Initiatives you won’t see on November ballot | EdSource

Initiatives you won’t see on November ballot | EdSource:

Initiatives you won’t see on November ballot

July 21, 2014 | By John Fensterwald | No Comments



Earlier this year, the secretary of state’s office gave sponsors of six proposed education-related ballot measures the go-ahead to collect the 505,000 signatures each needed to appear on the November  ballot. None qualified.

Those that fell by the wayside are two proposals that would have rewritten teacher dismissal and evaluations statutes, two that would have imposed hiring restrictions and new disclosure requirements for charter school operators and two that would have given school districts added financial protections from the Legislature.

The one ballot measure that voters will see is Proposition 44, Gov. Jerry Brown’s revisions to the rainy day fund, which sets up a separate reserve for money from Proposition 98, the primary source of state funding for K-12 districts and community colleges. Still awaiting Brown’s OK is a school construction bond measure, which would total between $2 billion and $9 billion to fund building renovations and construction for K-12 schools, community colleges, the University of California and California State University. Brown is determined to reduce the state’s load of debt and wants to minimize the amounts of new bonds. He is negotiating with legislative leaders over his first priority, a water bond to build new dams and pay for water conservation efforts. Its size may determine whether the governor consents to put a school construction bond before voters.

The one ballot measure that voters will see is Proposition 44, Gov. Jerry Brown’s revisions to the rainy day fund, which sets up a separate reserve for money from Proposition 98, the primary source of state funding for K-12 districts and community colleges .

The proposed initiatives didn’t qualify for the ballot because sponsors withdrew their measures or didn’t submit the required signatures. The measures included plans to:

• Make it easier to fire teachers accused of sexually assaulting children and other egregious forms of misconduct. Bill Lucia, CEO of the advocacy group EdVoice, the initiative’s sponsor, agreed  not to pursue the measure if the Legislature passed a bill achieving the same purpose. It did, and Brown signed Assembly Bill 215 into law last month.

• Rewrite the law on teacher evaluations to require annual evaluations using student progress on test scores for at least one-third of a teacher’s rating, and to use these evaluations, not a teacher’s length of service or seniority, as the basis for determining layoffs. Consultant Matt David, affiliated with the national advocacy group StudentsFirst, created by former Washington, D.C., schools chancellor Michelle Rhee, didn’t  launch a signature drive for the proposed initiative.

• Prohibit low-performing charter schools from hiring intern teachers, who lack a teaching credential, and administrators who lack an administrative credential. This measure was sponsored by the California Teachers Association, which wouldInitiatives you won’t see on November ballot | EdSource: