Straight Outta Compton

COMPTON, Calif. (AP) -- Chanting "yes we can!" and "si se puede!", a busload of parents on Tuesday became the first in California to try to force reforms at their children's failing school using the state's new "parent-trigger" law.

The group of Latino and African-American parents delivered a petition signed by 62 percent of parents at McKinley Elementary School to Compton Unified Acting Superintendent Karen Frison.

HuffPo

Fisrt, who paid for the bus? Second, a guy named Ben Austin, executive director of Parent Revolution, an organization with ties to Green Dot Charter Schools among others, spearheaded the law in California. With the law on their side, these "shock doctrine" abusers can organize 51% of parents in a school and get the district to create a charter school. And guess what, a CMO will make money from it.

These parents have no idea what they will reap by sowing such a damaged process.  Surely you all know where Compton is, right?  Compton's school district was once taken over by the state.  I think the Crips and Bloods started in Compton.  Ever heard of Gangsta Rap?  Ever heard of a song called Straight Outta Compton?

This is what the rich and powerful do--they find a vulnerable population, scare them, then use the fear to promise safety from the fear, and then they make their profit.  It is pure Shock Doctrine.  It's sickening, abusive, and usurious.

Thursday Cartoon Fun: Made In China Edition

Carly Fiorina Agrees With The Tea Party

The Governator Plans To Cut Programs For The Neediest Californians

From the L.A. Times:

Proposing a budget that would eliminate the state's welfare-to-work program and most child care for the poor, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Friday outlined a stark vision of a California that would sharply limit aid to some of its poorest and neediest citizens.

His $83.4-billion plan would also freeze funding for local schools, further cut state workers' pay and take away 60% of state money for local mental health programs. State parks and higher education are among the few areas the governor's proposal would spare.

The proposal, which would not raise taxes, also relies on $3.4 billion in help from Washington — roughly half of what the governor sought earlier this year — to help close a budget gap now estimated at $19.1 billion. Billions more would be saved through accounting moves and fund shifts.

How Do I Get To School If Mom's In Jail?

I am not sure how good an idea this is:

California may jail parents if kids are truant

Talk about parental responsibility. The California Senate just passed a bill that could send parents to jail for up to a year if their kids -- from kindergarten through eighth grade -- miss too much school.

Senate Bill 1317 is actually a public safety measure, according to State Sen. Mark Leno (D-San Francisco), because children who don’t attend school regularly or drop out early are more likely to turn to crime.

"Three-quarters of our state inmate population are high school dropouts," Leno was quoted as saying by the Fresno Bee.

According to the Associated Press, parents whose kids miss too much school could be subject to up to a year in jail and a $2,000 fine, though judges could put the punishment on hold to give parents a chance to get their kids to class.

The Fresno Bee reported that the bill would apply to parents or guardians of children age 6 or older in kindergarten through eighth grade.

The rest at the link.

Stop School Budget Cuts

Hot for Teachers w/ Megan Fox and Brian Austin Green from Megan Fox

Reaction Of The Day: digby

California, the 8th largest economy in the world, is in fiscal trouble. Here are some frightening outcomes for California that seem to be headed our way:

The scary stuff from digby and her perfect reaction:

At least 200,000 children are slated to lose eligibility for Healthy Families, with that number growing to 900,000 if the program is gutted entirely.

Nearly 90 percent of the 400,000 recipients of In-Home Support Services stand to lose care under Schwarzenegger's best-case scenario, and state reimbursements to providers of those who remain would be slashed to minimum-wage levels. Otherwise, the program would be abolished, throwing 350,000 caregivers out of work.

For Medi-Cal, Schwarzenegger has proposed clamping new limits on health services while raising premiums and patient co-pays if he gets the extra federal money he wants. Medi-Cal for legal immigrants in the country less than five years would be eliminated, unless they were pregnant.

If additional federal funds fail to arrive, some 450,000 Medi-Cal recipients would be stripped of eligibility and most optional adult benefits, such as reimbursements for hearing aids and other medical equipment, would be scrapped.

All these health care programs being cut are especially worrying. These patients will logically be coming into the already stretched emergency rooms, costing far more money, so the only real purpose here must be to let them die. I can't see how it will work otherwise.

The good news, though, is that the most productive members of our society are making 8 figure bonuses this year. At least we don't have to worry that the really important people are being unfairly compensated for all their hard work, so that's good. [emphasis TFT's]

Californucation: Parents Know It All

More proof that folks who don't know nuthin' 'bout nuthin' are in charge...

California set to pass education overhaul plan

Marisa Lagos, Chronicle Staff Writer

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

The California Legislature is poised to pass an education plan today that makes far-reaching changes to how public schools are governed, giving parents the power to transfer their kids out of failing schools and to force districts to overhaul bad schools.

The dramatic changes to California's education policies have been debated for months. They are intended to make the state competitive for up to $700 million in federal dollars under President Obama's $4.3 billion Race to the Top program, which promises funding to states that embrace education policies outlined by the president by a Jan. 19 application deadline. Millions more dollars may also be at stake for the financially struggling state, as the Obama administration is expected to tie future education funding to some of his Race to the Top provisions.

The most controversial elements of the plan being voted on today by both houses of the Legislature include the so-called open enrollment and parent trigger provisions, which were championed by a number of parents groups and charter school advocates but opposed by many in the education establishment, including the state's powerful teachers' union.

Under current state law, students must attend a school in the district where they live, with some exceptions. The open enrollment legislation would allow students in the 1,000 worst schools in California - as defined by their Academic Performance Index ranking - to apply to a better school anywhere in the state, including in the same district. School districts must adopt standards for accepting or rejecting transfers under this new open enrollment policy.

The parent trigger provision would allow parents to force school districts to deal with chronically failing schools by adopting one of several "reform" plans put forth by the Obama administration, including closing the school, firing the principal and up to half of the teachers, or turning the school into a charter school. At least 50 percent of parents would have to petition for the change.

'Paradigm shift'

"We think the parent trigger especially is critically important - it's not just a new policy, it's a paradigm shift, a different way of thinking about education reform," said Ben Austin, who founded the Los Angeles-based parent advocacy group Parent Revolution. "This is not about anything other than giving parents power and trusting them to do right by their kids. The system is failing ... because it's not designed to serve kids, it's designed to serve grown-ups."

Parents aren't the only ones who would be able to force a change: Under the legislation, the state's worst schools would have to embrace one of those strategies as well. State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell said Monday that about 800 of the state's nearly 1,700 local districts and charter schools have indicated their intent to participate in Race to the Top.

Districts that participate agree to open up all their schools to the rules; districts that choose not to participate are still subject to the rules for their low-performing schools.

The new legislation would also make a number of other changes to help bring California in line with the federal goals. The state would create a system to track students from elementary school through college to determine what is working, make a new program for credentialing math and science teachers, and allow local school districts to use test scores and other data to evaluate teachers and principals.

Delayed by politics

"These and other reforms clearly set the stage for the governor to submit a competitive application for California to bring home a coveted Race to the Top grant," Assembly Speaker Karen Bass, D-Baldwin Vista (Los Angeles County), said Monday.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger called a special session of the Legislature in August to bring California in line with the requirements outlined by the Race to the Top. But the changes have been mired in politics, with Assembly Democrats supporting limited changes backed by the teacher's union and others. The governor threatened to veto an earlier bill by the Assembly that he said omitted the open-enrollment rule, and negotiations dragged on through December. This week, officials ultimately decided to break the open enrollment and parent trigger provisions into a separate bill from the rest of the proposed changes, though both bills are expected to pass today.

E-mail Marisa Lagos at mlagos@sfchronicle.com.

h/t JH

Time To Take 'Em Back

National Call for March 4 Strike and Day of Action To Defend Public Education

California has recently seen a massive movement erupt in defense of public education — but layoffs, fee hikes, cuts, and the re-segregation of public education are attacks taking place throughout the country. A nationwide resistance movement is needed.

We call on all students, workers, teachers, parents, and their organizations and communities across the country to massively mobilize for a Strike and Day of Action in Defense of Public Education on March 4, 2010. Education cuts are attacks against all of us, particularly in working-class communities and communities of color.

The politicians and administrators say there is no money for education and social services. They say that “there is no alternative” to the cuts. But if there’s money for wars, bank bailouts, and prisons, why is there no money for public education?

We can beat back the cuts if we unite students, workers, and teachers across all sectors of public education — Pre K-12, adult education, community colleges, and state-funded universities. We appeal to the leaders of the trade union movement to support and organize strikes and/or mass actions on March 4. The weight of workers and students united in strikes and mobilizations would shift the balance of forces entirely against the current agenda of cuts and make victory possible.

Building a powerful movement to defend public education will, in turn, advance the struggle in defense of all public-sector workers and services and will be an inspiration to all those fighting against the wars, for immigrants rights, in defense of jobs, for single-payer health care, and other progressive causes.

Why March 4? On October 24, 2009 more than 800 students, workers, and teachers converged at UC Berkeley at the Mobilizing Conference to Save Public Education. This massive meeting brought together representatives from over 100 different schools, unions, and organizations from all across California and from all sectors of public education. After hours of open collective discussion, the participants voted democratically, as their main decision, to call for a Strike and Day of Action on March 4, 2010. All schools, unions and organizations are free to choose their specific demands and tactics — such as strikes, rallies, walkouts, occupations, sit-ins, teach-ins, etc. — as well as the duration of such actions.

Let’s make March 4 an historic turning point in the struggle against the cuts, layoffs, fee hikes, and the re-segregation of public education.

- The California Coordinating Committee

(To endorse this call and to receive more information contact march4strikeanddayofaction@gmail.com )

California's Charter School Mafia Boss: Arnold

Governor's ties to charter schools driving Race to Top goals?

SACRAMENTO — Charter school advocates were livid. The Assembly's "Race to the Top" legislation was trying to "change the DNA of charters," as one charter school leader put it, by clamping down with "stifling" oversight provisions.

They had little doubt, however, that they'd have a potent weapon to beat back the proposed changes: Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Schwarzenegger's deep ties to the charter school movement haven't been a secret. He has taken at least $1 million in contributions from charter school advocates, stacked the State Board of Education with charter school educators, overseen since taking office in 2003 more than a doubling in the number of charter schools and steered hundreds of millions of construction bond money to charter schools.

Now, with a potential $700 million in federal cash dangling before lawmakers who have seen $17 billion drained from public schools over the past two years, some critics say Schwarzenegger has used the Race to the Top competition to further his long-term goal of cutting into the powers of traditional public schools while elevating his own sacred cow — the charter movement.

h/t KL

Remember Gray Davis?

Put the Thing Down, Flip It, and Reverse It
By David Weigel 2/20/09 1:31 PM

Remember when Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R-Calif.) ran for re-election? Here’s a refresher:

Californians dodged a bullet. Instead of having their taxes raised by $10 billion (let’s just accept the ad’s figures), they now have a $12 billion tax increase as part of a budget that reduces education funding by $8.4 billion and borrows another $11 billion.

It’s worth asking why the 2003 recall vote ever needed to happen.

California Education Funding: It's Over!

If I recall, some years ago state employees got IOU's instead of real money. I can't live too well on IOU's. Please, please, let's fix this fucked up country!

Time for an Education Bailout? California’s Schools Will Likely Need One

The latest numbers from California suggest that the state is running out of money so quickly that it may have to start to pay its bills with IOUs. It is uncertain what the impact of the state’s problem will be on schools, but it looks bad, and is getting worse by the day. In November, the state’s Legislative Analyst estimated a budget gap of around $28 billion between now and June 2010. The annual budget is just over $100 billion with around 40 percent of that going to schools (K-12 and community colleges) (see report here). The budget gap has jumped in the last week to $40 billion, and the urgency is mounting to act fast before the state runs out of money. The Governor has started a debt clock that ticks at $470 for each second of inaction (here) The State Treasurer has suggested that the state may have to stop all construction projects because it will run out of funding paying for its constitutional obligations.

The Governor called a special session in Nov with a lame duck state legislature to address a then smaller gap, and the session ended with no results. He declared a new special session with a new Legislature in December and started with generally the same mix of new revenues and cuts. The political battle is over how much of this gap will be covered with cuts vs. new revenues. The Governor and legislative Democrats (majority party in both houses) are proposing a mixture of new taxes and program cuts, with many differences between the two. In contrast the legislative Republicans are calling for programmatic cuts to solve the problem.

So What Does All of This Mean for Schools?
Schools have been waiting to see how bad the cuts will be. Today’s news suggests that it could be pretty bad. The Senate and Assembly Republican (minority party) weighed in with a proposal that was heavier on the cuts than on the new revenues (here). Combined their plan would address $22 billion of the $40 billion hole. And of that $22 billion roughly half ($10.6 billion) was reduction to K-14 education (K-12 schools and community colleges which are funded together through a constitutional minimum guarantee). In addition they propose significant reduction to early childhood programs. Since this year is already half over, there may not be a lot that schools can do to reduce costs significantly in the current school year, although they better save onto every unobligated nickel. And, while this proposal was quickly blasted by the Governor and the Democrats (here), it is important to recognize that this proposal only addresses half of the problem. So, if the state is going to solve the $40 billion hole, it may take this level of cuts to education or higher plus additional cuts and new taxes.

Why the Rest of the County Should Care.
One in every eight students in the US is educated in California. California current funding per pupil is already below the national average, and near the bottom if adjusted for cost of living. Because of its modest funding and high costs, California schools have smaller staffs than schools in other states – larger class sizes and fewer administrators and other support staff. Take off another $10 billion in funding, and class sizes will balloon even more. At what point does it become a national interest to keep schools from going under. Is it time for the federal government bailout for education? I think this would be a better investment in our future than many of the other bailouts being provided.

Want To Take Back Your Neighborhood School?

Food for thought:

47605. (a) (1) Except as set forth in paragraph (2), a petition for the establishment of a charter school within any school district may be circulated by any one or more persons seeking to establish the charter school. A petition for the establishment of a charter school shall identify a single charter school that will operate within the geographic boundaries of that school district. A charter school may propose to operate at multiple sites within the school district, as long as each location is identified in the charter school petition. The petition may be submitted to the governing board of the school district for review after either of the following conditions are met:

(A) The petition has been signed by a number of parents or legal guardians of pupils that is equivalent to at least one-half of the number of pupils that the charter school estimates will enroll in the school for its first year of operation.
(B) The petition has been signed by a number of teachers that is equivalent to at least one-half of the number of teachers that the charter school estimates will be employed at the school during its first year of operation.

There's a lot more. Check the link above for more details.

If your district is exerting too much control over your school, you CAN take it back and give the kids what they deserve. It's not easy. But changing the world ain't easy!