CTA- Reopening Schools ?

Reopening Schools

CTA is advocating for our members, our students and their families. We are making sure lawmakers and parents know the health and well-being of our students and our educators come first.


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View Letter to Elected LeadersCOVID-19 Resources for EducatorsState Budget


California Cannot Reopen Schools Unless They Are Safe

The health and safety of all students and staff must be the first priority and guiding principle in opening public schools and colleges for the 2020-21 school year. When we physically return to school campuses, it needs to be planned and deliberate with safety and public health at the forefront of all decision-making and with the involvement of educators and parents. There must be clear and up-to-date guidance from the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) on how schools open safely and responsibly, as well as triggers that require schools to physically close again. The state must provide a uniform symptoms check list that can be used to screen students and staff. The CDPH must work with CalOSHA in developing and providing training for school staff on safety protocols so there are consistent standards and expectations throughout the state. We also expect the state to support districts by providing and bulk buying personal protective equipment for students and staff.

Federal and state guidance regarding a phased reopening have focused on a sustained downward trajectory of COVID-19 cases for 14 days or no more than 1 COVID-19 case per 10,000 in the past 14 days. Districts and chapters should carefully review infection rates and trends for new cases in each area, hospitalization rates, levels of community spread, etc. in order to evaluate the overall safety of opening school buildings for in-person teaching and learning.


We Want Our Students to Be Safe and Ready to Learn

This must include safety supports for students and educators:


· Accommodations to allow for fewer contacts among students, staff and parents.

· Accommodations to reduce class sizes and allow for six-feet physical distancing in classrooms, cafeterias, gyms, buses, and other shared spaces.

· Deep cleaning, and continuous ongoing cleaning of campuses and buses by trained school employees, and the inspection and certification of all ventilation systems.

· Students and school employees have daily health assessments before entering campus with appropriate student and school employee privacy.

· Special considerations and accommodations to protect students and staff with compromised and underlying medical conditions.

· Work with local county health officers to ensure increased testing of students and staff and develop the necessary legal documents for parent permission.

· Work with local county health departments to include schools in contract tracing, including the training of employees in that process and rapid case notification to employees and parents.

· Students and school employees wear facial coverings and practice routine and regular handwashing.

· Access to health services including nurses and medically trained personnel to assist and monitor student and employee health in collaboration with county health departments.

· Mental health counseling and emotional support by trained counselors for students, staff and the school community.

· School Illness and Injury Prevention plans should be updated and adopted prior to the first day of in person instruction.

· Schools have a robust communication system with data transparency among schools, parents, caregivers, county health departments, and school employees.








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Texas Teachers Union May Strike Over Covid-19

Texas Teachers Union May Strike Over COVID-19 Precautions

https://portside.org/2020-07-12/texas-teachers-union-may-strike-over-covid-19-precautions

Ed Note. While it is illegal for Texas teachers to strike, it was also illegal for California, New York and other teachers to strike at one time. What changed that?  Strikes.

SCUSD not ready to open schools at this time

As California’s two largest school districts announced plans to continue distance learning only models in the fall, there is growing apprehension among teachers in the Sacramento City Unified School District about classroom instruction beginning in September.

The district has announced the resumption of in-person classes on Sept. 3, but some teachers say they are skeptical that the district has the capacity to reopen campuses safely and according to the guidelines. 

The Sacramento City Teachers Association met virtually with district officials and said they urged a more robust distance learning program. 

“The pandemic spike makes beginning any in-person instruction on September 3 highly unlikely,” read a statement from SCTA President David Fisher. “When the two largest school districts in California acknowledge the enormous safety concerns of resuming in-person instruction our district leaders cannot ignore the need to develop and improve our ability to teach remotely.”

Sacramento City Unified leaders said any future decisions would be grounded in public health recommendations. 

“In addition to planning for an option of full distance learning which includes, assessments, accountability, and high-quality instruction, we are also preparing for a blended model where smaller numbers of students can attend school in-person, part of the time,” said Sacramento City Unified Superintendent Jorge Aguilar. “We will not implement a plan that is unsafe for our students or staff. 

Breaking news & more

Read more here: https://www.sacbee.com/article244198592.html#storylink=cpy

CDC Guidelines on Reopening Schools _ Not Trump

WASHINGTON — Federal materials for reopening schools, shared the week President Trump demanded weaker guidelines to do so, said fully reopening schools and universities remained the “highest risk” for the spread of the coronavirus.

The 69-page document, obtained by The New York Times and marked “For Internal Use Only,” was intended for federal public health response teams to have as they are deployed to hot spots around the country. But it appears to have circulated the same week that Vice President Mike Pence announced that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would release new guidelines, saying that the administration did not want them to be “too tough.” It is unclear whether Mr. Trump saw the document, nor is it clear how much of it will survive once new guidance is completed.

(The cover page of the document is dated July 8, 2019, an obvious typographical error since the novel coronavirus did not exist then.)

What is clear is that federal health experts are using a road map that is vastly different from what Mr. Trump wanted.

While it is mostly a compilation of C.D.C. documents already posted online, it includes reopening plans drafted by states, districts and individual schools and universities. And the package, from the Community Interventions and Critical Populations Task Force, is pointed.

In a “talking points” section, the material is critical of “noticeable gaps” in all of the K-12 reopening plans it reviewed, though it identified Florida, Oregon, Oklahoma and Minnesota as having the most detailed.

“While many jurisdictions and districts mention symptom screening, very few include information as to the response or course of action they would take if student/faculty/staff are found to have symptoms, nor have they clearly identified which symptoms they will include in their screening,” the talking points say. “In addition, few plans include information regarding school closure in the event of positive tests in the school community.”

And its suggestions for mitigating the risk of school reopenings would be expensive and difficult for many districts, like broad testing of students and faculty and contact tracing to find people exposed to an infected student or teacher.

The debate about school reopenings comes as the virus is spreading at its fastest pace yet across the country, a trend some attribute to states reopening prematurely this spring on a timeline encouraged by Mr. Trump. Now some states are pausing their reopening plans and in some cases reimposing restrictions to contain the spread. Schools in California have had to cancel their plans for in-person classes as the virus surges.

Groups representing education leaders praised the document, saying after months of mixed messages from the federal government, the inclusion of specific plans could serve as a blue print for schools and families to help navigate the uncertainty that the fall will bring.

“What it tells us is left to its own devices, the C.D.C. can do a pretty good job in compiling a comprehensive document that shows the complexity of what institutions are facing,” said Terry W. Hartle, a senior vice president of the American Council on Education, which represents 1,700 college and university presidents and higher education executives.

“The good news is, this is very thoughtful and complete,” he added. “The bad news is, it’s never been released.”

Trump “Orders” Schools to Reopen, Teachers say, Not so Fast !

By Dana Goldstein and Eliza Shapiro  NYTimes.

·                 

Many of the nation’s 3.5 million teachers found themselves feeling under siege this week as pressure from the White House, pediatricians and some parents to get back to physical classrooms intensified — even as the coronavirus rages across much of the country.

On Friday, the teachers’ union in Los Angeles, the nation’s second-largest district, demanded full-time remote learning when the academic year begins on Aug. 18, and called President Trump’s push to reopen schools part of a “dangerous, anti-science agenda that puts the lives of our members, our students and our families at risk.”

Teachers say crucial questions about how schools will stay clean, keep students physically distanced and prevent further spread of the virus have not been answered. And they feel that their own lives, and those of the family members they come home to, are at stake.

…..

Now, educators are using some of the same organizing tactics they employed in walkouts over issues of pay and funding in recent years to demand that schools remain closed, at least in the short term. It’s a stance that could potentially be divisive, with some district surveys suggesting that more than half of parents would like their children to return to classrooms.

Big districts like San Diego and smaller ones, like Marietta, Ga., are forging ahead with plans to open schools five days per week. Many other systems, like those in New York City and Seattle, hope to offer several days per week of in-person school.

Now, as teachers listen to a national conversation about reopening schools that many believe elevates the needs of the economy and working parents above the concerns of the classroom work force, many are fearful and angry. They point out that so far Congress has dedicated less than 1 percent of federal pandemic stimulus funds to public schools stretching to meet the costs of reopening schools safely.

The message to teachers, said Christina Setzer, a preschool educator in Sacramento, is, “Yes, you guys are really important and essential and kids and parents need you. But sorry, we don’t have the money.”

Earlier in the shutdown, Mr. Trump acknowledged the health risks to teachers over the age of 60 and those with underlying conditions, saying at a White House event in May that “they should not be teaching school for a while, and everybody would understand that fully.”

But this week, as the administration launched a full-throated campaign to pressure schools to reopen in the fall — a crucial step for jump-starting the economy — it all but ignored the potential risks teachers face. More than one-quarter of public schoolteachers are over the age of 50. 

Teachers say many of their questions about how schools will operate safely remain unanswered. They point out that some classrooms have windows that do not reliably open to promote air circulation, while school buildings can have aging heating and cooling systems that lack the filtration features that reduce virus transmission.

Read more:

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/11/us/virus-teachers-classrooms.html?https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/11/us/virus-teachers-classrooms.html?

This is Not the Way to Reopen Schools.

Michelle Golberg 

Trump Threatens to Turn Pandemic Schooling Into a Culture War

The president might sabotage parents’ best hopes for getting their kids back to school.

This is almost certainly not why Trump is eager to have school resume. Rather, school closures and staggered schedules are a crushing weight on the economy. To millions of parents, they’re an intimate daily reminder that the president’s incompetence has ruined our lives. But to open schools in a reasonable way, the government needs to do two things: control the pandemic, as most other developed countries have done, and give schools money to adapt. This administration has so far failed to do either.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/10/opinion/sunday/school-reopenings-trump.html?

Schools & Communities First | '"Challenging"

Will the New NAFTA Make the Pandemic Worse for Mexicans? - FPIF

Will the New NAFTA Make the Pandemic Worse for Mexicans? - FPIF

Socialist Strategy and the Biden Debate

Socialist Strategy and the Biden Debate

Fund the Schools and Teachers.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is still refusing to bring the HEROES Act to the Senate floor, keeping states, communities and schools in limbo without the resources they need to reopen safely. While the House Democrats have passed legislation to invest in public schools, universities, child care, school support staff, digital resources and more, McConnell and his colleagues in the GOP packed their bags, put up their out-of-office messages and left for summer vacation. We’re battling a public health crisis, an economic crisis and a racial justice crisis. We need resources to keep up that fight, and the HEROES Act would provide those resources where they’re needed: states, communities and schools. Click here to write to your senators and tell them to pass the HEROES Act. The HEROES Act contains $1 trillion in federal aid to fund essential services at the local level, including public K-12 schools, public colleges and universities, and public hospitals. This funding would support the frontline workers in this pandemic, and it is critical to reopening our society safely. Our public schools, colleges and community hospitals desperately need this money. Without it, we will see thousands of layoffs and draconian cuts to essential services, and we won’t be able to reopen safely, as that will require more money and staff right now, not less. More on the role of Mitch Mc Connell and health care. https://choosingdemocracy.blogspot.com/2020/07/the-mitch-mcconnell-story-seat-at-table.html The funds in the HEROES Act will support the frontline heroes battling the pandemic. Our country’s schools, colleges, state and local services, and hospitals need these funds to keep these critical workers on the job. Without this assistance, essential public services and jobs will be cut just when they are needed most. There will be layoffs at the state and local levels, which will cripple our local economies and deepen the recession. We need these heroes on the frontlines, not on unemployment and food lines. The HEROES Act will help ensure this. We don’t have time to ignore the needs of states, communities and schools. Senators must hear from us. Please click here and write to your senators NOW. In unity, Randi Weingarten AFT President

More on Mitch Mc Connell

New Sacramento Bee Reporter Accepts and Uses Deceptive Claims of Data on"Personalized Learning " in Response to Covid School Closings

Sac Bee Reporter accepts and uses deceptive data on “  Pesonalized  Learning” schools response to Covid.  
Welcome to Sacramento. 

In the Bee Article  “ Lawmakers, advocates say budget hurts top schools, “   published in the Bee on July 5,  new  Bee reporter Mackenzie Hawkins makes a series of claims   based upon a fundamental, and highly partisan claims.  Hawkins has been at the Bee for 2 months. Prior to this position she wrote for the Yale News, which may have been a student intern position.   Note, recognize that reporters often do not write the titles of pieces. 

Hawkins  says, 

“But under this year’s education budget, lawmakers and education advocates warn, the state will abandon its traditional allocation formula in favor of a system that harms the very schools — disproportionately, charter schools and personalized education programs — that have performed best under pandemic pressures.” [ no evidence  provided of the last phrase… that have performed best under pandemic pressures]

“California’s public schools usually receive money based on a combination of the prior year’s funding and the current year’s average daily attendance — a metric that reflects not the number of students enrolled, but rather how many students show up each day. 

Historically, this has meant that if a student switches schools from one year to the next, the money to fund their education moves with them. That will change under budget trailer bills AB 77 and SB 98, which allocate next year’s funding based on attendance through February 29 of this year.”
here: https://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article243822982.html#storylink=cpy

This statement is inaccurate.  State funding of schools in California is based upon the Local Control Funding system, LCFF.    

The Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) was enacted in 2013. The LCFF was designed to be a more equitable system of funding, with the goal of providing additional funding for the highest needs students. These subgroups of students include English learners, low-income students, and foster children. If the student groups targeted for assistance make larger than a majority of enrollment, districts receive additional concentration money.

          Schools do not receive money sole  based upon Average Daily Attendance, as the reporter asserts.  They receive money based upon ADA and  the state also gives additional state funds to districts based on the number of low-income students, English learners, foster children and homeless youth they serve.

There is a significant difference between these two

Reporter Hawkins goes  on to say, 

“Proponents say the legislation preserves educational equity and ensures adequate funding in the most disadvantaged areas. But according to charter school advocates and a bipartisan group of lawmakers, turning an emergency measure into a permanent policy undermines school choice and forces top-performing schools to turn away students — often, those served poorly in traditional schools — looking for another option. “[There is no evidence for the  claimthat the funding would force top performing schools to turn away students because we do not know which are the top performing schools.]

“What the state is essentially proposing is we’re going to protect and essentially reward failing schools, and we’re going to punish schools that have proven that they’re performing well and successful in this COVID crisis,” Association of Personalized Learning Schools & Services (APLUS+) Director Jeff Rice, who represents 75 personalized education programs in California, told The Sacramento Bee. “While so many other public schools had to completely shut down their educational services, we kept them going without missing a heartbeat.”
 here: https://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article243822982.html

Yes, that is their assertion.  They are correct that the schools stayed open.  But, there is no evidence that these were top performing schools, only that the schools were kept open.   The reporter stated this without analyzing the factual claim.   Yes, they kept the personalized learning schools going, but with no evaluation of their effectiveness.  No one knows if these on line connections were significant learning experiences,  or were they just on line efforts to cover up and/ or avoid social education?  We just do not know.  And,  no evidence that the "schools" are top performing.  The Personalized learning and Charter School folks  propose to change the allocation of funds and to stop the distribution based upon the current equity provisions of  LCFF.   That is, they would move money from current schools to their on line “ personalized” instruction.. what ever that is. 

The  writer makes the statement because advocates for charter schools, and the Charter School Development Center want readers to consider changes in  funding by ADA.  It is  more than unfortunate that  a Bee reporter  made this report without providing accurate, complete, and balanced coverage.   For coverage of LCFF  I recommend the news source EdSource.

The charter school advocates want to focus the discussion on shifting demographics caused by the Covid crisis and the closing of schools.  They want to only consider the changing enrollments.  However, that is intellectually dishonest.  The budget trailer bills were not drawn up based upon their assertion, they were drawn up based upon the agreed upon criteria of the LCFF that promote equity in funding.  

In the two months since the  California schools closed, a number of families have indeed moved their children out of public schools and into a network of charters.  They needed to “do something” with their children.  Many of these charters  had pre existing on line education programs.   These programs are substantially not evaluated.  The only measure being used is that parents moved their children. Moving children in a crisis does not prove that the schools are failing nor that on line personalized programs are “top schools”.    Now the corporate sector – with the Bee’s assistance- is seeking to gain funds by urging the legislature to  take  funds from public schools to fund these on line  coaching events.  

Here is a June research report on how the response to the virus is effecting K-12 schools.

https://www.shankerinstitute.org/event/coronavirus-education-spending

There isn’t much research on the effectiveness of on line education.  What research exists concentrates on Moocs type courses that are substantially different than the individualized on line connections promoted  by this effort to reallocate funds by the charter developers. 

Here is an example of research on on-line learning
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/feduc.2017.00059/full

If any reader has evidence or research on the actual performance in this “personalized learning” in k-12 please share it.

The Mitch McConnell Story | SEAT AT THE TABLE

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Workers in the U.S. Died to Produce Meat for China

 When Corona Virus deaths rose, meat packing companies declared that there was an impending shortage of meat.  They got the Trump Administration to declare meat packing as an essential industry and to (force) the companies to stay open. 

It turns out, there was plenty of meat.  So much, that the corporations were selling  129,000 tons of processed meat to China and an inflated price.  Yes, to China, during the crisis.  It seems China, not the U.S., had a meat shortage.  At this time China was imposing strict limits on the export of protective equipment like masks.  The U.S. had become dependent upon Chinese suppliers, and when we needed the supplies they were not there. 

Meanwhile, workers in the U.S. died to produce this meat.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — The families of three workers who died after contracting the coronavirus in an Iowa meat plant outbreak sued Tyson Foods and its top executives Thursday, saying the company knowingly put employees at risk and lied to keep them on the job.

The lawsuit alleges that Tyson officials were aware the virus was spreading at the Waterloo pork processing plant by late March or early April but kept that information from employees and the public.

As the outbreak grew, the company failed to implement safety measures, allowed some sick and exposed employees to remain on the production line, and falsely assured workers and the public that the plant was safe, the suit alleges. 

“Tyson intended by these false representations to deceive workers in the Waterloo facility ... and to induce them to continue working despite the uncontrolled COVID-19 outbreak at the plant and the health risks associated with working,” according to the lawsuit, which was filed in Black Hawk County district court.

So, the companies got their way. They made their profits.  Workers died. All with the cooperation of the Trump administration. 

Oh well. they were immigrant workers. 

Senators Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Cory Booker of New Jersey sent a letter late Monday to the chief executives of Smithfield, Tyson, Cargill and JBS, criticizing them for exporting to China at the same time they were lobbying the Trump administration to keep their plants open during the pandemic because they wanted to keep feeding Americans.

The senators said the companies were putting their workers’ lives in danger while also raising food prices for American consumers.

“This pattern of behavior raises questions about whether you are living up to your commitments to the workers who produce your pork and beef, the communities in which you operate and the nation’s consumers that rely on your products to feed their families,” Ms. Warren and Mr. Booker wrote.

The letter was prompted by an article in The New York Times last week detailing how pork exports to China totaled a record 129,000 tons in April, when the profitable demand in that country surged.

Representatives for Tyson and Cargill declined to comment on the letter. Smithfield, which is owned by a Chinese company, and JBS did not return requests for comment.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/23/business/warren-booker-china-meat.html

WORKERS' STRIKES ARE AN IMPORTANT PART OF TODAY'S MOVEMENT
By David Bacon
Stansbury Forum, 6/29/20
https://stansburyforum.com/author/davidbacon
https://davidbaconrealitycheck.blogspot.com/2020/06/workers-strikes-are-important-part-of.html

The Revolt of the Cities—Again.

The Revolt of the Cities—Again.: New York’s primaries confirm a major new reality of American politics: Our cities are turning overwhelmingly left.

"LET'S HAVE OUR VOICES COUNT!"

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"Rise" | June 20th Poor People's Campaign Promo

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PEW: 75% of Americans Support Permanent Status Pathway for Undocumented Population

A new Pew poll released on Wednesday said that 75 percent of American favored a pathway to permanent status for the country’s undocumented population, with Democrats and Latinos showing the highest levels of support.

Pew asked the following question in the poll: “Which comes closer to your view about how to handle undocumented immigrants who are now living in the U.S.?”

Respondents were given three choices:

1.     “They should not be allowed to stay in the country legally.”

2.     “There should be a way for them to stay in the country legally, if certain requirements are met.”

3.     “No answer.”

According to Pew’s poll, 75 percent of Americans chose answer 2. Among Democrats or those who lean Democrat, that number increased to 89 percent. Among Latinos, the overall support was at 87 percent, with foreign-born Latino support at 94 percent and U.S.-born Latino support at 82 percent.

Pew also noted that Republican support was at 57 percent, a number that didn’t really change much from August 2019. In addition support was at 81 percent among Black Americans, 76 percent among Asian Americans and 70 percent among White Americans.

“The number of undocumented, or unauthorized, immigrants living in the U.S. stood at 10.5 million in 2017, down from a peak of 12.2 million in 2007, according to Pew Research Center estimates. Just under half of the nation’s unauthorized immigrants are from Mexico,” Pew noted.

Similar Support for DREAMers

The same poll said that 74 percent of Americans favor granting permanent status to DREAMers. According to Pew, 91 percent of Democrats and 88 percent of Latinos favored taking such action.

The Pew poll also showed support from 54 percent of Republicans with 43 percent opposing.

Besides Latinos, Black Americans favored passing a law for DREAMers by 82 percent. Asian Americans showed 72 percent and White Americans showed 69 percent support.

The Supreme Court is currently deciding on the future Deferred Action to Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. 

https://www.latinorebels.com/2020/06/17/americanssupportpermanentstatus/

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AB 1835 Passes Assembly. Assists English Language Learners

AB 1835 Passed the California Assembly yesterday, and is sent to the Senate.
this would resolve our long standing conflict with Sacramento City Unified on funding of English Language Learners.

 AB 1835 would require districts and other local educational agencies to identify any unspent supplemental and concentration funds by annually reconciling the estimated amounts of these funds they include in their LCAPs with the actual amounts of funding the State reports apportioning to them. This bill would also specify that unspent supplemental and concentration funds at year-end must retain their designation to increase and improve services for the intended student groups. AB 1835 will also require districts and other local educational agencies to identify in their LCAPs the total amounts of any unspent supplemental and concentration funds from the previous year. 

BACKGROUND 

The Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) was enacted in 2013. The LCFF was designed to be a more equitable system of funding, with the goal of providing additional funding for the highest needs students. These subgroups of students include English learners, low-income students, and foster. If the student groups targeted for assistance make larger than a majority of enrollment, districts receive additional concentration money.

What is the conflict we have been having.  Explained in the testimony below.

Testimony given to SCUSD Board, and sent to SCUSD LCAP Advisory Committee.

League of United Latin

American Citizens

(LULAC)

----

Lorenzo Patiño Council

#2862 of Sacramento

         

         June 10,2020.

 Re: LCAP Update-  2020.

In your planning to review progress under LCAP,  we offer the following comments.  We also addressed our concerns to the SCUSD School Board and to Superintendent Aguilar. We request that our comments be shared with all members of the LCAP Committee and that the comments be included as public comment in your public report.

On behalf of the Lorenzo Patiño  Council of the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) we urge you to respond to our  four year long request to provide transparency in budgeting for English Language Learners.  We have received budget  documents from the district in response to our public records request. 

LULAC is a long-standing national and local civic organization dedicated to the advancement of civil rights, including the achievement of excellent educational opportunities for every child. 

For four  consecutive  years we have asked that you  “Promote school success of English learners by adding instructional time in English through direct instruction in small groups by skilled credential teachers.”   From 2017 and 2018 we urged the board to accomplish this by instructing the District to include in your budget the addition of at least 10 bilingual instructors designated to serve English Learners.  These recommendations have not been adopted in your LCAP plans. They have not been responded to. They have not been included in district  LCAP reports. 

 The Board is now charged with submitting a written report explaining to the community the changes to program offerings the district has made in response to school closures to address the COVID-19 emergency and the major impacts of such closures on students and families, including low-income students, English Learners and foster youth. 

 Note, for the last three years  the district has  received some $6 million per year to improve the educational opportunities of English Learners as a supplemental allocation under LCFF.   In spite of  our repeated requests, the district has not described how you have used this money to serve this targeted population. 

In your now required report for June, 2020, we charge you to  track English Learner Funds and ensure your accountability documents clearly show how the authorized funds are being used primarily for those students.  We further request that our public comments on the failure to track funding in prior years be recorded as public comment in required reports. 

In your June 19,2020,  report the district should explain how the District provided the specific services required in law to English learners. How will you be ensuring that English Learners are progressing with their English language proficiency and have equal access to the curriculum? What are you doing specifically to address the needs of English Learners ? 

We believe that your June 19, 2020 report should promise  that a new  supplement to your accountability system will  be established  to provide  appropriate tracking of monies received from the state under LCFF supplementary and concentration funds.   

Note, in response to the district’s prior refusal to provide clear accounting of funds used for English learners,  the Sacramento LULAC, and the California State LULAC  has taken a position of support for AB 1834 and  AB 1835 ( Webber- 2020)  which , if adopted, will require you by law to track these funds and will prohibit the use of funds considered  “ surplus” for one year to be transferred to the district general fund in subsequent years.  

Dr. Duane E. Campbell

Education Committee.  LULAC 

Campd22702@gmail.com

Sacramento LULAC, PO Box 162790, Sacramento, Ca. 95816. 

As Uprising Spreads Across US, Scholars Argue Economic Transformation and Solidarity Key to Achieving Racial Justice

As Uprising Spreads Across US, Scholars Argue Economic Transformation and Solidarity Key to Achieving Racial Justice

California Racial Profiling Deaths - 2019

San Francisco Chronicle Photo. Ruby Rodriguez kisses her son, Noah, while lighting candles during a vigil Tuesday for Angel Ramos, a 21-year-old Latino male who was shot and killed one year earlier by Vallejo police responding to a fight at a home. Angel Ramos, who was shot and killed by Vallejo Police in 2017.  Latino Family Questions Unanswered A Year After Shooting of Angel Ramos

 

The 2019 California Annual Report on Racial profiling reported that nearly half (47%) of 172 persons killed by police were Latino, and African Americans account for another 15 % of the police killings. The great majority of police killings are Latino and African American

 

Deceased Civilians by Race/Ethnicity

Race/Ethnicity Deceased Civilians

American Indian or Alaskan Native 2 (1.2%)

Asian 3 (1.7%)

Asian Indian 1 (0.6%)

Black 26 (15.1%)

Hawaiian/Pacific Islander/Samoan 1 (0.6%)

Hispanic 81 (47.1 %)

Other 2 (1.2%)

White 55 (32.0%)

Multiple Race/Ethnicity 1 (0.6%)

Total 172 (100.0%)

2019 California Annual Racial Profiling Report

Cornel West: Nationwide uprisings herald "America's moment of reckoning"

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Demands for Trump Removal Grow as 'Fascist' Speech Condemned as Declaration of War Against US Public

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Rev. William Barber on Protests and Riots

Only if the screams and tears and protests shake the very conscience of this nation can we hope for a better society on the other side of this

The systemic racism that killed George Floyd has taken untold souls from us for over 400 years.’, Christian Monterrosa/AP

Nproo one wants to see their community burn. But the fires burning in Minneapolis, just like the fire burning in the spirits of so many marginalized Americans today, are a natural response to the trauma black communities have experienced, generation after generation. No one wants the fires – even activists on the ground have said this. But they have also shared how their non-violent pleas and protests have gone unnoticed for years as the situation has gotten out of hand. No one knows who and what is behind the violence, but we do know that countless activists, grassroots leaders and preachers were screaming non-violently long before now: “Change, America! Change, Minneapolis!” Rather than listen, many of those in power saw even their non-violent protest as an unwelcome development. This is so often the case because many Americans struggle to imagine that our government’s policies and its long train of abuses demand radical transformation. Too many want to believe racism is merely caused by a few bad actors. We often turn racism into a spectacle, only considering the cruel legacy of racism when an egregious action escalates outrage to this level.  Black Americans have rarely been able to sustain such illusions. Deadly racism is always with us, and not only through police brutality. In the midst of the current pandemic we are painfully aware that our families bear a disproportionate burden of Covid-19 deaths. In some cities where racial data is available, we know that black people are six times as likely to die from the virus as their white counterparts. Even before Covid, large numbers of black Americans died because of the racial disparities in healthcare, which are systemic and not unintentional. African Americans are three times more likely to die from particulate air pollution than our fellow Americans. The percentage of black children suffering from asthma is nearly double that of white people, and the death rate is 10 times higher. This is but a reflection of the fissures of inequality that run through every institution in our public life, where the black wealth gap, education gap and healthcare gap have persisted despite the civil rights movement, legal desegregation and symbolic affirmative action. We understand that the same mentality that will accept and defend the violence of armed officers against unarmed black people will also send black, brown and poor people into harm’s way during a pandemic in the name of “liberty” and “the economy”.  Many have cited Dr King to remind Americans that a riot is the language of the unheard. But I have been reflecting on the eulogy he offered when another man – a white man who came to Selma, Alabama, to work for voting rights – was brutally murdered by racist violence in 1965. At the funeral for James Reed, Dr King said it is not enough to ask who killed the victim in a case like the murder of George Floyd. Weak and unacceptable charges have been brought against the officer whose knee choked George Floyd, staying on his neck for three minutes after he went unconscious, but no charges have been filed against the other officers who stood by and watched. Even still, dealing with who did the killing is not all that justice demands. Dr King said the question is not only who killed him, but also what killed him?  Those of us who have faced the lethal force of systemic racism have also learned something else in the American story. We can be wounded healers The systemic racism that killed George Floyd has taken untold souls from us for over 400 years. And it is killing the very possibility of American democracy today. I join those screaming that this is all screwed up, and it’s been screwed up far too long. But we are not screwed as long we have the consciousness and humanity to know what is right and wrong. Those of us who have faced the lethal force of systemic racism have also learned something else in the American story. We can be wounded healers. We don’t have to be arbitrarily destructive. We can be determined to never accept the destruction of our bodies and dreams by any police, person or policy. We have learned that there is a force more powerful. When hands that once picked cotton have joined together with white hands and Native hands, brown hands and Asian hands, we have been able to fundamentally reconstruct this democracy. Slavery was abolished. Women did gain the right to vote. Labor did win a 40-hour work week and a minimum wage. The civil rights movement in the face of lynching and shooting did expand voting rights to African Americans.  If we take time to listen to this nation’s wounds, they tell us where to look for hope. The hope is in the mourning and the screams, which make us want to rush from this place. There is a sense in which right now we must refuse to be comforted too quickly. Only if these screams and tears and protests shake the very conscience of this nation –and until there is real political and judicial repentance – can we hope for a better society on the other side of this.  William J Barber II is co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival, which is mobilizing poor people and their allies for a mass assembly and march on Washington in June 2020