Closing Schools, Faulting Teachers in Sacramento

July 25, 2013

By Seth Sandronsky
and Duane Campbell

Seth Sandronsky's ZSpace Page

Officially, a budget shortfall for the Sacramento City Unified School District caused closure of seven elementary schools. Marcos Bretón, a columnist for The Sacramento Bee, weighed in with this: “I honestly don't believe that the district was driven by racial bias in closing schools months ago” http://www.sacbee.com/2013/07/14/5565087/marcos-breton-poor-sacramento.html

Excellent in the column is recognition that the SCUSD schools in low-income neighborhoods are disastrously underfunded. Further, as Bretón notes, in low-income neighborhoods the police system does not work, the health system does not work, the garbage goes unpicked up, and water and sewage are problems, along with gangs. Why then, do we expect underfunded schools to work in such neighborhoods?

When it comes to education policy and race, Bretón finds fault in the plaintiffs’ bid to establish legal proof of racial bias in school closures. A federal district judge, Kimberly J. Mueller, agreed on July 22 that the case of the plaintiffs lacked merit.

When it comes to money and policy to close schools and save the district $1 million, we should put this amount in a broader context that Bretón does not. For instance, there is recent and relevant Sacramento history.

Between January 19, 2012, and June 5, 2012, the Walton Family Foundation, the philanthropic arm of retail giant Wal-Mart, donated a total of $500,000 to Stand Sacramento for Sacramento Schools, the 501(c) (3) nonprofit school reform group that Mayor Kevin Johnson founded in 2009 with $500,000 from the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation. In the U.S. Conference of Mayors, Mayor Kevin Johnson is the Second Vice-President and Education Reform Task Force Chair.

Contacted by one of us for comment, a spokesperson for his Stand Sacramento for Sacramento Schools declined to reply as to how the group is spending the $500,000. We know one thing. Walton Family Foundation money is not bridging a budget gap to keep the closed district schools open.

Private dollars flow. Public schools close. This trend speaks volumes about local public education now.

antiracismdsa: What Real Immigration Reform Would Look Like

antiracismdsa: What Real Immigration Reform Would Look Like: WHAT REAL IMMIGRATION REFORM WOULD LOOK LIKE Clue:  It's Not a New Guest Worker Program By David Bacon The Progressive web edition, 7/...

Willful Defiance ?

Talk It Out: A Community Conversation to Fix School Discipline (a short play based on real life stories about school discipline in Sacramento County).  

Catch WILLFUL on Cable TV! All cablecasts will be on Comcast/Surewest Channel 17 and AT&T U-Verse Channel 99, Pacific Daylight/Standard Time, unless otherwise specified. If you don't have those services, it can also be viewed at www.accesssacramento.org, at the times listed below.

Sunday, July 28th @ 7:00pm
Monday, July 29th @ 11:00am
Tuesday, July 30th @ 3:00am
Friday, August 2nd @ 7:00pm
Saturday, August 3rd @ 11:00am
Sunday, August 4th @ 3:00am

What do parents want from schools ?

by Jeff Bryant

A mantra recited by those who pride themselves as adherents to a movement known as “education reform” is that for too long policies governing public schools have favored “the adults” in the system at the expense of children. This rhetoric has framed any objections that classroom teachers may have to new education policies as being overly concerned about teachers’ interests and being negligent of the students.

That rhetorical positioning has been used by political lobbying groups promoting themselves as putting “students first”  (Michelle Rhee) and taking a “stand for children” in order to claim a higher moral ground. These organizations assert that teachers who object to the continued degradation of their working conditions are really being selfish and inattentive to the needs of the students in the public education system.

However, there’s always been a group of adults who’ve been imbued with the power to understand best what students in public schools really need.Parents, legend has it, occupy a sacrosanct position of having an exclusive right to determine the education destination of their offspring.

The whole idea that parents should have a “choice” over where their children attend school is deeply grounded in the notion that parents know best about the education destinations of their youngsters. And school districts have been called “government monopolies” that are opposed to the “free choice” all parents should have in a “market-based” system.

Sacramento District Insists on closing public schools

The  Sacramento City school district is  closing  seven elementary schools, disproportionately hurting students in low-income and predominantly minority neighborhoods.

In response, twelve students and their parents filed a civil rights lawsuit, asking a federal court to block the closures. The suit claims that the Sacramento City Unified District’s decision “was motivated by an intent to discriminate against the minority populations” and will result in “a disastrous discriminatory effect on the poor, disadvantaged population which is served by these neighborhood schools slated for closure."

A lawsuit filed by parents with the help of Sacramento attorney Mark Merin on the bases of the racial and class discrimination in the decisions as to which schools to close  was dismissed by the federal judge Kim Mueller.

 Jonathan Tran of Hmong Innovating Politics, the group that organized the rally, told the June 12 rally , “The district applied an arbitrary and illegitimate standard to target schools that are predominantly high in low-income and minority populations … At the end of the day, that is unacceptable.”

Chicago Fires More Than 2,000 School Staff as Crippling Cuts Deepen

Why Charter Schools Are Tearing Public Campuses Apart | California Progress Report

Why Charter Schools Are Tearing Public Campuses Apart | California Progress Report

The War on public school teachers

Michael D. Yates July 22, 2013 The Bullet   If those who are prosecuting this onslaught against our public schools succeed, they will have made workers more insecure, created a compliant, alienated, and low-wage labour force, and devised new ways to make money – a massive testing industry, for-profit schools, consulting services. They will also have put another nail in the coffin of democracy.     , princessandthefob,     The U.S. working-class was slow to respond to the hard times it faced during and after the Great Recession of 2007-2009. Finally, however, in February, 2011, workers in Wisconsin began the famous uprising that electrified the country, revolting in large numbers against Governor Scott Walker's efforts to destroy the state's public employee labour unions.

Barack Obama, public schools, and the oligarchs

The several crises in Chicago schools have been recorded here; the teachers’ strike, the closing of schools, the crisis of low achievement.

“Most recently, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel oversaw the closing of 50 public schools, many of which will be replaced by charter schools. A bulk of the 550 laid-off teachers will be replaced by Teach for America contractors, many of whom teach in charter schools.”

The Joyce foundation, with direct and substantial ties to President Barack Obama has been central to “educational reform” in Chicago, and Arne Duncan style education reform in the nation.

“Joyce is a major liberal foundation. President Barack Obama sat on its board of directors from 1994 to 2002, as did Valerie Jarrett, his former senior advisor and assistant to the president for intergovernmental affairs and public engagement .

A look at major organizations dedicated to restructuring U.S. education turns up a slew of current and former upper-level Joyce staff and board members.

Between 1995 and 2012, the Joyce Foundation spent $135.58 million on education reform.”

A significant piece of reporting directly connects Barack Obama both the failed educational “reform” efforts, and the anti teachers’ unions efforts. Read the report here.

http://www.mintpressnews.com/a-closer-look-at-the-joyce-foundation-shows-obamas-ties-to-chicago-school-privatizations/164972/

Michelle Rhee's group takes in $28.5 million

Michelle Rhee’s group tripled its budget By: Byron Tau July 2, 2013 02:01 PM EDT

Former Washington, D.C., schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee’s advocacy group tripled its budget in the second year of existence, while spending heavily on politics across the country. According to tax documents obtained by POLITICO, Rhee’s group StudentsFirst raised $28.5 million between August 2011 and July 2012. The group spent more than $3.6 million on political activities during the same time period. That fundraising number — released more than year later because of lag time in Internal Revenue Service reporting requirements — smashes the $7.6 million haul the group raised during the first nine months of existence and positions Rhee and StudentsFirst as a major outside advocacy group on the issue of education. Since their launch, StudentsFirst expanded into 18 states and claims to have helped pass over 110 new policies. Their 2011-2012 fundraising haul is far short of the group’s initial ambitions — Rhee once promised to raise $1 billion in the first year. The group has since scaled back its fundraising ambitions. Rhee received a salary of about $300,000 for her work with the group, for which she serves as founder, CEO and director.

AERA 2013 Speech on Teacher Leadership

Taking the Caring Out of Teaching

 From In These Times.

BY SARAH JAFFE

It's not like tests themselves are inherently evil. Almost every teacher gives some kind of test or assessment. But when you place so much, so many outcomes on that edifice it's too much weight for that instrument to bear. It distorts and warps the whole teaching and learning process.

“Teaching is a caring profession–a humane profession about human beings engaging with one another,” says Brian Jones, a former New York City public-school teacher now pursuing a PhD in urban education. “Relationships between the teachers and the learners are an important part of the whole process.”

Jones and other teachers worry that the new system of teacher evaluations slated to be implemented this fall in New York's public schools will take caring out of the equation.

Steve Zimmer (LAUSD) on Why Class Size Matters

On closing schools

By Josh Eidelson and Sarah Jaffe - Summer 2013 

  

In 2010, a slate led by Karen Lewis ousted the incumbent leadership of the Chicago Teachers Union, promising deeper community engagement and a more aggressive defense of teachers and public education. In 2012, with Lewis as president, CTU mounted the city’s first teachers’ strike in a quarter-century, and the most dramatic recent challenge to the bipartisan education reform consensus. For the inaugural episode of Dissent magazine’s podcast series, labor journalists Josh Eidelson and Sarah Jaffe sat down with Lewis to discuss teaching and gender discrimination, professionalism and solidarity, unions and the Democratic Party. An edited version of the transcript appears below. The full interview can be heard on the Dissent website. The interview was conducted in April, before the Board of Education voted to close fifty public schools in Chicago. —Eds.

Dissent: How does the current fight over school closures in Chicago fit into the larger aims of the union?

Karen Lewis: The school closures are one symptom of a really bad school policy that we as Chicagoans have been struggling with for over ten years. The leaders of No Child Left Behind came around and said, “Oh, if the school’s bad, we’re going to close it down because, you know, it’s bad.” As if the building makes something bad. And what’s happened is, as schools close, they destabilize other schools that are close by. So there’s this domino effect they never took into consideration.

Children don’t do better when schools close. They lose anywhere from three to six months on their learning or at least on their testing.

I kept saying, “Why are they continuing to close schools, open up charter schools that don’t do any better, and not even taking the kids that were in the schools that were closed?”

But that was never good enough for the “reformers,” so they started stepping it up. Instead of closing just one or two schools, they would close seven, eight, nine, ten. And they weren’t keeping up with the children. So when schools would close, if kids didn’t go to the school they were sent to, there was no way to find out where those kids went.

Not all of them went to private school, not all of them went to charters, and not all of them left town. So where were these kids going?

A new civics framework ?

Posted by Stephen Lazar on May 16, 2013

Our guest author today is Stephen Lazar, a founding teacher at Harvest Collegiate High School in New York City, where he teaches Social Studies. A National Board certified teacher, he blogs at Outside the Cave. Stephen is also one of the organizers of Insightful Social Studies, a grass roots campaign of teachers to reform the newly proposed New York State Social Studies standards.

A couple of months ago, I warned, “We cannot possibly continue to move solely in the direction of ‘college and career readiness’ in History & Social Studies education without ensuring that ‘civic’ readiness is valued equally.” While our struggle continues in New York State, the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) took an extremely promising first step towards assuaging my fears with the release of The College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework for Social Studies State Standards. This document was intended for a targeted review by certain groups last month. Copies, however, are not difficult to find by searching.

Simply put, the proposed C3 Framework is brilliant. It is exactly what our nation needs to ensure civic life and participation is properly valued, and it is what the Social Studies teaching profession needs to ensure our discipline retains its unique and essential role within our education system. It is brilliant in its conception, its modesty and its usefulness as a document to inform policy and practice.

Shutting Down the School-To-Jailhouse Pipeline in California | California Progress Report

Shutting Down the School-To-Jailhouse Pipeline in California | California Progress Report

July 4, 1776

The Declaration of Independence:

IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men (and women) are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. 

Michelle Rhee Flunks Bill Maher's Test

Video located by the new website. BadAss teacher.  http://www.badassteacher.org

Wal-Mart gives big money to Mayor Kevin Johnson

Wal-Mart and the Walton Family Foundation, named for the family that created the company, have been the largest donors, contributing nearly $800,000 combined to nonprofits on behalf of Johnson and other council members since 2009, according to disclosure documents filed with the city clerk's office.

Those payments include $505,000 since last year to Johnson's education reform initiatives and other groups backed by the mayor. Johnson received another $210,000 from Wal-Mart between 2009 and 2011 – most of which was not reported by the mayor until December 2012. The Walmart Foundation also gave $50,000 last year to a neighborhood nonprofit organization founded by Schenirer, documents show.

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2013/06/30/5534449/sacramento-mayor-kevin-johnson.html#storylink=cpy

Note. Mayor Johnson travels to many cities and speaks at events usually organized by a network of African American churches. He was on Obama's Mayor's Committee on Education.  He promotes the education agenda advocated by his wife Michelle Rhee and by the Walton family.  

California School Budgets

Budget Agreement Maintains the Minimum Funding Level for Schools and Community Colleges in the May Revision

Approved by voters in 1988, Proposition 98 constitutionally guarantees a minimum level of funding for K-12 schools, community colleges, and the state preschool program. The 2013-14 budget agreement assumes a Proposition 98 funding level of $56.5 billion for K-14 education programs in 2012-13 and $55.3 billion in 2013-14. These are approximately the same levels included in the Governor’s May Revision, but significantly above the $47.2 billion Proposition 98 funding level in 2011-12. Specifically, the budget agreement:

·       ·  Provides $4.3 billion over two years to partially restore previously deferred payments to schools and community colleges. In 2011-12, $10.4 billion in annual Proposition 98 payments to K-14 schools (21 percent of the total Proposition 98 funding level) were delayed until 2012-13. Of these deferred payments, the budget agreement repays schools and community colleges $4.0 billion in 2012-13 and $272 million in 2013-14. Outstanding payment deferrals at the end of 2013-14 – that is, the amount the state still owes schools and community colleges – will be $6.2 billion under the budget agreement.

·       ·  Provides $2.1 billion in 2013-14 Proposition 98 funds to begin implementation of the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF). The LCFF restructures the state’s education finance system by providing all school districts with a base grant per student, adjusted to reflect the number of students at various grade levels, as well as additional resources to reflect the higher costs of educating English learners, students from low-income families, and foster youth.

·       ·  Provides $1.25 billion in one-time funding to support implementation of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), $250 million more than was included in the Governor’s May Revision. In August 2010, the State Board of Education adopted CCSS for California’s K-12 schools. The budget agreement provides school districts and county offices of education (COEs) with CCSS implementation funding of $1.0 billion in 2012- 13 Proposition 98 dollars and $250 million in 2013-14 Proposition 98 dollars. These funds are provided on a per pupil basis and may be used at any time during 2013-14 or 2014-15. The budget agreement requires school districts and COEs to:

o UseCCSSimplementationdollarsforspecificpurposes,includinginstructionalmaterialsandprofessional development for teachers, administrators, and other staff involved in the direct instruction of students;

o AdoptaplandelineatinghowCCSSimplementationdollarswillbespent;and o ReportbyJuly1,2015howCCSSimplementationdollarswerespent.

While teachers are tested, evaluated, and tested....

New York City School Chiefs Get Informal Job Checks

Top School Administrators Haven't Been Subject to Formal Evaluations

By 
• LISA FLEISHER
 
• CONNECT

Top administrators at the city's Department of Education haven't been subject to formal evaluations during the Bloomberg administration, a break from past practice and an unusual occurrence among school districts across the U.S.

The disclosure follows the culmination of a yearslong battle by Mayor Michael Bloomberg to implement tougher teacher and principal evaluations in the district.

Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott, who has been on the job since April 2011, said formal job reviews weren't necessary because he informally evaluated his staff daily, and he was evaluated daily by the mayor. Teachers, he said, were in a different position.

Kevin Hagen for The Wall Street Journal

Education Chancellor Dennis Walcott, with Mayor Michael Bloomberg, spoke during a conference at the Department of Education's offices earlier this month.

"They're in front of the classroom and teaching our children, and we need to have a sense of how well they're doing," he said. "With us, we're not teaching children directly, we're setting policy. And I don't think it's hypocritical at all."

The Wall Street Journal filed a public records request in February 2012 seeking the senior-staff evaluations after the department successfully fought to release scores for individual teachers' performances based on students' test scores.

In a response dated June 11, the department's public-records officer said no evaluations had been created since at least 2001 for the following positions: chancellor, chief of staff, chief academic officer, senior deputy chancellor, chief schools officer, chief operating officer, chief financial officer, deputy chancellor and general counsel. Mr. Bloomberg has appointed three permanent chancellors.

Bloomberg spokeswoman Lauren Passalacqua said the mayor held his team accountable, unlike the system under the defunct Board of Education, whose members were appointed, "when no one was held accountable for results."

"This is the entire point of mayoral control," she said in a statement. "Public accountability is one of the key drivers of the transformation of our schools, with graduation rates up 40%, dropout rates cut in half and more students meeting the toughest standards in city history."

California Schools: New State, Federal Strategies Flawed, Familiar | California Progress Report

California Schools: New State, Federal Strategies Flawed, Familiar | California Progress Report

Chicago Mayor Emanuel closes schools, war on teachers

CHICAGO MAYOR RAHM EMMANUEL'S WAR ON TEACHERS AND CHILDREN By David Bacon Equal Times, 6/25/13 http://www.equaltimes.org/opinion/hey-emanuel-leave-them-schools-alone CHICAGO, IL  -- On June 14, the Chicago Public Schools sent layoff notices to 850 school employees, including 550 teachers.  The layoffs will hit hardest at those teachers working in African American and Latino communities.  These are the communities that were targeted in the system's recent decision to close 49 schools - the largest single school closure in U.S. history. Many view the layoffs and closures as payback by Mayor Rahm Emmanuel for a bitter but successful 9-day strike by the Chicago Teachers Union last September.  But it is also a blow, not just to the public school system, but to the city's schoolchildren themselves. The reality of budget cuts The district is implementing massive budget cuts rather than look for the funding schools and children need.  The union has proposed "redirecting tax increment financing (TIF) surpluses back to public schools, ending tax loopholes or raising a new tax levy for pensions that would stabilize the CPS budget."

Education to rebuild the U.S.

An Education Declaration to Rebuild America

Americans have long looked to our public schools to provide opportunities for individual advancement, promote social mobility and share democratic values. We have built great universities, helped bring children out of factories and into classrooms, held open the college door for returning veterans, fought racial segregation and struggled to support and empower students with special needs. We believe good schools are essential to democracy and prosperity — and that it is our collective responsibility to educate all children, not just a fortunate few.

Over the past three decades, however, we have witnessed a betrayal of those ideals. Following the 1983 report A Nation at Risk, policymakers on all sides have pursued an education agenda that imposes top-down standards and punitive high-stakes testing while ignoring the supports students need to thrive and achieve. This approach – along with years of drastic financial cutbacks — are turning public schools into uncreative, joyless institutions. Educators are being stripped of their dignity and autonomy, leading many to leave the profession. Neighborhood schools are being closed for arbitrary reasons. Parent and community voices are being shut out of the debate. And children, most importantly, are being systemically deprived of opportunities to learn.

As a nation we have failed to rectify glaring inequities in access to educational opportunities and resources. By focusing solely on the achievement gap, we have neglected the opportunity gap that creates it, and have allowed the resegregation of our schools and communities by class and race. The inevitable result, highlighted in the Federal Equity and Excellence Commission’s recent report, For Each and Every Child, is an inequitable system that hits disadvantaged students, families, and communities the hardest.

ALEC on school choice and privatization

See at least the first 30 minutes.



http://billmoyers.com/episode/full-show-united-states-of-alec-a-follow-up/

Problems with Common Core Standards

By the editors of Rethinking Schools

It isn’t easy to find common ground on the Common Core. Already hailed as the “next big thing” in education reform, the Common Core State Standards are being rushed into classrooms in nearly every district in the country. Although these “world-class” standards raise substantive questions about curriculum choices and instructional practices, such educational concerns are likely to prove less significant than the role the Common Core is playing in the larger landscape of our polarized education reform politics.

We know there have been many positive claims made for the Common Core:

• That it represents a tighter set of smarter standards focused on developing critical learning skills instead of mastering fragmented bits of knowledge.
• That it requires more progressive, student-centered teaching with strong elements of collaborative and reflective learning.
• That it equalizes the playing field by raising expectations for all children, especially those suffering the worst effects of the “drill and kill” test prep norms of the recent past.

We also know that many creative, heroic teachers are seeking ways to use this latest reform wave to serve their students well. Especially in the current interim between the roll-out of the standards and the arrival of the tests, some teachers have embraced the Common Core as an alternative to the scripted commercial formulas of recent experience, and are trying to use the space opened up by the Common Core transition to do positive things in their classrooms.

We’d like to believe these claims and efforts can trump the more political uses of the Common Core project. But we can’t.

TED-Ed. Lessons for Teachers

Sacramento closes schools serving the working poor

Sacramento District Ignores Report Suggesting Closing Schools for Affluent White Kids, Instead Shutters Seven Schools Filled with Poor and Minority Kids

Steven Hsieh,

June 13, 2013  |  

A Sacramento city school district is poised to close seven elementary schools, disproportionately hurting students in low-income and predominantly minority neighborhoods.

In response, twelve students and their parents filed a civil rights lawsuit, asking a federal court to block the closures. The suit claims that the Sacramento City Unified District’s decision “was motivated by an intent to discriminate against the minority populations” and will result in “a disastrous discriminatory effect on the poor, disadvantaged population which is served by these neighborhood schools slated for closure."

The complaint also notes that in choosing the schools it did for closure, Unified District ignored a report by a closure committee recommending the shuttering of four different schools in “older, affluent neighborhoods,” each with a 'white' student body in excess of 40 percent of the enrolled students.”

CBS Sacramento reports that dozens of parents and students rallied outside the courthouse Tuesday. Jonathan Tran of Hmong Innovating Politics, the group that organized the rally, told the station, “The district applied an arbitrary and illegitimate standard to target schools that are predominantly high in low-income and minority populations … At the end of the day, that is unacceptable.”

In defense of public schools

by Duane Campbell

 There are few institutions more directly connected  to our state and national prosperity and our democracy than public schools.  Now, a few states, primarily in the South, are dismantling public funding in order to create for profit options for private schools. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/28/education/states-shifting-aid-for-schools-to-the-families.html.

   The truth is that most charter schools  are public, that is they are funded by public funds.  Usually they are managed privately, at times for profit. The teachers in these schools usually lack union protections.

Charters have become popular in communities of poor people because the urban public schools are often failing. Parents want an alternative for their children.  Often in these communities the health system, the police, the nutrition and fire systems and employment opportunities  are usually failing.  

Smart and adept politicians, usually Republicans, use the failure of poorly funded urban schools as a hammer to batter public education.   

It is not surprising that this rejection of  public education as a route to  prosperity for all comes from the South and states dominated by Republican legislatures.   Arizona, Indiana,  Texas, and Alabama and the other states promoting charters  can go ahead and decline if they so choose, however we need to set up some borders and tariffs, and perhaps trade agreements to prevent their move to “free market” choices from imposing vast new costs on the states which continue to want democracy and prosperity.  Remember, free market ideology is what brought us the economic crisis since 2007.

Public schools have  significantly contributed to U.S.  prosperity for the last 100 years  and they have fostered  our national unity.  It is accurate that some public schools are failing- particularly those serving low income and minority children.  But, there is no evidence that privatizing will improve these schools.

AB 420 passes California Assembly

AB 420 will ensure that elementary students are not suspended for “willful defiance,” a vague category under education code that is the main reason given in more than 40% of student suspensions, and help promote proven alternatives to harsh discipline.
For more see- www.fixschooldiscipline.org

How History is Socially Controlled in k-12 - Rodolfo Acuña

How History is Socially Controlled in K-12

Setting Standards :Serfs and Lords

By

Rodolfo F. Acuña

People ask me if the banning of books is actually a blessing in disguise because it calls attention to the banned books. I respond, “Hell No!” Censorship threatens our freedom of speech, and it is the final step toward a totalitarian state. 

In the guise of security, our emails and our phones are tapped. Anyone using a Wi-Fi can be spied on at will. What is happening today pales George Orwell’s 1984; it is as insidious as the methods used by the Nazis, the Stasi and the Russians.

The fallout of the banning of books affects all of us. In the future, it will negatively affect the publication of Latino books. What makes it so dangerous is that most of us are oblivious to this threat to our liberties. We are like the serfs in the Middle-Ages who were willing surrender their freedoms and their properties to the feudal lords in return for protection.

The first fatality of censorship is the truth. In the case of the censorship of books by the Tucson Unified School District, it was not just the books that were banned, it is also what will be published in the future. The banning of books did not affect the sales of Occupied America or the other banned books – the banning certainly did not hurt Shakespeare’s The Tempest. 

The tragedy in Oklahoma

In Moore, Oklahoma a teacher saved children's lives by covering them with her own body.
No politicians were observed doing so.

 NEA statement: A massive tornado ripped through central Oklahoma yesterday, heavily damaging Briarwood Elementary School, leveling Plaza Towers Elementary School and killing at least 24 people, including children.

“There are no words to convey our sorrow over the tragic loss that has been suffered by Oklahoma’s families,” said National Education Association President Dennis Van Roekel. “Our hearts are broken over the students and educators killed in the storm and we commend the educators who put their lives on the line to protect the children in these schools—every single one is a hero who will not be forgotten. We will stand with the families of those lost and injured and the communities suffering as they work to rebuild their homes and their lives.”

“We extend our deepest sympathies to the members of Oklahoma Education Association, who have lost students, friends, and colleagues. The more than 3 million members of the NEA family stand ready to help OEA and the Moore, Okla., community however we can in the days and weeks ahead,” said Van Roekel.

Fix School Discipline

antiracismdsa: Fix School Discipline: Cornerstone Theater Co. & The California Endowment Present
 Talk it Out: A Community Conversation to Fix School Discipline
 Featurin...

Census Bureau ranks California 36th in school spending

California’s  per-pupil spending was $1,421 below the national average in 2011, placing  it 36th in the nation according to a just released report Public Education Finances 2011, by the Census Bureau.

In 2007/2008 California spent $9,158 per pupil, before the economic crisis, and in 2008/2009, we  spent $7,712 per pupil. This year’s budget proposal   does not return school funding to the pre crisis level.

Gov. Brown currently  proposes  to  change  how state and local school funds are distributed in  the state budget.   He proposes to  give more dollars  to districts with large numbers of poor and/or English-learner students.  The Governor’s  latest budget proposal recommends  per-pupil spending in 2011-12 from state and local revenues at $7,175 ( not including federal funds).  The voters passed Propositions 30 and 39, which made additional state available.

There are currently active law suites challenging the adequacy of California school finance.

Chicago Teachers' Union continues the struggle for equal schools

New Report Unravels the Sordid History of Racial Segregation in Chicago Public Schools

BY CTU RESEARCH  |  05/17/2013

CHICAGO—On what is the 59th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision, the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) today released a report on the history of disruptive actions against communities of color by Chicago Public Schools (CPS), exemplified by school closings that intensify the harmful effects of segregated schools and neighborhoods. The study, titled Still Separate, Still Unequal, acknowledges the deep segregation that exists in Chicago, but states that segregation is exacerbated by flawed education reform policies and assaults on communities that have long borne the brunt of its harmful effects.

The 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision was one of the most successful victories of the modern Civil Rights Movement. The ruling declared segregation in U.S. public schools unconstitutional, saying it violated the “equal protection under the law” clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

Now, nearly six decades later, parents of Chicago’s African-American and special education needs students are also seeking court protection against Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s plan to shutter 53 elementary schools. On Wednesday they filed two federal lawsuits seeking a halt closures because these actions are discriminatory and will cause undue harm to their children.

Seattle Teachers win victory over standardized tests

Minimum funding level for schools increased in May revise

Report of the California Budget Project 5/16/2013

0. Increased Revenues Boost the Minimum Funding Level for Schools
   Approved by voters in 1988, Proposition 98 constitutionally guarantees a minimum level of funding for K-12 schools, community colleges, and the state preschool program. Because changes in state General Fund revenues tend to affect the Proposition 98 guarantee, the Proposition 98 funding levels included in the May Revision reflect changes in 2012-13 and 2013-14 projected revenue compared to January budget estimates. The May Revision assumes a 2012- 13 Proposition 98 funding level of $56.5 billion for K-14 education programs, $2.9 billion more than the level assumed in the Governor’s January proposal. However, the May Revision assumes a 2013-14 Proposition 98 funding level of $55.3 billion, $941.4 million less than the level assumed in the Governor’s January proposal. Specifically, the May Revision:
   
   •   Increases repayments to schools and community colleges by $758 million by the end of 2013-14 compared to the Governor’s January budget proposal. The May Revision provides an additional $1.8 billion in 2012-13 to partially restore previously deferred payments to schools and community colleges, but decreases 2013-14 repayments by more than $1 billion. At the end of 2013-14, payment deferrals to schools and community colleges – that is, the amount still owed by the state – would be $5.5 billion under the May Revision, compared to $6.3 billion under the Governor’s January budget proposal.
     
   •   Provides $1 billion in one-time 2012-13 funding to support implementation of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). In August 2010, the State Board of Education adopted CCSS for California’s K-12 schools.