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Thursday, February 21, 2013

Sac Schools Get Sacked – @ the chalk face

Sac Schools Get Sacked – @ the chalk face:


Sac Schools Get Sacked

Ok.  When Diane Ravitch speaks, I’m sure it’s a shot heard round the world.  But, I’m saddened and livid at the news I found in one of her blogs today.  I spent a most of my life teaching in California schools.  I know Sacramento. A lot of us from three hundred miles south would travel up there frequently to attend meetings with colleagues.  Definitely not to visit the governor living in his mansion in downtown Sacramento.
“The fierce urgency of now, and no democratic process whatever.”  This quote from Dr. Ravitch’s blog piece caught my eye. And I abruptly choked.  I read on.  She wrote about how the Superintendent of Schools for SCUSD (Sacramento City Unified School District), along with the SCUSD Board of Education has “cherry-picked” the cost / revenue figures of the 11 schools being closed with no consideration of the impacts to students, families, and communities.  One of the Superintendent’s henchmen on the Sac City Council said that the Supt. had a real “heavy heart” about his decision.  His decision?  The official word is that no one wants to see across the board cuts to programs and staff positions if the underutilized school sites were kept open.  So, we’re going to put up some phony figures to show how under-utilized the schools are and close them for the