Race to the top?

AFT Has Mixed Reaction to Latest Race to the Top Finalists

AFT president Randi Weingarten on July 27 congratulated the 19 finalists for
phase 2 of Race to the Top, but raised concerns about some aspects of the
competitive federal grants program. The best of those finalists, Weingarten
says, "have made a concerted effort to bring together parents, educators and
community leaders to develop a thoughtful, student-focused approach to improving
public education." (Final grant winners will be announced in September.)

"AFT members in states like Florida, Illinois, Maryland, New York, Ohio,
Pennsylvania and Rhode Island fought for and won a seat at the table, and their
management counterparts engaged with them in a respectful, professional way,"
Weingarten says. "Fully recognizing that Race to the Top is far from perfect,
our members nevertheless worked tirelessly to ensure that stakeholders in these
states focused on students' interests and offered solutions that make sense in
their classrooms.

"The centerpiece of Race to the Top is meaningful teacher evaluations developed
with teacher input and focused on student learning. The Department of
Education's rhetoric, and its scoring rubric, purport to reward states that work
with teachers to develop this kind of evaluation system. Logically, then,
Washington, D.C.'s application, which includes an evaluation system developed
and implemented solely by the chancellor, without regard to considerable
criticism this year from frontline educators, should have ranked among the
lowest. By naming D.C. a finalist, the Education Department is sending a message
that is completely opposite to its earlier calls for states to engage all
community members, including teachers, in the effort to improve schools. No one
wants bad teachers, but no one should want bad teacher evaluation systems
either.

"While we encouraged our local and state affiliates to be involved in every
aspect of Race to the Top, we have always been troubled that this competition,
by its very construct, leaves out millions of students across the country.
Rather than picking winners and losers, our education policies should represent
a comprehensive approach focused on preparing every student to succeed in
college, work and life. Last month in Seattle, delegates to the AFT's convention
embraced such an approach: namely, to ensure that every neighborhood school is
an excellent school; to build on what works and replicate it for all kids; to
create a school environment in which students have what they need to succeed,
including a well-rounded curriculum; and to provide teachers the necessary
support so they can constantly improve.

Civil Rights Groups criticize Race to the Top

A coalition of civil rights organizations, including the NAACP, issued a scathing report about RTTT, calling on President Obama and Arne Duncan to dismantle core components of the law...

"The Race to the Top Fund and similar strategies for awarding federal
education funding will ultimately leave states competing with states,
parents competing with parents, and students competing with other
students..... By emphasizing competitive incentives in this economic
climate, the majority of low-income and minority students will be left
behind and, as a result, the United States will be left behind as a
global leader."
http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/campaign-k-12/2010/07/civil_rights_groups_call_for_n.html?cmp=clp-edweek

School finance lawsuit- students' views

Republicans, deficit hawks, make the economy worse

Christopher Hayes. The Nation.

First, the facts. Nearly the entire deficit for this year and those projected into the near and medium terms are the result of three things: the ongoing wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the Bush tax cuts and the recession. The solution to our fiscal situation is: end the wars, allow the tax cuts to expire and restore robust growth. Our long-term structural deficits will require us to control healthcare inflation the way countries with single-payer systems do.

But right now we face a joblessness crisis that threatens to pitch us into a long, ugly period of low growth, the kind of lost decade that will cause tremendous misery, degrade the nation's human capital, undermine an entire cohort of young workers for years and blow a hole in the government's bank sheet. The best chance we have to stave off this scenario is more government spending to nurse the economy back to health. The economy may be alive, but that doesn't mean it's healthy. There's a reason you keep taking antibiotics even after you start to feel better.

And yet: the drumbeat of deficit hysterics thumping in self-righteous panic grows louder by the day. Judging by its schedule and online video, this year's Aspen Ideas Festival was an open-air orgy of anti-deficit moaning. The festival is a good window into elite preoccupations, and that its opening forum featured ominous warnings of future bankruptcy from Niall Ferguson, Mort Zuckerman and David Gergen does not bode well. Nor does the fact that there was a panel called "America's Looming Fiscal Emergency: How to Balance the Books." This attitude isn't confined to pundits. The heads of Obama's fiscal commission have called projected deficits a "cancer."

Republicans block Extended Unemployment insurance

The expiration of the special unemployment compensation provisions enacted earlier in the recession has brought the problems of long-term unemployment and the role of unemployment compensation to the fore.

The June unemployment rate was 9.5%, and 45.5% of the unemployed have been seeking work for more than six months. Roughly a quarter of the unemployed have been jobless for more than a year. In this context, more than 2 million unemployed workers have already lost their unemployment insurance benefits because of the failure to renew the program that provides extended benefits to the long-term unemployed. This is unfortunate because providing unemployment benefits during a recession fulfills two important national needs: assisting those most hurt by the recession and generating jobs in the midst of a deep downturn.

First, unemployment benefits help cushion the blow of unemployment for millions of unemployed workers. This recession has caused the most job loss by far of any recession in the last seven decades. 

Financial overhaul-Boxer Yes, Fiorina No

Here is the take away. The Senate passed a bill to reform the financial system to limit the kind of bankers robbery that occurred in 20008.  Senator Barbara Boxer voted yes.  Candidate Fiorina said she would have voted No.  That is a difference of substance.  If Fiorina would have been there, the Democrats could not get the 60 votes needed, and we would still be under the rules- or lack of rules- that lead to the Second Great Recession.

WASHINGTON — The Senate on Thursday voted 60-39 to approve the most sweeping overhaul of the nation's financial regulatory system since the Great Depression, clearing the historic legislation for President Barack Obama to sign into law.

Teachers jobs- education funding

The U.S. House of Representatives just delivered a major victory for America’s educators. Now, we have to keep up the pressure and get the Senate on board. Thanks to your calls, letters, and visits, the House approved $10 billion in new funds to prevent over 130,000 educators from being laid off -- averting severe cuts that would hurt students, teachers, education support professionals, and our public schools. Now the bill moves to the Senate, where we face a challenging path. It’ll take a massive show of support from members like you to make sure the Senate votes to approve these vital funds. Call 1-866-608-6355 to be automatically connected to your Senator’s office. Make sure your Senator knows that education jobs are important to you. With many states facing budget shortfalls, hundreds of thousands of teachers’ and education support professionals’ jobs are at risk.

Finance Reform bill passes - finally

Democrats successes so far.

2009
January 29: Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act


February 4: Children’s Health Insurance Reauthorization Act


February 11: DTV Delay Act


February 17: American Recovery and Reinvestment Act;

         Allocation of some $8 billion to California schools allowing districts

         to preserve some 16,000 teacher jobs and 15,000 jobs in higher ed.


March 30: Omnibus Public Lands Management Act of 2009


April 21: Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act


2010. Plus. 3 allocations of addition funds for Supplemental Unemployment insurance to the states.  Currently Unemployment Insurance can extend up to 99 weeks.  Appropriations to extend the supplemental unemployment are currently blocked by a Republican filibuster in the Senate.

July 17,2010.  Financial regulation bill passed. ( Wall Street Reform).

This is as important as the Health Care reform bill. 

The Blame the teachers crowd

by Randi Weingarten 

The blame-the-teacher crowd would have Americans believe that there is only one choice when it comes to public education: either you’re for students, or you’re for teachers.

That is a bogus choice.

When a school is good for the kids, it’s also good for the teachers, and vice versa. And if our leaders fail to recognize this, and fail to create a positive vision for our schools, we must lead the way.

Excerpts.

I never thought I’d see the superintendent of a major city’s public school system call public education, and I’m quoting here: “crappy.”

I never thought I’d open a major newspaper to see us described as (again I’m quoting): “selfinterested adults trying to deny poor parents choice for their children.”

I might have expected to hear the House Republican Leader say that preventing teacher layoffs is a scheme to, quote, “Pad the education bureaucracy.”

But I never thought I’d see a Democratic president, whom we helped elect, and his education secretary applaud the mass firing of 89 teachers and staff in Central Falls, R.I., when not a single one of the teachers ever received an unsatisfactory evaluation.

And I never thought that I’d see a documentary film about helping disadvantaged children in which the villain wasn’t crumbling schools, or grinding poverty, or the lack of a curriculum, or overcrowded classrooms, or the total failure of No Child Left Behind.

No, the villain was us.

Democratic Legislative work 2009/2010

Democrats successes so far.

2009
January 29: Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act


February 4: Children’s Health Insurance Reauthorization Act


February 11: DTV Delay Act


February 17: American Recovery and Reinvestment Act;

         Allocation of some $6 billion to California schools allowing districts

         to preserve some 16,000 teacher jobs.


March 30: Omnibus Public Lands Management Act of 2009


April 21: Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act


May 20: Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act


May 20: Helping Families Save Their Homes Act of 2009

Plus. 3 allocations of addition funds for Supplemental Unemployment insurance to the states.  Currently Unemployment Insurance can extend up to 99 weeks.  Appropriations to extend the supplemental unemployment are currently blocked by a Republican filibuster in the Senate.

Economic Report, Christina Romer

Christina Romer, Advisor to the President.

The Council of Economic Advisors submitted a crucial report today on the state of the economy.

“White House economists touted the success of the government’s $787 billion stimulus program on Wednesday, saying it had saved or created 2.5 million to 3.6 million jobs since it was signed a year ago.

The new report by the Council of Economic Advisers showed that the pace of fiscal stimulus had accelerated, with spending growing to $116 billion in the second quarter from $108 billion in the first quarter and $80 billion in the final three months of 2009.

The White House also estimated that gross domestic product, a measure of overall economic output, was 2.7 percent to 3.2 percent higher than it would have been without the $787 billion in stimulus. The new estimate is in line with projections by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office..

California school spending; How do we rank?

How Do California’s Education Spending and

Staffing Levels Compare  to Other States?

California’s spending for public schools lags that of the rest of the US.1 California’s schools:

·      Ranked 44^th among the 50 states in K-12 spending per student, spending $2,546 less per student than the rest of the US in 2009- 10 (Table 1). To reach the level of spending per student of the rest of the US, California’s schools would have had to spend an additional $15.4 billion in 2009-10, an increase of 28.9 percent.

·      Ranked 46^th in education spending as a percentage of personal income – a measure that reflects the size of a state’s economy and the resources available to support public services. To reach the level of the rest of the US, California would have had to spend an additional $15.3 billion on education in 2008-09, an increase of 29.5 percent.

California has more students per school staff than the rest of the US. California’s schools:

• Ranked 50th in the nation with respect to the number of students per teacher.

California averaged 21.3 students for each teacher in 2009-10, more than 50

percent larger than the rest of the US, which averaged 13.8 students per teacher.2

• Ranked 46th in the nation with respect to the number of students per

administrator.3 California’s schools averaged 358 students for each administrator

in 2007-08, compared to 216 students for each administrator in the rest of the US.

• Ranked 49th in the nation with respect to the number of students per guidance

counselor. California’s schools averaged 809 students for each guidance counselor

Source: California Budget Project.  Race to the Bottom.

Meanwhile the anti tax radicals continue to denounce our schools.  

Bankers, hustlers and con men doing well in this economy

Outside the Casino

By BOB HERBERT

The hustlers and high rollers at Wall Street’s gaming tables are starting to feel lucky again.

Hiring is beginning to pick up in the very sector that led the country to the edge of a depression. An article on the front page of The Times on Sunday noted that this turnaround “underscores the remarkable recovery of the biggest banks and brokerage firms since Washington rescued them in the fall of 2008, and follows the huge rebound in profits for members of the New York Stock Exchange, which totaled $61.4 billion in 2009, the most ever.”

The hustlers and high rollers are always there to skim the cream, no matter what’s happening in the real world of ordinary American families.

In a column that was published a few days before Christmas 2007, the very month that the great recession began, I wrote about the record-breaking seasonal bonuses being handed out on Wall Street: an obscene $38 billion, the highest total ever. The subprime mortgage debacle was already upon us and the economy was sinking like a stone, but the casino crowd was celebrating as never before. “Even as the Wall Streeters are high-fiving and ordering up record shipments of Champagne and caviar,” I noted, “the American dream is on life support.”

The fattest of the fat cats live in a perpetual heads-I-win, tails-you-lose environment. But if you step outside the Wall Street casino, you’ll notice that things aren’t going too well in the rest of the country. More than 14 million Americans are out of work, and nearly half of them have been jobless for six months or longer. The unemployment rate for black Americans is 15.4 percent.

School districts across the country are taking drastic steps to cope with collapsing budgets: firing personnel, increasing class sizes, cutting kindergarten and summer-school programs and, in some cases, moving to a four-day school week. The Associated Press, in a demoralizing report, recently noted: “As the school budget crisis deepens, administrators across the nation have started to view school libraries as luxuries that can be axed rather than places where kids learn to love reading and do research.”

A vision of improved schools

Saying America’s teachers would “lead and propose, not wait and oppose,” AFTPresident Randi Weingarten outlined a vision to “build a system of public education as it ought to be.”

She said real changes could be made by focusing on good teaching, creating a curriculum that provides opportunity for students to learn and sharing responsibility and accountability with parents and administrators.

Weingarten spoke yesterday at AFT’s biennial convention in Seattle, which runs through Sunday. AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka will address the convention tomorrow.

She told the more than 3,000 delegates that the “blame the teacher crowd” would rather “affix blame than fix schools.” These critics, she continued, “would have Americans believe that there is only one choice when it comes to public education: either you’re for students, or you’re for teachers,” which Weingarten called a “bogus choice.”

It’s simply wrong to suggest that there is an epidemic of bad teachers and at the same time to ignore poverty, budget cuts, the absence of curriculum, the huge attrition of good teachers—all things we know truly hamper student success.

No teacher—myself included—wants a bad teacher in any classroom. The AFT and our locals are taking real steps to solve the problem and to strengthen teaching.

Weingarten outlined the steps to creating better public schools:

• Focus on good teaching, including better evaluation procedures. Teacher evaluations should include measures of student learning but, Weingarten said, there’s a huge difference between using multiple indicators of student learning as part of a teacher’s evaluation, and basing a teacher’s hiring, firing and promotion on standardized test scores.
• Create curriculums that provide opportunities for students to learn. Weingarten  reaffirmed the union’s support for  wraparound services—such as after-school, nutrition, health and early childhood programs—to be available in traditional public schools, not just charter schools.
• Share responsibility and accountability. Weingarten described a vision of accountability “that is meant to fix schools…and holds everyone responsible for doing their share.” She said that “shared responsibility should extend to the bargaining table” and described the growing number of AFT affiliates that have used “collective bargaining as a creative tool to codify collaborative approaches that improve teaching and learning.”

The complete text of Weingarten’s speech is available here.

Myths of Austerity: Krugman

By PAUL KRUGMAN

When I was young and naïve, I believed that important people took positions based on careful consideration of the options. Now I know better. Much of what Serious People believe rests on prejudices, not analysis. And these prejudices are subject to fads and fashions.

Which brings me to the subject of today’s column. For the last few months, I and others have watched, with amazement and horror, the emergence of a consensus in policy circles in favor of immediate fiscal austerity. That is, somehow it has become conventional wisdom that now is the time to slash spending, despite the fact that the world’s major economies remain deeply depressed.

This conventional wisdom isn’t based on either evidence or careful analysis. Instead, it rests on what we might charitably call sheer speculation, and less charitably call figments of the policy elite’s imagination — specifically, on belief in what I’ve come to think of as the invisible bond vigilante and the confidence fairy.

Bond vigilantes are investors who pull the plug on governments they perceive as unable or unwilling to pay their debts. Now there’s no question that countries can suffer crises of confidence (see Greece, debt of). But what the advocates of austerity claim is that (a) the bond vigilantes are about to attack America, and (b) spending anything more on stimulus will set them off.

What reason do we have to believe that any of this is true? Yes, America has long-run budget problems, but what we do on stimulus over the next couple of years has almost no bearing on our ability to deal with these long-run problems. As Douglas Elmendorf, the director of the Congressional Budget Office, recently put it, “There is no intrinsic contradiction between providing additional fiscal stimulus today, while the unemployment rate is high and many factories and offices are underused, and imposing fiscal restraint several years from now, when output and employment will probably be close to their potential.”

Progressive Groups form an alliance

Progressives hope 'One Nation' coalition can recapture grass-roots fervor

By Krissah Thompson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, July 12, 2010; A03

 If imitation is the highest form of flattery, the "tea party" movement must be honored.

In an effort to replicate the tea party's success, 170 liberal and civil rights groups are forming a coalition that they hope will match the movement's political energy and influence. They promise to "counter the tea party narrative" and help the progressive movement find its voice again after 18 months of foundering.

The large-scale attempt at liberal unity, dubbed "One Nation," will try to revive themes that energized the progressive grass roots two years ago. In a repurposing of Barack Obama's former campaign slogan, organizers are demanding "all the change" they voted for -- a poke at the White House.

But the liberal groups have long had a kind of sibling rivalry, jostling over competing agendas and seeking to influence some of the same lawmakers. In forming the coalition, the groups struggled to settle on a name. Even now, two of the major players disagree about who came up with the idea of holding a march this fall.

Sacramento Libraries found lacking

In the 2009 America's Most Literate Cities report, six California cities placed in the bottom seven places in public library quality: Bakersfield (69th), Los Angeles (70th), Anaheim (71st), Sacramento (72nd), Stockton (74th) and Santa Ana (75th).

California also has the worst-supported school libraries in the country, in terms of both holdings and staffing.

Study after study shows that library quality is related to higher scores on reading tests. It is therefore not surprising that California children do poorly on reading tests: Children get better in reading by reading a lot, and they read more when they have access to books.

Let's divert some of the huge sums spent on testing to funding libraries. Let's invest in promoting learning, not just measuring it.

Stephen Krashen
The writer is a professor emeritus at USC's Rossier School of Education.

Researchers criticize Arizona school treatment of English Learners

http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2010/07/08/36arizona.h29.html?tkn=USZF%2B33KLyBnvWBqCQXaJnq8852IbM5w2FXg&cmp=clp-edweek


Be sure to note Margaret Garcia Dugan's comment that the teachers they talk to "love the program" and that based on the state's reclassifcation rates, the program works, especially if it is adhered to "with fidelity." 
The program separates students for up to 4 hours per day of intensive instruction in English.
 

Sacramento Bee Editorials Continue to Attack Teacher Unions in Support of SB 1285 | California Progress Report

Sacramento Bee Editorials Continue to Attack Teacher Unions in Support of SB 1285 | California Progress Report

Not talking about the real school issues

The Sacramento Bee editorial writers again attack teachers unions in their support of SB 1285 to alter seniority rules. Lets look at what they  are actually advocating. In low performing schools, new teachers, teachers with 1 -3 years of experience would not be laid off. So, more experienced teaches, teachers with 4-6 years of experience would be laid off. There is little gain here.

 It is a tragedy that young teachers will be laid off. It will impact their lives, their careers, and the future of the schools. But, what are the Bee editorial writers not saying ?  The national economic crisis produced a fiscal crisis in the states, and now California has cut over $16 billion from its schools.   The financial crisis caused the lay offs, not seniority.

It is most interesting that writers focus on teachers and seniority.  Why would that be?   In an excellent editorial, What’s Up with All the Teacher Bashing?   in the Summer issue of Rethinking Schools  the editors say,

 “But if these attacks on teachers aren’t about ending the systemic racism that continues to undermine our education system, what is the goal?  With forces as seemingly disparate as the Obama administration, the Walton Foundation, the late Milton Friedman, and the New York Times all pushing the same ideas, this is a complicated question, but there are at least two major goals: destroy the power of the teachers’ unions, and turn the public school system from a public trust into a new market for corporate development. From the time of Reagan, who used his “welfare queen” stories to scapegoat the poor as a basis on which to destroy the welfare system, this has been a tried-and-true approach to privatization: use visceral anecdotes to whip up hysteria that a system is “broken,” argue that only market competition can fix the situation, and then sell off pieces of the public sector to private corporations. This time, teachers are the scapegoats.

NEA delegates slam Obama Administration policy

Delegates to the National Education Association voted on Sunday to take a position of "no confidence" in the U.S. Department of Education's Race to the Top guidelines and in the use of competitive grants as a basis for the reauthorization of ESEA -the Elementary and Secondary Education Act formerly known as No Child Left Behind.

It was a  notable slam on the Obama administration.  "Arne Duncan was not on the ballot. The policies of the Department of Education are the policies of the Obama administration," one  delegate said. "We have to step up and say that the policies of the Obama administration, we do not agree with those."

NEA President Dennis Van Roekel,  was quoted in the New York Times as saying, “Today our members face the most anti-educator, anti-union, anti-student environment I have ever experienced,”  No one from the Obama Administration was scheduled to speak at the convention.

Meanwhile over 100,000 teachers nation wide face lay offs as Senate Democrats fail to overcome a filibuster to pass a new stimulus package.

Battling the Banksters

William Greider | June 30, 2010. the Nation.com

Hold the applause. The president would like us to celebrate his "Wall Street reform," but the legislation is misnamed. Barack Obama did not set out as president to reform Wall Street in fundamental ways but to restore it. Judging by the largest banks' booming stock prices and executive bonuses, he appears to have succeeded. The leading bankers expressed relief when they saw the reform package Congress cobbled together on June 25. Wall Street, loathed by citizens everywhere, dodged the bullet in Washington.
Congress followed Obama's path and rejected the sterner measures that promised to actually change things. As with healthcare reform, the White House, joined by the Treasury and the Federal Reserve, spent much of its energy opposing more aggressive ideas or bargaining small-bore compromises. The president kept a low profile, saving himself for the victory celebration.
Despite the defeat of real reform, progressives should not despair—the future looks much brighter than the headlines suggest. Yes, Congress choked on the hard questions. But assuming the Dems pull together last-minute wavering votes, it will be a stronger bill than either the White House or the bankers had intended, thanks to public anger, popular mobilization and nimble pressure from reformers.
This is not the end of reform; it's the beginning of a promising struggle to cut the financial sector down to tolerable dimensions and reduced power. The forces of reform demonstrated that they have the strength and especially the ideas to win this fight—just not this year.

Teacher bashing, budget cuts and the media

From Rethinking Schools.

But if these attacks on teachers aren’t about ending the systemic racism that continues to undermine our education system, what is the goal?  With forces as seemingly disparate as the Obama administration, the Walton Foundation, the late Milton Friedman, and the New York Times all pushing the same ideas, this is a complicated question, but there are at least two major goals: destroy the power of the teachers’ unions, and turn the public school system from a public trust into a new market for corporate development. From the time of Reagan, who used his “welfare queen” stories to scapegoat the poor as a basis on which to destroy the welfare system, this has been a tried-and-true approach to privatization: use visceral anecdotes to whip up hysteria that a system is “broken,” argue that only market competition can fix the situation, and then sell off pieces of the public sector to private corporations. This time, teachers are the scapegoats.

So it’s no accident that a major thrust of the media and political campaign has been the elimination of teacher tenure, which is blamed for making it hard to fire “bad” teachers. Everyone—as student, parent, or colleague—has felt the impact of teachers who should not be in the classroom. But don't blame tenure. Tenure is not a guaranteed job for life; it’s the right, which all employees deserve, not to be fired without due process and without just cause. If the goal were really better teaching, Race to the Top would be promoting union/district peer review and mentoring programs that are effective in helping struggling teachers and removing those who can’t make the grade. Instead, President Obama and Secretary of Education Duncan have made linking retention and salaries to test scores a precondition for Race to the Top funds, and encouraged states to break the power of teachers’ unions.

School budget cut proposals- Joel Klein

Joel I. Klein, the chancellor of the New York City school system, which is competing for Race to the Top money, said Congress should save the $800 million elsewhere, even if it meant cutting federal aid for schools with high-poverty students. “Here’s a chance with Race to the Top to really change the game,” he said. “Why would you take the money out of that?”

Mr. Obey, however, said the cut approved by the House would leave $3.2 billion for the favored programs. “To suggest we are being unduly harsh is a joke,” he said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/03/us/politics/03cong.html?_r=1&hpw

Remember, Joel Klein was considered for Secretary of Education 

School budget cuts - Oregon

By Joanne Yatvin 

The job of destroying America's public schools, left unfinished by No Child Left Behind, has now been taken over by our economic recession.

In nearly every state, teacher layoffs, a shortened school year, class-size increases and elimination of vital parts of the school curriculum are in progress, So far, Congress has failed to respond. Apparently our public schools, unlike Wall Street banks, are not "too big to fail." Ironically, the business community, the leading advocate of school reform in recent years, remains silent. 

To make matters worse, the only assistance the Obama administration has offered to states is a Faustian bargain: Allow the unlimited proliferation of charter schools that drain the most dedicated students, their families and funds from public schools; evaluate teachers' competence by their students' scores on flawed, once-a-year state tests; and accept national standards designed by people who haven't been inside a classroom or near any kids but their own since they graduated. Then -- maybe -- we'll give you enough money to keep school buildings open. 

Schools and the economic crisis

Schools and the budget crisis

SACRAMENTO — State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell today announced that since the beginning of this year the number of school districts that may be unable to meet future financial obligations because of the continuing state budget crisis and inadequate funding for public education has increased by 38 percent. For the list of school districts, please visit Second Interim Status Report, FY 2009-10 - Fiscal Status.

"We are seeing an alarming spike in the number of school districts that are having trouble meeting their financial obligations," said O'Connell. "Schools on this list are now forced to make terrible decisions to cut programs and services that students need or face bankruptcy. This trend will worsen if the Governor's proposed cuts to public education are enacted in the 2010-11 budget. I have grave concerns that more and more school districts will face financial crisis unless state lawmakers find solutions to the state budget crisis and provide adequate funding for our schools."

Public education in California received $17 billion less in state funding than anticipated over the last two budget years. As a result, more than 20,000 teachers have received pink slips this year. Summer school has been eliminated, class sizes are increasing, and art, music, libraries, school nurses, and sports programs have been cut.

Republicans extend the Great Recession

It is clear from recent legislative actions that the Republicans in Congress want to ensure large electoral gains in November by undermining any possible economic recovery. This cynical ploy needs to be called out by Democrats, so that the American people will see how Republicans will do anything to gain political power.

Republicans know that the surest way of sustaining the recession is to refuse to consider another stimulus. Using the fear of a growing deficit as their main political strategy, the Republicans have successfully blocked the extension of unemployment benefits, while they have convinced the Democrats to move off of their earlier desire to bail out the states that are facing huge deficits. The Republican strategists believe that if unemployment stays high through November, they stand a good chance of taking back both the Senate and the House of Representatives.

The Great Employment Meltdown

Many states with record deficits have been waiting for the federal government to come up with funds for increased Medicaid costs, and now that the Republicans have blocked this funding source, we will begin to see massive cuts to state programs, which in turn, will cause an increase in unemployment. Not only will state workers and teachers lose their jobs, but retail businesses will lose customers at a time when they are already facing large financial difficulties. Also, the viral spread of unemployment will help to push thousands, if not millions, of people into foreclosure, and we will see a further deterioration of construction and real estate jobs.

Without a new stimulus infusion of funding for states, the next round of job cuts may make the first fiscal meltdown seem like a cakewalk. Last year, states were able to put off the misery by relying on billions of dollars from the federal stimulus, but now that this money is going away, there is no safety net left.

Senator Darrell Steinberg - school policy and school budgets

  Sacramento Senator Darrell Steinberg  has authored and promoted SB 1285 that changes seniority rules for the lay off of teachers.  He  seems to listening to Ed Voice and the corporations promoting the wrong assumption that seniority causes problems in schools.  Lets see.  There are low performing schools – most of them in poverty neighborhoods.  There are high performing schools – most of them in middle class neighborhoods.  They both have the same seniority system.  Seniority is not the problem – poverty is. ( See prior posts on this).

Legislators  should provide  every student a high quality education by providing the adequate funding that schools need.  California fails at this.  We rank 46^th. out 50 states in per public  spending.  ( See the excellent new report by the California Budget Project, Race to the Bottom http://www.cbp.org/) That is a legislative decision. Adequate funding would allow schools to keep libraries open; hire back laid-off teachers, nurses, and counselors; and reduce class sizes to provide students with needed attention.

Senator Steinberg claims in a letter to constituents this week, “Since I became leader of the Senate eighteen months ago, we have been able to increase Proposition 98 funding by  $1.6 Billion.  This claim is puzzling. 

According to EdSource, California has reduced Prop. 98 funding  from 50.3 billion to 31.2 billion dollars during this period.  I called the Senator’s office for clarification.  I was transferred twice and then promised that I would get a call back from the press office.  That was Tues.  Perhaps some reader can explain  these numbers.  I can’t. Senator Steinberg is up for re-election this year. 

School propaganda from the Governor's office

California has a Secretary of Education as well as a Superintendent of Public Instruction.  The Superintendent organizes the state educational programs and implements state mandates.  The Secretary of Education is an advisor to the Governor. The current Secretary is Bonnie Reiss, about the 5^th. Secretary under Arnold Schwarzenegger. 

Secretary Reiss has a letter to the editor in the Sacramento Bee of Tues. June 29, responding to an earlier column by Dan Walters about the state’s persistent high drop out rate.  The letter is a classic piece of propaganda.

You begin with the statement, “schools with effective teachers and effective principals do well and those with ineffective teachers and ineffective principals do not. “  She is correct.  But, in the service of propaganda, this statement tells only a part of the story.  It says something you agree with in order to introduce the propaganda message.  She then goes on to say, “It is time for California to join the national education reform movement  and change state law to move away from our current failed system that is based solely on teacher seniority.”  That is the propaganda piece.

Lets see. There are schools with high levels of drop outs, and schools with very low level of dropouts.  The high drop out schools tend to be in poverty areas and the low drop out schools tend to be in upper middle class areas.  Both groups of schools have precisely the same teacher seniority requirements.  That is, there is no evidence that teacher seniority leads to the high drop out crisis in California.

I have  taught in public schools and university teacher preparation programs for over 40 years and written books on this subject.  Lets look a little deeper.

California has had a chronic drop out problem since at least 1969 and the drop outs are concentrated in low income schools. The problem has not been improved.  In the last two years the Governor has cut $16 billion from school budgets, will that make matters better or worse?   As the Robles-Wong v California lawsuit asserts California spends $2131 less dollars per student than the national average.  (www.fixschoolfinance.org) Significant budget cuts increase class size. Large class sizes mean that many  2,3^rd, 4^th, graders are not learning to read well- even with good teachers.  These students will be your future drop outs.

Senate fails to pass unemployment extension

'The Washington post says that 900,000 people will lose

their jobless benefits by the end of the money.

Millions are losing their health insurance right now as

well. Why isn't this considered a national emergency.

It is certainly an emergency for those people, for the

stores where they buy groceries, their landlords or

mortgage-holders, their children, their relatives and

their communities. What is wrong with Washington that

they don't care/ What is wrong with our elite media

that they don't report this?'

Dave Johnson

Campaign for America's Future

June 24, 2010

http://tinyurl.com/2cmr52e

The Third Great Depression; Krugman

By PAUL KRUGMAN

Published: June 27, 2010

           

Recessions are common; depressions are rare. As far as I can tell, there were only two eras in economic history that were widely described as “depressions” at the time: the years of deflation and instability that followed the Panic of 1873 and the years of mass unemployment that followed the financial crisis of 1929-31.

Neither the Long Depression of the 19th century nor the Great Depression of the 20^th was an era of nonstop decline — on the contrary, both included periods when the economy grew. But these episodes of improvement were never enough to undo the damage from the initial slump, and were followed by relapses.

We are now, I fear, in the early stages of a third depression. It will probably look more like the Long Depression than the much more severe Great Depression. But the cost — to the world economy and, above all, to the millions of lives blighted by the absence of jobs — will nonetheless be immense.

And this third depression will be primarily a failure of policy. Around the world — most recently at last weekend’s deeply discouraging G-20 meeting — governments are obsessing about inflation when the real threat is deflation, preaching the need for belt-tightening when the real problem is inadequate spending.

Little school reform happening

The U.S, and the school systems in most of  our cities, including Sacramento, Los Angeles, Washington D.C. and others,  are currently at a crisis  point.  The  economic crisis has ended almost all school reform efforts. Politicians and candidates like Meg Whitman  continue to pontificate, but lack of funding and the demoralizing cuts in school budgets and staff have ended almost all real reform.  Nothing in Whitman's campaign promises will improve schools.  Her proposed budgets would increase the decimation of school opportunity.
  The anti tax candidates, like Whitman, would  continue schools  as they are. A segment of society will be well-educated, another segment will continue to fail.

The economic crisis for working families  will continue to grow (Mishel, Bernstein, Allegretto, 2007, Paul Krugman, The return of depression economics and the crisis of 2008.  (2009) Dean Baker,  Plunder and Blunder: The Rise and Fall of the Bubble Economy, (2009) Nomi Prins.  It Takes a Pillage: Behind the bailouts, bonuses and backroom Deals from Washington to  Wall Street. (2009), and the numerous other others cited on this blog in posts on the economic crisis. )

Alternatively, schools could  be transformed into places where education is a rich, compelling, and affirming process that prepares all young people to make thoughtful contributions to their community in economic and civic terms.

The possibility for change exists and gives those of us dedicated to democratic schools hope.  Current   proposals promoted by conservative institutes and  Ed Voice,    such as school choice and using public monies to fund private education  will not lead to democratic reform. Rather than continue these privileges, a reform movement must build on democratic ideals of progress and equality of opportunity. These traditional  democratic values can triumph over the hostility and violence produced by racism, sexism, and class bias presently accepted as “normal” and natural in our schools.

Limited reform of the financial industry : Dean Baker

Washington, D.C.- Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research issued the following statement on the approval of the financial reform bill:

"The final compromise bill approved by the conference committee this morning will improve regulation in the financial sector. However, given the severity of the economic crisis caused by past regulatory failures, the public had the right to expect much more extensive reform.

"On the positive side, the creation of a strong independent Consumer Financial Protection Bureau stands out as an important accomplishment. Such an agency would have prevented some of the worst lending practices that contributed to the housing bubble. It will be important that President Obama choose a strong and effective person, such as Elizabeth Warren, as the first head of the Bureau to establish its independence.

"The requirement that most derivatives be either exchange-traded or passed through clearinghouses is also an important improvement in regulation. However, important exceptions remain, which the industry will no doubt exploit to their limit.

"The creation of resolution authority for large non-bank financial institutions is also a positive step, although the fact that no pre-funding mechanism was put in place is a serious problem. Also, the audit of the Federal Reserve's special lending facilities, as well as the ongoing audits of its open market operations and discount window loans, is a big step towards increased Fed openness.

"On the negative side, there is little in this legislation that will fundamentally change the way that Wall Street does business. The rules on derivative trading will still allow the bulk of derivatives to be traded directly out of banks rather than separately capitalized divisions of the holding company. The Volcker rule was substantially weakened by a provision that will still allow banks to risk substantial sums in proprietary trading.

"More importantly, there is probably no economist who believes that this bill will end the risks of  too-big-to-fail financial institutions. The six largest banks will still enjoy the enormous implicit subsidy that results from the expectation that the federal government will bail them out in the event of a crisis.

On time budget initiative qualifies

On Friday, May 7, CFT and coalition partners AFSCME and CNA submitted 1.1 million signatures on petitions to place a Majority Vote Budget measure on the state ballot for November 2010.

California is one of just three states that require a two thirds Legislative supermajority to pass a budget.  Under these circumstances, a small minority of legislators controls the state budget process, and ensures the continued decline of funding for public education and other vital social services.  Democracy is supposed to be simple majority rule (50% plus 1).  We have lost democracy in our state budget process, with terrible effects for all of us.

Each year the state budget is held hostage by the legislative minority until the majority agrees to eliminate a tax, or until the majority is forced to agree to additional tax loopholes for special interests.  

Well, it is less than the Majority Rule initiative which did not make it to the ballot.  But, half a loaf is better than none.

Hello Hoover: Republicans kill unemployment extension

Republican partisan politics won—and working families lost—again last night when Senate Republicans for the fourth time this year blocked a bill that would revive the extended unemployment insurance (UI) benefits program that is the last lifeline for millions of jobless workers.

The 57-41 vote (with Democratic Sen. Ben Nelson from Nebraska joining all Republicans) fell three votes short of the 60 needed to end the filibuster against the bill. The bill also included aid for states facing huge budget shortfalls to keep 900,000 people on the job.

The extended UI program expired May 31 after the Senate left town for the Memorial Day recess without acting on a House-passed jobs bill that would have kept the long-term unemployment benefits program alive. Since then, 1.2 million jobless workers have lost their benefits.

The Republican blockade means about 250,000 unemployed workers a week lose their benefits, which averages around $300 a week, while Republican lawmakers take in a nifty $3,346.16 a week of taxpayers’ money.

Maybe if they spent a few months out of work in an economy where the unemployment rate is near 10 percent, at least 15 million people are out of work and 6.8 million people have been out of work for 27 weeks or more, they wouldn’t be so cavalier in calling for “tough love” for the unemployed and telling them they’re just not looking hard for work.

This is how you make a recession worse. 

US Senate Fails jobs bill

Earlier this afternoon, the US Senate failed to pass its version of jobs legislation. In response, Jean Ross, executive director of the California Budget Project, a nonpartisan public policy research group, issued this statement: "Nearly 1.5 million unemployed California workers won't receive unemployment insurance (UI) benefits that they would spend quickly and close to home, boosting the local economy and helping local businesses avoid layoffs. More than 2 million people nationwide will lose these benefits if Congress fails to act before leaving for the July 4 recess. California won't receive $1.8 billion in federal assistance - funds assumed in the Governor's May Revision, as well as the Senate and Assembly budget plans - forcing even deeper spending cuts than those enacted in recent budgets and already on the table as a result of the unprecedented drop in revenues brought on by the recession. These actions will cause private- and public-sector job losses and raise the risk of a double-dip recession as the loss of spending power ripples through the economy. Without more federal aid, state budget-cutting actions nationwide place at risk as many as 900,000 jobs over the next year.