California Budget Crisis Diaries: Costly lawsuits and late payment fees

California Budget Crisis Diaries: Costly lawsuits and late payment fees

The number of lawsuits being filed against state lawmakers and the state offices making late payments show millions of dollars down the drain. But there may be a light at the end of the tunnel as the various gubernatorial candidates put forth their ideas for fixing the budget.

The possibility of unlawful cuts: Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and state lawmakers have been inundated with lawsuits since they reached a budget agreement in July. Even Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento) filed a lawsuit against the governor.
If Schwarzenegger and the state lose all the lawsuits filed against them, the state could lose $4.7 billion, the San Jose Mercury News reports.

“While legal battles are common in every budget cycle, the unusually high number this year - and their potential to wreak exceptional fiscal havoc - is a testament to the drastic, even risky, measures employed to solve deficits amounting to some $60 billion,” according to the Mercury News.

“This year’s bevy of lawsuits also is the legacy of an annual budgeting process in which tax increases have become anathema and in which certain spending obligations, such as money for education, are set in stone during boom years, without any provision to pay them when revenues slip.”Read more: http://www.sdnn.com/sandiego/2009-10-06/news/california-budget-crisis-diaries-costly-lawsuits-and-late-payment-fees#ixzz0TBb9s3Vq

Online Sexual Exploitation - Bulletin Board

What is named as the top school trouble of kids 8-15? Homework? Cafeteria food? Neither it's bullying. And with the rapid rise in electronic communications, cyberbullying using the Internet or mobile devices to send or post harmful or cruel text or images has become a serious issue.

The cyberbullying prevention campaign targets 12 and 13-year-olds, particularly girls, urging them to put an end to the cyberbullying chain. Tweens and teens can be lured into such behavior because it takes place in a virtual world. In fact, because they don't realize the tangible consequences, some don't even recognize these hurtful actions as bullying. These new PSAs including viral videos help them realize that if they wouldn't say it in person, they shouldn't say it online.

The bullying prevention campaign, launched in September 2004, features NCPC's beloved crime dog, McGruff. It is designed to counteract bullying at a young age by encouraging victims, witnesses and parents to take action to prevent the problem. Visitors to www.ncpc.org/cyberbullying can learn more about cyberbullying.

The Perimeter Primate: Paving the Way to Privatization of the School Lunch Program

The Perimeter Primate: Paving the Way to Privatization of the School Lunch Program

This is the first guest post on The Perimeter Primate by Caroline Grannan . Grannan was an editor at the San Jose Mercury News for 12 years. Currently she contributes to a number of Internet sites dealing with education and schools. She is a San Francisco public school parent, advocate, and volunteer and has followed education politics locally and nationwide.-- P.P.

On Revolution Foods

I’m a veteran of several years on the frontlines of the battle to improve school food. So of course I read the press coverage, including a sudden explosion of glowing news reports on a company called Revolution Foods -- a progressive-sounding effort to privatize school meals.

Almost all of that coverage is by confused reporters who don’t understand the economics of funding school meals and who buy Revolution’s misleading claim that its meals cost only a little more than the federal funding for school meals. Here’s a quote from a Sept. 30 Washington Post story about Revolution: “The price, between $2.90 and $3 per lunch, is not much higher than the current $2.68 the government pays.” The assumption is that the school district or the student has to come up with a mere 22 to 32 cents. But that’s misleading, because actually, the $2.68 government reimbursement also has to cover labor and other costs of running a school cafeteria.

California’s Civil Rights Heroes: Honoring the Legacies of Cesar Chavez and Harvey Milk - California Progress Report

California’s Civil Rights Heroes: Honoring the Legacies of Cesar Chavez and Harvey Milk - California Progress Report:

"Every year on March 31 Californians celebrate the life and legacy of my grandfather, Cesar E. Chavez. A Mexican-American son of migrant workers, he grew up at time when Latinos were treated as second class citizens. Having personally experienced injustice, he dedicated his life to achieving dignity and equality not only for Latino and farm worker communities but for all who suffered discrimination. He inspired millions to stand with pride in the face of adversity, and lives on in our memories as a figure who changed California and the world for the better."

Harvey Milk was a similar transformative leader at a time when lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people’s most basic humanity was denied. One of the nation’s first openly gay elected officials, he mobilized thousands in the LGBT community to fight against discriminatory policies, including the Briggs Initiative, which would have made it legal to fire school teachers simply because they were gay or supported equal rights. He also authored one of the nation’s first ordinances outlawing discrimination based on sexual orientation.

Schwarzenegger Latest Republican To Back Health Care Reform

Schwarzenegger Latest Republican To Back Health Care Reform:

"California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has joined other prominent Republicans in supporting Democratic health care reform legislation.

'As Governor, I have made significant efforts to advance health reform in California,' he said in a statement. 'As the Obama Administration was launching the current debate on health care reform, I hosted a bipartisan forum in our state because I believe in the vital importance of this issue, and that it should be addressed through bipartisan cooperation.'"

Leveraging Title I & Title IID: Maximizing the Impact of Technology in Education

Leveraging Title I & Title IID: Maximizing the Impact of Technology in Education:

"Leveraging Title I & Title IID: Maximizing the Impact of Technology in Education
The first, Leveraging Title I & Title IID: Maximizing the Impact of Technology in Education, outlines some effective ways schools can use technology to improve learning, and provides specific examples from schools and districts that have displayed best practices.
http://www.nationaltitleiassociation.org/?
http://www.setda.org/"

Steve Barr’s crusade to remake failing schools : The New Yorker

Steve Barr’s crusade to remake failing schools : The New Yorker:

"ABSTRACT: DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION about Steve Barr’s plan to remake failing schools. Two years ago, Steve Barr asked the Los Angeles Unified School District (L.A.U.S.D.) to give his charter-school management group, Green Dot Public Schools, control of Alain Leroy Locke High School, near Watts, California, and let him help the district turn it around. When the district refused, Green Dot became the first charter group in the country to seize a high school, in a hostile takeover. Locke reopened in September, four months after a riot had paralyzed it, as a half-dozen Green Dot schools. “It’s night and day,” said Ramon Cortines, L.A.U.S.D.’s new superintendent."

msnbc.com:KIPP student: We have to earn everything

msnbc.com:KIPP student: We have to earn everything

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

The Colbert Report Full Episode | Monday Oct 5 2009 | Comedy Central

The Colbert Report Full Episode Monday Oct 5 2009 Comedy Central

Missed Secretary Duncan on The Colbert Report last night? Not to worry. Full episdoe here.




http://www.comedycentral.com/colbertreport/full-episodes/index.jhtml?episodeId=250959

Digital Education: SETDA Offers Technology Resource Guide for Title I

Digital Education: SETDA Offers Technology Resource Guide for Title I:

"The State Educational Technology Directors Association teamed up recently with state Title I administrators to create two quick guides for schools to make better use of technology and stretch their money more effectively.

SETDA and the National Association for State Title I Directors worked on the guides, which quickly outline ways that technology can help schools meet their student-achievement goals."

Click here to read Leveraging Title I & Title IID: Maximizing the Impact of Technology in Education: http://www.docstoc.com/docs/12674902/Leveraging-Title-I-and-Title-IID-Maximizing-the-Impact-of-Technology-in-Education

Click here to read A Resource Guide Identifying Technology Tools for Schools : http://www.docstoc.com/docs/12674886/Resource-Guide-Identifying-Technology-Tools-for-Schools-SETDA-and-the-National-Association-for-State-Title-I-Directors

Education Week: New Tack on Math Promoted

Education Week: New Tack on Math Promoted:

"Three years after calling for a reordering of elementary and middle school math curricula, the nation’s largest group of math teachers is urging a new approach to high school instruction, one that aims to build students’ ability to choose and apply the most effective problem-solving techniques, in the classroom and in life.

Cultivating those skills will make math more useful, and more meaningful, to students, the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics argues in a document scheduled for release this week."

Read Draft Report Here: http://www.docstoc.com/docs/12674770/“Focus-in-High-School-Mathematics-Reasoning-and-Sense-Making”-Draft-Report

International Walk to School Day Celebrates Local Efforts to Increase Safe

International Walk to School Day Celebrates Local Efforts to Increase Safe:

"CHAPEL HILL, N.C., Oct. 5 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- On Wednesday, October 7th, students, parents, teachers and local officials in several thousand communities in each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia will walk to school together to celebrate the 13th annual International Walk to School Day. These events also kick off October as International Walk to School Month, the month when communities in over 40 countries will participate in daily, weekly or monthly events designed to raise awareness about the many benefits of safely walking and bicycling to school.

'International Walk to School Day events held on Wednesday and throughout the month of October highlight an increasingly important global issue,' said Lauren Marchetti, Director of the National Center for Safe Routes to School, a national clearinghouse that provides U.S. programs with information needed to implement safe and successful Safe Routes to School programs and strategies. 'When communities and schools work together to make routes to school safer for their children to walk and bicycle, there is an opportunity for many safety, public health, and environmental benefits to be enjoyed by all community members.'"

WKZO | Saving The Old and the Very Young

WKZO Saving The Old and the Very Young:

"The Kalamazoo City Commission wants state officials to reconsider one of their spending cuts, now that the budget deliberations have gone into extra innings. Last night they approved a resolution asking Lansing lawmakers to restore funding to early childhood education programs.

It came at the request of several citizens groups.Howard Steiner with ISAAC says legislators have lumped Pre-school and K-12 together, which would force districts to choose between them.

The whole K-12 Education budget is still up for grabs after the House refused to approve the conference committee cuts.

Just as there are advocates for the very young, there are also those pulling for funding to protect the very old, who can no longer care for themselves. They say that under current budget proposals, dozens of nursing homes would be forced to cut services, and some could even close, because of cuts to Medicaid."

Tax shortfall means cut in Denver preschool tuition aid - The Denver Post

Tax shortfall means cut in Denver preschool tuition aid - The Denver Post:

"A tax-supported program that helps Denver families pay for preschool will cut its tuition reimbursements by 25 percent next fall — another victim of the economy.

The move could affect the growing enrollment of Denver Public Schools and, ultimately, future student achievement, education officials say.

Early-childhood education advocates also fear greater cuts to the statewide Colorado Preschool Program that pays for preschool for the state's neediest children."

The ACORN doesn’t fall far from the NEA tree : Opinion : The Buffalo News

The ACORN doesn’t fall far from the NEA tree : Opinion : The Buffalo News:

"The California Teacher Empowerment Network was founded by former NEA members who now are educating the educator about how to opt out of paying for union politics. Further, alternative teacher membership organizations such as the Association of American Educators have surfaced, offering educators professional benefits without funding political causes.

While the $400,000 given to ACORN by the NEA represents a mere percentage of members’ dues sent to similar organizations, the ACORN debacle should have NEA leadership rethinking to whom and why they give away their members’ money. Instead we are seeing more of the same from the teacher union as it defended the good work of ACORN in a recent press release."

Monterey County Superintendent Faces Lawsuit - KION - Monterey, Salinas, Santa Cruz - News Weather-

Monterey County Superintendent Faces Lawsuit - KION - Monterey, Salinas, Santa Cruz - News Weather-:

"There are more problems for schools in King City. Tonight, the California Teachers Association is suing to force the Monterey County School Superintendent to approve a deal reached several months ago.

Teachers say Nancy Kotowski's actions could cost the district more than 5 and a half million dollars. They approved the cost cutting deal in February and the school board approved it in March. But the next day, Kotowski killed the deal. Now, teachers want a judge to do something about it."

Sending children to prison for life - Juneau Empire

Sending children to prison for life - Juneau Empire:

"The tough-on-crime rhetoric of 'lock 'em up and throw away the key' is entirely inappropriate in the case of children. Children's brains, bodies and personalities are still in the process of growing and changing. And many experts in neuroscience and psychology believe that the same changeability that makes young people vulnerable to negative influences and peer pressure also makes them good candidates for reform and rehabilitation.

In all other areas, we recognize their vulnerabilities. Because of the relative immaturity and irresponsibility of minors, every state in the nation restricts them from voting, serving on juries, purchasing alcohol or marrying without parental consent. States further restrict young adolescents from activities that require more mature judgment, such as driving and consenting to sexual activity. In fact, the state of Florida, where Sullivan and Graham are incarcerated for life, does not even permit adolescents to get their ears pierced without parental consent.

So why should minors be treated like adults when it comes to sentencing?"

Education Week: 'Race to Top' Said to Lack Key Science

Education Week: 'Race to Top' Said to Lack Key Science:

"Among education researchers, one complaint about the U.S. Department of Education under former President George W. Bush was that it relentlessly promoted “scientific research in education,” while at the same time endorsing some policies that lacked solid research evidence.

With recently published draft guidelines for federal economic-stimulus money and Title I aid, critics are beginning to ask whether much has changed under the Obama administration."

High turnover among principals | Homeroom

High turnover among principals Homeroom:

"University of Texas researchers have found that about 70 percent of new public high school principals in Texas leave their jobs within the first five years.

Only about half of new principals stay on the job at least three years, College of Education researchers found. And principals in high-poverty schools are leaving the soonest.

Ed Fuller and Michelle Young, both part of the University Council for Educational Administration, studied principal tenure from 1996 to 2008, university officials said in an announcement Monday."

Bullied for Being ‘Gay’ - Consults Blog - NYTimes.com

Bullied for Being ‘Gay’ - Consults Blog - NYTimes.com:

"Unfortunately, your son is not alone in what he’s experiencing. Bullying and being teased for being what others perceive as “different” happens to many children. Lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgendered young people — or those perceived to be L.G.B.T. — have a much higher incidence of harassment at school. In fact, it’s estimated that more than a quarter of L.G.B.T. young people drop out of school because of this very harassment.

Your son is very fortunate to have parents who are so supportive and open to talking about these issues, something that many young people desperately need. In addition, it’s very encouraging that the staff at your son’s school responds to the students who tease him. Unfortunately, this does not occur in many schools, leaving those who are teased to feel that no one cares, that they have no recourse and worse, that they deserve what’s being done to them."

There's less junk food in schools, the CDC says | Booster Shots | Los Angeles Times

There's less junk food in schools, the CDC says Booster Shots Los Angeles Times:

"Soda, chips, candy -- sure, they're everywhere, but in in the nation's schools, they're no longer quite as plentiful as they were, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Read it here.)

States with the biggest improvements -- no surprise -- were ones that 'have adopted strong school nutrition standards and policies for foods and beverages sold outside school meal programs,' according to a summary of the report.

The report, which examines changes in 2002 through 2008, also found:

1) Of 34 states that collected data, the average number of secondary schools that didn't sell soda or fruit drinks that weren't 100% juice went from 38% in 2006 to 64% in 2008.
Mississippi and Tennessee did best, increasing to 75% from 22% (Mississippi) and to 74% from 27% (Tennessee)."

Swiftspeech!: As California's Educational System Goes, So Goes the State

Swiftspeech!: As California's Educational System Goes, So Goes the State:

"'It is up to us to argue the case for a public university – for public education -- in a democracy in crisis."

Education Advisory Panel: What do you think about year-round schooling? | Postcrescent.com | Appleton Post-Crescent

Education Advisory Panel: What do you think about year-round schooling? Postcrescent.com Appleton Post-Crescent:

"More than 3,000 schools in at least 46 states, particularly California, Arizona, Hawaii, Nevada and Georgia —and a handful in southern Wisconsin — use a year-round school calendar today.Once they get used to breaking up the long summer vacation with shorter, more frequent breaks during the year, many teachers, students and parents like it. Others don't and have returned to traditional calendars.Advocacy groups like the National Association for Year Round Education point to research indicating a modified calendar makes a difference in student achievement, minimizing 'summer learning loss' in such areas as math and reading."

When State Universities Lose State Support - Economix Blog - NYTimes.com

When State Universities Lose State Support - Economix Blog - NYTimes.com:

"The budget of the public higher education system of California has been slashed by over 20 percent, on top of previous cuts. Faculty and student protests kicked into place the first week of classes, reflecting enormous contention over the best way to respond.

What’s happening in California is both a harbinger of things to come in other states and an amplification of a national trend.

The percentage of total spending at state universities provided by state tax revenue has been sinking for more than 20 years. As Jim Duderstadt, former president of the University of Michigan put it, “We used to be state-supported, then state-assisted, and now we are state-located.”"

Will California become America's first failed state?

Will California become America's first failed state?

The Failed State of California?

By Robert Cruickshank

The #1 article on the Guardian's site (the British newspaper, not the SF alt-weekly) is an article from their Sunday sister paper, the Observer, titled Will California become America's first failed state? As any of you who've read Calitics for the last few months or years know, our answer is likely to be "yes." But it's still worth examining why that's the case, and whether the Observer article really gets to the heart of the problem.

First, I think it is worth defining what the "California Dream" is. I think it is actually a broad and yet deeply fundamental concept. The dream is that anyone can come to California, enjoy its natural beauty, and reinvent/find/embrace themselves here, all enabled by the availability of basic economic security and prosperity. That's really what it's about, the notion that people can create, innovate, dream, and be themselves in this beautiful place, and do so without having to worry about how they'll make ends meet, because the state has backed policies that will ensure such fundamental prosperity.

That dream is now dead. Anyone who says otherwise is either lying, totally unfamiliar with California in 2009, or actively promoting and aiding the death of that dream.

Governor still hopes to get a water deal - Dan Walters - fresnobee.com

Governor still hopes to get a water deal - Dan Walters - fresnobee.com:

"Nobody will say that, of course, but neither is it a secret in the Capitol that Schwarzenegger wants the Legislature to return to Sacramento to deal not only with water but some education reform measures and perhaps an overhaul of the state's much-distorted tax system.

Water, however, is the biggie, as Schwarzenegger attempts to succeed where his predecessors dating back to Ronald Reagan failed, settling the decades-long war over water policy among powerful stakeholder groups."

Tension ripples through City Hall - Sacramento City News - sacbee.com

Tension ripples through City Hall - Sacramento City News - sacbee.com:

"Councilman Ray Tretheway said friction among council members has diverted attention from important issues, including the failure to find 'real-world solutions to the homeless problem.'
Tretheway, who is running for re-election against two challengers, said it's not too late for the council to start getting along.

'The focus of the City Council needs to be on important issues, such as jobs and public safety and flood control,' he said."

Stretching School Dollars: Galt needs to come together on schools - Sacramento Opinion - Sacramento Editorial | Sacramento Bee

Stretching School Dollars: Galt needs to come together on schools - Sacramento Opinion - Sacramento Editorial Sacramento Bee:

"California today has 550 elementary school districts, overlapping with 84 high school districts. The state has only 333 unified K-12 districts.

For years, Galt residents have talked about joining the elementary and high school districts. Led by a strong grassroots community effort in 2004, parents collected 1,200 signatures in favor of a K-12 merger. As one parent said at the time, 'There's no reason to have two districts; we're a small town.'"

Who's afraid of the swine flu? - Sacramento News - Local and Breaking Sacramento News | Sacramento Bee

Who's afraid of the swine flu? - Sacramento News - Local and Breaking Sacramento News Sacramento Bee:

"Compared with survey results the Field Poll expects to soon release on the California state Legislature, DiCamillo said, favorable opinion of state health officials is 'off the charts.'

DiCamillo said he was struck that while 67 percent were confident about the public health system, more than a quarter of respondents � 27 percent � said they were not likely to get an H1N1 vaccine even if their doctors or officials advised it."

re: Garfield High School LAUSD board meeting Sept 8 2009

Maria Guadalupe Mena of Garfield High School:
"Community members stated they were offered monetary compensation [by Green Dot] in exchange for their signature on a petition."
"The day of the 'Public School Choice' vote, Parent Revolution and Parent Union representatives informed us they were court mandated to support the rally to work off their community service".
"We're unhappy that reform decisions have been dictated to our community by billionaire philanthropists [who]...are funding...Inner City Struggle, Parent Revolution, Boyle Heights and East Los Angeles Learning Collaboratives to push their corporate agenda onto the schools."

Sacramento Nestle Waters bottling plant draws fire - Sacramento News - Local and Breaking Sacramento News | Sacramento Bee

Sacramento Nestle Waters bottling plant draws fire - Sacramento News - Local and Breaking Sacramento News Sacramento Bee:

"With California in its third year of drought and Sacramentans facing watering restrictions, Councilman Kevin McCarty thinks the plant needs a closer look.

'It comes at a bizarre time,' said McCarty, whose district includes the project site in the Florin Fruitridge Industrial Park. 'Extreme profits are going to be made with Sacramento water ... as we're trying to conserve' it."

Higher-value education - Press-Telegram

Higher-value education - Press-Telegram:

"Beleaguered taxpayers are inclined to feel like victims these days, but Daniel Weintraub, who expresses his views on today's Comment page, is a refreshing exception.

Weintraub, who writes for the Sacramento Bee, is the parent of a son enrolled at the University of California Santa Barbara. Thanks to the state's financial mess, tuition for his son will be $2,500 higher, and probably will be raised again in months to come.

He could complain, like so many of us, but instead makes the broader point, which is that the UC system still is one of higher education's great values. Also, a third of the tuition increase will go to less privileged families, those with incomes of $60,000 or less, who will pay no tuition at all."

Cash-Strapped University of California Spending Millions on Consultants | NBC Bay Area

Cash-Strapped University of California Spending Millions on Consultants NBC Bay Area:

"The University of California at Berkeley's top boss says you have to spend money to save money.

That’s why Chancellor Robert Birgenau is paying Bain & Company, a consulting firm based out of state, $3 million to analyze the university budget and determine how and where to cut costs.

This move is coming at a time when many employees have been laid off, salaries cut, courses reduced and workers furloughed. Employees and students at University of California campuses across the state staged a walkout last month, leaving their classes and workplaces in protest of increasing tuition fees and decreasing paychecks."

voiceofsandiego.org: Schooled... Parent Uproar Over Losing Teachers

voiceofsandiego.org: Schooled... Parent Uproar Over Losing Teachers:

"I've been flooded with e-mails and calls from parents across the school district who are panicked because their schools are losing teachers, weeks after class has already started:

Jerabek Elementary parents held a press conference last week to protest losing a 4th grade teacher, which forced the school to reassign her students to other classes. An Ocean Beach Elementary mom stood up at the school board meeting last week to argue against her school losing one teacher. 'Our students are not a formula,' Shelli Kurth said."

Report Cites Need To Restore Due Process - California Progress Report

Report Cites Need To Restore Due Process - California Progress Report

As the Board of Supervisors prepares to consider a proposal to restore due process rights to immigrant youth in the juvenile justice system on October 5th, legal experts from prominent civil rights organizations unveiled a key legal brief today responding to City Attorney Dennis Herrera’s August memo on the proposed reform. The legal brief analyzes existing law and finds that the proposal, backed by 8 Supervisors, is legally defensible, would save San Francisco from costly rights violations lawsuits, and models good public policy. The 9-page brief was prepared by the Asian Law Caucus, Legal Services for Children, Immigrant Legal Resource Center, Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights, the ACLU of Northern California, and the San Francisco Immigration Legal and Education Network. To read the full text of the brief is available at

Read full report: http://www.docstoc.com/docs/12640389/LEGAL-EXPERTS-SUPPORT-BOARD-OF-SUPERVISORS’-EFFORT-TO-RESTORE-DUE-PROCESS-TOSAN-FRANCISCO’S-IMMIGRANT-YOUTH

www.asianlawcaucus.org/programs/education-juvenile-justice.

Woman’s Shattered Life Shows Ground Beef Inspection Flaws - NYTimes.com

Woman’s Shattered Life Shows Ground Beef Inspection Flaws - NYTimes.com:

"Meat companies and grocers have been barred from selling ground beef tainted by the virulent strain of E. coli known as O157:H7 since 1994, after an outbreak at Jack in the Box restaurants left four children dead. Yet tens of thousands of people are still sickened annually by this pathogen, federal health officials estimate, with hamburger being the biggest culprit. Ground beef has been blamed for 16 outbreaks in the last three years alone, including the one that left Ms. Smith paralyzed from the waist down. This summer, contamination led to the recall of beef from nearly 3,000 grocers in 41 states."

Candidate for state superintendent comes to Santa Paula : Santa Paula : Ventura County Star

Candidate for state superintendent comes to Santa Paula : Santa Paula : Ventura County Star:

"O’Connell will finish his second term next year and cannot seek re-election in 2010. Aceves’ chief rivals for the nonpartisan position are considered to be state Sen. Gloria Romero, D-Los Angeles, and Assemblyman Tom Torlakson, D-Antioch.

Aceves is a past president of the Association of California School Administrators and the California Latino Superintendents Association. He said he retired three years ago after more than 30 years as a teacher, principal and superintendent in San Jose, San Diego and the Central Coast."

Learning to Think Outside the Box - INQUIRER.net, Philippine News for Filipinos

Learning to Think Outside the Box - INQUIRER.net, Philippine News for Filipinos:

"While parents and politicians worry about crumbling facilities and decimated budgets, students know that the heart of education beats inside the individual teacher. More than spacious playgrounds or sparkling cafeterias; more, even, than top-notch textbooks and state-of-the art computers, it’s the teacher who makes the difference. When NAM asked young people in our youth communications programs to write about the one teacher who’d really made a difference, they barely had to think before the keys were flying. This collection of pieces was underwritten by a project funded through the California Teachers Association.”)"

Right-wing media's relentless attacks supported by flagrant falsehoods | Media Matters for America

Right-wing media's relentless attacks supported by flagrant falsehoods Media Matters for America:

"Fox News, others ran with falsehood that Jennings 'cover[ed] up statutory rape.' In a September 28 editorial, The Washington Times accused Jennings, described in the editorial as 'safe school czar,' of 'encourag[ing]' a relationship that amounted to 'statutory rape' by suggesting that his only response to an underage student's revelation that he had sex with what the Times described as an 'older man' was to 'make sure 'to use a condom.' ' Fox News' website TheFoxNation.com linked to the Times editorial with the headline 'Did 'Safe School Czar' Encourage Statutory Rape?' Subsequently, on September 30, The Fox Nation posted the following headline:"

10.05.2009 - That's -30- for us

10.05.2009 - That's -30- for us:

"BERKELEY — This is the 230th issue of the Berkeleyan produced during my editorship. It is also the very last edition — not just for me, but for the paper itself.

It's my farewell because the position of Berkeleyan editor has been eliminated — one small part of Public Affairs' cost-reduction effort during these most difficult economic times. The print edition of the Berkeleyan is 'departing' too, because it requires the full attention of four writer/editors and a designer to produce a paper of appropriate heft and seriousness on a regular basis, and those resources are no longer available. Hence, this issue winds up nearly a quarter-century of continuous print publication on behalf of campus faculty and staff, as the transition to a less-resource-intensive online format gets under way."

California, Watch Us Leave!

California, Watch Us Leave!:


"A popular Al Jolson song when your grandparents were young began, “California here we come, right back where we started from.” For many of that generation, California was a land of golden opportunity, a destination for the “Okies” whose farms had succumbed to a long drought in the 1930s, and for all manner of people who saw it as a place to make a life and maybe even a fortune for themselves.

Now it’s a place that many are increasingly leaving. Between 2004 and 2008, more than a half million Californians left and for good reason."

MorganHillTimes.com | Reflecting on one who gave her life to education

MorganHillTimes.com Reflecting on one who gave her life to education:

"It was with sadness that I learned of the passing last week of Phyllis Thomas, and with fondness that I recalled my interactions with her. Mrs. Thomas was my high school counselor, and in that capacity she met with me on numerous occasions - to review my course selections, provide advice, change my schedule when I felt I had been misplaced in a class, make sure I was signed up for the SAT test and knew of college application deadlines and scholarship availability, and to write a letter of recommendation to the University of California, Berkeley.

It was only years later, after I had graduated and started teaching, that I learned she had attended Cal herself. Even then, the discussion was not about her but rather about her belief that it is important to give back to the community that has nurtured you, and about donating to one's alma mater. (I guess she was still counseling; like teaching, it is a lifelong behavior.)"

La Opinión - noticias locales, nacionales e internacionales desde Los Ángeles - impre.com - Seeking fiscal stability

La Opinión - noticias locales, nacionales e internacionales desde Los Ángeles - impre.com - Seeking fiscal stability:

"The lack of stability in the tax revenue stream is at the core of the state’s budget problems. One year the state coffers have funds to invest in education and the social safety net, and the next, there is nothing. This makes it impossible to do medium- and long-term planning.

The Commission on the 21st Century Economy was created precisely to find alternatives to this thorny policy issue and to come up with a stabilized tax structure. As was expected, the final recommendations are the result of internal negotiations among the commissioners and have been roundly criticized by both business and labor."

Read full report: http://www.docstoc.com/docs/12340338/Commission-on-the-21st-Century-Economy-Issues-Recommendations-to-Modernize-Stabilize-and-Simplify-California’s-Outdated-Tax-System

Web site: http://www.cotce.ca.gov/

A Constitutional Approach to Fixing California - NAM

A Constitutional Approach to Fixing California - NAM:

"Editor's Note: California, once seen as a land of opportunity and destination for immigrants, is now facing its own economic and political troubles. In order to prevent California from becoming what one economist called “the first failed state in America,” business groups are proposing a constitutional convention to fix the budgetary gridlock in Sacramento. But some are concerned that Latinos, Asian Americans and African Americans -- who, together, constitute a majority of the state’s population -- could be left out of the process and may not see the results."