Regulations for teacher layoffs are a prime example of how interests of adults are put ahead of those of children, especially minority children. Now, that system, along with state budget cuts that set it in motion, will face a court challenge.
In a case with statewide implications, the ACLU of Southern California and other public interest and pro bono attorneys are suing the state and Los Angeles Unified, charging that teacher layoffs have savaged three low-performing, low-income middle schools. All three have been thrown into turmoil since between half and nearly three quarters of their teachers got layoff notices last year. Most eventually did lose their jobs because of rules that dictate that less experienced teachers must be the first to go, regardless of how good they are with students and how well they fit in the school.
Members of the Full Circle Fund, a Bay Area philanthropy made up of socially active leaders and entrepreneurs, has joined the call for giving school districts more autonomy and taxing authority.
Granting local voters the power to pass a limited surcharge of the property tax rate is one policy recommendation of “EACH: A Vision for California’s Future.” The 11-page policy platform is the product of nine months of work by the 60-member Education Circle, one of four study groups within the Full Circle Fund.
A property surcharge would directly challenge of the limits imposed by Proposition 13. It also could create equity problems – and likely lead to a lawsuit – since rich communities would more readily pass such a measure. So the Education Circle also urges establishing a state matching fund as an incentive for low-wealth communities to raise revenue. The platform also urges bringing up California’s level of funding to the “national norm” and includes a useful graph that compares states’ per student spending relative to its teachers’ salaries.
Call it remarkable management or, more likely, the lull before the crash. The number of school districts in financial distress actually decreased from a year ago, according to report issued last week by FCMAT, the state’s Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team. That’s the agency that intervenes when districts are struggling financially.
For the reporting period ending Oct. 31, only a dozen districts – out of about 1,000 – reported a negative status, compared with 19 in the last reporting period of 2009 and 16 in the comparable period a year ago. The latest total is preliminary, since county offices of education have yet to certify that the districts’ self-reporting is accurate. (View FCMAT’s latest report for a 15-year comparison of the number of districts in financial trouble.)
California is still knocking about the bottom in per student K-12 spending at 46th among the states and Washington, D.C., according to Education Week’s much anticipated annual survey. That’s one better than the 47th ranking last year. It might have been spared 51st because Ed Week used data from 2007, before fiscal disaster struck.
Ed Week adjusts spending to reflect regional costs of living, which is one reason why high-cost California ranks so low. In terms of unadjusted dollars, it ranked 24th, according to the last National Education Association survey.
Sometime this year, the California School Boards Association will sue the governor and the state over the level of state funding for K-12 schools.
During the organization’s Forecast Webcast on the state of the economy and its impact on education Thursday, CSBA Executive Director Scott Plotkin reaffirmed what he told me last fall. His message fit the mood of the annual event: one of gloom and frustration.
As he promised in his State of the State address, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger protected K-12 schools and higher education from cuts in his proposed$83 billion spending plan for 2010-11.
Or did he?
Some Democrats and the California School Boards Association are condemning the governor for cutting K-12 funding by $1.5 billion. As have other governors and Legislatures, Schwarzenegger appears to have manipulated the level of funding under Proposition 98, the primary source of money for schools and community colleges, said CSBA President Frank Hugh. “This year, it looks as though nothing has changed.”
The report found that most large school districts had already abandoned the 20:1 student-teacher ratio that was the hallmark of class-size reduction when Gov. Pete Wilson and the Legislature created it 13 years ago for grade K-3 and some 9th grade classes. Some districts have expanded early-grade classes to as large as 30 students.
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I'm a Virgo!
I did not have the exact information yesterday.
In my letter of October 16, 2007 to Superintendent Jack O'Connell ... - Marian Devincenzi
December 6, 2009
For me, how beginning reading is taught is more important than class size.
For teaching "at risk" students in ... - Marian Devincenzi
As a politician Tom Campbell will have to make decisions on whatever information is available and I'd like to hear ... - Paul Muench
Those studies, in particular, Tennessee STAR http://www.heros-inc.org/star.htm (a four-year longitudinal class-size study which used random assignment, the gold standard for ... - Reader
Tom Campbell's website is proposing that class size reduction should be a key element of education reform in California. ... - Paul Muench
How much spending is cut for K-12 schools and higher education next year may be determined not in Sacramento but in Washington, D.C. – and perhaps by the White House.
Legislative Analyst Mac Taylor this week projected an 18-month state budget deficit of $20.7 billion ($6.3 billion for the fiscal year ending June 30 and the rest next year).
Using the roughest rule of thumb, with K-12 schools and community colleges receiving roughly 40 percent of the budget and higher ed an additional 10 percent, one would assume that education could be expected to absorb 50 percent of that deficit – or $10 billion. That assumes, for the moment, no higher fees and taxes and no new budget gimmicks (Haven’t we run out of those by now?).
But cutting education will bump against the federal government’s demand that states maintain their levels of spending for education in order to receive stimulus money under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.
In their long-anticipated suit over adequate funding, the California School Boards Assn. and its parter in the Education Coalition, the Association of California School Administrators, will challenge the state not only on how much it spends on public schools — no surprise there — but also how it funds them. They plan to revisit the ’70s, with its historic Serrano decision, which equalized school spending, and Proposition 13, which shifted control funding and power to Sacramento. They’ll argue that it’s time to take another look and this time do it right.
In an interview, CSBA Executive Director Scott Plotkin confirmed the Mercury News story that the two organizations will file suit in coming months over the state’s failure to adequately fund eduction. And he outlined what will be the thrust of the suit: a demand to return to more control. They’re turning to the courts, because the Legislature and voters, by initiative, have severely limited locals’ ability to raise money. (Read more and comment on this post)
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[...] President Scott Plotkin reaffirmed what he told me last fall during the organization’s Forecast Webcast on the state of ... - The Educated Guess » School boards will sue state this year
The Hoover Institution's Education Next magazine recently did a piece on adequacy lawsuits. Hanushek makes the same claims you mention ... - Educated Guess Reader
The threat of a lawsuit, a filed lawsuit or a constitutional convention to change how California governs itself are the ... - Mike McMahon
The Educated Guess is a forum on education policies in California and Silicon Valley. It is funded by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and sponsored by the Silicon Valley E Read more
About John
John Fensterwald is a journalist at the Silicon Valley Education Foundation,
which he joined in September 2009. For 11 years before that, he wrote editorials at the Mercury News in San Jose, with a focus on education. Read more
The College Puzzle Stanford Professor Emeritus of Education and Business Administration Michael Kirst explores policy issues relating to the preparation for and success in college.
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