising with the help of Malibu parents. In any case, they should remember that the equity fund didn't work, and probably neither will this if parents see it as being imposed from above. The school board is scheduled to consider the policy shift this week, but it should put off the vote. Instead of telling parents how successful Manhattan Beach's policy has been, the superintendent and school board should be working with parent groups to shape a policy that works for their somewhat different coastal school district on the coast.


AB 165 + STUDENT FEE LITIGATION UPDATE

from EdLawConnect | http://bit.ly/tRcm9p

By Mark Bresee, Partner and Cathie Fields, Senior Associate
Education Law Practice Group /Atkinson, Andelson, Loya, Ruud & Romo - Irvine Office

Tuesday, November 22, 2011After the initial publicity surrounding Governor Brown’s unexpected veto of the student fee legislation, AB 165, there was a bit of a lull in the media attention paid to the topic. Thankfully, though, the veto and some misinformation reported in the media immediately after − e.g., a blog post headline stating AB 165 was a bill “banning pay-for-play sports fees,” when such fees have been explicitly banned since 1984 − have not resulted in districts retreating from their efforts to address the issue and achieve 100% compliance.

The issue is emerging again: The CDE recently issued an updated guidance on fees, and a recent news report correctly noted the ACLU lawsuit against the State has now resumed.

To review briefly, the original September 2010 suit was filed against the State and the Governor. Then-Governor Schwarzenegger quickly entered into a proposed settlement, to be implemented through legislation that became AB 165. Upon taking office the Brown administration balked at the settlement, asserting that the Governor was not the correct target. When the judge in the case signaled his agreement, the settlement fell apart and an amended complaint was filed, naming as defendants the State, the California Department of Education (CDE), the Superintendent of Public Instruction (SPI), and the State Board of Education (SBE). All of those defendants have filed demurrers to the amended complaint, seeking dismissal of the suit. A hearing is scheduled for January 25, 2012. Some of the arguments in the demurrers remind us that the stakes for school districts and county offices remain high.

The demurrer filed by the State asserts it is not a necessary or proper party in the lawsuit, based on the separation of powers doctrine and because the suit names state officers and agencies with administrative functions. In arguing the State is not an “indispensable party” to the lawsuit, the demurrer does not mention individual school districts. The same is not true of the demurrer filed by the CDE, SPI and SBE, all represented by attorneys at the CDE. These state defendants contend that “not only does the [lawsuit] fail to allege any improper action on the part of the [state] defendants, it fails to allege what the . . . defendants should have done − and under what authority.” Running throughout the demurrer is the explicit assertion that the finger should be pointed at individual districts. These defendants assert that the State has no obligation to enforce the “free school guarantee,” and that “local school districts have the power and authority to cure the alleged problems.” Noting that Hartzell v. Connell was filed against an individual school district, and that decision did not assert the State is responsible for enforcement, they argue that the suit is “fundamentally about fees charged by those school districts” the plaintiffs attend and that the individual school districts are indispensable parties. This argument is consistent with the language and tenor of Governor Brown’s AB 165 veto message. (See our post on the veto here).

To state the obvious, the path this litigation will take and the ultimate impact on districts and county offices remain unpredictable. The plaintiffs, in opposing the demurrers, make a cogent and forceful argument that the individual school districts are not indispensable parties, asserting, “This case is about the State’s duty to intervene when violations of students’ fundamental educational rights occur, and school districts are not indispensable to an action focused exclusively on the scope of the state’s constitutional duties and the form of relief available against the State and its agencies.” However, if this argument is accepted by the court, it simply begs the question what state intervention and enforcement would look like.

Another possibility, perhaps remote, is the Williams example. The complaint in that case identified plaintiffs in eighteen school districts, and the response of the state defendants was to file a cross-complaint against all eighteen of those districts, asserting that “the State of California has a direct interest in ensuring” the districts comply with the law, and that “if plaintiffs are correct” it is the districts that have “violated [their] duties and obligations under applicable statutes and regulations.”

Perhaps the only safe prediction, regardless of how the litigation unfolds, is that the eyes of the ACLU, the State, the Governor, and the citizen watchdogs will remain focused on local district and county office practices.


HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T FIT: The Rest (but not neccessariily the best) of the Stories from Other Sources

LONG FORM - Assigned Reading for Extra Credit:

THE RHETORIC OF CHOICE: Segregation, Desegregation, and Charter Schools: By Ansley T. Erickson / Dissent Magazin... bit.ly/t3zeSf

HOW ONLINE LEARNING COMPANIES BOUGHT AMERICA’S SCHOOLS: by Lee Fang | The Nation. | bit.ly/vWuIgn ... bit.ly/sPZKqX

“Effective immediately, all of our efforts to privatize the schools will be known as ‘®eform,’ and any opposition to those efforts will be known as ‘anti-®eform’.”
[you can’t say we weren't warned] TEST TODAY, PRIVATIZE TOMORROW: USING ACCOUNTABILITY TO "REFORM" PUBLIC SCHOOLS …to Death by Alfie Kohn | http://bit.ly/tbOlf6


DEFENDING LAWS ON CHILD LABOR + smf’s 2¢: A reader writes to support Newt Gingrich's call to loosen child labor ... bit.ly/voWdxe

OCCUPY L.A. OFFERS A HANDS-ON CIVICS LESSON FOR STUDENTS, TEACHERS: Some youths visit the City Hall encampment t... bit.ly/uK2QV6

LAUSD GEARS UP FOR ACADEMIC DECATHLON: by Rock Rojas | LA Time/LA Now | lat.ms/vJEkUx Academic Decathlon... bit.ly/tEUk1e

CHARTER SCHOOLS GROW WHILE MORE THAN 9 OUT OF 10 STUDENTS SAY IN REGULAR PUBLIC SCHOOLS: By Louis Freedberg ~ Ed... bit.ly/th0Yao

Thankfully: LAUSD DONATING FOOD KIDS WON’T EAT: By Melissa Pamer Staff Writer |Daily News/Daily Breeze |http://b... bit.ly/usWfKn

SCHOOL BOARD TRUSTEE BENNETT KAYSER OCCUPIES LAUSD: Silver Lake resident Kayser represents Los Angeles Unified S... bit.ly/uXbCdE

REFORM PROPOSALS ACCEPTED FOR WILSON AND NEW EAST L.A. HIGH SCHOOL: LAUSD will name middle school in honor of Ju... bit.ly/tn4isR

A BETTER FARE …or (smf’s 2¢) Taken for a Spin: by Tamar Galatzan in the Galatzan Gazette, The Online News Source... bit.ly/swMros

U P D A T E D: PSC v.3.0: “AND THE APPLICANTS ARE”: smf: LAUSD emailed this press release, dated 11/21 but creat... bit.ly/tFIaxJ

PSC v.3.0: “AND THE APPLICANTS ARE…”: No outside groups apply to run South Bay and Harbor Area LAUSD schools up ... bit.ly/tV46WN

PSC+LAUSD. What were they thinking?: publicschoolchoice.lausd.net bit.ly/tKD3Yw

PSC v.3.0: “AND THE THE APPLICANTS ARE….”: No outside groups apply to run South Bay and Harbor Area LAUSD school... bit.ly/rQAFts

Student Journalism - VIEWPOINT: HOW SAFE IS OUR SCHOOL?: By Kauai Taylor News & Features Editor | Westchester H... bit.ly/sZKd4y

LAUSD > SAP > ERP > BTS RETURNS!: Phoenix Business Consulting Secures Contract With The Los Angeles Unified Scho... bit.ly/uPcypn

LAUSD SET TO GO INTO AD BIZ + smf's 2¢: By Barbara Jones Daily News/Daily Breeze Staff Writer | bit.ly... bit.ly/tVS1vH

WRIGHT MIDDLE SCHOOL PRINCIPAL REMOVAL STIRS FURY: By Melissa Pamer, Daily Breeze Staff Writer | http://... bit.ly/v8vzkw




EVENTS: Coming up next week...

Wednesday Nov 30, 2011
Central Region Middle School#7: Ribbon-Cutting Ceremony

Time: 9:00 a.m.

Location:
Central Region Middle School#7
1420 E. Adams Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90011

Community Organizer: Fortunato Tapia

*Dates and times subject to change

Thursday Dec 08, 2011
Rancho Dominguez Preparatory School (South Region HS#4): Ribbon-Cutting Ceremony

Time: 3:30 p.m.

Location:
Rancho Dominguez Preparatory School
4110 Santa Fe Ave.
Long Beach, CA 90810

Community Organizer: Joseph Pina

*Dates and times subject to change

*Dates and times subject to change. ________________________________________
• SCHOOL CONSTRUCTION BOND OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE:
http://www.laschools.org/bond/
Phone: 213-241-5183
____________________________________________________
• LAUSD FACILITIES COMMUNITY OUTREACH CALENDAR:
http://www.laschools.org/happenings/
Phone: 213-241.8700


• LAUSD BOARD OF EDUCATION & COMMITTEES MEETING CALENDAR



What can YOU do?
• E-mail, call or write your school board member:
Tamar.Galatzan@lausd.net • 213-241-6386
Monica.Garcia@lausd.net • 213-241-6180
Bennett.Kayser@lausd.net • 213-241-5555
Marguerite.LaMotte@lausd.net • 213-241-6382
Nury.Martinez@lausd.net • 213-241-6388
Richard.Vladovic@lausd.net • 213-241-6385
Steve.Zimmer@lausd.net • 213-241-6387
...or your city councilperson, mayor, the governor, member of congress, senator - or the president. Tell them what you really think! • Find your state legislator based on your home address. Just go to: http://bit.ly/dqFdq2 • There are 26 mayors and five county supervisors representing jurisdictions within LAUSD, the mayor of LA can be reached at mayor@lacity.org • 213.978.0600
• Call or e-mail Governor Brown: 213-897-0322 e-mail: http://www.govmail.ca.gov/
• Open the dialogue. Write a letter to the editor. Circulate these thoughts. Talk to the principal and teachers at your local school.
• Speak with your friends, neighbors and coworkers. Stay on top of education issues. Don't take my word for it!
• Get involved at your neighborhood school. Join your PTA. Serve on a School Site Council. Be there for a child.
• If you are eligible to become a citizen, BECOME ONE.
• If you a a citizen, REGISTER TO VOTE.
• If you are registered, VOTE LIKE THE FUTURE DEPENDS ON IT. THEY DO!.


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




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


Sunday, November 20, 2011

Stuffing Trigger.

Onward! 4LAKids
4LAKids: Sunday 20•Sept•2011
In This Issue:
CALIFORNIA FACES $13.5 BILLION DEFICIT, FACES MIDYEAR CUTS
CHARTER SCHOOLS IMPRESS HALF OF CALIFORNIA VOTERS BUT 64% FAVOR MORE INVESTMENT IN TRADITIONAL SCHOOLS + Poll results + smf’s 2¢
TEACHERS WHO JUST DON’T CARE
COMMUNITY CELEBRATES RIBBON-CUTTING AT SONIA SOTOMAYOR LEARNING ACADEMY
HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T FIT: The Rest (but not neccessariily the best) 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.
Credit where credit's due: In an apocryphal tale told by my then writing partner, the Singing Cowboy actor Gene Autry had been drinking when he was informed that his equine co-star, "Champion, the Wonder Horse", had passed from this mortal coil.

(Tom, my writing partner, is an actor – his impersonation of Gene was cruel+callous …and very funny. The Autry estate/Autry Museum's subsequent rape of the Southwest Museum earns Gene no quarter here.)

Gene knew that Roy Rogers had had his late wonder horse, "Trigger, the Smartest Horse in the Movies", stuffed and mounted - a triumph of taxidermy if not good taste.

Gene was a much wealthier and more successful businessman than Roy, who was nonetheless the more famous - being King of the Cowboys and all. Not that this bothered Autry.

"How much would that cost …stuffin' old Champ?" Tom impersonated, slurring his words.

And when informed of the large expense, Gene/Tom barely missed a beat.

"Stuff that," he said. "Bury the %&#$er!"


___

PUBLIC EDUCATION IS CURRENTLY THREATENED BY THREE BOTHERSOME TRIGGERS:

There is THE PARENT TRIGGER - the weapon of choice brandished by the ®eformers+®evolutionaries.

There is The DEFICIT REDUCTION TRIGGER - which the so-called Super Committee is struggling with in Washington. Mixing martially metaphorical: This trigger when pulled releases a Sword of Damocles - which severs Education, Medicaid, Defense and everything-everyone-holds dear (except the Bush tax cuts) on the allegorical chopping block - causing a bloodbath tsunami that will make the credit rating agencies blanch. (Apparently it's all about Moody's, Fitch & S+P.)

And finally there is the CALIFORNIA BUDGET TRIGGER, an elaborate mechanism of automatic/autopilot/pre-approved cuts built into the current state budget in the unlikely event projected revenues fall short – complete with a series 'what-if'/'if-then' midyear cuts to the "constitutional guarantee" of public education funding. .For those seeking classical references these particular cuts are not damoclesian but draconian.)

Needless to say, The Unlikely Event is upon us as inevitably as on the ingénue-in-panties from a B horror movie going into the basement to investigate the strange noise. | The 2012-2013 Budget: California's Fiscal Outlook http://1.usa.gov/tZ29vb

Enough already with the triggers and references to weaponry. I'm having fun here – but maybe we should stuff it (…or bury it?) and declare a Demilitarized Zone …for the sake of the kids.

● FOR news on the impact of the Deficit Reduction Trigger see: http://bit.ly/uFBPkB
● FOR the California Budget Trigger see: CALIFORNIA FACES $13.5 BILLION DEFICIT, FACES MIDYEAR CUTS|http://t.co/Td5bgD48
● I can't see why anyone in their right mind would want to pull the Parent Trigger and convert to a charter school right now with the pending mid-year funding cuts. And I'm no judge - that "in their right mind" qualifier doesn't exclude all that many of us on either side of the fence.


FROM THE OTHER SIDE OF THE POND: "It has given us the iced doughnut, the burger and the fattest people on Earth. But now America is outdoing even itself when it comes to unhealthy food, by trying to claim pizza is a vegetable. A school lunches Bill going before Congress aims to reclassify the junk food due to the tomato paste on the dough." | http://bit.ly/rHGWYT


I FOUND MYSELF ON THURSDAY IN A MEETING TRYING TO EXPLAIN THE WASSERMAN FOUNDATION GRANT and make it sound like a good idea; it wasn't easy. I had to try to do the same thing on Friday to District outsiders. $4 million over two years to a school district with 664,233 kids comes down to $3.01 per child a year. Never mind that it pits classroom against classroom and requires online-connected parents and/or Starbucks patrons to work. | http://t.co/k5DqGJW6

The Wasserman Foundation effort and the Fund for LA Schools – and tuition hikes and parcel taxes are well-meant band-aids and bake sales. California must come to terms with the fact that we don't need First Aid; we need Triage, Surgery, Treatment and Rehabilitation. (Our friends in ®eform have skipped directly to rehab.) Our education (and state government) revenue+funding system is totally broken and we are trying to repair it with duct tape. Yes - we have to do these quick fixes – but none addresses the Prop 13 meets Prop 98 meets the economic roller-coaster/boom+bust aspect of sales, income, property and business taxes+fees …as the ball of used duct tape grows and grows.

If it was otherwise The Lottery would have solved the problem.

¡Onward/Adelante! - smf


CALIFORNIA FACES $13.5 BILLION DEFICIT, FACES MIDYEAR CUTS
By JUDY LIN - The Associated Press from Business Week | http://buswk.co/tZdsPV

November 16, 2011, 5:23PM ET - SACRAMENTO, Calif. | California faces $2 billion in automatic spending cuts at the first of the year that will reduce funding for public schools, higher education and a range of state services, according to a nonpartisan fiscal analysis released Wednesday.

The bleak assessment by the state's Legislative Analyst's Office warns of declining tax revenue and a rocky statewide economic outlook that will lead to budget shortfalls for years to come.

Democratic lawmakers and Gov. Jerry Brown had hoped for a $4 billion increase in tax revenue through the current fiscal year when they passed the state budget last summer. The analysis released Wednesday said revenue from the three main sources -- income, sales and corporate taxes -- actually will run $3 billion lower than state expenses through the remainder of the fiscal year and is expected to be $10 billion less than the state needs in the fiscal year that will start July 1.

"Unfortunately, there are few easy options left for balancing California's budget," the legislative analyst wrote. "Difficult program reductions already have been passed, and significant one-time budget actions may be more elusive than in prior years."

California's general fund, its main checkbook for paying most state expenses, has dropped from $103 billion at the start of the recession in 2007 to $86 billion this year, a decline of more than 16 percent. Lawmakers have been making billions of dollars in cuts each year to cope with plunging tax revenue.

The coming year will provide more of the same, according to the analysis released Wednesday.

The current budget was based on a combination of spending cuts, fee hikes and projections of higher tax revenue in the months ahead. Republican lawmakers, who opposed tax increases, had warned that the revenue projections were overly optimistic.

"The Legislative Analyst's Office report indicates, as predicted, that the budget passed by Democrats with only a majority vote was overly optimistic and based on shaky assumptions," Assemblyman Jim Nielsen, vice chairman of the Assembly Budget Committee, said in a statement.

He also noted that state spending is projected to increase by 12 percent in the fiscal year that will start July 1.

"It indicates that a lot more needs to be done to get California's budget under control, and that does not happen through tax increases," he said.

The analyst's report was one of two revenue projections called for in the state budget. The next will be released Dec. 15 by the governor's Department of Finance. The automatic spending cuts -- referred to as "trigger cuts" in the Capitol -- will be based on whichever report contains the higher revenue projections.

The analyst projected that revenue in the current fiscal year will fall $3.7 billion below the $88.4 billion the governor and state lawmakers had desired. Provisions in the budget mean that shortfall will translate into $2 billion of automatic cuts in the weeks ahead.

The cuts to be implemented after the first of the year include $100 million each to the University of California, California State University, developmental services and in-home support for seniors and the disabled. Community college fees would increase $10 per unit, and reductions would be made for child care assistance, library grants and prisons, among other programs.

Because revenue is projected to fall short by more than $2 billion, the state would cut public school funding, an amount that will have to be determined by Brown's finance director. The state could allow school districts to reduce the school year by up to seven days, from 175 to 168. California had 180 school days before the recession hit.

The legislative analyst's report said the actual amount of spending to be cut because of the lower revenue projections will be determined by the Department of Finance. The report assumes that the automatic cuts will remain in place for the foreseeable future.

The trigger cuts do not require further action by the Legislature. But shortly after the report was issued, some Democratic lawmakers issued statements suggesting the trigger cuts were not inevitable, even though they are mandated by the state budget approved just months ago.

"Today's announcement by the LAO is indicative, but not determinative of the final decision on whether the budget triggers will be pulled next month and we must wait until the Department of Finance December forecast, which will have up to date information and certainly may alter the trigger calculation to lessen the level of trigger cuts," Assembly Speaker John Perez, D-Los Angeles, said in a statement.

State Sen. Ellen Corbett, D-San Leandro, said she was troubled by the prospect of more cuts to schools and colleges, and said the governor and Legislature should "do everything we can, to prevent mid-year cuts."

School and university officials have been paying especially close attention to monthly revenue projections because the trigger cuts will affect them and their students the most. About 40 percent of state funding goes to K-12 schools, and that funding has been cut each year since 2008. The loss of one-time federal stimulus money also resulted in thousands of additional layoffs this year.

The analyst's report noted that K-12 schools actually are due more money in the fiscal year that begins on July 1: Payments under Proposition 98, the state's minimum funding guarantee for schools, are supposed to rise by $6 billion; and the state must repay schools $2 billion that it took from local property taxes to balance the budget in 2009.

Cuts will have to be made elsewhere in the budget if the state makes good on those funding commitments for schools.

On Wednesday, California State University trustees voted to increase annual undergraduate tuition to 9 percent, $5,472 to $5,970. The system has more than 400,000 students.

If approved, the tuition hike would take effect if the CSU fails to get an additional $138 million it wants from the state.

Although the state has faced larger deficits in the past, the analyst cautioned that it will get harder for Brown and lawmakers to bridge budget gaps because many easy and one-time fixes have already been enacted. The analyst assumed no inflation increases for many state programs and put off dealing with long-term obligations such as retirement liabilities for public workers.

California and the nation are recovering from the longest and most severe economic downturn since the Great Depression. California's unemployment rate -- under 5 percent as recently as 2006 -- has remained above 11 percent for more than two years.

Although the legislative analyst said a double-dip recession was not likely, it did downgrade its forecast for employment growth and housing permits. It projects California's jobless rate will remain above 10 percent through the middle of 2014 and above 8 percent through 2017.


CHARTER SCHOOLS IMPRESS HALF OF CALIFORNIA VOTERS BUT 64% FAVOR MORE INVESTMENT IN TRADITIONAL SCHOOLS + Poll results + smf’s 2¢
___________________________

●● smf's 2¢ :

● Polls do not reveal the facts, the truth or reality – they reveal the polled population's perceptions of those things.
● Polling, even so-called Scientific Polling, is selective statistical analysis.
● Using enhanced interrogation techniques the data will admit anything.
● "Figures often beguile me," Mark Twain wrote in Chapters from my Autobiography (1904). "Particularly when I have the arranging of them myself; in which case the remark attributed to Disraeli would often apply with justice and force: 'There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics'." [As Disraeli said or wrote no such thing let’s attribute it to Twain]

I am not going to do the research now, but what exactly are the roles of the named entities in “a poll by USC Dornsife School of College and Letters, Arts and Sciences and The Los Angeles Times” and “a poll conducted Greenberg Quinlan Rosner, a Democratic Firm, and American Viewpoint, a Republican firm”?

___________________________

IN THE USC DORNSIFE/LOS ANGELES TIMES POLL, 52% OF RESPONDENTS HAD A FAVORABLE OPINION OF CHARTER SCHOOLS. BUT VOTERS OVERALL OPPOSED SUPPORTING CHARTERS AT THE EXPENSE OF RESOURCES FOR TRADITIONAL SCHOOLS.

By Howard Blume, Los Angeles Times | http://lat.ms/sxxxeb

November 18, 2011 - Charter schools have won over about half of California voters, but these independent, non-traditional public schools are not widely viewed as the solution to the state's education problems, according to a new poll.

Among those surveyed in the USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times poll, 52% had a favorable opinion about charters; only 12% had an unfavorable impression.

Asked whether charter schools or traditional schools provided a better education, 48% gave superior marks to charters; 24% considered traditional schools more effective.

"As people learn more about what charter schools are, they tend to like the idea of choice," said USC professor Priscilla Wohlstetter, who directs the university's Center on Educational Governance.

The charter model appealed to Latino parents in particular. Overall, 52% of parents — those who have a child or grandchild age 18 or under living at home — said they would consider enrolling their children in a charter, compared to 38% who said they would not. Among Latino parents, 56% were in favor and 30% disinclined. More than half the state's public school students are Latino.

Christopher Gonzales, a construction worker in San Jose, has three nieces in charter schools and a relative who works for one.

"There's more room for innovation and attacking a problem and thinking about it differently by going outside the traditional established schools," Gonzales said. "Charter schools can be bad too, but I think they have more potential for a better education."

Charters serve about 6% of California students, and some respondents said they skipped the charter-school questions because their knowledge of them was limited.

California has more than 900 charters, the most of any state. They are free from many regulations governing traditional public schools and at most of them, teachers and administrators are not unionized, as they are in other public schools.

Many teacher union leaders and other critics have worried that charters siphon public funds, philanthropy and the better students from traditional public schools.

But those fears have not permeated popular opinion, the poll found, especially among many who are familiar with charter schools. They include Jepal Mangum, 40, a Riverside parent who sent two children to a charter.

"I was really happy with the school," said Mangum, an African American independent voter who said she leans Democratic and supports unions. She liked the small classes and the personal relationship with teachers, two instructors in particular who shaped her children's "study habits and their outlooks on life. I believe the school really worked."

Among the largest ethnic groups, African American respondents expressed the most support for charter schools. A number of charters have an overwhelmingly black enrollment, but some critics have expressed concern about charters leading to re-segregation.

Voters overall opposed supporting charters at the expense of resources for traditional schools, said Stanley B. Greenberg, chief executive of Greenberg Quinlan Rosner, a Democratic firm that co-directed the bipartisan poll.

Far more people favored increasing funding for traditional schools over the strategy of creating more charters, by a 64%-21% tally. Nor are voters inclined to hand over low-performing public schools to outside operators, including those that run charters.

Only 32% said schooling would improve if low-performing campuses were assigned to "qualified, licensed, for-profit companies." The number rises to 37% for nonprofits. Nearly all California charters are organized as nonprofits.

"Most nonprofit organizations that are running schools or have ever run schools have some end game in mind," said Betsy Hillig, 63, a registered Democrat who lives in Lakewood. "I have not met a nonprofit entity that just wants to teach kids."

For-profit corporations "are even more horrible. They're in it for the money," said Hillig, a retired teacher with two grandchildren in traditional public schools and one in a parochial school.

In California, as elsewhere, charters represented a compromise: Conservative Republicans and some public school critics had previously pushed to let students attend private schools with government-funded vouchers for tuition, but California voters rejected that approach. Charters offered a different kind of choice — namely, public schools that are not run by the local school district.

"There's acceptance for charter schools," said Linda DiVall, the chief executive of American Viewpoint, the Republican polling firm that co-directed the survey.

Bill Teller, an 80-year-old registered Republican from north of Lake Tahoe who is married to a retired teacher, offered general support for these schools.

"Charters are a step in the right direction," he said. But he would go further: "I would disband the current system entirely and put it all on a voucher system."

The survey, conducted for the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences and The Los AngelesTimes, questioned 1,500 registered California voters Oct. 30 through Nov. 9. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 2.52 percentage points.

___________________________

P O L L :: MAJORITY OF CA VOTERS FAVOR INCREASING TAXES TO FUND PUBLIC SCHOOLS: CALIFORNIANS GIVE LOW GRADES TO STATE PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM, HIGH MARKS TO THEIR NEIGHBORHOOD SCHOOLS.

USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times Press Release http://bit.ly/sm4WQd

LOS ANGELES — November 19, 2011 — A large majority of California voters would support an increase in their own taxes in order to increase funding for public schools, according to the latest USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences/Los Angeles Times Poll.

The USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times Poll is the largest poll of registered voters in California. The latest poll was conducted Oct. 30 - Nov. 9, 2011, and surveyed 1,500 registered voters in California. The margin of error for the overall sample is +/- 2.52 percentage points.

California currently ranks 42 out of 50 states in funding per student. When provided with this information, 61 percent of voters said they’d favor increasing funding for California’s public schools — even if it means an increase in their own taxes — and 38 percent favored it strongly. Of all voters, 34 percent opposed increasing funding for public schools if it meant paying higher taxes.

But even when not told about California’s relatively low amount of per-student funding, Californian voters still support more money for public schools: overall, 64 percent of voters favor increasing funds for public schools despite the possibility of a tax increase, including 63 percent of White voters, 68 percent of Latino voters, 65 percent of Asian American voters and 72 percent of Black voters.

"These results reinforce what we've learned when local governments put tax or bond measures on the ballot," said Dan Schnur, director of the USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times Poll and director of the Unruh Institute of Politics at USC. "Voters are willing to spend more money if they know that money is going to be used in their local schools or communities. They become more reluctant to vote for these measures when they think the money is going to Sacramento."

Registered Republican voters were the most split on whether to increase funding for public schools if it meant the possibility of higher taxes, and parents were most strongly in favor. Among Republican voters, 53 percent oppose increasing funding for public schools if it could mean paying higher taxes, and 44 percent of Republicans support it.

Overall, 32 percent of Californians oppose increasing public school funding if it meant personally paying more taxes. Among Democratic voters, 74 percent support school funding even in the face of higher taxes, and 20 percent are opposed. Among voters registered “Decline to State,” 71 percent of voters favor more money for schools even with possible tax increases, and 25 percent oppose it.

Among parents and grandparents with a child in the household under 18 years old, 74 percent favor more public school funding, even if it could mean personally paying more taxes, and 24 percent oppose.

[video] Public Schools: Dan Schnur, director of the Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics, and Michael Finnegan, reporter for the Los Angeles Times, discuss how Californians feel public schools.

CA VOTERS: PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM GETTING WORSE, BUT HIGH MARKS FOR LOCAL SCHOOLS

The wide support for increases in funding for public schools reflect voter sentiment that schools in California are in “bad shape” and “getting worse.” A majority of voters – 57 percent – say public schools are in bad shape, including 55 percent of parents or grandparents raising a child under 18. Thirty-three percent of all voters surveyed say public school are in good shape, according to the USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times Poll.

Overall, 53 percent of California voters say public schools are getting worse, compared to 37 percent who believe schools are improving.

Californians gave middling grades to public schools, with 41 percent giving public schools a “C.” Twenty-seven percent of voters gave public schools a grade of “A” or “B,” and 26 percent of voters gave schools a “D” or “F.”

Yet when asked about schools in their own neighborhood, voters were much more positive. Sixty-four percent of parents or grandparents raising a child under 18 said their child’s school was doing an excellent or good job preparing their child for college. Thirty-one percent said their child’s school was not doing a good job with college preparation.

Overall, 55 percent of voters gave public schools in their own neighborhood high marks with a grade of “A” or “B.” Twenty percent gave their neighborhood public school a “C,” and 10 percent gave local public schools a “D” or “F” grade.

“Everybody has a tendency to think schools are better in their own area. But what’s interesting to me is the large percentage that say we need to raise taxes to improve the quality of education . . . there’s a mythology of the public school system, that we have to improve the public school system,” said Linda DiVall, president of American Viewpoint, the Republican polling firm that conducted the USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times Poll in partnership with Democratic polling firm Greenberg Quinlan Rosner. “Given the state of the economy, I was pretty impressed with the strong desire to increase taxes to pay for better quality education.”

“Across party lines and ideologies in tough times to favor raising taxes on yourself is impressive, which is why I think “tipping point” might be the right characterization of [these results],” said Stanley Greenberg, president of Greenberg Quinlan Rosner. “These are not just poll numbers; we’re seeing this reflected in real life. Voters know their schools are in trouble, they know they’re getting worse, and parents know more so than the public overall.”

By the largest percentage, voters blamed lack of parental involvement for public school woes in California. About 86 percent said shortage of parental involvement has contributed to problems in public schools, compared to 62 percent who blamed teacher’s unions or 54 percent who blame for-profit corporations, including those that operate charter schools.

Seventy-five percent of voters said funding shortages for public schools deserve blame; 71 percent blamed social and economic differences that prevent students from many areas from having access to high-quality schools.

[video] Charter Schools: Dan Schnur, director of the Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics, and Howard Blume, reporter for the Los Angeles Times, discuss how Californians feel about charter schools.

Overall, a majority of parents had positive impressions of charter schools, saying they would consider enrolling their child in a charter school, with 52 percent of parents saying charter schools were an option, and 38 percent saying they would not consider charter schools for their child.

But voters thought funds should be directed at traditional public schools rather than creating new charter campuses, with 64 percent favoring investments in traditional public schools over charter schools. Twenty-one percent supported opening more charter schools instead of spending additional funds on public schools.

Forty-eight percent of voters said charter schools, which are independently run public schools, provide a higher-quality public education than traditional public schools, and 24 percent said traditional public schools provide a higher-quality public education than charter schools.

A majority of voters support a proposal mirroring the "Parent Trigger" law passed by the state Board of Education in July 2011. The proposal would allow a majority vote of parents at low-performing schools to petition for changes including closing the school, turning it into a charter, or new staff, programs and administration. Fifty-two percent of Californians overall support a "Parent Trigger"-like proposal and 35 percent opposed. Among parents, 59 percent of parents support the proposal, and 33 percent oppose it.

[video] Higher Education: Dan Schnur, director of the Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics, and Howard Blume, reporter for the Los Angeles Times, discuss how Californians feel about higher education.

VOTERS POLARIZED ON THE CA DREAM ACT

White voters and Latino voters in California were widely split on the California Dream Act, signed by Governor Jerry Brown into law in October 2011.

The California Dream Act allows non-legal residents who graduated from California high schools to be eligible for government financial aid at the state’s public universities.

By a double-digit margin, California voters oppose college financial aid for non-legal high school graduates, with 55 percent opposed and 40 percent support. Two out of three white voters (66 percent) oppose the California Dream Act, and 30 percent support it. In sharp contrast, among Latinos in California, 79 percent of voters support the Dream Act, and 16 percent oppose it.

"Californians have indicated their willingness to provide some government services to illegal immigrants in our past polls, but they are not yet convinced that government-funded financial aid for college students should be one of those services", said Schnur, director of the USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times Poll. "Not surprisingly, this is the type of issue that splits Californians demographically. While there doesn't appear to be the same level of emotional intensity on this as we've seen on related matters in the past, the state's voters are still a long way from agreement in this debate."

California enrolls about 10 percent of the nation’s students attending public four-year colleges, and Californians are split about whether these public higher education institutions are affordable. Forty-one percent of voters say universities in the University of California system and the California State University system are affordable, and 49 percent say the universities are not affordable.

"On affordability, it looks to me like the widespread news about tuition and fee increases is really hitting home," said Dominic Brewer, Clifford H. and Betty C. Allen Professor in Urban Leadership and professor of education, economics and policy at the USC Rossier School of Education. "So while relative to other states, California's higher education institutions still have modest tuition levels, the steep increases recently have impacted perceptions of cost. Also, of course, affordability is relative to our own economic situation, and many families are hurting, making tuition expenses seem even more out of reach."

Among parents, a majority — 53 percent — say public universities are not affordable, and 39 percent say they are very or somewhat affordable.

The USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times Poll was conducted Oct. 30 – Nov. 9, 2011, and surveyed 1,500 registered voters in California. The poll includes a significant oversample of Latino voters, interviewed in both Spanish and English. The margin of error for the overall sample is +/- 2.52 percentage points. For poll methodology visit http://gqrr.com/index.php?ID=2683.

More results from the USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times Poll, including findings about voter opinions on teacher pay, California public schools, and the CA Dream Act, will be made available in the coming days on the USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times Poll website, dornsife.usc.edu/poll, and in the Los Angeles Times.


TO VIEW THE VIDEO CLIPS GO HERE



TEACHERS WHO JUST DON’T CARE

by Karin Klein of the LA Times Editorial Board in the Opinion LA blog | http://bit.ly/urFmAx

November 18, 2011 | 9:53 am - We can talk all day about test scores and what they tell, do, or don't tell us about the worth of a teacher, but most parents know the good and bad teachers on campus from a mile away. I was reminded of that at Thursday night's meeting of the school board at the Santa Monica-Malibu School District, which was mostly about whether the donations of parents at the rich schools in Malibu should be put in a central pot for use by students at all the district schools -- more coming on that next week.

But one mother spoke on a very different topic. It seems her Santa Monica school had instituted a new system that informed parents about their children's ongoing grades as well as their homework and other assignments, but that some teachers weren't posting the assignments. This mom wanted to make sure her sons were doing their schoolwork.

When she contacted the teachers, most were great about adding the assignments, but about one-fifth told her that the union contract didn't require them to do that and so they weren't going to extend to her what they considered to be a "courtesy," not a necessity.

Of course, I don't know what the teacher contract says, and maybe these teachers didn't either. But there's no reason to doubt this frustrated woman's word.

Often, teachers write to The Times about reform by complaining that they are being held accountable for the failures of uninvolved parents. To some extent, that's true. But it's too easy for union supporters to avoid talking about truly awful teachers -- including the teachers who just don't care. Here's a woman who wants to be involved in a very direct way, helping the teachers by making sure her children do their part in the educational process.

The superintendent promised to look into it, and I'll be interested in hearing the results. If this mother's story is true, though, it's a perfect illustration of why the public is so fed up with teachers' unions and with uncaring teachers who go through the motions. For many parents, it's not all that important how much teachers improve their students' scores on a standardized test that the kids take once a year. What's most important is whether teachers care, whether they interpret information in ways that helped children learn and think, and in this case, whether they bother to do their jobs. From my perspective, any teacher who isn't willing to follow a school's policy by giving parents the information they need to do their job should be fired.


COMMUNITY CELEBRATES RIBBON-CUTTING AT SONIA SOTOMAYOR LEARNING ACADEMY
POLITICIANS AND EDUCATORS WERE ON HAND TO DEDICATED THE RECENTLY OPENED HIGH SCHOOL

By David Fonseca Echo Park Patch | http://bit.ly/rCYlsE

November 18, 2011 - Flanked by community members, students and politicians, local Board of Education member Bennett Kayser and former State Assembly, School Board and City Council Member Jackie Goldberg officially dedicated the recently opened Sonia Sotomayor Learning Academy in Cypress Park on Friday afternoon by cutting a big red ribbon.

Friday's ribbon-cutting ceremony was an affair worthy of the long battle fought by community members and politicians to build the state of the art campus on the former Taylor Yard grounds, complete with performances by the school's performance band and orchestra and the reading of a personal letter from the school's namesake to its students.

Parent Georgina Clink read the letter from Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, which urged students to make the most of the opportunities available to them at the new campus.

"My accomplishments are a direct product of the extraordinary education I received," read the letter from the Bronx,NY, native, born to the Puerto Rican immigrants. "Reading opens the universe to you and learning expands your horizons beyond your imagination. For these reasons, having your campus named after me is deeply touching and moving."

State Senator Kevin de Leon (D-Los Angeles) told the students it was a great opportunity to go to a school named after the justice.

"You shouldn't take that lightly," he said. "This is a great facility, unlike any I've ever attended. But that's not what matters. What matters is what you can make happen in the classroom with the help of your extraordinary teachers."

Los Angeles City Council Member Ed Reyes also urged the students to thrive. He told the students that though they had the fortune to attend a brand new, state of the art high school, they would also face challenges.

"Teachers are not being paid what they deserve, schools' budgets are being cut back, all that's left is you--your heart, your soul and your commitment to what's right," Reyes told the students.

Many of the speakers on Friday told the students that the community effort it took to build the school should serve as a model of dedication to students.

"This area was a brownfield, and the community had few places to go to build new schools," Reyes said. "The state wanted to make this area into a Caltrans facility, but the community stood up and said 'no.'"

Reyes also called for a round of applause for Goldberg, who in her various elected roles urged the city to listen to the community's calls for a new school on the property.

Sotomayor--which comprises three pilot schools and two charter schools--will draw students from Benjamin Franklin High School, Eagle Rock High School and John Marshall High School, helping to alleviate overcrowding at all three schools.

Among the students to speak on Friday was junior Kimberly Campos, who transferred to Sotomayor from John Marshall.

A former captain of the Marshall swim team, Campos said making the switch to Sotomayor was difficult, at first. She feared she would miss her friends and the confidence she received from competing in athletics. However, when an opportunity to transfer back to Marshall arose, she declined.

"I wanted to stay and be among the students who would set standard at Sotomayor," she said.

________

● text of smf’s remarks at the ribbon cutting:

The work we've done together on the Bond Oversight Committee has always been about protecting the voters and taxpayers – making sure what you voted for – what we voted for – and what we are paying for and will pay for for a long time to come - comes to pass.

The voters voted for neighborhood schools. They voted to end involuntary busing. They voted to end the year 'round calendar. They voted for full day kindergarten in elementary schools. These things have almost totally come to pass.

We voted for these things for our children, for our neighborhoods, for our community.

Never has a community been more involved and more engaged in the process than here at this campus. We were there when folks drew a large circle on a map and said we needed a new school here In the Northeast – to relieve overcrowding at Eagle Rock, Franklin and Marshall. Franklin and Marshall were Year 'Round; Eagle Rock was busing their young people away.

This community identified that the school should probably be here in Taylor Yard. And some of us met in the Denny's down the street with the owners of this property to begin the discussion. Did we overreach? Did we go too far? Were we being pushy?

Yes, Yes, and Yes.

"Never underestimate the power of a dedicated few to change the world," Margaret Mead said. "They are the only ones who ever do."

We took our discussion to the District and we began to make it happen. Did we get everything we wanted?

No.

Was it hard? Were there obstacles? Did we face opposition and intransigence and greed and resistance? Yes, Yes, Yes, and Yes.

Some of the delay and opposition and angst was honest and well reasoned – some were not.

Did we win?

No. But we dared.

You won. Everybody won. The young people at this school today and generations to follow will win. They will connect with each other and with their potentials and they will overreach and go too far and push the edges of the envelope as far as it will stretch …and then a little father. They will dream the unimaginable and dare to make it happen.

When I started this journey I wanted my daughter at Mount Washington Elementary to attend this school. This June she graduates from college – because she wouldn't wait.

Don't be afraid to go too far and meet with those who stand in your way and bring them together with you to today. Dare to draw your designs on the placemat. You'll make friends along the way. You'll make a difference. And you'll change the world.

Change is not a spectator sport. It's a team sport, played with different levels of skill and involvement by all of us here – and by our friends and neighbors who aren’t here.

Change is not an outcome, it's a process.

Like life, it's an adventure.

We wanted a high school here. And we wanted a community college. One down and one to go.

So Ladies and Gentlemen, Boys and Girls: Dare to dream.

And thank you.


HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T FIT: The Rest (but not neccessariily the best) of the Stories from Other Sources
Briefly: EVERYONE AT THE TIMES JUMPS IN TO DECONSTRUCT EDUCATION POLL: the poll results + smf’s 2c: http://bit.ly/sMDtpL

PAYING FOR “FREE” PUBLIC EDUCATION: Charging the students + Charging the property owners: Two weeks of Themes in... http://bit.ly/tkW0iS

TRYING TO FIND THE ANSWERS TO AN ‘INEXPLICABLE’ ACT – a follow on to ‘Vigilance Is Powerful for Parents of Teenagers'... http://t.co/rG2ZojwR

No budget/No clue: The Return of ‘A State without a Budget, A government without a Clue’: BIG MIDYEAR HIT FOR PR... http://bit.ly/vpvtPq

HIGHLAND PARK PARENTS WEIGH-IN ON SCHOOL FOOD / PADRES DE HIGHLAND PARK DAN SU APROBACIÓN A LA COMIDA ESCOLAR: B... http://bit.ly/tGHy36

The Return of ‘A State without a Budget, A government without a Clue’: BIG MIDYEAR HIT FOR PROP 98 LIKELY + DEEP... http://bit.ly/tRDhwI

Anticipated $4 billion revenue ‘bump’ falls $3.7 billion short: LEGISLATIVE ANALYST FORECASTS “TRIGGER” CUTS FOR... http://bit.ly/t3ID17

CITY OF L.A. SETTLES LAWSUIT CLAIMING CONTAMINATION OF HIGH SCHOOL SITE: by David Zahniser LA Times/LA Now | htt... http://bit.ly/rGh46c

MICROSOFT IS TAKING OVER U.S. DEPT OF ED CAMPAIGN TO RECRUIT NEW TEACHERS INTO THE PROFESSION: Microsoft wins TE... http://bit.ly/s6sWXK

4LAKids TWEET O' TH' WEEK:
DrDeasyLAUSD
John Deasy: I think UTLA and LAUSD are on the verge of historic contract. Thanks UTLA for the amazing progress. Stay tuned and keep fingers crossed

$4 MILLION WASSERMAN FOUNDATION GRANT: “The catch is ….”: ●●smf's 2¢: Gift-card microphilanthropy. desperately n... http://bit.ly/sXyx2u

VIGILANCE IS POWERFUL FOR PARENTS OF TEENAGERS + ASNLYNN CONNER: A LESSON FROM CHICAGO: Vigilance is powerful fo... http://bit.ly/vB4aQT

WASHINGTON PREP & WOODCREST ELEMENTARY REMOVED FROM PUBLIC SCHOOL CHOICE 3.0: e-mail: On behalf of the Public Sc... http://bit.ly/u4caQG

COMPARE+CONTRAST/CONNECT THE DOTS: Walton+KIPP • • • WalMart+MALDEF: Walton Family Foundation Invests $25m in KI... http://bit.ly/vTxi6s

An old story/Another billionaire for the Boys Club: RUPERT MURDOCH HECKLED AT CALIF. EDUCATION FORUM: The Associ... http://bit.ly/rBdE83


EVENTS: Coming up next week...


*Dates and times subject to change. ________________________________________
• SCHOOL CONSTRUCTION BOND OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE:
http://www.laschools.org/bond/
Phone: 213-241-5183
____________________________________________________
• LAUSD FACILITIES COMMUNITY OUTREACH CALENDAR:
http://www.laschools.org/happenings/
Phone: 213-241.8700


• LAUSD BOARD OF EDUCATION & COMMITTEES MEETING CALENDAR



What can YOU do?
• E-mail, call or write your school board member:
Tamar.Galatzan@lausd.net • 213-241-6386
Monica.Garcia@lausd.net • 213-241-6180
Bennett.Kayser@lausd.net • 213-241-5555
Marguerite.LaMotte@lausd.net • 213-241-6382
Nury.Martinez@lausd.net • 213-241-6388
Richard.Vladovic@lausd.net • 213-241-6385
Steve.Zimmer@lausd.net • 213-241-6387
...or your city councilperson, mayor, the governor, member of congress, senator - or the president. Tell them what you really think! • Find your state legislator based on your home address. Just go to: http://bit.ly/dqFdq2 • There are 26 mayors and five county supervisors representing jurisdictions within LAUSD, the mayor of LA can be reached at mayor@lacity.org • 213.978.0600
• Call or e-mail Governor Brown: 213-897-0322 e-mail: http://www.govmail.ca.gov/
• Open the dialogue. Write a letter to the editor. Circulate these thoughts. Talk to the principal and teachers at your local school.
• Speak with your friends, neighbors and coworkers. Stay on top of education issues. Don't take my word for it!
• Get involved at your neighborhood school. Join your PTA. Serve on a School Site Council. Be there for a child.
• If you are eligible to become a citizen, BECOME ONE.
• If you a a citizen, REGISTER TO VOTE.
• If you are registered, VOTE LIKE THE FUTURE DEPENDS ON IT. THEY DO!.


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




Scott Folsom is a parent leader in LAUSD and is Parent/Volunteer of the Year for 2010-11 for Los Angeles County. • He is Past President of Los Angeles Tenth District PTSA and represented PTA on the LAUSD Construction Bond Citizen's Oversight Committee for ten years. He is a Health Commissioner, Legislation Team member and a member of the Board of Managers of the California State PTA. He serves on numerous school district advisory and policy committees and has served as a PTA officer and governance council member at three LAUSD schools. He is the recipient of the UTLA/AFT 2009 "WHO" Gold Award for his support of education and public schools - an honor he hopes to someday deserve. • In this forum his opinions are his own and your opinions and feedback are invited. Quoted and/or cited content copyright © the original author and/or publisher. All other material copyright © 4LAKids.
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