Transitional Kindergarten: Preparing California’s Children to Succeed
By Deborah Kong
Preschool California
As schools across California gear up to offer transitional kindergarten – the first new grade introduced in state schools since 1891, when kindergarten began in the Golden State – educators and policymakers from across the state gathered at a statewide summit recently to talk about getting transitional kindergarten classrooms up and running next fall.
Transitional kindergarten, the first year of a two-year kindergarten experience for children born between September and December, is an exciting new opportunity to help better prepare our children for kindergarten and beyond. Transitional kindergarten was created by the Kindergarten Readiness Act of 2010, which also changed the kindergarten entry date from Dec. 2 to Sept. 1, so children enter kindergarten at age 5.
Why Is the Oakland Police Department Hiding the Truth About Its Violent Crackdown on the Occupy Protests?
By Joshua Holland
AlterNet
After three notably violent crackdowns on protesters in as many weeks, Oakland Police Department officials have refused a request by the ACLU of Northern California to release police reports documenting their use of force as required by law.
“We saw events that we found extremely troubling, and which violated provisions of Oakland's own crowd control policy,” Linda Lye, a staff attorney with ACLU of Northern California told AlterNet.
After recent police actions in Oakland gained national attention, “there was a lot of lip service paid to transparency and accountability and the public's interest in monitoring the situation,” she said. “But then OPD proceeded to say that it was invoking one of the statutory exceptions to the Public Records Act for the vast majority of our requests.”
Don’t Buy Into Generational Warfare: Keep the Super Committee Accountable to the 99%
By Scott Hochberg
Strengthen Social Security Campaign
The 12-member Super Committee is down to its final two weeks to produce a plan to cut at least $1.2 trillion from the federal budget. According to recent reports, both Democratic and Republicanproposals have contained sizable cuts from Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid – all programs that benefit the large majority of Americans in the 99% – while offering little in the way of new revenues.