Capital & Main: Eli Broad Wanted to Destroy Public Education | Diane Ravitch's blog

Capital & Main: Eli Broad Wanted to Destroy Public Education | Diane Ravitch's blog

Capital & Main: Eli Broad Wanted to Destroy Public Education

Upon his death recently, Eli Broad received many laudatory obituaries, describing his philanthropic contributions to the arts and medical research. He even built an art museum in Los Angeles, named for himself. Modesty was not one of his virtues.

Less noted was his determination to disrupt and destroy public education. Not only did he launch an ambitious plan to privatize 50% of the public schools in Los Angeles, but his Broad Superintendents Academy “trained” scores of aspiring superintendents in his philosophy, which meant top-down, tough management and a willingness to close schools with low test scores and replace them with charter schools, no matter how much the schools were loved by students, teachers, parents, and the local community. Anyone could apply to his Academy regardless of previous job experience or lack of education experience.

I was invited to meet Eli Broad at his penthouse apartment on Fifth Avenue in New York City about ten years ago. He explained to me that he didn’t know anything about education but knew management. Lack of management skills, he said, was the biggest problem in education.

I have yet to see any evidence that Broad leaders were CONTINUE READING: Capital & Main: Eli Broad Wanted to Destroy Public Education | Diane Ravitch's blog

SEIU sets strike dates in Sacramento City Unified School District for custodians, food service workers

SEIU sets strike dates in Sacramento City Unified School District for custodians, food service workers

Union sets strike dates in Sacramento City Unified School District for custodians, food service workers

The union representing school support staff contends it still has concerns about safety and affordable child care for its members

SACRAMENTO, Calif. —

The ongoing stalemate in labor negotiations between the Sacramento City Unified School District and the Service Employees International Union could lead to a scenario where students face picket lines on campus when in-person learning resumes next week.

The local SEIU chapter, which represents 1,900 members including custodians, bus drivers, instructional aides and food service workers, announced on Thursday that it is planning a two-day strike.

The strike dates are April 22 and 23.

The union contends it still has concerns about safety and affordable child care for its members.

"The main thing we want is for the distancing to be universal, for the N-95 mask to be fitted. And, we need to figure a way to get daycare for our kids," said Karla Faucett, SEIU chapter president.

However, the district countered those claims.

"The main concerns are not health and safety, as framed by SEIU, but instead center on the amount of stipends their members will receive and whether their members will receive child care provided by the district," read a SCUSD statement.

On April 12, the Public Employment Relations Board granted a request to move both parties into the mediation process. Both parties are tentatively scheduled to meet on Monday, according to the district.

The Sacramento City Teachers Association voted to support the SEIU workers with a sympathy strike.

SEIU sets strike dates in Sacramento City Unified School District for custodians, food service workers

Tulsa, Okla., Schools Plan To Use Latest Stimulus To Expand Learning Opportunities : NPR

Tulsa, Okla., Schools Plan To Use Latest Stimulus To Expand Learning Opportunities : NPR

Tulsa, Okla., Schools Plan To Use Latest Stimulus To Expand Learning Opportunities

NPR's Ailsa Chang speaks with Jorge Robles, chief financial officer for Tulsa Public Schools about plans for using the latest stimulus funding for expanded learning opportunities.

AILSA CHANG, HOST:

Schools around the country are about to get a massive infusion of funds. The coronavirus relief package signed into law late last week will pump nearly $130 billion into K-12 schools across the country. And there's additional money for state governments, which will also help many of these struggling school districts. Twenty percent of the money that school districts receive is targeted at addressing what's called learning loss, and that's where Jorge Robles comes in. He's the CFO of Tulsa Public Schools, where the district has already announced a host of new programs aimed at helping students regain some of the learning that was lost during the pandemic.

Welcome.

JORGE ROBLES: Thank you for having me.

CHANG: Well, as we mentioned, your district has announced a lot of new programs. Can you just give us an idea of what's being offered?

ROBLES: Some of the things that we're offering are - for our high school students, we're having - we're setting up a series of programs that go from one-on-one tutoring to boot camps as well as a - we call it the Twilight Academy. So we're - students have flexible evening learning options so that our students who are in secondary can actually have an opportunity to work with teachers and counselors on catching up on learning and work to make sure that they're graduating on time and they're meeting all the graduation requirements.

And then we're also planning for next school year to make accessible our before and after care for all of our families that we know are very important opportunities for families to access enrichment programs and supports before and after school. And it's a great support for families overall and allows their - our students to continue to engage and learn in safe, joyous environments where they can engage with others and adults.

CHANG: I mean, it sounds like it could be very expensive. And I understand that these one-on-one tutoring plans were announced even before the relief package was signed into law in Washington. I mean, would you have even been able to do this one-on-one tutoring program without this extra funding from the federal government, you think?

ROBLES: It would be extremely hard to do those. So we would have - probably have to change the scale of which we could have been doing them. Having a stimulus package of the size that was authorized, it allows us to essentially put these programs in place for a longer period of time and then have a better degree of success on supporting our CONTINUE READING: Tulsa, Okla., Schools Plan To Use Latest Stimulus To Expand Learning Opportunities : NPR

$225 Million In New Revenue: 10 Facts About the SCUSD Budget - Sacramento City Teachers Association

$225 Million In New Revenue: 10 Facts About the SCUSD Budget - Sacramento City Teachers Association

$225 MILLION IN NEW REVENUE: 10 FACTS ABOUT THE SCUSD BUDGET

Fact # 1:  Since the 2012-2013 school year, the District has run a surplus every year except one:  2017-18 (2012-13 to 2018-19 Projections & 2012-13 to 2018-19 Actuals).  The District was told by the Sacramento County Office of Education it needed to make budget cuts to offset the costs of our contract settlement. Instead Superintendent Aguilar went on a spending spree including $6 million to cash out the vacation of the District’s top administrators.

Fact #2:  In March 2019, the Sacramento City Unified School Board passed resolution No. 3060 “On Fiscal Solvency Plan to Save Our Schools” which included the following:

“District Superintendent, Jorge Aguilar, has agreed to forgo any salary increase allowed under his Employment Agreement until the District receives either a qualified or positive certification as defined in Education Code section 42131, subdivision (a)(1).”

The District still has not had a budget that has received “either a qualified or positive certification as defined in Education Code section 42131, subdivision (a) (1)” and yet Superintendent Aguilar has taken a $34,126 increase in his total compensation.

Fact #3:  The District has the largest reserve fund in its history:  $93 million.  That’s 8 times higher than the 2% reserve required by the state.

Fact #4:  Since the District’s budget was rejected for the first time in August 2018, the first time an SCUSD budget was rejected in its entire history, the SCUSD reserve has INCREASED by than $23 million. (Ending Fund Balance 2018-19 vs Ending Fund Balance 2019-20).

Fact #5:  At its current $89 million (down from the original budget of $101.3 million) the SCUSD budget currently includes $70 million in books and supplies, more than it traditionally spends in this category.  Chief Business Officer Rose Ramos has acknowledged that these extra tens of millions of dollars are parked in books and supplies until the District figures out how to spend the dollars.

Fact #6:  The District, in a transaction approved by the previous school board on the consent agenda on November 5, 2020 and by the Sacramento County Office of Education (SCOE), went forward with the $6 million purchase of unproven portable air filtration units, even after SCTA recommended that the District seek advice from scientific experts.  Since then, the units had to be taken out of classrooms when SCTA and SEIU raised health and safety concerns and demanded their removal.

Fact #7:  The District is receiving $124 million in new revenue from the federal government as a result of two COVID relief packages (here and here).  This does not include the millions more expected to come from the new Biden administration.

Fact #8:  Governor Newsom’s California State Budget, which calls for the highest K-12 spending in California history, will result in $100 million or more in new revenue for SCUSD.

Fact #9:  Even with Chief Business Officer Rose Ramos’ overly conservative calculations, based on the Governor’s January budget, the District should present a POSITIVELY CERTIFIED Second Interim Budget for board approval in March.

Fact #10:  For the District to cut any services to students or to demand $20 million in shifting health care costs onto staff resulting in cuts to take-home pay by as much as 34.6%, or over $17,000 per year, is unconscionable.

$225 Million In New Revenue: 10 Facts About the SCUSD Budget - Sacramento City Teachers Association

Choosing Democracy: Bretón Vs. the Sacramento Teachers

Choosing Democracy: Bretón Vs. the Sacramento Teachers

Bretón Vs. the Sacramento Teachers

Sacramento Bee opinionnaire  Marcos Bretón offers up one of his frequent attacks on the Sacramento teachers’ union in today’s Bee https://www.sacbee.com/opinion/article249152435.html.

It is the usual anti union diatribe filled with paragraphs cut and pasted from prior columns.  He purposes to deal with the issue of opening schools in Sacramento.  If you ignore all the hyperbole, you get down to the dividing issue – when should Sacramento City Unified re open schools.

There is substantive agreement between the district administration and the union except for one issue. 

Should teachers be given vaccines prior to returning to work.  That is the issue.

Bretón has one side; the union argues teachers should have vaccines first.  That's all.  The remainder in innuendo and name calling. 

Below  is an alternate view- with data citations. 

Re: Opening schools

David Dayen, The American Prospect  Feb.15, 2021

Last Friday the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention finally released a long-awaited set of guidelines for how to safely reopen schools. It really says what the data has said for a while: schools are generally safe when community transmission is low, less safe when transmission is high, and only really safe when following mitigation guidelines, which include masking, social distancing, frequent hand washing and things like not coughing out loud without covering your mouth, sanitation, ventilation, quarantine and isolation for the sick, and contact tracing. Many observers have put the lack of school reopening on teachers and particularly teachers unions, but the polling shows a different story, which plays directly into the above paragraph. If you ask parents whether they want to return their kids to in-person instruction, you see a significant disparity cut by race and class. In general terms, whiter, richer parents are more likely to want to return their kids to school; poorer parents and parents of color do not. And the difference is that, for the whiter and richer parents, their communities have not been as ravaged by COVID, and their schools can actually undertake the mitigation measures.

Black and Latino communities have seen a disproportionate level of death and suffering during the pandemic. Whether community transmission is high right now or not in their area, the accumulated impact makes it feel high. (In truth, community transmission has been high pretty much everywhere in the country since late fall, and only now is coming CONTINUE READING: Choosing Democracy: Bretón Vs. the Sacramento Teachers

Choosing Democracy: SCUSD Ends 2019-20 with $23 million surplus, reserve fund grows to $93 million

Choosing Democracy: SCUSD Ends 2019-20 with $23 million surplus, reserve fund grows to $93 million

SCUSD ENDS 2019-20 WITH $23 MILLION SURPLUS, RESERVE FUND GROWS TO $93 MILLION

Sac City Unified Budget - A Message from Superintendent Aguilar - Sacramento City Unified School District - https://www.scusd.edu/e-connections-post/sac-city-unified-budget-message-superintendent-aguilar on @officialscusd

In 2012-13, the State of California introduced a new way of financing K-12 education with the introduction of the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF).  It was implemented beginning in the 2013-14 school year.

A look at the budget projections of the Sacramento City Unified School District (SCUSD) one year prior to the implementation of LCFF, and the seven years since, demonstrates SCUSD’s a clear and consistent pattern of grossly inaccurate budget projections.

In California, school districts are required by law to submit three budgets during a fiscal year.  The Original Budget is submitted in July, the First Interim Budget in December, and the Second Interim Budget in March.  At the conclusion of the year, a districts actual performance is released in September as its “Unaudited Actuals.”  Chart 1 looks at the SCUSD Original, July 1, budgets for 2012-13 and compares them to Unaudited Actuals for that same year.

School districts of the size of SCUSD are also required a minimum Unrestricted Cash Balance Reserve of 2% of its expenditures.  For 2019-20, the 2% represented $11.9 million.

It is worth noting, that in the last eight years, SCUSD ended with a deficit only in 2017-18.  Ironically, in December of that same year, the Sacramento County Office of Education strongly advised District administrators to reduce expenses by $15.7 million during the remainder of that school year.  SCUSD ignored the SCOE recommendation, and instead actually increased its unbudgeted unrestricted fund spending including on the following:

• A $6 million vacation buyout for top administrators;
• The introduction of a poorly planned and administered Summer School Program;
• The additional of 18 unbudgeted administrative positions;

This led to SCOE rejecting the SCUSD 2018-19 budget, the first time in SCOE’s history a Sacramento County school district has had its budget rejected.  Since then, SCOE has rejected three additional SCUSD budgets.

Chart 2 looks at the inaccuracy of SCUSD budget projections for the last two school years—even with a SCOE-appointed Fiscal Advisor helping to administer SCUSD finances—since SCOE first rejected the SCUSD budget.  Because SCUSD budget was rejected, it is required to submit a Third Interim Budget in May.

Throughout 2018-19, SCUSD claimed to be on the brink of insolvency.  It ended the year with a unrestricted fund surplus.  Again in 2019-20, SCUSD still claimed to be on the brink of insolvency and projected a $12 million deficit for the year.  With six weeks remaining in the fiscal year, the District now projects a $3.2 million surplus—a $15.5 million turnaround, which might be noteworthy except that it is consistent with the District’s budgeting practices for at least the last eight years.

2019-20 was even more extreme.  SCUSD started the fiscal year projected a $12.3 million deficit.  It ended the year with a $23.6 million surplus, a difference of $35.9 million. SCUSD’s unrestricted reserve fund now is $84,699,103 and its total unrestricted/unrestricted reserve fund is $93,048,611, the highest in SCUSD history.  It is worth noting that SCUSD’s Third Interim Budget which was released in May 2020 with fewer than six weeks remaining in the fiscal year underestimated the District end of the year surplus by over $20 million.

Choosing Democracy: SCUSD Ends 2019-20 with $23 million surplus, reserve fund grows to $93 million

Lori Jablonski: The OP Ed the SacBee Refused to Print

 The OP Ed the SacBee Refused to Print

From Lori Jablonski

The Sacramento Bee consistently begs for support for local journalism and claims to be a forum for important issues that concern our region. Yet its editors have refused to print a timely and insightful opinion piece from CK McClatchy's Lori Jablonski.

At the same time, the Bee continues to print anti-teacher, anti-union attacks from its ethically-challenged "opinion" writer Marcos Breton that are riddled with factual errors.

Here is Lori's piece that was submitted to the Bee, but their editor board, which now includes Marcos Breton, refused to print.

SCUSD isn’t going broke–it’s broken. We know how to fix it.

By Lori Jablonski

Recently, the Bee reported that community leaders called on Sacramento City Unified School District (SCUSD) officials and the teachers’ union “to work together in creating a distance-learning plan and preventing the cash-strapped district from going insolvent.” It hasn’t happened and this is why.

Quite simply, SCUSD isn’t “going broke” but it is broken.

Since August 2018, Superintendent Jorge Aguilar and Board President Jessie Ryan have repeatedly and falsely claimed that SCUSD is on the brink of a state takeover. In May 2020, district leaders claimed it would end the year with a $5.9 million deficit.

But six weeks later, after the 2019-20 finances were tallied, SCUSD reported a $23 million surplus and a reserve fund of $93 million—nine times higher than the minimum required by the state. It was the biggest reserve fund in SCUSD history.

District leaders are projecting for 20-21 that SCUSCD will face a deficit of $26.4 million. Meanwhile, they are parking $101.3 million of their $640-million budget in “books and supplies.” SCUSD spent a fraction, $11 million, on the same budget line in 19-20. This “creative accounting,” which has been going on for years, deceives the community and deprives students of much needed services.

SCUSD has failed to properly report its finances for the past eight years and committed numerous jaw-dropping accounting errors. In the spring of 2019, for example, district administrators failed to count the enrollment at five schools, which amounted to an $8-million-per-year mistake. Based on this accounting error, the school board laid off 400 staff, including 175 teachers. 

Michael Fine, a top finance official in state education, has said that he has “no confidence” in the district’s financial data. At the same time the school board presented a troubled financial picture to the public, it rewarded the superintendent with pay increases resulting in a salary nearly double the governor’s pay.

This past spring, the pandemic-related distance-learning rollout was a disaster. Many students had trouble connecting and faced a prolonged shortage of Chromebooks. When teachers offered to provide assistance to students and families, the school board responded by having the superintendent send a “cease and desist” letter threatening to sue any educator who provided technical advice to students and parents.

Faced with a return to distance learning this fall, more than 200 educators--on their own time, with input from 1,000 other teachers—developed a comprehensive distance-learning plan.

In contrast, SCUSD assigned two administrators with no distance-learning instructional experience to come up with their own directives. SCUSD demanded more standardized testing and more screen time than any of the surrounding districts, which would have been especially counter-productive, even harmful, for the youngest learners. The administration appeared to be more concerned about how its program looked on paper than how it worked in practice, a trend criticized by Carl Pinkston of the Black Parallel School Board as quoted by the Bee: “The district has not been honest and truthful with the public and itself about its historical failure to provide quality education for all kids.”

Fortunately, state law prohibits a district from imposing its will without teacher input. While some matters could be agreed upon, such as the Google learning platform and total instructional time, teachers strongly opposed the SCUSD’s one-size-fits-all approach. Using their professional judgment, they have continued to teach to the needs of each class and student.

Distance learning won’t last forever. The Sacramento City Teachers Association and district officials have begun discussing when and how to return safely to school. But if SCUSD continues to ignore the input of thousands of educators about what our students need, both academically and in terms of health and safety, negotiations about a return to the classroom will be as difficult as earlier negotiations.

Who can trust district leaders who repeatedly deceive the public, manipulate district finances, and disregard the input of educators? We can fix this -- the place to start is with the upcoming election for school board members.

Lori Jablonski teaches government at CK McClatchy High School. She has taught in SCUSD for 20 years.

Sacramento City Teachers Association |916.452.4591 | scta@saccityta.com| www.sacteachers.org

SCUSD CHANGE the BOARD 2020 | Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/CHANGESCUSD2020

Who is running for Sacramento City Unified school board? | The Sacramento Bee

Who is running for Sacramento City Unified school board? | The Sacramento Bee

These are the candidates in the high stakes Sacramento City Unified School board election

As the Sacramento City Unified School District approaches potential insolvency, the board is heading into what could be the most high-stakes local election of 2020.

The cash-strapped district may be taken over by the state in the coming months (board members are elected officials and would not be removed under insolvency). Hundreds of thousands of dollars have been spent on the campaigns, as candidates backed by opposing interest groups square off in four of the board’s eight trustee areas in the Nov. 3 election.

The Sacramento City Teachers Association’s political action committee is financially backing four candidates. Board president Jessie Ryan is being challenged by Lavinia Grace Phillips, an SCTA-backed candidate. Another board member, Christina Pritchett, is facing Jose Navarro, who is supported by the union.

The union – which has been at odds with the board and district officials for months over the district’s finances and distance learning plan – is also supporting candidates Chinua Rhodes and Nailah Pope-Harden.

The election could change the racial makeup of the school board. Several candidates are people of color, representative of the district’s diverse student population. About 40% of Sacramento City Unified’s students are Latino, 14% are Black and nearly 20% are Asian, according to state data.

Pope-Harden, Phillips and Rhodes are Black, Navarro is Chicano and Vanessa Areiza King is Colombian. Four of the seven current board members are white.

WHO’S RUNNING FOR SCUSD BOARD? CONTINUE READING: Who is running for Sacramento City Unified school board? | The Sacramento Bee

Lavinia Grace Phillips for District 7

Lavinia Grace Phillips, a social worker for Sacramento’s Child Protective Services and the president of the Oak Park Neighborhood Association is running for SCUSD school board in Area 7. The incumbent is Jessie Ryan.

Jose Navarro for District 3

Jose Navarro, is an information technology specialist who works for California’s Franchise Tax Board. He is a member of SEIU Local 1000. He is running for the SCUSD school board in Area 3. The incumbent is Christina Pritchett.

Chinua Rhodes for District 5

Chinua Rhodes, is a community organizer with Mutual Housing California. He currently serves on the City of Sacramento’s Parks and Community Enrichment Commision and the SCUSD LCAP. He is running for the SCUSD school board in Area 5. The incumbent is not running.

Nailah Pope-Harden for Area 4

Nailah Pope-Harden, is a community organizer and statewide climate policy advocate. She is a Sac City schools graduate. She is running for the SCUSD school board in Area 4. The incumbent is not running.

CONTINUE READING: Who is running for Sacramento City Unified school board? | The Sacramento Bee

Big Education Ape: SACRAMENTO TEACHER LORI JOBLANSKI SAYS: CHANGE THE SCUSD BOARD 2020 - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2020/10/sacramento-teacher-lori-joblanski-says.html

Big Education Ape: Sacramento: Vote for the Pro-Public School Candidates! | Diane Ravitch's blog - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2020/10/sacramento-vote-for-pro-public-school.html

AN UNQUENCHABLE HUBRIS – Dad Gone Wild

AN UNQUENCHABLE HUBRIS – Dad Gone Wild

AN UNQUENCHABLE HUBRIS

“The irony of our culture is that people are constantly telling other people to go to hell, but no one tells them to go to heaven.”― Art Buchwald, Too Soon to Say Goodbye

Well, that didn’t take long – 2 half days and one full – to shut a school down due to COVID-19. Robert Churchwell ES will go virtual after 21 staff members and 1 student is forced into quarantine due to a staff member testing positive. In my honest opinion, if I was a staff member at the school, I’d be pissed.

For the next two weeks, schooling may be virtual for students, but each of those 21 staff’s lives will also be virtual, as they’ll be locked in their house waiting to see if they get sick or not. That means no visits to family, no visits to the grocery store, no trips to Target. That means, their family members are also at risk. Yet, we shrug and say, “Hey what do you expect? We knew there would be outbreaks.”

Indications are that Churchwell is not the only school that has a positive result. Per a letter sent home to parents from Belmont-Waverly’s principal,

As you may have heard, we have been notified of one individual who has been diagnosed with COVID-19 and was present at Waverly Belmont ES while potentially infectious. I would like to assure you that we, along with our local health department, immediately began an investigation to determine who may have been in close contact (within six feet for at least 15 minutes) with that individual.  All who have been identified as close contacts have been notified and instructed to quarantine at home for 14 days from their last contact with that individual. Quarantined individuals are not allowed to return to school until the quarantine period has elapsed.

There is no indication of how widespread the school quarantine protocols will extend. But we have to ask, how many more schools are also infected? I do find this line from the email a little galling, and at the least downplays the serious health consequences that could possibly arrive through CONTINUE READING: AN UNQUENCHABLE HUBRIS – Dad Gone Wild