Where is the plan?

4LAKids: Sunday, Sept 16, 2007 In This Issue: • Locke+Green Dot: TROUBLED WATTS HIGH SCHOOL TURNED OVER TO PRIVATE FIRM • WHY SO MANY TEACHERS ARE QUITTING: District-run schools see much higher rates of dissatisfaction than charter schools. • U.S. PROPOSES TO TRIM SCHOOL MEDICAID FUNDING + LAYOFFS LOOM AT LOCAL KIDS' HEALTH CLINICS • CALIFORNIA SUPREME COURT LETS STAND 'ANTI-HAZELWOOD' RULING FOR STUDENT JOURNALISTS, UPHOLDING STUDENT RIGHTS • ARNOLD SHOULD SIGN SCHOOL-FUNDING BILL …AND Y O U CAN HELP! • EVENTS: Coming up next week... • What can YOU do? Featured Links: • 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. Where is the plan? In LAUSD, in the city of LA, in health care — in Iraq? Wringing one's hands, responding to the other guy/the polling data/the 'situation on the ground' …or waiting to see what the legislature, congress or the insurgency does is NOT a plan! - smf The LA Times Editorial Board gets to go first - not with a plan - but with an actual if not a new problem: ______________________ • FILING ISN'T LEARNING: Using students to help teachers with paperwork, and calling it a class, is part of what is stunting education. Los Angeles Times Editorial September 12, 2007 -- Of all the useless classes foisted on California's high school students, few are as academically irrelevant as service class. Never heard of it? Maybe it's called "teacher's assistant class" at your neighborhood school, or perhaps it's listed as "independent study." Students' duties in these electives are, by and large, similar: making copies, running errands, taking attendance, sometimes grading papers. Other electives are borderline irrelevant -- manicuring and cosmetology come to mind, particularly when they fail to prepare students to obtain licenses in those fields. But service classes are universally without instructional value. So if they don't benefit students, why do schools offer them? Because they benefit adults. Teachers are inundated with paperwork -- it's the No. 1 reason they abandon the profession -- and service classes provide unpaid aides. But students shouldn't be denied an hour of learning so that they might work, for free if for class credit, to lighten the load on those paid to teach. That's a particularly grim life lesson to give a teenager, and it's made worse by the shortage of substantive electives. Not all schools have sewing machines for fashion design classes or computers for programming, but there's always attendance to take. There's more. An Oakland-based research organization has looked into these so-called classes and found, at least initially, that low-performing schools with poor and minority students offer them disproportionately. So the students who most need education are grading papers instead. And what is the No. 1 reason cited by high school dropouts for leaving school? They're bored. At least, you are no doubt thinking, the Los Angeles Unified School District is chagrined by this problem and is rushing to solve it. Nope. Board President Monica Garcia, a former guidance counselor at Foshay Learning Center, says she once thought service classes should be banned. Now, she says, the district has bigger fires to put out: Schools built for hundreds serve thousands; children land in the ninth grade with second-grade reading skills. In other words, some problems are just too low priority. It is precisely that defeatism and lack of imagination that has stunted the educational lives of Los Angeles' children for far too long. Here's an alternative: Solve problems, starting with dead-end electives. Replace them with hours of learning. Teach kids, don't just house them. And yes, address overcrowding and reading too. It's not too much to expect the district to take on more than one problem at a time, and it's not too soon to ask it to start solving the ones it has. Locke+Green Dot: TROUBLED WATTS HIGH SCHOOL TURNED OVER TO PRIVATE FIRM • SCHOOL DISTRICT BOARD APPROVES A TAKEOVER OF LOCKE HIGH SCHOOL BY PRIVATELY OWNED GREEN DOT PUBLIC SCHOOLS. ONE CRITIC OF THE MOVE, AN LAUSD BOARD MEMBER, SAID THE BOARD "… JUST SAID: GIVE THE CHILDREN AWAY." by Gene C. Johnson Jr., Los Angeles Wave Staff Writer September 13, 2007- In what both sides agreed was a historic moment, the Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education on Tuesday approved a controversial petition effectively handing control of Locke High School over to the Green Dot Public School charter organization for at least five years. Effective July 1, 2008, the move marks the first time a public school will be run by a private entity in the LAUSD. Some high schools within the district, such as those in Granada Hills and in the Palisades, have been converted into charters but are run by LAUSD teachers and administrators. In recent years, Locke, located in Watts, has been one of the lowest-performing schools in the school district. “Locke is what it is now and it hurts,” said school board member Richard Vladovic, a one-time principal at the troubled campus who now represents the area in which it is located. “It hurts having worked there and worked in that community for four years — when you look at the test scores right now and what those youngsters are getting.” School board trustees Marguerite Poindexter LaMotte and Julie Korenstein cast the dissenting votes during the Tuesday board meeting held at school district headquarters. “I am not clear in what the instructional program is,” LaMotte said before later adding: “If a mass of kids do not want to go to Locke, then the financial encumbrance upon [the school district] is even greater. [And] what do we do about the teachers who do not want to work for anyone other than L.A.?” “I believe that boards of education, working with superintendents and staff, should be able to resolve the problem with the teachers at this school,” added Korenstein. “I am appalled that a new board … just said: ‘Give the children away.’” Still, the decision drew loud cheers from the sea of bright green T-shirts in support of the conversion, which was met with red-shirted disdain by members of the United Teachers Los Angeles. The crowd jammed into the school board chambers tallied well past its 155-person capacity. “Please, we are imploring you, do not tell us that we are failures,” said UTLA Secondary Vice President Linda [Guthrie] “Because this [conversion] will ripple from the Harbor over to the west Valley. We will all know that you have no confidence in us to do the work that we need to do.” As a result of the board’s approval, Green Dot and the school district will forge an agreement under which the charter firm will assume control of all educational matters on the campus, with ownership of facilities remaining with LAUSD. Green Dot will be liable for anything that occurs on campus. The new charter school, as a part of the accord, will also have to take out additional insurance. According to Greg McNair, chief administrative officer for the school district’s charter division, 80 percent of the estimated $14 million annually allotted to the school will go to Green Dot. Those in support of the conversion included area activists Lillian Mobley, “Sweet” Alice Harris, and Reggie Andrews, the Rev. Leslie R. White of Grant AME Church, and Watts Labor Action Committee chief Tim Watkins. “Locke High fails to provide the necessary safety net for our children. It’s burning our teachers out,” Andrews said. “They have to be social workers, parole officers, they have to be everything other than teachers. Kids are coming to school burned-out because they have to get through gang-infested neighborhoods. When they get to school they are tired.” “This is the reformation that we need at Locke High right now,” added freshman student Rosalyn Carter. “If Green Dot doesn’t take control, what is going to happen to us? They’re [the school district] going to shut it down and there’s not going to be a school. It’s not fair for the kids who want to go to college.” The conversion of Locke into a charter school will also include the establishment of a “Launch to College Academy” serving grades 10 to 12. The venture also includes the establishment of a start-up independent charter school that, beginning in the 2007-08 school year, will serve only ninth grade students to begin with, grow to include the next grade level in subsequent years. According to the proposal: “It is anticipated that those start up independent charter schools begin offsite and relocate to the Locke campus beginning in 2008-09 and each succeeding year until the Locke two-semester operating capacity is reached.” Some of the stipulations in the agreement with the LAUSD include Green Dot hiring a principal for Locke High no later than Jan. 31, 2008. Also, according to the agreement: “On or before Jan. 31, 2008, Green Dot must negotiate in good faith and execute a memorandum of understanding with the district which addresses, among other things, the hiring of the certified and classified staff at Locke High School and sharing of student level performance data.” • 4LAKids 2¢: There was a lot of press on this story, a link to the stories follows. The Wave Newspaper covers the area and it only seems fair to hear the viewpoint from th' 'Hood. The headline does have it right: The operation of a public school is being turned over to a private company. This is not a conversion charter as envisioned by the law: Engineered by the parents, teachers and the community acting in concert. It's true that Green Dot Public Schools, Inc. will be accountable - annually - to the board of education - and it's also very true that the board and the school district have done a monumentally poor job of holding previous administrations and the local district - and teachers, parents and students accountable for Locke. And vice versa. Lest we forget: Alain Leroy Locke High School - named for "The Father of the Harlem Renaissance" - was the 1967 the poster child for improving public education in the underserved communities of South Central - as King Drew Medical Center was for healthcare - following the '65 Watts civil disturbances. The Beatles in the refrain to "(I've got to admit it's) Getting Better" say: "…it can't get no worse." Hopefully JPG&R are right. And hopefully for the kids at Locke it will get far better! There are outstanding issues to re resolved before this can go ahead - the vote by the teachers is disputed, the vote by Parents (not those that showed up 'on the day' but actual Locke parents with actual students actually enrolled at the school) seems open to question; the interpretation of the charter law itself is questioned by all sides, pro and con. Who gets how much money will be contested. But hopefully these things - and the contract issues - will get resolved in the very near future so that progress can be attempted and the program got on with! Other coverage of the Locke/Green Dot story WHY SO MANY TEACHERS ARE QUITTING: District-run schools see much higher rates of dissatisfaction than charter schools. by Vicki Murray | California Focus | Orange County Register Wednesday, September 12, 2007 - More than 6 million California children return to school this fall, but about 25,000 of the teachers they left last semester likely won't return if recent attrition trends are any indication. Nearly every U.S. president since Harry Truman has proposed teacher recruitment plans, in addition to countless state-level programs. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has recently proposed spending $130 million on teacher recruitment, but such efforts largely miss the mark because the core problem is teacher retention, not recruitment. Little has changed since 1983 when "A Nation at Risk," a report based on 18 months of research by the National Commission on Excellence in Education, concluded that "the professional working life of teachers is, on the whole, unacceptable," which helps explain why the American schoolhouse has become a revolving door for teachers. Average annual national non-retirement teacher turnover rates exceed 14 percent, meaning around a third of the teaching workforce (more than 1 million instructors) are in transition each year. This turnover costs California taxpayers an estimated $455 million annually, but better employment opportunities like those offered at charter schools could help. Among nonretiring California teachers at schools run by local districts, more than half who leave blame job dissatisfaction, compared with one in three of their peers nationwide. Inadequate support, excessive bureaucracy, a lack of collegiality and insufficient input under the current district-managed schooling system are leading reasons why California teachers quit. In contrast, overall satisfaction rates among charter school teachers nationwide, at 82 percent, are more than three times higher than for their district-managed counterparts. Also, more than one in four charter school teachers across the country said they would do something else entirely if they could not teach at a charter school. They cite as key elements of job satisfaction their influence over curricula, student discipline and professional development, as well as school safety, collaboration with colleagues and their schools' learning environments. Three of four former California educators would consider returning to teaching if working conditions were better. Less-bureaucratic, independent charter schools have great potential for winning them back. In Los Angeles, for example, 8 percent of teachers came out of retirement specifically to teach at local charter schools. A district-run schooling system, in which students are typically assigned to schools based on where their families live, is an increasingly unattractive prospect for teachers. It is the relic of a bygone era that held few employment opportunities for women, who historically were three-quarters of the teaching workforce. The times, and employment opportunities, have changed, but California's district-managed schooling monopoly founders in a time warp. An unassigned, diversified education system with a variety of schools founded and run by educators would foster strong teacher-school and teacher-student matches and offer teachers the same wide range of employment options other professionals currently enjoy. To attract quality teachers, schools would have to offer competitive salaries, flexible schedules, and professional working environments in which teachers have autonomy to innovate and are rewarded for their success in educating students. Such a system exists in Japan, and teachers there have parental support, motivated students and salaries that rival Japanese baseball pros. A diversified education system also gets results since Japanese students consistently score at or near the top on international exams across a variety of subjects. As a reform model, schools founded by educators, like charter schools, hold great promise for filling the void left by decades of disappointing state and national efforts to improve the teaching profession. ______________________________ ►Vicki E. Murray, Ph.D., is the Education Studies Senior Policy Fellow at the Pacific Research Institute in Sacramento. She is also a Visiting Fellow at the Independent Women's Forum in Washington, D.C., and author of the new IWF study Empowering Teachers with Choice: How a Diversified Education System Benefits, Teachers, Students, and America. • smf 2¢: GOOD GRIEF! WHO IS THE CUSTOMER? Dr Murray is proposing an education system run for the benefit of teachers. She says "A district-run schooling system, in which students are typically assigned to schools based on where their families live, is an increasingly unattractive prospect for teachers" This is an utter repudiation of neighborhood schools. I'm all for open enrollment and for parent and student choice - but in LA we have housing and public transportation issues that make this very, very difficult. In the United States we have a tendency to put schools where the children are. And to assign teachers where students are. Lest I be accused of charter bashing I think my friends and otherwise in the charter community would agree that the number of charter schools built because that's where the teachers are very few and far between! Although building subsidized teacher housing is an investigatable option. In Houston they lure experienced retired principals out of retirement to run challenged inner city schools; the result there (as they are here in cases like Cahuenga ES and Lloyd Houske) are outstanding. And finally: Japan as a business model went away in the 90's. Japan has a famously homogeneous population, an immigration rate hovering at about 1% (legal and otherwise) with 90% of Japanese considering themselves in the middle class. And (I'm making this up without real data, but I'll bet I'm right:) few "Japanese Language Learners" beyond K-1. U.S. PROPOSES TO TRIM SCHOOL MEDICAID FUNDING + LAYOFFS LOOM AT LOCAL KIDS' HEALTH CLINICS • U.S. PROPOSES TO TRIM SCHOOL MEDICAID FUNDING: Tightened rules could save $3.6 billion over 5 years, HHS says By Christina A. Samuels | EdWeek | Vol. 27, Issue 03, Pages 1,17 September 12, 2007 - Federal officials have proposed a plan to stop reimbursements for some of the services schools provide to Medicaid-eligible students, a move long predicted—and dreaded—by local educators. The policy changes were announced late last month by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, a branch of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Under the proposal, Medicaid would no longer reimburse schools for the costs of transporting eligible children from home to school and back. The program would also stop paying school administrative costs now covered by federal aid—money that goes for identifying and enrolling Medicaid-eligible students and for coordinating the provision of medical services covered under a state's Medicaid plan. The program would still pay for certain health services needed by eligible children and for transportation from school to the service providers. Medicaid officials estimate the changes would yield $635 million in savings to the federal health-insurance program for the poor in the 2008-09 school year, the first year of implementation, and an estimated $3.6 billion in savings over five years, said Mary M. Kahn, a spokeswoman for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, known as CMS. The overall aim is to make sure that Medicaid is paying for appropriate services, not shouldering costs that should be borne by school districts or other agencies, federal officials say. "Medicaid is an extremely costly program, and we have to make dollars stretch as far as possible," Ms. Kahn said. "That is the issue. Medicaid funds are not limitless. If a service is genuinely the responsibility of a different agency, it's our fiduciary responsibility to make sure that we are not paying for it out of Medicaid dollars." The proposed rule was scheduled to be published in the Federal Register on Sept. 7. DISTRICTS DECRY CUTS Officials of school districts reacted angrily to the proposed changes, which were announced on the CMS Web site Aug. 31 but had been expected since President Bush released a fiscal 2007 budget plan that included the proposed cuts. Schools are legally required to provide certain services to students with disabilities, district administrators say, and Medicaid is shifting its responsibility to pay for poor students onto cash-strapped school districts. "This seems incredibly shortsighted," said John P. DiCecco, the director of health partnerships and Medi-Cal programs for the 708,000-student Los Angeles Unified School District. Medi-Cal is his state's Medicaid program. "It's all cost-shifting down to the states from the federal government," Mr. DiCecco said. "I find it astounding that this would be the focus of cuts." The district would lose about $2 million in transportation reimbursements per year and $8 million to $10 million in reimbursements for administrative outreach per year, he said. PLANNED CHANGES The Department of Health and Human Services is proposing changes to its program for reimbursing schools for certain health services provided to children eligible for Medicaid. Payments to schools would no longer be available for: • Administrative activities performed by school employees or contractors, or anyone under the control of a public or private educational institution. • Transportation from home to school and back for school-age children with individualized education programs, or IEPs. • Payments would remain available for certain covered services in a child's IEP and for transportation from school to a health-care provider for a covered service. SOURCE: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. That money is just a small fraction of the district's $6.2 billion budget for 2007-08. However, Mr. DiCecco said, it pays for what he believes are essential services that would have to be curtailed. For example, children enrolling in Los Angeles schools fill out applications to determine their eligibility for free or reduced-price lunches. District officials take that information and determine whether a child is also eligible for Medicaid. That kind of outreach effort by school officials is part of the administrative aid that the Health and Human Services Department proposes to cut, Mr. DiCecco said. "The loss of funding is just going to be devastating," said Wendy Gonsher, the director of fiscal and data operations for the 257,000-student Broward County, Fla., school district. She estimates that her district would no longer receive about $6 million to $8 million a year in federal reimbursements for administrative services. The district does not submit transportation claims. Broward County's reimbursements are placed in the general fund and then paid out again in health and health-related services, Ms. Gonsher said. "We're buying nurses. We're buying psychologists," she said. "This latest move—we feared it was coming. We hoped it wouldn't." PROBLEMS IDENTIFIED The Medicaid program and school districts have had an uneasy partnership since 1988, when the adoption of the federal Medical Catastrophic Coverage Act allowed schools to receive payment for certain health services provided to Medicaid-eligible children, such as speech, physical, and occupational therapies to students in special education, as part of their individualized education programs, or IEPs. Reports from government watchdog agencies have suggested that the school reimbursement process has been poorly overseen by CMS, and there has been abuse and fraud at the state and local levels. For example, in a 2000 report, the Government Accountability Office noted that Michigan had submitted to the federal agency $30 million in questionable administrative claims from schools in late 1998. The office of the Health and Human Services Department's inspector general examined claims made by the New York City school district in 1993 through 2001 and said that more than $96 million in federal Medicaid reimbursements for student transportation should be disallowed. The district disputes both the inspector general's methodology and conclusions. Districts contend that any abuses in the system were partly the fault of CMS and of unclear rules. They also claim that the federal agency is scrutinizing school Medicaid reimbursements based on guidelines that didn't exist when the questioned spending occurred. "We did nothing untoward," said Kathleen Cummins Merry, the director of Medicaid services for Michigan's Wayne County Regional Education Services Agency, which provides special education services to 34 school districts, including Detroit. CMS "outlined the rules, and we followed them to the letter. Now they've determined that they didn't like the rules they've created," Ms. Merry said. School district officials say they plan to use the 60 days they have to comment on the proposed regulation to rally support both among their fellow school officials and among federal lawmakers. A bill that would have barred the action then being contemplated by the Health and Human Services Department was introduced in July 2006 by Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass. It didn't pass in the last Congress, and it was reintroduced this year. In addition, current legislation pending in the House for reauthorizing the State Children's Health Insurance Program, or SCHIP, would also bar CMS from adopting the changes. "We want to let everyone know about this proposed elimination [of support],"Ms. Merry said. The program "does, in fact, reach out and help kids and help families find the help they need." Mr. DiCecco of the Los Angeles district said he hoped federal lawmakers would also weigh in. "I don't think this is either Congress' intent or anyone's understanding," he said. ________________________________________ • LAYOFFS LOOM AT LOCAL KIDS' HEALTH CLINICS: Budget cuts slice into funds to get needy enrolled by Harrison Sheppard, Sacramento Bureau | LA Daily News September 14, 2007 - SACRAMENTO - Dozens of health clinics across California, including in the San Fernando Valley, are bracing for funding cuts and layoffs this month that could threaten efforts to aid the region's thousands of uninsured children. Promised state funding earlier this year, the nonprofit health clinics, along with local government agencies, began hiring extra staff to enroll more low-income children in subsidized health insurance programs. But last month Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed funding for the outreach programs as part of about $700 million in cuts he was forced to make to win Republican support for the budget. The move has stunned many clinics, counties and agencies that had already started hiring people and gearing up to provide new services for a program that had just started in the spring and now has suddenly ended. "We were all surprised by it because we thought those funds were secured funds when we started our work," said Vilma Champion, director of marketing and managed care at the San Fernando-based Northeast Valley Health Corp., which runs several clinics. "We hired staff. We put our services in place. We're now not going to be able to retain most of those folks." Her organization hired nine people in April. While they don't have funding for those positions, they are hoping to find other spots for about half of the new employees; the others will be let go. The Northeast Valley Health Corp. hosted the governor's press conference in January 2006 when he first touted his plan to make the funds available to expand children's insurance enrollment. It was seen as one of his first big steps toward improving health care overall in California. Health advocacy groups estimate that several of the governor's vetoes combined cut a total of about $66 million that would have helped enroll about 100,000 children in health insurance programs in 2007-08. The funding did not provide actual coverage, but paid for advertising campaigns and staff to help low-income families learn about the services available and fill out complex paperwork. Clinic officials say outreach is necessary because the population they serve - including many who do not speak English or have little education - often has trouble understanding the health care system. As a result, roughly 447,000 children who are eligible for Healthy Families or Medi-Cal remain uninsured, according to a California Health Interview Survey. In total, about 763,000 children in California do not have health insurance. But state officials said Thursday that the cut was simply a financial necessity and the governor remains committed to expanding health care coverage for children. "We remain committed to enrolling all uninsured children that are eligible for all Healthy Family and Medi-Cal programs," said Mike Bowman, spokesman for the state Department of Health Care Services. "The governor was tasked with cutting more than $700 million from the proposed budget. Unfortunately, those decisions impacted some programs at the county level." He noted that the budget actually increases funding by $59 million for expanded enrollment in the Healthy Families program, which will pay for 39,000 additional recipients. Health advocates say, however, it will be tough to sign up potential new enrollees without outreach programs. Enrollment in Healthy Families has grown to 832,000, up from 686,000 when Schwarzenegger took office, Bowman said. Medi-Cal provides coverage to about 6.7 million people, including 3.2 million children, he said. Los Angeles County health officials estimate that about 200 people countywide - in about 30 different clinics and local government agencies - were hired with the expected funds. They expected to use the money to help enroll about 25,000 Los Angeles children a year in programs such as Healthy Families and Medi-Cal. The county had expected to receive about $26 million over three years for the program. Instead, the state now will only reimburse for any costs in the 2006-07 fiscal year incurred through June 30, 2007. The counties and clinics are on the hook for anything spent after July 1 - even though the governor's veto was not announced until Aug. 24. Los Angeles County has agreed to reimburse the clinics out of county funds through Sept. 27, at a cost to the county of about $2.2 million. "It was a real shock, and it was devastating for a lot of different agencies," said Suzanne Bostwick, acting director of children's health outreach initiatives for the county health department. "We were working on this night and day for a year. You have to look at not only how it affects the agencies, but all the people that will not be receiving services because of this." Besides local clinics, the county also provided state grants to local government agencies like Los Angeles Unified School District and the city of Long Beach. About a third of Los Angeles County's 9.5 million residents do not have health insurance, according to the California Health Interview Survey. More than half of the county's 257,000 uninsured children are believed to be eligible for Medi-Cal or Healthy Families. Olga Duran, director of health outreach services for Valley Community Clinic, said her organization hired five staff members in the spring for outreach and now has to lay them off. "That basically takes away our enrollment and outreach capabilities in the clinic," Duran said. "We do not have the money to carry the program forward." In applying for the state funds, Valley Community Clinic set a goal of reaching out to 5,000 families and enrolling 1,700 more children in subsidized health-insurance programs. • 4LAKids 2¢: That S-CHIP/MediCal/Healthy Families is being slashed is complicated further in Los Angeels, ,where the United Way of Greater Los Angeles is terminating its eighty year history of support and funding for the LAUSD/PTA Student Dental, Vision, and Medical Clinics and Programs - which have historically been the safety net for uninsured and underserved LAUSD students. CALIFORNIA SUPREME COURT LETS STAND 'ANTI-HAZELWOOD' RULING FOR STUDENT JOURNALISTS, UPHOLDING STUDENT RIGHTS By Mark Fitzgerald | Editor & Publisher - America's Oldest Journal Covering the Newspaper Industry September 14, 2007 - Chicago - In a victory for high school journalists, the California Supreme Court let stand an appeals court ruling that schools cannot censor controversial speech in student media. The high court Thursday declined to review the appellate court ruling in a lawsuit that former Novato High School student journalist Andrew Smith filed against the Novato Unified School District after administrators publicly condemned two columns he wrote for the school paper, and tried to confiscate all copies of the offending pieces. The decision is important because it upholds the state's so-called "anti-Hazelwood" law that was intended to restore student free-expression rights in the wake of the 1988 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier. In that case, the high court ruled essentially that school administrators are publishers of student media with the same power to direct or spike material that any publisher of a non-government newspaper has. Smith alleged the school district violated California's Education Code, which in part states that "school districts ... shall not make or enforce any rule subjecting high school pupils to disciplinary actions solely on the basis of conduct that is speech or other communication that, when engaged in outside of the campus" is protected by the First Amendment and California's state constitutional guarantees of free speech. The Novato school district had an even more simply stated code of student First Amendment rights. "Students have the right to exercise freedom of speech and of the press and have the right to expression in official publications," it code said. At issue in the case were two columns written by Smith for the school paper called The Buzz when he was a senior in 2001. Most controversial was the first column about immigration. Smith urged police to roundup as many illegal immigrants as possible, and wrote that it could be simply done: "It can't be hard to find and detain the people who can't speak English. If a person looks suspicious than just stop them and ask a few questions, and if they answer 'que?,' detain them and see if they are legal." The column created a stir in the Marin County school, and a day after its publication students and some parents marched on the campus in protest. Though the principal had reviewed and approved the article beforehand, the schools superintendent ordered the confiscation of all undistributed copies of the paper. A letter was sent to school parents saying the article had violated both the Novato and California codes of student speech. The school also convened a public meeting in which, according to Smith's lawsuit, the student was denounced and reprimanded. Smith's cause was taken up by the Pacific Legal Foundation (PLF), a politically conservative-oriented group that was searching for a case involving the censorship of "politically incorrect" speech on high school campuses. PLF was joined in amicus briefs by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Student Press Law Center in Washington, D.C. Smith lost in state district court, but the appellate court declared that state law "mandates that a school may not prohibit student speech simply because it presents controversial ideas and opponents of the speech are likely to cause disruption." Smith's case was the subject of an E&P online column in May. Thursday's decision "delivered a powerful blow against 'politically correct' censorship in California public schools," PLF attorney Paul J. Beard II said in a statement. "There is no question now that thought codes cannot be imposed on student journalists in this state." • Mark Fitzgerald is E&P's editor-at-large • 4LAKids disagrees with what Smith wrote - but there is a line between racist hate speech and politically incorrect adolescent insensitivity not crossed here. Smith had and continues to have a right to express his opinion - the "right to be wrong!" - both under the California Ed Code and certainly under the Novato School District Student Rights Policy. - smf ARNOLD SHOULD SIGN SCHOOL-FUNDING BILL …AND Y O U CAN HELP! by Gregory Weinberg - Op-Ed in the LA Daily News • Gregory Weinberg is co-chair of the San Fernando Valley Industry & Commerce Association's Workforce Development Committee. September 14, 2007 - WHAT if you heard that one local business created 239,000 jobs, would pay $1.2 billion in local and state taxes, would pay its workers, on average, more than $27 per hour and provide $944 million to local small business? More than likely, you would want to make sure that business thrived and ensure that it was able to successfully continue. It may surprise you to learn that the "business" I am referring to is the Los Angeles Unified School District's construction program. Not only has this program already completed 67 schools throughout the district, and not only has it already stopped over 7,000 kids from being bused into neighborhoods that are not their own, but it also has provided a tremendous economic impact throughout the region. The LAUSD offers an eight-week "boot camp" for small contractors to help them do business with the district. Through its "We Build" program, the LAUSD offers a 10-week apprenticeship and placement assistance program for local workers to join contractors or local trade unions. And the LAUSD offers a five-month MoneyWorks program for contractors to improve their financial literacy and capacity for growth. To date, 375 small contractors have graduated from the boot camp, receiving more than $25 million in contract awards. Some 462 local workers have been able to start a career in construction through the We Build program. And the program has received numerous awards and recognitions from many minority and local business advocacy organizations. But now, all that is threatened. Under an outdated state funding formula, urban school districts like the LAUSD become ineligible for state funds sooner than they should, threatening the district's ability to continue building the schools our schoolchildren so desperately need. Not only that, but under current state rules, the state will not fund a school for a child in its own neighborhood if there is room anywhere else in a school district. So, for instance, the state will not help fund a school in Watts if there is room at a school in Woodland Hills, expecting the LAUSD to bus the child all that way, every single day. This is simply unfair. AB 1014, a bill introduced by Assembly Majority Leader Karen Bass, D-Los Angeles, would help fix that. It would make the funding formula more equitable and more attuned to real-world conditions. In short, the bill would provide the critical state funding needed so that this school district can continue its success in building these schools. AB 1014 is awaiting its fate on Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's desk. Voters in Los Angeles have generously passed three school bonds because they understand how dire the need has been for decades. The district has proven it can meet this need by getting these schools completed. But the state had always promised to do its part, getting state school bonds passed to match these local funds. But if AB 1014 doesn't pass, the LAUSD will get nothing from the most recent state school bond - to say nothing of future bonds. Much-needed neighborhood schools, being built on time and on budget, provide a tremendous economic impact in a region that needs it. The Legislature has done its part to give the LAUSD its fair share by passing AB 1014. Now it's up to the governor to do the right thing and sign it. • 4LAKids 2¢: WHAT CAN YOU DO? As you now know, AB 1014 is on the Governor's desk and awaiting his signature. Please call, email, write or fax his office and add your two cents worth to everyone else's'. Call Susan Kennedy - the governors Chief of Staff at her office at 916-445-2841 - and tell her you are a Parent, Teacher, Student, Taxpayer and/or Voter - and that you expect the governor to do the right thing and sign this legislation. The state must live up to its promise to match the funding the voters of LAUSD have already committed. Governor's Office: Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger State Capitol Building Sacramento, CA 95814 Phone: 916-445-2841 Fax: 916-445-4633 Los Angeles Office 300 South Spring Street Suite 16701 Los Angeles, CA 90013 Phone: 213-897-0322 Fax: 213-897-0319 • • • WHILE YOU'RE ON THE PHONE… urge the Governor to sign AB 321 (Nava) to protect children in school zones: AB 321 (Nava) would allow local authorities, if they so choose, to designate a school zone speed limit of 15 mph within 500 feet of a school in a residential district where the current speed limit is 30 mph or less. This lower limit would apply only when children are going to or leaving school during school hours or at the noon recess period. A January 2007 report by the California Department of Transportation highlights that between January 1998 and December 2005, 11 children were killed and 1,449 were injured in the vicinity of 350 schools in the study. Of these, 44% involved bicyclists and 56% involved pedestrians. Approximately 52% of those injured or killed were 12 or younger. Pedestrian fatalities are the third leading cause of injury death for children under 15. In order to reduce the high rate of pedestrian injuries and deaths among children , it is critical that we improve safe routes to and from schools by reducing hazards and increasing student, community and motorist awareness. There is a definite link between vehicle speed and pedestrian crash severity. At 15 mph, most pedestrians will survive a crash, at 25 mph, almost all crashes result in severe injuries and roughly half are fatal, while at 40 mph, almost 90% of crashes are fatal. This bill has received the support of the Assembly and Senate and is now on the Governor’s desk. Call, fax or email the Governor today to ask him to Sign AB 321 to save the lives of children traveling to and from school. EVENTS: Coming up next week... • Thursday Sep 20, 2007 RAMONA OPPORTUNITY HIGH SCHOOL: PEA Hearing (Second Phase) Please join us at this public hearing to discuss the findings of the second phase of the Preliminary Environmental Assessment (PEA). The PEA determines if an environmental clean up action is necessary to ensure the health and safety of our children. We will be collecting your comments and questions regarding the PEA for this project. 6:00 p.m. Ramona Opportunity High School Cafeteria 231 S. Alma Avenue Los Angeles, CA 90063 • Thursday Sep 20, 2007 VALLEY REGION EARLY EDUCATION CENTER #1 AT CHASE ES: Pre-Construction Meeting 6:30 p.m. Chase Elementary School - Auditorium 14041 Chase St. Panorama City, CA 91402 *Dates and times subject to change. ________________________________________ • SCHOOL CONSTRUCTION BOND OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE: http://www.laschools.org/bond/ Phone: 213-241-5183 ____________________________________________________ • LAUSD FACILITIES COMMUNITY OUTREACH CALENDAR: http://www.laschools.org/happenings/ Phone: 213-893-6800 • LAUSD BOARD OF EDUCATION & COMMITTEES MEETING CALENDAR What can YOU do? • E-mail, call or write your school board member: Yolie.Flores.Aguilar@lausd.net • 213-241-6383 Marlene.Canter@lausd.net • 213-241-6387 Tamar.Galatzan@lausd.net • 213-241-6386 Monica.Garcia@lausd.net • 213-241-6180 Julie.Korenstein@lausd.net • 213-241-6388 Marguerite.LaMotte@lausd.net • 213-241-6382 Richard.Vladovic@lausd.net • 213-241-6385 ...or your city councilperson, mayor, the governor, member of congress, senator - or the president. Tell them what you really think! • There are 26 mayors and five county supervisors representing jurisdictions within LAUSD, the mayor of LA can be reached at mayor@lacity.org • 213.978.0600 • Call or e-mail Governor Schwarzenegger: 213-897-0322 e-mail: http://www.govmail.ca.gov/ • Open the dialogue. Write a letter to the editor. Circulate these thoughts. Talk to the principal and teachers at your local school. • Speak with your friends, neighbors and coworkers. Stay on top of education issues. Don't take my word for it! • Get involved at your neighborhood school. Join your PTA. Serve on a School Site Council. Be there for a child. • Register. • Vote. Who are your elected federal & state representatives? How do you contact them? Scott Folsom is a parent and parent leader in LAUSD. He is immediate past President of Los Angeles 10th District PTSA and represents PTA as Vice-chair the LAUSD Construction Bond Citizen's Oversight Committee. He serves on various school district advisory and policy committees and is a PTA officer and/or governance council member at three LAUSD schools. He is also the elected Youth & Education boardmember on the Arroyo Seco Neighborhood Council. • In this forum his opinions are his own and your opinions and feedback are invited. Quoted and/or cited content copyright © the original author and/or publisher. All other material copyright © 4LAKids. • FAIR USE NOTICE: This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. 4LAKids makes such material available in an effort to advance understanding of education issues vital to parents, teachers, students and community members in a democracy. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. • To SUBSCRIBE e-mail: 4LAKids-subscribe@topica.email-publisher.com - or -TO ADD YOUR OR ANOTHER'S NAME TO THE 4LAKids SUBCRIPTION LIST E-MAIL smfolsom@aol.com with "SUBSCRIBE" AS THE SUBJECT. Thank you.

Impolitic as usual

4LAKids: Sunday, Sept 9, 2007 In This Issue: • ENGLISH LEARNERS LEFT BEHIND: The current No Child Left Behind Law sets up non-native speakers for failure. • THE FUTURE OF EDUCATION?: Kansas City, Mo., Condenses Schools to Boost Grades, Behavior + DO MIDDLE SCHOOL KIDS FACE 'BERMUDA TRIANGLE'? • LAUSD NEEDS A BREATHER: Falling enrollment shows district isn't on right track • A PASSABLE KIDS' HEALTHCARE PLAN: The Senate's plan to fund health insurance for poor kids is modest but might stand up to a Bush veto. • VILLARAIGOSA'S SPIN CYCLE + Highlights, Lowlights & the News that Doesn't Fit: | CHALLENGE TO PROP R | STUDENT AID OVERHAUL • EVENTS: Coming up next week... • What can YOU do? Featured Links: • 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. Madeline d'Engle, the author of young adult fiction ("A Wrinkle in Time") who passed away last week was accused of fictionalizing her own memoirs. "Writing, like fairy tales," she said, "is something that happens somewhere else." 4LAKids exists in another nether world, bearing witness to a land much like that of Alice's Wonderland. LAUSD a curious place populated by couriouser people. Alice may be the only sane one in either setting - and she's trying to get out! The fictional Alice came from the imagination of a Victorian Bachelor / Mathematician / Theologian - a pseudonymous literary genius who may or may not have had a thing for little girls. The real Alice never lived up her potential - with the exception of Victoria herself Victorian little girls never did. The school district is filled with 700,000+ youngsters whose goal is also to get out - more or less intact, more or less educated; some diplomas in hand - others escaped and/or thankfully/thanklessly forgotten: drop outs. There are also 77,000+ adults, some driven by the infinite possibilities of the possible, some putting in their time, looking forward to the next paycheck and wondering if it will be - like Goldilock's stolen porridge - too little, too much or just right. The rules of this place and the universe of public education are absurd: the guiding principle demands the utter impossibly of Every Child At or Above Average by 2013 or we tear the whole thing down and start over! Straight A's and B's on every report card, every kid a high school diploma and in the top ten per-cent of their class so they can go to UC, a degree in four years and on to graduate school. Failure results in promotion. No good deed ever goes unpunished. Principals must be universally loved or be sacked. "Off with her/his head!" No project is adequately funded. The airplane is being built while in flight and there's no blueprint …let alone a flight plan or a destination. Now boarding at gate 9A, the one with the barbarians awaiting. Children will be boarded first, parents have been waitlisted. Fasten your seatbelts. Safety is job one. In what I promise is my last literary reference - but the most promising promise - let me give you Umberto Eco: "Apparently one can overcome even a bad education." Onward! - smf ENGLISH LEARNERS LEFT BEHIND: The current No Child Left Behind Law sets up non-native speakers for failure. by David Brewer, Monica Garcia and Yolie Flores Aguilar | Brewer is superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District. Garcia is president of the LAUSD board, and Flores Aguilar is an LAUSD board member. September 7, 2007 — California Rep. George Miller recently said what educators have known for years: Congress "didn't get it all right" when it passed the No Child Left Behind Act five years ago. As the debate about reauthorizing No Child Left Behind gets underway, there are promising signs for reform, such as Miller's call for serious changes and a recently released discussion-draft of the bill. It's important to Los Angeles, which is severely affected by NCLB, that we review and fix this flawed law. We share NCLB's goal of educating every student to become an active, productive citizen. The law's insistence on measurable academic achievement standards and steady gains -- not just for students but for schools -- can spur change in our under-resourced educational system. Indeed, the Los Angeles Unified School District has made gains under NCLB. Our teachers are highly qualified, students are making incremental improvements, and we are committed to ensuring that every student graduates college prepared and career ready. Despite its good intentions, however, No Child Left Behind did not provide the resources or the flexibility to turn vulnerable schools around. By emphasizing standardized testing, NCLB has created an incentive to practice "teaching to the test." At best, such testing offers a one-dimensional measure of achievement, not necessarily indicating the student's true level of mastery. The greatest challenges are faced by our most vulnerable population: English learners, or "EL" students. Of the more than 700,000 students in district schools, more than 40% don't speak English as their native language. Of those, 94% are Spanish speakers, and the vast majority are native-born U.S. citizens. The NCLB's ill-conceived mandates have set up these students and their schools to fail together. Under the law, if any demographic group in a given school isn't making "adequate yearly progress," the entire school is subject to a list of unproven and inefficient "corrective actions" that could ultimately result in a state takeover of the facility. In L.A. Unified, 297 out of 1,000 schools were judged to be not making adequate yearly progress in 2006, and the district as a whole did not make adequate yearly progress because, among other reasons, EL students were challenged to meet achievement targets that are unfair and unrealistic. Students who don't speak English as a first language need three to five years to become fluent. Achieving the fluency to understand subject-matter tests may take several more years. But No Child Left Behind requires that EL students be tested in English or in their native language to "the extent practicable." Congress and the Department of Education do not define what's "practicable," and many states, including California, have dropped the ball on developing reliable assessments of EL students' academic achievement. Schools are also hamstrung by the failure of our universities to train future urban teachers in the fundamentals of language development and second-language acquisition. Teachers are trained to teach content alone and often don't know how to instruct those whose first language is not English. Congress will reauthorize NCLB this year, which gives lawmakers a chance to fix what's broken. At the top of the list: Congress should require and fund states to develop content-based standardized tests for EL students in their native languages. These students should continue to be tested, and schools should be held accountable for how well they're taught. But their test scores shouldn't be factored into decisions about a school's proficiency until solid native-language tests are developed or EL students have time to learn the English they need to perform well. Finally, Congress should allocate resources to train teachers in second-language acquisition and content-based instruction for English learners. Educators need to develop a repertoire of strategies to incorporate English language skills-building into every lesson plan -- no matter the subject. Congress didn't get it all right with NCLB -- but it didn't get it all wrong either. Some simple improvements can make a good law better and more fair for all our students. ______________ ▲Brewer, Garcia and Flores Aguilar have it correct. Hooray for that! But "not all wrong" doesn't come within a horseshoe's width of good enough! The parts that are right come from the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) of 1965 and Goals 2000, the only real improvement is NCLB's insistence on disaggregating data and evaluating all subgroups of students. A fabulous concept/long overdue. But, gentle reader, a function of statistics – not education. Leaving No Cheap Shot Unfired: the taxonomy is Lies > Damned lies > Statistics. Fixing or tossing out NCLB isn't the answer because NCLB isn't the question. Whatever the question is, it isn't on a multiple choice test. And the scores won't be published any time soon on the Internet, they are posted by succeeding generations in the Book of Life. The true taxonomy we need to engage is Data > Knowledge > Wisdom. L'shanah Tovah - smf More on the House Education Committee's draft revision of No Child Left Behind (updated from last week) THE FUTURE OF EDUCATION?: Kansas City, Mo., Condenses Schools to Boost Grades, Behavior + DO MIDDLE SCHOOL KIDS FACE 'BERMUDA TRIANGLE'? Sept. 6, 2007 -- from Thursday night's Evening News with Charles Gibson The Kansas City, Mo., school superintendent believes he has found the wave of the future in education: Eliminate middle school and test scores will go up. For 50 years, the model for American public schools has been elementary school, then middle school and then high school. But Kansas City, Mo., is eliminating the middle schools in favor of a single "elemiddle" school that will go from kindergarten through eighth grade. There, students in all grades stick with one teacher for the most of the day, so older kids will not switch classrooms for every subject as is the practice in middle schools. "You're in a nurturing environment," said Kansas City School Superintendent Anthony Amato. "You don't see as many teachers as you would in a large environment, [such] as a middle school of 1,000 students." Amato will take questions about his school system in an online Q+A here. He said the kids will calm down when they can be role models for the younger students. And he believes reading and math scores will go up as expulsion rates and drop-out rates go down. Kids Reactions: 'Horrible' to 'Helpful' Charles Gibson talked to some sixth graders in Kansas City who had expected to be in a middle school this year but instead are in an elemiddle school with the younger students. One said, "I think it's horrible! Because we have to stay with the little kids." Another said he liked the change because "all of my friends are here." "If you don't know people in your class, they might not want to help you with an answer or a problem. And if your friend is sitting next to you, they will help you," the student added. Right across the river in Kansas City, Kan., officials are sticking with the middle schools. "I don't think that structures are what make the biggest difference," said David Smith, the assistant to the superintendent of the Kansas City, Kan., schools. "It's what you do within that structure." No one really disagrees. Good teachers will succeed anywhere and a nurturing environment is essential. But Amato said their first K-8 schools are already showing results. "Just by looking at our final scores that already exist on a K-8 level," he said, "they are far out-producing and far out-gunning & our middle schools right now." F L A S H B A C K: DO MIDDLE SCHOOL KIDS FACE 'BERMUDA TRIANGLE?' Stats, Experts Suggest More Peril in Middle Schools than in K-8 Schools ABC News' Gigi Stone originally reported this story for "World News Tonight" on March 13, 2005. PHILADELPHIA -- Jake Simmet, 11, always has helped his mom, Michelle, around the house, but she's worried his sweet demeanor may soon disappear. Jake is about to enter middle school. "My fears are that he doesn't get involved with the wrong kind of kids, or in drugs or drinking," she said. Michelle Simmet is one of millions of parents now questioning whether public middle schools, with grades six through eight, are the best choice for such a vulnerable age group. "I think it's a difficult time," she said, "because of all the changes their bodies are going through, with hormones and growing." Reconfiguring Districts Educators in a growing number of cities agree and have begun reconfiguring their schools, turning away from the middle school model and back to the kindergarten through eighth grade system that was popular before the 1970s. Some districts are making the switch due to cost-cutting and overcrowding, but for the most part, the changes are driven by a series of studies. They depict middle schools as the "Bermuda Triangle" of education. Philadelphia eighth-graders at the K-8 schools scored significantly higher on state tests than their middle school counterparts, studies by the Philadelphia Education Fund show. And nationally, crime takes off in middle schools, where it's 30 percent higher than in elementary schools, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. "Middle schools are flawed organizationally," said Paul Vallas, chief executive officer of the Philadelphia School District. "They simply don't work." Vallas has nearly eradicated middle schools in Philadelphia. "Middle-grades children in K-8 schools do far better than they do in middle schools," Vallas said, "both academically and behaviorally. 'Be Involved' If your child is entering middle school, educators suggest, take your child to school as often as possible. Exchange phone numbers with teachers and get involved in the PTA and other school projects. "I'll be involved as much as I can with the school and keep an eye on him," Simmet said. Read All Comments and Post Your Own to ABC News LAUSD NEEDS A BREATHER: Falling enrollment shows district isn't on right track Daily News Editorial Thursday, September 6, 2007 - ANOTHER academic year began this week for the Los Angeles Unified School District, and with it another year of declining student enrollment. The country's second-largest school district will still have a lot of students - about 700,000 - but 8,000 fewer than last year. In fact, student enrollment has been dropping for five years, and it is expected to continue to slide even as the district plows forward on a massive school-building project. The charter-school movement is also siphoning away students whose parents are fed up with the stale bureaucracy and the disempowerment of individual schools. What this means for the future of the LAUSD isn't clear, but what is clear is that the district is intent on ignoring its not-so-certain future and keeps charging toward a goal set in the last millennium. In a physical sense, this can be seen in the school-construction program. The district has done an admirable job of building new schools. So far, 67 new LAUSD campuses have been developed and many others renovated with $15 billion from taxpayers. It will cost billions more to complete the 77 schools still planned. Obviously, the district has done a better job of building new schools than fixing what goes on in the classrooms. It's time now to reverse those priorities. Put educating kids first, buildings second. With a new school year, a new reform-minded and excited majority on the school board, a new superintendent and a new plan for the mayor's involvement, it's exactly the right time for a sober assessment of the LAUSD's goals. And one of the most important questions for school officials to consider is whether the concept of jumbo schools - so popular in the 20th century - fits with the educational model of today. We think it does not. And Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa agrees. Last week when he presented the plan for his "family of schools," he said the era of large campuses is over. L.A. has become too densely populated for that. Also, there is wide agreement that, when it comes to education, smaller is better - smaller class sizes, smaller "learning communities" and smaller schools. It's time for the school district to embrace the smaller revolution with action before it finds it's been passed by. ▲ A frequent correspondent with 4LAKids - who will go unnamed (though assuredly not to protect his or her innocence!) says of this editorial: "While it is always 'interesting' to read the Daily News editorial page, today's is an outstanding example of how easy it can be to prepare an editorial when one has no facts and is not interested in same." THE FACTS: • Population trends are forecast to reverse in 2012 or thereabouts - school enrollment will again begin to increase. - just as the current building program is complete. • In 2012 – two hundred thousand LAUSD schoolchildren — two out of every seven and a large number of them in Valley (the home turf of the Daily News) — will be attending schools on a traditional calendar (Yes!) in their local school (Yes!) - but they will still be attending classes in so-called "temporary portable" bungalows. "Portables" are the FEMA trailers of public education! • LAUSD IS building smaller schools and implementing small learning communities in ALL existing and future high schools and middle schools. • The voters have voted overwhelmingly for the program the DN wishes to stop. And no matter how well intended, money voted for school construction cannot be used for education in the classroom. Cannot. As in it's illegal. • And the mayor didn't "present his plan for his 'families of schools'" last week — [See "VILLARAGOSA'S SPIN CYCLE" - below]. He talked about presenting his plan. We have been hearing that since his first state of the city speech April 18, 2006. —smf A PASSABLE KIDS' HEALTHCARE PLAN: The Senate's plan to fund health insurance for poor kids is modest but might stand up to a Bush veto. LA Times Editorial September 7, 2007 - In a perfect world, Congress would pass the House's reauthorization of the State Children's Health Insurance Program by an overwhelming majority. Unfortunately, seeing as the 6.6 million children in the program have to deal with reality -- particularly the threat of losing enrollment if SCHIP isn't renewed by Sept. 30 -- it's clear that any bill that reaches the president's desk would have to garner sufficient bipartisan support to stand up to Bush's threatened veto. The more modest Senate version could. Authorized in 1997, the state-administered SCHIP provides coverage for children whose families don't qualify for Medicaid but can't afford private insurance. It's been highly successful -- since the program started, the number of uninsured children has dropped by nearly a fourth. Now it's up for renewal, and the Congressional Budget Office estimates that the $25-billion program needs $14 billion more over the next five years just to keep covering current enrollees, let alone reach more of the nation's nearly 9 million uninsured children. Bush is willing to pony up $5 billion. That's tantamount to a cut. Luckily, unlike Bush, many Republican members of Congress are up for reelection. Senate Republicans have set the increase ceiling at $35 billion -- that's as far as the Finance Committee could stretch a tobacco tax increase, the only source of funding both sides could agree upon. But limited though it is, the Senate bill has one big plus: Enough Republicans backed it that it passed 68 to 31, enough to override a veto. The House bill would rely less on tobacco taxes and make up the difference by reducing funds for private healthcare under Medicare Advantage. Its bottom line hits almost $90 billion, as it addresses a shopping list of healthcare programs besides SCHIP. One costly item saves Medicare physicians' fees from a scheduled 10% cut. This double whammy -- cutting private programs and protecting public ones -- had Republicans crying "socialized medicine." That's absurd but effective: The bill passed by a largely party-line vote of 225 to 204, hardly an ironclad majority. Now Republicans are blocking Senate nominations to a conference committee, and Democrats are suggesting a temporary extension of the program. Both are losing perspective. Note to Democrats: Stop trying to use the SCHIP bill to save Medicare fees. It's SCHIP that needs the attention. Use the Senate's higher tobacco tax, and only that tax, to fund the program. If those of you in the House still want to give Medicare Advantage's private plans a haircut, fine, but do it in another bill, and make it a modest trim. Also, keep those funds in-house -- use them to buffer the effects of the Medicare fee cuts. Such a plan may still bother some Republicans, but it would be cheaper and less politically explosive. A smaller, more realistic SCHIP bill is better than a late bill, or no bill at all. VILLARAIGOSA'S SPIN CYCLE + Highlights, Lowlights & the News that Doesn't Fit: | CHALLENGE TO PROP R | STUDENT AID OVERHAUL ▲ VILLARAIGOSA'S SPIN CYCLE: HE'S GUSHING OVER HIS "HISTORIC" SCHOOL-REFORM PLAN, AND SO ARE SOME IN THE MEDIA. LOOK AGAIN OVERPROMISING: Though Decidedly Modest, the Mayor's School Fix-It Plan Faces Problems by Michael Krikorian | LA Weekly HISTORIC. HISTORIC. HISTORIC. At a news conference crammed with media members last week, the word "historic" was invoked 21 times. Was this press gathering about the Battle of Stalingrad? Maybe Neil Armstrong walking on the moon. How about Barry's 756th home run? Not quite. It was the announcement of a partnership between the city of Los Angeles and the Los Angeles Unified School District, a decidedly modest plan to focus money and attention on a very small percentage of the troubled district's worst schools. "Historic." (Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, at least nine times.) "Historic." (Schools Superintendent David L. Brewer III, at least four times.) "Historic." (Board of Education President Monica Garcia, three times.) "Historic." (Board of Education Member Marlene Cantor, just twice.) "Historic." (A few students thrown into the mix.) Some in the swarm of media who attended began writing the letter "h" for each mention. Not that reporters were skeptical enough to lob many tough questions at Villaraigosa, who used the setting to put his own spin on his two years of bruising attacks on the schools. His combative demands for a role in the district's high schools have sent teacher morale plummeting, cost LAUSD nearly $1 million to fight an unconstitutional mayoral takeover law, and created an icy schism with former Superintendent Roy Romer — viewed by many as the most activist and reform-minded schools leader in Los Angeles since the 1960s. Now, with nine television cameras rolling and dozens of backers cheering him, a smiling Villaraigosa announced he was entering into "The Partnership" with LAUSD to "service, support and manage two families of schools" — meaning two high schools and the cluster of nearby elementary and middle schools that feed into those high schools. "In the coming months, we will reach out and look at the 20 worst schools in the city and see if they want to join The Partnership," said Villaraigosa, who says he expects The Partnership to be operating late this year. Yet even as they touted their efforts, Villaraigosa and schools officials had little of substance to say about the plan. "Failure is not an option," said LAUSD Superintendent Brewer, a retired three-star Navy vice admiral — quickly drawing ridicule from teachers who were reminded of Vice President Dick Cheney and President George W. Bush saying the same thing about Iraq. Within hours of Brewer's comment, the L.A. Weekly received a taunting essay from a prominent high school teacher and outspoken reformer — the kind of teacher he needs to woo — slamming Brewer as "Admiral Failure Is Not an Option." THERE ARE, IN FACT, PROBLEMS. No schools have yet agreed to be part of Villaraigosa's small pilot project. Nor has the mayor offered any workable plan for how he'll achieve an academic turnaround and slash the high school dropout rate. What is known so far of his plan — parental involvement, teacher empowerment, focused spending — is very similar to a dramatic effort put into the Ten Schools Program, launched in 1987 to remake the city's 10 worst grade schools. Now serving 15 schools, mostly in Watts and South-Central, it has had mixed results. (An LAUSD public information officer the Weekly contacted didn't even know what the Ten Schools Program was.) Villaraigosa's plan also sounds like yet another splashy reform — a highly touted revamp under Superintendent Ruben Zacarias in the 1990s to identify, spend money on, and bring accountability to the 100 worst schools. That effort was historic — as a tremendous flop. Villaraigosa insists, "We are flipping the way we think about schools on its head." To do that, "We are pouring the foundations for a historic partnership between LAUSD and the city that will transform L.A. schools and fundamentally reconfigure what education means to students, teachers and parents in Los Angeles." That's a dramatic vision. But his 30-page report, "The Schoolhouse," a blueprint for reform, was widely criticized for offering no new ideas about how to do that. According to Villaraigosa's statement of intent for his pilot project, "Schools within the identified families of schools will get to choose whether or not they want to become Partnership schools." Considering the state of affairs at some of the most challenged high schools, such as Locke, Manual Arts, Fremont, Jordan, Crenshaw and Jefferson, the schools appear to have little to lose. Villaraigosa's press secretary, Janelle Erickson, defended the fuss being made over The Partnership, saying, "It's a first and a giant step in the right direction." Yet the greatest risk might be Team Villaraigosa's penchant for publicly overpromising things it can't deliver. For example, the mayor's ally, Los Angeles Board of Education President Garcia — a longtime friend whom Villaraigosa endorsed last year for the school board — last week declared: "Only through partnerships with key stakeholders like the city, county and higher education will we make the changes necessary for the ultimate goal of 100 percent graduation." But a 100 percent graduation rate, in a sprawling district of more than 712,000 students, 800 schools and 77,000 employees, is in truth not going to happen. Such impossible goals could instead drive a wedge between the mayor and the roughly 35,000 rank-and-file teachers — almost none of whom showed up to support Villaraigosa's "historic" moment last week. The best that Steve Barr, the founder of the Green Dot charter schools, could say was that he hopes Villaraigosa is motivated enough by his desire to run for governor or other higher office to actually get something done. "He is obviously ambitious and wants to go to higher office, so he wants to do better, and that's good," says Barr. But Villaraigosa won't have The Partnership at all unless he gets agreement from teachers at the selected schools, as well as from United Teachers Los Angeles. "I want to see details and I don't see any details yet," says A.J. Duffy, the president of UTLA. "We expect the mayor and his team to go to schools and explain exactly what they bring to the table. It's not good enough to say we are gonna do this and that. We need to hear exactly what they intend to do." Nor is it clear that the union, long known for blocking rather than spearheading successful academic reforms, can change its pattern of placing blame on everyone but itself. Duffy, whose leadership of the fractured union is said to be tenuous, is again pointing fingers, claiming, "We need to find a way to do away with, or at least mitigate, the bureaucracy that is a roadblock to reform." Spin has been the order of the day: a "historic" event that drew few teachers. A mayor trying to refocus attention away from his ruined marriage and controversial affair. A union that has little track record in pushing for solid academic improvements among children, peddling itself as a reform leader. The mayor says requiring accountability will be the key to The Partnership's success, promising, "We want to change to a culture of accountability and responsibility." But in all these months, at his many public appearances calling for improving the city's high schools, the mayor has yet to say how. If Los Angeles–area high schools actually were to improve — well, that would be historic. _________________________________________________ ▲ LEGAL CHALLENGE TO PROP R MOVING FORWARD by smf | 4LAKids Sept 9, 2007 - David Hernandez and Ted Hayes are continuing their challenge to CITY CHARTER PROPOSITION R: The City Government Responsibility, Lobbying and Ethics Reform Act (originally titled: "Ethics Reforms/Term Limit Extensions/Ballot Initiative" ¨C which extended city council terms limits to three terms while making cosmetic changes to city ethics and lobbying rules. The mayor allegedly bundled his personal endorsement of Prop R with quid-pro-quo city council support for his failed school takeover plan: AB 1381. Hernandez, Hayes and a number of others challenged Measure R because it incorporated two different provisions (electoral reform and term limit extension) into a single measure in violation of the single issue rule in the state constitution. [Art 2 ¡ì8 (d)] This same question exists in CITY CHARTER PROPOSITION L: Term Limits, Campaign Finance Rules, Compensation Review - which linked imposing term limits on the school board with compensation reform and campaign finance rules - violating the single issue constitutional provision and additionally Article 9 ¡ì16 (b) - specifically requiring separation of issues in elections where school district boundaries extend beyond the chartering city. There are additional outstanding questions as to the propriety of both measures because they were never vetted through the City Ethics Commission or Neighborhood Councils as required under the City Charter. In the first court challenge - which removed the ballot measure from the ballot - Judge Robert H. O'Brien ruled "the measure illegally combined the term limits proposal with new restrictions on lobbyists. The Constitution prohibits asking voters to decide separate issues in the same ballot question" Judge O'Brien's decision was appealed, the measure was placed back on the ballot pending the appeal ¡­and the measure was passed by the voters before the appeal could be heard. The City Attorney - originally a plaintiff in the action was forced to drop the appeal once the ballot measure passed because his obligation is to represent the voters! (The "done-deal" conundrum) Eventually Judge David P. Yaffe in a resurrected action brought by Hernandez and Hayes (Judge Yaffe is not a appellate judge) decided to let the measure stand based on some very interesting-if-tortured semantic legalisms revolving around: "When is an issue not a issue and/or an initiative not an initiative?" Yaffe ruled - based on documents and oral arguments - that Prop R was not a ¡°Ballot Initiative¡± and did not have to conform to the single issue rule. If it looks like a duck, waddles like a duck and quacks like a duck¡­ Hernandez and Hayes have until October 16, 2007 to accept the ruling or appeal; they are committed to seeing this challenge to its conclusion. Says Hernandez: "There are however limits to the amount of resources at our disposal. There are many worthy and vital issues for us to direct our resources, but this issue is one which addresses the causes and conditions which impact every other challenge we are faced with: Politicians and Special Interests, who believe they are above the Constitution and can with impunity, mislead and deceive the people, must be challenged." It's not really about kids and schools ¡­but of course it is! 4LAKids believes along with Margaret Mead that "One should never underestimate the power of a small dedicated group of people to change the world. They are the only ones who ever do." One must choose one's adversaries and the windmills one challenges wisely; we invite our readers to check out http://www.termedout.com - and we wish David and Ted - two of the few - good luck and best wishes in court. _________________________________________________ ▲ CONGRESS PASSES STUDENT AID OVERHAUL + HOW TO BEAT THE HIGH COST OF LEARNING The press has been filled lately with stories of the Sub-Prime Loan/Home Mortgage crisis, following on the heels of the Student College Loan Scandal. At our house we have been following both misadventures raptly - not because we overextended ourselves and bought a huge home with an adjustable sub-prime loan (we didn't) but because we are about to send our child off to college and she seems dreadfully attracted to Ea$t Coa$t Private Univer$itie$. I always thought Swarthmore was a brand of water color paper. Of course our house could probably use a new roof and the air conditioner has months to live. Designer Kitchen ¡­or College Education ¡ª which is the better investment? And needless to say The Jones (who live across the street rather than next door) have two Porsches and a Mercedes - and are running laps ahead of us in our Volvo and Kia. I am always on the verge of canceling the subscription to The Times - the deliveries always hit the porch but the editorials tend to maddeningly miss the mark. But they are in the midst of an excellent series on actual college finance - as opposed to the theoretical socking-away-of-the-money therefore. I'm not going to post it all here in 4LAKids, but it's definitely fodder for the 4LAKids All That News That Doesn't Fit website. ¡­plus it's good stuff for those of you out there dealing with What Middle School or High School to Send Your Little Darlings To? It only gets better ...and with road trips! - smf ▲ Also see the Congress website on the Student Loan Overhaul: http://edlabor.house.gov/micro/ccraa.shtml Congress Passes Student Aid Overhaul + How to Beat the High Cost of Learning EVENTS: Coming up next week... • Tuesday Sept, 11, 2007 Regular meeting of the LAUSD Board of Education 10AM - check link below for the posted agenda. LAUSD Boardroom - 333 S. Beaudry Ave, LA 90017 ------------------------------------------------------------- smf 2¢: Under the heading: CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE PAYROLL ACTION The UTLA website warns of civil disobedience at the Sept 11th Board meeting and advises: "UTLA leaders will cause havoc at the School Board meeting in an attempt to emphasize the gravity of the [BTS] payroll nightmare and move Board members to take action NOW!" Outrage is justified and the payroll system IS in crisis -- 4LAKids is in solidarity with teachers who are not being paid. But not to put too sharp a point on the stick: IT IS THE K*I*D*S THAT MUST A*L*W*A*Y*S COME FIRST ! -------------------------------------------------------------- • Thursday Sep 13, 2007 South Region High School #8: Site Selection Update Meeting - At this meeting we will review criteria used to select potential sites and review those under consideration. 6:00 p.m. Bell High School Auditorium 4328 Bell Ave. Bell, CA 90201 *Dates and times subject to change. ________________________________________ • SCHOOL CONSTRUCTION BOND OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE: http://www.laschools.org/bond/ Phone: 213-241-5183 ____________________________________________________ • LAUSD FACILITIES COMMUNITY OUTREACH CALENDAR: http://www.laschools.org/happenings/ Phone: 213-893-6800 • LAUSD BOARD OF EDUCATION & COMMITTEES MEETING CALENDAR What can YOU do? • E-mail, call or write your school board member: Yolie.Flores.Aguilar@lausd.net • 213-241-6383 Marlene.Canter@lausd.net • 213-241-6387 Tamar.Galatzan@lausd.net • 213-241-6386 Monica.Garcia@lausd.net • 213-241-6180 Julie.Korenstein@lausd.net • 213-241-6388 Marguerite.LaMotte@lausd.net • 213-241-6382 Richard.Vladovic@lausd.net • 213-241-6385 ...or your city councilperson, mayor, the governor, member of congress, senator - or the president. Tell them what you really think! • There are 26 mayors and five county supervisors representing jurisdictions within LAUSD, the mayor of LA can be reached at mayor@lacity.org • 213.978.0600 • Call or e-mail Governor Schwarzenegger: 213-897-0322 e-mail: http://www.govmail.ca.gov/ • Open the dialogue. Write a letter to the editor. Circulate these thoughts. Talk to the principal and teachers at your local school. • Speak with your friends, neighbors and coworkers. Stay on top of education issues. Don't take my word for it! • Get involved at your neighborhood school. Join your PTA. Serve on a School Site Council. Be there for a child. • Register. • Vote. Who are your elected federal & state representatives? How do you contact them? Scott Folsom is a parent and parent leader in LAUSD. He is immediate past President of Los Angeles 10th District PTSA and represents PTA as Vice-chair the LAUSD Construction Bond Citizen's Oversight Committee. He serves on various school district advisory and policy committees and is a PTA officer and/or governance council member at three LAUSD schools. He is also the elected Youth & Education boardmember on the Arroyo Seco Neighborhood Council. • 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. 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