Back to School

 

09/18/22

Back to school

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by Randi Weingarten

President, American Federation of Teachers

I have been crisscrossing the country lately, as students and staff start the new school year. For the first time since March 2020, school feels familiar. There are challenges, of course, including staff shortages and worries about gun violence. But scientific advances and funding from the federal government have given us the tools to address COVID-19. Educators didn’t need to see declines in test scores to know what to do right now: Focus like a laser on helping our kids recover and thrive. Teach them core skills and knowledge, and to think critically. Teachers will need all the support we can give them.

This is the unheralded work that happens in public schools every day, in every community across America. But, too often, ideologues’ scaremongering and sensational headlines divert attention from educators’ dedication and from what is needed to support high-quality teaching and learning for all children.

As extremists are trying to ban books, the AFT is well on our way to giving away 1 million books this year—and we will give another million books to kids and families next year. From Scranton to Socorro, from Nashua to Neshaminy, children are delighting in picking out books of their own. As critics complain about student debt forgiveness, the AFT is working to make higher education accessible without a “debt sentence,” by offering student debt clinics, suing fraudulent loan servicers, and promoting public service loan forgiveness so people can choose professions like teaching without being forever buried in debt. And as extremist politicians like Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis make baseless, politically motivated claims that there is “woke indoctrination in our schools” around race and sexuality, educators are doing everything they can to create safe and welcoming environments for students and to help them recover and thrive—academically, socially and emotionally. The AFT’s What Kids and Communities Need campaign is grounded in a simple premise: Teachers want what students need. Those needs are great due to the systemic inequities that have always existed in our schools and society, the trauma and disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the strain of teacher and school staff shortages, and the cynical attacks on educators and schools by extremists.

The message from parents is equally clear: They don’t want culture wars infiltrating our schools. They support honest, age-appropriate teaching of history. Polling shows that parents like their public schools and appreciate educators’ herculean efforts to support students during the pandemic.

This is the time to bring joy and support into our schools, not politics and hate. This is the time to support America’s largest civic institution—our public schools—to bring our divided country together and nurture our children’s and our nation’s healing. Educators and families are leading the way.

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Texas Governor Seeks to Ban Immigrant Children from School Plyler V Doe

 Texas Governor Ready to Challenge Schooling of Migrant Children

Gov. Greg Abbott may target a 1982 Supreme Court ruling that requires schools to educate undocumented children. Some conservatives see an opening for a fresh look at old precedent.

 

 

Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas has taken a hard stance on immigration, using the issue to beat back challengers in the Republican primary.Credit...Brandon Bell/Getty Images

 

By J. David Goodman

May 5, 2022

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HOUSTON — With the Supreme Court signaling a willingness to reverse decades-old precedents like the Roe v. Wade decision on abortion, Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas said on Thursday that he would seek to overturn a 1982 court decision that obligated public schools to educate all children, including undocumented immigrants.

Mr. Abbott’s comments opened a new front in his campaign to use his powers as governor to harden Texas against unauthorized migration. And they demonstrated just how expansively some conservatives are thinking when it comes to the kinds of changes to American life that the court’s emboldened conservative majority may be willing to allow.

The latest proposal for closing public schools to undocumented children significantly widens the range of precedents up for debate. After a draft opinion that would overturn Roe v. Wade leaked this week, focus had been primarily on other rights that could be legally linked to the 1973 decision, such as access to contraception and same-sex marriage.

Little has changed in the legal landscape surrounding the education of undocumented children since 1982, when the court issued a 5-to-4 decision to strike down a Texas law allowing schools to refuse admission to unauthorized migrant children, legal experts said. Several attempts over the years to chip away at the decision in the case known as Plyler v. Doe have been unsuccessful, including an effort by Alabama more than a decade ago and in California in the 1990s.

Record Funding to School Districts

 

Record Funding to Support Educator Retention and Professional Learning ($1.5 billion):
How is your District Planning to Spend It?

 

Para español, favor de hacer clic aquí.

This fall, school districts, charter schools and county offices of education are receiving record investments to support educator retention and professional learning. These investments include $1.5 billion statewide in Educator Effectiveness Funds. They are required to spend the funds on professional learning for teachers and administrators, as well as paraprofessionals and classified staff who work with students. They are also encouraged to invite teachers and other school staff to identify the topics of professional learning they need. Districts will begin receiving their Educator Effectiveness allocations by early 2022. 

There's big money involved

There’s big money involved: 

~$131 million in Los Angeles Unified School District

~$18 million in Fresno Unified School District

~$12 million in San Bernardino City Unified School District

~$14 million in Long Beach Unified School District

~$9 million in Sacramento City Unified School District

~$10 million in Oakland Unified School District

~$1.5 million in Alisal Union School District

~$7 million in West Contra Costa Unified School District

~$6 million in San José Unified School District

~$2 million in Alum Rock Union School District

~$4 million in East Side Union High School District

~$6.5 million in Pomona Unified School District

~$3.5 million in Salinas Union High School District

Check out how much funding your district will receive in this spreadsheet.

Thoughtful and targeted training and professional development for staff can create more inclusive teaching and learning environments, which are essential to attracting and retaining a diverse, prepared educator workforce. Environments where teachers and students feel a strong sense of inclusion and belonging and have support to build restorative and relationship-centered practices promote transformational cultural shifts for racially just schools. 

School districts must adopt a plan by December 30, 2021 that explains how they intend to spend their Educator Effectiveness Funds, starting in the 2021-22 school year and continuing through June 30, 2026. 

What must Educator Effectiveness funds be used for?

Districts must use them to provide instruction, training and professional development for teachers, administrators and other staff who work with students. What could this look like? 

• Coaching and mentoring for staff to foster a meaningful teaching and learning experience
• Programs improving instruction across all subject areas
• Practices and strategies that reengage students and lead to accelerated learning
• Strategies to implement social-emotional learning, trauma-informed practices, access to mental health services and other approaches that improve student well-being
• Practices to foster a positive school climate, including, but not limited to, restorative justice, implicit bias and discrimination and harassment prevention
• Instruction to support effective language-acquisition programs for English   learner students
• Strategies to improve inclusive practices for students receiving special education  services and develop individualized education programs and Section 504 plans
• New professional learning networks for educators
• Education and strategies to incorporate ethnic studies curricula into student instruction for grades 7-12 
• Instruction, education and strategies in early childhood education and expanding universal transitional kindergarten

Check out this infographic on the Educator Effectiveness Plans here [English, Spanish]!

Ask your District: 

• Have you asked teachers and other school staff to identify the professional development and training topics that they need to promote inclusion and belonging in their school communities and better serve students and families?
• Have you drafted your Educator Effectiveness Expenditure Plan yet after incorporating staff feedback? If so, could you post the draft online for community members to review?
• What investments do you plan to make with these funds and why? When will you start spending these funds?
• How much of this funding is being used for new services versus continuing existing services?
• When and how are you planning to request feedback from students, families and other community members on this plan?
• What metrics will you use to evaluate the impact of investments made with these funds and how will you report publicly on their effectiveness over time?
• Will you commit to engage with the community before making any material revisions to the Educator Effectiveness Expenditure Plan in the future?

Contact an administrator in your district’s state/federal programs or finance/budget departments with your questions, requests and feedback

This is an ongoing task of Sacramento LULAC. 

Note; Sacramento City Unified continues to under fund education for English Language Learners. They continue to use funds designated for English Language Learners for other tasks.

Schools and Communities First 2020

Back to School

NAME Back to School Statement of Support for Teachers    Before the 2017-2018 school year ended, thousands of teachers in six states walked out of classrooms to protest the woefully low salaries they take home for their efforts to educate the nation’s young people. The National Association for Multicultural Education knows that low pay for teachers has been a long-standing problem in the United States and urges school districts throughout the country to take the badly needed steps to increase the salaries of beginning and veteran teachers.    Teacher walkouts and rallies occurred in Arizona, Colorado, Kentucky, North Carolina, Oklahoma and West Virginia. Educators have justly made their appeal to lawmakers for pay improvements. The headline-grabbing action followed dramatic funding cuts in investments in schools, students and teachers at the same time that state lawmakers put in place tax breaks that mostly benefit top income earners and corporations.    According to National Education Association research, the average public school teacher salary in the U.S. for 2016-2017 was $59,660, ranging from a state average high of $81,902 in New York to $45,555 in West Virginia. The average classroom teacher salary for 2017-2018 was only estimated to increase 1.4 percent over 2016-2017. But factoring in inflation, the average classroom teacher salary has actually decreased by 4 percent since the 2008-2009 school year. As the United States economy crawls out of the Great Recession, unemployment dips to historic lows and the U.S. stock market stretches to new highs, the decrease in teacher pay relative to inflation represents a major backward step for educators.    As a social justice and equity organization, NAME knows the teacher pay backsliding is shameful and intolerable.     NAME is intimately aware that teachers bear a huge responsibility in educating young people from preschool through college. Companies depend on the unsung efforts of teachers for future workers. Our democracy and government rest on an educated and informed citizenry. Teachers each day of class help to forge that foundation. That is no small feat, considering that there are more than 49,878,710 public school students and more than 3,116,550 teachers in the U.S.    Yet a May 7, 2018, Business Insider article cites OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development)data, showing that the United States ranks fifth behind top ranked Luxembourg, Switzerland, South Korea and Germany in how much elementary school teachers get paid. The U.S. drops to seventh behind top ranked Luxembourg, Switzerland, Germany, South Korea, Austria and the Netherlands in how much high school teachers get paid.    The Economic Policy Institute additionally reports that accounting for inflation, teacher pay in the United States actually fell $30 a week from 1996 to 2015 compared with pay for other college graduates increasing $124 a week. It should surprise no one that teachers demanding action walked out of classes to protest the public’s unwillingness to provide them with pay equity. Keep in mind that teachers constantly come out of their own pockets to provide needed supplies for their classrooms that school districts just don’t fund. NAME encourages states and local jurisdictions to begin this school year to make schoolteachers’ salaries equitable with other professions and the top performing Western nations. It will help with teacher retention and go a long way to ensure that educators do a better job preparing students for college and careers, to be lifelong learners and good citizens.   To download this statement, click here

The Trump /DeVos Budget for Schools

President Trump’s and Secretary of Education DeVos’ education budget was unveiled this week. It’s devastating news for public schools. Rethinking Schools stands firmly against these unprecedented attacks on public education and we need your support to continue our fight against privatization—and to support and improve public schools.     Public schools remain the only educational institutions that have the potential and obligation to serve all students. Yet Trump’s education budget shows how this administration puts corporate interests over the needs of students and communities. The budget gives to charter and voucher schools—and steals from public school children: Gives $500 million more for charter schools (up 50% from current funding), $250 million to expand and “study’ voucher schools, and  $1 billion more to encourage school “choice” within districts. Cuts $1.2 billion for after-school programs that serve 1.6 million children, most of whom are poor, and $2.1 billion for teacher education and class-size reduction. Cuts $490 million for college work-study programs.  Cuts $700 million in Perkins loans for disadvantaged students. Cuts funding for mental health services, anti-bullying initiatives, physical education, and science and engineering instruction. Slashes $168 million for career and technical education and eliminates $96 million for adult literacy. ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ Fight the Trump/DeVos agenda by making a donation to Rethinking Schools so that we can expand our work and strengthen the educational justice movement.

Back to School, and to Widening Inequality

 Robert Reich

 American kids are getting ready to head back to school. But the schools they’re heading back to differ dramatically by family income. Which helps explain the growing achievement gap between lower and higher-income children. Thirty years ago, the average gap on SAT-type tests between children of families in the richest 10 percent and bottom 10 percent was about 90 points on an 800-point scale. Today it’s 125 points. The gap in the mathematical abilities of American kids, by income, is one of widest among the 65 countries participating in the Program for International Student Achievement.

On their reading skills, children from high-income families score 110 points higher, on average, than those from poor families. This is about the same disparity that exists between average test scores in the United States as a whole and Tunisia.

The achievement gap between poor kids and wealthy kids isn’t mainly about race. In fact, the racial achievement gap has been narrowing.

It’s a reflection of the nation’s widening gulf between poor and wealthy families. And also about how schools in poor and rich communities are financed, and the nation’s increasing residential segregation by income.

More important than IQ

NRA position "irresponsible and dangerous" - Teachers' Union head

Two leading teachers unions came out strongly against a proposal Friday by the National Rifle Association to place armed police officers at the nation's schools.

The suggestion by Wayne LaPierre, the chief lobbyist for the National Rifle Association, came in an eagerly anticipated news conference that broke the organization's week-long silence since the school shooting in Newtown, Conn., that took the lives of 26 people at the school.

"The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun," LaPierre said, in an appearance that many pundits quickly declared a disaster.

Randi Weingarten, head of the 1.5 million-member American Federation of Teachers, immediately called LaPierre's proposal "irresponsible and dangerous."

School to Prison Pipeline

Susan Feriss,

The so-called “school to prison pipeline” — which has been the subject of several Center for Public Integrity stories —was the focus of new attention on Capitol Hill Wednesday.  Sen. Dick Durbin presided over the first Congressional hearing on schools suspending students and sending them to juvenile-justice authorities for minor discipline problems.

“For many young people, our schools are increasingly a gateway to the criminal justice system,” Durbin, an Illinois Democrat and assistant majority leader, said in his introductory remarks. “This phenomenon is a consequence of a culture of ‘zero tolerance’ that is widespread in our schools and is depriving many children of their fundamental right to an education.”

Durbin said he hoped the hearing, archived here, would highlight the troubling consequences of sending  kids to court and placing them in the juvenile system for relatively minor reasons. He also called on speakers who testified that it’s possible to keep schools safe – and boost kids’ engagement in school – by cutting referrals to the justice system and instead employing counseling and innovative discipline methods.  

Crenshaw School Community (Los Angeles) fights for real school improvement

Crenshaw School Community Fights For Real Improvement and Against LAUSD Superintendent’s Scorched-Earth Approach

By:

Christina Lewis, Crenshaw High Special Education Teacher

Irvin Alvarado, Crenshaw High Alumni, Coalition for Educational Justice Organizer

Alex Caputo-Pearl, Crenshaw High Social Justice Lead Teacher, UTLA Board of Directors

Eunice Grigsby, Crenshaw High Parent, Crenshaw High Alumna

On October 23, LAUSD Superintendent Deasy announced he intends to reconstitute Crenshaw High School.  This scorched earth “reform” that is destructive for students, communities, and employees has been used at Fremont, Clinton, Manual Arts, and more in LAUSD, despite courageous push-backs at those schools.

The Crenshaw school community is determined to fight back.  The slogan that permeated the emergency 150-person Crenshaw Town Hall Meeting at the African-American Cultural Center on October 4 crystallizes the struggle -- “Keep Crenshaw: Our School, Our Children, Our Community.”

In an attempt to disarm the push back and win public support, Deasy is combining the reconstitution with a full-school magnet conversion.  Crenshaw stakeholders are, of course,  open to conversations about changes that will improve conditions and outcomes for our students -- but those must be collaborative, well-resourced, and must serve all students.  That said, it is clear that Deasy’s main objective is not magnet conversion – it is to take top-down control of the school and reconstitute (which means removing all faculty and staff from the school, with an “opportunity to re-apply”). 

The school community says NO to any form of reconstitution, and YES to school improvement that includes stakeholders and holds LAUSD accountable for its years of neglect and mismanagement.