Charters and school segregation

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sheet/research/new-study-looks-at-segregation.html#more

New study looks at segregation in charter schools

My guest is Kevin G. Welner, professor of education policy and program evaluation in the School of Education at the University of Colorado at Boulder, and director of theEducation and the Public Interest Center. He can be reached at welner@colorado.edu.

By Kevin G. Welner
The Washington Post published an article last Wednesday about a study from UCLA’s Civil Rights Project/Proyecto Derechos Civiles which analyzed charter schools across the country and found them to be substantially more racially isolated than traditional public schools. The study has received quite a bit of attention, as well as pushback from charter school advocates.

Today, CU-Boulder’s policy center, along with its partner policy center at Arizona State University (collectively, EPIC/EPRU) is releasing a studyhttp://epicpolicy.org/publication/schools-without-diversity that, coincidentally, asks some of the same questions as the UCLA study did.
Our study provides a comprehensive examination of enrollment patterns in schools operated by private corporations and finds these schools to be segregated by race, family income, disabilities and English language learner status. As compared with their local public school districts, these schools operated by Education Management Organizations, or EMOs, are substantially more segregated, and the strong segregative pattern found in 2001 is virtually unchanged through 2007.

Sacramento Black Parallel School Board

Good Morning.  First let me say that I am honored and humbled to have been selected as your guest speaker today.  CONGRATULATIONS are due to the Executive Board of the Black Parallel School Board on this day, the 2^nd Anniversary of your creation.  It is appropriate to celebrate during Black History Month, since much of our past struggle has surrounded the right of blacks to obtain a quality education or to be educated at all.  Even before the cases of Plessy vs. Fergueson and Brown v. Board of Education were decided, Africans were striving to learn a new language and have the right to have a book and read it.  Remember that it was after Africans arrived in America and owned land and property that the first Negro Act was passed making it illegal for us to read, be educated and even assemble for fear that we would rebel against whites.

Kudos to BPSB for taking on the arduous task of representing the community that makes up Sacramento City School Districts.  SCUSD has been difficult.  I say that because although there are similar alternative Board organizations elsewhere around the State, the school system inSacramento is probably one of the most resistant and difficult Districts to deal with.   It has a history of ignoring the needs of our children and it has a structure and administration that does not accept criticism or change, and frankly did not readily embrace this organization as a good thing.

Poll Results: Tea party

A Feb.4, 2010 poll by CNN says,

33% of the U.S. supports the Tea Party.

A Feb. 4, 2010  poll by Gallop say,

36% in the U.S.  have a positive view of socialism.

Now, which one of these- Tea Party or Socialism gets access to mainstream media.?

School budget cuts and the economic crisis

I was watching the Sacramento City School Board discussing their impending budget crisis. 

Like newspaper writers, they discuss the economic crisis as if  the crisis is a neutral act, or as if a natural act.  Like rain or snow.  The school budgets are  a disaster not because of   some natural phenomena.  The crisis was created by people and policies of our government and of the financial system.

"The reality is that we got into this mess because of an overwhelming excess of greed and stupidity on the part of the Wall Street bankers and the people deciding economic policy. We continue to face excessive rates of unemployment because of a continuing reluctance to pursue policies that can restore the economy to health.

Very briefly, one of these policies is more government spending to create jobs. The government can employ people directly; it can give companies incentives to employ people, and it can give tax cuts that give people more money to spend. Mix and match in large enough quantities and we will get the unemployment rate down to more acceptable levels."

Dean Baker

http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/02/01/the_second_great_depression_bogeyman/?ref=mp

Director. Center for Economic and Policy Research.

The California budget and the economic crisis

            I attended an excellent presentation on  “Searching for Balance: the Social and Economic Context for the Governor’s proposed 2010-11 Budget.” today offered by the California budget project.   Readers will recognize some key issues for this year’s budget as developed in prior posts on the economic crisis.

            California and the government are facing new challenges some of which imperil the health and well being of families in the state.  The state has budget shortfalls which will continue for years.  The governor’s approach to the budget problems is to pit one group against the other; poor people, the disabled, schools, health care. The weak labor market will take years to improve.

            You can see the entire presentation in pdf here. http://www.cbp.org/pdfs/2010/100202_Searching_for_Balance.pdf

Here is an illustrative graphic of the important information for us all.  (Click on the image to make it larger).  In future posts I will refer to some of the other information.  The governor has proposed draconian cuts to Healthy Families, Medi cal, In home supportive services, and k-12 education among others.

            It is essential that we come to understand the economic crisis and the options available to us.  The government is stalemated by the 2/3 rule. We need to figure out how to respond.

Capitol Alert: California's credit rating? On par with Libya and Estonia

Capitol Alert: California's credit rating? On par with Libya and Estonia

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California majority rule campaign

 Campaigns  are up and running throughout the state  to place an initiative on the  California ballot for majority rule- that is for democracy.  The campaign is particularly strong on U C campuses and is seeking to spread to CSU and Community college campuses as well as to the general public.  Volunteer  field directors and county coordinators are distributing petitions and organizing a structure to gain 1 million signatures by April 3,2010. 

  The California budget  is in deep trouble  for the next several years , and the problem is aggravated the  anti democratic limits on the legislature’s ability to pass a budget.   George Lakoff  sent to the Attorney General a ballot proposition for the 2010 ballot called The California Democracy Act,  which simply says,

All legislative action on revenue and budget must be determined by a majority vote.

It’s just  this one sentence.  It would change two words in the Constitution, turning "two-thirds" to "majority" in two places.