►THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN GOVERNOR SCHWARZENEGGER ON THE BUDGET AND THE DISTRICT I REPRESENT IN THE STATE ASSEMBLY
by Mark DeSaulnier, Member - California State Assembly
March 21 - Contra Costa County was home to contrasting press conferences this week. Though both focused on the budget, they were very different events that evidenced very different understandings of the impact of the state’s budget crisis on Californians.
On Monday, Senate President pro Tem Don Perata, Senator Torlakson, Democratic legislators and I joined educators, parents, students and community activists. We discussed what a $4.8 billion dollar cut to education will look like for kids and teachers. The press conference was held on the front lawn of a local school, open to all.
On Thursday, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger had a “discussion” with a hand-selected crowd of mostly business leaders. It largely ignored the pain this budget crisis will inflict on working Californians. (more)
►SCHOOL HAZE: COULD FREEWAYS HOLD THE ANSWER TO LOS ANGELES SCHOOLS’ POLLUTION PROBLEM?
by Suzanne LaBarre • Metropolis Magazine
March 19 - Los Angeles public schools are in a bind. Overcrowding has reached such levels that teachers have had to share their classrooms, cutting the overall academic calendar by up to 17 days while forcing students to sit through school in shifts year-round. One middle school squeezes 2,700 students into a facility designed for 800. The most obvious remedy, building more space, is complicated by a 2003 state health-and-safety law that bans most school construction within 500 feet of a freeway. Los Angeles has 24 freeways, covering 250 miles. That’s like telling Venice not to build by water.
A partial solution is emerging in the least likely place: the freeways themselves. (more)
The Daily News payroll rant o' th' week:
DON'T PUT MUCH HOPE IN LAUSD PAYROLL SYSTEM
LA Daily News editorial
March 19, 2008 - You would be forgiven for forgetting, what with massive cost overruns and all, that the purpose of the Los Angeles Unified School District's disastrous new payroll system was to save money. Really!
That flawed system - which underpaid and overpaid teachers for two years - has cost taxpayers $40 million so far. And that's on top of the $95million the LAUSD shelled out to buy the accursed thing. But, amazingly, district officials still maintain that, somehow, the people of L.A. will come out on top in this deal. (more)
Other stories from the UCLA/IDEA Just Schools newsfeed:
CALIFORNIANS UPSET BY SCHOOL FUNDING CUT PLAN
By Nanette Asimov/San Francisco Chronicle
A hundred garbage cans line the streets of Alameda. Each holds a student, a teacher, a custodian - or another expendable soul from a local school. "If they trash the schools, kids would be trashed too," said Ben Holmes, 7, explaining with a first-grader's clarity why he was standing in a gray trash bin on the corner of Park and Central earlier this week. For drama, it's hard to beat a child in a garbage can. And drama is what educators say they need to show their outrage at Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposal to cut $5.5 billion from schools and colleges. The cuts would wipe out nearly 70 percent of the state's remaining $8 billion budget gap and wipe out school quality as well, they say.
EDUCATION BUDGET CUTS ARE NOT IN CALIFORNIA'S INTEREST
Opinion by Carlos Garcia,Mark Sanchez/San Francisco Chronicle
Carlos Garcia is the superintendent, and Mark Sanchez is board president, of the San Francisco Unified School District.
How is it that we have become so comfortable with the fact that our schools are woefully under-funded? And now Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has announced that California is in a fiscal crisis, and proposed several spending cuts, including $4.8 billion budgeted for public education. All of us who have been in California for some time are veterans of fiscal crises. Although attempts were made in the past to save public schools from sudden crises by the passage of Proposition 98 - a clear statement from voters that they support public education, no matter what the economic state of the state - our legislators seem to be taking the easy way out in the face of hard times.
EDUCATION CUTS CAN DO GREAT HARM
Staff Report/Marin Independent Journal
GOV. ARNOLD Schwarzenegger says the state budget process is broken and dysfunctional and needs a radical overhaul. He is right. He also is using the $16 billion deficit to make his point, originally calling for a 10 percent across-the-board cut in spending - including for public schools. The outcry has been loud and predictable - and in many ways justified. School districts in Marin and throughout the state have started sending out notices warning teachers and other staff that they may be laid off. State law requires those notices be sent out by March 15 if layoffs are to occur in the fall. It is a depressing process that creates uncertainty and anxiety among teachers, parents and students.
STATES’ DATA OBSCURE HOW FEW FINISH HIGH SCHOOL
By Sam Dillon/New York Times
When it comes to high school graduation rates, Mississippi keeps two sets of books. One team of statisticians working at the state education headquarters here recently calculated the official graduation rate at a respectable 87 percent, which Mississippi reported to Washington. But in another office piled with computer printouts, a second team of number crunchers came up with a different rate: a more sobering 63 percent. The state schools superintendent, Hank Bounds, says the lower rate is more accurate and uses it in a campaign to combat a dropout crisis.
BANDAGING NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND
The education secretary is right to bend, if not break, the law, rather than drop the accountability movement.
Editorial/Los Angeles Times
Once again, Margaret Spellings is doing the right thing for schools by bending, if not actually breaking, the law. The No Child Left Behind Act was so poorly conceived that occasionally the secretary of Education has to disobey it to make it work. In 2006, Spellings allowed some states to measure student growth each year instead of measuring only the number who test as proficient. The law itself gives schools no credit for raising achievement from the basement to the first floor and encourages them to ignore their failing students.
PARENTS VOICE CONCERNS OVER SCHOOL BUDGETS
Belmont-Redwood Shores School District may have to lay off employees
By Neil Gonzales/San Mateo County Times
Potential budget cuts could force the Belmont-Redwood Shores School District to lay off all of its librarians But a local education foundation made up of concerned parents is trying to raise enough money to save the six librarians, teachers and other school employees facing layoffs, given the district's projected shortfall of up to $870,000 in the 2008-09 academic year. Tuesday night, parents and other community members aired their budget frustrations during a packed town hall meeting with state Sen. Leland Yee, D-San Francisco, at Central Elementary. "Education is clearly cut to the bone," parent Patrick Wheeler told Yee during the meeting that drew about 200 people. "Other areas may have more money sloshing around. Maybe they should be cut more."
Don't put much hope in LAUSD payroll system
Editorial/LA Daily News
You would be forgiven for forgetting, what with massive cost overruns and all, that the purpose of the Los Angeles Unified School District's disastrous new payroll system was to save money. Really! That flawed system - which underpaid and overpaid teachers for two years - has cost taxpayers $40 million so far. And that's on top of the $95million the LAUSD shelled out to buy the accursed thing. But, amazingly, district officials still maintain that, somehow, the people of L.A. will come out on top in this deal. It's just a matter of time, they say. As soon as the district rolls out the third phase of the computerized system - which covers districtwide purchasing - next year, big-time savings will start pouring in.
FIGHTING THE WAR ON HOMEWORK
Commentary by Uma G. Gupta/AsianWeek
For a moment, let’s pretend to be an elementary school teacher. You earn a salary low enough to afford maybe one or two meals at McDonald’s once a month; you have volumes of paperwork to fill out to satisfy your school’s bureaucratic systems and local, state and federal regulations; you have little or no resources, and that includes chalk, pens, pencils and books; you get a barrage of free advice and relentless complaints from parents who are teachers in absentia; and you have a class full of children, many hungry and sleepy. This scenario may not fit the affluent schools, but it aptly fits many schools in this country, especially those in low-income neighborhoods. It is within this context that the debate about too much homework and its detrimental effects rages today.
ACLU SUES PBC OVER LOW GRADUATION RATES FOR BLACKS
By Christine DeNardo/Palm Beach Post
ACLU sues PBC over low graduation rates for blacks The American Civil Liberties Union today filed a first-of-its kind lawsuit against the Palm Beach County School District over its low graduation rates for black students. In the past, the ACLU and other organizations have sued school districts for not distributing resources equally but no organization has pursued legal actions for not achieving equal results. While more than 80 percent of white students graduated on time in the county, only about 55 percent of blacks did.
No comments:
Post a Comment