New Sacramento Bee Reporter Accepts and Uses Deceptive Claims of Data on"Personalized Learning " in Response to Covid School Closings
Sac Bee Reporter accepts and uses deceptive data on “ Personalized Learning” schools response to Covid. Welcome to Sacramento.
In the Bee Article “ Lawmakers, advocates say budget hurts top schools, “ published in the Bee on July 5, new Bee reporter Mackenzie Hawkins makes a series of claims based upon a fundamental, and highly partisan claims. Hawkins has been at the Bee for 2 months. Prior to this position she wrote for the Yale News, which may have been a student intern position. Note, recognize that reporters often do not write the titles of pieces.
Hawkins says,
“But under this year’s education budget, lawmakers and education advocates warn, the state will abandon its traditional allocation formula in favor of a system that harms the very schools — disproportionately, charter schools and personalized education programs — that have performed best under pandemic pressures.” [ no evidence provided of the last phrase… that have performed best under pandemic pressures]
“California’s public schools usually receive money based on a combination of the prior year’s funding and the current year’s average daily attendance — a metric that reflects not the number of students enrolled, but rather how many students show up each day.
Historically, this has meant that if a student switches schools from one year to the next, the money to fund their education moves with them. That will change under budget trailer bills AB 77 and SB 98, which allocate next year’s funding based on attendance through February 29 of this year.”
here: https://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article243822982.html#storylink=cpy
here: https://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article243822982.html#storylink=cpy
This statement is inaccurate. State funding of schools in California is based upon the Local Control Funding system, LCFF.
The Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) was enacted in 2013. The LCFF was designed to be a more equitable system of funding, with the goal of providing additional funding for the highest needs students. These subgroups of students include English learners, low-income students, and foster children. If the student groups targeted for assistance make larger than a majority of enrollment, districts receive additional concentration money.
Schools do not receive money sole based upon Average Daily Attendance, as the reporter asserts. They receive money based upon ADA and the state also gives additional state funds to districts based on the number of low-income students, English learners, foster children and homeless youth they serve.
There is a significant difference between these two
Reporter Hawkins goes on to say,
“Proponents say the legislation preserves educational equity and ensures adequate funding in the most disadvantaged areas. But according to charter school advocates and a bipartisan group of lawmakers, turning an emergency measure into a permanent policy undermines school choice and forces top-performing schools to turn away students — often, those served poorly in traditional schools — looking for another option. “[There is no evidence for the claim that the funding would force top performing schools to turn away students because we do not know which are the top performing schools.]
“What the state is essentially proposing is we’re going to protect and essentially reward failing schools, and we’re going to punish schools that have proven that they’re performing well and successful in this COVID crisis,” Association of Personalized Learning Schools & Services (APLUS+) Director Jeff Rice, who represents 75 personalized education programs in California, told The Sacramento Bee. “While so many other public schools had to completely shut down their educational CONTINUE READING: New Sacramento Bee Reporter Accepts and Uses Deceptive Claims of Data on"Personalized Learning " in Response to Covid School Closings -
