Report: Many Schools Lack Funds to Protect LGBTQ Students
The most discouraging finding of a report on LGBTQ students may be that only 130 of California’s 343 unified school districts responded to the survey.
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California public school districts have been graded on how well they serve LGBTQ students – with mixed results. The “Safe and Supportive Schools Report Card,” issued this week by the Los Angeles-based advocacy organization Equality California Institute, gave schools high marks for anti-bullying and suicide-prevention policies, but noted that there was considerable room for improvement in school curricula, staff diversity training and policies involving transgender and gender-nonconforming students. The report noted that while some schools may be in direct violation of state laws passed to protect LGBTQ students, “many school districts lack the resources to implement these laws, face hostile local social climates that impede implementation or lack awareness regarding the laws’ requirements and the best ways to meet them.”
The findings are based on a survey distributed in 2017 to all 343 California unified school districts. Perhaps the report’s most discouraging finding is that so few districts had been even willing to participate, despite a letter of support from then-State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson and an extensive yearlong outreach campaign. In total, only 130 school districts opted to respond to the inaugural survey.
Los Angeles school board candidate Jackie Goldberg’s runoff election win proved an even bigger rout than her March 5 primary blowout. On Tuesday night Goldberg enjoyed a lopsided 72-28 percent victory margin over Heather Repenning. The L.A. Unified School District race had been somewhat cast as a public schools vs. charters contest, but the state’s charter school lobby, perhaps still suffering from PTSD after its losses in the gubernatorial and schools chief races, sat this one out. Instead, the campaign partly became a union vs. union tussle, with United Teachers LA backing Goldberg and the union that represents non-instructional school workers, SEIU Local 99, supporting Repenning. (These weren’t the only labor groups involved, though, as each candidate claimed support from a slew of other organized labor groups.)
Jackie Goldberg photo by Bill Raden
One thing’s certain about Goldberg’s win — charter schools are definitely in a more defensive position than they were when pro-privatization board member Ref Rodriguez occupied the CONTINUE READING: Report: Many Schools Lack Funds to Protect LGBTQ Students | Capital & Main