State Schools Chief Jack O'Connell Criticizes Governor's
Veto of Funding for State Educational Data System
SACRAMENTO — State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell today strongly criticized Governor Schwarzenegger's veto of $7.9 million from the California Department of Education (CDE), preventing the continued implementation of the California Longitudinal Pupil Achievement Data System (CALPADS).
"Governor Schwarzenegger's veto of funding for the ongoing development and support for CALPADS is shortsighted, ill-informed, and hypocritical," O'Connell said.
"CALPADS has been online for one year. Despite some initial operational challenges, the system is working and important student-level information is being collected in California. CALPADS currently tracks all K-12 students in the state using statewide identifiers which have been assigned to all students, and maintains data of students longitudinally. More than 90 percent of districts and charter schools have successfully submitted data through CALPADS. With one more year of data, California, for the first time, will be able to provide a four-year graduation rate based on student level data. This is significant progress, particularly when you consider that California's public education system has been underfunded by more than $17 billion over the last two years, and the fact that the Governor has repeatedly vetoed a modest investment of $5 per pupil to support local educational agencies' data quality efforts.
"The outlandish claim by the Governor that California has spent $150 million on CALPADS is flat out wrong. The Governor's own Office of the Chief Information Officer reports that California has spent $23 million on CALPADS between Fiscal Year 2005-2006 and the 2010-11 budget year. The Governor also fails to acknowledge that he has invested very few state dollars in the development of CALPADS, relying almost entirely on federal funds for this project and has now taken those away as well.
"A statewide education data system is critical to help guide education policy, inform professional development for educators, and improve teaching and learning. Disrupting the implementation of CALPADS at this juncture will delay California's long-anticipated efforts to implement a longitudinal education data system, and set us further behind other states that already have education data systems in place. Rather than maintaining California's course toward meeting its education data goals of helping all students reach their full potential, the Governor's veto of CALPADS funding just sent California racing to the bottom of the heap."
State Schools Chief Jack O'Connell Issues Statement
on Governor's Veto of Child Care for Working Families
SACRAMENTO — State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell today issued the following statement about Governor Schwarzenegger's veto of all funding for child care services for working families who have been off welfare for 24 months, known as the CalWORKS Stage 3 Child Care Program.
"The Governor's veto of funding for the CalWORKS Stage 3 Child Care Program is an attack on working families with children. This 12-year-old program has played a significant role in helping California families leave welfare and become financially independent.
"The Stage 3 program provided child care services to more than 81,000 children and some 60,000 families during Fiscal Year 2008-2009, allowing parents to work. This veto will terminate needed child care services for all these families who have worked so hard to leave welfare and maintain employment for at least two years or more. It will undermine the efforts of these working families, who are primarily single parents with one or two children, to become and remain self-sufficient.
"At a time when California is experiencing an unemployment rate of over 12 percent, it is unconscionable that this administration would deliberately eliminate the child care service necessary for working parents to maintain their jobs, and put them at risk of returning to the welfare rolls."
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