State should not be forcing districts to spend down their budget reserves | EdSource Today

State should not be forcing districts to spend down their budget reserves | EdSource Today:

State should not be forcing districts to spend down their budget reserves

June 12th, 2014 | Add a Comment | 
By Vernon Billy and Wes Smith / commentary

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Vernon Billy

The governor and Legislature are preparing to approve budget language that severely limits the amount of funding school districts can maintain in their local reserves for economic uncertainties.

Both the Association of California School Administrators and California School Boards Association, representing superintendents, school boards and county boards of education, vehemently oppose this fiscally irresponsible proposal, as it is inconsistent with the principle of subsidiarity – a key principle of the state’s new Local Control Funding Formula. It also discounts the critical role that prudent budget reserves play in the ability of local educational agencies to maintain education programs during economic downturns.

Education is not solely a “state” program. It is governed, administered and provided by local school districts with locally elected governing boards and community engagement.

Should voters approve the State Rainy Day Fund ballot measure (Assembly Constitutional Amendment 1 or ACA 1) in November, school districts would be forced to spend down excess reserves whenever the state deposits money into its own state-level school reserve. The intrusive requirement would effectively impose an absolute cap of twice the state minimum standard of 3 percent that nearly every school district would be allowed to maintain for economic uncertainties.

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  Wes Smith
  The proposal is fiscally irresponsible.

To enact these provisions is fiscally irresponsible and in conflict with the principles articulated by the Legislature in placing ACA 1 on the ballot. For most of the last two decades, California worked to prevent school district bankruptcies by enacting laws requiring multiyear projections, enforcement of strict fiscal standards by county offices of education, early intervention, and even the authority to override the spending decisions of local governing boards. It is therefore ironic that, at the very time an initiative has been placed on the statewide ballot to strengthen the state’s rainy day fund, the Legislature would consider statutory changes State should not be forcing districts to spend down their budget reserves | EdSource Today:

The Common Core Chess Game | Truth in American Education

The Common Core Chess Game | Truth in American Education:

The Common Core Chess Game

Filed in Common Core State Standards by Shane Vander Hart on June 13, 2014 • 0 Comments

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The following guest article was written by Dennis Ian who is a member of Stop Common Core in New York State.

By Denis Ian

Let’s play chess … because that’s exactly what the Gates and the Common Core pushers are doing.

They’re on their heels. Some states … and some individual school districts … have simply dumped Common Core. And there are seismic jitters from coast to coast. Our efforts have juiced up the CC issue in the media and now it’s a part of the election language as we swing into the fall. The anti-Common Core sites have become magnets for disgruntled parents and offended educators from all levels. If you can lift yourself up a bit … and spy the situation from a decent altitude … you’ll see the anti-forces are more muscled than ever. And it’s predictable that the Common Core patriarchs are in full-swing chess mode. They’re too clever by half. Can’t leave bad enough alone. Gotta ring the bells and push the panic-buttons pronto.

First, Arne Duncan’s out to castrate Oklahoma for giving CC the heave-ho. South Carolina is next in line for the knife. Duncan’s got his razor strop out for any state and any school district that dares derail the federal transfer of local and state control to DC big-wigs. Duncan’s activity resembles more a MASH unit … triaging the Common Core wounded in states like Indiana, Oregon, Georgia, and Michigan. In all, seventeen states have pushed back against Common Core — including Alaska, Nebraska, Texas and Virginia, which declined to sign on from the beginning. Duncan’s head looks more and more like a bobble-head … not quite sure where the next anti-Common Core brushfire’s gonna pop up. Let’s keep him busy.

Second, the American Federation of Teachers … in an infrequent moment of clarity … actually told the Gates Foundation to take his money-clip and shove it. Randi Weingarten, hardly my nominee for the "Esteemed Educator" plaque, blew off Gates and his money saying, "I got convinced by the level of distrust I was seeing …" Thanks for the head-knock, but keep anyThe Common Core Chess Game | Truth in American Education:

Kids v. Politics | Parents United for Public Education

Kids v. Politics | Parents United for Public Education:

Kids v. Politics

Posted on June 13, 2014 by HELENGYMLeave a comment

(This piece was cross-posted at the Public School Notebook) 

Yesterday, City Council proved once again that Philadelphia’s school children are second to politicking. Instead of following through on its promise to guarantee the District at least $50 million, a promise it made last August when Supt. William Hite refused to open schools otherwise, City Council’s finance committee moved forward with a bill to halve that amount to $27 million.

It seems inconceivable for Council to behave in this manner, especially at a time when District finances have never been more dire. If City Council doesn’t move on filling the basic budget gap, the District will be forced to pass an obscene budget that will lay off staff and see class sizes go through the roof. The PR damage and the loss of internal capacity at the District is not something that can be made up even if Council were to later piece together funds over the summer.

What’s even more disappointing is that last summer’s $50 million promise – the subject of all this bickering – is a one-time stopgap measure. It doesn’t even begin to address sustainable funding for schools.

It is fundamentally City Council’s job to ensure that there are no additional cuts to the District’s budget for next year. That means delivering an additional $96 million over and above the sales tax extension that has already been approved. The state share should then be focused on restoring services to schools.

We remind City Council that they hold responsibility for the consequences of a doomsday budget that has caused irreparable damage to our schools and put children in harm’s way. City Council members had opportunities to find sustainable revenue. Instead, they squashed a proposed Use & Occupancy tax bill that had garnered huge support from communities. They failed to move on the sales tax legislation until this year and punted to Harrisburg a proposal for a cigarette tax that, a year later, has shown no advancement. Yesterday, they left on the table an additional $28 million that already had a built in repayment mechanism with no hardship on the city.

Meanwhile a recent report by the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia showed that one in five District students are in the juvenile justice or DHS systems. These are the most vulnerable of Kids v. Politics | Parents United for Public Education:

California Ruling on Teacher Tenure Is Not Whole Picture - NYTimes.com

California Ruling on Teacher Tenure Is Not Whole Picture - NYTimes.com:

Taking on Teacher Tenure Backfires

California Ruling on Teacher Tenure Is Not Whole Picture

BERKELEY, Calif. — IN his decision on Tuesday to strike down California’s teacher-tenure system, Judge Rolf M. Treu of Los Angeles Superior Court ruled that laws protecting teachers from dismissal violated the state’s constitutional commitment to provide “a basically equal opportunity to achieve a quality education” and drew parallels with prior cases concerning school desegregation and funding levels.

But there is a difference between recognizing students’ rights to integrated, adequately funded schools and Judge Treu’s conclusion that teacher employment protections are unconstitutional.

The issue is balance. Few would suggest that too much integration or too much funding hurts disadvantaged students. By contrast, decisions about firing teachers are inherently about trade-offs: It is important to dismiss ineffective teachers, but also to attract and retain effective teachers.

Judge Treu’s opinion in the case, Vergara v. California (in which I provided expert testimony for the defense), ignores these trade-offs. In fact, eliminating tenure will do little to address the real barriers to effective teaching in impoverished schools, and may even make them worse.

The reason has to do with the many ways that the role of teachers in the labor market has changed in recent decades. When few professions were open to highly skilled women, schools could hire them for low salaries. Now, teaching must compete with other professions. That has made it hard to recruit the best candidates. One study found that the share of the highest-achieving women who were teachers fell by half between 1964 and 2000; another found an 80 percent drop.

Thomas J. Kane, a professor of education at Harvard and an expert witness for the Vergara plaintiffs, co-wrote a paper in 2006 on the “coming teacher shortage” and a looming need to “dig further down in the pool of those willing to consider” teaching. Significant layoffs during the last recession, which refilled the pool of job seekers, temporarily alleviated the problem. But those will be absorbed quickly as education budgets recover.

The challenge, then, is to increase the number of high-quality applicants. One of the few things that helps to recruit good people into teaching is job security. That is not to say teachers should never be dismissed — but when and how to do that requires careful balancing.

In a recent study, I examined the effects of changing job protections not just on the quality of teachers given tenure, but also on a district’s ability to California Ruling on Teacher Tenure Is Not Whole Picture - NYTimes.com:

Vergara Case Lost in Los Angeles |:

Vergara Case Lost in Los Angeles

 A few months ago, I wrote a few posts about the “Vergara v. California” case happening in Los Angeles, California, as well as posts about the testimonies of Thomas Kane(Economics Professor from Harvard University), David Berliner (Regents Professor Emeritus from Arizona State), Linda Darling-Hammond (Professor from Stanford), andJesse Rothstein (Economics Associate Professor from the University of California – Berkeley).

The case involved nine public school students (backed by some serious corporate reformer funds) who were collected by the “Students Matter” to challenge five California state statutes that supported the state’s “ironclad [teacher] tenure system.” The prosecution’s argument was that students’ rights to a good education were being violated by teachers’ job protections…protections that were making it too difficult to fire “grossly ineffective” teachers. The protections at issue included the set of statutes that granted permanent employment status to teachers after 18 months on the job, that required a lengthy procedure to dismiss teachers, and that set up a seniority system in which the teachers most recently hired were the first to be fired when layoffs occurred, or in recent years needed to occur given economic crises and swings.

The suggested replacement to the “old” way of doing this, of course, was to use value-added scores to make “better” decisions, as based on “the data,” about whom to fire and whom to keep around as per whether they were positively impacting student achievement, and growth in student achievement. This is precisely why this case mattered so much for this audience here, particularly as we continue to think about VAMs and how they are being positioned, many times falsely, for that which they theoretically can do versus what they really can do in practice.

Anyhow, it seems, as of two days ago, the defense lost the case. As per a recent“Washington Post” post, and actually the best post I’ve read thus far on the verdict as written by Kevin Welner (attorney and Professor of Education policy at University of 

Darth Mona Davids? southbronxschool com

http://www.southbronxschool.com:

Darth Mona Davids?

I believe in loyalty. I can be very loyal to a friend, someone I know, my colleagues, teachers in

general. And for those that have stuck out there necks for me, who have taken their time to listen to me, to cheer me up, to let me vent, they have every right to expect loyalty from me and if I disagree with them to be man enough to say what is own my mind and not run behind their backs stabbing them in the back, besmirching their beliefs or worse, jumping ship.

So it pains me when I see a story in the Daily News today about Leader Mona Davids of the NYC Parents Unionthreatening a Vergara type lawsuit here in New York State. Dang, I thought she was on our side.

I mean did she forget how she was defended when Anthony Krisnky was threatening her, accusing her of backing the UFT?

Did Mona forget the defense of her from disparaging remarks of Carl Campanile of the New York Post?

Did Mona forget her support in the face of her dispute with Gotham Schools?

Did Mona forget the forum she had when she went up against charter school hack Peter Murphy? 

Or forgetting about the special relationship between Joel Klein and Eva Moskowitz?

Did she forget going up against failed comedian Bill Grundfest about the special funding charter get, deformers, Uncle Mike, and Joel Klein?

Did she forget her p3wnge of Michael Benjamin, her Twitter BFF? 

Or did she forget defending us against the film, "Won't Back Down," or supporting "The Inconvenient http://www.southbronxschool.com:

Billionaire’s foundation may aid HISD in teacher eval suit - K-12 Zone

Billionaire’s foundation may aid HISD in teacher eval suit - K-12 Zone:

Billionaire’s foundation may aid HISD in teacher eval suit

Posted on June 12, 2014 | By Ericka Mellon

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An equation involved in HISD’s teacher evaluation system is displayed in May next to Andy Dewey, an officer of the Houston Federation of Teachers who is suing HISD over its evaluation methods. (Cody Duty / Houston Chronicle)

The Houston school district, being sued over its teacher evaluation system, is considering hiring a prominent law firm that just won a lawsuit challenging teacher tenure policies in California.

The district also may get some of its legal costs paid for by the Houston-based Laura and John Arnold Foundation, which supports evaluating teachers in part based on student test scores and has donated money toward HISD’s effort. HISD became one of the first urban districts in the country to adopt a policy in 2011 that said test scores would be included in teachers’ job evaluations.

“When HISD approached us to help defend its teacher evaluation system, we agreed because we support teacher evaluation systems that use student advancement as one metric of teacher performance,” Leila Walsh, a spokeswoman for the Arnold Foundation, said Thursday.

The school board agenda for Thursday says trustees may talk behind close doors about possibly hiring the law firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher to defend the district in the federal lawsuit filed in late April by the Houston Federation of Teachers union and seven of its members. HISD spokeswoman Sheleah Reed said the firm is the same as in the California case, though it’s unclear if the same lawyers would be involved.

The agenda item also says the board may discuss a grant from the Arnold Foundation “to support certain litigation costs.” The board would have to vote in public on the matter.

“Regardless of who they hire, we have a very strong case,” said Gayle Fallon, president of the Houston Billionaire’s foundation may aid HISD in teacher eval suit - K-12 Zone:

Ed Roundup for 6-12-14 - Year 2014 (CA Dept of Education)

Ed Roundup for 6-12-14 - Year 2014 (CA Dept of Education):

Education Roundup for Week Ending June 12, 2014

SACRAMENTO—The California Department of Education (CDE) today issued this week's roundup of education-related announcements of public interest.

CDE Deputy Superintendent Joining Rocklin School District

CDE District, School & Innovation Branch Deputy Superintendent Deb Sigman has accepted a new position with the Rocklin Unified School District. The local school board approved her appointment Wednesday as its new Deputy Superintendent of Educational Services.

"Deb's passion and expertise about education in California has been a huge boon to our students as we make our way through Common Core implementation, transitioning to modern new assessments, and a host of other improvements," said State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson. "We will miss her sorely, but wish her all the best in her new position."

Sigman has been with the CDE since 2004, first as a director and then a deputy superintendent, currently overseeing student assessment, intervention, federally funded educational programs, state and federal accountability, educational data, and charter schools. She also serves as co-chair of the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium  Executive Committee, a position she will retain in her new role.

Sigman has more than 35 years of experience in California's public school system. Prior to joining the CDE, she was an administrator in both the Sacramento City Unified and Elk Grove Unified school districts.

CDE's Summer Meal Map Updated

Families can now access an updated 2014 Summer Meal Service Sites map to find out where to take their children to receive free meals during the summer recess. The online interactive map can be searched by county and displays locations, contact information, and dates of operation. Families can also call the National Hunger Hotline at 1-866-3hungry or 1-877-8hambre (for Spanish speakers).

The CDE's Summer Food Service Program and the Seamless Summer Feeding Option help provide nutritious meals to children in areas where at least 50 percent of students are eligible to receive free or reduced-price school meals. All families have to do is show up at any open meal site and their hungry children will be fed, with no need for identification or income verification. The programs operate when schools in a community are on vacation for at least 15 continuous school days or when year-round schools are off track.

Often the only nutritious meal disadvantaged students receive is at school. So when school is on recess, they miss out not only on healthy food, but also educational stimulation and physical activity. Many of the summer meal service sites have fun activities for the whole family.

Meal sites include schools, camps, Indian tribal governments, private nonprofit agencies, and municipal, state, county, or local government offices. All meals must meet U.S. Department of Agriculture requirements. The USDA is an equal opportunity provider.

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Tom Torlakson — State Superintendent of Public Instruction

Dyett High Protesters Rip Alderman, Mayor, CPS - Downtown - DNAinfo.com Chicago

Dyett High Protesters Rip Alderman, Mayor, CPS - Downtown - DNAinfo.com Chicago:

Dyett High Protesters Rip Alderman, Mayor, CPS

By Ted Cox on June 9, 2014 2:54pm 

@tedcoxchicago

Dyett High School valedictorian Parrish Brown accused CPS of "destabilization" in not providing basic resources.

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DNAinfo/Ted Cox

CITY HALL — Dyett High School parents, students and community leadersrepeated their calls to keep the school open and accused the local alderman of making a "backroom deal" to move another school into the Washington Park building at a protest Monday at City Hall.

Jeanette Taylor, chairwoman of the Local School Council at nearby Mollison Elementary and a member of the Coalition to Revitalize Dyett High School, said Ald. Will Burns (4th) met with the group last week, but asked no questions about its presentation to convert the school into the Dyett Global Leadership and Green Technology Community High School.

He said simply that he would not support it, Taylor said.

Accusing him of "continued disrespect," Taylor called Burns "unaccountable, and his performance is unacceptable."

Yet Burns denied there were any backroom deals and said he also was against closing Dyett, at 555 E. 51st St.

"I totally agree with them that Dyett should be kept open as a high-quality, open-enrollment high school," Burns said. "I've told them that, and I've told them that's what we share in common."

Yet, he also said that he had "not endorsed their plan for Dyett." He said he has "no plan" to move another school into the building.

The group wants Burns to hold a public hearing on the proposal in the next 30 days, and also calls on Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Chicago Public Schools to support the plan. 

Taylor also is pressing CPS to hold a town hall meeting on the topic.

"Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Ald. Will Burns are in lockstep in ignoring the needs of children from working and low-income families," Taylor added.

Emanuel spokeswoman Rachel Kruer, though, said that her office has "met with this group and are scheduling a future meeting to discuss providing quality education options in the North Kenwood and Oakland communities." 

CPS Chief Executive Officer Barbara Byrd-Bennett and CPS board members "continue to receive proposals about the future of Dyett High School and are always interested to hear feedback from the community on how we can collaborate to provide quality education options to our students," said CPS spokesman Joel Hood. "CPS has met with Kenwood Oakland Community Organization, including two weeks ago when board President David Vitale listened to their proposal for Dyett High School."

Ald. Will Burns and Mayor Rahm Emanuel have both caught flak over the proposed closing of Dyett High School.

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DNAinfo/Ted Cox

Despite Burns' statements, Parrish Brown, valedictorian of Dyett's 39 graduating seniors this year, said he believes the alderman is not on their Dyett High Protesters Rip Alderman, Mayor, CPS - Downtown - DNAinfo.com Chicago: