Sunday, April 24, 2016

So 400 years ago



4LAKids: Sunday 1•Jan•2016
In This Issue:
 •  Robles-Wong v. CA: CALIFORNIA APPEALS COURT REJECTS CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT TO A QUALITY EDUCATION
 •  L.A. UNIFIED MAGNETS ACCEPTED LESS THAN HALF OF APPLICANTS THIS YEAR
 •  MASSIVE LOSS OF PRESCHOOL SEATS LOOMS FOR LA COUNTY
 •  POLL: VOTERS SUPPORT SCHOOL BOND AND PROP. 30 EXTENSION
 •  HOW O.C. PARENTS LAID THE GROUNDWORK FOR SCHOOL DESEGREGATION IN THE U.S.
 •  EVENTS: Coming up next week...
 •  What can YOU do?


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The royal coincidence of the death of Prince and the 90th birthday of HM The Queen cannot go unremarked upon.

Neither can the 400th anniversary of the seeming simultaneity of the deaths of William Shakespeare and Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra on April 23, 2016.

Cervantes was the father of the novel, Shakespeare the father of the modern English language as an art form.

(OK, technically April 23, 1616 in Madrid was ten days apart from that same date in Stratford-upon-Avon due to differences in the Julian and Gregorian calendars; but differences between legend and fact are always decided in legend’s favor.)
“When life itself seems lunatic, who knows where madness lies? Perhaps to be too practical is madness. To surrender dreams — this may be madness. Too much sanity may be madness — and maddest of all: to see life as it is, and not as it should be!” ― Cervantes, Don Quixote

“Goodnight sweet Prince. And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.”/“I only wanted to see you laughing in the purple rain.”

__________

LAST FRIDAY I was invited to address the LAUSD Local Control Accountability Plan (LCAP) Parent Advisory Committee (PAC); those parents elected and appointed to represent parents and advise the Board of Education on the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) – also known as the District’s 2016-17 Budget.

Here is what I said:


I have been struggling with what I am going to say today. The other day I was folding laundry, thinking this over. I assure you, no matter what ones health is – how good or how dire – the laundry doesn’t fold itself.

Thank you to the PAC for inviting me.

Thank you all for listening to me.

I want to especially thank Rowena Lagrosa for letting me and empowering me to speak. Rowena and I go back quite a while; she was the director at Mt Washington School where I first practiced my parent activism… and she actually encouraged me to expand my vision+disruptive efforts to the bigger district.

Rowena got me appointed to the Central District Algebra Textbook Selection Committee as the sole parent rep – a job for which I was strangely+uniquely qualified… because in high school I took Algebra I three times!


The topic assigned me today: “Effective and Constructive Parent Engagement on the LCAP: Present and Future” is quite a mouthful and quite a topic. There’s plenty of water under that bridge, present, past and future.

I am an old guy, invited to share an historical perspective – and none of the history is all that good.


Parent Engagement and Parent Involvement are like a bacon-and-egg breakfast:
• The Chicken is involved.
• The Pig is engaged.


LAUSD says a great deal and indeed says great things about parent+community involvement+engagement.

It creates great policy. It fills binders with it. It fills shelves with the binders. (Dr. V – Schoolboard member Richard Vladovic has said – and I have oft repeated: “Nobody fills binders with policy and shelves with dusty binders better than LAUSD!”

It delivers not so well – not through lack of trying – but through lack of follow through. Compliance+Commitment are opposite ends of a broad spectrum.

And when the money gets tight – parent and community services get cut.

And when the leadership at the top lacks a commitment to involving and engaging parents and the community – the real community, not organizations with “community” in their name – the PCSB gets outsourced and rightsized and decentralized.

Once the PCSB was across the street from District HQ; now it it’s a couple a miles away. And the HQ building itself is unfriendly+unwelcoming to parents and all visitors. Parking is problematic at best. And if you are handicapped, forget about it.

Parent Community Involvement and Engagement hit a low under the superintendency of John Deasy and the PCSB chieftaincy of Maria Casillas. Parent groups were disbanded, especially if they were reticent to get with the program. Groups like PTA were ignored.

We parent leaders were disrespected.

Grass roots membership organizations were out of favor, an alphabet soup of AstroTurf single-issue organizations with agendas that agreed with the powers-that-be were favored.


We parents share a common experience. We all first cross that threshold with a small hand in our hand – we come to the school and the District bringing our greatest treasure.

We are met with chain link and a sign that threatens what will happen if we visit the premises without registering with the principal, citing board rules and the criminal code.

Where is the sign that says “Welcome Parents”?

When we come into the office were are greeted with “What Do You Want?” Rather than “How Can We Help You?”

The real question needs to be: “How Can We Help Each Other Help Kids?”

I am all for Parent Centers – but not if they are to be The Place Where Parents Belong.

We belong anywhere we can help. In the classroom. On the playground. Having conversations about our kids and all kids in the office and the staffroom and at the local district and at every floor of 333 S. Beaudry.

Of course, we parents are capable of being real pieces of work. I can be cranky – I have been what Superintendent Romer called a burr in the saddle. We as parents – and especially those of us who are leaders – need to practice some parenting skills – and that means encouraging the District when it does well. We cannot be a succession of three minute public speakers who criticize the district at every meeting …or that’s all we will ever be.


Which brings us to the LCFF, The LCAP and the work of the PAC – now and into the future.

The Local Control Funding Formula is a positive step …but it is NOT the much needed School Finance Reform California needs.

I am here as a representative of the California State PTA, of which I am a former Board of Director. I was Vice President of Health – perhaps because they didn’t have a V.P. of Falling Apart Healthwise.

Half the people on Beaudry think that I am the PTA. “This is Scott, he’s the PTA.” Half the people in California PTA think that I am LAUSD. These are not easy hats to wear; it ain’t easy being me.

We in state PTA, a membership organization with almost a million members – representing six million California schoolchildren – look upon LAUSD as the a ton gorilla in the room – or maybe the dead skunk in the middle of the road.

LAUSD is ten percent of California’s educational establishment. A tenth of the budget. A tenth of the effort. Easily 25% of the drama.

We in PTA, me in PTA, want the LCFF to succeed in LAUSD because if it doesn’t it sets a dangerous precedent and other districts might emulate LAUSD and we’re off the hell in that handbasket.

You in the LAUSD PAC: Our nation turns its lonely eyes to you.

The Parent Advisory Council you serve upon is a Deasy-era attempt at compliance with the LCFF.

From Dr. D’s viewpoint it was a minimal effort, one in which most of you have put your maximum effort – only to be initially rewarded with threats and intimidation.

I don’t think many of us doubt that the attempt was made for the District to Advise the PAC, not the other way around.

Over the past three years things have gotten better, though not good enough. Thank you for your insistence and perseverance and good work.

The whole world is watching. The job before you, in addition to weighing in and making some noise about the LCAP process AND this year’s budget outcome – is to establish a place for the next Parent Advisory Council to move forward from – and to ultimately succeed.

For the kids.

For the cosmically unfortunately named Unduplicated Pupil Count.
For Socioeconomically Disadvantaged Students.
For the English Language Learners.
For the Foster Kids.
For Every Child.

Ultimately you need to speak for all the children with one voice. Moving forward. Relentlessly Onward!

Thank you …and do good work!


_______


ON MONDAY EVENING I attended the annual meeting of the Hollywood High School Alumni Association, of which I am a member. It was a meeting full of adult conflict and insults: real+imagined. Governed not by Robert’s Rules of Order …but by Stanislavski’s Method …wherein as much drama as can possibly be inserted into the proceedings is, the motion is seconded, accusations of past felonies are repeated and lawsuits are threatened. Nobody asked my opinion and I shared it anyway, complicating the complications.

Bear in mind I am under doctor’s orders and prescription medication. When I am reasonable late-at-night it is me – when I am not so it is morphine.

“Trust in me
Just in me
Put all your trust in me
You're doin' morphine.”
- Michael Jackson – Blood on the Dance Floor/HIStory in the Mix


The HHSAA is a generally senior bunch re-living our past high school glories from a far remove; most have us have been getting the senior discount on our McCafe for a decade.


“(If you'd like to see it, I've been keeping a log of department meetings ranked according to level of trauma, with a 1 indicating mild contentiousness, a 3 signifying uncontrolled shouting, and a 5 leading to at least one nervous breakdown and/or immediate referral to the crisis center run by the Office of Mental Health.)”
― Julie Schumacher Dear Committee Members | http://bit.ly/1Nq0onc


At the meeting I was blessed to sit next to young alumna, a Hollywood High graduate from a year or two back. Before the meeting dissolved into name-calling and parliamentary chaos I had the good fortune to chat her up. She’s a Latina, a college student at a CSU on a pre-dentistry track, filled with hope and living the American Dream on a shoestring – thankful for the small scholarship the HHSAA bestows upon deserving graduates.

(The HHSAA does do good work, we just fight about it while doing it!)

She is a Dreamer - bilingual+biliterate - undocumented since her entry into this country as a toddler. Her parent’s status is complicated.

She is living the HHS motto - Achieving the Honorable - a precious gift from Mexico to this country and fie on those who would send her back!

(Dante reserves the Ninth Circle of Hell for those who betray trust and hosts who betray guests)


“Imagine a place so terrible, so absolutely destructive that you have no better option than to put your child in a tiny boat and travel across an entire sea in an attempt at escape. We’re so completely isolated from the true terror in this world that we can’t even relate to that level of devastation.”
— Summar Kawas on The New York Times’s Facebook page, responding to an article about Pulitzer Prize-winning photos of the migrant crisis in Europe. | http://nyti.ms/1qID61A

So it is.

¡Dream Onward/Sueño Adelante! - smf


Robles-Wong v. CA: CALIFORNIA APPEALS COURT REJECTS CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT TO A QUALITY EDUCATION
by Maura Walz | KPCC 89.3 | http://bit.ly/1T6oVdD

April 21 2016 :: A California appeals court has dealt another blow to education advocates arguing the state's system of funding schools is unconstitutional.

In a 2-1 decision issued Wednesday, justices upheld a lower court's decision to throw out the case, which is a consolidation of two lawsuits, Robles-Wong v. California and the Campaign for Fiscal Equity v. California. The plaintiffs in the case included high-profile education groups, including the California Parent-Teacher Association (PTA), the California Teachers Association and the state's associations of school board members and administrators.

Both lawsuits had argued California's state constitution gives students not just a right to access education but also a right to a "quality" education. They said the legislature has not given schools enough funding to make this level of quality possible.

But justices said the plaintiffs were reading too far into the constitution's language.

"Rather, the constitutional sections leave the difficult and policy-laden questions associated with educational adequacy and funding to the legislative branch," wrote Associate Justice Martin Jenkins in the majority opinion.

In a statement, the plaintiffs said they'll likely attempt to take their case to the state Supreme Court next.


Appeals Court Opinion



L.A. UNIFIED MAGNETS ACCEPTED LESS THAN HALF OF APPLICANTS THIS YEAR
By Sonali Kohli, LA Times | http://lat.ms/1MQZ7FH

April 22, 2016 :: Magnet schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District accepted fewer than half of students who applied for the 2016-17 school year.

The district received about 44,000 applications to attend magnets, which are themed schools that are open to all students, regardless of where they live. Magnets are among the only schools for which the district provides transportation, because they were created as a way to help desegregate the district.

The numbers come as L.A. Unified tries to keep students in traditional public schools and stem decreasing enrollment. The high interest in magnets shows that those types of schools could be a way to bring students back, school board member Richard Vladovic says. Many students have left the district for independent charter schools, which are publicly funded but can be privately run.

The district might be losing students who get waitlisted to charter schools or other districts, said Vladovic. “I’m absolutely convinced there is a flight of children," Vladovic said at a budget committee meeting Tuesday.

Currently, about 101,000 students attend independent charters in L.A. Unified, and around 542,400 attend traditional schools and affiliated charters. And there's an effort by advocates and philanthropists to pull half of L.A. Unified students into charters in the next eight years.

Because the demand is so much higher than the number of spots available, students gain admission to magnets through an intricate lottery system. Students can earn points for every year they apply to a magnet school and get rejected, and they get points for already attending a magnet school. For example, when applying for a middle school magnet, you get points for finishing fifth grade at an elementary magnet.

Some of the most in-demand schools get thousands of applications every year.

Not all the parents applying want their children to attend the following year—at least some apply to the most popular schools every year expecting to get wait listed, but that allows them to rack up points that will count in their favor when they apply to the school they want.

Schools receive funding on a per-pupil basis, so losing students to independent charters means losing thousands of dollars per student.

Expanding magnets might be a way to keep those students in L.A. Unified schools, Vladovic says. Students on magnet wait lists are "the most vulnerable to leave the district" because they're looking for options other than their neighborhood schools, he said in an interview after the Tuesday budget meeting.

The district did not immediately provide data on how many students who are rejected from magnets attend an L.A. Unified school the following year and how many leave the district. The Times has submitted a public records request for that information.

Magnet schools that share their campuses with neighborhood schools could use extra classrooms to whittle down their wait lists, Vladovic said.

"This isn't going to grow enrollment," Vladovic said. "It's going to stop the decline."

The district already expands magnets wherever there is room and demand, said Keith Abrahams, the head of student integration services. There are 146 magnets that share campuses, and 52 with their own campuses.

Some of the most popular magnet schools, though, don't have room to expand.

“We try to open up as many seats as possible every year," Abrahams said. “Our most oversubscribed magnets are full, dedicated magnets."

This fall, 16 new magnet programs will open with about 5,800 seats, and 14 schools will expand by one to three teachers, adding 515 spots.

The Academy for Enriched Sciences recently moved from sharing a campus with another elementary school in Woodland Hills to its own space in Encino, said Amy Petry, the school's magnet coordinator.

For 2016-17, the school, which opened in 2010, will add two kindergarten classes, Petry said.

“The reason we did expand is because parents were asking us," Petry said. "They were the ones kind of driving the decision.”


MASSIVE LOSS OF PRESCHOOL SEATS LOOMS FOR LA COUNTY
by Deepa Fernandes | KPCC 89.3 | http://bit.ly/1TrzJpg

April 19 2016 :: A new report estimates that the economic toll on Los Angeles County from the loss of
funding for thousands of preschool seats later this year will be almost $600 million annually.

► “MORE THAN JUST PRE-K: THE POSITIVE ECONOMIC IMPACT OF PRESCHOOL IN LOS ANGELES COUNTY” | http://bit.ly/1VvYMew

Funding for nearly 11,000 preschool seats is going to run out in June when Los Angeles Universal Preschool (LAUP) loses its backing from the public early years agency First 5 L.A. But the report, by the independent research organization the Institute for Child Success, looked at the impact beyond lost educational opportunities.

ICS included in its analysis the preschool seats that LAUSD announced last year would be ending this June through a program called the School Readiness Language Development Program (SRLDP).

“The cost of cutting high quality pre-K in Los Angeles county will exceed the program dollars saved,” said ICS executive vice president Joe Waters.

LAUP currently spends $59.1 million on preschool contracts that fund 11,000 seats. After the First 5 LA funding expires, LAUP's budget will drop from $93.5 million to $29.9 million.

LAUP commissioned (and partly funded) the ICS report to investigate the broader economic impacts of the loss of preschool seats. Joe Waters said LAUP only provided program data his researchers requested and had no editorial input into the reporting process.

The report’s findings, released Tuesday, examine three main areas where the act of a child attending preschool will trickle into the local economy and provide a boost.

It starts with the employment of teachers, aides, cooks and other staff at LAUP funded centers. The report calculates the money these childcare businesses and employees will spend and finds the loss of this purchasing power will be a hit to the local economy.

Secondly, the report calculates the money that will be lost because parents might no longer work due to the loss of their childcare option. This will also mean less buying power and less money spent in the local economy. “When [childcare] is unavailable parents are unable to go work or they have to piece together childcare arrangements, it becomes a great burden on working families and the consequence of that is reduced productivity and reduced economic activity in the broader community,” Waters said.

Finally, the report also calculated longer term economic impact based on researchers' belief that children missing preschool are less prepared for elementary school and may never really catch up, leaving them “unprepared for college or the labor market,” the report states.

“By 2020, two-thirds of U.S. jobs will require at least some post-secondary education," the report states. "But, at present, only 19 percent of L.A. County 11th graders are ready for English coursework at a California state college and only 13 percent are prepared for college coursework in math.” Without preschool, children may be even less successful in school leading to a future of low paying jobs, which also impacts economic activity and productivity.

The report also finds the impact of the cuts will have a disparate impact on women of color who make up the majority of workers in the childcare field impacted by the cuts. Childcare businesses, Waters said, “are often lead by women and started by women, and minority women at that.”

Waters said many of the women of color run centers have been successful because they provide a tailored “service that families need [and families] often want to seek out a center that speaks to them culturally and that’s part of their community.”

Advocates have lamented that losing so many preschool seats will also decimate the childcare infrastructure of the county. “This is not just about the economic impact,” Waters said, “it is also about the quality of the childcare infrastructure in L.A. County.”

Waters predicts workers will leave the childcare field if they can’t find work.

“It will be very difficult should replacement funding become available to move those workers back into childcare jobs a year or two down the road because they might not still necessarily be available in L.A. County," Waters said. "Then what we are left with is a very poor infrastructure should replacement funding become available and what remains will be of lower quality.”

As KPCC has reported, the terms of the First 5 L.A.’s funding to LAUP have been known for some years, and the First 5 L.A. Board reiterated last year that there would be no further renewal funding for the preschool seats.

Since then, LAUP executives and staff have been working with its network of preschool providers to find alternative funding, including support to apply directly for state funding, said LAUP's chief executive officer Celia Ayala.

State preschool contracts from the department of education are being announced and some of LAUP's providers have been selected to receive funding.

LAUP also began targeted work with local school districts and preschool providers to lobby for Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) dollars to be directed to early education slots. “The good news story is that for over 4,000 children we have found other sources of funding," Ayala said.

Yet she laments that thousands of seats will not be refunded come September. “It’s a sad sad day,” Ayala said, “when you have to think about taking apart something that is so wonderful and so beneficial especially to children.”


Here's a map of all of the preschools in L.A. County with LAUP contracts set to expire in June



POLL: VOTERS SUPPORT SCHOOL BOND AND PROP. 30 EXTENSION
By John Fensterwald | EdSource Today | http://bit.ly/1SXSWvZ

April 20, 2016 :: Since the low point of funding during the recession, Californians surveyed expressed increasing confidence that K-12 schools are preparing students for choices after graduation, although they indicated schools are doing a better job with readiness for college than the workforce.

Seven months before the November election, substantial majorities of likely California voters said they would support extending Proposition 30, the temporary income tax on the wealthiest state residents, and passing a proposed $9 billion school construction bond, according to a survey released Wednesday by the Public Policy Institute of California. ► http://bit.ly/1VMkBqH

PPIC’s 12th annual extensive poll on Californians’ view of K-12 education also revealed that majorities believe a teacher shortage is a big problem and funding for K-12 schools is too low. Among other findings:

• Expressing strong support for state-funded preschool, twice as many Californians said they favor directing a potential state budget surplus to fund preschool than to pay down the state debt;
• Most of those surveyed said their local schools are doing an excellent or good job of preparing students for college but they are very concerned that students in low-income areas are less likely to be ready for college.
• Californians are sharply divided over the Common Core, with slightly more adults supporting the new academic standards than opposing them.
• In almost every area of questioning, African-Americans were the most pessimistic ethnic and racial group when asked about the quality of schools and prospects for change.
• Overall support for how Gov. Jerry Brown has handled public schools has increased steadily since he took office, but his approval rating for education is still under 50 percent, and a quarter of adults say they don’t know enough to say.

Telephone interviews were conducted earlier this month with 1,703 adults in California, half on landlines and half on cell phones. The margin of error ranged from plus/minus 3.5 percent for all adults to plus/minus 7 percent for public school parents. Representative numbers of non-registered and registered voters, including those likely to vote, Democrats, Republicans and Independents and racial and ethnic minorities participated.

SCHOOL FUNDING

Funding for K-12 schools has increased sharply during the past three years, mirroring the state’s economic recovery after big cuts in funding during the recession. However, 60 percent of Californians said that there is not enough funding for their local schools. More women (69 percent) than men (53 percent) and Democrats (73 percent) than Republicans (42 percent) said that’s the case.

RELATED

Gov. Jerry Brown's proposed budget would raise K-12 per student spending to $9,571, about $200 above the pre-recession level – when adjusted for inflation.
Poll shows residents split on whether to extend tax increases

The percentage is actually higher this year than when the question was asked during the recession, noted Mark Baldassare, PPIC president and CEO. Now that there is more state revenue, Californians are pausing to think about how the money should be spent, including on schools, he said.

Two revenue options likely will be on the November ballot: Prop. 30 and a state construction bond. Among the subset of likely voters, 63 percent favor the bond and 32 percent oppose it, with 4 percent undecided. Among all adults, including non-registered voters, the support is 76 percent in favor, 21 percent opposed.

Brown has said he opposes a state-funded school construction bond because it doesn’t meet his conditions.

The Prop. 30 initiative, which supporters are now gathering signatures for, would extend the income tax increase on individuals earning more than $250,000 and couples earning $500,000 or more. Among all Californians, 64 percent support the extension, 32 percent oppose it and 4 percent are undecided. Among likely voters, 62 percent back it, 35 percent oppose it and 2 percent haven’t decided. By party affiliation, 82 percent of Democrats support it while only 32 percent of Republicans do.

Brown has not stated his position on extending Prop. 30. “The governor’s approval rating is high, and his opinions will matter to voters” come Election Day, Baldassare said.

School districts do have the option to bring in additional money through a local parcel tax, and about 1 in 8 districts have passed one. Asked if they would approve a local parcel tax, 52 percent of likely voters said yes, 43 percent no and 5 percent gave no opinion. However, parcel taxes require at least a 66 percent majority for passage; asked if they would favor lowering the threshold to 55 percent, only 44 percent of likely voters said that would be a good idea.

PRESCHOOL FUNDING

Eighty-nine percent of all Californians, and 86 percent of likely voters viewed preschool as very or somewhat important to a student’s success in school, and 63 percent of all respondents favor spending a state surplus on additional state preschool funding. However, only 52 percent of likely voters favor using a surplus for preschool funding, with 46 percent saying it should be used to pay down state debt.

Seventy-four percent of all of those surveyed and 71 percent of likely voters said that affordability of preschool is a big problem or somewhat of a problem, and 81 percent of all Californians also said that they are very or somewhat concerned that low-income students will be less likely to be prepared for kindergarten.

TEACHER SHORTAGE

Asked about a teacher shortage – a new PPIC line of questioning – 81 percent of all Californians say it is a big problem or somewhat of a problem. Given several options to attract new teachers to K-12 schools, 45 percent of all Californians said they’d prefer raising the minimum salary for teachers, which is the most expensive of the choices, compared with creating a loan forgiveness program (21 percent), housing assistance (11 percent) or lowering the requirements for becoming a teacher (11 percent).

Turning to the issue of teacher quality, 84 percent of all Californians said they are very or somewhat concerned that there are fewer good teachers in schools in low-income areas compared with wealthier areas.
Asked to grade their local schools, 57 percent of survey participants gave A's and B's, but there were big variations by race and ethnicity, with twice as many Asians and Latinos than African-Americans giving high grades to their schools.

Asked to grade their local schools, 57 percent of survey participants gave A’s and B’s, but there were big variations by race and ethnicity, with twice as many Asians and Latinos than African-Americans giving high grades to their schools.

COMMON CORE

Two-thirds of all adults and three-quarters of public school parents said they know at least something about the Common Core, although 35 percent of public school parents said they were not provided information about the new standards in math and English language arts. Based on what they know, 43 percent of adults favor the standards, while 39 percent oppose them and 18 percent are undecided. More public school parents support them: 51 percent favor, 36 percent oppose. Reflecting a national split on the standards, twice as many Democrats support the standards (46 percent) than Republicans (23 percent).

“Reflecting the 2016 presidential campaign dialogue, Common Core is a politically polarizing issue in California today,” Baldassare said.

Nonetheless, 54 percent of Californians said they are very or somewhat confident that teaching the Common Core will make students college and career ready, and 57 percent said they are very or somewhat confident the new standards will achieve the goal of enabling students to solve problems and think critically.

Nearly three-quarters of public school parents expressed confidence that teachers are adequately prepared to teach the standards. (That view, however, is not held by teachers. In a survey last fall by the research and training organization WestEd, only a quarter of California teachers said they had been adequately trained in the new standards.)

More Latinos (55 percent) and Asians (48 percent) than African-Americans (37 percent) and whites (34 percent) said they favor the Common Core.

LOCAL CONTROL FUNDING FORMULA

Three years ago, the Legislature approved Brown’s school financing reform, known as the Local Control Funding Formula, to shift control over budgets and spending decisions to districts and to provide more money for low-income students, English learners and foster youths.

Only 36 percent of public school parents said they have heard about the new law. However, half said they were provided with information about how to become involved with a key element of the new system: the creation of the Local Control and Accountability Plan for setting a district’s spending priorities. Only 4 percent of parents said they became very involved, and 14 percent said they were somewhat involved with the LCAP.

After being read a brief description of the funding formula, large majorities of Californians (65 percent) and parents (73 percent) said they are at least somewhat confident that the additional money will be spent on low-income children and English learners, and three-quarters of those surveyed said they expect achievement would improve for those students as a result.


HOW O.C. PARENTS LAID THE GROUNDWORK FOR SCHOOL DESEGREGATION IN THE U.S.
“DON'T YOU KNOW WHAT WE WERE FIGHTING? WE WEREN'T FIGHTING SO YOU COULD GO TO THAT BEAUTIFUL WHITE SCHOOL. WE WERE FIGHTING BECAUSE YOU'RE EQUAL TO THAT WHITE BOY.”
— Sylvia Mendez, recalling her mother's words on her first day at the white school in Santa Ana

by Caitlin Yoshiko Kandil | LA Times | http://lat.ms/1VMk0VO

April 20, 2016 :: As a child, Sylvia Mendez thought her parents' court case was all about a playground.

That's because in 1944, the bus would drop her off at the white school with the "beautiful playground." But she would have to keep walking down the street to the Mexican school — two wooden shacks on a dirt lot next to a cow pasture.

"We went to court every day. I listened to what they were saying, but really I was dreaming about going back to that beautiful school," Mendez said.

What Gonzalo and Felicitas Mendez were fighting for was racial equality.

The family won the landmark case Mendez, et al vs. Westminster School District of Orange County, et al — laying the groundwork for school desegregation throughout California and the nation.

Sylvia Mendez, now 79, is a fierce advocate of her parents' legacy, traveling the country to tell a story that weaves together historic figures such as Thurgood Marshall and Earl Warren and events including the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II and the Brown vs. Board of Education Supreme Court decision.

"This is the history of the United States, the history of California," she said. "Mendez isn't just about Mexicans. It's about everybody coming together. If you start fighting for justice, then people of all ethnicities will become involved."

In the 1940s, Orange County's public parks, swimming pools, restaurants and movie theaters all were segregated, said Gilbert Gonzalez, professor emeritus of Chicano/Latino studies at UC Irvine. Houses often had restricted covenants, stipulating that they could only be resold to whites. And so-called Mexican schools were designed to Americanize the students — speaking Spanish was prohibited — and to train boys for industrial work and agricultural labor and girls for housekeeping.

"We weren't taught how to read and write," Mendez said. "We were taught home economics, how to crochet and knit."

In 1930, a group of Mexican parents in San Diego County had sued the Lemon Grove School District for forcing their children into segregated schools. The parents won in the first successful school desegregation case in U.S. history. But the Lemon Grove Incident, as it came to be known, didn't carry legal precedent for the rest of California.

When the Mendez family moved to Westminster in 1944 — leasing a farm owned by a Japanese American family that had been put in an internment camp — the children were turned away from the nearby 17th Street School. Thinking there had been a mistake, Gonzalo Mendez went to talk with the principal.

"He said, 'I'm sorry, Mr. Mendez, we don't have Mexicans here,' " Sylvia Mendez recalled. "Then he went to the superintendent of schools for Orange County, and he said, 'Mr. Mendez, four cities, Garden Grove, Santa Ana, Orange and Westminster, have built two schools, one specifically for Mexicans, and they have to go to that school. I do not have the power to change it.' "

The campus she and her siblings were forced to attend was terrible, Mendez said. The books were "hand-me-downs" and the desks were "all falling apart." An electric fence separated the school from a cow pasture.

After reading about a successful Riverside desegregation case that challenged the rules barring Mexicans from public parks, Gonzalo Mendez hired civil rights attorney David Marcus.

"Let's not do this just for your children. Let's do it for all the children," Sylvia recalled Marcus telling her father. Gonzalo Mendez drove Marcus around Orange County looking for other plaintiffs who could join him in a class-action suit. Four others got on board — Lorenzo Ramirez from Orange, Frank Palomino from Garden Grove and William Guzman and Thomas Estrada from Santa Ana.

The case, which argued that the four segregated school districts violated the 14th Amendment's guarantee of equal protection, attracted attention outside Orange County. Thurgood Marshall, at the time the chief counsel for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, wrote an amicus brief in support of Mendez. The Japanese American Citizens League, the League of United Latin American Citizens, the American Jewish Congress and the American Civil Liberties Union lent their support.

In 1946, Mendez won.

Some schools in Orange County started to desegregate. In Westminster, Sylvia Mendez said, schools were integrated by placing all the older children in the Mexican school and the younger children in the white school. "The white people got so upset to see their children in that horrible school, so they went to the superintendent and they closed it down," she said.

A year later, the ruling was upheld in federal court and, within months, Gov. Earl Warren signed legislation to desegregate California's schools — becoming the first state in the country to do so.

Mendez vs. Westminster would have nationwide ramifications.

The NAACP, which called Mendez a "dry run for the future," used much of the same legal reasoning in 1954 in Brown vs. Board of Education, the landmark case that declared state laws establishing separate public schools for black and white students to be unconstitutional. Marshall argued the case before the Supreme Court, which by then included Chief Justice Warren, who wrote the unanimous decision that "separate educational facilities are inherently unequal."

Sylvia Mendez went on to graduate from Santa Ana College; she worked as a registered nurse for 33 years.

In 2000, a new high school in Santa Ana was named after the family — the Gonzalo and Felicitas Mendez Fundamental Intermediate School. In 2007, the U.S. Postal Service issued a stamp commemorating the case. And in 2011, Sylvia was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Obama.

"When I got it I couldn't stop crying, because I was thinking finally my mother and father are getting the thanks they deserve," Mendez said.


●●smf’s 2¢: It may have escaped the LA Times notice (not being a charter school and all) but in 2009 the Felicitas and Gonzalo Mendez High School/Learning Center – a new LAUSD high school – was dedicated in Boyle Heights.


EVENTS: Coming up next week...
Tues. April 26, 2016 - 2:00 P.M. :: THE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE OF THE BOARD OF EDUCATION – Agenda: http://bit.ly/26mgAMD

Thurs. April 28, 2016 – 10 A.M. :: APRIL MEETING OF THE BOND OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE – Agenda: http://bit.ly/1SXTCRM

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


• LAUSD BOARD OF EDUCATION & COMMITTEES MEETING CALENDAR



What can YOU do?
• E-mail, call or write your school board member:
Scott.Schmerelson@lausd.net • 213-241-8333
Monica.Garcia@lausd.net • 213-241-6180
Ref.Rodriguez@lausd.net • 213-241-5555
George.McKenna@lausd.net • 213-241-6382
Monica.Ratliff@lausd.net • 213-241-6388
Richard.Vladovic@lausd.net • 213-241-6385
Steve.Zimmer@lausd.net • 213-241-6387
...or the Superintendent:
superintendent@lausd.net • 213-241-7000
...or your city councilperson, mayor, county supervisor, state legislator, the governor, member of congress, senator - or the president. Tell them what you really think! • Find your state legislator based on your home address. Just go to: http://bit.ly/dqFdq2 • There are 26 mayors and five county supervisors representing jurisdictions within LAUSD, the mayor of LA can be reached at mayor@lacity.org • 213.978.0600
• Call or e-mail Governor Brown: 213-897-0322 e-mail: http://www.govmail.ca.gov/
• Open the dialogue. Write a letter to the editor. Circulate these thoughts. Talk to the principal and teachers at your local school.
• Speak with your friends, neighbors and coworkers. Stay on top of education issues. Don't take my word for it!
• Get involved at your neighborhood school. Volunteer in the classroom. Join your PTA. Serve on a School Site Council. Be there for a child - and ultimately: For all children.
• If you are eligible to become a citizen, BECOME ONE.
• If you a a citizen, REGISTER TO VOTE at http://registertovote.ca.gov/
• If you are registered, VOTE LIKE THE FUTURE DEPENDS ON IT. THEY DO!


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




Scott Folsom is a parent leader in LAUSD and was Parent/Volunteer of the Year for 2010-11 for Los Angeles County. • He is Past President of Los Angeles Tenth District PTSA and has represented PTA on the LAUSD Construction Bond Citizen's Oversight Committee for over 13 years. He currently serves as Vice President for Health, is a Legislation Action Committee member and a member of the Board of Directors of the California State PTA. He serves on numerous school district advisory and policy committees and has served as a PTA officer and governance council member at three LAUSD schools. He is the recipient of the UTLA/AFT "WHO" Gold Award and the ACSA Regional Ferd Kiesel Memorial Distinguished Service Award - honors he hopes to someday deserve. • In this forum his opinions are his own and your opinions and feedback are invited. Quoted and/or cited content copyright © the original author and/or publisher. All other material copyright © 4LAKids.
• FAIR USE NOTICE: This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. 4LAKids makes such material available in an effort to advance understanding of education issues vital to parents, teachers, students and community members in a democracy. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
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Sunday, April 17, 2016

Another case/anaother story



4LAKids: Sunday 17•Apr•2016
In This Issue:
 •  APPEALS COURT REVERSES VERGARA RULING (2 stories)
 •  COURT RULING IN CALIFORNIA TENURE CHALLENGE IS UNLIKELY TO DERAIL THE REFORM MOVEMENT …or (smf’s 2¢) discourage the Times’ Editorial Board
 •  FORMER L.A. CHARTER SCHOOL LEADER FINED FOR CONFLICT OF INTEREST
 •  MAYOR ERIC GARCETTI COMMITS LOS ANGELES TO A GOAL OF GIVING EVERY LAUSD GRADUATE ONE FREE YEAR OF COMMUNITY COLLEGE
 •  HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T FIT: The Rest (but not necessarily the best) of the Stories from Other Sources
 •  EVENTS: Coming up next week...
 •  What can YOU do?


Featured Links:
 •  ► Friends4smf :: The GoFundMe campaign
 •  Follow 4 LAKids on Twitter - or get instant updates via text message by texting
 •  4LAKids Anthology: All the Past Issues, solved, resolved and unsolved!
 •  4LAKidsNews: a compendium of recent items of interest - news stories, scurrilous rumors, links, academic papers, rants and amusing anecdotes, etc.
Q: Someone once asked me what I thought of Vergara.
A: “Well,” I said., “in the unlikely event of an erection lasting more than four hours one should probably get professional medical help.”


VERGARA v. CTA was a landmark show trial in the great “Let’s take public education out of the hands of public educators - run it through the courts - and put it into the boardrooms of ©orporate $chool ®eformers and Silicon Valley Edupreneurs” movement.

FRIEDRICHS v. CTA – The U.S. 9th District Court’s ruling in favor of CTA recently affirmed by an equally divided Supreme Court was another such public legal proceeding, accompanied by similar judicial sturm und drang – and promoted by many-of-the-same (un)usual suspects.


Vergara was tried in a courtroom of the L.A. Superior Court by a judge and on the steps of the courthouse by the media – recounted nightly+breathlessly by L.A. School Report …which was founded by former Vice President and L.A. Bureau Chief of Court TV Jamie Alter Lynton. It may not have been reality T.V. …but it was just as real!

The lawsuit was brought and funded by an organization called Students Matter, bankrolled by Silicon Valley entrepreneur David Welch on behalf of nine students. The complaint argued that current state law makes it too much work/too time consuming/too hard to fire ineffective teachers.

Vergara was a photo opportunity for high profile attorneys, almost-a-billionaire venture capitalists and telegenic/camera ready plaintiffs – allegedly denied a good education by employment protections and due-process safeguards built into the California Ed Code by evil teachers’ unions and their subservient friends in the legislature.

It was “Bad Teacher: The Courtroom Drama”

The star witness for the plaintiffs was one Dr. John E. (‘Don’t call me Johnny’) Deasy, superintendent of LAUSD – who swore under oath that LAUSD was ungovernable under the teacher ‘tenure’ standards in the Ed Code. Bad Teachers were everywhere and Dr. John’s hands were tied; he couldn’t fire his way out of the mess!

(Semantics 411: Public school teachers don’t have ‘tenure’, which is lifetime employment guaranteed to college+university professors. Teachers have the protection of due process – which mandates a fair hearing over employment issues.)

●● Another case/another story: Deasy’s own firing from LAUSD would result from other testimony he gave, in Cruz v. CA. Deasy in Vergara said LAUSD was ungovernable; Judge Hernandez in Cruz pretty much said that LAUSD was ungoverned.


ROUND 1 TO THE PLAINTIFFS: Deasy and the Vergara Plaintiffs ultimately convinced Judge Rolf M. Treu that job protections for teachers were so harmful that they deprived students of their constitutional right to an education.

The laws, Treu wrote in his 2014 opinion, protected a small but significant number of “grossly ineffective” teachers and disproportionately harmed poor and minority students. He went on to say the tenure system resulted in educational malpractice that “shocks the conscience.”

ROUND 2 TO THE APPELLANTS: Last Thursday the California Court of Appeals for the Second District unanimously reversed Judge Treu and found that the plaintiffs failed to show “that the statutes inevitably cause a certain group of students to receive an education inferior to the education received by other students” – the prerequisite for an equal protection claim.

“With no proper showing of a constitutional violation, the court is without power to strike down the challenged statutes. The court’s job is merely to determine whether the statutes are constitutional, not if they are ‘a good idea’.”

THE THIRD AND DECIDING ROUND was always going to be in the California State Supreme Court; the case is about the California State Constitution and the California Supremes will be the final arbiter. Stay tuned.

In the meanwhile it is hoped that the legislature will step in and tweak the Ed Code and perhaps add a little bit more time to the period during which new teachers can be evaluated before they receive protected status. Watch this space.


KUDOS TO MAYOR ERIC GARCETTI, who in his State of the City Address Thursday said Los Angeles will commit to a goal of giving every hardworking graduate of the Los Angeles Unified School District one free year of community college. Mayor Garcetti once asked me to periodically advise him on education issues; I have been loath (or perhaps dilatory) in doing so …and if Hizzoner keeps doing the right things I’m going to uncharacteristically keep my mouth shut!


THE MOUNTAIN LION ON THE CAMPUS AT JOHN F. KENNEDY HIGH SCHOOL on Friday cannot go unremarked on. We live in and share a wonderful world with all nature of things.


ON SATURDAY, in the heart of downtown; within view of city hall and other iconic architectural buildings and works of art, Grand Park was the spotlight for a very spectacular display of talent from all five local school districts within LAUSD.

The LAUSD Grand Arts Festival, hosted by the Arts Education celebrated LAUSD’s unique and diverse artistic culture. 15,000 Festival attendees were expected to attend this free, public event. Festival goers witnessed over 2,000 LAUSD student performers on four stages, a student visual arts gallery, and a film festival of original student films being sponsored by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. There were scores of informational and interactive booths from community arts partners, LAUSD arts schools, and higher education institutions, as well as family activities and food trucks.

“My film and media students are ready,” says former entertainment industry insider Aaron Lemos, current veteran master instructor of digital media and film (and lion-lockdown survivor) at John F. Kennedy Senior High School in Granada Hills. Mr. Lemos’ students are superstars in their own right, heading to national competitions in late May to maintain their championship titles. “We look forward to the Grand Arts Festival this year to see what the other students are expressing through digital media and film, have fun, and celebrate the young people’s talent and artistry.”

This year’s Arts Festival will also feature some professional performers on the festival main stage. This opportunity to connect with professionals has schools excited. “This is the first time our choir will be on the main stage performing,” said Dr. Iris Stevenson, longtime chair of the music department at Crenshaw Senior High School (…and Deasy-era ‘Teacher Jail’ inmate).

“I have taken these kids all over the world to perform, and it is so good to share our talent at home.”

¡Onward/Adelante! - smf


APPEALS COURT REVERSES VERGARA RULING (2 stories)
►CALIFORNIA APPEALS COURT REVERSES DECISION TO OVERTURN TEACHER TENURE RULES

By Jennifer Medina and Motoko Rich | New York Times | http://nyti.ms/23Fis48

April 14, 2016 :: Los Angeles — A California appeals court ruled on Thursday that the state’s job protections for teachers do not deprive poor and minority students of a quality education or violate their civil rights — reversing a landmark lower court decision that had overturned the state’s teacher tenure rules.

The decision put a roadblock — at least temporarily — in front of a national movement, financed by several philanthropists and businesspeople, to challenge entrenched protections for teachers, championed by their unions.

Two years ago, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge struck down five California statutes connected with the awarding of tenure, as well as rules that govern the use of seniority to determine layoffs during budget crises. Ruling in a case brought by a group of nine high school students — four of whom have since graduated — the judge, Rolf Treu, said the statutes violated the students’ rights to an equal education under the California Constitution because they allowed poorly performing teachers to remain indefinitely in classrooms.

In reversing the trial court’s decision, a panel of three appeals judges wrote that if ineffective teachers are in place, the statutes themselves were not to blame because it was school and district administrators who “determine where teachers within a district are assigned to teach.” The laws themselves, the judges wrote, do not instruct districts in where to place teachers.

“The court’s job is merely to determine whether the statutes are constitutional,” the panel wrote, “not if they are ‘a good idea.’”

Teachers unions immediately welcomed the ruling.

“I consider this a victory for teachers and a victory for students,” said Eric C. Heins, the president of the California Teachers Association. “What these statutes have done is, one, they bring stability to the system, and for many students they bring stability to their schools and to the teachers in their schools. For many kids, the school environment is the only stable environment that many of them have.”

Tom Torlakson, the state superintendent of public instruction in California, said the appeals court decision would allow districts to recruit and train teachers at a time of shortages in the state.

“All of our students deserve great teachers,” Mr. Torlakson said in a statement. “Teachers are not the problem in our schools — they are the answer to helping students succeed on the pathway to 21st century college and careers.”

The plaintiffs in the case, known as Vergara v. California, said they would appeal to the state Supreme Court.

“The Court of Appeal’s decision mistakenly blames local school districts for the egregious constitutional violations students are suffering each and every day,” Theodore J. Boutrous Jr., the lead counsel for the plaintiffs, said in a statement. “But the mountain of evidence we put on at trial proved — beyond any reasonable dispute — that the irrational, arbitrary and abominable laws at issue in this case shackle school districts and impose severe and irreparable harm on students.”

The decision came just a day after another group of parents served notice to defendants in a lawsuit challenging Minnesota’s job protections for teachers. A similar lawsuit is also pending in New York.

The plaintiffs in Minnesota and New York vowed to press on, with backing from the Partnership for Educational Justice, a New York-based group that receives financing from the foundations of Eli Broad, a Los Angeles billionaire, and the Walton family, founders of Walmart.

Katharine Strunk, an associate professor of education at the University of Southern California, said that while the ruling may be considered a victory for teachers’ unions, the case had sparked a national conversation over teacher hiring and firing.

“The judges are saying things are not right in California, that there are drawbacks to the current system, but this is not something for the courts to decide,” Ms. Strunk said. “I don’t think anyone believes that these laws are the best we can do.”

After the trial court judge ruled in favor of the plaintiffs two years ago, Arne Duncan, former United States secretary of education, applauded the decision, saying he hoped it would prompt policy makers to change tenure statutes. On Thursday, John B. King Jr., Mr. Duncan’s successor, was not immediately available for comment.

The plaintiffs argued that because the state allows districts to grant tenure after just two years, and because districts often spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to remove teachers they consider low-performing, tenure rules can lock in ineffective educators for life.

All too often, the plaintiffs argued, the worst teachers are placed in schools with high concentrations of low-income and minority students.

In its ruling, the appeals court said that “the challenged statutes do not in any way instruct administrators regarding which teachers to assign to which schools.”

The judges acknowledged that principals got rid of “highly ineffective teachers” by transferring them to other schools, including schools with many poor students.

“This phenomenon is extremely troubling and should not be allowed to occur,” they wrote, “but it does not inevitably flow from the challenged statutes.”

______________

CALIFORNIA APPEALS COURT OVERTURNS VERGARA RULING
By John Fensterwald | EdSource Today | http://bit.ly/1VskFes

April 14, 2016 :: A California appeals court has struck down a trial judge’s controversial Vergara ruling that declared that several state laws governing teacher hiring, firing and layoffs are unconstitutional.

The appeals court decision in Vergara v. the State of California and the California Teachers Association is a victory for teachers unions in a case that has drawn national attention. At issue were five state laws that established layoff procedures based on seniority, laid out dismissal procedures and awarded teachers permanent status, known as tenure, after two years on the job.

David Welch, the driving force behind Students Matter, the organization that filed the lawsuit on behalf of nine students, promised the decision would be appealed to the California Supreme Court.

“I’m not going to mince words – we lost,” he wrote in an email. “This is a sad day for every child struggling to get the quality education he or she deserves – and is guaranteed by our state constitution.”

In his 2014 ruling, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Rolf Treu ruled that the teacher workplace laws interfered with students’ constitutional right to a quality education. The laws, Treu wrote, protected a small but significant number of “grossly ineffective” teachers and disproportionately harmed poor and minority students. In his 16-page decision, Treu wrote that evidence from a two-month trial “shocked the conscience.”

But in a strongly worded, unanimous decision, three judges of the Second District Court of Appeal, based in Los Angeles, wrote that the plaintiffs failed to show “that the statutes inevitably cause a certain group of students to receive an education inferior to the education received by other students” – the prerequisite for an equal protection claim.

“With no proper showing of a constitutional violation, the court is without power to strike down the challenged statutes. The court’s job is merely to determine whether the statutes are constitutional, not if they are ‘a good idea,’” the decision states.

The judges also said that administrators are responsible for deciding where low-performing teachers teach, but that the lawsuit attacked the statutes, not how they may have been inequitably applied.

“Although the statutes may lead to the hiring and retention of more ineffective teachers than a hypothetical alternative system would, the statutes do not address the assignment of teachers; instead, administrators – not the statutes – ultimately determine where teachers within a district are assigned to teach,” the ruling states.

In a statement Thursday, Theodore Boutrous, lead attorney for Students Matter, said that the appeals court got it wrong. The decision “mistakenly blames local school districts for the egregious constitutional violations students are suffering each and every day, but the mountain of evidence we put on at trial proved – beyond any reasonable dispute – that the irrational, arbitrary, and abominable laws at issue in this case shackle school districts and impose severe and irreparable harm on students.”

He expressed optimism that “the California Supreme Court will have the final say.”

CTA President Eric Heins celebrated the ruling as a “great day for educators, and, more importantly, for students.”

“Today’s ruling reversing Treu’s decision overwhelmingly underscores that the laws under attack have been good for public education and good for kids and that the plaintiffs failed to establish any violation of a student’s constitutional rights,” he said in a statement. “Stripping teachers of their ability to stand up for their students and robbing school districts of the tools they need to make sound employment decisions was a wrong-headed scheme developed by people with no education expertise and the appellate court justices saw that.”

Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson said in a statement, “The Appellate Court clearly recognized that Vergara was a flawed ruling and overturned it unanimously. Now we can move forward together to recruit, train, and support talented and dedicated educators in school districts all across our great state.


Read the Vergara v. CTA Court of Appeals ruling here.



COURT RULING IN CALIFORNIA TENURE CHALLENGE IS UNLIKELY TO DERAIL THE REFORM MOVEMENT …or (smf’s 2¢) discourage the Times’ Editorial Board
by Joy Resmovits , Howard Blume and Sonali Kohli | LA Times | http://lat.ms/1SdMDF9

April 16, 2015 :: An appeals court decision this week upholding California's teacher tenure and seniority rules leaves school reform forces at a crossroads as they press for changes across the nation.

The movement had made the Vergara case — which would have thrown out the nation's most generous teacher employment protections — a centerpiece in their effort to remake schools.

Despite the defeat in California, nonprofit organizations and advocacy groups have scored victories in other states. But experts say making inroads has become harder recently as teachers' unions have flexed their muscle locally and nationally.

The Vergara decision came just weeks after another major victory for teachers' unions. The U.S. Supreme Court was set to review a California case, which could have prevented unions from collecting dues from employees who didn't agree to become members.

Some observers believed the conservative court would rule against the unions. But the court deadlocked 4-4 after the death of Justice Antonin Scalia in February.

Chester Finn, a former Reagan administration education official and senior fellow at the conservative-leaning Thomas B. Fordham Institute, acknowledged that teachers' unions have racked up significant victories. "The two big courtroom centered strategies for weakening teacher union power both kind of bit the dust in the last few weeks," he said. "If I were the head of one of the unions, I would be gloating with satisfaction that my side prevailed and that these bad guys haven't done any serious damage to me."

But he and others believe reform efforts can move forward from the defeats, noting they continue to be well-funded and well-organized.

In California, backers were looking for the silver linings in the Vergara defeat while also noting they were appealing the case to the California Supreme Court.

"I think where the movement goes is where it's been going for the last two years — people are suddenly paying attention to the impact of ineffective teachers on students, about evaluation, about dismissal policies," said Eric Hanushek, a senior fellow at the conservative Hoover Institution at Stanford University who testified on behalf of the Vergara plaintiffs.

Ben Austin, an official with Students Matter, the nonprofit Silicon Valley group sponsoring the Vergara plaintiffs, agrees: "I can remember not that long ago when these issues were untouchable; you just couldn't mention them without getting laughed out of the halls" of Sacramento.

Unlike in many other states, California lawmakers refused to mandate the use of student test scores as a significant portion of a teacher's evaluation. Traditional teacher job protections are probably the strongest in the country: an instructor earns tenure safeguards after two years,; the dismissal process is longer and more complex than for other state employees, and layoffs are based primarily on seniority rather than performance.

The Vergara lawsuit, to supporters, represented a way around the political stronghold. They argue that it's far too difficult to remove bad teachers and that this hurts students.

Unions and their supporters said eliminating tenure and seniority would result in a lower-quality teaching corps and cause the profession to attract and retain fewer talented people who have other career options.

Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers union, hailed the Vegara ruling.

Weingarten acknowledges that the current tenure laws are problematic, and said that the state of California should "work together" to improve them.

"You can't fire your way to a teaching force," she said.

Reform forces scored big wins in North Carolina, which virtually eliminated tenure. And in Wisconsin, union political funding has largely dried up because of laws that limit the collection of membership dues.

Currently, there are two similar lawsuits that target tenure in New York and Minnesota, and backers say those are moving forward despite Vergara.

But the environment has been more challenging elsewhere. In New York City, Mayor Bill de Blasio has been pushing back against reforms embraced by predecessor Michael Bloomberg.

Still, one advantage the reformers still retain is money. The movement is backed by some of the nation's wealthiest foundations and philanthropists, including Bloomberg and the heirs to the Walmart fortune.

"They have a huge reservoir of money," said retired California teacher Anthony Cody, who has become a leader of a group opposing the reformers. "And they will keep trying to find avenues to break unions wherever they can."

_____________

►NEW VERGARA RULING MAKES CLEAR IT'S LEGISLATURE'S JOB TO FIX LAWS PROTECTING BAD TEACHERS

by The L.A. Times Editorial Board | http://lat.ms/1V9oYeC

April 14, 2016 :: Not every weakness in California’s public schools is tantamount to an assault on the state Constitution. After a problematic lower-court ruling struck down various job protections for California teachers, an appeals court rendered a more sensible conclusion Thursday: the state’s current seniority and tenure laws aren’t optimal, but they fall short of being unconstitutional.

At issue in the case of Vergara vs. California were laws that lay out a long and tortuous procedure for teachers to appeal a firing, require that less experienced teachers almost always be let go first when districts carry out layoffs and give principals only 18 months to decide whether a new teacher deserves tenure.

These laws go too far. Bad teachers are a stain on schools; parents will go to almost any lengths to avoid the worst of them. Students lose learning time and, perhaps worse, their interest in school under the weakest and least motivated instructors.

The laws should be changed, but it is not the courts’ job to intervene in every poorly crafted or outdated statute. The question was whether these protections so harmed education — and discriminated against the black and Latino students who often come from low-income families and attend schools with fewer resources — that they violated constitutional guarantees of equal treatment and a free and high-quality education.

Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Rolf Treu decided that they did, despite evidence that truly awful teachers make up a tiny percentage (perhaps 1% to 3%) of the overall teaching force. In addition, as the appeals panel noted, there’s little proof that the weakest teachers are disproportionately assigned to schools with large numbers of black and Latino students. Even if that’s so, that problem isn’t caused by state law, but by union contracts in each district that give more experienced teachers first shot at job openings at other schools, instead of assigning teachers where they’re most needed.

What happens next? Probably nothing very good. The school reform-minded plaintiffs vow to appeal. With the pressure of a lawsuit off its neck, the Legislature, which has been far too solicitous of the wishes of the California Teachers Assn., is less likely to pass AB 934, a reasonable legislative fix to the laws in question that would still protect teachers from capricious and vindictive firings.

Worse, the battle lines between reformers and union-allied groups become even more deeply etched. This state has real problems to work on in its schools, especially the lack of counselors and the looming teacher shortage. If California can’t draw more enthusiastic and well-trained new teachers to fill openings in classrooms, education will suffer mightily — especially for disadvantaged students. This is the big issue that both sides should get to work on resolving.
_______

●●ABOUT THE LOS ANGELES TIMES’ EDUCATION MATTERS FUNDING: Education Matters – the Times’ self-described “education initiative to inform parents, educators and students across California” receives funding from a number of foundations. The California Community Foundation and United Way of Greater Los Angeles administer grants from the Baxter Family Foundation, the Broad Foundation, the California Endowment and the Wasserman Foundation to support this effort. Under terms of the grants, The Times retains complete control over editorial content.


FORMER L.A. CHARTER SCHOOL LEADER FINED FOR CONFLICT OF INTEREST
by Howard Blume | LA Times | http://lat.ms/1VwwYqz

April 13, 2016 :: A former local charter school operator has agreed to pay a $16,000 fine for misconduct that includes using public education funds to lease her own buildings.

Under a tentative settlement with the state’s Fair Political Practices Commission, Kendra Okonkwo acknowledges that she improperly used her official position “to influence governmental decisions in which she had a financial interest,” according to documents posted Monday by the state agency.

The settlement or “stipulation” notes two instances of wrongdoing: establishing leases for the school in two buildings that Okonkwo owned and arranging for public funds to pay for renovations to these structures.

The school, Wisdom Academy for Young Scientists, lost its charter to operate and closed last year.

“In this matter, Okonkwo engaged in a pattern of violations in which she made, used or attempted to use her official position to influence governmental decisions involving real property in which she had a significant financial interest,” the commission said.

Okonkwo declined to comment, but the commission cited several factors for not imposing a larger fine, including that “Okonkwo understands the seriousness of the violations and accepts responsibility for her actions.”

The South Los Angeles school, which opened in 2006, had been targeted by regulators for several years.

The violations cited this week by the state date from 2010 and 2011, when Okonkwo earned a total of $223,615 as the elementary school’s executive director. She also received about $19,000 a month in rent from the school. She attempted to eliminate the appearance of conflict by assigning the property to a new, separate corporation, for which her mother signed the leases. But the arrangement did not pass legal muster, according to the state.

The other violation pertains to Okonkwo signing contracts for school-funded renovations worth $62,000. Okonkwo addressed this conflict by resigning as executive director. Someone else then signed the renovation contract.

Charters are independently operated and exempt from some rules that govern traditional campuses. Wisdom Academy began under the jurisdiction of the L.A. Unified School District, which refused to renew the school after its initial five-year charter expired.

A report to the school board cited “serious concerns pertaining to violations of conflict-of-interest laws against self-dealing on the part of the school's executive director as well as insufficient governance by the … board of directors.”

The L.A. Unified action did not close the school because, under state law, a charter can appeal to the Los Angeles County Office of Education, which chose to take over as the supervising agency.

But the county office eventually turned against the school as well, revoking its charter in 2014, and leading to its shutdown at the end of the last school year.

The county cited a report by state auditors, who concluded that administrators may have funneled millions in state funds to Okonkwo, her relatives and close associates.

Some of the allegations bordered on the bizarre.

Auditors questioned, for example, the use of school funds to pay a $566,803 settlement to a former teacher who sued the organization for wrongful termination after she was directed by Okonkwo to travel with her to Nigeria to marry Okonkwo's brother-in-law for the purpose of making him a United States citizen.

The organization's payment of the settlement was inappropriate because Okonkwo was not acting within the scope of her school employment, auditors concluded.

The school took its fight to survive all the way to the state board of education.


In papers filed with the state, Wisdom’s leaders accused auditors and the county office of misconduct and “open hostility … against this African American operated school,” calling it “the culmination of years of unfair treatment and retaliation … because a few [county office] staff members dislike our school’s founder Kendra Okonkwo, her family, the thickness of her accent, and the color of her skin.”

State officials declined to overrule the charter revocation.


MAYOR ERIC GARCETTI COMMITS LOS ANGELES TO A GOAL OF GIVING EVERY LAUSD GRADUATE ONE FREE YEAR OF COMMUNITY COLLEGE
by City News Service+ABC7.com staff | http://bit.ly/1SKna5p

Thursday, April 14, 2016 06:59PM | LOS ANGELES (KABC) :: Mayor Eric Garcetti said Los Angeles will commit to a goal of giving every hardworking graduate of the Los Angeles Unified School District one free year of community college.

Delivering his annual State of the City address on Thursday, Garcetti also said the city is looking at plans to put 260 new cops on the street, fix more broken sidewalks and streets, fight homelessness and create jobs for reformed ex-gang members.

He is working on the college plan, he said, in partnership with LAUSD and the Los Angeles Community College District. He said it is similar to a program announced by President Barack Obama in his State of the Union last year that sought to offer two free years of community college to U.S. students.

"Tonight Los Angeles will become the largest city in the nation to commit ourselves to a new goal: every hardworking student who graduates from LAUSD will receive one free year of community college," Garcetti said.

A spokesperson for the mayor said the deal is not done yet, but when finalized it would start in 2017. Funding would come from the community college district, the city and a private philanthropist.

Garcetti spoke at Noribachi, an LED manufacturer in LA's Harbor City neighborhood that relocated from New Mexico four years ago and has since won national recognition for its rapid growth.

The mayor focused primarily on jobs, wages and businesses in his address. He said under one city program, launched by City Attorney Mike Feuer, the city will provide education and job training to 1,500 former gang members.

Garcetti said he also expanded the city's program to match young people with jobs, tripling the number from 5,000 when he took office to an expected 15,000 this year.

He noted that the city expects to hire 5,000 new employees over the next two years, and recruiting for those positions will target communities in need, including ex-offenders.

He also said the city needs to step up its efforts to fight homelessness. The city budget Garcetti will propose next week will commit $138 million to get homeless people off the streets, a figure he described as a "tenfold" increase in the city's investment.

Next year, he said, the city will place a comprehensive measure to fight homelessness on the local ballot that will include a "linkage fee" on developers who build new projects.

Garcetti has also recently been touting the 109,000 jobs that the city has added since he took office in 2013 and the 5.8 percent unemployment rate, about half of what it was in 2012.

The focus on job creation follows a year in which Garcetti and the City Council adopted a measure to raise the minimum wage in Los Angeles to $15 an hour by 2020, creating fears among businesses that the city could lose jobs.

Garcetti urged Angelenos to support him in his vision for the city, which he said includes plans not just to fix problems for the next few years, but for an entire generation.

"If Kobe Bryant could post 60 points and lead his team to victory in his final game, come on guys we can do this," he said.


HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T FIT: The Rest (but not necessarily the best) of the Stories from Other Sources
STUDENT BOARD MEMBER LEON POPA WEIGHS IN ON HIS EXPERIENCE AS SEARCH FOR SUCCESSOR BEGINS | LAUSD Daily
http://bit.ly/1r4MKfF

THIS SCHOOL IS OPENING THE FIRST GENDER-NEUTRAL BATHROOM IN LOS ANGELES UNIFIED - LA Times
http://lat.ms/1W8ddnN


EVENTS: Coming up next week...
All Tuesday April 19, 2016:

• BUDGET, FACILITIES AND AUDIT COMMITTEE - - 10:00 A.M.
• EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION AND PARENT ENGAGEMENT Committee - 2:00 p.m. – [Rescheduled from 4/5/16]
• SUCCESSFUL SCHOOL CLIMATE COMMITTEE -- 4:00 P.M.

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


• LAUSD BOARD OF EDUCATION & COMMITTEES MEETING CALENDAR



What can YOU do?
• E-mail, call or write your school board member:
Scott.Schmerelson@lausd.net • 213-241-8333
Monica.Garcia@lausd.net • 213-241-6180
Ref.Rodriguez@lausd.net • 213-241-5555
George.McKenna@lausd.net • 213-241-6382
Monica.Ratliff@lausd.net • 213-241-6388
Richard.Vladovic@lausd.net • 213-241-6385
Steve.Zimmer@lausd.net • 213-241-6387
...or the Superintendent:
superintendent@lausd.net • 213-241-7000
...or your city councilperson, mayor, county supervisor, state legislator, the governor, member of congress, senator - or the president. Tell them what you really think! • Find your state legislator based on your home address. Just go to: http://bit.ly/dqFdq2 • There are 26 mayors and five county supervisors representing jurisdictions within LAUSD, the mayor of LA can be reached at mayor@lacity.org • 213.978.0600
• Call or e-mail Governor Brown: 213-897-0322 e-mail: http://www.govmail.ca.gov/
• Open the dialogue. Write a letter to the editor. Circulate these thoughts. Talk to the principal and teachers at your local school.
• Speak with your friends, neighbors and coworkers. Stay on top of education issues. Don't take my word for it!
• Get involved at your neighborhood school. Volunteer in the classroom. Join your PTA. Serve on a School Site Council. Be there for a child - and ultimately: For all children.
• If you are eligible to become a citizen, BECOME ONE.
• If you a a citizen, REGISTER TO VOTE at http://registertovote.ca.gov/
• If you are registered, VOTE LIKE THE FUTURE DEPENDS ON IT. THEY DO!


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




Scott Folsom is a parent leader in LAUSD and was Parent/Volunteer of the Year for 2010-11 for Los Angeles County. • He is Past President of Los Angeles Tenth District PTSA and has represented PTA on the LAUSD Construction Bond Citizen's Oversight Committee for over 13 years. He currently serves as Vice President for Health, is a Legislation Action Committee member and a member of the Board of Directors of the California State PTA. He serves on numerous school district advisory and policy committees and has served as a PTA officer and governance council member at three LAUSD schools. He is the recipient of the UTLA/AFT "WHO" Gold Award and the ACSA Regional Ferd Kiesel Memorial Distinguished Service Award - honors he hopes to someday deserve. • In this forum his opinions are his own and your opinions and feedback are invited. Quoted and/or cited content copyright © the original author and/or publisher. All other material copyright © 4LAKids.
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