A daily compilation of education news coverage of statewide interest provided by
UCLA's Institute for Democracy, Education and Access.

Top Stories and Commentary for Wednesday, July 1st, 2009

With the steep budget cuts to education leading to larger class sizes, fewer programs for at-risk students and the loss of other services, the suspension of the California High School Exit Exam may be necessary, county Superintendent William Habermehl said today. "The exam brings accountability, which is good for schools and students," Habermehl said. "But we are not getting the support from the state to give to students so they can pass the test." The state Legislature on Monday approved a fiscal package to close the state's deficit that will call for the suspension of the high school exit exam as a requirement for graduation. And, while the governor is expected to veto that plan, chances the exit exam may be suspended remain high under any new plan presented by the legislators.

Unless drastic budget cuts come at the local level, many California school districts may be unable to pay the bills in the next two years, state schools chief Jack O'Connell said Tuesday. "Billions of dollars of state budget cuts to education have left school districts with deficits that school boards and administrators are attempting to address," O'Connell said at a news conference in San Jose. "The decisions they have been forced to make are heartbreaking: increasing class size, laying off teachers and classified staff; eliminating summer school; canceling arts, music, and sports. These are choices no educator in California wants to make. But the alternative is bankruptcy and entering state receivership." California school districts are required to file interim budgets with certifications classified as positive, qualified or negative.

The number of California school districts in deep financial trouble is up to 19. That’s almost four times higher than just a couple of years ago. KPCC’s Nick Roman looks at details in the list from the California Department of Education. The state tracks school district finances. Depending on how solid they are, a district can get a “positive,” a “qualified,” or a “negative” rating. The latest list of school districts with “qualified” ratings includes 15 local names – including L.A. Unified, Garden Grove Unified, Santa Ana Unified, Pomona Unified, Inglewood Unified, and Covina Valley Unified. They’re among 89 districts facing money trouble. More worrisome is the list of 19 school districts that the state says “will not” meet their financial obligations next year. On that list is El Rancho Unified in Pico Rivera with about 10,000 students at 15 schools, the Antelope Valley’s Wilsona Elementary with 1,900 students at four schools, and the big one – Val Verde Unified in Perris, with more than 20,000 students at 23 schools.

California stands on the precipice of destroying our safety net and putting our future prosperity in danger by cutting investments in education. This devastation is unwise and can be avoided with a combination of cuts, shared sacrifices and additional federal stimulus money, or, as a last resort, a temporary tax increase. The key to getting started on a better path begins with understanding that,despite a lot of old myths about our budget problems, our current challenge is not our fault, and state spending currently is not escalating out of control. Some Budget Facts The current budget challenge is 100 percent the result of the deepening national recession. Our current budget challenges are shared by many states and local governments throughout the nation. While California failed for many years to resolve our structural budget deficit and has no plan to close the gap for the future, we did our part for 2009-2010 back in February with more than $10 billion in spending cuts and more than $10 billion in temporary tax increases.

There's not much to cheer amid the budget crises confronting California, along with so many of its cities and counties. But the tiny city of Hawaiian Gardens, best known as the home of the Hawaiian Gardens Casino, dug into its tiny budget last week and did a little bit of good. Faced with the closure of local schools for the summer, the City Council tapped its carry-over accounts from the current budget (the casino provides enough revenue to the city that it's relatively protected from the current downturn) and allocated $120,000 to a special account overseen by the local school district. The money can be spent only on schools that serve Hawaiian Gardens students, and it will allow the district to run three elementary schools and a middle school through July.

The California Senate has shut down for the night after failing to approve a stopgap plan to stave off the need for IOUs and ease the state's $24.3 billion budget deficit. Lawmakers there were among many around the nation who went up against a midnight deadline as the fiscal year ended for many states. Legislators in more than a half-dozen states met in around-the-clock budget sessions as they struggled to avoid government shutdowns and other painful cuts, with the most dramatic negotiations unfolding in California. The end of June marks the end of the fiscal year in many states, meaning lawmakers worked late Tuesday evening to pass budgets in a year that has seen the recession take a devastating toll on government finances. In California, the budget mess threatened to cause fallout nationwide because of the sheer size of the state's economy. The Senate rejected three bills designed to save $5 billion, including $3.3 billion in education funding cuts that had to be enacted before the ew fiscal year began Wednesday.

Jan Frydendahl, who chairs the mathematics department at Mission San Jose High School in Fremont and is bargaining member of the Fremont District Teachers Association, wrote this article for the Mercury News.

As the budget crisis unfolds in Sacramento, what is actually happening to school districts and teachers? As a teacher on the front line, I know where the budget cuts are hitting, and I have a suggestion or two on how to restore funding. As part of the bargaining unit in Fremont Unified, I spent a grueling spring with contract negotiations on behalf of the 1,600-plus teachers in the Fremont Unified School District. For the 2009-10 school year, Sacramento cut our district's budget by $555 per student, from $5,785 per student to $5,230. It's actually worse than that, though, because fixed costs for the district go up every year (water, electricity, sewage, etc.), so available dollars for classrooms and teachers plummeted. Fremont's budget was slashed by $17 million for a district of 30,000 students.

American education officials trying to learn from the policies and practices of top-performing nations seem to have two exemplary models in Singapore and Finland. Yet in some respects, those two nations have risen to the top in very different ways. That was one of the lessons that emerged yesterday at what was billed as the Global Education Competitiveness Summit, which brought state officials and business leaders together here to discuss lessons from high-achieving countries that could be applied to U.S. school systems—an omnipresent theme in American education circles these days. Two of the speakers whose nations are perched at or near the top of recent international test results offered insights on their home countries’ educational models: Low Khah Gek, the director of curriculum, planning, and development for the Singapore Ministry of Education, and Timo Lankinen, the director general of the Finnish National Board of Education.

High-schoolers in Louisiana will soon be able to opt for a "career diploma" – taking some alternative courses instead of a full college-prep curriculum. The new path to graduation – expected to be signed into law by Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) in the coming days – bucks a trend in which many states are cranking up academic requirements. The legislation puts the state in the center of a national debate about where to set the bar for high school graduation. Advocates of the new diploma option say it will keep more struggling students in school and will prepare them for jobs, technical training, or community college. Critics doubt the curriculum will be strong enough to accomplish such goals and say it shortchanges students in the long run, given the projections that a large number of future jobs will require a college degree.

Also Noted for Wednesday, July 1st, 2009:

Few chapters in recent Los Angeles public school history have been uglier than the one that is expected to culminate today with a Board of Education vote on whether to allow Birmingham High School to effectively secede and become a charter school. For months, the San Fernando Valley campus has been torn between pro- and anti-charter forces who have accused each other of, among other things, bullying, vandalism, burglary, racism and fraud. It was, perhaps, fitting that the final days of the charter drive were dominated by a stir over a photo shoot at Birmingham by Sacha Baron Cohen, the comedian and star of "Bruno" whose raunchy alter egos have the ability to make almost anyone look less dignified than they are. Ramon C. Cortines, superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District, said Tuesday that he was disciplining the school's principal and athletic director for allowing the photos, but if the charter passes, that will be moot.

Oxnard School District trustees have OK’d placing a parcel tax measure on the November ballot, saying they hope voters will agree to help support local schools. The parcel tax would raise money for math and science programs, support libraries and preschool programs, increase access to technology, retain teachers and avoid layoffs, according to the proposal. It would levy a $99 annual tax per parcel in the district for four years, raising an estimated $3 million a year. A parcel tax needs a two-thirds approval to pass, as well as annual audits and a community oversight committee. “If the community extends its generosity to the school district ... we’ll be able to restore a significant amount that we’ve lost,” Assistant Superintendent Glenston Thompson told trustees at a meeting Wednesday night.

Lynne Holyoke knew her principal wanted to fire her. The retired art teacher said the two had often sparred over her teaching style. But instead, Holyoke said the school district made her an offer: Take a year off with pay and resign at the end of it. Holyoke agreed and spent the year on paid administrative leave, doing art therapy, volunteering and mulling her future. "It was like a package to go," she said. Holyoke is not the only educator who has been pulled from her classroom but paid nonetheless. Fifty-six educators have been put on paid administrative leave in San Diego Unified over the last six years, taken out of their ordinary jobs but kept on the payroll for anywhere from a few days to more than four years.

Hispanic teens who maintain their culture and whose parents are also more involved in American culture, have fewer possibilities of consuming alcohol, drugs and dropping out of school, according to a new study by the University of North Carolina (UNC). In the past, various studies showed that these students faced numerous obstacles that impeded healthy social and economic development. "Although this pressure has always existed, we now find that the more bicultural the parent, the better the chances that the young immigrant will avoid risk factors," said Paul Smokowski, a professor at UNC-Chapel Hill.

The chief of the nation's second-largest school district is fuming over comedian Sacha Baron Cohen's magazine photo shoot with high school football players. Los Angeles Superintendent Ramon Cortines isn't amused by the GQ magazine photos shot at Birmingham High School that feature the Borat star in his new incarnation as gay Austrian fashionista Bruno. The GQ cover story features pictures of Baron Cohen wearing shoulder pads, tight red shorts, an athletic cup and little else as he poses with football players at the school in the San Fernando Valley. Cortines says the district "allowed our students to be used." He says the photos violate the district's policy on use of the school's name, and he has punished the principal and athletic director. Cortines would not provide details.

Last fall, Woodlawn Elementary's math teachers locked up their textbooks in a music room closet. Faced with FCAT scores that figured in the school's D grade in 2007-08, the teachers decided to get radical and overhaul their math curriculum. It paid off. The school went from a D to a B this year, logging impressive gains on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test, especially in math. Instead of textbooks, teachers used games, group assignments and other materials. They also focused on showing students different ways to solve the same problem. "We get to pull activities targeted for higher level of engagement with students, rather than using textbooks or worksheets," said teacher Denise White, who helped rewrite the curriculum.