Sacramento Realtors worry about school-closure effects - Sacramento News - Local and Breaking Sacramento News | Sacramento Bee

Sacramento Realtors worry about school-closure effects - Sacramento News - Local and Breaking Sacramento News | Sacramento Bee

Realtor Susie Dunning thinks she knows why she hasn't received a single offer on a two-story home in South Land Park. The property in the 7400 block of Windbridge Drive backs up to Lisbon Elementary, one of four schools closed last year by Sacramento City Unified School District.

"We are the lowest price property in that area and still nothing," said Dunning, a real estate agent with Lyon.

Realtors and homeowners say trying to sell a home near a vacated school is difficult. Buyers don't like the uncertainty of whether the property will be neglected or who may lease it. And those concerns will likely spread as school districts throughout the region close more campuses.

San Juan, Twin Rivers, Natomas and Folsom Cordova school districts have plans to close at least 11 schools over the next three years because of budget deficits and low enrollment.

Since the 2006-2007 school year, 10 Sacramento-area schools have been closed.

Real estate agents say it's hard to determine exactly how much school closures have affected home sales because of the tumultuous housing market. What they do know is that buyers – especially young married couples – are influenced by the quality of the school district and proximity to schools when purchasing a home.

According to the 2009 National Association of Realtors home buyers and sellers report, one-third of people buying a home in a suburban area considered the quality of the school district an important factor. And buyers question the quality of a district pocked with defunct campuses.

Cynthia Chavez said she and her husband bought their home in North Natomas because it 

School districts in the Sacramento region have closed several campuses since the 2006-2007 school year and are considering closing more because of shrinking budgets and declining enrollment. 

Sacramento City Unified 

• Bear Flag Elementary, closed in 2007 (vacant). 

• Marian Anderson Elementary, 2007 (therapeutic center for emotionally disturbed students, Success Academy). 

• Alice Birney Elementary, 2009 (vacant). 

• Thomas Jefferson Elementary, 2009 (California Montessori Project, preschool program, Weight Watchers group). 

• Lisbon Elementary, 2009 (vacant). 

• Genesis High School, 2009 (district programs). 

• District officials previously said six to eight schools would close over next two years, but new administration officials said there are no plans to close schools. 

San Juan Unified 

• Thomas Coleman Elementary, 2006 (three preschool programs). 

• John Holst Elementary, 2006 (LaVista Special Education Center). 

• Billy Mitchell Elementary, 2007 (leased to Choices Charter School and home to district preschool program). 

• Orangevale Open Elementary, 2007 (leased to Pacific Technology Charter School). 

• Garfield Elementary and Sierra Nueva Continuation High to be closed in 2010-2011. 

Natomas Unified 

• Will close one elementary school in 2010-2011. Currently considering closure of Bannon Creek Elementary, Jefferson Elementary or Natomas Park Elementary. 

Twin Rivers Unified 

• Proposed closing at least four schools in 2011-2012 and at least two schools in 2012-2013. 

Folsom Cordova Unified 

• Cordova Lane Elementary and Riverview Elementary to be closed in 2010-2011.

This Week In Education: Media: How To Write A Sure-Fire Education Story

This Week In Education: Media: How To Write A Sure-Fire Education Story
Media: How To Write A Sure-Fire Education Story

"Dust off an anecdotal lede (best if in a classroom), tuck in a summary nut graph, widen to include some national and regional statistics, throw in a couple of expert voices, add an educator and a parent or student to contrast the experts and show you I’ve talked to local people, then circle back to my anecdote, tie it all together and end with a silver-bullet quote.  All in 10 inches or less, guaranteed to run unless we get more obits than budgeted or another 10 inches of snow."

-- Cathy Grimes, education team leader, The Daily Press, Newport News, Va. 

Mayoral control brings big school changes in D.C. | democratandchronicle.com | Democrat and Chronicle

Mayoral control brings big school changes in D.C. | democratandchronicle.com | Democrat and Chronicle:

"WASHINGTON — Classes dismiss at Watkins Elementary School around 3 p.m., and teacher's assistant April Cole-Walton walks a few blocks west, across Pennsylvania Avenue, beneath Capitol Hill, to St. Peter's Interparish School.

That's where her daughter Breanna goes to school.

'I love Watkins,' Cole-Walton said. 'I went to Watkins. My son went to Watkins.'

That was a long time ago. Her son is now grown, she said, and the school system is in such disrepair that she won't send her own child to the beloved school where she works."

Charter School Founder Faces Financial Scrutiny - NYTimes.com

Charter School Founder Faces Financial Scrutiny - NYTimes.com:

"The founder of a public charter school in the East Bay that provides a comfort zone for Muslim students is under attack in the wake of a state audit that uncovered questionable financial practices, including lavish payments to her."


In 2007, compensation for the founder and director of the FAME school in Fremont, Maram Alaiwat, was more than $240,000. This was roughly the same as the total compensation of the Fremont Unified Schools superintendent, who oversees 38 schools.
Ms. Alaiwat’s compensation package included a base salary of $153,702, a $32,500 housing allowance and a mileage stipend of $7,000. She was also given 10 percent of federal grant money that the school received for books and other needs, a stipend worth $30,000. She was paid $18,700 in lieu of vacation, and was provided with the money to buy a $74,820 2007 Mercedes GL 450.
According to the audit, the five-year-old charter school, Families of Alameda for Multi-Cultural/Multi-Lingual Education, had also taken out more than $3 million in loans from private lenders including Ms. Alaiwat’s two brothers and two school board members, at an interest rate significantly higher than commercial lenders charge. In most cases, the private lenders also received a 10 percent fee.
In addition to the compensation and the loans, Ms. Alaiwat rented her new condominium to an employee, whose salary she subsequently increased.
These financial issues and concerns about lagging test scores are expected to be raised

Mayor Johnson under pressure over school board | clarionledger.com | The Clarion-Ledger

Mayor Johnson under pressure over school board | clarionledger.com | The Clarion-Ledger:

"Community activists and some Jackson City Council members are pressuring Mayor Harvey Johnson Jr. to nominate another African American to the school board instead of trying to get Jonathan Larkin reappointed.

Akil Bakari, state coordinator of the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, said the recent appointment of retired cardiologist George Schimmel to replace H. Ann Jones tilted the racial balance of the five-member board.

Schimmel is white; Jones is black. The board now consists of two whites and three African Americans."

Plan to alter 11th-grade history course protested - CharlotteObserver.com

Plan to alter 11th-grade history course protested - CharlotteObserver.com

When Fox News ran a story last week about an N.C. proposal that would focus high school U.S. history classes on the last 132 years, phones started ringing and e-mail accounts brimmed.

Angry voices asked: Will schools forget about the Founding Fathers? Is the Boston Tea Party getting dumped? Will the Revolutionary War be muzzled?

Under the proposal for teaching social studies, which would have to be approved by the State Board of Education, American history would be spread across several grades. Students would start learning American history in elementary school, as they do now, and continue through middle school and high school. The big junior-year survey would cover the years after Reconstruction.

State school officials said students will still get early American history, but it won't all be crammed into the 11th grade.

Worker: School banned Spanish - CharlotteObserver.com

Worker: School banned Spanish - CharlotteObserver.com:

"A former school secretary has sued Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, saying she lost her job at Devonshire Elementary when a new principal banned her from speaking Spanish to parents who can't speak English.

Ana Ligia Mateo claims she was hired as a bilingual secretary for the east Charlotte school in 2006. But when Suzanne Gimenez took over as principal in 2008, the lawsuit says, Gimenez 'announced in a staff meeting that she would no longer allow Spanish to be spoken to parents by any of the faculty or staff.'

This year 42 percent of Devonshire's 500 students are Hispanic. The school's Web site says that the school theme is 'Academy of Cultural and Academic Diversity.'"

Districts plead with electorate for funding

Districts plead with electorate for funding:

"Sierra Linda High School's 2-year-old basketball team is just starting to grow. Next year, the southwest Valley school hopes to play against other varsity teams.

But all junior varsity and freshman sports will be on the chopping block if Tolleson Union High School District's budget override fails March 9.

Faced with unprecedented state budget cuts and declining enrollment amid the recession, Tolleson and 11 other Maricopa County school districts are asking voters to approve a budget increase.

But some are asking for more money than ever: as much as a 15 percent increase.

Residents have until Monday to register to vote and to weigh in on the issue. Early voting begins Thursday."

Can an interview determine if a teacher will be good? | Education | projo.com | The Providence Journal

Can an interview determine if a teacher will be good? | Education | projo.com | The Providence Journal:

"Since 1994, trainers at the Haberman Educational Foundation in Houston have been teaching the fine art of interviewing prospective teachers to more than 300 schools and districts. Martin Haberman’s half-century of research in the field of teacher training has concluded that beyond content background, two things stand out as key characteristics of good teachers: certain core beliefs, and the ability to persist in the face of student resistance.

Delia Stafford, now CEO and president of the foundation, says, “Our questions are predictive of how teachers will perform in the classroom.”

With a Harvard research study, 10 dissertations, empirical data and ongoing success, Haberman’s training is very much in demand. Recently, they’ve trained the GreenDot and the KIPP charter-school networks, the districts of Guilford City, N.C., San Diego, Newark, Rochester and Memphis, just to name a few. They teach whoever will"

History lessons vary for Colorado students - The Denver Post

History lessons vary for Colorado students - The Denver Post:

"The Great Depression. Stomach-churning slaughterhouse depictions from Upton Sinclair. Immigration. Cubans, the U.S.S. Maine and muckrakers. Prisoners buried alive, upside down, by barbarians.

Welcome to history, U.S. and otherwise, as offered in Colorado high schools. It is taught in classrooms with flat-screen TVs and classrooms barely up to code, to students relaxing in armchairs, students with keen interest and big aspirations and students blocking out the whole business with headphones.

If government mandates, No Child Left Behind and the Colorado Student Assessment Program have created lock- step, fill-in-the-blank curricula for math and reading, as some claim, there can be no such complaints about history."

Test scores spur state to consider new standards | freep.com | Detroit Free Press

Test scores spur state to consider new standards | freep.com | Detroit Free Press:

"Education expert Sharif Shakrani says he'd give Michigan a C for its education system.

Many others would agree.

The state has been lauded for its strong standards and the tough graduation requirements it enacted in 2006. But there is growing concern about student achievement.

Experts say wide differences in test scores across the state are the result of a shocking disparity in how the state's standards are taught from district to district and classroom to classroom -- even in the same building. Some say grade inflation -- giving students a higher grade than their work merits -- is rampant, meaning many graduate high school without being prepared for the rigors of college. School funding cuts have led to larger class sizes, school closures and layoffs, all affecting student achievement, particularly in urban districts such as Detroit."

Orlando breaks lease with nonprofit group so charter school can have building - OrlandoSentinel.com

Orlando breaks lease with nonprofit group so charter school can have building - OrlandoSentinel.com:

"With no public discussion, Orlando has booted a nonprofit driving school from a city-owned building near downtown so it could turn the property over to a new charter school being launched by a high-ranking city official.

It cost the cash-strapped city more than $200,000 to get out of its lease with the Florida Safety Council eight years early, an expense the City Council wasn't told about. At the same time, commissioners voted two weeks ago to lease the building to the fledgling Central Florida Leadership Academy rent-free for its first three years.

At the time the city began discussing terminating the Safety Council's lease, it was wrestling with how to make up a $41 million deficit. And while backers of the charter school say it will eventually repay the city for its short-term losses, they acknowledge there's no guarantee that will happen."

Day cares, parents use kids for profit - JSOnline

Day cares, parents use kids for profit - JSOnline:

"Not in school, children pay price with lack of learning"

Thousands of children from low-income families in Wisconsin are being kept out of kindergarten every year, and the state's subsidized child-care program is a driving factor, turning kids into valuable commodities, an investigation by the Journal Sentinel has found.

The $350 million Wisconsin Shares program lets parents keep their 4-, 5- and even some 6-year-olds in day care centers all day - at taxpayer expense - rather than enroll them in accredited kindergarten programs.

In some cases, unscrupulous parents are participating in an easy scam. They sign up their children with friends or relatives who provide child care. The state then pays the providers roughly $200 a week, and providers give parents a kickback.

In other cases, child-care providers offer free gas, free rent, vacation getaways, $1,000 rebates and other incentives to encourage parents to enroll their children in day care rather than school.

The lax rules are not only a blow to taxpayers, but to the state's neediest children who often wind up in loosely regulated environments where little learning takes place. Day care providers aren't required to meet the standards of teachers, nor are they accountable for what children learn.

Indeed, some children show up for first grade not even knowing their full names or how to hold a pencil, said Ann Terrell, director of curriculum and instruction for pre-kindergarten through fifth grade with Milwaukee Public Schools. Clearly, they have not attended a 

THE EDUCATION FRONT Blog | The Dallas Morning News

THE EDUCATION FRONT Blog | The Dallas Morning News:

"Last week a national report gave Texas a D for its school funding system. Today, Texas lawmakers said they'll study ways to improve school finance.

Granted, it's just a coincidence. But it's another reminder that like most states, Texas' method of funding public education is far from perfect. (For another local, recent reminder, check out Diane Rado's story about Dallas ISD having to share property tax money with other districts.)

Debates over school finance usually focus on two core issues: Adequacy (How much money is spent overall, and is it enough to achieve our state's educational goals?) and Equity (no matter the size of the financial pie, is it split fairly among school districts?). Judging by the following comments, not to mention the current economy, I bet Texas lawmakers will concentrate more on the latter."

Key to student achievement? ASPIRE to it | Viewpoints, Outlook | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle

Key to student achievement? ASPIRE to it | Viewpoints, Outlook | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle:

"It is common knowledge that across the nation, students are struggling. Public-school reform has become so commonplace it barely has meaning anymore. What school system is not in the process of trying to improve? To say that technology has improved the way we communicate and do business is an understatement, when in fact technology has transformed our personal lives and created a global economy. Therefore, if the entire world is undergoing a technological transformation, why are we still talking about education reform? Now is the time to stop thinking about how to improve the old ways of providing education and start thinking about transforming public education into something new.
The Houston Independent School District is doing just that. We have been calling it a reform effort, but what we are doing is transforming public education. According to legislators in Washington, D.C., and national organizations that advocate for public schools, Houston is leading the way."

EducationNews.org - Are the Right People Becoming Teachers? The Implications of Teacher Surveys

EducationNews.org - Are the Right People Becoming Teachers? The Implications of Teacher Surveys

2.5.10 - Martin Haberman - The criteria for deciding whether a job of work is a profession are not all met by every profession, however, most of them must be operative before the term "profession"

Are the Right People Becoming Teachers? The Implications of Teacher Surveys

Martin Haberman
Distinguished Professor Emeritus
University of Wisconsin Milwaukee

What Makes A Job of Work A Profession?
The criteria for deciding whether a job of work is a profession are not all met by every profession, however, most of them must be operative before the term "profession" can be applied to a particular job. Following are the critical criteria, which determine whether a job is a profession.

1. The practitioners know and can do things the public in general cannot do. They have a specialized body of knowledge.

2. The specialized body of knowledge practitioners have takes an extended period of time to learn. 

The Coming Civil War: Public vs. Private | The North Star National

The Coming Civil War: Public vs. Private | The North Star National:

"In the last 18 months, the number of federal government employees making $100,000 a year or more has exploded, despite the economic downturn that has seen private-sector unemployment reach double-digit figures. Per the USA Today, the Department of Transportation alone has gone from one six-figure salary to a staggering 1,690!"

Per the New York Times, state and local governments have added 110,000 jobs while the private sector has lost nearly 7 million. And again per USA Today, benefit packages for government employees at all levels grew at triple the rate of private sector workers.

In the states most on the brink of fiscal disaster, California and New York, government employee unions are the unelected fourth branch of government. They use the money they get to bribe politicians with campaign donations so as to keep the gravy train running on time, and should any dare to suggest that multi-billion (or at the federal level, multi-trillion) dollar deficits are a reason to cut back and stop this fiscally destructive incestuous relationship, they instantly scream like Chicken Little that the sky is falling and if that’s not enough, start threatening to take Louisville Sluggers to kneecaps.

In my home state of Minnesota, which is closely following in their footsteps, you have the laughable display of trying to close a $2 billion plus shortfall while declaring as a prerequisite that 75% of the budget is instantly sacrosanct and untouchable. What eats up that 75%? As you might have guessed: welfare, health care, and education. Or, more accurately described: Democratic (and some Republican) politicians buying lifetime re-election by stealing from the productive to bribe the votes of the parasitic by paying their bills for them.

It matters not which area of the budget that’s larded with waste, from lavish pension plans to luxury benefit plans that dwarf the private sector: the instant the recipients sniff the the tiniest possibility that their cushy living might be reduced in the slightest, they show up at a capitol building shrieking at how evil and cruel those are who would dare to suggest a thing, and promising retribution should it happen. (And in the case of education, unions eagerly and despicably using kids as political human shields.)

In this, they sound like nothing more than hardcore drug addicts who have just been cut off from their stash and begun experiencing the first pangs 

Marquette honors Little Rock 9 - JSOnline

Marquette honors Little Rock 9 - JSOnline:

"Award cites group for desegregating Arkansas high school
By Tom Tolan of the Journal Sentinel
Posted: Feb. 6, 2010

Jefferson Thomas' memories of the segregated schools of Little Rock, Ark., in the years before he helped integrate Central High School with an escort from the 101st Airborne Division, are not entirely negative.

Thomas was the youngest of eight children, and when he was little, his older sisters would read to him from their schoolbooks, teaching him to read and write.

'When I got into the first grade, they thought I was a genius,' says Thomas, a member of the famed Little Rock Nine, who will receive Marquette University's fifth Pere Marquette Discovery Award on Tuesday.

Through his years at the segregated Gibbs Elementary School and Dunbar Junior High School, he had teachers who had affection for him, who encouraged him to perform, who knew his whole family.

But in 1957, when the Little Rock school district was recruiting black students to help carry out the U.S. Supreme Court's decision outlawing school segregation throughout the country and across the South, he jumped at the chance."

$630M to teach English to immigrant adults - Redlands Daily Facts

$630M to teach English to immigrant adults - Redlands Daily Facts:

"California taxpayers have shelled out about $630million over the past 13 years to provide English classes to immigrant adults.
The money was required as part of Proposition 227, an anti-bilingual education initiative passed by voters in 1998.

The measure, approved by 61percent of the voters, said public school kids should learn English as quickly and effectively as possible. It was intended to move students with limited English skills into mainstream classes within one year.

To help accomplish that goal, the state spent $50million annually over 10 years to provide free English classes to immigrant parents and others who pledged to tutor kids with limited English proficiency.

The state Legislature reauthorized the program in 2006. About $130million was allocated in the following three fiscal years. The program is slated to receive about $40million in the 2010-2011 budget."

How to create great schools - Press-Telegram

How to create great schools - Press-Telegram:

"In a meeting recently in Northern California, an educator grumbled that it didn't do any good to make a field trip to Long Beach to try to copy the local school district's successes in raising student scores. And he was right.

But here's what would do some good. Take a close look at what is working there and elsewhere, and you'll find the secret of success. It's surprisingly simple, but it's also hard work.

Long Beach Unified has its problems, but it also is has won the prestigious Broad Prize for Urban Education and has been a finalist for the prize five times. It is doing many things right, and although an educator can't copy them with one field trip, the techniques can be learned.

As Amanda Ripley has written in a recent edition of the Atlantic magazine, people tend to ascribe great teachers' gifts to some mystical quality that we can recognize and revere, but not replicate. But at last, research about teachers' impact is too overwhelming to ignore."

CSUS seeing quick growth in demand for Net classes - Local - Modbee.com

CSUS seeing quick growth in demand for Net classes - Local - Modbee.com:

"TURLOCK — Between her job at Victoria's Secret and pitching for the California State University, Stanislaus, softball team, Stacy Hains doesn't have a lot of time during the day or evening to attend classes.
The senior education major found that taking some of her courses online solved her time crunch.
'There's a lot of versatility of when I have time to sit down and do my work,' Hains said. 'I can go on at 11 o'clock at night.'
Demand from students such as Hains has driven rapid growth in the university's online classes in the four years since CSU, Stanislaus, started offering them.
In the fall, 1,400 students took 42 online classes. In spring, the university will offer 61 online or hybrid (with online and traditional components) classes, said Brian Duggan, director of learning services at CSU, Stanislaus."

Dallasblog.com, the Dallas, Texas news blog and Dallas, Texas information source for the DFW Metroplex. - DALLAS BLOG - Interview: Higher Education Commissioner Paredes

Dallasblog.com, the Dallas, Texas news blog and Dallas, Texas information source for the DFW Metroplex. - DALLAS BLOG - Interview: Higher Education Commissioner Paredes:

"Lawmakers these past few years have emphasized structuring the higher education system to ensure that a higher percentage of students earn degrees or certificates in a more timely manner.
Commissioner of Higher Education Raymund Paredes spoke last week to the Texas Association of Business and detailed his proposal to include a merit component to the awarding of previously need-only TEXAS [Toward Excellence, Access, and Success] Grant scholarships to state universities. In a conversation with Will Lutz, Paredes elaborated on his ideas.
LUTZ: Tell us how a merit component to the TEXAS Grant Program would look."

Students, teachers rallying behind AB 656 - Torrico

Students, teachers rallying behind AB 656 - Torrico:

"San Jose, CA (February 5) -- Assembly Majority Leader Alberto Torrico, author of the Assembly Bill (AB) 656, claimed lately that about 50,000 Californians, mostly college students and teachers, are rallying for the passage of the bill that hopes to raise over $2 billion to fund higher education out of oil 'extraction' tax.
The 50,000 supporters were gathered through grassroots signature and online petition by his staff.
'I was the first person in the family to go to college. And I'm grateful that I had the opportunity to attend the UC System. I believe, passionately, that no student should ever be turned away because they cannot afford higher education. And now, with the help of over 50,000 people... we will increase access to quality and affordable higher education for all,' Torrico said."

Parents, students on edge over soaring tuition

Parents, students on edge over soaring tuition:

"SEATTLE — As students around the country anxiously wait for college acceptance letters, their parents are sweating the looming tuition bills at public universities.

Florida college students could face yearly 15 percent tuition increases for years, and University of Illinois students will pay at least 9 percent more. The University of Washington will charge 14 percent more at its flagship campus. And in California, tuition increases of more than 30 percent have sparked protests reminiscent of the 1960s.
Tuition has been trending upward for years, but debate in statehouses and trustee meeting rooms has been more urgent this year as most states struggle their way out of the economic meltdown.
The College Board says families are paying about $172 to $1,096 more in tuition and fees this school year. The national average for 2009-2010 is about $7,020, not including room and board, according to the nonprofit association of colleges that oversees the SATs and Advanced Placement tests."

Occupy Everything Fight Everywhere Strike March 4 - Infoshop News

Occupy Everything Fight Everywhere Strike March 4 - Infoshop News:

"The call has gone out. On March 4th, students, workers and teachers throughout the nation and across the globe will strike. Pre K-12, adult education, community colleges, and state-funded universities will come together in an international Strike and Day of Action to resist the neoliberal destruction of public education in California and beyond. We stand beside all who wish to transform public education, and we seek to advance the struggle by generalizing the tactic that has, by far, been the strength of the movement: direct action. In keeping with the spirit of March 4th, we call upon everyone, everywhere, to occupy everything—from collapsing public universities and closed high schools to millions of foreclosed homes. We call on all concerned students and workers to escalate the fight against privatization where they are, in solidarity with the California statewide actions. We envision a network of occupied campuses in multiple states across the nation."

Pressing for changes to charter school law - baltimoresun.com

Pressing for changes to charter school law - baltimoresun.com:

"Advocates for Maryland's charter schools are gearing up for what they hope will be a watershed year for reform of the state's charter school law, as state officials plan to seek millions in federal funding contingent upon changes in education policies.

Maryland could stand to gain as much as $250 million in Race to the Top funds from the U.S. Department of Education, which this year is awarding money to states with what it considers the most forward-thinking policies. With legislation an essential tool in winning the federal money, advocates for charter schools see the current General Assembly session as the time to push for reform of the state charter school law, widely viewed as weak and in need of an overhaul."

Politics - A Practiced Politician Who Doesn’t Look It - NYTimes.com

Politics - A Practiced Politician Who Doesn’t Look It - NYTimes.com:

"Joe Simitian has spent nearly half his life in elective office, having served on the Palo Alto school board, the City Council, as mayor, on the County Board of Supervisors and in the State Assembly. Now he is in his second and final term in the State Senate. He is married to his political consultant."


On paper, Mr. Simitian seems like the very definition of a career politician.
But sit down with him and you come away with a different impression. Riffing comfortably on topics from education reform to highway safety, from environmental policy to infrastructure, Mr. Simitian sounds more like a wonk than a wannabe.

The truth is that he is a little bit of both. Educated as a city planner and trained as a lawyer, Mr. Simitian is serious about public policy and is something of a maverick. He is willing, on occasion, to offend powerful interest groups.

He is also as ambitious as any politician, practiced in the art of getting his name on important legislation and in the newspaper. Even now he is plotting a possible run for Congress should Representative Jackie Speier run for attorney general, though Ms. Speier’s district covers large portions of

Building the movement | San Francisco Bay Guardian

Building the movement | San Francisco Bay Guardian:

 "UC student organizers work to broaden support for the March 4 Strike and Day of Action"

Frustrated by deep cuts to education spending and quality, momentum is building across California in support of the "Strike and Day of Action to Defend Public Education" on March 4.

Students, laborers, and faculty throughout the University of California system are trying to expand on last semester's organizing efforts by strengthening ties to groups from all tiers of the public education system. But questions linger about the best way to proceed and what exactly the event should look like.

"I think that the regents and [UC President Mark] Yudof are very fearful of what would happen if the students and workers united. They could be unstoppable," said Bob Samuels, president of the University Council-American Federation of Teachers (UC-AFT).

That collaboration is exactly what many grassroots organizers are hoping to achieve, although their central message is not limited to participants in the UC system alone. They argue that fee increases and cutbacks at the universities are symptomatic of a greater problem, namely the denigration of free and low-cost public education.

"This emerged as a movement of students and workers at the university level. What we're doing now is going beyond the UCs," said Blanca Misse, a graduate student and member of the Student Worker Action Team (SWAT).

By reaching out to members of preschool, K-12 public school, community college, and California State University communities, organizers hope to turn March 4 into a rallying moment for the entire public education system in the state. Organizers also want to ensure that the UC system isn't funded at the expense of other institutions of public learning.

In cash-strapped state, how will we pay for public higher education? - Sacramento News - Local and Breaking Sacramento News | Sacramento Bee

In cash-strapped state, how will we pay for public higher education? - Sacramento News - Local and Breaking Sacramento News | Sacramento Bee

On a mild, overcast day in October 2007, aUniversity of California graduate lobbed a rhetorical bomb at his alma mater: What if the public university went private?

"Suppose," mused state Treasurer Bill Lockyer in a widely distributed report on California's fiscal future, that "the state eliminated all its direct general fund support from the UC system,allowing it to set its own budget and raise revenues to replace the state's share."

Lockyer's supposition, which he was quick to point out he wasn't advocating, sparked an uproar among academic leaders and editorial writers, then slipped back into the Capitol's sea of partisan squabbling and budget crises.

But the issue has never really stopped making waves. As California's iconic Master Plan for Higher Education marks its 50th anniversary this year, and the state struggles to balance its books, variations of Lockyer's "privatization" question are being posed more frequently.

"Should higher education be treated as a public