Test Obsession is Killing Education

by Jeff Bryant.

Scores on the SAT – “the nation’s most widely used” college entrance exam – made news headlines recently, and the averages are either a “call to action,” a sign of progress, or “meaningless.”

Confused? You should be. Because reports of testing data, whether they’re the SAT, the ACT, the NAEP, or some other alphabet car wreck, rarely reveal the grand aha moment claimed and are more so indicators of just how far off base the nation has gone in understanding what matters most for school children.

[Ed. note; In California this includes the test for teachers known as PACT]

National Debate Is Out Of Whack

At every corner and level, the national debate about education policy is dangerously mired in squabbling about what “the data” reveal about the quality of American schooling, while in the meantime, teachers go begging for the very pencils students need to fill out the oh-so-critically-important tests.

California budget spends less on education

by Laura Rosenhall

California budget spends less than U.S. average on education

Education may be the largest single segment of California's budget, but the state proportionately spends less of its money on elementary and high schools and colleges than the national average, according to a new Census Bureau report.

The statistic is gleaned from the bureau's annual report on state government finances, the latest of which covers 2011.

The report tallies California's "general expenditures" last year at just under $225 billion -- spending from both the state's own taxes and other resources as well as $64.5 billion in federal funds. Education is almost $75 billion of that, according to the report -- or exactly one-third, somewhat below the national average of 35.8 percent.

California's level of education spending in 2011 was fractionally lower than in 2010. Other states ranged from a high of 46.6 percent in Georgia to a low of 24.9 percent in Alaska.

Read more here: http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/#storylink=cpy

Progressive Alliance endorses Sue Heredia for Natomas School Board

These are rough times in schools and for elected school boards.

        Teachers , and incumbent school board members, are the subject of a campaign heavily funded and driven from the top down to take a profession that has long been respected by the public at large and make the people in the profession villains.  The goal is to drive down the pestige and working conditions of people working in the professions.  (for example, the film  Won’t Back Down).

               Natomas  district is under funded as are almost all schools districts in the state.  The district was  forced to cut over   $31 million in prior   years.  These cuts were imposed upon the district by the economic crisis and the failure of the legislature to respond to the needs of all the schools.  The result is almost $525  per child less money for the district. This makes California rank 47^th. out of the 50 states in per pupil spending.

        The  cuts were  imposed by the economic crisis- not the school board and not the teachers and  the cuts hurt children.   Most California school budgets are in crisis and they will continue in crisis for several years as a consequence of the economic collapse of the housing market and the financial heist of Wall Street.  The crisis will get worse if Prop. 30 fails on the November ballot.   Readers can do something positive about this crisis by voting Yes. On Prop. 30, the Millionaires Tax this fall.

Improving schools requires working with teachers, not against them

     California public schools are in crisis- and they are getting worse. This is a consequence  of massive budget cuts imposed on the schools by the legislature and the governor in the last four years.  Total per pupil expenditure is down over $1,000 per student. The result is significant  class size increases.   Students are in often classes too large for learning.  Supplementary services such as tutoring, art, and drop out prevention  classes have been eliminated.  Over 14,000 teachers have been dismissed due to the budget emergencies.

       California schools are now 47^th. in the nation in per pupil expenditure and 49^th in class size. Low achievement scores on national tests  in reading and math reflect this severe underfunding. California teachers have been subject to demoralizing  budget cuts that often prevent good teaching. 

     Instead of working with teachers to restore budgets, or to limit budget cuts, a group that claims to be school “reformers” argue that the important issue is teacher accountability.

      This group of “reformers” includes so called   Democrats for Education Reform  led by former State Senator  Gloria Romero and  by Michelle Rhee, former Chancellor of the Washington, D.C. schools. See. https://sites.google.com/site/democracyandeducationorg/

       The so called “reformers” disrespect teachers.  They prefer schools with principals as managers – and that does not work.  They seek to  reduce teachers to interchangeable cogs in a corporate machine with few rights and little independence.   They have reduced teachers’ job security and professional self respect  in the classroom.

Fund the schools. Vote Yes on Prop 30

by Duane Campbell

According to a Sacramento Bee article the AVID program budget was cut from the state budget by a line item veto by Governor Brown. http://www.sacbee.com/2012/08/02/4684182/hed-here.html AVID is one of a dozen or more practical programs in the schools to try to prepare working class kids for college.  Similar programs existed to reduce drop outs/ push outs and other problems in our schools.  Avid was a good program as were dozens of other good programs cut from the budgets.  For example, California has the largest class sizes in the nation and the least number of counselors per children – these program cuts  too produce drop outs and violence.

When you and I address the legislature about these pragmatic programs they say- we agree, but we just don’t have the money.  The state does not have the money only if we continue the massive billions of dollars presently given to corporations in tax dodges and tax benefits.  A simple Millionaires tax, or a Financial Transactions Tax would resolve that, but Governor Brown and the Democrats are unwilling to fight for fair taxation.  See the video below, “Which CEO made $5 million stealing your kids lunch money?” And, see how the global elite  like Mitt Romney hide 32 Trillion in off shore accounts.  This money could be brought back to the U.S. and invested.

http://sacramentopa.blogspot.com/2012/08/exhaustive-study-finds-global-elite.html

Education is vital for the future of California.  Without a quality education, our children will not be able to compete in a global economy.

School Reform ?

Peter Schrag has a piece on the California Progress Report on School Reform: Why it’s  so hard? http://www.californiaprogressreport.com/site/school-reform-why-it’s-so-hard  I have read Schrag for over 30 years.  I once used an early book by him in a class I taught to future teachers.  I usually agree with him- but this time I disagree.  Here is my response.  It is from the summary of Chapter 13 Democratic School Reform: How do we get from Here to There ? of my book, Choosing Democracy: a practical guide to multicultural education.  ( 2010).

Note; what is the educational task of the California legislature and the governor?  Answer- to adequately fund our schools.  They have failed repeatedly in the last decade.  So, how are they experts on school reform?  

Duane Campbell

This  is time for a change for  our society and  in our schools.  This generation must  renew our democratic society.  As described in my book Choosing Democracy, we face  marked crises in government, politics, families, communities and in the schools. Public schools have a particular responsibility to reverse these crises and to renew our democratic society.  The first mission of pubic schooling is to equip all students for the responsibilities and privileges of citizenship – and  many of the schools in low income areas  are presently not fulfilling this mission. If we do not solve the problems of low performing schools our democracy suffers.  For  our  democracy to survive we  need to create schools  that value  all of our children and encourages  each of their educational achievement.

 All children need a good education to participate in our democracy and prepare for  life in the rapidly changing economy. Making schooling valuable and useful is vital to prosperity for all.   Lack of education is a ticket to economic hardship.  The more years of school that a student completes, the more money they are likely to earn as adults  and the better  their chance to get and keep a good job. Unemployment is highest among school dropouts as is incarceration for crimes.  When we fail to educate all of our children, the high costs of this failure come back to hurt us in unemployment, drugs, crime, incarceration, violence and social conflict.

We need to invest in urban schools, provide equal educational opportunities in these schools, and recruit a well prepared  teaching force that begins to reflect the student populations in these schools. We must insist on equal opportunity to learn, without  compromise.  When we do these things, we will begin to protect the freedom to learn for our children and our grandchildren, and to build a more just and  democratic society.

Here come more cuts

      California fell almost $2 billion below estimates in personal income taxes paid in April.  The Legislative Analyst Office says that the state is some $3.5 billion behind the state forecasts for this year which are the basis for the current budget.    Thus, the legislature will again face cuts.  More cuts to schools, more cuts to social services, health care,  child support, police and fire protection.

            This approach to economics is called austerity.  It doesn’t work.  Austerity is being tried in Greece, Italy, Spain, Great Britain, and Ireland, among others.  It does not work.  Austerity makes the economy worse – and thus further reductions of tax receipts and further cuts.

The economic crisis of 2007 to the present made matters worse.  The state took in some $30 billion less in taxes and thus had less to send to the schools.  School budgets have been cut by some $10 billion.  K-12 education receives about 40% of the California budget.  Thus any decline in the state budget leads directly to cuts in school services.

            The question for the corporate agenda, promoted by  the Chamber of Commerce among others  is can the economy prosper with a poorly educated work force.  California grew and prospered from 1970- 1994 based upon a well educated work force.  Then, in the 1994-2008 period over $10 billion of tax cuts were passed – making the current crisis much worse. This week we learned that Apple, and other corporations, are avoiding over $10 billion in taxes by moving one small office to Nevada.   California suffers from a decade of  corporate tax cuts and public disinvestment.  Today,  instead of following the education  approach,  conservative anti tax forces have imposed an Mississippi approach on California.

California public schools are in crisis- and they are getting worse. This is a direct result of massive budget cuts imposed by the legislature and the governor in the last four years.  Total per pupil expenditure is down by over $1,000 per student. The result- massive class size increases.  Students are in often classes too large for learning.  Supplementary services such as tutoring and art classes have been eliminated.  Over 14,000 teachers have been dismissed, and thousands more face lay offs this fall. This is not the fault of teachers. 

Lets Talk Taxes

by Duane E. Campbell

California, like most states, needs additional revenue to fund schools and to invest in the future.  Our  public schools are in crisis - and they are getting worse. Their decline  is a direct result of massive budget cuts imposed by the legislature and the governor in the last four years.  Total expenditure is down by over $1,000 per student. The result is  massive class size increases.  Students are often in classes too large for quality learning.  Supplementary services such as tutoring and art have been eliminated.  Over 14,000 teachers have  already been dismissed  and thousands more face lay offs .

California schools are now 47th in the nation in per pupil expenditure and 49th in class size.  Our low achievement scores on national tests reflect this severe underfunding.

Of course the economic crisis of 2007 to the present caused by bankers and  their  lobbyists  made matters worse.  The state took in some $30 billion less in taxes due to the collapse  and thus had less to send to the schools.  School budgets have been cut by some $10 billion. 

The question for the anti tax advocates  and the Chamber of Commerce,  and ultimately for California voters this fall, is can the economy prosper with a poorly educated work force. California grew and prospered from 1970- 1994 based upon a well educated work force.   The wealth that funds our current highways, parks, universities, community colleges   and jobs is based upon  past public investments.  Then, in the period between 1994-2008 over $10 billion in corporate tax cuts  were passed  making the current  economic crisis much worse. 

Legislature and budget put CSU at risk

Faculty Say Budget Cuts Put Quality of Education in Peril

 

Essential Skills May be Jeopardized by Rapidly Deteriorating Situation

LOS ANGELES – The Civil Rights Project/Proyecto Derechos Civiles at UCLA released two reports about the devastating effects of state budget cuts on the quality of education that faculty at the California State University (CSU) campuses across the state are able to deliver to their students. The reports find that many professors in the CSU system feel that the cutbacks already implemented, coupled with the substantial cuts projected, put the quality of a CSU education in a rapid spiral downward. The studies reveal that faculty are extremely concerned, that the students are losing out, and that their learning experience is significantly undermined by the fiscal crisis.

Taken together, the two reports note the succession of cuts sustained by the CSUs over the years, and the additional budget cuts set for the system, have the ability to critically change the mission of the educational system with long-term implications for the system’s welfare. CSU is the largest system of higher education in California and is the key to mobility for young people in our state, with particular importance for students of color. The CSU is a huge network of 23 universities that provides the greatest amount of BA level of education in the state and educates a substantially larger group of Latino and African American students than the UCs do. Many CSU students are first generation college students struggling to get an education in difficult times. There is substantial research showing that a great number of middle class jobs, and incomes that go along with them, are available to college graduates only.

The first study, Faculty Under Siege: Demoralization and Educational Decline in the CSU, by CRP co-director, Gary Orfield, is based on the responses of more than 400 faculty members who responded to an electronic survey from across the CSU system.  The survey was emailed to a random sample of faculty by Civil Rights Project researchers.  Obtaining responses from all levels of faculty at many campuses, this survey offered a view from a large group of faculty working at many campuses.