Gov. Jerry Brown and the Legislature agree: The state should again require a minimum 180-day school year, starting in 2015-16.
Brown confirmed his view in a section of the 154-page education “trailer bill,” the supplemental legislation accompanying the state budget, that the administration released last week.
The Legislature reduced the minimum number of instructional days to 175 in 2008, amid severe cuts in school funding, in order to allow school districts to shut down operations and use staff furloughs instead of additional layoffs. Lawmakers set an expiration date at the end of the 2014-15 school year. Brown is recommending the same timetable.
The LAO survey found that 20 percent of districts had cut one to four days off the school year and 20 percent of districts had eliminated five days, lowering the instructional calendar to 175 days, in 2010-11. Some districts have maintained the shorter year since then. (Click to enlarge)
Districts took up the offer. According to the Legislative Analyst’s Office, which did a survey of districts, 39 percent of districts reduced the school year by 2010-11, with a fifth of districts dropping one to four days and a fifth of districts reducing the maximum five days. Most districts kept the shorter year in 2011-12, too.
A survey by EdSource of the state’s 30 largest
Districts pocketing school lunch money for other expenses - by John Fensterwald
A report commissioned by the state Senate has exposed a little-noticed problem that investigators suspect could be a prevalent scam: school districts improperly siphoning school meals revenue to cover other expenses. According to the report by the California Senate Office of Oversight and Outcomes, some districts have cut corners on the federally subsidized school lunch and breakfast programs –...