The lights are going out all over America — literally. Colorado Springs has made headlines with its desperate attempt to save money by turning off a third of its streetlights, but similar things are either happening or being contemplated across the nation, from Philadelphia to Fresno.
Meanwhile, a country that once amazed the world with its visionary investments in transportation, from the Erie Canal to the Interstate Highway System, is now in the process of unpaving itself: in a number of states, local governments are breaking up roads they can no longer afford to maintain, and returning them to gravel.
And a nation that once prized education — that was among the first to provide basic schooling to all its children — is now cutting back. Teachers are being laid off; programs are being canceled; in Hawaii, the school year itself is being drastically shortened. And all signs point to even more cuts ahead.
We’re told that we have no choice, that basic government functions — essential services that have been provided for generations — are no longer affordable. And it’s true that state and local governments, hit hard by the recession, are cash-strapped. But they wouldn’t be quite as cash-strapped if their politicians were willing to consider at least some tax increases...
This is a poisonous issue for schools. Many employees have been fired for insisting that the law be followed. For example, Mary Anne Weegar in Sweetwater Unified School District, and Pamela Settlegood in Oregon. I have learned through personal experience with Chula Vista Elementary School District and San Diego County Office of Education that school officials in San Diego and elsewhere tend to believe they are above the law whenever the law seems inconvenient. Rather than follow the law, they pay millions to lawyers to defend illegal actions. It's amazing that schools are so resistant to reform that they are able to rationalize flat-out misuse of funds. We need school officials with imagination, courage and ethics. Instead, almost certainly the board and lawyer Mark Bresee will get clean away with ignoring the law. Courts tend to back up public officials when they violate the law. For example, a jury found that Sweetwater USD should pay Mary Anne Weegar over $600,000 but the court of appeal reduced the amount to $5000. So why should school officials worry? They can do whatever they want, and just fire the whistleblowers. School Budget Nearly Fails on Federal Funds Queasiness Emily Alpert Voice of San Diego Jun 30, 2010
The San Diego Unified board nearly didn't pass its budget last night because three board members said they were uneasy with the choices they made -- including the choice to use federal funding for disadvantaged students to pay for counselors and graduation coaches at its poorer schools.
Critics and a state official say the move appears to be illegal because schools are supposed to provide equal services to all schools with their basic funding. The special federal money is supposed to pay for the extra needs of poor children, not pay for things the district would foot the bill for anyway...
I wish voters had the option of electing school board members who aren't controlled by people entrenched in power. The education establishment (on both the right and left) wants to guard its power, and that means maintaining the status quo. Given that fact, I think Bill Kowba is a good choice to keep things from falling apart any more than they already have.
Of course, a better choice would be to get more bang for our education bucks by reforming how teachers function. We could pay more for effective teachers and end up with better results for less money.
...Critics say the board could have done a better job at recruiting top talent.
But the trustees stand by their decision, saying the school board is not looking for a big personality or school reformer.
They also say a team of academic leaders are already in place to begin the work of getting more students to achieve.
Trustee John Evans downplayed any rumors that the board made up its mind a long time ago.
“There are five independent-minded people on the board,” Evans said. “These decisions are not taken lightly or reached easily.”
Kowba would not be the first superintendent in San Diego without an academic background. Bersin, the district's most infamous superintendent, was an attorney.
Supporters say San Diego Unified needs a budget-minded leader right now. The district has suffered more than $300 million in state budget cuts over the past few years. The district is looking at another big deficit for next school year...
San Diego Unified School District has cut about $300 million since 2008. Next year’s proposed $100 million in cuts include:
• Five districtwide furlough days, which will trim the school year by a week in each of the next two years
• Cuts to magnet school funding, which could force staff reductions
• Eliminating most adult education offerings
• Cuts to central office personnel
• Eliminating support programs for new teachers
Deep cuts to next year’s San Diego school district budget were all but approved by the Board of Education on Tuesday.
No relief is in sight for the San Diego Unified School District in the coming years.
Millions of dollars in preliminary cuts to the 2011-12 budget, including layoffs, were also announced Tuesday.
To offset an estimated $134 million deficit to next year’s $1.1 billion operating budget, trustees have approved cuts that include trimming the school year by five days, cutting some bus routes and personnel reductions.
Preliminary proposals for the 2011-12 year include a call to cut the district work force by 10 percent, close small schools, eliminate vice principals, raise class sizes and revert to half-day kindergarten classes...
If we want an educated populace, we should make sure kids can get to school. I think bus passes would be more worthwhile than many of the textbooks that schools are forced by law to pay for. It's a boondoggle for the textbook companies, and often the textbooks are not used by teachers. I remember that I used to have one expensive social studies text for every two or three students. This was the bizarre legal requirement that schools had to fulfill. My kids had trouble reading the books even when they could see the print. Imagine how impossible it was for them to read when they were craning their necks to see a book that was placed halfway between their desk and the desk next to them. Those books cost a lot of money and were almost useless.
In the 1960s I used to walk to San Diego High School. It was a lovely walk with no homeless people on the bridge and Victorian homes instead of high rises. Not long ago I was driving on the ramp to highway 94 East and I noticed a high rise parking structure near the school. The only kind of building that is more menacing than that is a prison.
...Osuna doesn't own a bike or car. His only option is to take the San Diego Trolley or bus. But he can't afford a pass.
And Osuna is not alone. Hundreds of students at San Diego High School do not have a cheap, safe and reliable way to get to school. The problem is so bad that many teens are chronically tardy. Others skip school all together.
San Diego High School is surrounded by high-rises, freeways and homeless people...
[Conseulo] Manriquez recalls how one of her students was mugged while walking to school...
Manriquez decided to establish a bus pass scholarship for about 80 of her students... A few weeks later, she was flooded with applications...The majority of her students come from low-income families and could not afford a monthly transit pass. Transit passes cost students $36 every month. A bus pass scholarship for half a year saves them more than $200...
Daniel Gilbreth is transportation manager for for the school district...“It would just be too costly,” Gilbreth said...
But Manriquez believes the district's priorities are misplaced. She says it's even more costly to deny a child transportation because it contributes to low-attendance and high dropout rates...
...Massive cuts in schools may not surprise Californians these days, but that doesn’t mean residents have become complacent. In late May, a broad coalition of families, students, teachers, school districts, administrators, and advocacy groups filed a lawsuit against the State of California, asking a Superior Court Judge to declare the state’s system for funding public schools unconstitutional.
The Robles-Wang, et al. v. California lawsuit, which is supported by State Superintendent Jack O’Connell, argues the amount of state funding provided to education isn’t sufficient enough to deliver the programs required for students to meet the state’s educational requirements.
For example, the state requires Riverside Unified School District to adopt new textbooks but only provide a fraction of the dollars needed to buy the books, according to Dr. Rick Miller, superintendent of Riverside Unified School District. Riverside Unified is one of nine school districts listed among the plaintiffs...
School Districts Have Flexibility in Making Layoffs in Order to Provide Equal Education to All, Ruling Says
Saying that the state’s education code allows school districts flexibility in laying off teachers in order to comply with constitutional requirements to provide equal education to all students, a Superior Court judge granted an injunction today that prevents the Los Angeles Unified School District from laying off teachers at Gompers, Liechty and Markham middle schools this year. The three schools, which primarily serve low-income students and students of color, saw their teaching corps disproportionately decimated by a round of budget-driven layoffs last year, causing their education efforts to fall below the state constitutional guarantee that all students will receive a basic education consistent with prevailing statewide standards.
“Today's landmark decision carries on the ideals of Brown v. Board of Education that no child may be deprived of the right to learn,” said Mark Rosenbaum, chief counsel for the ACLU of Southern California.
SAN FRANCISCO—Californians are increasingly worried about how state budget cuts are affecting public schools, and they are unhappy with how their political leaders are handling education, according to a survey released late Wednesday.
The Public Policy Institute of California's sixth annual K-12 education survey found that 62 percent of residents believe there isn't enough state funding going to their public schools, a 12 percent increase over last year.
The survey found that 43 percent of public school parents say spending cuts have affected their children's schools a lot—a 15 percent jump—and another 38 percent said their kids' schools have been affected somewhat.
"The poll really indicates the degree of anxiety that the public has about the impact of budget cuts on public education," said Mark Baldassare, the institute's president and CEO. "More Californians are seeing the direct effect of the state's budget problems on children, teachers and the resources in their local schools."
Californians are worried about teacher layoffs, growing class sizes, shortened school years and the elimination of electives such as art and music, according to the survey. And 63 percent want K-12 education protected from further spending cuts.
Despite growing concern about schools, residents are divided over whether to raise taxes to prevent further cuts to K-12 education, with 49 percent in favor and 47 percent against. About 57 percent said they would support a local parcel tax to fund their schools.
The institute reported that only 16 percent approved of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's handling of education, while the Legislature received only a 15 percent approval rating on K-12 schools. About 46 percent support President Obama's handling of K-12 education, a 12 point drop from last year...
"2010 Visionary Award goes to a film that embodies our theme this year of 'making a difference' in our world. These films and their filmmakers are risk takers, as they explore social, political issues that are important to all of us."
* The Cartel -- Winner, 2010 Audience Award, Best Documentary
"Audience Awards – before each session, our audience members were given a ballot which listed all the films in a session, they were then asked to cast their vote: Excellent, Good and Fair. The ballots were then calculated on a percentage of excellence."
Is your school sub-par? Are costs for education still high? Bob Bowdon can connect the dots. And he can tell you a story about a janitor making a six-figure salary.
Bowdon is a documentary filmmaker from Hoboken. In "The Cartel," he wants to show "How American public education primarily serves its employees, not its children."...
Prop 13 has had a profound impact on California. We'll examine the huge savings to property owners and the negative impacts on education.
...[MAUREEN] CAVANAUGH: I want to ask you, Joanne, what you found out about how Prop 13 has, indeed, impacted, affected the – our education spending in California.
FARYON: Right, and education, again, before Prop 13, more than half of school budgets came from local property taxes. Today, that’s down to 20% so, again, a dramatic shift that before Prop 13, I believe the state had a $10 billion education budget, after Prop 13 they lost, overnight, a third of that, more than $3 billion. So education seemed to be the biggest loser in all of this. So what happened? Well, the state had to take over, that you couldn’t just say, okay, we’ve passed this proposition now, schools, we don’t have any money for teachers. So through a series of laws and ballot measures, a different form of funding for education came into play. And I have to tell you, I’ve been exchanging e-mails with somebody who studies this and he – it’s so complicated, his joke was that only five people in the state of California understand education funding and they can never be on the same plane together. So it’s a very complicated formula. But the bottom line is, the state is now on the hook for more than half of school budgets. What’s happening? What do we see today? Well, more cuts to education. Why is that? Well, if the state is relying so much on income tax and sales tax and corporate tax for its money—and we’re in a recession—all of those taxes get decreased. So you really have this ballooning affect, lower property taxes, lower income taxes, less money for the state, less money for the county, and education really ends up suffering because of it.
CAVANAUGH: And I believe that you found out some statistics about the spending per pupil, how California’s amount has gone down over the last 30 years.
FARYON: Yes, and so, again, we got really great comments throughout this project, people asking questions and it was, again, an e-mail that kind of prompted this research. And somebody wrote to me and said, look, I really want to know per pupil are we really spending less? Have we been spending more every year? What’s the deal? So what we can tell you is every year California does spend more per pupil than the year before. I think I might’ve seen one or two years where you saw that number either decrease or stay about the same but overall every year we spend more. But relatively speaking, in terms of the rest of the country, what are they spending? We’re not. We are increasingly spending less than other states and so we looked for the past more than 40 years. 1965 was the last time California actually was at the top of the heap and we were number five in terms of the rest of the country in what we spent per pupil. At the time, in 1978, when Prop 13 passed, I think we were 14th. Immediately after, after the proposition went through, we fell to 22. In the eighties, we dipped below the national average, and we’ve never recovered. We’re now at number 43.
Budget Cuts Hurt Kids and Every Teacher is an Individual of Great Worth
The Superintendent has failed to point out some very important facts:
The $21,004,830 reserve from the general fund is $1,962,284 more than the adopted budget of September 15th.
The approximately 100 teachers that would lose their jobs because of an increase of 4 students to each K-3 class, have already been notified that their contracts end this year.
The Superintendent has not taken into account the federal education jobs packages or the other proposed legislation that would assist in hiring these teachers back and restoring class sizes.
The Superintendent can show he respects teachers by:
Not using this crisis to pit teacher against teacher, threatening job losses and accusing the Union of playing favorites.
Encouraging parents to contact legislators, both state and federal, to try and push through helpful legislation to protect funding and save jobs.
Not asking teachers, to shoulder the burden of a broken system of funding for public education.
Looking at all options, just as other school districts all across the state are doing.
Please call School Board Members and the Superintendent You can make the difference for our students!
Russell Y. Coronado, President 619.818.5688 russell.cvesd@gmail.com
Larry Cunningham, Vice President 619.475.5639 lecunningham@gmail.com
Douglas E. Luffborough III 619.750.4182 dougluff@gmail.com
David Bejarano 619.421.0201 bejaranos@cox.net
Pamela B. Smith 619.479.1507
Lowell J. Billings Ed.D, Superintendent lowell.billings@cvesd.org 619.425.9600 ext. 1300
It has been my personal experience that once this man makes up his mind, it's done - and yet, I have seen parents form and unite and speak as one big voice against him... the results were astonishing.
He was actually worried that we the parents might get our say in the end - I know we can do this, but we must each make the call and send the email. It really will make a difference. March 17, 2010 3:45 PM
Trustees in the Poway Unified School District on Monday agreed to send layoff notices to 129 employees in anticipation of budget reductions and to appeal a recent court ruling that said the district violated a teacher's constitutional rights.
Associate Superintendent Bill Chiment said the layoff notices were a "sad but necessary strategy" to offset a projected $24 million shortfall in the district's 2010-11 budget...
Unlike the last board meeting two weeks ago, when more than 300 teachers appeared at the board meeting to protest cuts, no teachers spoke against the action Monday night. [Maura Larkins comment: Teachers seem to think that legal issues are over their heads, and perhaps they are. Why don't teachers draw a connection between budget cuts and the huge sums spent on legal expenses, particularly liability insurance? If teachers and other citizens were more vigilant concerning the huge amounts schools pay for legal expenses and liability insurance, as well as other shenanigans of school and state officials, the budget cuts might not be necessary. Liability insurance rates are astronomical because schools have made so many bad decisions. Bad government almost always ends up costing taxpayers money.]
In closed session before the meeting, trustees also agreed to appeal federal Judge Roger Benitez's Feb. 25 ruling that the district violated the rights of Westview High School math teacher Bradley Johnson, who was ordered to remove classroom banners that contained the word "God."
Chiment said the district's appeal is not specifically to keep Johnson from hanging his banners, but rather to clarify the district's right to control what can be displayed in school classrooms.
In responding to the lawsuit last week, Chiment said the district was concerned about future lawsuits challenging its right to control classroom displays.
Also at stake, Johnson's attorney, Robert Muise of the Michigan-based Thomas More Law Center, has said he will file a motion asking the district to pay about $250,000 in attorney fees. A reversal of the decision would relieve the district of the fees.
Johnson had displayed two banners that contained historical and patriotic references. One read "In God We Trust," "One Nation Under God," "God Bless America" and "God Shed His Grace on Thee." A second banner contained a passage from the Declaration of Independence: "All men are created equal, they are endowed by their Creator."
Also on Monday, Poway resident Scotty Blackman told the board he was launching an initiative to reduce the salaries of all state employees, including teachers, by 35 percent to 45 percent to make them comparable with the private sector... [Maura Larkins comment: We need to pay the best teachers MUCH more to attract highly capable individuals. Scotty Blackman's idea sounds penny wise, but it's definitely pound foolish. Next thing we know Scotty will be saying we can save even more money by closing schools altogether.]
SAN DIEGO — Thousands of people embark on a 400-mile protest march today. The “March for California's Future” is intended to bring attention to a crisis in public education. One San Diego professor plans to spend seven weeks walking from Bakersfield to Sacramento.
...[English and Labor Studies professor at San Diego City College Jim] Miller says he wants to focus on solutions, which he believes come in the form of progressive taxation, meaning as income goes up, taxes go up.
“People say the worst thing is to raise revenue. But in fact, smart people who know something about the economy, they say that’s precisely not the truth. That in fact is, it's better to raise revenue from corporations and or top brackets than to just cut, cut, cut,” Miller said...
Jim Miller teaches English at San Diego City College and is the author of several books. His next novel, Flash, is forthcoming on AK Press. He also serves as the vice president of political action for the local chapter of the American Federation of Teachers. These are his views, not mine... EMILY ALPERT
...We need to get serious and ask ourselves what kind of future we want for our children. If, to borrow a line from Martin Luther King Jr., our futures are inextricably bound to the future of our neighbors, then it's time to realize that if we don't invest in the future of ALL Californians, we will all suffer. That is why I am marching to Sacramento, to make a case for a future California that works for all of us...
CALEXICO — Members of the Calexico Teachers Association joined scores of educators statewide Thursday to denounce state budget cuts to education.
Wearing yellow “unity” shirts and listening to impassioned speeches about the need to protect education, the CTA members, along with Calexico Unified School District board members Ruben De La Rosa and Gloria Romo, staged their rally behind the Enrique Camarena Memorial Library.
[Maura Larkins comment: Unity is a good thing, but only when it's organized around a good cause. Unity isn't a virtue in itself; after all, one of the best ways to achieve unity is through a dictatorship in which followers are kept ignorant of many essential facts, and intimidated into agreement. (Hmmm. That sounds like the way Jim Groth and Peg Myers run Chula Vista Educators.) Unfortunately, CTA also invokes the need for unity when the cause is to cover up the illegal actions of a group of teachers acting only for their own personal advancement, such as at Castle Park Elemtary in Chula Vista. CTA director Jim Groth has been involved in covering up the teacher actions that led to a $20,000 PTA embezzlement, $100,000s of tax dollars spent on defending teachers, and then a big scandal when the Castle Park Five were transferred out of the school.]
Carmen Durazo, CTA president, said that California is “at a crossroads” for education and said the statewide call asks people to step up and demand that the cuts to education stop.
“It is cutting into the future of our state,” Durazo said.
Last year, 16,000 teachers were laid off statewide, Durazo said. “This year we anticipate another round of layoffs,” Durazo said.
In the past two years, $17 billion was cut from schools and colleges, eliminating art, music and physical education programs in their entirety, according to literature by the California Teachers Association.
Also, 74 percent of school principals surveyed in a University of California, Los Angeles study said they have seen class sizes increase, said Jim Groth, board president of the California Teachers Association.
“California has to reinvest in education,” Groth said.
[Maura Larkins comment: Jim Groth and I are in 100% agreement on this.]
A teacher I knew went through a masters degree program that was remarkable for both the minuscule effort required and the very large amount of money demanded by a "diploma factory." I was amazed when she recounted a conversation she had with someone, ending the story with the words, "But I didn't mention that I have a masters degree." I thought it was astounding that she believed she had a real masters degree.
Research has recently shown that advanced degrees do not improve teaching.
Houston-area school districts spend tens of millions of dollars a year on teachers with advanced degrees that studies show don't produce better student achievement.
But with money tight, a handful of districts are considering ditching the traditional salary bump for teachers with master's degrees in favor of pay based more on student learning. The Houston Independent School District and the top-rated YES Prep charter school chain are among those looking to experiment.
"I would like us to look with our teachers and see whether or not those dollars could be spent in a more productive way," HISD Superintendent Terry Grier said...
This story is from the Bay Area, but it reminds me of our own notorious Bob Watkins, former president of the San Diego County Office of Education. When is the San Diego media going to find out what expenses he charged while at SDCOE?
Ousted Superintendent Bob Nunez routinely spent $1,000 a month for meals, travel and lodging and sometimes charged the cash-strapped East Side Union High School District as much as $4,000 a month.
The details were revealed for the first time Friday in a lengthy report into Nunez's spending habits that led to his departure last week from the struggling San Jose school district — complete with a $120,000 severance check.
The revelations were outlined in a 2,100-page report by the San Francisco law firm Hanson Bridgett, which reviewed two years' worth of Nunez's credit card spending. The report, commissioned by the East Side board, also concluded that Nunez did not improperly receive vacation pay or commit a conflict of interest...
