The Governor has vetoed SB 84 by Senate President pro Tem Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento) - Education finance, which would have restored funding to the Quality Education Investment Act (QEIA); itself a court-approved fix for previous Schwarzenegger funding cuts.
When does it end?
October 11, 2009 | As legislative leaders continue talks on a package of water bills, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's office released word of the fate of 183 bills.
The governor, who threatened to veto "a lot" of bills if leaders can't strike a water deal, has until midnight to act on the more than 500 bills remaining on his desk.
See the governor's office's list of the 89 bills he signed and the 94 bills struck down with the veto pen after the jump.
EDUCATION BILLS IN RED
Bills Signed:
Bills Vetoed:
|
6/7/09 -- Today, our kids get their information from the Internet, downloaded onto their iPods, and in Twitter feeds to their cell phones. A world of up-to-date information fits easily into their pockets and onto their computer screens. So why are California's public school students still forced to lug around antiquated, heavy, expensive textbooks?
California is home to software giants, bioscience research pioneers and first-class university systems known around the world. But our students still learn from instructional materials in formats made possible by Gutenberg's printing press.
It's nonsensical — and expensive — to look to traditional hard-bound books when information today is so readily available in electronic form. Especially now, when our school districts are strapped for cash and our state budget deficit is forcing further cuts to classrooms, we must do everything we can to untie educators' hands and free up dollars so that schools can do more with fewer resources.
In February, we helped schools weather this storm by freeing up categorical restrictions on spending, and we must continue making these changes so more dollars go directly into the classrooms.
That's why I am so excited about the digital textbooks initiative California just launched. Starting with high school math and science books, this initiative paves the way for easier access to free digital texts in California's schools. By frequently updating texts as they are developed, rather than continuing to teach from outdated textbooks, we will better prepare our students.
For example, many textbooks still describe television technology in terms of cathode-ray tubes, without even mentioning LCD or plasma screens that are being sold today. If California is to remain competitive in an increasingly global economy, this initial focus on math and science texts is critical.
These kinds of digital instructional materials are rapidly becoming available. Across the state and around the world, well-respected educators have designed customizable texts to meet the unique needs of their students. Federal grants have funded research that is free for public use. And now California has put out an initial call to content developers, asking that they submit high school math and science digital texts for our review. We hope the floodgates are open. We'll ensure the digital texts meet and exceed California's rigorous academic standards, and we'll post the results of our review online as a reference for high school districts to use in time for fall 2009.
California must take the lead on using 21st century technology to expand learning and serve our students, parents, teachers and schools better. Even in good economic times, state government should always strive to use taxpayer dollars to the greatest effect. But especially now, it is imperative that we find ways to do more with less.
Last year, the state earmarked $350 million for school books and other instructional materials. Imagine the savings schools could realize by using these high-quality, free resources. Even if teachers have to print out some of the material, it will be far cheaper than regularly buying updated textbooks.
If the clamor for digital music and online social networking sites is any indication, young people are the earliest adopters of new technology, and cutting-edge product options are cropping up as quickly as the latest Facebook fads. However, there are those who ardently defend the status quo, claiming our vision of providing learning materials to students for free would risk a high-quality education.
That's nonsense. As the music and newspaper industries will attest, those who adapt quickly to changing consumer and business demands will thrive in our increasingly digital society and worldwide economy. Digital textbooks can help us achieve those goals and ensure that California's students continue to thrive in the global marketplace.
Arnold Schwarzenegger is governor of California. He wrote this article for the Mercury News.
Librado Romero/The New York Times - In Rebecca Stern’s class at Staples High School in Westport, Conn., students can get a lesson online in class or at home.
June 8, 2009 - WESTPORT, Conn. — Math students in this high-performing school district used to rush through their Algebra I textbooks only to spend the first few months of Algebra II relearning everything they forgot or failed to grasp the first time.
So the district’s frustrated math teachers decided to rewrite the algebra curriculum, limiting it to about half of the 90 concepts typically covered in a high school course in hopes of developing a deeper understanding of key topics. Last year, they began replacing 1,000-plus-page math textbooks with their own custom-designed online curriculum; the lessons are typically written in Westport and then sent to a program in India, called HeyMath!, to jazz up the algorithms and problem sets with animation and sounds.
“In America, we run through chapters like a speeding train,” said John Dodig, the principal of the 1,728-student Staples High School here. “Schools in Singapore and India spend more time on each topic, and their kids do better. We’re boiling down math to the essentials.”
That means Westport students focus only on linear functions in Algebra I, taught in seventh, eighth or ninth grade depending on student ability, and leave quadratics and exponents to Algebra II, eliminating the overlap and repetition typical of most textbooks and curriculum guidelines. Westport has also scaled back exercises like long formal proofs in geometry, revising lessons and homework assignments to teach students to defend their answers to math problems as a matter of routine rather than repeatedly writing them out.
Westport’s curriculum overhaul joins other recent critiques of mile-wide, inch-deep instruction in the long-running math wars within American education. In 2006, the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics called for a tighter focus on basic math skills. Two years later, a federal panel appointed by President George W. Bush urged that pre-kindergarten to eighth-grade math curriculums be streamlined after finding that math achievement for American students was at “a mediocre level” compared with that of their peers worldwide.
Westport school officials say their less-is-more approach has already resulted in less review in math classes, higher standardized test scores and more students taking advanced math classes. The percentage of the district’s 10th graders receiving top scores on state exams rose to 86 percent last year from 78 percent in 2006. Advanced Placement calculus and statistics classes enrolled 231 students this year, from 170 in 2006, and a record 44 students will be able to take multivariable calculus this fall, up from four in 2006.
But while Westport’s new approach has attracted interest in the math education world, the vast majority of schools in Connecticut and elsewhere continue to race through dozens of math topics in each grade because of concerns that cutting back could hurt student performance on state assessments and SATs.
Hank Kepner, president of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, said that most schools choose among prepackaged math curriculums, which have to be expansive enough to meet wide-ranging standards for every state, and that he had not heard of another district trying to write its own.
“I give them kudos for trying it,” he said. “But I’m worried that not many districts will have the amount of support needed to pull off a new curriculum and sustain it.”
Patti Smith, a vice president at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, a major national supplier of math textbooks to schools, said she did not believe Westport’s curriculum could maintain the same level of quality and consistency as a published math curriculum. Her company spends two years developing a curriculum using hundreds of math specialists and field-testing in schools.
“With all that is expected of teachers and students today, building a mathematics curriculum that has the depth to meet the needs of all classrooms is a very hard thing to do,” she said, pointing out that for a school district’s teachers, any time they spend “building content is time they are not working with kids.” (The math textbooks Westport is phasing out are by McDougal Littell, now part of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.)
But textbooks are not immune to the streamlining trend: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt has written an Algebra I textbook for Florida schools that is about 200 pages shorter than the 1,000-page national version.
Here in Westport, the math curriculum has been compiled from original lessons and assignments as well as material adapted from Web sites, books, training sessions and conferences. Math teachers say their curriculum seeks to balance traditional teacher-directed instruction with student-exploration exercises, and in some cases diverges from Connecticut standards, which, for instance, call for quadratic equations to be taught in Algebra I.
“They’ve sidestepped the math wars because they have a rational curriculum, well-taught, and they get great results, so how can you argue with that?” said Steven Leinwand, principal research analyst at the American Institutes for Research, who helped Westport develop its math curriculum.
Frank Corbo, the head of Staples’ math department, said the district spent about $70,000 to develop the new math curriculum — half to pay two dozen teachers to work on it over the summer, and the other half to pay HeyMath!, whose Web server in Singapore gives students 24-hour, 7-day-a-week access to class lessons, tutorials and homework assignments. He said that the district will soon save at least $25,000 a year on textbooks.
In interviews, several Westport teachers and parents said the slower pace has helped their children focus more deeply on difficult concepts, and students say the shift online has made math easier to understand with cool graphics, animation and real-world context like global warming. “Math for a lot of kids is not fun,” said Lee Saveliff, co-president of the Parent-Teacher Association at Staples. “For kids who are computer literate, this helps them get a connection to the material.”
But the transition has not been without glitches. Some of the new word problems featured children with unpronounceable names like Trygve. Students have forgotten their passwords to log into the math program, and some online lessons had too few practice problems, sending students back to their textbooks.
In precalculus class the other day, Sarah White taught a dozen juniors and seniors about sine and cosine curves by inviting them to “play around with graphs” in a HeyMath! lesson. As a student touched an on-screen graph, the curves jumped and slid — an exercise that used to take 10 minutes or more on graphing calculators. “Kids would punch in wrong numbers and use the wrong mode,” Ms. White said.
Jahari Dodd, 17, a junior who earns B’s in math, said the online lessons were a welcome change from the dense pages of numbers and equations in his precalculus textbook. “I’m much more of a visual learner,” he said. “If I can’t see it or have some kind of image with it, it’s much harder to grasp.”
Kirk Massie, 15, a sophomore, said that he prepared for his midterm in Algebra II by replaying class lessons at home. “You don’t have to ask questions, you just rewind,” he said. “If you forget or it’s late at night, or you don’t have time to talk to the teacher, it’s right there and it takes a minute to log on.”
But he added that was not yet ready to close his math textbook for good. “It’s just weird not having something on paper that I can just look at,” he said.
THE TWO MAJOR CALIFORNIA TEACHERS UNIONS AGREE THAT THE STATE OWES EDUCATION BILLION$, CTA Goes to the Ballot Box, CFT to the Courts
Thursday, April 16, 2009 11:43 PM
The latest on California politics and government Posted by Kevin Yamamura, SACBEE April 16 - The California Teachers Association has pumped $5 million so far into a campaign to pass Propositions 1A and 1B, with the carrot of $9.3 billion in total additional education revenues starting in 2011-12 under 1B. But the California Federation of Teachers believes there's a different way to get that
L.A. ACADEMY SPEAKS OUT AGAINST PROPOSED LAUSD TEACHER CUTS
Saturday, April 18, 2009 12:57 PM
by Nadra Kareem | Contributing Writer The Watts Times April 16, 2009 -- Lamar Queen considered applying to three school districts in Southern California upon graduating from Louisiana’s Grambling State University. In the end, the math teacher settled on the Los Angeles Unified School District. “They had a nice incentive program for new teachers who were going to teach math, so I went with
YouTube: CTA’s YES ON 1A & 1B COMMERCIAL
Thursday, April 16, 2009 6:16 AM
4LAKIDS unenthusiastically recommends YES votes on 1A, 1B & 1C. We don’t like any of them, but they are the best we are going to get in this economy with politics-as-unusual in Sacramento. 1D and 1E hold early childhood education and mental health programs temporary hostage for education, if you can accept that – vote YES. 1E is a no brainer. Familiarize yourself with the measures
NY Times’ Los Angeles Journal: GIVING LESSONS IN TRAFFIC SAFETY AT MIDDLE SCHOOLS
Thursday, April 16, 2009 5:18 AM
By JENNIFER STEINHAUER | NEW YORK TIMES Michal Czerwonka for The New York Times - Mitchell Summer, the dean of students at Florence Nightingale Middle School in Los Angeles, helps students cross the street April 10, 2009 — LOS ANGELES — At 2:58 each weekday afternoon, the adults brace for traffic chaos at Florence Nightingale Middle School. The bell sounds, and children dash to the left
Wednesday, April 15, 2009 3:17 PM
Update 4/15 | 3pm: Before yesterday’s vote to “save” 1996 elementary school jobs Reduction in Force/RIF/layoff notices had been sent to 10,571 employees. The final vote technically authorized 8,541 layoffs, Superintendent Ramon Cortines and Chief Financial Officer Megan Reilly said the district would route state funding to individual schools, allowing them to
“DO THE RIGHT THING FOR KIDS …AND THE RIGHT THING IS NOT TO PROCEED WITH THIS BUDGET”
Saturday, April 18, 2009 2:48 PM
“You have heard from Jackie Goldberg and John Mockler; you have heard from teachers and parents and student. Listen to them.”
smf to the Board of Ed at the April 14th Meeting: Members of the Board of Education, I speak today as Vice President of Los Angeles Tenth District PTA and I bring the greetings of Thirty-first District. Together we represent the entirely of PTA in LAUSD. I am here in
LABOR ORGANIZES AGAINST BUDGET MEASURE 1-A + Strange 1A fellows move their beds closer together
Tuesday, April 14, 2009 8:10 AM
By Kevin Yamamura | Sacramento Bee Monday, Apr. 13, 2009 - A powerful California public employee union formed a campaign committee Monday with two other labor groups to oppose Proposition 1A, a May 19 ballot measure that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and legislative leaders have said will solve future budget problems. Service Employees International Union's California State Council, which says
COALITION OF LAUSD UNIONS & H.O.P.E PARENT COALITION TALKING POINTS
Saturday, April 11, 2009 10:34 PM
Spend the Stimulus monies to ensure a future for the kids & Deny the District’s self-defeating and rash cuts. Guiding Principle From 4/6 Meetings Public Interest Message of Hope· Maintain level of consistency of instructional and operational support.· Equity. ·
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.
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
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."
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.
The State Legislative Analyst’s Office has prepared a summary and analysis for each of the six measures.
The Secretary of State has now posted the ballot summaries, arguments for and against, and other information.
The political establishment is already starting to gear up for the budget-centric special election on May 19.
Here are the budget measures that will be on that ballot:
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger hosted a D.C. steakhouse fundraiser Monday. The money went to Schwarzenegger's California Dream Team PAC, which is gearing up its fundraising operation for the budget special election.
A $25,000 ticket bought a seat at the head table with the governor, according to the Associated Press, while $10,000 paid for "preferred seating" and photos. Cheap seats were available for $2,500.
WIGS OPTIONAL: A coalition of left-of-center and good government groups are sponsoring a Sacramento summit today on whether the time has come for a California constitutional convention.
That's an actual possibility afforded under state law that would allow the state to, in essence, chuck a good chunk of its constitution and start over.
As the Bay Area Council, which initially spearheaded the effort, says, "We believe it is our duty to declare that our California government is not only broken, it has become destructive to our future. It is time to repair our system of governance."
February 6, 2009 -- California is now the Wile E. Coyote of states. Our governor and lawmakers have dickered and dawdled all of us off a cliff, but we're trying desperately to resist the realization that there is no ground beneath us. Our legs 
Too bad for us, but Standard & Poor's has already noticed. It said this week that California is a monumentally bad bet for investors, presumably because the state lacks both the will to adopt a budget and the ability to raise enough tax money to guarantee it will pay back all those bonds voters keep approving; S&P now ranks California 50th among states in credit ratings.
If ratings agencies recommend California as the last choice for bond buyers, how attractive could the state look to Washington? President Obama and Congress want federal dollars to go to work immediately, so they hardly could be blamed for guiding those dollars to states with governments that pay contractors with Federal Reserve notes rather than IOUs, with budgets that balance, with governors who lead and legislatures that function. Take a look -- that's not us.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has identified "shovel ready" projects lined up for federal cash. But they will fall behind similar projects ready to go in states where governors and lawmakers are not arguing about permits and approvals, and where state treasuries are solvent so state dollars can go to work. The State Children's Health Insurance Program, reauthorized and expanded and signed by Obama on Wednesday, means $1.5 billion in funding for California's much-needed Healthy Families program only if the state is functioning sufficiently to run it. Federal aid for Medi-Cal will be wasted if California fails to produce its state match.
So it's hard not to pretend that Obama will ride to the rescue because of all the campaign fundraising and phone calling by true-blue California Democrats.
A budget vote is set for next week, and with any luck, California will once again join the ranks of functioning states, but powerful people here keep tripping over their own cleverness. Two cases in point: the recent warning by a union official that he will target Democrats for recall if they cut the wrong things from the budget, and the pronouncement by state GOP official and blogger Jon Fleischman that Republicans who vote to increase taxes will be censured. With folks like these pulling the levers of power, the best way out of the recession may be to invest heavily in Acme.
Legislative Alert
Negotiations continue in Sacramento between the Governor and legislative leaders.
Senate President Darrell Steinberg has announced a vote may occur next week on a budget, though he pointed out a final agreement has not yet been reached. Specific details of the negotiations have been kept relatively quiet, but as much as $11 billion in cuts to education, on top of $3 billion already cut last fall, is on the table.
Some new revenues are also on the table, though not enough to seriously mitigate the damaging cuts. In addition, a spending cap may be part of the proposed deal. We continue to be deeply concerned about any budget cap that would lock education funding at the bottom of all other states in per-student spending for years to come.
Steps You Can Take
All legislators need to hear directly from parents and PTAs about the devastating impact that cuts proposed in the state budget will have on children. We know many of you have been contacting legislators or are suffering from "budget cut fatigue." But it is vital to remind legislators that PTA and all parents are watching. We believe they have other options available to prevent deeper cuts that harm our children and California's future.
Find more information and resources at www.capta.org
Facing a massive budget deficit, California is considering shortening the school year by five days, a move that would save the state $1.1 billion. But the proposal is causing uproar among families and educators, who say the consequences would be disastrous, the Los Angeles Times reports. State schools Superintendent Jack O'Connell told the paper the move would hurt low-income and minority children because affluent school districts will most likely have the funds to remain open all 180 days of the school year. If the California legislature agrees to cut the school calendar, the state will join North Dakota, Kentucky, and a few other states that require the least number of school days.
Much of the criticism is being directed at Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who proposed the idea. It bears noting that the governor sends his children to private school. His office says the idea to shorten the school year has received support from school districts that don't want to resort to more painful measures such as employee layoffs and cuts to arts and music programs. But school districts that are facing severe shortfalls in the state say it's not an either-or scenario. The Los Angeles Unified School District, for example, recently announced it is examining the possibility of laying off 2,300 instructors in an attempt to close a $400 million deficit in next year's budget.
American students already spend far less time in school than children in countries such as China and India. Shortening the school week, by even five days, critics say, would undermine efforts by educators to make American teenagers more competitive. Last year, U.S. News wrote about a film titled "Two Million Minutes" that raises concerns about U.S. public education and whether American students spend enough time in school. Tell us what you think. Should states facing budget woes shorten the school year? Is it better than eliminating arts and music programs?
