Title:
NAEP 2004 Trends in Academic Progress Three Decades of Student Performance in Reading and Mathematics:
A LOOK AT CALIFORNIA SCORES.
Available at:
http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/states/profile.asp
One can only conclude that California scores have improved in Math at the 4th. grade level but not at the 8th. grade.
There has been no improvement in reading at the 4th. or 8th. grade level since 1998.
These are the years in which rigid, “teacher proof” reading programs were used.
Open Court and Houghton Mifflin.
Scale Score
Achievement Level
Now, lets see. These are the years when the current educational leaders in the state proclaimed that their form of school reform was working. Testing and Accountability driven reform, with few or no additional funds was the mantra of the Right. And, almost all the politicians accepted this view. Teachers were to teach the material as written- not by teachers-. There was no room for teacher professional decision making.
See, Why is Corporate America Bashing Our Schools? This blog.
Pundits Daniel Weintraub and Jill Steward are both certain that these control mechanisms will improve schooling.
Well- the scores do not show it. So, I wonder what their evidence is?
Saturday, July 16, 2005
Tuesday, July 12, 2005
Weintraub reports one side of the story
this from Daniel Weintraub's blog at the Sacramento Bee.
A Weblog by
Sacramento Bee Columnist Daniel Weintraub
July 12, 2005
"CSU happy with its budget
These are lean times for some programs in state government, and the past few years, overall, have been tight. But this newsletter from the Cal State University System suggests that they, at least, are quite pleased with the budget they have just been handed.
Among the highlights:
Enough money for 10,000 new students.
Pay raises for CSU employees and more money for benefits.
More financial aid."
The Rest of the Story
This is a tale that the administration of the CSU, who do not work on campuses and do not teach students, are happy with the Schwarzenegger budget. They have been happy all along. It was the faculty who opposed the budget cuts last year and the reduced appropriations this year.
The opposition has come from the faculty and the students.
The Weintraub view- the administration is the university.
The traditional academic view- The faculty are the university. And, Weintraub is not listening.
Both views leave out how you gauge the student viewpoint.
Duane Campbell
Faculty member. CSU-Sacramento.
A Weblog by
Sacramento Bee Columnist Daniel Weintraub
July 12, 2005
"CSU happy with its budget
These are lean times for some programs in state government, and the past few years, overall, have been tight. But this newsletter from the Cal State University System suggests that they, at least, are quite pleased with the budget they have just been handed.
Among the highlights:
Enough money for 10,000 new students.
Pay raises for CSU employees and more money for benefits.
More financial aid."
The Rest of the Story
This is a tale that the administration of the CSU, who do not work on campuses and do not teach students, are happy with the Schwarzenegger budget. They have been happy all along. It was the faculty who opposed the budget cuts last year and the reduced appropriations this year.
The opposition has come from the faculty and the students.
The Weintraub view- the administration is the university.
The traditional academic view- The faculty are the university. And, Weintraub is not listening.
Both views leave out how you gauge the student viewpoint.
Duane Campbell
Faculty member. CSU-Sacramento.
Friday, July 08, 2005
Arnie's initiatives now have numbers
The campaigns begin.
Contact Alliance for a Better California at 916- 443-7817. Or your local union.
Prop. 74. Public School Teachers Waiting Period for Permanent Status. Dismissal.
Prop. 75. Public Employees Union dues restrictions. Prevents public emplyee unions from using their members funds for political campaigns.
• Governor Schwarzenegger and his corporate special interest allies are trying to silence the voices of working people with the his Prop. 75.
• Workers ALREADY have the option of not spending dues money on politics – the Governor wants to make it nearly impossible for working people to have a voice in the political process.
• By borrowing $2 billion from the education budget and then refusing to pay it back, Governor Schwarzenegger broke his promise to California students and schools. And now he wants to prevent all of us from telling you about it.
.This initiative will sharply cut union’s abilities to influence legislation and elections.
Prop. 76. School funding.
Slashing $4 billion from education spending per year, the equivalent of $600 less per student, the Governor’s School and Health Funding Reduction Plan would gut the voter-approved minimum funding provided to our schools through Proposition 98.
A clear power-grab by the Governor, the School and Health Funding Reduction Plan would eliminate the legislature’s authority to reject bad ideas, like further cuts to education.
Had the School and Health Funding Reduction Plan been in place during Schwarzenegger’s first two years in offi ce, he would’ve eliminated funding for programs like Healthy Start, School-to-Career Counseling, and contributions to the State Teachers Retirement System.
It would also have allowed cuts in funding for the California State University and University of California below the level needed to fund enrollment growth, without the Legislature’s approval.
Despite a recent report by the RAND Corporation concluding that California’s schools were underfunded, its class sizes too large and its teachers underpaid, the Governor’s School and Health Funding Reduction Plan cuts billions more from our public schools.
California ranks 44th out of 50 states in funding for public schools. California schools already have suffered more than $9.8 billion in cuts.
Contact Alliance for a Better California at 916- 443-7817. Or your local union.
Prop. 74. Public School Teachers Waiting Period for Permanent Status. Dismissal.
Prop. 75. Public Employees Union dues restrictions. Prevents public emplyee unions from using their members funds for political campaigns.
• Governor Schwarzenegger and his corporate special interest allies are trying to silence the voices of working people with the his Prop. 75.
• Workers ALREADY have the option of not spending dues money on politics – the Governor wants to make it nearly impossible for working people to have a voice in the political process.
• By borrowing $2 billion from the education budget and then refusing to pay it back, Governor Schwarzenegger broke his promise to California students and schools. And now he wants to prevent all of us from telling you about it.
.This initiative will sharply cut union’s abilities to influence legislation and elections.
Prop. 76. School funding.
Slashing $4 billion from education spending per year, the equivalent of $600 less per student, the Governor’s School and Health Funding Reduction Plan would gut the voter-approved minimum funding provided to our schools through Proposition 98.
A clear power-grab by the Governor, the School and Health Funding Reduction Plan would eliminate the legislature’s authority to reject bad ideas, like further cuts to education.
Had the School and Health Funding Reduction Plan been in place during Schwarzenegger’s first two years in offi ce, he would’ve eliminated funding for programs like Healthy Start, School-to-Career Counseling, and contributions to the State Teachers Retirement System.
It would also have allowed cuts in funding for the California State University and University of California below the level needed to fund enrollment growth, without the Legislature’s approval.
Despite a recent report by the RAND Corporation concluding that California’s schools were underfunded, its class sizes too large and its teachers underpaid, the Governor’s School and Health Funding Reduction Plan cuts billions more from our public schools.
California ranks 44th out of 50 states in funding for public schools. California schools already have suffered more than $9.8 billion in cuts.
Thursday, July 07, 2005
Education Coalition disappointed
CTA and Education Coalition Disappointed with State Budget
Parents, Teachers, Schools Outraged that Budget Shortchanges Students, Schools by $3.1 Billion
July 6, 2005
SACRAMENTO -- The Education Coalition today issued the following statement in reaction to last night's proposed budget agreement:
More than 1.7 million parents, teachers, school board members, school employees and administrators represented by the Education Coalition are deeply disappointed that the budget agreement announced yesterday doesn't keep the promise to provide adequate funding for California's students and public schools.
This budget is certainly not "terrific" nor is it the "best budget agreement" ever, as the governor claimed. This budget fails to mend the governor's broken promises to education, it fails to meet the Constitutional requirements of the voter-approved Proposition 98, and it underfunds our schools by $3.1 billion at a time when they receive nearly $1,000 less per pupil than the national average.
We are further disappointed that the governor now plans to makes things worse by campaigning for an initiative that gives him the power to gut Proposition 98, reduce education funding below the minimum funding guarantees and slash base funding for our schools by billions.
The Education Coalition will continue its campaign to protect Proposition 98, make sure students and schools receive the funds required under current law approved by voters and secure long-term, adequate and stable funding for public education.
The governor's agreement, state statute and the California Constitution all require an additional $1.8 billion in funding this past fiscal year and $1.3 billion in the new budget year.
We hope that the governor and the legislature will work to find a way to address the ongoing fiscal shortfalls in school districts throughout the state – shortfalls which guarantee more school closures, increase in class sizes, lay offs of teachers and support staff, and a devastating shortages of librarians, counselors and nurses. The future of our state depends on giving our students access to a quality education. Our students and schools deserve better.
Brenda Davis, President, California State PTA
Henry Bietz, President, Association of California School Administrators
Pearl Iizuka, President, California Association of School Business Officials
Larry Reider, President, California County Superintendents Educational Services Association
Mary Bergan, President, California Federation of Teachers
Dr. Kerry Clegg, President, California School Boards Association
Clyde Rivers, President, California School Employees Association
Barbara E. Kerr, President, California Teachers Association
Sal Rosselli, President, Service Employees International Union, California Council
The California Education Coalition is comprised of organizations representing more than 1.7 million parents, teachers, school board members, school employees, and administrators, including:
Association of California School Administrators (ACSA) representing nearly 15,500 school administrators
California Association of School Business Officials (CASBO) representing more than 4,000 school finance and administrative managers
California County Superintendents Educational Services Association (CCSESA) representing all 58 county superintendents throughout California
California Federation of Teachers (AFT-AFL-CIO) representing nearly 90,000 education employees
California School Boards Association (CSBA) representing more than 1,000 K-12 school districts and county offices of education throughout California
Parents, Teachers, Schools Outraged that Budget Shortchanges Students, Schools by $3.1 Billion
July 6, 2005
SACRAMENTO -- The Education Coalition today issued the following statement in reaction to last night's proposed budget agreement:
More than 1.7 million parents, teachers, school board members, school employees and administrators represented by the Education Coalition are deeply disappointed that the budget agreement announced yesterday doesn't keep the promise to provide adequate funding for California's students and public schools.
This budget is certainly not "terrific" nor is it the "best budget agreement" ever, as the governor claimed. This budget fails to mend the governor's broken promises to education, it fails to meet the Constitutional requirements of the voter-approved Proposition 98, and it underfunds our schools by $3.1 billion at a time when they receive nearly $1,000 less per pupil than the national average.
We are further disappointed that the governor now plans to makes things worse by campaigning for an initiative that gives him the power to gut Proposition 98, reduce education funding below the minimum funding guarantees and slash base funding for our schools by billions.
The Education Coalition will continue its campaign to protect Proposition 98, make sure students and schools receive the funds required under current law approved by voters and secure long-term, adequate and stable funding for public education.
The governor's agreement, state statute and the California Constitution all require an additional $1.8 billion in funding this past fiscal year and $1.3 billion in the new budget year.
We hope that the governor and the legislature will work to find a way to address the ongoing fiscal shortfalls in school districts throughout the state – shortfalls which guarantee more school closures, increase in class sizes, lay offs of teachers and support staff, and a devastating shortages of librarians, counselors and nurses. The future of our state depends on giving our students access to a quality education. Our students and schools deserve better.
Brenda Davis, President, California State PTA
Henry Bietz, President, Association of California School Administrators
Pearl Iizuka, President, California Association of School Business Officials
Larry Reider, President, California County Superintendents Educational Services Association
Mary Bergan, President, California Federation of Teachers
Dr. Kerry Clegg, President, California School Boards Association
Clyde Rivers, President, California School Employees Association
Barbara E. Kerr, President, California Teachers Association
Sal Rosselli, President, Service Employees International Union, California Council
The California Education Coalition is comprised of organizations representing more than 1.7 million parents, teachers, school board members, school employees, and administrators, including:
Association of California School Administrators (ACSA) representing nearly 15,500 school administrators
California Association of School Business Officials (CASBO) representing more than 4,000 school finance and administrative managers
California County Superintendents Educational Services Association (CCSESA) representing all 58 county superintendents throughout California
California Federation of Teachers (AFT-AFL-CIO) representing nearly 90,000 education employees
California School Boards Association (CSBA) representing more than 1,000 K-12 school districts and county offices of education throughout California
The Governor and the budget deal : L.A. Times
Poll Shows Gov. Needs to Make a Conciliatory Leap on Reforms, and Fast
George Skelton
Capitol Journal
July 7, 2005
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger took a small step toward political rehabilitation by compromising with Democrats on a new state budget. Now he needs to take a very big step and negotiate a bipartisan agreement on a reform package for the November special election.
A poll being released today at San Jose State shows why such a broad agreement is crucial for Schwarzenegger's political future. And, conversely, it illustrates why Democrats are increasingly cool toward compromise: They think the Republican governor has trapped himself in a special election he's unlikely to win.
The statewide poll, by the nonpartisan Survey and Policy Research Institute at SJS, demonstrates why Schwarzenegger seems beatable on his "reforms." His main adversaries in the ballot brawl — labor unions generally and teachers especially — are much more popular than he is.
This governor has been violating a basic rule of life, let alone politics: Never pick a fight with someone who is bigger and stronger.
Some numbers:
• Schwarzenegger's job approval rating continues in free fall. Only 41% of voters approve of how he's handling his job; 50% disapprove. In late March, 49% approved and 38% disapproved. Among adults generally, current approval is only 34%, a steep plunge from 59% in January.
• But 57% of voters approve of labor unions; only 32% disapprove.
• And most voters — 62% — don't distinguish between public employee unions, like teachers, and their private-sector brothers, like Teamsters. They have a positive view of the whole lot. In fact, 56% say California unions should wield at least as much influence, if not more, than they do currently.
"Unions aren't the bugaboo among the public that the governor thinks they are," says the institute's director, Phil Trounstine. "That should be a warning for him."
The March SJS poll found that voters wanted Schwarzenegger to focus more on working with the Legislature and less on PR gimmicks.
By agreeing to a budget compromise Tuesday, Schwarzenegger did show he still can deal with lawmakers, despite his irritating them with bombastic rhetoric over the past year.
Now he needs to use all his negotiating talent to forge an agreement on long-term reforms, especially a spending cap. His ballot initiative — which would limit spending based on average tax revenue, transfer more budgeting power to the governor and reduce the schools' funding guarantee — is strongly opposed by public employee unions, especially the California Teachers Assn.
The new SJS poll shows why Schwarzenegger should worry about teachers union opposition.
Asked whom they would support if there were a battle over school funding between Schwarzenegger on one side and teachers and school administrators on the other, voters said by 2 to 1 that they'd line up with the ed folks (60% to 31%).
Schwarzenegger has insisted he's not attacking teachers — or nurses, cops or firefighters — only their "special interest" unions. But it doesn't sell. When most voters think of teachers, nurses and cops, they think of — what else? — teachers, nurses and cops.
Asked by the poll whether they think of teachers more as union members or classroom instructors, the reply was instructors by 3 to 1 (62% to 20%).
Moreover, the term "special interests" seemed to have little meaning for those interviewed.
"His whole rhetoric about 'special interests' as an evil force in California politics just hasn't gained traction," says Terry Christensen, a San Jose State political science professor and author of a textbook on California government. "People certainly don't identify teachers as special interests."
Notes Jack Pitney, a Claremont McKenna political scientist and former Republican official: "By taking on so many groups at once — teachers, other public employees — the governor got a stronger reaction than he expected.
"You have to pick your targets carefully. Too many at one time, you won't be able to hit all your targets and they'll shoot back."
Schwarzenegger blew his anti-union campaign early when he botched a proposed pension "reform." Some public pensions negotiated by unions have been too generous, but he overreached by attempting to switch all new retirement plans to 401(k)s. Then he endorsed — and later abandoned — a flawed proposal that failed to explicitly protect death and disability benefits for police and firefighters.
The main anti-labor initiative on the November ballot would require public employee unions to obtain permission from each member before using dues for political purposes.
"Make no mistake, this is a dagger in the heart of the Democratic Party," asserts Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez (D-Los Angeles).
Before Democrats ever agree to a grand compromise on reforms, they'll require Schwarzenegger to promise not to support the anti-union initiative.
Legislators also will ask the governor to back a term limit reform. Nuñez has suggested reducing the total number of years that lawmakers can serve from 14 to 12, but allowing all the years to be spent in one house to retain experience.
The dilemma for Democrats is that Schwarzenegger has been demanding more flexibility on school financing. Democrats aren't in a giving mood on this. And teachers unions — buoyed by poll numbers — get downright enraged at the notion.
Schwarzenegger and Democrats have only one week left before the Legislature's summer recess to write a bipartisan reform package. That's an awfully big step for a weakened governor.
*
George Skelton writes Monday and Thursday. Reach him at george.skelton@latimes.com.
Copyright 2005 Los Angeles Times | Privacy Policy | Terms of Service
Home Delivery | Advertise | Archives | Contact | Site Map | Help
partners:
George Skelton
Capitol Journal
July 7, 2005
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger took a small step toward political rehabilitation by compromising with Democrats on a new state budget. Now he needs to take a very big step and negotiate a bipartisan agreement on a reform package for the November special election.
A poll being released today at San Jose State shows why such a broad agreement is crucial for Schwarzenegger's political future. And, conversely, it illustrates why Democrats are increasingly cool toward compromise: They think the Republican governor has trapped himself in a special election he's unlikely to win.
The statewide poll, by the nonpartisan Survey and Policy Research Institute at SJS, demonstrates why Schwarzenegger seems beatable on his "reforms." His main adversaries in the ballot brawl — labor unions generally and teachers especially — are much more popular than he is.
This governor has been violating a basic rule of life, let alone politics: Never pick a fight with someone who is bigger and stronger.
Some numbers:
• Schwarzenegger's job approval rating continues in free fall. Only 41% of voters approve of how he's handling his job; 50% disapprove. In late March, 49% approved and 38% disapproved. Among adults generally, current approval is only 34%, a steep plunge from 59% in January.
• But 57% of voters approve of labor unions; only 32% disapprove.
• And most voters — 62% — don't distinguish between public employee unions, like teachers, and their private-sector brothers, like Teamsters. They have a positive view of the whole lot. In fact, 56% say California unions should wield at least as much influence, if not more, than they do currently.
"Unions aren't the bugaboo among the public that the governor thinks they are," says the institute's director, Phil Trounstine. "That should be a warning for him."
The March SJS poll found that voters wanted Schwarzenegger to focus more on working with the Legislature and less on PR gimmicks.
By agreeing to a budget compromise Tuesday, Schwarzenegger did show he still can deal with lawmakers, despite his irritating them with bombastic rhetoric over the past year.
Now he needs to use all his negotiating talent to forge an agreement on long-term reforms, especially a spending cap. His ballot initiative — which would limit spending based on average tax revenue, transfer more budgeting power to the governor and reduce the schools' funding guarantee — is strongly opposed by public employee unions, especially the California Teachers Assn.
The new SJS poll shows why Schwarzenegger should worry about teachers union opposition.
Asked whom they would support if there were a battle over school funding between Schwarzenegger on one side and teachers and school administrators on the other, voters said by 2 to 1 that they'd line up with the ed folks (60% to 31%).
Schwarzenegger has insisted he's not attacking teachers — or nurses, cops or firefighters — only their "special interest" unions. But it doesn't sell. When most voters think of teachers, nurses and cops, they think of — what else? — teachers, nurses and cops.
Asked by the poll whether they think of teachers more as union members or classroom instructors, the reply was instructors by 3 to 1 (62% to 20%).
Moreover, the term "special interests" seemed to have little meaning for those interviewed.
"His whole rhetoric about 'special interests' as an evil force in California politics just hasn't gained traction," says Terry Christensen, a San Jose State political science professor and author of a textbook on California government. "People certainly don't identify teachers as special interests."
Notes Jack Pitney, a Claremont McKenna political scientist and former Republican official: "By taking on so many groups at once — teachers, other public employees — the governor got a stronger reaction than he expected.
"You have to pick your targets carefully. Too many at one time, you won't be able to hit all your targets and they'll shoot back."
Schwarzenegger blew his anti-union campaign early when he botched a proposed pension "reform." Some public pensions negotiated by unions have been too generous, but he overreached by attempting to switch all new retirement plans to 401(k)s. Then he endorsed — and later abandoned — a flawed proposal that failed to explicitly protect death and disability benefits for police and firefighters.
The main anti-labor initiative on the November ballot would require public employee unions to obtain permission from each member before using dues for political purposes.
"Make no mistake, this is a dagger in the heart of the Democratic Party," asserts Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez (D-Los Angeles).
Before Democrats ever agree to a grand compromise on reforms, they'll require Schwarzenegger to promise not to support the anti-union initiative.
Legislators also will ask the governor to back a term limit reform. Nuñez has suggested reducing the total number of years that lawmakers can serve from 14 to 12, but allowing all the years to be spent in one house to retain experience.
The dilemma for Democrats is that Schwarzenegger has been demanding more flexibility on school financing. Democrats aren't in a giving mood on this. And teachers unions — buoyed by poll numbers — get downright enraged at the notion.
Schwarzenegger and Democrats have only one week left before the Legislature's summer recess to write a bipartisan reform package. That's an awfully big step for a weakened governor.
*
George Skelton writes Monday and Thursday. Reach him at george.skelton@latimes.com.
Copyright 2005 Los Angeles Times | Privacy Policy | Terms of Service
Home Delivery | Advertise | Archives | Contact | Site Map | Help
partners:
Wednesday, July 06, 2005
The Budget Deal
The California Governor and legislative leaders have reached a compromise on the state budget.
The $116 billion plan increases education spending by about 3 billion. The Governor claims this is a $384 per pupil increase. These figures will need to be checked. The Governor’s office has not been known for honesty with education figures.
This $3 billion would be the normal amount expected from this year’s Prop. 98.
Last year’s Prop.98 3 billion dollar “loan” has not been repaid.
It is interesting that the Education Coalition has accepted this position of not repaying the $3 billion dollar loan since CTA made this $3 billion figure central to its anti Arnold ad campaign.
Does anyone know why the Education Coalition went along?
It looks like a win for the Governor to me. Last week even the Bee pundits were chronicling his decline, today we have a budget crafted close to the Governor’s draft (at least on public schools).
It also looks as if the Democrats were not interesting in continuing the fight for the $3 billion. They saw the fall elections as a major threat.
The initiative campaigns are run from http:://www.allianceforabettercalifornia.org
A key initiative would prohibit public sector unions from using dues money for political campaigns. (Similar to prior proposition 226) As of July, this Schwarzennegger backed initiative would pass 57% to 34 %.
More to come.
The $116 billion plan increases education spending by about 3 billion. The Governor claims this is a $384 per pupil increase. These figures will need to be checked. The Governor’s office has not been known for honesty with education figures.
This $3 billion would be the normal amount expected from this year’s Prop. 98.
Last year’s Prop.98 3 billion dollar “loan” has not been repaid.
It is interesting that the Education Coalition has accepted this position of not repaying the $3 billion dollar loan since CTA made this $3 billion figure central to its anti Arnold ad campaign.
Does anyone know why the Education Coalition went along?
It looks like a win for the Governor to me. Last week even the Bee pundits were chronicling his decline, today we have a budget crafted close to the Governor’s draft (at least on public schools).
It also looks as if the Democrats were not interesting in continuing the fight for the $3 billion. They saw the fall elections as a major threat.
The initiative campaigns are run from http:://www.allianceforabettercalifornia.org
A key initiative would prohibit public sector unions from using dues money for political campaigns. (Similar to prior proposition 226) As of July, this Schwarzennegger backed initiative would pass 57% to 34 %.
More to come.
Monday, July 04, 2005
Villaraigosa on public schools
Speaking at a national teachers convention, Villaraigosa says more money is needed.
By Jessica Garrison
Times Staff Writer
July 4, 2005
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa returned to his teachers union roots Sunday, asking 9,000 educators from around the nation to join him in fighting for more money for public schools.
After a speech before the annual assembly of the National Education Assn., Villaraigosa, who once worked as an organizer for the city's teachers union, also reiterated a pledge to develop proposals to start fixing the troubled Los Angeles Unified School District by the fall.
"I'm committed to those public schools…. I know why America is great," said Villaraigosa, a one-time high school dropout who credits his public school counselor with helping him get back on track.
"Don't let anyone tell you that the effort will come cheap — that's ludicrous," he said. "That's snake oil."
The mayor, who was sworn in Friday, said during his inaugural address that reforming the city's schools will be "a central priority of my administration" and "is the central challenge facing Los Angeles" — even though the mayor has no direct control over the beleaguered school district.
During his address, Villaraigosa also announced that he would create a Council of Education Advisors that would immediately begin formulating plans to improve conditions in the city's schools, where recent studies have shown that fewer than half of students graduate from high school.
On Sunday, as teachers from throughout the nation surrounded him trying to shake his hand, Villaraigosa said he would name the advisors "very shortly." He said the group would include "teachers, parents and community leaders."
Some sources said that A.J. Duffy, the new president of United Teachers Los Angeles, the district's teachers union, would probably be one of those named.
"He recognizes that UTLA is a major player in this battle to fix what is going on in public schools," Duffy said of the city's new mayor, adding that any reform of the district must include a slimming of its "bloated bureaucracy."
"The money belongs at the school sites and in the classrooms," said the union president, moments after delivering a fiery address to the delegates.
"What I'm going after, and what I hope Antonio will become an ally [in], is to go after the bureaucratic mentality that exists at LAUSD," Duffy said.
The mayor said the group would differ from two other recently created school-reform commissions, one started by the City Council and the other by the school board. Villaraigosa said his council would not be looking at the question of governance, but rather at "what we do now" to produce immediate change.
Once again, Villaraigosa remained silent about a proposal he made last month to change laws to give him the power to appoint school board members who oversee the city's 740,000-student system.
Such a proposal, which Villaraigosa has stressed is one of many possible reforms, would put him at odds with the teachers unions, which are among his most ardent supporters.
During the mayoral campaign, United Teachers Los Angeles spent $185,000 on radio ads in support of him, and the California Teachers Assn. spent $500,000 on a television ad mocking his rival's education record.
"There's no single path, no quick fix," Villaraigosa said Sunday. "Most of us who are around our public schools know this is going to be an arduous journey."
The mayor also urged the 9,000 visiting teachers to spend "as much money as you can" during their stay in Los Angeles. The National Education Assn. estimates they will contribute $25 million to the local economy.
By Jessica Garrison
Times Staff Writer
July 4, 2005
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa returned to his teachers union roots Sunday, asking 9,000 educators from around the nation to join him in fighting for more money for public schools.
After a speech before the annual assembly of the National Education Assn., Villaraigosa, who once worked as an organizer for the city's teachers union, also reiterated a pledge to develop proposals to start fixing the troubled Los Angeles Unified School District by the fall.
"I'm committed to those public schools…. I know why America is great," said Villaraigosa, a one-time high school dropout who credits his public school counselor with helping him get back on track.
"Don't let anyone tell you that the effort will come cheap — that's ludicrous," he said. "That's snake oil."
The mayor, who was sworn in Friday, said during his inaugural address that reforming the city's schools will be "a central priority of my administration" and "is the central challenge facing Los Angeles" — even though the mayor has no direct control over the beleaguered school district.
During his address, Villaraigosa also announced that he would create a Council of Education Advisors that would immediately begin formulating plans to improve conditions in the city's schools, where recent studies have shown that fewer than half of students graduate from high school.
On Sunday, as teachers from throughout the nation surrounded him trying to shake his hand, Villaraigosa said he would name the advisors "very shortly." He said the group would include "teachers, parents and community leaders."
Some sources said that A.J. Duffy, the new president of United Teachers Los Angeles, the district's teachers union, would probably be one of those named.
"He recognizes that UTLA is a major player in this battle to fix what is going on in public schools," Duffy said of the city's new mayor, adding that any reform of the district must include a slimming of its "bloated bureaucracy."
"The money belongs at the school sites and in the classrooms," said the union president, moments after delivering a fiery address to the delegates.
"What I'm going after, and what I hope Antonio will become an ally [in], is to go after the bureaucratic mentality that exists at LAUSD," Duffy said.
The mayor said the group would differ from two other recently created school-reform commissions, one started by the City Council and the other by the school board. Villaraigosa said his council would not be looking at the question of governance, but rather at "what we do now" to produce immediate change.
Once again, Villaraigosa remained silent about a proposal he made last month to change laws to give him the power to appoint school board members who oversee the city's 740,000-student system.
Such a proposal, which Villaraigosa has stressed is one of many possible reforms, would put him at odds with the teachers unions, which are among his most ardent supporters.
During the mayoral campaign, United Teachers Los Angeles spent $185,000 on radio ads in support of him, and the California Teachers Assn. spent $500,000 on a television ad mocking his rival's education record.
"There's no single path, no quick fix," Villaraigosa said Sunday. "Most of us who are around our public schools know this is going to be an arduous journey."
The mayor also urged the 9,000 visiting teachers to spend "as much money as you can" during their stay in Los Angeles. The National Education Assn. estimates they will contribute $25 million to the local economy.
Needed: Great public schools
Great Public Schools for Every Child
NEA President Calls on Nation to Join the Fight for Great Public Schools for Every Child
LOS ANGELES – On the day that he was chosen to lead the 2.7 million-member National Education Association (NEA) for another term, President Reg Weaver issued a call to the nation to give children, educators and public schools what they need to improve student achievement and close the achievement gaps.
“Public education is the cornerstone, the foundation, the core of democracy. It is what has made this country great,” Weaver said in his keynote address to more than 9,000 delegates. “I am asking you, the NEA…to make a covenant with this nation, a covenant that states what it takes to make the promise of a great public school system a reality.”
Even though the public trusts teachers more than anyone to say what education reforms are needed, “we are at a critical crossroads” with schools and educators battered by funding cuts, privatization schemes, and the rigid demands of the so-called No Child Left Behind Act, he said.
In order to ensure every child has access to a great public school, NEA must step up its fight in six critical areas, Weaver stated. First, NEA increased its membership by more than 92,000 during his first three years as president—allowing it to become a more powerful advocate for children and public schools—and the Association’s organizing efforts will continue full speed ahead.
NEA also has achieved some success in its efforts to fix and fund the so-called No Child Left Behind Act. The U.S. Department of Education has made regulatory changes to the law, 179 Members of Congress have signed on to legislative proposals to improve the law, and many other groups are echoing NEA’s concerns.
With the costs and demands of the law increasing, NEA and its affiliates filed a lawsuit against the Department. Weaver expressed disbelief that the Department is claiming that NEA and its members have no legal standing to sue: “We could not sit back while the children, students and educators of this country became professional test-takers and test-givers—because we do have standing, and we will stand up for the hopes and the dreams and for the future of this great nation!”
Pointing out that voucher advocates and other privatization proponents are actively courting minority parents, Weaver also urged NEA members to work hard to build partnerships with minority communities and to communicate to them what the Association is doing to close the achievement gaps for minority students.
Another component of Weaver’s vision is a nationwide push to attract and retain quality teachers and education support staff in the profession. NEA today announced a nationwide push for a $40,000 minimum starting salary for teachers as well as enhanced pay for veteran teachers and an appropriate living wage for other school personnel.
Greater support for teachers goes hand-in-hand with greater responsibility for all, Weaver noted. “We must insist upon the professionalism of all of our colleagues, and we must also be willing to assist and support them,” but it’s also up to parents to get more involved in their children’s education and policymakers to provide the investments public schools require, he said.
That’s why as NEA builds its grassroots capacity, it will continue supporting those who stand with its members in support of public education, Weaver said.
“We continue to mobilize in order that we might cultivate a political base that ignores whether you are on the left or right side of the aisle, but recognizes and supports whether you are on the side of the children, students, teachers, faculty and education support professionals,” he said.
July 3, 2005
Contact:
Daniel Kaufman, (301) 651-0559 (cell) or dkaufman@nea.org
Melinda Anderson, (703) 927-8044 (cell) or manderson@nea.org
###
The National Education Association is the nation’s largest professional employee organization, representing more than 2.7 million elementary and secondary teachers, higher education faculty, education support professionals, school administrators, retired educators, and students preparing to become teachers.
NEA President Calls on Nation to Join the Fight for Great Public Schools for Every Child
LOS ANGELES – On the day that he was chosen to lead the 2.7 million-member National Education Association (NEA) for another term, President Reg Weaver issued a call to the nation to give children, educators and public schools what they need to improve student achievement and close the achievement gaps.
“Public education is the cornerstone, the foundation, the core of democracy. It is what has made this country great,” Weaver said in his keynote address to more than 9,000 delegates. “I am asking you, the NEA…to make a covenant with this nation, a covenant that states what it takes to make the promise of a great public school system a reality.”
Even though the public trusts teachers more than anyone to say what education reforms are needed, “we are at a critical crossroads” with schools and educators battered by funding cuts, privatization schemes, and the rigid demands of the so-called No Child Left Behind Act, he said.
In order to ensure every child has access to a great public school, NEA must step up its fight in six critical areas, Weaver stated. First, NEA increased its membership by more than 92,000 during his first three years as president—allowing it to become a more powerful advocate for children and public schools—and the Association’s organizing efforts will continue full speed ahead.
NEA also has achieved some success in its efforts to fix and fund the so-called No Child Left Behind Act. The U.S. Department of Education has made regulatory changes to the law, 179 Members of Congress have signed on to legislative proposals to improve the law, and many other groups are echoing NEA’s concerns.
With the costs and demands of the law increasing, NEA and its affiliates filed a lawsuit against the Department. Weaver expressed disbelief that the Department is claiming that NEA and its members have no legal standing to sue: “We could not sit back while the children, students and educators of this country became professional test-takers and test-givers—because we do have standing, and we will stand up for the hopes and the dreams and for the future of this great nation!”
Pointing out that voucher advocates and other privatization proponents are actively courting minority parents, Weaver also urged NEA members to work hard to build partnerships with minority communities and to communicate to them what the Association is doing to close the achievement gaps for minority students.
Another component of Weaver’s vision is a nationwide push to attract and retain quality teachers and education support staff in the profession. NEA today announced a nationwide push for a $40,000 minimum starting salary for teachers as well as enhanced pay for veteran teachers and an appropriate living wage for other school personnel.
Greater support for teachers goes hand-in-hand with greater responsibility for all, Weaver noted. “We must insist upon the professionalism of all of our colleagues, and we must also be willing to assist and support them,” but it’s also up to parents to get more involved in their children’s education and policymakers to provide the investments public schools require, he said.
That’s why as NEA builds its grassroots capacity, it will continue supporting those who stand with its members in support of public education, Weaver said.
“We continue to mobilize in order that we might cultivate a political base that ignores whether you are on the left or right side of the aisle, but recognizes and supports whether you are on the side of the children, students, teachers, faculty and education support professionals,” he said.
July 3, 2005
Contact:
Daniel Kaufman, (301) 651-0559 (cell) or dkaufman@nea.org
Melinda Anderson, (703) 927-8044 (cell) or manderson@nea.org
###
The National Education Association is the nation’s largest professional employee organization, representing more than 2.7 million elementary and secondary teachers, higher education faculty, education support professionals, school administrators, retired educators, and students preparing to become teachers.
Sunday, July 03, 2005
David McCullough and misinformation
Another one of the many times when informed persons, in this case a historian, is accepted as an expert on schooling –which he is not.
In the July 2 interview with David McCollough by Tim Russert on CNBC about the new book 1776. the interview was informative and very interesting. I enjoyed the history offered about the War of Independence.
However, McCollough should be more accurate with his claims of information.
Tim Russert asked: "Why do current U.S. students know so little history?"
McCollough: " One major reason is that teachers don't have to study history. T
They can major in Education and not take any history. Then, since they do not know history, they do not share its excitement and interest. "
This is an old claim which has been bouncing around right wing circles for decades- and it is wrong. Such claims are often accepted as truth in Republican circles.
I graduated with a B.A. in Social Studies Education in 1964,from the U. of Norther Iowa. I had to take a substantial number of history courses. I later received an M.A. and a Doctorate in History from Carnegie Mellon U.
In California since 1972 you can not major in education. You must major in an academic discipline. Now, over 10% of the nation's students are in California.
There is no evidence that California students know more history than students from other states where teachers may major in history.
The interview was great and the book seems interesting.
However, we should not allow these throw away criticisms of teachers to go unanswered. In this case, they are simply wrong.
Duane E. Campbell
Sacramento
In the July 2 interview with David McCollough by Tim Russert on CNBC about the new book 1776. the interview was informative and very interesting. I enjoyed the history offered about the War of Independence.
However, McCollough should be more accurate with his claims of information.
Tim Russert asked: "Why do current U.S. students know so little history?"
McCollough: " One major reason is that teachers don't have to study history. T
They can major in Education and not take any history. Then, since they do not know history, they do not share its excitement and interest. "
This is an old claim which has been bouncing around right wing circles for decades- and it is wrong. Such claims are often accepted as truth in Republican circles.
I graduated with a B.A. in Social Studies Education in 1964,from the U. of Norther Iowa. I had to take a substantial number of history courses. I later received an M.A. and a Doctorate in History from Carnegie Mellon U.
In California since 1972 you can not major in education. You must major in an academic discipline. Now, over 10% of the nation's students are in California.
There is no evidence that California students know more history than students from other states where teachers may major in history.
The interview was great and the book seems interesting.
However, we should not allow these throw away criticisms of teachers to go unanswered. In this case, they are simply wrong.
Duane E. Campbell
Sacramento
Friday, July 01, 2005
Battle of ideas
This blog is established to engage in the battle of ideas about democracy and education.
Major issues for education are a part of the current state budget debates and the fall elections.
The initiatives on the budget will effect schools. The initiative on teacher tenure reveals a scapegoating and wedge issue strategy from the far Right. The initiative on preventing union funds from being used in elections seeks to take away from teachers their ability to elect pro-education legislators.
In political terms, there are at least two parts to our efforts: one is to organize and mobilize voters; the second is to engage in the battle of ideas. This second task is to develop arguments to promote democracy and public education and to oppose those such as Jill Stewart, the poorly informed press, and the governor, who seek to further reduce democracy and participation in public education.
Readers are invited to post responses to entries.
Duane Campbell
Major issues for education are a part of the current state budget debates and the fall elections.
The initiatives on the budget will effect schools. The initiative on teacher tenure reveals a scapegoating and wedge issue strategy from the far Right. The initiative on preventing union funds from being used in elections seeks to take away from teachers their ability to elect pro-education legislators.
In political terms, there are at least two parts to our efforts: one is to organize and mobilize voters; the second is to engage in the battle of ideas. This second task is to develop arguments to promote democracy and public education and to oppose those such as Jill Stewart, the poorly informed press, and the governor, who seek to further reduce democracy and participation in public education.
Readers are invited to post responses to entries.
Duane Campbell
Tuesday, June 14, 2005
Jill Stewart- Wrong from the start
Jill Stewart wrote and SN &R printed another one of her regular assaults on public schooling in California. Steward in her rant, like other critics from the Right, uses tortured logic and tortured data.
Steward argues that we should use median cost per pupil rather than average cost per pupil as a measure. Her reasoning is that there are three states and the District of Columbia who allocate so much money that averages are distorted. That makes no sense.
There are far more than three states who provide totally inadequate funding (try Mississippi, Alabama, and Tennessee) and balance the high states. Apparently she is trying to make a case about the difference between median and average. She has not figured it out yet.
If you use average per pupil expenditure, Steward claims California is $489 per student behind. (Better data is available at EdSource.org).
So, the class which your child attends lacks $489 per student and there are 30 students, or $14,670 per class. An average elementary school might have 30 classes. So, this average California school is $440,100 under the average of the nation. Yes, that makes a difference. That is why California children rank so low in reading and math. You get what you pay for.
But the real issue is why are there thousands of schools failing in California?
The failure of this Governor and prior governors to improve schools in our low income neighborhoods creates the problem. These schools often have miserable working conditions. High schools throughout the state are over crowded making it difficult to teach. And, elementary schools in low income areas has a much as 40% of their teachers new and inexperienced.
What political leaders could do would be to improve the working conditions in these schools. Make smaller, safer schools. Provide enough counselors and librarians. (California ranks 49th. out of 50 states in Counselors and Librarians, and books). Provide quality stable school leadership rather than the current revolving door system. And, provide support and time for new teachers to learn from more experienced teachers. Practical steps to reduce the new teacher attrition rate in difficult schools will do more than the Governor’s proposals for merit pay to improve teaching conditions.
Stewart continues her campaign to support the Governor’s educational follies using data and arguments from the Hoover Institute. But, there are things that can be done in this year’s budget. These changes do not require a 70 million dollar special election. In fact, you could use the $70 million to improve the schools rather than to hold another election.
Improving schools could be achieved with political leadership. Instead the Governor chooses to pick a fight with the unions and to impose a $70 million election on us. This decision reveals political spin- not leadership. And Stewart is an accomplice to the spin doctors.
Duane Campbell
www.choosingdemocracy.blogspot.com
Sacramento
Steward argues that we should use median cost per pupil rather than average cost per pupil as a measure. Her reasoning is that there are three states and the District of Columbia who allocate so much money that averages are distorted. That makes no sense.
There are far more than three states who provide totally inadequate funding (try Mississippi, Alabama, and Tennessee) and balance the high states. Apparently she is trying to make a case about the difference between median and average. She has not figured it out yet.
If you use average per pupil expenditure, Steward claims California is $489 per student behind. (Better data is available at EdSource.org).
So, the class which your child attends lacks $489 per student and there are 30 students, or $14,670 per class. An average elementary school might have 30 classes. So, this average California school is $440,100 under the average of the nation. Yes, that makes a difference. That is why California children rank so low in reading and math. You get what you pay for.
But the real issue is why are there thousands of schools failing in California?
The failure of this Governor and prior governors to improve schools in our low income neighborhoods creates the problem. These schools often have miserable working conditions. High schools throughout the state are over crowded making it difficult to teach. And, elementary schools in low income areas has a much as 40% of their teachers new and inexperienced.
What political leaders could do would be to improve the working conditions in these schools. Make smaller, safer schools. Provide enough counselors and librarians. (California ranks 49th. out of 50 states in Counselors and Librarians, and books). Provide quality stable school leadership rather than the current revolving door system. And, provide support and time for new teachers to learn from more experienced teachers. Practical steps to reduce the new teacher attrition rate in difficult schools will do more than the Governor’s proposals for merit pay to improve teaching conditions.
Stewart continues her campaign to support the Governor’s educational follies using data and arguments from the Hoover Institute. But, there are things that can be done in this year’s budget. These changes do not require a 70 million dollar special election. In fact, you could use the $70 million to improve the schools rather than to hold another election.
Improving schools could be achieved with political leadership. Instead the Governor chooses to pick a fight with the unions and to impose a $70 million election on us. This decision reveals political spin- not leadership. And Stewart is an accomplice to the spin doctors.
Duane Campbell
www.choosingdemocracy.blogspot.com
Sacramento
Wednesday, June 08, 2005
School reform by those who care
Most parents and most teachers care about their kids. And, the parents in urban areas are increasingly angered, offended, and frustrated when public officials refuse of offer a decent opporutnity for their children. Some see a racial conspiracy, some blame teachers' unions. Many have given up on democracy and public life and turn to cynicism or dispair.
The California Governor’s spin on school reform and the issue of “merit” pay distorts the issues rather than offering solutions. He proposes a small increase in pay for teachers working in difficult to staff schools.
But the real issue is why are these schools so difficult? The failure of this Governor and prior governors to improve schools in our low income neighborhoods creates the problem. These schools often have miserable working conditions. In Los Angeles, Jefferson High has over 150% occupancy- and racial riots. That makes it a rather difficult school. High schools throughout the state are over crowded. And, elementary schools in low income areas has a much as 40% of their teachers new and inexperienced.
What political leaders could do would be to improve the working conditions in these schools. Make smaller, safer schools. Provide enough counselors and librarians. (California ranks 49th. out of 50 states in Counselors and Librarians, and books). Provide quality stable school leadership rather than the current revolving door system. And, provide support and time for new teachers to learn from more experienced teachers. Practical steps to reduce the new teacher attrition rate in difficult schools will do more than merit pay to improve teaching conditions.
These are things that can be done in this years budget. They do not require a 70 million dollar special election. In fact, you could use the $70 million to improve the schools rather than to hold another election.
These things could be achieved with political leadership. Instead the Governor chooses to pick a fight with the unions and to impose a $70 million election on us. This decision reveals political spin- not leadership.
The Governor said he was going to keep funding the schools. He has not. He said he supported Prop. 98, he now seeks to change it with a constitutional amendment.
Schools do not exist in a vacuum. They are not isolated from their neighborhoods and communities. Inequality in schooling is a product of inequality in society.
A progressive movement exists among teachers. The excellent journal Rethinking Our Schools, (circulation over 40,000) and the web site (www.rethinkingschools.org) created by some teachers in and around Milwaukee, Wisconsin, engages, stimulates, validates, and inspires teachers who recognize the central role of urban schools to the anti racism struggle in our nation, and who choose resistance to the anti teacher, Republican, corporate agenda in schools. ( See Why is Corporate America Bashing Our Public Schools? (This blog)
While schools should be a site for building democracy and equal opportunity, this opportunity can only be created with significant new investment in schools in low income areas. Investment requires a political decision. Our elected officials, both Democrats and Republicans have refused to make this decision each year in most local, state, and federal budgets. As state after state faces the current budget crisis, they are cutting education funding rather than improving funding.
WE need to invest in our 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. The settlement of the Williams case in California is a small start in the right direction.
Rather than invest money in reform, governor Schwarzenegger and his Republican allies have followed the lead of the Business Roundtable, Ravitch, and conservative foundations and the Clinton and Bush administrations and increased emphasis on testing to improve scores. This is the heart of school reform advocated by Ravitch, passed by the Bush regime in PL 107-110 , the misnamed, No Child Left Behind Act.
(See other posts on this law. )
The California Governor’s spin on school reform and the issue of “merit” pay distorts the issues rather than offering solutions. He proposes a small increase in pay for teachers working in difficult to staff schools.
But the real issue is why are these schools so difficult? The failure of this Governor and prior governors to improve schools in our low income neighborhoods creates the problem. These schools often have miserable working conditions. In Los Angeles, Jefferson High has over 150% occupancy- and racial riots. That makes it a rather difficult school. High schools throughout the state are over crowded. And, elementary schools in low income areas has a much as 40% of their teachers new and inexperienced.
What political leaders could do would be to improve the working conditions in these schools. Make smaller, safer schools. Provide enough counselors and librarians. (California ranks 49th. out of 50 states in Counselors and Librarians, and books). Provide quality stable school leadership rather than the current revolving door system. And, provide support and time for new teachers to learn from more experienced teachers. Practical steps to reduce the new teacher attrition rate in difficult schools will do more than merit pay to improve teaching conditions.
These are things that can be done in this years budget. They do not require a 70 million dollar special election. In fact, you could use the $70 million to improve the schools rather than to hold another election.
These things could be achieved with political leadership. Instead the Governor chooses to pick a fight with the unions and to impose a $70 million election on us. This decision reveals political spin- not leadership.
The Governor said he was going to keep funding the schools. He has not. He said he supported Prop. 98, he now seeks to change it with a constitutional amendment.
Schools do not exist in a vacuum. They are not isolated from their neighborhoods and communities. Inequality in schooling is a product of inequality in society.
A progressive movement exists among teachers. The excellent journal Rethinking Our Schools, (circulation over 40,000) and the web site (www.rethinkingschools.org) created by some teachers in and around Milwaukee, Wisconsin, engages, stimulates, validates, and inspires teachers who recognize the central role of urban schools to the anti racism struggle in our nation, and who choose resistance to the anti teacher, Republican, corporate agenda in schools. ( See Why is Corporate America Bashing Our Public Schools? (This blog)
While schools should be a site for building democracy and equal opportunity, this opportunity can only be created with significant new investment in schools in low income areas. Investment requires a political decision. Our elected officials, both Democrats and Republicans have refused to make this decision each year in most local, state, and federal budgets. As state after state faces the current budget crisis, they are cutting education funding rather than improving funding.
WE need to invest in our 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. The settlement of the Williams case in California is a small start in the right direction.
Rather than invest money in reform, governor Schwarzenegger and his Republican allies have followed the lead of the Business Roundtable, Ravitch, and conservative foundations and the Clinton and Bush administrations and increased emphasis on testing to improve scores. This is the heart of school reform advocated by Ravitch, passed by the Bush regime in PL 107-110 , the misnamed, No Child Left Behind Act.
(See other posts on this law. )
Tuesday, June 07, 2005
Why is corporate America bashing our schools?
WHY IS CORPORATE AMERICAN BASHING OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS?
According to Susan Ohanion and Kathy Emery, the phrase "failing public schools" has a lot in common with "war on terror": get the media to parrot these phrases often enough so that you can't hear "terrorism" without thinking there is a need for war, and you can't hear "public schools" without thinking they are failing and need to be fixed. This language works: ordinary people without an ax to grind, people who haven't set foot in a school for thirty years or more, will testify to failing public schools. This technique forestalls debate about what matters in public schools because the corporate and political elite have already defined both the problem and the solution. We have all become prisoners of their rhetoric, and its time we break the chains that bind us. The beginning of education for democracy is to call things by their right name. And then to stand by those words. In the hands of the U.S. Department of Education, the very title "No Child Left Behind," hijacked from the Childrens Defense Fund, has become the moral equivalent of the Pentagon’s "pacification." Of course, other verbal pyrotechnics are at work here -- what Orwell called doublespeak. No Child Left Behind means the opposite of what it says. It is a plan not to help every school succeed but to declare public schools failures and accelerate the use of vouchers, turning public education over to private, for-profit firms. It is also a plan to blame the victim: the government declares itï¿_s leaving no child behind, so if a kid ends up on the streets after tenth grade, it must be his fault. There is nothing new about politicians using slippery language to round up and herd the citizenry. Every time we hear the ubiquitous ed-bizspeak (schools as data-driven institutions, data-driven reform, total data control, and data-driven decision making) we must stop and challenge it. Stop and ask about the numbers game that obscures the very real needs of real children. Read article on heinemann.com
See the book at www.heinemann.com
You will find each of the above examples of doublespeak in the policies of Schwarzenegger and Bersin.
According to Susan Ohanion and Kathy Emery, the phrase "failing public schools" has a lot in common with "war on terror": get the media to parrot these phrases often enough so that you can't hear "terrorism" without thinking there is a need for war, and you can't hear "public schools" without thinking they are failing and need to be fixed. This language works: ordinary people without an ax to grind, people who haven't set foot in a school for thirty years or more, will testify to failing public schools. This technique forestalls debate about what matters in public schools because the corporate and political elite have already defined both the problem and the solution. We have all become prisoners of their rhetoric, and its time we break the chains that bind us. The beginning of education for democracy is to call things by their right name. And then to stand by those words. In the hands of the U.S. Department of Education, the very title "No Child Left Behind," hijacked from the Childrens Defense Fund, has become the moral equivalent of the Pentagon’s "pacification." Of course, other verbal pyrotechnics are at work here -- what Orwell called doublespeak. No Child Left Behind means the opposite of what it says. It is a plan not to help every school succeed but to declare public schools failures and accelerate the use of vouchers, turning public education over to private, for-profit firms. It is also a plan to blame the victim: the government declares itï¿_s leaving no child behind, so if a kid ends up on the streets after tenth grade, it must be his fault. There is nothing new about politicians using slippery language to round up and herd the citizenry. Every time we hear the ubiquitous ed-bizspeak (schools as data-driven institutions, data-driven reform, total data control, and data-driven decision making) we must stop and challenge it. Stop and ask about the numbers game that obscures the very real needs of real children. Read article on heinemann.com
See the book at www.heinemann.com
You will find each of the above examples of doublespeak in the policies of Schwarzenegger and Bersin.
Thursday, June 02, 2005
The Governor's budget : A CTA view
Unfortunately the press and T.V. such as California Connected will not print the teachers viewpoint. We are reduced to sound bites and chants at demonstrations.
Here is an article from the CTA journal for teachers, California Educator, explaining their viewpoint.
One of the first lessons teachers share with young children is the importance of keeping their word. For that reason, it came as a complete shock when the governor of California broke his promise to protect funding for public schools.
Last year, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger borrowed $2 billion from the education budget, with the assurance that he would pay the money back. He vowed that schools would receive their fair share of any additional state revenue and that more harmful cuts would be avoided in future years. Education funding, he emphasized, would only be cut "over my dead body."
Now, even though state revenues are up, the governor is refusing to pay the money back. Even worse, he wants to destroy Proposition 98's minimum funding guarantees for education, which were put in place by a majority of the state's voters. His proposals would allow multiple rounds of midyear cuts across the board.
The net effect is estimated at $25,000 less for every classroom in the state.
This loss compounds the more than $9.8 billion in cuts California schools have suffered over the past four years, which already places the state at 44th in the nation in per-pupil funding; 50th in the number of guidance counselors, librarians and computers per student; 49th in teacher-student ratio; and 50th in library books per student.
Instead of helping teachers get adequate resources, the governor has labeled them special interests that the state must combat. Meanwhile, he has allied himself with big drug, oil and insurance companies that are raising millions of dollars to help him get voter approval for proposals designed to divert public attention from the real problems facing California schools.
In addition to gutting Prop. 98 guarantees, the governor is proposing other so-called reform measures:
• Instituting merit pay for teachers, which along with other employment decisions would be based on teacher performance as determined by student test scores on state-adopted standardized tests.
• Requiring teachers to teach for five years before gaining permanent status and thus the right to due process protections, and allowing permanent teachers to be dismissed if they receive two unsatisfactory evaluations in a row.
• Prohibiting pensions for teachers and other public employees hired after July 1, 2007, leaving them instead in unpredictable 401(k)-style investment plans.
• Silencing the voices of teachers and other public employees by restricting their unions' political activities and entangling them in unnecessary paperwork that will waste scant resources.
Saying he wants to take his so-called reform measures directly to the people rather than work within the legislative process, Gov. Schwarzenegger is proposing a special election for November that would cost $70 million in taxpayer money.
CTA contends that big corporations are the real "special interests" that stand to benefit from his proposals. Voters are "overwhelmingly opposed" to holding a special election this year, especially when told the price tag, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
Instead of trying to work with elected officials, the governor spends his time appearing at fundraisers and media events and posing with a giant spigot that spouts red ink. Such theatrics only mask the real issues facing California.
What follows is a look at the proposals the governor has made and what their implications are for schools.
The more California residents understand how the governor's proposals endanger public education, the angrier they become.
Even though public anger is reaching a fever pitch, the fight has only just begun and will likely continue until November and possibly longer. "We must remember that teachers are powerful voices in our communities - and we are in every community in the state," says CTA President Barbara E. Kerr. If teachers don't get involved in fighting to beat back the governor's attacks, "our classrooms and our profession will be suffering a year from now in ways that are painful to imagine."
Sherry Posnick-Goodwin
Here is an article from the CTA journal for teachers, California Educator, explaining their viewpoint.
One of the first lessons teachers share with young children is the importance of keeping their word. For that reason, it came as a complete shock when the governor of California broke his promise to protect funding for public schools.
Last year, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger borrowed $2 billion from the education budget, with the assurance that he would pay the money back. He vowed that schools would receive their fair share of any additional state revenue and that more harmful cuts would be avoided in future years. Education funding, he emphasized, would only be cut "over my dead body."
Now, even though state revenues are up, the governor is refusing to pay the money back. Even worse, he wants to destroy Proposition 98's minimum funding guarantees for education, which were put in place by a majority of the state's voters. His proposals would allow multiple rounds of midyear cuts across the board.
The net effect is estimated at $25,000 less for every classroom in the state.
This loss compounds the more than $9.8 billion in cuts California schools have suffered over the past four years, which already places the state at 44th in the nation in per-pupil funding; 50th in the number of guidance counselors, librarians and computers per student; 49th in teacher-student ratio; and 50th in library books per student.
Instead of helping teachers get adequate resources, the governor has labeled them special interests that the state must combat. Meanwhile, he has allied himself with big drug, oil and insurance companies that are raising millions of dollars to help him get voter approval for proposals designed to divert public attention from the real problems facing California schools.
In addition to gutting Prop. 98 guarantees, the governor is proposing other so-called reform measures:
• Instituting merit pay for teachers, which along with other employment decisions would be based on teacher performance as determined by student test scores on state-adopted standardized tests.
• Requiring teachers to teach for five years before gaining permanent status and thus the right to due process protections, and allowing permanent teachers to be dismissed if they receive two unsatisfactory evaluations in a row.
• Prohibiting pensions for teachers and other public employees hired after July 1, 2007, leaving them instead in unpredictable 401(k)-style investment plans.
• Silencing the voices of teachers and other public employees by restricting their unions' political activities and entangling them in unnecessary paperwork that will waste scant resources.
Saying he wants to take his so-called reform measures directly to the people rather than work within the legislative process, Gov. Schwarzenegger is proposing a special election for November that would cost $70 million in taxpayer money.
CTA contends that big corporations are the real "special interests" that stand to benefit from his proposals. Voters are "overwhelmingly opposed" to holding a special election this year, especially when told the price tag, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
Instead of trying to work with elected officials, the governor spends his time appearing at fundraisers and media events and posing with a giant spigot that spouts red ink. Such theatrics only mask the real issues facing California.
What follows is a look at the proposals the governor has made and what their implications are for schools.
The more California residents understand how the governor's proposals endanger public education, the angrier they become.
Even though public anger is reaching a fever pitch, the fight has only just begun and will likely continue until November and possibly longer. "We must remember that teachers are powerful voices in our communities - and we are in every community in the state," says CTA President Barbara E. Kerr. If teachers don't get involved in fighting to beat back the governor's attacks, "our classrooms and our profession will be suffering a year from now in ways that are painful to imagine."
Sherry Posnick-Goodwin
Wednesday, June 01, 2005
Reviving schools : L.A. Weekly
MAY 13 - 18, 2005
Reviving Education
Grassroots advocates for public schools are raising their voices - and
getting heard
by ERIN AUBRY KAPLAN
Public education, the favorite whipping boy of the right and of
family-values enthusiasts of all stripes, has had a particularly bad first quarter in
2005….
That's the bad news. The good news - specifically, the countervailing news -
is that there is also an increasingly organized network of teachers,
students, parents and other interested parties who are demanding meaningful reforms of public education and, simultaneously, a place at the decision-making table.
Pushed to a breaking point by endless standardized testing, stagnant school
conditions and the hovering Damocles' sword of the No Child Left Behind Act,
groups like the Coalition for Educational Justice (CEJ), InnerCity Struggle
and Communities for Educational Equity (CEE) are taking the issues to the
politicians - and getting some traction. With the support of school-board member Jose Huizar, InnerCity Struggle and CEE are pushing for the passage of a board resolution that would make the full complement of college-prep courses,
known as A-G, requirements for graduation. The CEJ, along with a statewide organization called Campaign for Quality Education, is working with two state legislators to pass bills that would either delay or reform the controversial high school exit exam in California; passage of the exam is currently required for a diploma. State Senator Gloria Romero's bill, SB 517, would put off the "diploma penalty" until local county offices of education can show that they've
provided adequate resources, including certified teachers and reasonable student-teache ratios, to all students; Assemblywoman Karen Bass' AB 1531 would require school districts to develop more complex methods of student assessment, beyond the exit exam, so that the exam isn't the sole determinant of whether a student receives a diploma or not.
Luis Sanchez, an organizer with East L.A.-based InnerCity Struggle, says
That even though public-education advocates are increasingly fending off attacks,
they must also advance new ideas - now. New campuses are finally getting
built, and he says it's crucial that the curriculum and direction of the
schools be new, too. "We're gaining momentum exactly because of the growth of the 'choice' movement - vouchers, charter schools, privatization," says Sanchez, whose organization counts among its victories approval to build East L.A.'s first
new high school in 80 years. "This is an opportunity to start a movement, a big one. It's so easy to fight against stuff, but you can't just be against something. We need to make our own demands."
This kind of reformer energy is not new; activist groups like the CEJ and
InnerCity Struggle have been in the trenches on a number of issues for a
while.
What is new is that their brand of progressivism is moving incrementally
From the fringe to the center. The most compelling proof of that is the recent
election of officers in United Teachers Los Angeles, the 46,000-member
teacher union known much less for courage than for status quo complacency. Thanks to a progressive caucus within the union called United Action that has been gaining membership and influence the last couple of years, UTLA tossed out four incumbent officers and voted in new ones, a move unprecedented in its
history. Along with the usual pledges to protect and expand teacher wages and benefits, president-elect A.J. Duffy has been vowing to fight for the neediest schools - specifically by fighting No Child Left Behind (NCLB), which
counterintuitively withholds aid from schools it identifies as failing. "It's a horrendous law that's hurting kids," says Duffy, a special-education teacher. "We have inner-city schools with horrendous dropout rates, single families and other problems, which are reflected in test scores, and the feds punish us for that. We're going to fight to do away with NCLB, and we'll fight it with research and information." Duffy admits that the controversial federal legislation has
been a godsend in terms of galvanizing not only activists, but other union members who are far from radical but who have become sufficiently dissatisfied with the state of schools and with various attacks on their profession - notably a paltry 1 percent pay raise offered to teachers this year - to vote for a change in union leadership.
"The UTLA election was a huge, huge victory," says Alex Caputo-Pearl, an
organizer for CEJ, a key component of United Action. "It remains to be seen
what we'll do with it. But there was a perfect storm of problems that the old
leadership wasn't addressing that worked in our favor."
Reviving Education
Grassroots advocates for public schools are raising their voices - and
getting heard
by ERIN AUBRY KAPLAN
Public education, the favorite whipping boy of the right and of
family-values enthusiasts of all stripes, has had a particularly bad first quarter in
2005….
That's the bad news. The good news - specifically, the countervailing news -
is that there is also an increasingly organized network of teachers,
students, parents and other interested parties who are demanding meaningful reforms of public education and, simultaneously, a place at the decision-making table.
Pushed to a breaking point by endless standardized testing, stagnant school
conditions and the hovering Damocles' sword of the No Child Left Behind Act,
groups like the Coalition for Educational Justice (CEJ), InnerCity Struggle
and Communities for Educational Equity (CEE) are taking the issues to the
politicians - and getting some traction. With the support of school-board member Jose Huizar, InnerCity Struggle and CEE are pushing for the passage of a board resolution that would make the full complement of college-prep courses,
known as A-G, requirements for graduation. The CEJ, along with a statewide organization called Campaign for Quality Education, is working with two state legislators to pass bills that would either delay or reform the controversial high school exit exam in California; passage of the exam is currently required for a diploma. State Senator Gloria Romero's bill, SB 517, would put off the "diploma penalty" until local county offices of education can show that they've
provided adequate resources, including certified teachers and reasonable student-teache ratios, to all students; Assemblywoman Karen Bass' AB 1531 would require school districts to develop more complex methods of student assessment, beyond the exit exam, so that the exam isn't the sole determinant of whether a student receives a diploma or not.
Luis Sanchez, an organizer with East L.A.-based InnerCity Struggle, says
That even though public-education advocates are increasingly fending off attacks,
they must also advance new ideas - now. New campuses are finally getting
built, and he says it's crucial that the curriculum and direction of the
schools be new, too. "We're gaining momentum exactly because of the growth of the 'choice' movement - vouchers, charter schools, privatization," says Sanchez, whose organization counts among its victories approval to build East L.A.'s first
new high school in 80 years. "This is an opportunity to start a movement, a big one. It's so easy to fight against stuff, but you can't just be against something. We need to make our own demands."
This kind of reformer energy is not new; activist groups like the CEJ and
InnerCity Struggle have been in the trenches on a number of issues for a
while.
What is new is that their brand of progressivism is moving incrementally
From the fringe to the center. The most compelling proof of that is the recent
election of officers in United Teachers Los Angeles, the 46,000-member
teacher union known much less for courage than for status quo complacency. Thanks to a progressive caucus within the union called United Action that has been gaining membership and influence the last couple of years, UTLA tossed out four incumbent officers and voted in new ones, a move unprecedented in its
history. Along with the usual pledges to protect and expand teacher wages and benefits, president-elect A.J. Duffy has been vowing to fight for the neediest schools - specifically by fighting No Child Left Behind (NCLB), which
counterintuitively withholds aid from schools it identifies as failing. "It's a horrendous law that's hurting kids," says Duffy, a special-education teacher. "We have inner-city schools with horrendous dropout rates, single families and other problems, which are reflected in test scores, and the feds punish us for that. We're going to fight to do away with NCLB, and we'll fight it with research and information." Duffy admits that the controversial federal legislation has
been a godsend in terms of galvanizing not only activists, but other union members who are far from radical but who have become sufficiently dissatisfied with the state of schools and with various attacks on their profession - notably a paltry 1 percent pay raise offered to teachers this year - to vote for a change in union leadership.
"The UTLA election was a huge, huge victory," says Alex Caputo-Pearl, an
organizer for CEJ, a key component of United Action. "It remains to be seen
what we'll do with it. But there was a perfect storm of problems that the old
leadership wasn't addressing that worked in our favor."
Monday, May 30, 2005
California Connected and the Governor's Viewpoint
It is good that California Connected is covering issues related to public schools, but your story for May 27, which I watched on May 30, 2005, on KVIE in Sacramento. uses an inappropriate and biased frame for the story. Your intro to the teachers said that there was a conflict between the Governor and the Teachers Union, and that teachers were caught in the middle. Your frame repeats the viewpoint of the governor’s press people which is far from objective. Notice that the teachers did not respond to your frame and instead commented on some of the current problems of schools.
Last week you gave the Governor the opportunity to tell his view. Now, you have selected three teachers to give their view. It would be appropriate to provide the union with the opportunity to respond. After all, they were able to turn out 20,000 teachers this week in Sacramento and some 10,000 in Los Angeles. They may well represent a significant viewpoint in this conflict.
In your framing of the story you have revealed an anti union bias. If you are unwilling to provide a fair and balanced approach, then I recommend that you at least contact Scott Plotkin of the California School Boards Association for a position independent of the Governor’s office. He is a well informed observor of these conflicts and he is not an advocate of the union position.
I posted an excerpt of the script from your prior show on my web log
www.choosingdemocracy.blogspot. com I will also be posting this response there. Feel free to respond to my criticism. This is a web log focusing on public education. I recommend that your producers do further reading in the field. The title of the log Choosing Democracy is the title of a book on education which I have written. ( 3rd. edition, 2004)
There is much to be said about public schooling. I encourage your program to provide a more balanced and more comprehensive coverage.
Dr. Duane E. Campbell
Sacramento
url. http://www.californiaconnected.org/wp/?m=20050527
Last week you gave the Governor the opportunity to tell his view. Now, you have selected three teachers to give their view. It would be appropriate to provide the union with the opportunity to respond. After all, they were able to turn out 20,000 teachers this week in Sacramento and some 10,000 in Los Angeles. They may well represent a significant viewpoint in this conflict.
In your framing of the story you have revealed an anti union bias. If you are unwilling to provide a fair and balanced approach, then I recommend that you at least contact Scott Plotkin of the California School Boards Association for a position independent of the Governor’s office. He is a well informed observor of these conflicts and he is not an advocate of the union position.
I posted an excerpt of the script from your prior show on my web log
www.choosingdemocracy.blogspot. com I will also be posting this response there. Feel free to respond to my criticism. This is a web log focusing on public education. I recommend that your producers do further reading in the field. The title of the log Choosing Democracy is the title of a book on education which I have written. ( 3rd. edition, 2004)
There is much to be said about public schooling. I encourage your program to provide a more balanced and more comprehensive coverage.
Dr. Duane E. Campbell
Sacramento
url. http://www.californiaconnected.org/wp/?m=20050527
Sunday, May 29, 2005
The Governor's failures to improve schools: 2005
California has at least 1360 schools that are performing poorly. (Ed Source)
By next year there will be more. In the next two to three years over 1000 additional schools will be classified as “failing” under the accountability provisions of No child Left Behind. Classification as failing will produce a series of increasingly harsh sanctions.
The No child Left Behind system is based upon theories of incentives and accountability. The theory is that these schools fail because they lack the incentive to succeed. (the same theory as the Governor used in his proposal for ‘merit’ pay). Theories of incentives and accountability play well with the Business Roundtable and editorial writers- but they have failed in the schools. Things are getting worse, not better.
One reason is that incentive theories assume that the problem of poor achievement is a lack of incentives for teachers. It is not. Teachers have the incentive to improve schools- they lack the resources and knowledge of how to improve the schools.
Schools in California have failed to improve basically because the state has not provided sufficient resources and has not focused these resources on turning schools around. California currently ranks 44th in per pupil funding and 49th in class size. This is a failure of resources, not a failure of incentives.
The nation has a number of policy experts who offer advice on improving schools. They are paid well and have good offices, secretarial support, and adequate resources- the schools do not. The policy positions come from people who seldom work in classrooms. Few of the proposals- none of the proposals of the governor- cme from people who are informed about classroom reality.
How do you improve teacher performance and student performance? First step, schools need to begin with capacity building. Teachers need to time to plan, time to learn new systems, and time to work with their students. None of these are addressed by the Governor’s proposals.
The current accountability system is not capable of driving school improvement. It is based on the theory of incentives- and it provides few additional resources and little capacity building. The accountability system (API) and the tests will not improve student achievement.
Improving student achievement would require substantially more resources and skilled leadership. The governor’s budget does not provide the resources for change.
And, as for leadership, the governor has appointed Alan Bersin as Secretary of Education. Now, Alan Bersin is just now leaving the position as Superintendent of San Diego- where he failed to improve achievement. The chief policy advisor to the governor does not know how to imrpove school achievement- it is obvious. He failed to do so.
See: http://www.aft.org/pubs-reports/american_educator/issues/spring05/elmore.htm
By next year there will be more. In the next two to three years over 1000 additional schools will be classified as “failing” under the accountability provisions of No child Left Behind. Classification as failing will produce a series of increasingly harsh sanctions.
The No child Left Behind system is based upon theories of incentives and accountability. The theory is that these schools fail because they lack the incentive to succeed. (the same theory as the Governor used in his proposal for ‘merit’ pay). Theories of incentives and accountability play well with the Business Roundtable and editorial writers- but they have failed in the schools. Things are getting worse, not better.
One reason is that incentive theories assume that the problem of poor achievement is a lack of incentives for teachers. It is not. Teachers have the incentive to improve schools- they lack the resources and knowledge of how to improve the schools.
Schools in California have failed to improve basically because the state has not provided sufficient resources and has not focused these resources on turning schools around. California currently ranks 44th in per pupil funding and 49th in class size. This is a failure of resources, not a failure of incentives.
The nation has a number of policy experts who offer advice on improving schools. They are paid well and have good offices, secretarial support, and adequate resources- the schools do not. The policy positions come from people who seldom work in classrooms. Few of the proposals- none of the proposals of the governor- cme from people who are informed about classroom reality.
How do you improve teacher performance and student performance? First step, schools need to begin with capacity building. Teachers need to time to plan, time to learn new systems, and time to work with their students. None of these are addressed by the Governor’s proposals.
The current accountability system is not capable of driving school improvement. It is based on the theory of incentives- and it provides few additional resources and little capacity building. The accountability system (API) and the tests will not improve student achievement.
Improving student achievement would require substantially more resources and skilled leadership. The governor’s budget does not provide the resources for change.
And, as for leadership, the governor has appointed Alan Bersin as Secretary of Education. Now, Alan Bersin is just now leaving the position as Superintendent of San Diego- where he failed to improve achievement. The chief policy advisor to the governor does not know how to imrpove school achievement- it is obvious. He failed to do so.
See: http://www.aft.org/pubs-reports/american_educator/issues/spring05/elmore.htm
Thursday, May 26, 2005
Schwarzenegger's decline
Californians Aren't Wild About Schwarzenegger or His 'Reforms'
George Skelton
Capitol Journal
May 26, 2005
It's not working. Not any of it. Not the rallies. Not the talk radio. Not the photo ops. Not the TV ads.
Especially not the record fundraising.
Here's a governor trying to sell himself as a "reformer" and raising political pot loads from special interests, much of it out of state. It gives new meaning to the term "political outsider."
"People don't want him in Florida raising money. They want him here fixing problems," says Republican political analyst Tony Quinn. "It's something these politicians don't seem to understand. As he raises special interest money, his mystique with the voters drops. Gray Davis is the best example of that."
Ask pollster Mark Baldassare to describe the current attitude of Californians toward Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, and he replies without hesitation: "Disappointment."
People are disappointed in all of Sacramento, the pollster adds. They had been hopeful after the Davis recall. Now they're back being grouchy.
Baldassare, who polls for the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California, released a new survey Wednesday. About the only good news for Schwarzenegger is that he hasn't fallen farther into the tank than he was a month ago. But he hasn't started to climb out either.
Some key findings:
• Only 40% of adults approve of how Schwarzenegger is handling his job, compared with 60% in January and 64% a year ago.
• The Legislature shouldn't gloat. Its approval rating is even lower, at 26%, the lowest since the 2003 recall campaign. A year ago, it was 40%.
So there's a cause-and-effect here that's easy to see: Schwarzenegger constantly ridicules the Legislature. Democrats continually attack him. Both sides are effective, in a murder-suicide sort of way. Schwarzenegger also picked a fight with teachers, nurses, firefighters and cop unions and got badly beaten up.
• The public mood is sour; 57% think California is headed in "the wrong direction," up 13 points from a year ago.
• Schwarzenegger's idea of a special election, costing $70-million-plus in tax money, is very unpopular. Only 33% support it, down 12 points since January. Another 61% want to wait until the next regular election in June 2006 to vote on the governor's "reforms."
But Schwarzenegger sees himself leading a people's rebellion to force government reform. He warned legislators in his State of the State speech that if they together didn't reform government, "the people will rise up and reform it themselves. And I will fight with them."
A new Schwarzenegger biography traces the governor's early fascination with charismatic leaders who move people. It may help explain why he has focused on trying to rally the masses rather than negotiate with a coequal branch of government, to his detriment.
The book, "Fantastic: The Life of Arnold Schwarzenegger," is written by veteran biographer Laurence Leamer, who also wrote a Kennedy family trilogy.
"Arnold admired such leaders as Charlemagne and Napoleon, who could take the inert, passive masses and forge them into a force to make history," Leamer writes. "As an Austrian, he had learned how Hitler had mesmerized the Austrian and German peoples."
Leamer quotes Schwarzenegger from 1975 interviews for a bodybuilding movie, "Pumping Iron." " 'I admired Hitler, for instance, because he came from being a little man with almost no formal education, up to power. And I admire him for being such a good public speaker and his way of getting to the people and so on. But I didn't admire him for what he did with it.' "
The author writes: "Arnold had parsed Hitler down the middle, celebrating the messianic skills and energy that brought him to power and detesting his abuse of that power…. Arnold believed that what America needed was a great leader with all the messianic skills of Hitler, but for good, not evil."
But whatever messianic skills Schwarzenegger possesses have been failing him. And so has the TV ad campaign aimed at selling Schwarzenegger and his spending "reform." In fact, people are ambivalent about his whole reform agenda, the Baldassare poll finds.
Examples:
• People give him much lower marks today than in January for "reforming" government — 40% approval now, 58% then.
• There isn't much enthusiasm for the governor's spending cap proposal. Only 43% support it. People like the idea of a cap (60%). But, by 2 to 1, they oppose a feature that would allow a governor to cut spending without legislative approval. That is being attacked as a "power grab."
• Redistricting reform leaves people cold. Only 41% support Schwarzenegger's proposal to strip the Legislature of its power to redistrict legislative and congressional seats. In fact, 52% say the system needs only "minor changes" or is "fine the way it is."
This is a different Schwarzenegger than a year ago — less conciliatory and compromising, more caustic and combative.
"He's rallying people in a different way," Baldassare notes. "He's still rallying his own core supporters. But he's also rallying the Democrats against him. He's a rallying figure — but not in a way he intended."
What would work for him?
• Forget the special election, saving money for grateful taxpayers.
• Do a mea culpa and return the $3.1 billion he promised schools in a budget deal last year.
• Negotiate a bipartisan spending cap, with less of a power grab and a softer hit to schools.
• Place the cap and redistricting on next June's ballot.
• Cool the money-raising.
• Turn the charm back on.
The alternative: Keep sliding into the common pool of political mediocrity.
http://www.latimes.com/news/columnists/la-me-cap26may26,0,2927336.column?coll=la-home-headlines
GEORGE SKELTON CAPITOL JOURNAL
Reach the columnist at george.skelton@latimes.com.
George Skelton
Capitol Journal
May 26, 2005
It's not working. Not any of it. Not the rallies. Not the talk radio. Not the photo ops. Not the TV ads.
Especially not the record fundraising.
Here's a governor trying to sell himself as a "reformer" and raising political pot loads from special interests, much of it out of state. It gives new meaning to the term "political outsider."
"People don't want him in Florida raising money. They want him here fixing problems," says Republican political analyst Tony Quinn. "It's something these politicians don't seem to understand. As he raises special interest money, his mystique with the voters drops. Gray Davis is the best example of that."
Ask pollster Mark Baldassare to describe the current attitude of Californians toward Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, and he replies without hesitation: "Disappointment."
People are disappointed in all of Sacramento, the pollster adds. They had been hopeful after the Davis recall. Now they're back being grouchy.
Baldassare, who polls for the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California, released a new survey Wednesday. About the only good news for Schwarzenegger is that he hasn't fallen farther into the tank than he was a month ago. But he hasn't started to climb out either.
Some key findings:
• Only 40% of adults approve of how Schwarzenegger is handling his job, compared with 60% in January and 64% a year ago.
• The Legislature shouldn't gloat. Its approval rating is even lower, at 26%, the lowest since the 2003 recall campaign. A year ago, it was 40%.
So there's a cause-and-effect here that's easy to see: Schwarzenegger constantly ridicules the Legislature. Democrats continually attack him. Both sides are effective, in a murder-suicide sort of way. Schwarzenegger also picked a fight with teachers, nurses, firefighters and cop unions and got badly beaten up.
• The public mood is sour; 57% think California is headed in "the wrong direction," up 13 points from a year ago.
• Schwarzenegger's idea of a special election, costing $70-million-plus in tax money, is very unpopular. Only 33% support it, down 12 points since January. Another 61% want to wait until the next regular election in June 2006 to vote on the governor's "reforms."
But Schwarzenegger sees himself leading a people's rebellion to force government reform. He warned legislators in his State of the State speech that if they together didn't reform government, "the people will rise up and reform it themselves. And I will fight with them."
A new Schwarzenegger biography traces the governor's early fascination with charismatic leaders who move people. It may help explain why he has focused on trying to rally the masses rather than negotiate with a coequal branch of government, to his detriment.
The book, "Fantastic: The Life of Arnold Schwarzenegger," is written by veteran biographer Laurence Leamer, who also wrote a Kennedy family trilogy.
"Arnold admired such leaders as Charlemagne and Napoleon, who could take the inert, passive masses and forge them into a force to make history," Leamer writes. "As an Austrian, he had learned how Hitler had mesmerized the Austrian and German peoples."
Leamer quotes Schwarzenegger from 1975 interviews for a bodybuilding movie, "Pumping Iron." " 'I admired Hitler, for instance, because he came from being a little man with almost no formal education, up to power. And I admire him for being such a good public speaker and his way of getting to the people and so on. But I didn't admire him for what he did with it.' "
The author writes: "Arnold had parsed Hitler down the middle, celebrating the messianic skills and energy that brought him to power and detesting his abuse of that power…. Arnold believed that what America needed was a great leader with all the messianic skills of Hitler, but for good, not evil."
But whatever messianic skills Schwarzenegger possesses have been failing him. And so has the TV ad campaign aimed at selling Schwarzenegger and his spending "reform." In fact, people are ambivalent about his whole reform agenda, the Baldassare poll finds.
Examples:
• People give him much lower marks today than in January for "reforming" government — 40% approval now, 58% then.
• There isn't much enthusiasm for the governor's spending cap proposal. Only 43% support it. People like the idea of a cap (60%). But, by 2 to 1, they oppose a feature that would allow a governor to cut spending without legislative approval. That is being attacked as a "power grab."
• Redistricting reform leaves people cold. Only 41% support Schwarzenegger's proposal to strip the Legislature of its power to redistrict legislative and congressional seats. In fact, 52% say the system needs only "minor changes" or is "fine the way it is."
This is a different Schwarzenegger than a year ago — less conciliatory and compromising, more caustic and combative.
"He's rallying people in a different way," Baldassare notes. "He's still rallying his own core supporters. But he's also rallying the Democrats against him. He's a rallying figure — but not in a way he intended."
What would work for him?
• Forget the special election, saving money for grateful taxpayers.
• Do a mea culpa and return the $3.1 billion he promised schools in a budget deal last year.
• Negotiate a bipartisan spending cap, with less of a power grab and a softer hit to schools.
• Place the cap and redistricting on next June's ballot.
• Cool the money-raising.
• Turn the charm back on.
The alternative: Keep sliding into the common pool of political mediocrity.
http://www.latimes.com/news/columnists/la-me-cap26may26,0,2927336.column?coll=la-home-headlines
GEORGE SKELTON CAPITOL JOURNAL
Reach the columnist at george.skelton@latimes.com.
10,000 Protest, the Bee notices
Thousands protest governor's plans
A Capitol rally by teachers, nurses, other unions is among the largest in recent years.
By Alexa H. Bluth -- Bee Capitol Bureau
Published 2:15 am PDT Thursday, May 26, 2005
The Bee got it right this time.
Thousands of protesters from across Northern California blanketed the south lawn of the state Capitol on Wednesday in a mammoth gathering to accuse Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger of turning his back on middle-class workers with his budget and ballot initiatives.
The event drew busloads of teachers, nurses, firefighters, prison guards and other union members on a searing afternoon for a protest that ranked among the largest in recent years.
"It sends the message that there are a lot of people who are really concerned about what he is doing to the state," said Bill Jacks, a physical education teacher at Hemlock Elementary School in Vacaville.
Around him, protesters wearing union T-shirts and toting signs listened to union leaders speak and even sing out against the Republican governor. At times, the crowd chanted, "Hey, hey, ho, ho, Schwarzenegger's got to go."
Organizers furiously handed out bottles of water and granola bars to the crowds of people jammed together in the 90-degree weather. Paramedics helped at least three people who were overcome by the heat.
A crowd of at least 10,000 - organizers claimed more than 20,000 - collected in Sacramento. Thousands also held a similar protest in Los Angeles on Wednesday.
A Capitol rally by teachers, nurses, other unions is among the largest in recent years.
By Alexa H. Bluth -- Bee Capitol Bureau
Published 2:15 am PDT Thursday, May 26, 2005
The Bee got it right this time.
Thousands of protesters from across Northern California blanketed the south lawn of the state Capitol on Wednesday in a mammoth gathering to accuse Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger of turning his back on middle-class workers with his budget and ballot initiatives.
The event drew busloads of teachers, nurses, firefighters, prison guards and other union members on a searing afternoon for a protest that ranked among the largest in recent years.
"It sends the message that there are a lot of people who are really concerned about what he is doing to the state," said Bill Jacks, a physical education teacher at Hemlock Elementary School in Vacaville.
Around him, protesters wearing union T-shirts and toting signs listened to union leaders speak and even sing out against the Republican governor. At times, the crowd chanted, "Hey, hey, ho, ho, Schwarzenegger's got to go."
Organizers furiously handed out bottles of water and granola bars to the crowds of people jammed together in the 90-degree weather. Paramedics helped at least three people who were overcome by the heat.
A crowd of at least 10,000 - organizers claimed more than 20,000 - collected in Sacramento. Thousands also held a similar protest in Los Angeles on Wednesday.
Wednesday, May 25, 2005
Weintraub's attention to San Diego
the Bee's Dan Weintraub is their current major editorial writer on both politics and education.
On his web log of May 25, he says,
San Diego schools
Bad news and good news from San Diego. The bad news: A huge achievement gap remains between African-American and white kids in the public schools. The good news: black parents and community leaders are demanding that the gap be closed.
Posted by dweintraub at 07:30 AM
What he did not say. The just released superintendent of San Diego, was Alan Bersin, who Schwarzenegger appointed as Secretary of Education. Arnold claimed that Bersin had improved the schools.
On his web log of May 25, he says,
San Diego schools
Bad news and good news from San Diego. The bad news: A huge achievement gap remains between African-American and white kids in the public schools. The good news: black parents and community leaders are demanding that the gap be closed.
Posted by dweintraub at 07:30 AM
What he did not say. The just released superintendent of San Diego, was Alan Bersin, who Schwarzenegger appointed as Secretary of Education. Arnold claimed that Bersin had improved the schools.
Monday, May 23, 2005
Graduation speech for new teachers
Graduation. Multilingual/Multicultural Teacher Preparation Center. May, 21,2005.
California State University -Sacramento
Good afternoon.
Gracias, y muy buenas tardes.
Thank you for the invitation to speak to you today.
Congratulations to all on your graduation. I know that it has been a long, difficult journey.
We salute you. And, we congratulate you and your families.
This is a very important step forward.
Now, next year, as new teachers, it will be even more difficult.
Let me begin with a quote from a hero of mine; Cesar Chavez.
“When we are really honest with ourselves, We must admit that our lives are all that really belong to us. So, it is how we use our lives that determines what kind of people we are. It is my deepest conviction that only by giving our lives do we find life. I am convinced that the truest act of courage..is to sacrifice ourselves for others in a totally non violent struggle for justice. “
March, 1968.
Quiero compartir con ustedes una idea importante del lider sindicalista Cesar Chavez.
“Cuando somos realmente honestos con nosotros mismos debemos Admitire que nuestras vidas son todo lo que verdaderamente nos pertenecen. Por lo tanto, es como usamos nuestras vidas lo que determina que clase de hombres somos. Es mi creencia mas profunda que solamente con dar nuestra vida encontramos la vida. Estoy convencido de que el acto mas verdadero de valor .. es sacrificarnos por los demas en una lucha por la justicia totalmente no violenta.”
Now, Our center does not ask you to sacrifice yourself. But we do ask you to dedicate yourself to the struggle for justice for your kids.
And, that is what teaching is. It is a dedication to struggle so that your kids learn to read, to write, to prepare for life and the work world, and to prepare for democractic citizenship.
Since its beginning back in 1976, our centers have been dedicated to
the struggle for social justice, and to democracy.
That is what makes us different.
You may know that democracy is in danger today.
For example, look at the Governor’s refusal to adequately fund the schools.
The fiscal reality is that California ranks 44 in per-pupil spending, 46th in pupil teacher ratio, 32 in teacher salaries and 29th. in education spending as a percentage of personal income.
Last year the Governor took 2 Billion from the school budget to protect the tax breaks of the very rich.
Then, last week he gave back 200 Million.
As a result, California ranks about 37th. in readng and math, and we have a over 50% drop out rate for Latinos, Blacks, and Hmong.
To under fund the schools, to deprive the children, is a choice our legislature and our governor makes each year in the budget. And, they are making it again this month.
So, if you are not interested in politics, I guess then that you are not interested in your children having quality schools and teachers.
And then, after failing to provide the funds, the elected officials and the public expect you to work even harder to make up for their failure to adequately fund the schools.
As my friend Cornel West says so well in his book, Democracy Matters, the dangers in our democracy are directly connected to our empire. The war, and empire, will take the lives of some of the students which you teach.
In the last three years we have spent $300 Billion in Iraq. California’s schools are under funded by at least 3 Billion. You figure it out.
And, social justice.
It is not all kids who are failing. It is not all kids who are in a school with a scripted curriculum, bored, alienated. It is not 50% of all kids who will drop out and and end up in juvenile hall.
It is kids from poor families, working class families. Our goal has been to prepare you to change that. We want you to bring school success to all of these kids.
We must prepare our students to struggle for justice and to struggle for democracy.
It’s a tough world out there. They need to know how to read, write, and to respect. They need to know how to make democracy work for them. Teaching these things will require a great deal of change.
As you now know, teaching is hard work. You will have too many children, with too many problems, and too few resources to help them.
Some of you will have principals who are weak- or incompetent. And some will have superintendents and governors who are more interested in making a name for themselves than in improving the schools.
There will be future crises. There will be a budget crisis in California for at least the next decade. You will need to fight for the resources for your kids.
And, many of you will face personal crises in your lives and in your families.
When these things happen. We want you to take a deep breath, take a step back, and to stay focused on what is important. We want you to keep your eyes on the prize.
Justice for all.
AS the first step. The very first step. Is to join with thousands of other teachers this Wed. May 25th. for a march on the Capitol. Over 10,000 of us are going to visit the governor and talk with him about school funding. I hope to see you there. Bring your friends and families. Bring all of those who care about public schools.
And, just in case the governor decides to spend the day at his other home in Los Angeles, there will be another 20,000 teachers, nurses, fire fighters waiting for him there.
As you graduate, allow me to explain a very basic point.
You are our BMED strategy for change. You are our hope for the future.
Our hope is to prepare teachers like you. And to fill the schools with teachers who care, with teachers willing to fight for their kids, to fight for justice.
Good teachers make a difference in the lives of their kids.
So, you are our change strategy.
Important. First step when you get to your new school, Make an ally. You need allies. We all need allies. Change occurs when people work together. Almost nothing is accomplished alone.
Second, keep in touch with us. Come back to our conference.
You can follow the debates, participate in the debates and school battles on my blog. www.choosingdemocracy.blogspot.com
With this graduation, You are now a teacher
Once you get your feet firmly on the ground, we hope that you come back. In a couple of years come back and get a Masters degree with us in Bilingual/Multicultural Education.
As you know your classes this last year have often been rushed, Now is the time to learn by doing. Then, with some experience, come back for a Masters and together we can design a program to help you become a change agents.
Today is a day of celebration. You have earned it.
Gracias, y buena suerte.
Si se puede!
Dr. Duane E. Campbell
California State University -Sacramento
Good afternoon.
Gracias, y muy buenas tardes.
Thank you for the invitation to speak to you today.
Congratulations to all on your graduation. I know that it has been a long, difficult journey.
We salute you. And, we congratulate you and your families.
This is a very important step forward.
Now, next year, as new teachers, it will be even more difficult.
Let me begin with a quote from a hero of mine; Cesar Chavez.
“When we are really honest with ourselves, We must admit that our lives are all that really belong to us. So, it is how we use our lives that determines what kind of people we are. It is my deepest conviction that only by giving our lives do we find life. I am convinced that the truest act of courage..is to sacrifice ourselves for others in a totally non violent struggle for justice. “
March, 1968.
Quiero compartir con ustedes una idea importante del lider sindicalista Cesar Chavez.
“Cuando somos realmente honestos con nosotros mismos debemos Admitire que nuestras vidas son todo lo que verdaderamente nos pertenecen. Por lo tanto, es como usamos nuestras vidas lo que determina que clase de hombres somos. Es mi creencia mas profunda que solamente con dar nuestra vida encontramos la vida. Estoy convencido de que el acto mas verdadero de valor .. es sacrificarnos por los demas en una lucha por la justicia totalmente no violenta.”
Now, Our center does not ask you to sacrifice yourself. But we do ask you to dedicate yourself to the struggle for justice for your kids.
And, that is what teaching is. It is a dedication to struggle so that your kids learn to read, to write, to prepare for life and the work world, and to prepare for democractic citizenship.
Since its beginning back in 1976, our centers have been dedicated to
the struggle for social justice, and to democracy.
That is what makes us different.
You may know that democracy is in danger today.
For example, look at the Governor’s refusal to adequately fund the schools.
The fiscal reality is that California ranks 44 in per-pupil spending, 46th in pupil teacher ratio, 32 in teacher salaries and 29th. in education spending as a percentage of personal income.
Last year the Governor took 2 Billion from the school budget to protect the tax breaks of the very rich.
Then, last week he gave back 200 Million.
As a result, California ranks about 37th. in readng and math, and we have a over 50% drop out rate for Latinos, Blacks, and Hmong.
To under fund the schools, to deprive the children, is a choice our legislature and our governor makes each year in the budget. And, they are making it again this month.
So, if you are not interested in politics, I guess then that you are not interested in your children having quality schools and teachers.
And then, after failing to provide the funds, the elected officials and the public expect you to work even harder to make up for their failure to adequately fund the schools.
As my friend Cornel West says so well in his book, Democracy Matters, the dangers in our democracy are directly connected to our empire. The war, and empire, will take the lives of some of the students which you teach.
In the last three years we have spent $300 Billion in Iraq. California’s schools are under funded by at least 3 Billion. You figure it out.
And, social justice.
It is not all kids who are failing. It is not all kids who are in a school with a scripted curriculum, bored, alienated. It is not 50% of all kids who will drop out and and end up in juvenile hall.
It is kids from poor families, working class families. Our goal has been to prepare you to change that. We want you to bring school success to all of these kids.
We must prepare our students to struggle for justice and to struggle for democracy.
It’s a tough world out there. They need to know how to read, write, and to respect. They need to know how to make democracy work for them. Teaching these things will require a great deal of change.
As you now know, teaching is hard work. You will have too many children, with too many problems, and too few resources to help them.
Some of you will have principals who are weak- or incompetent. And some will have superintendents and governors who are more interested in making a name for themselves than in improving the schools.
There will be future crises. There will be a budget crisis in California for at least the next decade. You will need to fight for the resources for your kids.
And, many of you will face personal crises in your lives and in your families.
When these things happen. We want you to take a deep breath, take a step back, and to stay focused on what is important. We want you to keep your eyes on the prize.
Justice for all.
AS the first step. The very first step. Is to join with thousands of other teachers this Wed. May 25th. for a march on the Capitol. Over 10,000 of us are going to visit the governor and talk with him about school funding. I hope to see you there. Bring your friends and families. Bring all of those who care about public schools.
And, just in case the governor decides to spend the day at his other home in Los Angeles, there will be another 20,000 teachers, nurses, fire fighters waiting for him there.
As you graduate, allow me to explain a very basic point.
You are our BMED strategy for change. You are our hope for the future.
Our hope is to prepare teachers like you. And to fill the schools with teachers who care, with teachers willing to fight for their kids, to fight for justice.
Good teachers make a difference in the lives of their kids.
So, you are our change strategy.
Important. First step when you get to your new school, Make an ally. You need allies. We all need allies. Change occurs when people work together. Almost nothing is accomplished alone.
Second, keep in touch with us. Come back to our conference.
You can follow the debates, participate in the debates and school battles on my blog. www.choosingdemocracy.blogspot.com
With this graduation, You are now a teacher
Once you get your feet firmly on the ground, we hope that you come back. In a couple of years come back and get a Masters degree with us in Bilingual/Multicultural Education.
As you know your classes this last year have often been rushed, Now is the time to learn by doing. Then, with some experience, come back for a Masters and together we can design a program to help you become a change agents.
Today is a day of celebration. You have earned it.
Gracias, y buena suerte.
Si se puede!
Dr. Duane E. Campbell
Governor fails the schools: again
Education Coalition Statement on Gov. Schwarzenegger's May Revised State Budget 2005-06
May 13, 2005
The governor's May Revision appears to acknowledge some of the funding problems facing our most challenged schools, but the Education Coalition is deeply disappointed that overall this budget revision cements the governor's broken promises to California's students and public schools and fails to provide any long term solutions.
Last year, students and public schools sacrificed $2 billion in ongoing cuts because the governor promised that our schools would receive their fair share of any additional state revenues and would be spared cuts in future years. The governor also promised during his campaign that he would protect Proposition 98, the voter approved measure that guarantees a minimum level of education funding.
With his May Revision and his flawed "Live Within Our Means" initiative, Gov. Schwarzenegger is breaking his word on both fronts and ignoring the will of the people.
In the short-term his budget proposal does little to help public schools and students and it fails to address the ongoing fiscal shortfalls in school districts throughout the state, guaranteeing more school closures, increases in class sizes, lay offs of teachers and support staff, and a devastating shortage of librarians, counselors and nurses. California's students deserve better.
In the long-term, his proposed budget initiative would exacerbate an already inadequate funding problem by eviscerating Prop. 98, eliminating the minimum funding protections for our schools at a time when they cannot afford to cut anymore.
The governor's budget plans and initiative proposals are in direct contrast to the priorities established by California voters. They cannot mask the fact the he has failed to offer any real solutions or plan to deal with the real problems facing our public schools.
The future of our state depends on giving our students access to a quality education. Our students and schools deserve better than broken promises.
Sandra Carsten, President, Association of California School Administrators
Pearl Iizuka, President, California Association of School Business Officials
Larry Reider, President, California County Superintendents Educational Services Association
Mary Bergan, President, California Federation of Teachers
Dr. Kerry Clegg, President, California School Boards Association
Clyde Rivers, President, California School Employees Association
Carla Niño, President, California State PTA
Barbara E. Kerr, President, California Teachers Association
Annelle Grajeda, President, Service Employees International Union, California
May 13, 2005
The governor's May Revision appears to acknowledge some of the funding problems facing our most challenged schools, but the Education Coalition is deeply disappointed that overall this budget revision cements the governor's broken promises to California's students and public schools and fails to provide any long term solutions.
Last year, students and public schools sacrificed $2 billion in ongoing cuts because the governor promised that our schools would receive their fair share of any additional state revenues and would be spared cuts in future years. The governor also promised during his campaign that he would protect Proposition 98, the voter approved measure that guarantees a minimum level of education funding.
With his May Revision and his flawed "Live Within Our Means" initiative, Gov. Schwarzenegger is breaking his word on both fronts and ignoring the will of the people.
In the short-term his budget proposal does little to help public schools and students and it fails to address the ongoing fiscal shortfalls in school districts throughout the state, guaranteeing more school closures, increases in class sizes, lay offs of teachers and support staff, and a devastating shortage of librarians, counselors and nurses. California's students deserve better.
In the long-term, his proposed budget initiative would exacerbate an already inadequate funding problem by eviscerating Prop. 98, eliminating the minimum funding protections for our schools at a time when they cannot afford to cut anymore.
The governor's budget plans and initiative proposals are in direct contrast to the priorities established by California voters. They cannot mask the fact the he has failed to offer any real solutions or plan to deal with the real problems facing our public schools.
The future of our state depends on giving our students access to a quality education. Our students and schools deserve better than broken promises.
Sandra Carsten, President, Association of California School Administrators
Pearl Iizuka, President, California Association of School Business Officials
Larry Reider, President, California County Superintendents Educational Services Association
Mary Bergan, President, California Federation of Teachers
Dr. Kerry Clegg, President, California School Boards Association
Clyde Rivers, President, California School Employees Association
Carla Niño, President, California State PTA
Barbara E. Kerr, President, California Teachers Association
Annelle Grajeda, President, Service Employees International Union, California
Monday, May 16, 2005
The Governor on education
The Governor on Education
When California Connected sat down to talk to Gov. Schwarzenegger about his ongoing efforts to transform California’s government, it was clear that education was very much on his mind.
In last week’s program, the Governor said that budget reform was impossible without changing Proposition 98 and that, in spite of the billions spent on educating the state’s children, there is little accountability within the school system.
This week, Gov. Schwarzenegger argues on behalf of his proposals to revise teacher tenure and salary. He also continues his rhetorical battle with the teachers union, defending his plans against their accusations while getting in a few jabs of his own.
“The unions are actually holding us back,” he says, “from making progress in education.”
Hear the interview or read more here.
http://www.californiaconnected.org/wp/archives/224
Also, see the history of Alan Bersin
When California Connected sat down to talk to Gov. Schwarzenegger about his ongoing efforts to transform California’s government, it was clear that education was very much on his mind.
In last week’s program, the Governor said that budget reform was impossible without changing Proposition 98 and that, in spite of the billions spent on educating the state’s children, there is little accountability within the school system.
This week, Gov. Schwarzenegger argues on behalf of his proposals to revise teacher tenure and salary. He also continues his rhetorical battle with the teachers union, defending his plans against their accusations while getting in a few jabs of his own.
“The unions are actually holding us back,” he says, “from making progress in education.”
Hear the interview or read more here.
http://www.californiaconnected.org/wp/archives/224
Also, see the history of Alan Bersin
The Governor fails schools: Again
Education Coalition Statement on Gov. Schwarzenegger's May Revised State Budget 2005-06
May 13, 2005
The governor's May Revision appears to acknowledge some of the funding problems facing our most challenged schools, but the Education Coalition is deeply disappointed that overall this budget revision cements the governor's broken promises to California's students and public schools and fails to provide any long term solutions.
Last year, students and public schools sacrificed $2 billion in ongoing cuts because the governor promised that our schools would receive their fair share of any additional state revenues and would be spared cuts in future years. The governor also promised during his campaign that he would protect Proposition 98, the voter approved measure that guarantees a minimum level of education funding.
With his May Revision and his flawed "Live Within Our Means" initiative, Gov. Schwarzenegger is breaking his word on both fronts and ignoring the will of the people.
In the short-term his budget proposal does little to help public schools and students and it fails to address the ongoing fiscal shortfalls in school districts throughout the state, guaranteeing more school closures, increases in class sizes, lay offs of teachers and support staff, and a devastating shortage of librarians, counselors and nurses. California's students deserve better.
In the long-term, his proposed budget initiative would exacerbate an already inadequate funding problem by eviscerating Prop. 98, eliminating the minimum funding protections for our schools at a time when they cannot afford to cut anymore.
The governor's budget plans and initiative proposals are in direct contrast to the priorities established by California voters. They cannot mask the fact the he has failed to offer any real solutions or plan to deal with the real problems facing our public schools.
The future of our state depends on giving our students access to a quality education. Our students and schools deserve better than broken promises.
Sandra Carsten, President, Association of California School Administrators
Pearl Iizuka, President, California Association of School Business Officials
Larry Reider, President, California County Superintendents Educational Services Association
Mary Bergan, President, California Federation of Teachers
Dr. Kerry Clegg, President, California School Boards Association
Clyde Rivers, President, California School Employees Association
Carla Niño, President, California State PTA
Barbara E. Kerr, President, California Teachers Association
Annelle Grajeda, President, Service Employees International Union, California
May 13, 2005
The governor's May Revision appears to acknowledge some of the funding problems facing our most challenged schools, but the Education Coalition is deeply disappointed that overall this budget revision cements the governor's broken promises to California's students and public schools and fails to provide any long term solutions.
Last year, students and public schools sacrificed $2 billion in ongoing cuts because the governor promised that our schools would receive their fair share of any additional state revenues and would be spared cuts in future years. The governor also promised during his campaign that he would protect Proposition 98, the voter approved measure that guarantees a minimum level of education funding.
With his May Revision and his flawed "Live Within Our Means" initiative, Gov. Schwarzenegger is breaking his word on both fronts and ignoring the will of the people.
In the short-term his budget proposal does little to help public schools and students and it fails to address the ongoing fiscal shortfalls in school districts throughout the state, guaranteeing more school closures, increases in class sizes, lay offs of teachers and support staff, and a devastating shortage of librarians, counselors and nurses. California's students deserve better.
In the long-term, his proposed budget initiative would exacerbate an already inadequate funding problem by eviscerating Prop. 98, eliminating the minimum funding protections for our schools at a time when they cannot afford to cut anymore.
The governor's budget plans and initiative proposals are in direct contrast to the priorities established by California voters. They cannot mask the fact the he has failed to offer any real solutions or plan to deal with the real problems facing our public schools.
The future of our state depends on giving our students access to a quality education. Our students and schools deserve better than broken promises.
Sandra Carsten, President, Association of California School Administrators
Pearl Iizuka, President, California Association of School Business Officials
Larry Reider, President, California County Superintendents Educational Services Association
Mary Bergan, President, California Federation of Teachers
Dr. Kerry Clegg, President, California School Boards Association
Clyde Rivers, President, California School Employees Association
Carla Niño, President, California State PTA
Barbara E. Kerr, President, California Teachers Association
Annelle Grajeda, President, Service Employees International Union, California
Gates Foundation and school reform
Gates Foundation Puts $2.3B Into Education
By PEGGY ANDERSEN
SEATTLE (AP) - Bill Gates raised some hackles with his withering assessment of American high schools, but at least the billionaire founder of Microsoft is putting his money where his mouth is. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has invested $2.3 billion since 2000 in new visions of education, with smaller schools and more personalized instruction to prepare young people for the working world and post-high school learning.
The foundation has programs in 42 states and the District of Columbia; it supports more than 1,500 high schools - about half totally new and the others redesigned. Its three scholarship programs, designed to fill tuition gaps left by other grants and aid, have assisted more than 10,000 students.
At one of its schools, the Truman Center in Federal Way, about 20 miles south of Seattle, 12 teacher/advisers tend 208 students - helping them figure out what they care about and how to pursue it. Two days a week are set aside for job-shadowing and internships in the real world.
Shawn Dube was going nowhere in 2001 when he transferred to Truman, one of 16 schools in the state being transformed with a five-year grant and scholarships from the Gates Foundation's Achiever program.
``It was kind of a last-resort thing that I was there,'' recalls Dube, now 18.
An internship at an upscale local restaurant put Dube on his path. He found a mentor, eagerly honed his skills and is now a first-year student at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y. He plans a stint in France and dreams of a restaurant of his own.
Shawn's mom, Kim Dube, credits the Gates program with giving Shawn the confidence to chase his dream and scholarships to finance it.
``My husband and I didn't go to college,'' Kim says. ``It just got him past that fear.''
Since 2000, the education branch of the Gates Foundation has been working to upgrade the nation's high schools, which Gates characterized as ``obsolete'' in a February speech to the National Governors Association.
In that speech, he spelled out his ``new three R's'' for building better high schools:
Rigor: Making sure all students are given a challenging curriculum that prepares them for college or work.
Relevance: Making sure kids have courses and projects that relate to their lives and their goals.
Relationships: Making sure kids have adults who know them, look out for them, and push them to achieve.
``The idea is that every district should have a rigorous academic alternative for kids who do not succeed in the traditional high school setting,'' said Gates Foundation spokeswoman Marie Groark.
Such alternatives don't come cheap. And with states struggling to pay for basic education and keep up federal accountability requirements - what happens when the five-year grants expire?
``If you don't get a commitment from the school district to continue, it's just an exercise you go through,'' said Leon Horne, a middle-school teacher and former union leader in Tacoma.
The foundation's intent with the grants is to get the ball rolling by demonstrating alternatives that work, Groark said. ``Our goal for all our work is sustainability - that we can disappear.''
Followup and monitoring will be essential, said Shirley Malcom, head of education and human resources at the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Washington, D.C.
``The big question is the learning goals,'' Malcom said. ``What is it we want these children to know? ... Are they going to be job-ready, and are they going to be college-ready?''
New tests, mandated by federal law, are designed to help assess student progress.
The sustainability of the foundation's work will depend on whether it fosters innovation from inside or tries to impose it from outside, Malcom said. School districts will be more likely to support - and help spread - innovations developed within schools and communities.
That's a belief the foundation shares.
``When we give a grant, we give it because the community wants it and asks for it,'' Groark said. ``It's not the Gates Foundation telling the community to do something. It's the Gates Foundation supporting work that's already begun.''
There's no question that most high schools don't work, Malcom said. But the structure is very difficult to break down for various reasons, including the often massive size of the buildings themselves.
Creating small schools, usually schools within schools, has been a fundamental part of the foundation's approach.
The Truman Center, for example, has just six classrooms - crammed with projects, art, words of wisdom. ``Quiet rooms'' are set aside for those who need to concentrate. The only doors are on the bathrooms and to the outdoors.
``Our high schools were designed fifty years ago to meet the needs of another age,'' Gates told the governors in February.
``Until we design them to meet the needs of the 21st century, we will keep limiting - even ruining - the lives of millions of Americans every year,'' said Gates, himself a product of the rigorous standards and hands-on instruction at Seattle's private Lakeside School.
``Only one-third of our students graduate from high school ready for college, work, and citizenship,'' he said. ``The other two-thirds, most of them low-income and minority students, are tracked into courses that won't ever get them ready for college or prepare them for a family-wage job, no matter how well the students learn or the teachers teach.''
Despite his position atop one of the world's biggest technology companies, high-tech education reforms have been a small part of the foundation's work. Online schools are the subject of just two grants, totaling less than $3 million.
The foundation's education wing has a staff of about three dozen, eight or nine of whom monitor grant recipients.
At Truman, school officials write frequent reports to keep the foundation up to date, and foundation officials make yearly visits, said Principal Judy Kraft.
The foundation gets points from educators and observers for its hands-on approach.
``Their staffers are engaged in ways other funders are not engaged, in part because their staff comes from the education field. They're not heavy-handed at all,'' says Patricia Sullivan at the Center for Education Policy in Washington, D.C., which receives some funding from the Gates Foundation.
That's not to say all goes smoothly on foundation projects. In Tacoma, teacher Horne said, it took three years to work out union concerns and get teachers set up for foundation programs at three of the city's five high schools, a year longer than the usual training phase.
``I don't think they'd really thought the whole thing through,'' said Horne, who suggested the program's test run in Tacoma might have been more effectively conducted at a single school.
He also noted that the foundation's vision - of one teacher/adviser overseeing a small class throughout high school while teaching most subjects - seems to clash with the federal No Child Left Behind law, which calls for teachers with high expertise in specific subjects.
Still, across Washington state, where the foundation is based, it is generally acknowledged as a positive force, said Charles Hasse, president of the teachers union, the Washington Education Association.
Although teachers sometimes bristle at guidance from outsiders, he said, ``the people at the foundation are seen as partners at improving education and essentially allies of classroom teachers.''
On the Net:
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, www.gatesfoundation.org
By PEGGY ANDERSEN
SEATTLE (AP) - Bill Gates raised some hackles with his withering assessment of American high schools, but at least the billionaire founder of Microsoft is putting his money where his mouth is. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has invested $2.3 billion since 2000 in new visions of education, with smaller schools and more personalized instruction to prepare young people for the working world and post-high school learning.
The foundation has programs in 42 states and the District of Columbia; it supports more than 1,500 high schools - about half totally new and the others redesigned. Its three scholarship programs, designed to fill tuition gaps left by other grants and aid, have assisted more than 10,000 students.
At one of its schools, the Truman Center in Federal Way, about 20 miles south of Seattle, 12 teacher/advisers tend 208 students - helping them figure out what they care about and how to pursue it. Two days a week are set aside for job-shadowing and internships in the real world.
Shawn Dube was going nowhere in 2001 when he transferred to Truman, one of 16 schools in the state being transformed with a five-year grant and scholarships from the Gates Foundation's Achiever program.
``It was kind of a last-resort thing that I was there,'' recalls Dube, now 18.
An internship at an upscale local restaurant put Dube on his path. He found a mentor, eagerly honed his skills and is now a first-year student at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y. He plans a stint in France and dreams of a restaurant of his own.
Shawn's mom, Kim Dube, credits the Gates program with giving Shawn the confidence to chase his dream and scholarships to finance it.
``My husband and I didn't go to college,'' Kim says. ``It just got him past that fear.''
Since 2000, the education branch of the Gates Foundation has been working to upgrade the nation's high schools, which Gates characterized as ``obsolete'' in a February speech to the National Governors Association.
In that speech, he spelled out his ``new three R's'' for building better high schools:
Rigor: Making sure all students are given a challenging curriculum that prepares them for college or work.
Relevance: Making sure kids have courses and projects that relate to their lives and their goals.
Relationships: Making sure kids have adults who know them, look out for them, and push them to achieve.
``The idea is that every district should have a rigorous academic alternative for kids who do not succeed in the traditional high school setting,'' said Gates Foundation spokeswoman Marie Groark.
Such alternatives don't come cheap. And with states struggling to pay for basic education and keep up federal accountability requirements - what happens when the five-year grants expire?
``If you don't get a commitment from the school district to continue, it's just an exercise you go through,'' said Leon Horne, a middle-school teacher and former union leader in Tacoma.
The foundation's intent with the grants is to get the ball rolling by demonstrating alternatives that work, Groark said. ``Our goal for all our work is sustainability - that we can disappear.''
Followup and monitoring will be essential, said Shirley Malcom, head of education and human resources at the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Washington, D.C.
``The big question is the learning goals,'' Malcom said. ``What is it we want these children to know? ... Are they going to be job-ready, and are they going to be college-ready?''
New tests, mandated by federal law, are designed to help assess student progress.
The sustainability of the foundation's work will depend on whether it fosters innovation from inside or tries to impose it from outside, Malcom said. School districts will be more likely to support - and help spread - innovations developed within schools and communities.
That's a belief the foundation shares.
``When we give a grant, we give it because the community wants it and asks for it,'' Groark said. ``It's not the Gates Foundation telling the community to do something. It's the Gates Foundation supporting work that's already begun.''
There's no question that most high schools don't work, Malcom said. But the structure is very difficult to break down for various reasons, including the often massive size of the buildings themselves.
Creating small schools, usually schools within schools, has been a fundamental part of the foundation's approach.
The Truman Center, for example, has just six classrooms - crammed with projects, art, words of wisdom. ``Quiet rooms'' are set aside for those who need to concentrate. The only doors are on the bathrooms and to the outdoors.
``Our high schools were designed fifty years ago to meet the needs of another age,'' Gates told the governors in February.
``Until we design them to meet the needs of the 21st century, we will keep limiting - even ruining - the lives of millions of Americans every year,'' said Gates, himself a product of the rigorous standards and hands-on instruction at Seattle's private Lakeside School.
``Only one-third of our students graduate from high school ready for college, work, and citizenship,'' he said. ``The other two-thirds, most of them low-income and minority students, are tracked into courses that won't ever get them ready for college or prepare them for a family-wage job, no matter how well the students learn or the teachers teach.''
Despite his position atop one of the world's biggest technology companies, high-tech education reforms have been a small part of the foundation's work. Online schools are the subject of just two grants, totaling less than $3 million.
The foundation's education wing has a staff of about three dozen, eight or nine of whom monitor grant recipients.
At Truman, school officials write frequent reports to keep the foundation up to date, and foundation officials make yearly visits, said Principal Judy Kraft.
The foundation gets points from educators and observers for its hands-on approach.
``Their staffers are engaged in ways other funders are not engaged, in part because their staff comes from the education field. They're not heavy-handed at all,'' says Patricia Sullivan at the Center for Education Policy in Washington, D.C., which receives some funding from the Gates Foundation.
That's not to say all goes smoothly on foundation projects. In Tacoma, teacher Horne said, it took three years to work out union concerns and get teachers set up for foundation programs at three of the city's five high schools, a year longer than the usual training phase.
``I don't think they'd really thought the whole thing through,'' said Horne, who suggested the program's test run in Tacoma might have been more effectively conducted at a single school.
He also noted that the foundation's vision - of one teacher/adviser overseeing a small class throughout high school while teaching most subjects - seems to clash with the federal No Child Left Behind law, which calls for teachers with high expertise in specific subjects.
Still, across Washington state, where the foundation is based, it is generally acknowledged as a positive force, said Charles Hasse, president of the teachers union, the Washington Education Association.
Although teachers sometimes bristle at guidance from outsiders, he said, ``the people at the foundation are seen as partners at improving education and essentially allies of classroom teachers.''
On the Net:
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, www.gatesfoundation.org
Wednesday, May 11, 2005
Walters: If Schwarzenegger can't do it ?
In today’s Bee conservative columnist Dan Walters offers some speculation on “If Schwarzenegger can’t do it, A Democrat’s luck might be no better. May 11, 2005.
Regular readers of the Bee know Walters to be the more conservative of the two major columnists. Weintraub – conservative,corporate view; Walters- more conservative.
However, Walters is worth reading because he usually does an honest and open analysis of data and demographics.
Today’s essay posits 1) perhaps Arnold may not run for re-election,
2) if a Democrat were governor things would be equally incoherent.
The basis for the Walter’s assertion is analyzing the failed term of former Governor Gray Davis, not looking at prior Republican governors.
The argument is well made as far as it goes. But, it is important to consider what is not said.
Walters describes the failures of the Davis Administration and its defeat. He chronicles the ways that the Democratic majority in the Assembly and Senate forced a liberal agenda on the usually moderate Davis.
What he does not describe is how Davis was brought down by two Tsunamis.
First, the collapse of the dot come economy brought an economic crisis to the state. In the crisis liberals refused to cut social services and conservatives refused to raise taxes. Thus, the state fiscal crisis.
Second, Walters forgets about the energy crisis, when a few corporations led by Enron looted the state treasury and caused energy blackouts.
Beyond these two major issues, Walters presents an intriguing way to analyze the success or failure of administrations. I, for one, have never been able to understand why the Schwarzenegger Administration was willing to settle the Williams case (school funding) while the Davis Administration fought it using state resources.
Regular readers of the Bee know Walters to be the more conservative of the two major columnists. Weintraub – conservative,corporate view; Walters- more conservative.
However, Walters is worth reading because he usually does an honest and open analysis of data and demographics.
Today’s essay posits 1) perhaps Arnold may not run for re-election,
2) if a Democrat were governor things would be equally incoherent.
The basis for the Walter’s assertion is analyzing the failed term of former Governor Gray Davis, not looking at prior Republican governors.
The argument is well made as far as it goes. But, it is important to consider what is not said.
Walters describes the failures of the Davis Administration and its defeat. He chronicles the ways that the Democratic majority in the Assembly and Senate forced a liberal agenda on the usually moderate Davis.
What he does not describe is how Davis was brought down by two Tsunamis.
First, the collapse of the dot come economy brought an economic crisis to the state. In the crisis liberals refused to cut social services and conservatives refused to raise taxes. Thus, the state fiscal crisis.
Second, Walters forgets about the energy crisis, when a few corporations led by Enron looted the state treasury and caused energy blackouts.
Beyond these two major issues, Walters presents an intriguing way to analyze the success or failure of administrations. I, for one, have never been able to understand why the Schwarzenegger Administration was willing to settle the Williams case (school funding) while the Davis Administration fought it using state resources.
Tuesday, May 10, 2005
High School Reform: LAO
High school reform idea focuses on preparation
State legislative analyst says college, work should be focus.
By Michael Kolber -- Bee Staff Writer
Published 2:15 am PDT Tuesday, May 10, 2005
Evidence continues to mount that California's high schools are not preparing graduates well for college or work, but few comprehensive solutions have materialized.
Monday the Legislative Analyst's Office unveiled a potential framework for improving high schools that taps into state and federal school programs already under way.
Elizabeth Hill, the Legislature's nonpartisan analyst, said she commissioned the report because she was frustrated that significant gains had not been made in high school student achievement or reducing dropout rates.
Paul Warren, the researcher who conducted the study, said he concluded that high schools would improve if they focused existing reform efforts on better preparing students for college and work. "We think high schools need to be more accountable for the transition of students to adult life," Warren said.
The report is available at www.lao.ca.gov
The California State University system has a program that gives high school students an early indication of whether they are performing well enough and taking classes to prepare for college. The report recommends a similar approach in community colleges, with high schools coaching students earlier about career and community college paths.
"There's a very high dropout rate in community colleges. Kids aren't exactly sure why they're there," Warren said.
The California community college chancellor's office did not respond to a request for comment.
The ideas mirror those proposed two years ago by Michael Kirst, a Stanford education professor who is a co-director of Policy Analysis for California Education. Kirst and the legislative analyst argued that community colleges should use the existing California high school standards tests to place students in college. This would better integrate high school and postsecondary programs and bolster the significance of the standardized tests, which currently have little consequence for individual students.
"High school students don't think the California Standards Test matters for anything. If they really understood it was a predictor of higher education success they might try harder on it," Kirst said Monday.
There is broad consensus that high schools need to improve. President Bush is seeking to include high schools in the strict sanctions of the No Child Left Behind education law, which currently applies only to elementary and middle schools.
California already applies those sanctions to high schools, and state Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell has made high school reform a priority.
Warren acknowledged that the legislative analyst's proposal likely would not receive serious consideration in the Legislature until next term. He said much could be accomplished through reallocation of existing programs, although the schools might need an additional $150 million for better counseling programs.
####
Commentary :
A positive contribution of this report is that it recognizes that most high school students will not graduate from a 4 year college, I believe the number is 16%, it is in the report. Thus, if most will not graduate from college, a high school experience should prepare the students for entrance into the skilled job market. This recognition is an improvement over the mantra of the Superintendent of Public Instruction.
It is not surprising that the Legislative Analyst's Office proposes more accountability. And, in the view of the Bee writer, has the same recommendations as Michael Kirst of PACE.
I wonder why they focus on accountability? Perhaps it is because they are accountants.
They have asked few teachers. They don't have a clue on how to fix the problem because they have not talked to the teachers.
So, they turn to prior reports, also by policy people, and they conclude there is a need for more accounting.
If they were dentists I think they would conclude that students need more dentists.
Having spent 30 + years in the schools, here are some basics.
1. Develop decent school to work transition programs. This report by the Master Plan working group was ignored.
2. Have sufficient counselors in schools. California ranks 49 out of 50 states in Counselors per student. So, students do not know why they are in school.
3. Develop smaller, village high schools.
Each of the above is verifiable by data. The state should start collecting real data about real programs. That will, of course, require the researchers to leave their offices and interact with teachers.
The Murakami letter on this blog of two days ago offers some additional practical responses.
" The fiscal reality is that California ranks 44 in per-pupil spending, 46th in pupil teacher ratio, 32 in teacher salaries and 29th. in education spending as a percentage of personal income."
That is, adequately fund the schools. We have failing high schools in large part because we fail to adequately fund the high schools and to consult with the teachers in those schools on school improvement.
The legislature and the governor will repeat this process of inadequately funding the schools in June and July.
Where is the accountability for elected representatives?
Duane Campbell
campd227@pacbell.net
State legislative analyst says college, work should be focus.
By Michael Kolber -- Bee Staff Writer
Published 2:15 am PDT Tuesday, May 10, 2005
Evidence continues to mount that California's high schools are not preparing graduates well for college or work, but few comprehensive solutions have materialized.
Monday the Legislative Analyst's Office unveiled a potential framework for improving high schools that taps into state and federal school programs already under way.
Elizabeth Hill, the Legislature's nonpartisan analyst, said she commissioned the report because she was frustrated that significant gains had not been made in high school student achievement or reducing dropout rates.
Paul Warren, the researcher who conducted the study, said he concluded that high schools would improve if they focused existing reform efforts on better preparing students for college and work. "We think high schools need to be more accountable for the transition of students to adult life," Warren said.
The report is available at www.lao.ca.gov
The California State University system has a program that gives high school students an early indication of whether they are performing well enough and taking classes to prepare for college. The report recommends a similar approach in community colleges, with high schools coaching students earlier about career and community college paths.
"There's a very high dropout rate in community colleges. Kids aren't exactly sure why they're there," Warren said.
The California community college chancellor's office did not respond to a request for comment.
The ideas mirror those proposed two years ago by Michael Kirst, a Stanford education professor who is a co-director of Policy Analysis for California Education. Kirst and the legislative analyst argued that community colleges should use the existing California high school standards tests to place students in college. This would better integrate high school and postsecondary programs and bolster the significance of the standardized tests, which currently have little consequence for individual students.
"High school students don't think the California Standards Test matters for anything. If they really understood it was a predictor of higher education success they might try harder on it," Kirst said Monday.
There is broad consensus that high schools need to improve. President Bush is seeking to include high schools in the strict sanctions of the No Child Left Behind education law, which currently applies only to elementary and middle schools.
California already applies those sanctions to high schools, and state Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell has made high school reform a priority.
Warren acknowledged that the legislative analyst's proposal likely would not receive serious consideration in the Legislature until next term. He said much could be accomplished through reallocation of existing programs, although the schools might need an additional $150 million for better counseling programs.
####
Commentary :
A positive contribution of this report is that it recognizes that most high school students will not graduate from a 4 year college, I believe the number is 16%, it is in the report. Thus, if most will not graduate from college, a high school experience should prepare the students for entrance into the skilled job market. This recognition is an improvement over the mantra of the Superintendent of Public Instruction.
It is not surprising that the Legislative Analyst's Office proposes more accountability. And, in the view of the Bee writer, has the same recommendations as Michael Kirst of PACE.
I wonder why they focus on accountability? Perhaps it is because they are accountants.
They have asked few teachers. They don't have a clue on how to fix the problem because they have not talked to the teachers.
So, they turn to prior reports, also by policy people, and they conclude there is a need for more accounting.
If they were dentists I think they would conclude that students need more dentists.
Having spent 30 + years in the schools, here are some basics.
1. Develop decent school to work transition programs. This report by the Master Plan working group was ignored.
2. Have sufficient counselors in schools. California ranks 49 out of 50 states in Counselors per student. So, students do not know why they are in school.
3. Develop smaller, village high schools.
Each of the above is verifiable by data. The state should start collecting real data about real programs. That will, of course, require the researchers to leave their offices and interact with teachers.
The Murakami letter on this blog of two days ago offers some additional practical responses.
" The fiscal reality is that California ranks 44 in per-pupil spending, 46th in pupil teacher ratio, 32 in teacher salaries and 29th. in education spending as a percentage of personal income."
That is, adequately fund the schools. We have failing high schools in large part because we fail to adequately fund the high schools and to consult with the teachers in those schools on school improvement.
The legislature and the governor will repeat this process of inadequately funding the schools in June and July.
Where is the accountability for elected representatives?
Duane Campbell
campd227@pacbell.net
Monday, May 09, 2005
Corporate control of schools vrs. Democracy
While we fight Arnold,
some corporate leaders think that democracy is the problem.
So.Cal's 4-billion-dollar big business education 'reformer' Eli Broad and his Broad Foundation is moving hard right now on wiping out democratically elected school boards in LA/SF/Oakland and Fresno.
Broad and his big business allies apparently want mayor's of the big cities to choose school boards [following the big business reform models in Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, and Detroit,Philly, etc. ]
Broad has worked with former LA Mayor Richard Riordan [currently Schwartenegger's head of the Education] to raise $2 million per election for their board of education slates and to eliminate independent, pro-labor and
grassroots candidates on LA's board of education.
Broad Foundation est. 1999
This is the $400 million philanthropic vehicle for Los Angeles housing development and
investments billionaire, Eli Broad (& wife Edythe), to take on K-12 education issues and develop a future standardized workforce of “knowledge workers.” The Foundation supports reforming urban public schools through entrepreneurial CEO-trained leadership, mayoral takeovers. Like many reactionary think tanks (Pioneer Institute, American Diploma Project, et al.), Broad Fdtn sees the main value of education in its output of skilled workers, hence the focus on standardized testing.
The Fdtn’s three flagship initiatives are The Broad Prize for Urban Education, The Broad Center for Superintendents (nonprofit executive development center established by the Fdtn and former Michigan Governor, John Engler), and The Broad Institute for School boards.(1) Noelia Rodriguez, previously Laura Bush’s press secretary, has become Chief of Staff to Broad and will serve as Director of External Affairs for the Broad Foundation.(2)
Broad is the son of Lithuanian immigrants. co-founder of two S&P 500 corporations—the enormously successful KB Homes and AIG SunAmerica Inc. Broad has bankrolled the Eli Broad College of Business & Eli Broad Graduate School of Management at Michigan State University, the Walt Disney Concert Hall for the LA Philharmonic (recruited by Mayor Dick Riordan and completed 10/03), Broad Art Foundation (international art “lending library”) and Broad
Contemporary Art Museum at LACMA (in works).(3) Broad was appointed to Schwarzenegger’s gubernatorial transition team.(4) Broad is currently fundraising for Democratic Presidential candidate Wes Clark (previously Broad chose Clark to run LA Unified).
BROAD & the OAKLAND UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT 2001
• Broad Institute for School boards pays for OUSD school board field trip to the Museum of Tolerance to learn tolerance for each other.(6)
2003
• Dr. Randolph Ward was selected for Urban Superintendents Academy by the Broad Center for Superintendents,
• Eli Broad advises SPI Jack O’Connell and Mayor Jerry Brown on appointing an
administrator for OUSD.(5)
• SPI Jack O’Connell appoints Ward as the OUSD administrator
• Ward appoints Arnold “Woody” Carter as his Chief of Staff. Carter is one of Ward’s
Broad Academy cohort.(6)
• Monique Epps is hired for OUSD finance office; Broad Foundation covers 75% of her salary.(5)
Eli Broad on OUSD takeover:
“We’ll be observing from a distance, but we won’t be running the district in any way shape or form.” (5)
(1) www.broadfoundation.org; (2) “Career Track: the First Noelia” The Hotline, 10/7/03; (3) Eli Broad
http://www.bus.msu.edu/information/about/elibroad.html; (4) “California transition: Schwarzenneger’s team” SF
Chronicle 10/10/03; (5) Alex Katz “executives trained by turnaround nonprofit” Alameda Times-Star 8/11/2003; (6) “School
district names chief of staff” Contra Costa Times 8/8/2003& Broad Center for Superintendents Alumni profiles
source: The Data Center. 1904 Franklin St. Suite 900, Oakland, CA 94612. tel: 510.835.4692 fax: 510.835.3017 www.datacenter.org
some corporate leaders think that democracy is the problem.
So.Cal's 4-billion-dollar big business education 'reformer' Eli Broad and his Broad Foundation is moving hard right now on wiping out democratically elected school boards in LA/SF/Oakland and Fresno.
Broad and his big business allies apparently want mayor's of the big cities to choose school boards [following the big business reform models in Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, and Detroit,Philly, etc. ]
Broad has worked with former LA Mayor Richard Riordan [currently Schwartenegger's head of the Education] to raise $2 million per election for their board of education slates and to eliminate independent, pro-labor and
grassroots candidates on LA's board of education.
Broad Foundation est. 1999
This is the $400 million philanthropic vehicle for Los Angeles housing development and
investments billionaire, Eli Broad (& wife Edythe), to take on K-12 education issues and develop a future standardized workforce of “knowledge workers.” The Foundation supports reforming urban public schools through entrepreneurial CEO-trained leadership, mayoral takeovers. Like many reactionary think tanks (Pioneer Institute, American Diploma Project, et al.), Broad Fdtn sees the main value of education in its output of skilled workers, hence the focus on standardized testing.
The Fdtn’s three flagship initiatives are The Broad Prize for Urban Education, The Broad Center for Superintendents (nonprofit executive development center established by the Fdtn and former Michigan Governor, John Engler), and The Broad Institute for School boards.(1) Noelia Rodriguez, previously Laura Bush’s press secretary, has become Chief of Staff to Broad and will serve as Director of External Affairs for the Broad Foundation.(2)
Broad is the son of Lithuanian immigrants. co-founder of two S&P 500 corporations—the enormously successful KB Homes and AIG SunAmerica Inc. Broad has bankrolled the Eli Broad College of Business & Eli Broad Graduate School of Management at Michigan State University, the Walt Disney Concert Hall for the LA Philharmonic (recruited by Mayor Dick Riordan and completed 10/03), Broad Art Foundation (international art “lending library”) and Broad
Contemporary Art Museum at LACMA (in works).(3) Broad was appointed to Schwarzenegger’s gubernatorial transition team.(4) Broad is currently fundraising for Democratic Presidential candidate Wes Clark (previously Broad chose Clark to run LA Unified).
BROAD & the OAKLAND UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT 2001
• Broad Institute for School boards pays for OUSD school board field trip to the Museum of Tolerance to learn tolerance for each other.(6)
2003
• Dr. Randolph Ward was selected for Urban Superintendents Academy by the Broad Center for Superintendents,
• Eli Broad advises SPI Jack O’Connell and Mayor Jerry Brown on appointing an
administrator for OUSD.(5)
• SPI Jack O’Connell appoints Ward as the OUSD administrator
• Ward appoints Arnold “Woody” Carter as his Chief of Staff. Carter is one of Ward’s
Broad Academy cohort.(6)
• Monique Epps is hired for OUSD finance office; Broad Foundation covers 75% of her salary.(5)
Eli Broad on OUSD takeover:
“We’ll be observing from a distance, but we won’t be running the district in any way shape or form.” (5)
(1) www.broadfoundation.org; (2) “Career Track: the First Noelia” The Hotline, 10/7/03; (3) Eli Broad
http://www.bus.msu.edu/information/about/elibroad.html; (4) “California transition: Schwarzenneger’s team” SF
Chronicle 10/10/03; (5) Alex Katz “executives trained by turnaround nonprofit” Alameda Times-Star 8/11/2003; (6) “School
district names chief of staff” Contra Costa Times 8/8/2003& Broad Center for Superintendents Alumni profiles
source: The Data Center. 1904 Franklin St. Suite 900, Oakland, CA 94612. tel: 510.835.4692 fax: 510.835.3017 www.datacenter.org
The Governor's Failed Education Policy
Failed education policy.
Daniel Weintraub’s commentaries [in the Sacramento Bee] on April 28 and May 1 illustrate a fundamental misconception abouot education that is shared by the governor.
The fiscal reality is that California ranks 44 in per-pupil spending, 46th in pupil teacher ratio, 32 in teacher salaries and 29th. in education spending as a percentage of personal income.
Since 1998 state revenues have grown by 31 percent, while education spending has increased by only 24 percent, and non-education spending by 44 percent.
For the governor and Weintraub to blame education and Proposition 98 for the budget deficit is clearly off the mark.
The teachers’ organizations showed their social conscience by negotiating a temporary $2 billion budget decrease to help other vital social programs. Instead of renegotiating with them this year, the governor shut his doors and proposes not to pay back the money while making deeper cuts in education, permanently altering Proposition 98, privatizing teacher retirement, instituting merit pay and delaying tenure review. And the governor and Weintraub wonder why the unions and the PTA are so upset.
Schwarzenegger hasn’t “failed to communicate” his educational policy. He has communicated a failed education policy.
Dean Murakami,
Sacramento President.
Los Rios College Federation of Teachers.
Daniel Weintraub’s commentaries [in the Sacramento Bee] on April 28 and May 1 illustrate a fundamental misconception abouot education that is shared by the governor.
The fiscal reality is that California ranks 44 in per-pupil spending, 46th in pupil teacher ratio, 32 in teacher salaries and 29th. in education spending as a percentage of personal income.
Since 1998 state revenues have grown by 31 percent, while education spending has increased by only 24 percent, and non-education spending by 44 percent.
For the governor and Weintraub to blame education and Proposition 98 for the budget deficit is clearly off the mark.
The teachers’ organizations showed their social conscience by negotiating a temporary $2 billion budget decrease to help other vital social programs. Instead of renegotiating with them this year, the governor shut his doors and proposes not to pay back the money while making deeper cuts in education, permanently altering Proposition 98, privatizing teacher retirement, instituting merit pay and delaying tenure review. And the governor and Weintraub wonder why the unions and the PTA are so upset.
Schwarzenegger hasn’t “failed to communicate” his educational policy. He has communicated a failed education policy.
Dean Murakami,
Sacramento President.
Los Rios College Federation of Teachers.
Thursday, May 05, 2005
Another flawed initiative
Why have we heard little about the Governor’s “Merit Pay” initiative?
According to Sacramento Bee on line web log of today by columnist Dan Weintraub, the Governor’s advisors may have stumbled again.
“The labor coalition opposing his measures and the California Teachers Assn. are circulating a legal analysis that says Schwarzenegger’s measure would inadvertently gut current provisions that prohibit school districts from hiring convicted felons, sex offenders, drug users or teachers who have yet to pass a minimum competency exam.’ www.sacbee.com/ (5/5/05)
The Merit Pay proposal is a constitutional amendment. As such it supercedes existing laws.
CTA says the initiative is unecessary:
“Existing law already gives every local school district an evaluation process to use to fire teachers for unsatisfactory performance, unprofessional conduct, dishonesty, criminal acts or other inappropriate conduct. Therefore, this initiative is unnecessary.” www.cta.org
So, in his haste to respond to the far right, the governor has again proposed an initiative that would make things worse.
Why does he do these things?
Well, CTA seems to have it right when they argue:
“This initiative is simply a smokescreen to divert attention from the fact that the governor broke his promise to students and schools about fully funding education and that he wants to gut Proposition 98, the law approved by California voters to guarantee minimum funding to our schools. His budget proposals cut school funding by $25,000 per classroom.”
WE in California then will have an election, costing some $60 million dollars, in order to divert attention from the real school crises in this state; under funding and lack of leadership.
This blog was initiated to keep track of such nonsense and to help organize broad support for public schools. Public support is most needed under this current, irresponsible administration. I encourage readers to write letters to the editors about this and to join in with one of the campaigns. Comments are welcome.
See www.cta.org
http://www.allianceforabetterca.org/
Prepare for the demonstrations in Sacramento and Los Angeles on May 25, 2005.
According to Sacramento Bee on line web log of today by columnist Dan Weintraub, the Governor’s advisors may have stumbled again.
“The labor coalition opposing his measures and the California Teachers Assn. are circulating a legal analysis that says Schwarzenegger’s measure would inadvertently gut current provisions that prohibit school districts from hiring convicted felons, sex offenders, drug users or teachers who have yet to pass a minimum competency exam.’ www.sacbee.com/ (5/5/05)
The Merit Pay proposal is a constitutional amendment. As such it supercedes existing laws.
CTA says the initiative is unecessary:
“Existing law already gives every local school district an evaluation process to use to fire teachers for unsatisfactory performance, unprofessional conduct, dishonesty, criminal acts or other inappropriate conduct. Therefore, this initiative is unnecessary.” www.cta.org
So, in his haste to respond to the far right, the governor has again proposed an initiative that would make things worse.
Why does he do these things?
Well, CTA seems to have it right when they argue:
“This initiative is simply a smokescreen to divert attention from the fact that the governor broke his promise to students and schools about fully funding education and that he wants to gut Proposition 98, the law approved by California voters to guarantee minimum funding to our schools. His budget proposals cut school funding by $25,000 per classroom.”
WE in California then will have an election, costing some $60 million dollars, in order to divert attention from the real school crises in this state; under funding and lack of leadership.
This blog was initiated to keep track of such nonsense and to help organize broad support for public schools. Public support is most needed under this current, irresponsible administration. I encourage readers to write letters to the editors about this and to join in with one of the campaigns. Comments are welcome.
See www.cta.org
http://www.allianceforabetterca.org/
Prepare for the demonstrations in Sacramento and Los Angeles on May 25, 2005.
Tuesday, May 03, 2005
Arnold appoints Bersin to Secretary of Education
All I can say is "Oh, my God!"
As most of you know, I lived in San Diego for 13 years, during which time I worked closely with San Diego City Schools. Bersin and all that he ushered in is one reason I left San Diego and tell people not to go there until he is gone.
At one point at the end of his first reign of terror, the teachers voted a 96% vote of no confidence in him. Yet, the Business Roundtable that was responsible for getting him into the position, managed to get the Board to give him another term.
Bersin is not just a lawyer, he is an immigration lawyer with all the wrong values. He has never been an educator, nor do I think he is interested in being one. Most people who interact with him feel that he is using his superintency as merely a stepping stone in his career. He does not go out of his way to learning about teaching and learning, and his style is autocratic and abrupt, if not harsh.
During his first two weeks in the superintendency, he fired over 100 principals. Hundreds of the best teachers in SDUSD left teaching, and the wonderful union president, Mark Knapp, fought him for several years, and then resided and went back to the classroom. During the first years of his tenure, he arranged for Tony Alvarado to commute from New York to San Diego. He did not want to move, so they alloted him a $100,000 per year travel allowance. Tony has his own reputation and history. Although he is noted for major improvements in NYC District 2, it turns out that district two is bimodel with very high income residents as well as poor residents. The school improvements were only in the high-income schools, but his reputation is built on the myth of reforming district 2. Tony left his wife, and eventually settled in San Diego, but no longer works with the district.
At one point while I was teaching at SDSU, we invited Tony to come and discuss his NYC "successes" and the blueprint for SDCS. He sent someone else. At that meeting, we learned that Bersin had given back a $16 million NSF grant because SDCS would not be teaching science until the reading scores were up. Literally all science classes were cancelled for two years at least (I had left by then.)
Bersin is a political animal at his best. He has managed to get some Gates funding. He has some alliances with Linda Darling-Hammond's graduate students who report that all these changes took place without administrators resigning or leaving (AERA 2003). The man is scarey not only for what he stands for, but for the number of outstanding educators whose careers he has hurt, and all the arbitrary decisions he has made which hurt students.
This news is just absolutely awful. It was bad enough that he wangled onto CTC. ENOUGH! Let's launch a campaign to make him Senator of Arizona or something and get him want he wants so he stops ruining education.
Ann L. Wood
As most of you know, I lived in San Diego for 13 years, during which time I worked closely with San Diego City Schools. Bersin and all that he ushered in is one reason I left San Diego and tell people not to go there until he is gone.
At one point at the end of his first reign of terror, the teachers voted a 96% vote of no confidence in him. Yet, the Business Roundtable that was responsible for getting him into the position, managed to get the Board to give him another term.
Bersin is not just a lawyer, he is an immigration lawyer with all the wrong values. He has never been an educator, nor do I think he is interested in being one. Most people who interact with him feel that he is using his superintency as merely a stepping stone in his career. He does not go out of his way to learning about teaching and learning, and his style is autocratic and abrupt, if not harsh.
During his first two weeks in the superintendency, he fired over 100 principals. Hundreds of the best teachers in SDUSD left teaching, and the wonderful union president, Mark Knapp, fought him for several years, and then resided and went back to the classroom. During the first years of his tenure, he arranged for Tony Alvarado to commute from New York to San Diego. He did not want to move, so they alloted him a $100,000 per year travel allowance. Tony has his own reputation and history. Although he is noted for major improvements in NYC District 2, it turns out that district two is bimodel with very high income residents as well as poor residents. The school improvements were only in the high-income schools, but his reputation is built on the myth of reforming district 2. Tony left his wife, and eventually settled in San Diego, but no longer works with the district.
At one point while I was teaching at SDSU, we invited Tony to come and discuss his NYC "successes" and the blueprint for SDCS. He sent someone else. At that meeting, we learned that Bersin had given back a $16 million NSF grant because SDCS would not be teaching science until the reading scores were up. Literally all science classes were cancelled for two years at least (I had left by then.)
Bersin is a political animal at his best. He has managed to get some Gates funding. He has some alliances with Linda Darling-Hammond's graduate students who report that all these changes took place without administrators resigning or leaving (AERA 2003). The man is scarey not only for what he stands for, but for the number of outstanding educators whose careers he has hurt, and all the arbitrary decisions he has made which hurt students.
This news is just absolutely awful. It was bad enough that he wangled onto CTC. ENOUGH! Let's launch a campaign to make him Senator of Arizona or something and get him want he wants so he stops ruining education.
Ann L. Wood
Monday, May 02, 2005
Book club
Important political reading to understand the current battle over school funding in California.
David Brock, The Republican Noise Machine: Right Wing Media and How it Corrupts Democracy. (2004)
David Cay Johnston, Perfectly Legal: The Covert Campaign to Rig our Tax System to Benefit the Super Rich- and Cheat Everybody Else. 2003.
Thomas Frank. What’s the Matter with Kansas? : How conservatives won the heart of America. 2004.
Molly Ivans and Lou Dubous, Bushwhacked: Life in George W. Bush’s America, 2003.
Duane Campbell, Choosing Democracy: a practical guide to multicultural education. 2004.
Kathryn Emery, Why Corporate America is Bashing our Public Schools.
Gerald W. Bracey, On the Death of Childhood and the Destruction of Public Schools. 2003
David Brock, The Republican Noise Machine: Right Wing Media and How it Corrupts Democracy. (2004)
David Cay Johnston, Perfectly Legal: The Covert Campaign to Rig our Tax System to Benefit the Super Rich- and Cheat Everybody Else. 2003.
Thomas Frank. What’s the Matter with Kansas? : How conservatives won the heart of America. 2004.
Molly Ivans and Lou Dubous, Bushwhacked: Life in George W. Bush’s America, 2003.
Duane Campbell, Choosing Democracy: a practical guide to multicultural education. 2004.
Kathryn Emery, Why Corporate America is Bashing our Public Schools.
Gerald W. Bracey, On the Death of Childhood and the Destruction of Public Schools. 2003
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