Activists & Advocates make a dent in Democrats' Education Platform — PS connect

Activists & Advocates make a dent in Democrats' Education Platform — PS connect:

Activists & Advocates make a dent in Democrats' Education Platform

There has been much debate in the last week about whether the Democratic Party is signaling a change in education policy, and this weekend’s Convention Platform meeting provides the best measure.

Earlier in the week, Hillary Clinton spoke to the National Education Association and was well received, except for a comment distinguishing for-profit charters from nonprofit, as if there is a way to qualify the threat charters pose to public schools. Dana Goldstein wrote in Slate that “Hillary Clinton is changing the Democratic Party’s relationship with the school-reform movement.” But education advocates are not so sure.

Blogger Peter Greene is not believing it, saying Clinton is just parsing words. He has the best line ever written on the topic:  "...a modern non-profit charter school is just a for-profit school with a good money-laundering plan."  Jeff Bryant says, maybe and Diane Ravitch says, “time will tell,” advising, “we should all give Hillary Clinton a chance to change direction.” All that is speculation based on interpretation. Advocates are petitioning Clinton to meet with Ravitch for more assurance. The Network for Public Education made headlines for helping advocates with a grassroots push to influence the platform.

Yesterday’s amendments to the Democratic Party’s education platform are the first indication of anything concrete. Much of what was found in the amendments are also recommended by the Network for Public Education.

Of course, bloggers and activists will continue to debate. To help that discussion along, here is the text of the amendments andsome of the remarks made during the Committee’s consideration. (Quotation marks indicate direct quotes. Full remarks can be heard on the C-SPAN link, which is indexed and easy to navigate.)

The session started with higher education topics including eliminating college debt and increasing access to college. K-12 amendments were introduced by Chuck Pascal, a Bernie Sanders delegate from Pennsylvania, and AFT President Randi Weingarten, a Hillary Clinton supporter.

AMENDMENT 76 – Testing – passed unanimously

We are also deeply committed to ensuring that we strike a better balance on testing so that it informs but does not drive instruction. To that end, we encourage states to develop a multiple measures approach to assessment and we believe that standardized tests must meet American Statistical Association Standards for reliability and validity. We oppose high-stakes standardized tests that falsely and unfairly label students of color, students with disabilities, and English Language Learners as failing; the use of standardized test scores as a basis of refusing to fund schools or to close schools; and the use of student test scores in teacher and principal Activists & Advocates make a dent in Democrats' Education Platform — PS connect:

Charter School Audits: Not Good News | LWVeducation

Charter School Audits: Not Good News | LWVeducation:

Charter School Audits: Not Good News

How many struggling charters are too many?  The latest Florida Auditor General report is out.  It cites 92 (15%) out of 652 charters for general fund/unrestricted fund deficits.  In other words, they are spending more than they are taking in.  Six charters are in such bad financial shape, the report questions their ability to continue to operate.  When these audit reports come out, letters get sent and promises to do better are made until charters cannot pay their bills.

How many charters have failed in your district?

Some charters do make changes in internal controls to correct procedures, but of the 159 citations, nearly one third were old problems, never corrected.

Dig a little deeper in the audit report and even more problems were reported.  There were 103 charters cited for 159 weaknesses in internal control and non compliance with rules and laws.  Seventeen audits found material weaknesses in internal control.  These include incorrect accounting, inadequate separation of duties, deficiencies in bank reconciliations and loan approvals. Basically, the books  were so poorly maintained that it would be difficult to track where the money goes and to whom.

The ultimate resolution is that charters close.  Overtime, 313 charters in Florida have closed.  Over the last three years (20013-15), 87 charters have closed.  As one might expect, Dade and Broward have the largest number of closures closely followed by Hillsborough.

RedefinEd reported that Florida’s closure rate is disproportionately high.  One could argue that a high closure rate is good; low performing charters are more often closed in Florida than in other states.  An alternative view is that Florida is so lax in charter authorization and oversight, that too many mismanaged charters exist and continue to fail.

If failure is good from a market perspective, is it also good from a family’s perspective?  Families that choose charters can leave them, or charters can leave families in the lurch.  In a world with increasing privatization of schools, I hate to think that it is turning Charter School Audits: Not Good News | LWVeducation:

State Rep Seeks Investigation of Gülen Charter School | The Texas Tribune

State Rep Seeks Investigation of Charter School | The Texas Tribune:

State Rep Seeks Investigation of Charter School

Two months after lawyers for the Republic of Turkey filed a complaint with the Texas Education Agency against Harmony Public Schools, a high-ranking state representative has asked the Texas Attorney General’s office to investigate the allegations lobbed against the state’s largest charter school network.

"If the facts are correct, Texas taxpayers are in fact in danger and our education system, not to mention the safety of our citizens, seems to be in peril," wrote Rep. Dan Flynn, a Canton Republican who chairs the House Pensions Committee, in a letter released Wednesday urging Ken Paxton’s office to investigate the charges or turn them over to the Texas Rangers.

A Paxton spokeswoman said she could not confirm or deny if the office had launched a probe. 

In May, London-based Amsterdam & Partners filed a complaint with the state education agency alleging Harmony routinely discriminates against special needs and bilingual students, pays Turkish-born teachers — including males — more than their American counterparts, misuses the H-1B Visa program, violates competitive bidding laws and misuses state and federal funds.

Harmony officials have said the allegations — ones the Houston-based charter network has faced before — are unsubstantiated and that the complaint is a politically motivated attack.

“If the facts are correct, Texas taxpayers are in fact in danger and our education system, not to mention the safety of our citizens, seems to be in peril.”— State Rep. Dan Flynn, Canton Republican

A Harmony spokesman declined to comment Wednesday. An education agency spokeswoman said the complaint, including a supplementary one filed earlier this month, are still under review.

The Republic of Turkey, where President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is severing ties with old allies and waging a well-documentedwar against critics, hired Amsterdam last fall “to conduct a global investigation into the activities of the organization led by moderate Muslim cleric Fethullah Gülen,” according to the law firm's website. Gülen, a former Erdogan ally, is a reclusive Turkish expatriate living in Pennsylvania whom news reports have linked to Harmony and other U.S. charter schools.

Harmony officials have vehemently denied any connection to Gülen.

Flynn described Amsterdam as a “legitimate group” in an interview Wednesday, noting that he has heard complaints against Harmony for years and also traveled to Turkey on a legislative trip. He described himself as a great supporter of charter schools, but noted some in his district have had issues and been forced to close.

“I’m a state representative that believes that when something comes to your attention and you don’t check it out then you become part of the problem, if there is a problem,” he said. “If State Rep Seeks Investigation of Charter School | The Texas Tribune:

Big Education Ape: KILLING ED: 120 American Charter Schools and One Secretive Turkish Cleric -http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2016/01/killing-ed-120-american-charter-schools.html

On education the Democratic Party abandons Peter Cunningham. I’ll take that as a win. | Fred Klonsky

On education the Democratic Party abandons Peter Cunningham. I’ll take that as a win. | Fred Klonsky:

On education the Democratic Party abandons Peter Cunningham. I’ll take that as a win.

Quick! Tell me who won last year’s Oscar for Best Picture.

That is nearly the value I place on Party platforms. After the convention, nobody remembers them. But if you’re going to get into the fight for the Democratic Party nomination, and the platform fight is part of that process, then be in for a dime – in for a dollar.

Former Arne Duncan Department of Education mouthpiece Peter Cunningham says the platform adopted (Get this: “behind closed doors”) “abandons Democratic Party core values” on education.

Well, it is about damn time.

Democrats are now against “high-stakes standardized tests that falsely and unfairly label students of color, students with disabilities, and English Language learners as failing.”

Peter hates that.

Democrats are also against “the use of standardized test scores as a basis for On education the Democratic Party abandons Peter Cunningham. I’ll take that as a win. | Fred Klonsky:

When Schools Eat Schools – EduShyster

When Schools Eat Schools – EduShyster: "When Schools Eat Schools"

When Schools Eat Schools

In Denver, running schools like businesses produces a predictable side effect: market cannibalization…

Editor’s note: the following piece was written by a teacher who recently left her position in the Denver Public Schools.

Lately, Denver has been in thenews a fair amount for its *successful school reform.* But when I think about the impact that Denver’s reform had on my students, I can say for certain that it hurt them more than it helped.

The students at my school were among some of the neediest in the state in terms of free and reduced lunch funding, and some of the most affected by trauma. In other words, they were students who needed the most support. The budget cuts began in my third year there, and only got worse as students left to attend other *choice* schools that were opening nearby. For students, that meant the loss of our only school-staffed, non-academic elective other than art: drama. For teachers, that meant rationing paper, although we considered ourselves fortunate relative to schools that were rationing toilet paper and paper towels.

Vision quest
Even as we dealt with the impact of budget cuts, we were being pushed to *sell* our school. I arrived at one weekly staff meeting having spent hours thinking about what When Schools Eat Schools – EduShyster: "When Schools Eat Schools"

Election 2016: Education Activist Views Part Two - Living in Dialogue

Election 2016: Education Activist Views Part Two - Living in Dialogue:

Election 2016: Education Activist Views Part Two

Last week I shared the views of eleven different education activists, who reflected on the choices we face in the current presidential election. Several additional perspectives came in after I had posted, so I am sharing them here, to continue the discussion. Please join in the comments.

The questions I posed were these:

What should we do as activists beyond the vote? 

What should we do about the Democratic party? 

Who will get your vote in November?

Here are some fresh responses:

Lois Weiner is a professor of education at New Jersey City University, where she heads the Urban Education and Teacher Unionism Policy Project.

Thanks to Anthony Cody for using his blog to encourage this essential conversation.

Sanders’ challenge has shown that many people, especially the young, want a radical break from the GOP and Democratic Party’s collusion with wealthy and powerful elites who insist there are no alternatives to policies that are sowing despair, bigotry, and violence.

What next? We teach in the country that is spearheading the global educational project that put profits over kids. Our actions have great international urgency.

We need a new political party, one that fights for progressive ideals and is controlled by those who vote for it. At the same time, an electoral vehicle is only as strong as the movements that support it. I see this as a challenge social movements and teachers unions globally are grappling with, and we need to learn from them.

I won’t vote for Clinton or, of course, Trump, but I think who we vote for is less important than how we Election 2016: Education Activist Views Part Two - Living in Dialogue:

Presidential Choice; School Choice; Forced Choice. | deutsch29

Presidential Choice; School Choice; Forced Choice. | deutsch29:

Presidential Choice; School Choice; Forced Choice.

America’s choice for our next president illustrates a truth about school choice and choice systems in general:

Choice is often little more than talking oneself into going with the perceived better among selections that one does not want at all.

Clinton and Trump. I endorse neither for president. But I will vote, and I will do so by deciding which one I like less and casting a ballot for the other while actively preventing my mind from focusing on how much I also dislike my “choice.”

I wonder about the outcome of a national poll in which voters are asked, “If you had to vote today for America’s next president and “neither” were a viable option, would you choose Clinton, Trump, or neither?”

I would be in the “neither” category. But when it comes to electing a president or choosing a school, “choice” actually means “forced choice.”

I also wonder how America would react if we changed voting to include a lottery component (a feature of school choice in many locales). I envision this as similar to a lottery scratch-off ticket, where one decides to not vote Clinton or Trump and instead settles for an unknown who is not Clinton or Trump, but with the unknown coming from a set of possible knowns, with anyone who wanted to be included as a “scratch-off” candidate allowed to sign up by a certain deadline. In this scenario, the person casting a “scratch-off” vote discovers after the vote how his/her particular vote was cast.

Perhaps Republican National Party would be more inclined to support a “scratch-off” feature in the 2016 presidential election since it is aghast at the likes of Donald Trump being their official nominee. Since the Democratic National Party appears to Presidential Choice; School Choice; Forced Choice. | deutsch29:

Schools Matter: Hamilton, Hillary, and Diane Ravitch

Schools Matter: Hamilton, Hillary, and Diane Ravitch:

Hamilton, Hillary, and Diane Ravitch

Work Hard, Be Hard: Journeys through "No Excuses" Teaching

Just a week ago Diane Ravitch was pitching a petition drive by some Florida teachers urging Hillary Clinton to meet with Ravitch to get straightened out on education reform issues.  One petition signer left this comment at Ravitch's blog:

Ellen Lubic 

July 6, 2016 at 3:16 pm

I signed and added this comment.

“It is imperative that you, Hillary Clinton, learn more about public schools v. charter schools. Most educators are not voting for you due to your insistence that charters are viable to take funding from true public education. Ravitch has the facts and speaks for most of America’s highly trained educators. I am a university professor of public policy.”

I have also sent this petition to all my lists with my personal note urging all to sign.

Then this past weekend, as both unpaid and paid activists convened in DC under the watchful gaze of NEA and AFT to declare to each other how much black lives matter to educators, Randi Weingarten was in Orlando making sure the Democratic platform reflected Clinton's "no excuses" charter priority and to have more special needs and ELL children attend these deracinating and dehumanizing schools.   

Fast forward to yesterday morning, and Bernie Sanders was with Clinton in New Hampshire to pledge his support for Clinton and to claim credit for what he described as the most progressive Democratic platform in Schools Matter: Hamilton, Hillary, and Diane Ravitch:

SOS! LIVE from DC: Being mean to nice TFA? – Cloaking Inequity

SOS! LIVE from DC: Being mean to nice TFA? – Cloaking Inequity:

SOS! LIVE from DC: Being mean to nice TFA?

 “How can you be mean to a nice Teach For America corps member?” This and more in episode 11 of the Truth For America. The podcast was recorded LIVE at the 2016 Save our Schools March and Conference held at the Lincoln Memorial and Howard University.

Truth For America is a podcast about Teach For America (TFA) that provides voice to educators, parents, students, and other key stakeholders. Truth For America is co-hosted by Dr. Julian Vasquez Heilig and Dr. T. Jameson Brewer.

The episode features a conversation with David Green (experienced teacher of teachers), Tina Andres (Santa Ana special education teacher), and Emma Howland-Bolton (TFA alum, Detroit teacher, and founding member of Learn with Detroit & the Corps Advisory Board). The conversation includes a discussion about the contracts that TFA signs with districts and universities, the role of Teach For America in school privatization in Detroit, New Orleans and elsewhere. We also discuss Wendy Kopp’s original vision for TFA, how communities can influence conversations about TFA and review some of the conversations from the first ten Truth For America podcasts

Truth For America is sponsored by the Network for Public Education Action.

You can check out new episodes hot off the press and much much more by following my YouTube channel. You can also listen and download the Truth For America program from iTunes while you are on the road here.

For all of Cloaking Inequity’s posts on Teach For America click here.

Please Facebook Like, Tweet, etc below and/or reblog to share this discussion with others.

Want to know about Cloaking Inequity’s freshly pressed conversations about educational policy? Click the “Follow blog by email” button on the home page.

Twitter: @ProfessorJVH

Click here for Vitae.

Copyright permission from REM for use of song “World Leader Pretend” in Truth For America podcast worldwide:http://www.dropbox.com/s/80jynkybgpz5r29…rmission.pdf?dl=0

SOS! LIVE from DC: Being mean to nice TFA? – Cloaking Inequity:

Bernie Sanders Endorses Hillary Clinton, and I See “Hamilton” | Diane Ravitch's blog

Bernie Sanders Endorses Hillary Clinton, and I See “Hamilton” | Diane Ravitch's blog:

Bernie Sanders Endorses Hillary Clinton, and I See “Hamilton”

As you surely know, Senator Bernie Sanders endorsed former Secretary Hillary Clinton at a joint appearance in New Hampshire today.

I listened on the radio to their respective speeches. Bernie was inspirational as he recapped his campaign themes and said that he believed Hillary Clinton would be faithful to his agenda. Hillary Clinton echoed much of what Bernie Sanders said. Both sought unity, facing what is likely to be a tough campaign against Donald Trump. Trump has turned his campaign into an almost stereotypical Republican tough-guy appeal to the Silent Majority. He continually tells people that America is weak but he is strong. He supports “America First,” a phrase that I thought was long associated with the discredited isolationist wing of the GOP. He says that the world laughs at us because we are losers; he will turn us into winners again. I listened to him speak in Indiana this evening, and he said–referring to the Dallas shootings–that he is the candidate who is “tough on crime.” He said again and again that he would build the wall shutting off our southern border, with a gate that opens only for those who have met legal requirements. He said to the crowd, “Who will pay for the wall?” And they thundered back, “Mexico!” I want to know why Trump thinks that the Mexican government is ready to pay billions of dollars to build a wall. I don’t get it.

He is hitting all the right notes in appealing to an angry, fearful public, one that is rightfully worried about their jobs and their economic well-being. Underlying their fear, however, is old-fashioned nativism, a sense that outsiders, aliens, immigrants are taking over the country and that white males are losing their commanding power.

I juxtapose these events with my day. I decided a few days ago that since I had endorsed Hillary and plan to vote for her, I would make a contribution to her campaign. I bought tickets to a special matinee of “Hamilton,” whose cast and crew put on a Tuesday matinee for a private performance dedicated to her campaign. I sat with my partner, Mary, my son and his spouse, and our 9-year-old grandson. For reasons I don’t understand, the show has an enormous following among teens and pre-teens. My grandson was mouthing the words as he watched.

The show was everything it is cracked up to be. I am not a huge fan of Bernie Sanders Endorses Hillary Clinton, and I See “Hamilton” | Diane Ravitch's blog:

Schools Matter: Putting Lipstick on the Platform Pig

Schools Matter: Putting Lipstick on the Platform Pig:

Putting Lipstick on the Platform Pig

AFT, NEA, and AFT promoters at NPE took the lead in supporting the latest ESEA reauthorization last year that came to be known as ESSA. 

Even though ESSA continues annual testing with a mandated 95 percent participation rate requirement, thus killing any opt out option by parents, and even though ESSA guarantees huge new grants for more "no excuses" corporate charter schools that will replace the bottom 5 percent of low-scoring schools each year, and even though ESSA further weakens teacher education programs, and even though ESSA legitimizes "states rights" education policy, thus providing free rein for states, with ALEC's help, to devise any draconian accountability systems without federal oversight, even with all this, AFT, NEA, and NPE declared ESSA a grand success for children, parents, and teachers.  "Better than I could have imagined," Ravitch croaked in 2015.

Now that ESEA is federal law, Weingarten and other Clintonites want to pretend that all the requirements in ESSA that they sold to teachers and parents last year do not exist.  In fact, as reported below by Ed Week, which continues the meme that the Clinton platform is a departure from Obama ed policies, the platform Schools Matter: Putting Lipstick on the Platform Pig:

With A Brooklyn Accent: Baton Rouge: A Divided City by Dr Lori Martin

With A Brooklyn Accent: Baton Rouge: A Divided City by Dr Lori Martin:

Baton Rouge: A Divided City 

by Dr Lori Martin

No, Baton Rouge is not burning. Baton Rouge is a city divided by many fault lines. A single street divides the city’s predominately white and black communities. North Baton Rouge, where Alton Sterling was killed, is under developed relative to south Baton Rouge. Access to emergency rooms, quality schools, healthy food, reliable transportation, and good jobs are limited, while health care complexes, blue ribbon schools, business and industry flow freely to the south. With the exception of a small section of Gardere in south Baton Rouge, which is predominately black, the sight of strong law enforcement presence is hard to find. Conversely, in several zip codes in north Baton Rouge, there is a noticeable police presence. Programs aimed at addressing homicides and violent crimes in predominately black areas are welcomed sites for many members of the dominant racial group but for some blacks in the city and for others the program is viewed as doing more harm than good. Such programs whether intentionally or unintentionally stigmatize both people and place and further increase the gap between blacks and whites who despite some claims have not forgotten the city’s tremulous racial past.

When whites talk about “the university” they are referring to Louisiana State University, while blacks refer to their beloved Southern University, a Historically Black College and University. For a time blacks had few educational opportunities as they were excluded from many public and private schools, colleges, and universities in the city.

Earlier this year I served as co-chair of a commemoration committee with Raymond A. Jetson, Pastor of Star Hill Church located near the site of Sterling’s killing, honoring men and women for their role in the nation’s first bus boycott in 1953. On the same day of the ceremony revelers were in the Spanish Town neighborhood riding on and watching floats as part of annual Mardi Gras festivities. Floats mocking the nation’s first black president, Black Lives Matters, victims of police brutality, among other offenses, were paraded down city streets. Some city residents could not understand why such public displays were viewed as offensive and accused critics of being overly sensitive and bowing to so-called political correctness. A tale of two cities is what we have in Baton Rouge and it is what has always existed.

For those unwilling to believe Baton Rouge was and is a city divided they need only view the Frontline documentary about the effort on the part of a large group of whites living in unincorporated municipalities in south Baton Rouge to secede from the city. While the stated purpose for the creation of the City of St. George, at least in part, was to have access to high-quality schools for area children, it was clear the new city would not resemble the existing city in terms of racial or economic composition.

In the weeks leading up to the shooting of Alton Sterling, the city was debating whether a school in 2016, in the city’s predominately white section should still carry the name of a legend of the Confederacy, Robert E. Lee. The district voted to With A Brooklyn Accent: Baton Rouge: A Divided City by Dr Lori Martin:

“Government Schools” vs. “Public Schools” | janresseger

“Government Schools” vs. “Public Schools” | janresseger:

“Government Schools” vs. “Public Schools”

Last weekend, the NY Times published an important story by Julie Bosman about the political importance of how we name our institutions: “Kansas has for years been the stage for a messy school funding fight that has shaken the Legislature and reached the State Supreme Court… Somewhere along the way, the term ‘government schools’ entered the lexicon in place of references to the public school system.”

Bosman briefly quotes George Lakoff, the cognitive linguist from the University of California at Berkeley, an expert on the metaphoric thinking that characterizes our politics.  In his book,Moral Politics, Lakoff describes the way savvy communicators frame political issues with language that connotes deep values and morals:  “(M)ost of our thought is unconscious—not unconscious in the Freudian sense of being repressed, but unconscious simply in that we are not aware of it. We think and talk at too fast a rate and at too deep a level to have a conscious awareness and control over everything we think and say. We are even less conscious of the components of thoughts—concepts. When we think, we use an elaborate system of concepts, but we are not usually aware of just what those concepts are like and how they fit together into a system…  (M)etaphorical thought need not be poetic or especially rhetorical. It is normal, everyday thought. Not every common concept is metaphorical, but a surprising number are.” Moral Politics, (pp. 4-5).

To define the connotation of “government schools,” Bosman quotes John Locke, a linguist at the City University of New York, who worries that the term “government schools” is austere: “It has an oppressive ring to it.  It sounds rigid, the opposite of open or friendly or charming or congenial. The people who use that term are hoping those words will come to mind.”

Actually, I believe that in the context of today’s battle over school reform and privatization, the term “government schools” evokes far more than concerns about rigid and austere schools.  The term “government schools” works as a metaphor for a very different political frame.

As a pejorative, “government schools” immediately evokes the ideal opposite to which it contrasts: privatized charter schools—free of regulation, and vouchers that privilege the  private institution of the family over the calcified “government schools” that impose on the individual freedom and choice of parents. Those who disparage “government schools” are rejecting the twentieth century public school—paralyzed, as they see it, by bureaucracy, resistant to disruptive change and innovation.  “Government schools” lack the efficiency of schools kept accountable through marketplace competition, where individuals are free to choose, free to thrive, free to race to the top. And, especially in Kansas where there is a long-running school funding battle, “government schools” are known to impose a very heavy tax burden.

“Public schools,” on the other hand,  connotes democratic governance, public funding, universal accessibility, and accountability to the public. The term, “public schools” evokes  the “Government Schools” vs. “Public Schools” | janresseger:

Nutritious Meals to Low-Income Families - Year 2016 (CA Dept of Education)

Nutritious Meals to Low-Income Families - Year 2016 (CA Dept of Education):

State Schools Chief Tom Torlakson Announces Updated List of Programs Serving Nutritious Meals to Low-Income Families

SACRAMENTO—State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson announced today that disadvantaged families in California can find updated lists of child and adult care centers offering nutritious meals at low- or no-cost through the California Department of Education's Web site.

"When children eat well and have access to nutritious meals, they are healthier and more successful students as a result," Torlakson said. "I encourage families to use the services these centers provide."

The Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) is funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Nearly 9,000 local child care centers and 18,000 sponsored family day care home providers in California participate in the CACFP.

These facilities provide nutritious food to infants, children, and adults. Most participating child care centers provide meals at no charge. In centers that have a separate charge for meals, participants may receive free or reduced-price meals.

Meals are free or reduced price depending on household income guidelines. For example, a family of four earning $31,525 a year (up from $31,005 last year) can qualify for free meals and snacks. A family of four earning $44,863 a year (up from $44,123 last year) also qualifies. The Income Eligibility Scales for 2015–16 for free and reduced-price meals and snacks are included below.

Families also qualify for free meals if they receive benefits from California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids, CalFresh, Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations (FDPIR), Kinship Guardianship Assistance Payment Program, Head Start, Early Head Start, or the Even Start Program. Adult day care centers with adults that receive CalFresh, FDPIR, Social Security Income, or Medicaid benefits are also eligible for reimbursement at the free rate. Institutions serve meals to all participants regardless of race, color, national origin, sex, age, or disability.*

To find day care home sponsors in your area, visit the interactive CACFP Day Care Home Sponsors Web page and search by county. For a child or adult day care center, visit the interactive 2015–16 CACFP Center Sites Web page and search by county.

Free Eligibility Scale: Meals, Snacks

Household Size	Annual	Monthly	Twice Per Month	Every Two Weeks	Weekly
1	$15,301	$1,276	$638	$589	$295
2	20,709	1,726	863	797	399
3	26,117	2,177	1,089	1005	503
4	31,525	2,628	1,314	1,213	607
5	36,933	3,078	1,539	1,421	711
6	42,341	3,529	1,765	1,629	815
7	47,749	3,980	1,990	1,837	919
8	53,157	4,430	2,215	2,045	1,023
For each additional family member, add:	$5,408	$451	$226	$208	$104

Reduced-Price Eligibility Scale: Meals and Snacks

Household Size	Annual	Monthly	Twice Per Month	Every Two Weeks	Weekly
1	$ 21,775	$ 1,815	$ 908	$ 838	$ 419
2	29,471	2,456	1,228	1,134	567
3	37,167	3,098	1,549	1,430	715
4	44,863	3,739	1,870	1,726	863
5	52,559	4,380	2,190	2,022	1,011
6	60,255	5,022	2,511	2,318	1,159
7	67,951	5,663	2,832	2,614	1,307
8	75,647	6,304	3,152	2,910	1,455
For each additional family member, add:	$7,696	$642	$321	$296	$148

* In accordance with federal civil rights law and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) civil rights regulations and policies, the USDA, its agencies, offices, and employees, and institutions participating in or administering USDA programs are prohibited from discriminating based on race, color, national origin, sex, disability, age, or reprisal or retaliation for prior civil rights activity in any program or activity conducted or funded by USDA. Persons with disabilities who require alternative means of communication for program information (e.g. Braille, large print, audiotape, American Sign Language, etc.), should contact the agency (state or local) where they applied for benefits. Individuals who are deaf, hard of hearing or have speech disabilities may contact USDA through the Federal Relay Service at 800-877-8339. Additionally, program information may be made available in languages other than English. To file a program complaint of discrimination, complete the USDA Program Discrimination Complaint Form (AD-3027)  or write a letter addressed to USDA and provide in the letter all of the information requested in the form. To request a copy of the complaint form, call 866-632-9992. Submit your completed form or letter to USDA by mail at U.S. Department of Agriculture, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights, 1400 Independence Avenue, SW, Washington, D.C. 20250-9410, by fax at 202-690-7442, by e-mail atprogram.intake@usda.gov. This institution is an equal opportunity provider.

# # # #

Tom Torlakson — State Superintendent of Public Instruction
Communications Division, Room 5206, 916-319-0818, Fax 916-319-0100

Last Reviewed: Tuesday, July 12, 2016

Nutritious Meals to Low-Income Families - Year 2016 (CA Dept of Education):