Civil rights groups sue state for violating rights of English learners | California Watch

Civil rights groups sue state for violating rights of English learners | California Watch:

Civil rights groups sue state for violating rights of English learners

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Corey G. Johnson

Civil rights groups are accusing the state of violating the constitutional rights of English learners in the Dinuba Unified School District by implementing a program that bars first- and second-grade non-English-speaking students from reading classes.
District teachers and parents say the program, called Structured Language Acquisition Development Instruction, requires first- and second-grade English learners to deconstruct complex sentences and memorize formal parts of speech before they have been taught basic reading skills.
While other first- and second-graders are given books and taught how to read, English learners at Dinuba are

School bond measures raise funds from businesses with financial interest

Deanne Fitzmaurice/California Watch

Will Evans

As voters around the state decide on more than two dozen local school bond measures tomorrow, the campaigns promoting many of them are funded largely by businesses that stand to benefit financially.
On local ballots from San Diego to Sonoma County, 28 school bond measures would authorize a combined $2.1 billion in debt to fund school construction, repairs and improvements, according to Ballotpedia, which tracks ballot measures. Twelve of the measures affect schools in the Bay Area, from Antioch to Mountain View and Sebastopol.
Bond campaigns draw small contributions from community members and school officials, but the larger donations often come from companies that work for the school districts: architects, construction companies, and the financial and law firms hired to work on selling the bonds. By law, school districts can't spend public money

The Rainmakers: California's top political donors, 2001-2011

Lavishing their largesse to legislators and political committees alike, the largest donors to California politics spent $1.25 billion from 2001 through 2011.