By Miriam Hernandez, Student Leader with Californians for Justice in Fresno and Senior at Roosevelt High School.
As I wake each morning, I tell myself, "Thank you God for another day, may I encounter smiles on people's faces." I walk to school and I run into a lot of students. Sadly, I can tell some are hurting inside. I wonder about their story and if they receive help at school rather than just being taught.
Lately, there have been many articles in the news media about school dropout and truancy rates. Schools have improved, but some issues remain. Programs are also being implemented to solve the problems, but what about the students' opinion? After all, we know what it's like in school, what is and isn't working. Rather than just hearing us out, why can't actions include our opinions?
I have been in the shoes of these students, wondering and asking myself questions daily. In elementary school, I wondered why students were given different resources and why some didn't receive any at all. I also wondered why some students would constantly get in trouble and suspended continuously, and why there wasn't much done to help them stay in school and improve.
Years passed as I transitioned to middle school. The issues and disagreements became physical, harmful fights. The faces of students I once knew in elementary school drifted away. I had no clue who my old classmates had become. I wondered if they were OK, if they attended school and if they were accomplishing their goals.
Now, as a senior in high school, I have seen a great number of students drop out for various reasons. Watching this happen not only affected me, but it made my community unhealthy.
I see so much talent in these students. Some students are unable to know their talents in school because they feel there is no point in going to class if they are just going to be sent out of the classroom. Of course, it may be reasonable to send out a student for acting up, but it is also reasonable to find out why the student is acting up in the first place.
Since freshman year, I have been involved with groups like Californians For Justice, a racial justice student-led organization working for better schools and lower dropout rates. I have also become involved in Building Healthy Communities, a campaign of the California Endowment whose goal is to support the development of communities where kids and youth are healthy, safe and ready to learn.
In BHC, I participate in Project S.U.C.C.E.S.S. (Students United to Create a Climate of Engagement, Support and Safety) where our focus is to ensure that schools provide a supportive environment and reach out to help students stay on target to graduate. Whether it is listening to the issues happening at home, hearing the reasons that lead students to fight or helping students think of better ways to solve conflicts, we should see more students staying in school, not more students suspended or expelled. We need to keep students in school and see them move on to graduation instead of watching them fail.
These programs have helped me build the skills I didn't know I had inside. Most of all, they help my voice grow and be heard.
The youth voice is worth listening to. We are the most affected by these issues, and we must build a voice with several ideas to find solutions.
We might be portrayed as just "kids," but they always leave out the fact that we are "just kids with answers." Why else would we give up our Friday nights, our weekends and even our holidays to discuss how we can help improve education and keep our peers in school? Our voices must be heard, too.
I got a weird little story about my friend Blitz Krieger to bring to you today.
He's had a crazy car problem, he has, and over the past few months he thought he had found a solution - in fact, he thought he had found the solution of his dreams - but in the end, he's discovered that the things you dream about often don't go according to plan.
The way it's worked out for him so far, it's been a lot of anticipation followed by a sudden wave of frustration, but I feel like he's a lot better off having his particular problem with his car...because if he'd had cancer instead, he'd surely be dead by now.
This piece was cross-posted in the Huffington Post. It was also co-authored by Joshua Pechthalt and Anthony Thigpenn.
When we think of California, we imagine the state that allowed the three of us to be who we are, a state that gave us the California Dream. For years now, that dream has been quickly slipping away and now it's in danger of being lost forever.
California is not in crisis; crises are sudden and acute. California is in a chronic, grinding decline and it's providing a window into America's tomorrow. Here we have the richest and poorest, the most diverse population, high technology centers which lead the globe. And yet, here with 38 million people - 20% of the United States - we cannot find a path to leave the bounty that invigorated us for the next generation.
The answer will not come from Sacramento, just as on the national level it cannot come from Washington. It needs to come from all of us. It's simple: government has a central role in providing the basics of civilization and that costs money.
The first step is admitting that we need more money to pay for our present, much less our future. That's why it's time for the 1%, those who benefited the most from our state's past investments, to invest in our state's future. Our state needs perhaps $20 billion a year in new revenue to assure that kids grow up to lead. That will take time, but for now, we see a clear path to $6 billion or so a year that would at the very least restore a large portion of the most recent cuts to education, healthcare, safety and transportation. All it takes is the 1% chipping in and paying more income tax.
Warren Buffett said it best: "If anything, taxes for the lower and middle class and maybe even the upper middle class should even probably be cut further. But I think that people at the high end - people like myself - should be paying a lot more in taxes. We have it better than we've ever had it."
It's been a brutal decade for most Californians. Our schools, universities, hospitals, roads, and bridges - which used to be the envy of the nation - are in tatters. The unemployment rate hovers around 12%, and Sacramento continues to talk only about what to cut next, perpetuating the downward spiral.
Students are rightfully disgusted as they take to the streets and create their own Occupy encampments to protest the relentless inflation of tuition at California's legendary colleges and universities. Working families who dream of providing their children with a higher education watch in horror as costs continue to skyrocket.
A couple of weeks from now, we face a massive $2 billion in additional cuts that will be "triggered" based on a summer budget deal passed on a wishful premise that the economy will get better before it gets worse. On the front lines once again will be children, the elderly, and disabled. The axe will fall on everything from public schools (where California already ranks 47th in per pupil spending) to in-home health care.
A Washington Post-Bloomberg News Poll from last month shows that 68% of all Americans support raising taxes on households with incomes of $250,000 per year and higher. Gov. Brown could also take his cue from the patron saint of fiscally conservative Republicans, former California governor Ronald Reagan, who raised taxes as governor and president numerous times, knowing it was for the good of our state and country.
Should every child in California have access to an excellent, rigorous, free education through college and beyond? Should they have healthcare to assure that their minds are sharp and their bodies fit? Should they know that at any point after high school, whether they choose college or another path, they can find a good job? Should they be the sail that lifts our economy to new heights in energy and technology solutions of tomorrow?
Yes.
We believe in our state. We believe in our country. We are patriots of the first order who know that true love of state or country manifests not in slogans, but in deeds that offer a brighter future to the next generation than to ours.
The time has come to say yes to our dreams. The time has come for the 1% to join the fray and help rebuild our state and our country. Let them come forth and pledge with us to invest in tomorrow, starting today.
Joshua Pechthalt is the president of the California Federation of Teachers, representing over 100,000 teachers and education workers. Anthony Thigpenn is president and founder of California Calls, a statewide alliance of 26 community-based organizations who have built a base of 328,000 supporters of a progressive, economic agenda. Rick Jacobs is the founder and chair of the Courage Campaign, a California-based online progressive organizing network of more than 750,000 members around the country.
Anti-gay groups aren't able to gather enough signatures
by Brian Leubitz
Quite the day in the gay rights movement today. First the executive director of Equality California abruptly resigns, which was quite a shock considering he was hired only a few months ago. But that's just the beginning, as the referendum intended to block the fair education act, which would include the contributions of the LGBT and disabled community in our curriculum, seems to have gone down in flames.
With just one day left to circulate petitions, organizers of an effort to repeal a new law requiring that California students learn about the historical contributions of gay and lesbian individuals have told supporters that they "would need a miracle to qualify this referendum."
The Pacific Justice Institute and an arm of Capitol Resource Institute have been leading an effort to overturn Senate Bill 48, which requires public school instruction to include the role and contributions of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals, people with disabilities and members of different cultural groups. They face a Wednesday deadline for submitting to election officials the roughly 505,000 valid voter signatures needed to place a referendum of the law on the ballot.
Despite days of emails calling for a final push in the signature gathering campaign, referendum organizers told supporters in an early morning email that "it is doubtful we will get the number of signatures we need to qualify" the proposed referendum. (SacBee)
To be honest, I was always the skeptic that this would ever qualify, but I guess it did help raise money for some of those LGBT organizations. Given that they were using an all-volunteer effort, it always seemed very unlikely to qualify.
Nonetheless, this is great news for those interested in pursuing equality and fair portrayals of history.
CSEA, the classified employees, endorsed three candidates who promise to make the Banning USD administration accountable to the students, parents, staff, and citizens of the Banning Unified School District. This is an important election for Banning schools. It can finally ensure that spending cuts start with management's perks, instead of essential staff. Banning has no more bilingual aides, and is slashing library staff hours. Meanwhile, administrators continue to spend freely on attorneys and consultants, as though they worked at Goldman Sachs. They don't. They work for us.
On November 8th, Banning residents can exercise their power to change the school district by electing Alfredo Andrade, Alex Cassadas, and Ray Curtis to the Banning School Board. You can give them the authority to supervise the administration.
Isn't it about time that the Banning School Board did that?
Only in California. That’s what I was thinking this week as I stood in front of Sen. Tom Harman’s office in Costa Mesa with fellow surfers, clergy leaders, parents, kids and others concerned that budget cuts are going to decimate everything we love about our state. To be sure, we’re not your typical coalition. We’re not usually political. But every one of us feels threatened by extreme budget cuts.
I’ve been surfing in Orange County most of my life. These beaches and parks are my second home. They’re public treasures that must be protected and managed to ensure they are open to all our children and grandchildren, not turned over to the highest bidder. We’ve got to stop the extreme cuts, which is why we came together to ask Sen. Harman to be the leader who will stand up for our kids.
Over the last few years, we’ve seen firsthand the impact of budget cuts on our daily lives. There’s been $18 billion in cuts already made to K-12 education over the last three years. This year, schools have an average $1000 less to educate each student than they did in 2008. 19,000 teachers have already received pink slips and may not return to classrooms this fall.
One-quarter of California’s state parks are already scheduled for shut down, with the remaining parks, including Orange County’s beaches, at risk in an all-cuts budget scenario.
At some point, elected officials have to say enough is enough. More cuts are going to deplete this great state of all that makes it great. The diverse group that gathered at Harman’s office yesterday called on the Senator to support maintaining existing revenues in order to stop the cuts. If he chooses instead to go along with the all-cuts budget advocated by extremists, Orange County schools would lose another $368 million next year. More state parks could face closure across the state. That’s not a California I want to see.
Debbie Schroeder is a local elementary school principal. She knows all too well what more cuts would mean to our kids’ futures.
Our children didn’t create California’s budget mess, and they shouldn’t have to pay for it with their future. Class sizes are growing and support for our kids outside the classroom is diminished. We’ve got to stop the extreme cuts, and we’re here to ask Sen. Tom Harman to be the leader who will stand up for our kids.
The budget isn’t a political issue. It’s a moral one. Now’s the time we all have to come together to stand up for California.
Christian Parra, pastor of Harbor Christian Fellowship in Costa Mesa:
We are here to pray for Sen. Tom Harman to be the moral leader California needs to protect our children’s future. A moral leader remembers that it is our calling to protect the earth we were given for our children, and to protect and educate our children – but these imperatives will be made impossible if Senator Harman stands by while another $10 billion in cuts are made to schools, children’s healthcare, and protection of our natural resources.
These members of the Orange County Congregation Community Organization and Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice -- Orange County, are some of the many Californians, including educators, parents, law enforcement officials, farmers and surfers who have put aside their differences to support maintaining existing revenues in order to protect schools, seniors, environmental resources and public safety from more cuts. For more information, go to www.standupforca.org
It's a headline sure to stir the hearts of progressives, education activists, and Californians who are just plain sick and tired of watching their public schools driven to collapse by the Republicans: the California Teachers Association is going to mount a "Wisconsin-style occupation" of the state capitol in Sacramento.
Only problem: it won't accomplish a thing.
Here's what The Nation has to say about it:
Following the Wisconsin tradition of meaningful protest, the California Teachers Association is planning a weeklong "State of Emergency" campaign designed to focus on budget cuts in schools and the need to avoid further reductions to spending.
CTA President David Sanchez told delegates to the state Democratic Party convention last weekend that protesters will stage "daily sit-ins" inside the Capitol.
State of Emergency hopes to convince legislators to pass a state budget with tax extensions estimated to generate some $12 billion for the state and local governments, and also to change the tax structure in order to support stable funding for public education.
The problem here is that this is going to be a short-term occupation, with a specific end date that will come whether or not anything is achieved. That's not what happened in Wisconsin, where the Capitol was occupied for as long as it took - and once the bill was passed, the occupation only ended so that recall signatures could be gathered. What CTA is planning is more like a "demonstration" and while it will be disruptive to those working in the Capitol, it will almost certainly fail to produce anything, just as their previous efforts have failed.
Activists need to learn that you have to start shutting things down and committing to it for as long as it takes - any protest that has a pre-scheduled end will simply be endured and then forgotten.
Another reason I'm not sure this will achieve much is that the issue is with Republicans who are refusing to vote to put new taxes on the ballot. Democrats will happily do it, but it requires a 2/3 vote, and as we know, Dems are short in both houses. So I'm not entirely sure what the theory of change is here for CTA. At least they're doing something - they've spent the last 5 years sitting on their ass while K-12 has been hammered by cuts - but this doesn't seem like it's going to go very far.
Better to devote their efforts at organizing in a few key GOP districts. Why not organize sit-ins at their offices in the districts? Stay there until the GOP members vote to put taxes on the ballot - and start circulating recall petitions if they don't. Whatever the specific form of action, organizing in the districts themselves needs to be a top priority.
SD-12 and SD-15 (Cannella and Blakeslee) are two obvious targets, as is SD-19 (Strickland). There are a few ADs that might be picked off too, maybe AD-33, maybe AD-37, perhaps still others. CTA is getting a lot of pushback from their members in the school districts who are finally getting fed up with CTA's inability to translate their money and their political pull into anything resembling action to save K-12 education. We'll see if this is the start of something better, or more wasteful fail.
In solidarity with California teachers sitting-in in Sacramento, I sent out the following press release earlier today:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, May 6, 2011
Contact: Campaign Press Office (916) 996-9170 Marcy@WinogradforCongress.com
CAPITOL OCCUPATION: Congressional Candidate & Teacher Endorses Emergency
Actions; Marcy Winograd to Use Campaign Phone Bank to 'Save our Schools'
VENICE - Marcy Winograd, a public high school teacher and congressional
candidate (CA-36) will use her campaign phone bank to support the California Teachers
Association "State of Emergency" week of action, May 9-13, at the State
Capitol and across the state.
As a high school student in Green Bay, Wisconsin, I had an incredible amount of potential but was completely uninterested in academics, leaving me with few options upon graduating. Top private colleges were out of the question, and I didn't want to attend another public institution. I saw a flyer for Herzing University, which prompted me to look into the school. I liked what the school had to offer, and after a trip to the campus in Madison, I decided to enroll.
Shortly after I began classes, I found out I was going to be a father. I faced the difficult decision of whether I could both stay in school or leave to help provide for my newborn child. In the end, I didn't have to choose, Herzing helped me to find a job at a local factory after my classes, and helped me schedule for work and school. When my son's mother's substance abuse problems left me as a single father, I had to take on another part-time job to make ends meet. Even then, Herzing helped me design a course program that allowed me to work both jobs, attend school and spend time with my infant son. The administration frequently checked in with me to see how I was doing, and my instructors helped me in any way they could.
Its never good news to hear a state has a budget deficit. But this recent article in The Economist made me a little happy for a couple of reasons. One, I was really tired of hearing conservatives (like Meg Whitman in 2010) praise Texas as a model for California. So hopefully that won't happen again. Two, its a vindication that California is not broken just because were lazy or some other variety of insults hurled our way from the other 49. It shows that regardless of the economic system, the bipartisan consensus was over-reliance on a massive bubble.
Many, if not all, will argue my view that the left's model of government-as-charity is unsustainable. But the the progressive case against the conservative model of government-as-corporation has been proven with the demise of Texas's "economic miracle." So there are a few lessons here, and most demonstrate why Texas and California can't be compared now or in the future.
1) The Dutch Disease. California is the third largest oil producer but due to our economy and size we are not an energy exporter. An oil tax exactly modelled on the one in Texas would generate revenue but cannot be a large enough cash stream to support our state. Texas is still over-reliant on its energy sector. It will receive a windfall with the current mideast crisis of the day. Don't be surprised if this contributes to a recovery and is used as proof that the Texas Model "works." California conversely will suffer economically due to high gas prices. People should be aware that the ups and downs of the energy market don't demonstrate which system is better only that both systems are not properly buffered for it.
2) Environment. An issue conservatives cringe at in California and abhor in Texas. But the thing is, our mild climate and natural beauty can't be found or replicated in Texas. As oil is to that state, the environment is a resource to us. Its a strong enough resource in fact that the wealthy will continue to live here regardless of the tax situation (much like they live in France).
3) Taxes. Our environment opens the door to higher taxes on the wealthy as long as its packaged as the price to live here. But it doesn't open the door to high taxes on ALL corporations. Companies that are high tech and want to attract people that want to live the California lifestyle can afford those taxes. Companies that require low-cost labor and are face stronger market competition (the non-Apples) cannot. Texas does grow more low-cost labor jobs and manufacturing. Granted there is not a high margin on that production but high-end producers that California is known for cannot employ all of us. Both no-taxes Texas and higher taxes California are too broad brush. A more nuanced corporate tax code may be needed.
4) Education. As the article points out, Texas aims to entice intellectual talent with no income taxes and more jobs instead of growing it natively with its education system. Its definetely a cheaper way to go, but is it sustainable? California's education system currently relies on its upper institutions to draw talent and hopes that its lifestyle and environment will keep them after graduation. I think California is the model to bet on, not (just) because of state pride, but Texas opens itself up to a race to the bottom situation.
5) Jobs. The Texas Model trumpets no income taxes and uses this to draw talent from across the nation. California, often called (incorrectly) the highest taxed state, uses taxes to provide services that higher educated/higher income people come to expect - well maintained roads, good schools, beautiful parks etc. The Texas job numbers were high last year but it appears that those were primarily lower-income jobs (some numbers said 2/3rds of all jobs created). Of course those are important jobs but not revenue generators or economic growth contributors like high tech. Bottomline, Texas plans to attract the lowest bidder (those that don't want to pay taxes). Like Wal-mart shoppers they don't expect frills or high quality products and services. California is like (insert expensive store of your choice, I won't play favorites) it gives you high end stuff and you expect to enjoy the experience not get the deal and rush out. But unquestionably its expensive, Californians need to decide which "store" do we want to be?
I have some thoughts on the issue but open it to all, what is California to do next?
Yesterday I mentioned that we have reached a new nearly 40 year low of percentage of personal income spent on government services. It now stands at $5.05 per $100 of personal income, the lowest since the gubernatorial days of Ronald Reagan. There are very real effects of that:
Over the past two years, California, Georgia, Nevada, Ohio, Utah and Wisconsin have loosened legal restrictions on class size. And Idaho and Texas are debating whether to fit more students in classrooms.
Los Angeles has increased the average size of its ninth-grade English and math classes to 34 from 20. Eleventh- and 12th-grade classes in those two subjects have risen, on average, to 43 students.(NY Times)
I've never taught in a traditional school setting, but having worked with teenagers in the past, I can assure you that you can not teach a math class effectively to either 34 or 43 teenagers.
At some point, we have to take this information in and understand what the anti-government forces have done to our once proud public school system, and what they are doing to a social safety net that is stretched so thin that the wholes are visible from space. We all lose when one student fails because we couldn't get them the resources they needed to succeed. We all fail as our students fall through the cracks.
UPDATE: I need to point out that part of the reason the number has decreased is that Brown's budget calls for the shifting of some services from the state to local governments. This figure only covers the state's portion.
We have spent the past two years watching as insanity has gripped Congress, and even more so with Republicans now running the House.
We have a wavering President, far too many feckless Democrats, and Republicans that have decided to dive headfirst into total "insane mode" in a full-blown effort to destroy this country just as fast as possible.
To give but one example, in my own District, WA-08, we are represented by the absolutely useless Republican Dave Reichert, whose best-known legislative achievement is that he has virtually no record of any legislative achievement whatever.
Now we've had a very interesting relationship, you and I, over these past few years; in my efforts to "bring you the story" I've been a fake political consultant, a fake lobbyist, even a fake historian...and now, I think it's time to try to bring our relationship to a new level.
And that's why, America, I'm announcing my fake candidacy for Congress.
With his State of the Union address, President Obama delivered an important message that Congress and the American people need to hear: our nation's leaders must pass legislation that creates American jobs now.
America, our shining city on a hill, has been blessed with great fortune in our proud past, but as the President noted, every generation faces new challenges and new opportunities. We must be bold and forward looking, never forgetting that America's prosperity has always relied on hard work, solid education, and well-maintained infrastructure. We're a nation that has always thrived when we've built things - the light bulb, the automobile, the Internet, and the GPS. We need to build things again. We need to Make It In America
I just read a story on Yahoo! News about Speaker Pelosi's last press conference. The story itself was pretty spare, but there were more than 6,000 comments. I didn't read them all. I couldn't. I found them too shocking. The level of information was so abysmal. The personal invective was so crude. And the spelling was so bad. It was a real eye-opener.
I have no idea why so many people are so fixated on whether or not Nancy Pelosi has had plastic surgery. But it was a frequent topic. Having seen the Speaker in strong sunlight, I certainly saw no evidence of it.
Calling her a witch and a bitch was also popular. Again, I'm sure none of these people have ever met Ms. Pelosi. I found her perfectly pleasant the time I did.
UPDATE: Jerry Brown is hosting a education budget summit at 10AM. Click the link to view it live.
There's no doubt that California's public schools are facing a severe crisis. Having been hit with $10 billion in cuts in recent years, the dropout rate has risen, teachers have more kids in their classrooms, and more schools are running afoul of federal No Child Left Behind law (which was designed to undermine public education itself). And with next year's budget deficit at $28 billion, any cuts will include further cuts to public schools - which as Brian pointed out yesterday, can barely handle the strain.
Handling the funding problems facing our schools is going to be enough of a challenge facing Jerry Brown. He also has to deal with the Obama Administration's embrace of right-wing education "reform" programs pushed by wealthy individuals like Bill Gates that are designed to treat students like automatons and pave the way for mass privatization of schools. Already leaders such as Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa are embracing these "reforms," despite evidence that they don't really work as advertised.
Brown has expressed serious reservations about some of those proposals.
"Look, we're facing big changes, and people who haven't been around always want to reinvent the wheel with yesterday's tried-and-failed programs," Brown told representatives of the California Teachers Assn. in June.
He was even more blunt last year, when as the state's attorney general he weighed in on Race to the Top. He castigated the draft regulations as simplistic, unproven and overly "top-down, Washington-driven" and called for a "little humility."
"What we have at stake are the impressionable minds of the children of America. You are not collecting data or devising standards for operating machines or establishing a credit score," he wrote in the August 2009 letter. "In the draft you have circulated, I sense a pervasive technocratic bias and an uncritical faith in the power [of] social science."...
"Declaring war from Day One on your employees is not the strategy here," he said. "He's going to see if there are any agreements that can be reached, rather than declaring teachers organizations and employee organizations the enemies."
Wow. I've praised Brown's progressive issue framing before, specifically on immigration, but here again our once and future governor is demonstrating a progressive streak that will be welcome in Sacramento. He understands that the public does not want their children reduced to test scores, and that there is much to distrust in the way the "reform" movement approaches child development and education.
The LA Times article explains that while Brown did not have much involvement with education while governor in the 1970s and 1980s - primarily because, at the time, it was still seen as something handled locally - his experience with the Oakland schools while mayor there has given him much more insight into what works, and what doesn't work.
Brown has been a proponent of charter schools, helping set up two of them in Oakland. But he doesn't see them as a panacea, and doesn't believe they should replace public education as we know it. He certainly does not seem swayed by the flavor-of-the-month reforms backed by Michelle Rhee and Antonio Villaraigosa, where teachers are held to blame for problems largely outside their control, and where test scores are used as a stand-in for the more holistic education that our children want and deserve.
That's not to say that the only things California schools need is more money - just that it is the primary thing. The flaw with the education "reform" movement is it tends to assume that it is the quality of the teacher that matters most, when most people with actual classroom experience know that what matters most is the social situation of a student.
To reduce inequality in student learning outcomes, we must reduce inequality, period. Students whose parents are unemployed or who have unmet nutritional and health care needs, who live in communities suffering from crime and other effects of 30+ years of deliberate neglect and abandonment, or who do not have firm command of the English language consistently perform lower on a range of academic assessments, not just test scores - and have higher dropout rates. It's impossible to expect schools to solve those problems on their own.
At the same time, there's a lot that can be done to improve conditions in the classroom. Smaller class sizes are a tried-and-true method, as are including teaching methods and curriculum that speak to a range of learning styles. It would also be good to involve parents as much as possible, keeping in mind of course constraints on this, especially in lower-income communities where parents are often working multiple jobs just to make ends meet.
In any case, the fact that Brown is rejecting the flawed "reform" movement as exemplified by Rhee and Villaraigosa is a positive sign - he knows that first, he must do no harm. Brown should experiment and be open to ideas, but should also demand that those proposals be backed with firm evidence, and be offered in the best interests of the students and the community - and not in the service of a billionaire or a hedge fund.
As Jerry Brown continues with his listening tour on the budget, the fact that education will see a big portion of the cuts now seems like a fait accompli. The only remaining question, or so it seems, is how deep, and how the districts will deal with those cuts. There are no additional administrative efficiencies to save teachers, and our counseling, arts, and athletic programs have already hit bone, the next round will be job cuts to core curriculum teachers.
"It is abundantly clear that we will be looking at another round of cuts from the state," said Wayne Joseph, superintendent of the Chino Valley Unified School District. "The amount of cuts remains to be seen, but it is fiscally prudent for any district to try to plan for the worst-case scenario.
"Because we have endured so many cuts in the past, most future cuts will have human faces attached. This is the human tragedy that many people either miss or are oblivious to."(SB Sun)
For too long, we have been told that we are paying too much for too little, but the problem really is that we expect a few pennies to go for miles. You can't pay WalMart prices and expect Gucci results. It's no great mystery when we spend the lowest amount per pupil, and then get poor results. The bigger mystery is how we have managed to stay in the middle of the pack amongst the states despite our continued starvation of our schools. That is really the mystery, and the miracle, here.
But the next round of cuts could be different. School districts will really have no way to operate on the amount of cash they are receiving. Many will flat out go belly up. We'll see some districts merging, where possible, and others just going insolvent with no real plan on how to provide the mandatory services to our children.
Oh, and forget about those 180 days of instruction. Many districts have already fallen to 175, with others looking to go lower. It's a sure-fire way to lead our state into a long-term morass. And a way to shock doctrine our K-12 system into a for-profit system that some big corporation can profit from. Already, a group of parents at a school in Compton used the "parental trigger" to force the school to go charter.
Thus the parental uprising. "Parents operate on a different clock than district bureaucrats," says Ben Austin of Parent Revolution, a liberal group assisting McKinley parents. "Kids get older every year. We can't freeze-dry our kids and wait for your pilot programs to pan out." More than 60% of McKinley parents have signed the petition to free the school from the Compton Unified bureaucracy and install charter school operator Celerity Educational Group to run it instead. (WSJ)
Of course, it helped that several parents also were told by Austin and others that they were simply signing something to "improve their schools" without the information that it would cause the teachers to be fired and/or go charter. In fact, several parents are trying get their names off of the signature list, so there is a long way to go in this particular saga.
However, what is clear is that some business see a real growth opportunity in charter schools. Unfortunately, the success rate of charter schools is really an unknown quantity. Until this point, charters could reject students who would be a risk to their numbers. Thus you got a lot of cherry picking for the best students.Until this point, California charters had students that had parents that cared enough to change their enrollment. That bias leans toward children with better home situations, and a better likelihood of success in any system. But if the parental trigger is going to be used throughout the state, the charters that replace the traditional schools will not have such luxuries. They'll be trying to do the same thing as other districts, just with lower teacher salaries and "innovative" solutions. I'm sure that's going to work out well.
In the end, there is no real mystery to California education. It is slowly dying because we are starving the system. Despite what many California Republicans will tell you, there is no such thing as a free lunch. And just waiving the magic pixie dust of the free market over the school system won't make it any better. But it will divert additional public dollars to a private accounts, and in the end, that just might be what this was all about in the first place.
(Assemblymember Nancy Skinner on why progressives should oppose Prop 22)
Next Tuesday, election day will be an important day for progressives in California. A truly vital issue on the ballot may be one that we haven’t heard a lot about -- opposing Proposition 22. I urge you to join the California Democratic Party, Health Access, the California Nurses Association, the Courage Campaign and a host of other organizations in opposition to this poorly conceived initiative.
Proposition 22 violates the agreement forged between stakeholders in 2004 that was approved by the voters as Proposition 1A. That measure protected local resources, but allowed the state to borrow local funds in times of fiscal crisis, fully repaying them within three years. Proposition 22 will reverse that agreement and prohibit loans for public schools, children’s health care, seniors and the disabled.
With the handcuffs Proposition 22 would put on the 2011-12 budget resolution, public schools stand to lose $1 billion immediately, and an additional $400 million a year after that. In Home Support Services that allow senior citizens and the disabled to live with dignity in their own homes and funding for health care, at a time when our safety net for children is already about to collapse, will be at risk of being cut. County health and public safety services will be eviscerated. Now is not the time to cut that safety net even more.
Proposition 22 reprioritizes state budget funding by putting redevelopment agencies in front of education, public safety, the poor, blind and disabled. This change in priorities does not reflect our progressive values.
What California needs to make our local governments, education and social services whole is restoration of the revenues that have been lost during the Schwarzenegger Administration, not guarantees that put one portion of the state’s shrinking revenue pie above another. The California League of Cities, the sponsors of Prop 22, was unable to get agreement from its Board to support new revenues so they have put forward a protectionist measure that puts a host of state services at risk.
I agree with hard protections for locally enacted revenue, but Prop 22 goes much further to the detriment of our values.
I ask that you oppose Proposition 22 to protect our progressive values and the services California’s most vulnerable citizens rely on most.
For information please visit the No on Proposition 22 Website. www.votenoprop22.org
California has a proud history as being the most innovative state in the nation. Historically, we've provided top-notch services to our citizens, and our economy has grown stronger for it. Perhaps most importantly, California boasts the nation's best educated workforce. It should come as little surprise that 5 of our public universities made U.S. News and World Report's top 10 for best public universities this year (and UC Irvine came in 11th). Our education system, from kindergarten through graduate school, has always ensured that the nation's most entrepreneurial businesses will arise in California.
Unfortunately, the current economic climate and years of budget crises have endangered California's education system, and with it our way of life. To make matters worse, special interests pushed through a set of brand new tax loopholes during a budget deadlock in 2009. These giveaways are set to cost California $1.3 billion dollars a year, money that will be cut from education and the other vital programs that make California great.
Last month the Los Angeles Times decided to publish their own "ranking" of teacher "effectiveness" in the LA Unified School District, based entirely on test scores. The move was extremely controversial, and the Times was slammed by education experts for their flawed methodology.
Today, however, comes a story that proves just how flawed and misleading the LA Times teacher ratings really were. It's a story of a recently retired LAUSD teacher who was ranked as "the worst" by the LA Times - a ranking that came as a huge surprise to her former students:
Faye Ireland knows that she was a good teacher. She doesn't depend on test scores to tell her that. She has stacks of letters from former students, enduring relationships with their parents and a reputation for managing the most challenging kids on campus.
But it bothered Ireland plenty when she was publicly branded "least effective" last month in The Times' ratings of elementary school teachers. The ranking, in an online database with the "Grading the Teachers" project relies on students' progress on standardized exams to measure teacher effectiveness.
What happened? Is Ireland just making herself sound good to cover up a flawed teaching style?
Nope. What happened is that by actually giving her students - particularly her ESL students - the help and instruction they needed, instead of wasting time on a test, she made a huge and positive impact in the lives and in the educational futures of her students, but at the expense of her "ranking" in some bullshit test-driven metric:
Ireland knew that if they landed in ESL programs in middle school, they would have few chances to take challenging academic classes. "Their parents worked with me like crazy, and we got them through all the things they had to do."
By the end of each year, "every one of my students was fluent in English," she recalled. "That's what I set out to do."
Other teachers warned her that her test scores would take a hit...
But she was looking beyond the test, beyond the classroom, even. "I wanted to transition those kids into English. I wanted them to know they could accomplish this, that nothing was off limits to them."
In other words, she could have done what the state and the LA Times wanted - teach to the test - or she could have actually paid attention to her students, understood their actual educational needs, and made sure those needs were met so that they can thrive in their later years of schooling.
She did the latter, and that's what makes a truly great teacher. By any standard her work would be seen as a huge success, and she would be held up as a model educator.
That is, under any standard except the one the LA Times used to brand her as the "least effective" in the entire LAUSD.
Now it's possible that Ireland succeeded in some areas, was weaker in others (such as test scores). Only a full and comprehensive evaluation of teachers that includes an assessment of all their skills and accomplishments can truly tell whether a teacher is "good" or not.
That is precisely what the teachers' unions are calling for. And that is precisely what the LA Times rejected in their reckless and flawed ratings, based only on test scores - which as most teachers, parents, and students understand, should not be the only thing education is about.
Ireland's story shows what will happen if the attack on public schools, led by people such as US Education Secretary Arne Duncan and the LA Times, succeeds. Schools will become full of students who are taught to do well on a test, instead of having their other educational needs met.
If that's what the education privatizers want, then that's their choice. But for those of us who actually want good schools with good teachers in them, we would do well to continue to push back against the flawed LA Times teacher evaluations, and ensure that whatever LAUSD and California come up with next to assess teachers, that it is holistic and not focused on tests to the exclusion of actual educational needs.
Only in California. That’s what I was thinking this week as I stood in front of Sen. Tom Harman’s office in Costa Mesa with fellow surfers, clergy leaders, parents, kids and others concerned that budget cuts are going to decimate everything we love about our state. To be sure, we’re not your typical coalition. We’re not usually political. But every one of us feels threatened by extreme budget cuts. 