[Budget] compromising past promises/Compromising the future: NEW BUDGET RULES LOOSEN UP SCHOOL FUNDING + LAUSD BOARD INFORMATIVE ON CATEGORICAL FLEX

By Laurel Rosenhall and Robert Faturechi | The Sacramento Bee

Published: Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2009

Summer school. Art and music. Classes for gifted children.

Buying textbooks. Training math and English teachers. Tutoring students for the high school exit exam.

For decades, a large portion of California's school funding has been strictly designated for such categories.

Not any more.

In the budget deal crafted last week, the Legislature and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger combined many of the pots of money known as "categoricals." The result is that for the next five years, principals and district administrators will have more spending flexibility than they've had in recent history.

It's a move education reformers have been pushing for years, saying a bit more freedom with the checkbook would help schools meet their students' needs.

The new state budget cuts about $2.4 billion from schools this year and changes the payment terms of another $5 billion. The reductions get even deeper next year, when schools will face an additional cut of $400 million.

About $1 billion of the cuts will be taken out of categorical funding – which makes up one-third of the money California spends on education and funds more than 60 individual education programs.

Categorical funding became popular in the 1960s as politicians tried to help disadvantaged children by spending money specifically on them and ensuring the additional cash didn't wind up in teachers' paychecks, according to a new report by UC Berkeley's law school.

As categoricals proliferated over time, however, they created a bureaucratic web of obligations for educators, who couldn't target funds where they were needed most. Money for buying new technology couldn't be used to buy books for a library. Money for checking kids' teeth couldn't be spent on counseling. Money for training principals couldn't be used to train a teacher.

"Principals said they spent a God-awful amount of their time filling out compliance forms," said Bruce Fuller, a UC Berkeley education professor who surveyed principals for a recent study.

"They've got to keep receipts, keep billing information. … Principals become mini-bureaucrats rather than working with teachers and being in classrooms."

The findings led him to recommend – in the massive "Getting Down to Facts" report Schwarzenegger released with fanfare in March 2007 – that the state consolidate categorical funding.

And that is just what the new plan does. It collapses 42 categorical programs into one block of money, and trims it by about 15 percent, or $1 billion. Schools can now use that money for any purpose.

"They could do less on school safety and more on career tech," said Jennifer Kuhn, director of K-12 education with the Legislative Analyst's Office. "They can do less counseling and have smaller class sizes. They can do less adult ed and more K-12 ed."

Or, she said, they can skip spending on those programs and give teachers a raise.

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COMPROMISING PAST PROMISES/COMPROMISING THE FUTURE: Under the "Budget Compromise" reached in Sacramento, Schools can now use money from these categorical programs for any purpose: [smf: "for any purpose" is somewhat misleading - see Informative (following)]
• Summer school/supplemental instruction

• Regional Occupational Centers and Programs

• High school counseling

• Specialized secondary programs

• Immediate intervention/underperforming and high achieving/improving schools programs

• Gifted and talented education (GATE)

• Mathematics and reading professional development

• Principal training program

• American Indian Early Childhood Education Program

• California Indian education centers

• Adult education

• Education technology

• Deferred maintenance

• Instructional materials

• Community day schools program

• Bilingual teacher training program

• National Board for Professional Teaching Standards Certification Incentive Program

• California School Age Families Education Program

• California High School Exit Exam

• Center for Civic Education

• Teacher dismissal apportionments

• Charter schools

• School safety

• Class size reduction, grade nine

• International baccalaureate diploma program

• California Association of Student Councils

• Pupil Retention Block Grant

• Teacher Credentialing Block Grant

• Professional Development Block Grant

• Targeted Instructional Improvement Block Grants

• Library Improvement Block Grant

• School Safety Consolidated Competitive Grant

• Physical Education Block Grant

• Arts and Music Block Grant

• County Office of Education Williams Audits

• Certificated Staff Mentoring Program

• Oral Health Assessments

• Commission on Teacher Credentialing

Schools must continue to pay for these programs with categorical funding:

• Child Development

• Child Nutrition

• Economic Impact Aid

• Special Education

• Home-to-School Transportation

• After School Education & Safety

• Class Size Reduction, kindergarten – third grade

• Quality Education Investment Act

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The plan has the potential to revolutionize school funding in California, said Michael Kirst, a Stanford education professor and former state Board of Education president.

But it doesn't do away with categorical funding altogether. About 20 categorical programs remain intact, including some of the biggest – special education and K-3 class-size reduction.

Because the restrictions on many of the biggest categorical programs have not been eased, the new flexibility won't help cash-strapped districts very much, said David Gordon, Sacramento County's superintendent of schools.

The changes might have been more useful during a time of surplus, he said. But without money, flexibility is of little use.

"To me it's more like, 'Do you cut your arm off or your hand off?' " Gordon said. "We have a bare-bones program already going in. That basic core – the reading, the math and so on – is something you can't trade off."

Other educators said the eased restrictions will give them some welcome wiggle room.

Patrick Godwin, superintendent of Folsom Cordova Unified, expects the relaxed rules will allow his district to avoid painful staff cuts.

"The district here already had a strong music and arts program," Godwin said. "So we'll be able to use those monies to keep more counselors or keep more electives in the high schools."

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The following is from an LAUSD Office Of Government Relations informative to the Bd of Ed & Superintendent dated February 19, 2009

SUBJECT: STATE BUDGET APPROVED WITH MAJOR REDUCTIONS TO EDUCATION CATEGORICAL PROGRAMS

Determining the Categorical Program Reductions

Categorical programs are being funded on the basis of three tiers, with the funding for Tier 1 being the most protected. In 2008-09, the Tier 2 and 3 categorical programs are cut by 15 percent or $944 million. In 2009-10, Tiers 2 and 3 are cut by an additional 4.9 percent or $268 million. Page | 2

1. Tier 1 – No reductions and no flexibility options on the use of these dedicated funds (there are flexibility options within the Class Size Reduction program itself, which are described later). The following are the protected programs in this tier:

Budget Item	Title
Tier 1
6110-161-0001	Special Education
6110-196-0001	Child Development
6110-234-0001	K-3 Class Size Reduction
6110-128-0001	Economic Impact Aid (EIA)
6110-649-0001	After School Programs
6110-601-3116	Home-to-School Transportation
6110-203-0001	Child Nutrition
Quality Education Improvement Act (QEIA)
6110-130-0001	Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID)

2. Tier 2 – 15 percent reduction in 2008-09, and an additional 4.9% reduction in 2009-10. There are no flexibility options with these programs.

Budget Item	Title
Tier 2
6110-113-0001	Student Assessment Testing
6110-224-0001	Year Round Schools
6110-125-0001	English Learner Student Assistance
6110-220-0001	Charter School Facility Grant Program
6110-166-0001	Partnership Academies
6110-103-0001	Apprentice Program
6110-119-0001	Foster Youth Programs
6110-158-0001	Adults in Correctional Facilities
6110-182-0001	K-12 Internet Access
6110-167-0001	Agricultural Vocational Education

3. Tier 3 – 15 percent reduction in 2008-09 and an additional 4.9 percent reduction in 2009-10. For these programs, there is complete flexibility for a district to use these funds as it wishes.

Budget Item	Title
Tier 3
6110-246-0001	Targeted Instructional Improvement Block Grant (TIIG)
6110-156-0001	Adult Education
6110-105-0001	Regional Occupational Centers and Programs
6110-247-0001	School and Library Improvement Block Grant
6110-104-0001	Supplemental Instruction
6110-189-0001	Instructional Materials
6110-188-0001	Deferred Maintenance
6110-245-0001	Professional Development Block Grant Program
6110-108-0001	Supplemental School Counseling Program
6110-211-0001	Charter School Categorical Block Grant
6110-244-0001	Teacher Credentialing Block Grant
6110-123-0001	High Priority Schools Grant Program
6110-265-0001	Arts and Music Block Grant
6110-232-0001	Class Size Reduction - 9th Grade
6110-228-0001	School Safety Block Grant (8-12)
6110-243-0001	Pupil Retention Block Grant Program
6110-204-0001	CA High School Exit Exam (CAHSEE)-Support and Services
6110-198-0001	CA School Age Families Education
6110-137-0001	Math and Reading Professional Development
6110-124-0001	Gifted and Talented
6110-190-0001	Community Day Schools
6110-227-0001	Community -Based English Tutoring Program
6110-260-0001	PE Teacher Incentive Program
6110-193-0001	Peer Assistance and Review
6110-248-0001	School Safety Competitive Grants
6110-107-0001	County Offices of Education - Fiscal Oversight
6110-267-0001	Certificated Staff Mentoring
6110-266-0001	County Office of Education - Williams Audits
6110-122-0001	Specialized Secondary Program Grants
6100-144-0001	Principal Training Program
6110-151-0001	American Indian Education Centers
6110-268-0001	Child Oral Health Assessments
6110-195-0001	National Board Certification Incentives
6110-240-0001	Advanced Placement Programs
6110-193-0001	Bilingual Teacher Training
6110-150-0001	American Indian Early Childhood Education Centers
6110-193-0001	Reader Services for the Blind
6110-208-0001	Civic Education
6110-209-0001	Teacher Dismissal Apportionment
6110-242-0001	CA Association of Student Councils
6110-123-0001	Sanctions
6110-144-0001	Chief Business Officers Training Program
6360-101-0001	Local Assistance - Commission on Teacher Credentialing

Additional Flexibility Options

1. School districts now have the option of increasing the K-3 Class-Size Reduction (CSR) Program from the present 20:1 restriction without completely losing this specific categorical program funding. Districts would be subject to the following penalties with these new flexibility options:

Class Size Penalty

20.5 to 21.5 (less than) 5 percent

21.5 to 22.5 (less than) 10 percent

22.5 to 23.0 (less than) 15 percent

23.0 to 25.0 (less than) 20 percent

25 or over 30 percent

2. Deferred Maintenance: The .5 percent statutory match for deferred maintenance would be eliminated for the period of 2008-09 to 2012-13.

3. Routine Maintenance Reserve: The requirement for a 3 percent reserve for routine maintenance would be reduced to 1 percent for the period of 2008-09 to 2012-13.

4. Transfer of Categorical Program Balances: The District would have the authority to transfer the 2008-09 categorical balances for any educational purposes, except for balances in the following programs:

Special Education

QEIA

EIA

TIIG

Instructional Materials

CAHSEE

Supplemental Instruction

Transportation

Program Elimination

The High Priority Program is eliminated in 2009-10.

STATE HELD HOSTAGE

Sacramento Bee cartoonist Rex Babin

SCHOOL GAINS ARE PUT AT RISK

Mockler: “The budget bell is ringing for California's schools to take a recessionary recess from reform.”

George Skelton, Capitol Journal | LA Times

January 12, 2009 -- From Sacramento -- It's inevitable that California public schools soon will be whacked with hefty program cuts. And that's a shame because students recently have been making significant gains.
A decade of academic advancement due to class-size reduction, tougher curriculum, higher standards, testing, accountability and other reforms could be stalled -- even reversed -- by the necessity to cut spending.

But there's no way around it. When the state's general fund is projected to be nearly $42 billion in the hole by the middle of next year and the cost of kindergarten-through-community college eats up roughly 40% of that fund, schools must take a hit, even after the probable tax increases.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has proposed shorting schools $2.1 billion during the rest of this academic year and $3.1 billion the next. Perhaps most eye-opening, he'd save the state $1.1 billion by cutting off money for one week's worth of instruction. The number of school days would be reduced to 175 from 180.

"It's a loss of learning opportunities," notes state Supt. Of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell. "Only eight states have fewer than 180 days."

Among other cuts, Schwarzenegger has proposed saving $114 million by eliminating a special program to bolster learning in "low-performing" schools. Democrats have suggested the same thing.

Also in jeopardy are class-size reduction, advanced placement programs for the university-bound, extra help for English learners, special ed, summer school, counseling, gifted programs, arts and music and a long list of other "categorical" programs that local districts would be free to cannibalize to make ends meet.

"If we were a baseball team, we'd be playing with seven players to the other team's nine and still be expected to beat them," says veteran education consultant John Mockler, referring to California's challenge in educating the most diverse school population in the nation -- 25% are English learners -- on relatively sparse rations.

A new report by Education Week, a national publication, ranks California 47th among the states in per-pupil spending, "adjusted for regional cost differences."

Mockler says that 4.4% of Californians' personal income is spent on public schools. By comparison, it was 5.6% in 1972 when Ronald Reagan was governor. That 1.2% difference, he says, is the equivalent of $22 billion. "Bring back Ron, I say."

A bit about Mockler: He's not exactly a household name, except around the Capitol, where he is a legend. The pony-tailed ed guru has been at the center of most education policy debates as a legislative staffer, gubernatorial appointee or consultant for 44 years.

Only a handful of people truly understand the complexities of school finance. And nobody does better than Mockler because he wrote the law: Proposition 98. Sponsored by the California Teachers Assn. and approved by voters in 1988, Prop. 98 basically guarantees K-12 schools and community colleges 40% of the general fund.

But it's far from that simple. And Mockler, 67, has made a very good living explaining, manipulating and protecting Prop. 98. "It allowed me to send my two kids to college," he says, grinning.

"Schwarzenegger once came over to me and said, 'I think I understand. Every time I screw with Prop. 98, you get richer.' "

Mockler is currently on a crusade to prove that California is getting its money's worth on schools. He stopped me in a cross-walk to deliver his pitch.

"If you only read newspapers or listened to talk shows, you'd think high schools were places of violence and sloth and didn't do squat," he said. "The system's not perfect. But there's significant improvement.

"It's not true that the sky's falling."

He offered some testing data from the Department of Education covering the last five years:

• There has been a 31% gain in students of all grades who score "proficient" or "advanced" in reading. (In 2003, 35% did; by 2008 the figure was up to 46%.)
• For math, there has been a 23% gain (from 35% to 43%.)
• The figures are most dramatic for targeted groups that started at a lower base. Among Latinos, there was a 60% gain into the higher reading levels (from 20% of students to 32%.) For blacks, 50% tested higher (from 22% to 33%.) And for the "educationally [economically] disadvantaged" the rise was 60% (from 20% to 32%).
• These groups also showed significant gains in math testing: 43% higher for Latinos, 47% for blacks and 37% for educationally disadvantaged.
• And a lot more kids overall have been taking high-end math and science courses.

The actual "achievement gap" -- the difference between the higher scores of whites and Asians versus the lower results of blacks and Latinos -- has not narrowed much, although it did begin to budge last year. But a bigger percentage of blacks and Latinos are improving.

Mockler says it's likely the budget cuts will slow the gains, but not reverse them.

O'Connell isn't so sure. He fears that the cuts threaten "a major setback" in efforts to close the achievement gap. "More than 1.5 million English learners attend school in California. It's critical to our entire state's economic future that they succeed and are well prepared for the competitive global economy."

"We're making progress," he adds. "It's slow, it's hard, it's incremental. But we've been on the right track. Reducing the school year, in particular, would be a step backward."

Unfortunately, the budget bell is ringing for California's schools to take a recessionary recess from reform.

SOME OF CALIFORNIA'S MOST GIFTED STUDENTS ARE BEING IGNORED, ADVOCATES SAY

 

Highly intelligent, talented students need special programs to keep them engaged and challenged. But experts say too often they aren't even identified -- especially in low-income and minority schools.

By Carla Rivera, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

"Some administrators and teachers have other reasons not to identify students as gifted: They philosophically don't believe that students should be classified that way or they don't want the responsibility of providing special services for them."

smf opines: There is a name for people who philosophically oppose the law and the best interests of  a child  and/or avoid the obligations of their job.   That name should be "Unemployed".

May 12, 2008 — If you reviewed Dalton Sargent's report cards, you'd know only half his story. The 15-year-old Altadena junior has lousy grades in many subjects. He has blown off assignments and been dissatisfied with many of his teachers. It would be accurate to call him a problematic student. But he is also gifted.

Dalton is among the sizable number of highly intelligent or talented children in the nation's classrooms who find little in the standard curriculum to rouse their interest and who often fall by the wayside.

With schools under intense pressure from state and federal mandates such as No Child Left Behind to raise test scores of low-achieving pupils, the educational needs of gifted students -- who usually perform well on standardized tests -- too often are ignored, advocates say.

Nationally, about 3 million kindergarten through 12th-grade students are identified as gifted, but 80% of them do not receive specialized instruction, experts say. Studies have found that 5% to 20% of students who drop out are gifted.

There is no federal law mandating special programs for gifted children, though many educators argue that these students -- whose curiosity and creativity often coexist with emotional and social problems -- deserve the same status as those with special needs. Services for gifted students vary from state to state. In California, about 512,000 students are enrolled in the Gifted and Talented Education program, which aims to provide specialized and accelerated instruction.

But many gifted students who might benefit from the program are never identified, particularly those in economically disadvantaged communities, advocates say. Legislation sponsored by state Sen. Louis Correa (D-Santa Ana) aimed at training teachers to identify gifted students from low-income, minority and non-English speaking families stalled last year after estimates found that it could cost up to $1.1 million.
John C. Scribner, who is Correa's legislation director and also a member of the Sacramento County Board of Education, noted that opposition to gifted programs often comes from those who think other low-income students will be shortchanged. But low-income gifted students are doubly deprived, he says.

"There are students, usually from upper-income homes -- who will always have advocates," Scribner said. "We want to give that same opportunity to kids whose parents maybe are working two jobs, who aren't engaged with the system but with survival and other challenges and whose children end up without advocates."

Statewide, Latinos, who make up 48% of total student enrollment, represent just 28% of students enrolled in gifted programs. African Americans represent 7.6% of students and 4% of students enrolled in gifted programs. On the other hand, Asians make up 8% of total student enrollment and 17% of gifted enrollment; whites make up 29% of total enrollment and 43% of gifted enrollment.

The reasons for the imbalance are varied. Schools attended by lower income and minority students tend to have fewer gifted programs and less qualified teachers. In addition, better educated and more affluent parents are more likely to demand an advanced curriculum or hire outside psychologists to test their children.

Some administrators and teachers have other reasons not to identify students as gifted: They philosophically don't believe that students should be classified that way or they don't want the responsibility of providing special services for them.

California is asking districts to develop strategies to address the under-represented student populations, such as making greater use of group-administered tests that measure abstract thinking and reasoning ability in the second and third grades, said state Department of Education gifted program consultant Sandra Frank.

But even in districts with GATE programs, funding is usually insufficient to cover a full range of services for all the students who need them, advocates say. Currently, only 800 of the state's 1,353 school districts apply for GATE funding.

Broader public support for enhanced services is hindered by the perception that smart kids don't need help, said Elizabeth Jones Stork, president of the Institute for Educational Advancement, a South Pasadena nonprofit that supports gifted programs.

Pipeline To Success, a program founded by Stork's group in 1999, is seeking to change that perception. Working with the Pasadena Unified School District, the program provides gifted students such as Dalton with after-school activities, college tours and referrals for financial aid. More than 200 students have graduated from the program, with 94% of them going to four-year colleges.

In most respects, Dalton is a typical teenager. A student at Blair International Baccalaureate School, he lives in Altadena with his grandmother and likes science fiction, sports, hiking and his computer. Through the Pipeline program, Dalton has gone on college tours, attended leadership camps and taken a journalism course.

But at 15, he wonders where he will be five or 10 years from now. He worries about the world's problems and says he wants to do something significant with his life or at least make people happy. Staying motivated, though, is a constant struggle: "It's a problem I still have if I don't see the usefulness of something," he said.

Dalton's strong sense of justice and idealism are common hallmarks of gifted children, said California Assn. for the Gifted President Marilyn Lane. Many can have sharp mood swings. Some have dyslexia, attention deficit disorder or other disabilities.

They are also apt to push the limits at home and at school, challenging parents and teachers and generally opposing structure and authority.
Raising a gifted child can be a chore, said Karen Bagnard, Dalton's grandmother and legal guardian since he was 5. A psychological evaluation early on pegged Dalton as exceptionally bright, she said. In elementary school he was moved ahead a year. But Bagnard, an artist who designs notecards with whimsical images of mermaids, animals and fairies, said that like any other boy, he still must be goaded to pick up his room and do his homework.

"On some levels, he's a piece of work, but overall he's a delightful kid," she laughs. "His start in life was pretty bumpy and by all rights he should be a messed up kid, but he's really smart, really funny and very secure."
Dalton recently mentioned that he and three friends are trying to start up a band, but that someone is always missing from practice. Further conversation reveals that in addition to the drums, he plays the saxophone, clarinet and piano, and that a few months after taking up the trumpet, he earned a seat in the Pasadena Unified School District's all-star band that marched in the 2006 Rose Parade.

In school, the nadir was eighth grade, where he tuned out in almost every class because, he says, the material was too basic and instruction amounted to just taking notes. While he never considered dropping out, he was likely what experts call an emotional dropout.
The one bright spot that year was an algebra class in which his teacher, Minh Tran, challenged GATE pupils with complex equations and allowed them to lead discussions.

Tran, now a school counselor, is still a mentor to Dalton and says the teenager has an intelligence "you just can't teach." But he added that Dalton doesn't always give his best effort in class. "I had to sit down with him and tell him sometimes you have to take care of things just because it's your job. You don't always get to pick and choose in life."

Unlike some of his friends, Dalton is not concerned with getting into a prestigious college. He may go to a community college to improve his grade point average. Maybe he'll take a year off and hike the Pacific Crest Trail or maybe hike around the world. He's considering becoming a park ranger.

"The whole expectation thing makes me angry," he said. "I feel like what you can do doesn't make you who you are. It's what you do do. It's not the destination but what you learn on the journey."

 

Some of California's most gifted students are being ignored, advocates say - Los Angeles Times