City Insider : The power of PTA moms

City Insider : The power of PTA moms
The power of PTA moms

Do not ever, under any circumstances, underestimate the power of half dozen PTA moms. Especially really pissed off PTA moms.
It all started last October as the Sherman Elementary School principal explained to parents that the school could lose about $300,000 from its budget next year.

Uh oh. Now you've done it.

That's equal to about three teachers and two teacher aides, give or take, and about three times what the school's PTA had raised in a single year before. Fundraising wasn't going to make up that gap.
That's when the six PTA moms looked at each other and said, "This is unacceptable." "We might as well become a third world country," said one of the moms, Erica Hunt, as she described that moment.
And that's when the moms got mad.
So, they decided to hold a town hall meeting, although they admit now that they actually didn't exactly know what a town hall was. That didn't stop them.
They thought maybe 100 or so people would come to chat about funding schools, but it turns out they aren't the only ones who are angry.
More than 1,000 people have signed up to attend the town hall (see info here) at Marina Middle School Thursday evening, an event aimed at helping the district and state figure out how California can stop being dead last nationally in education spending.
KQED's Michael Krasny is hosting (Read: keeping Mayor Gavin Newsom, city supervisors, school board members and other official folks in line) and the moms say that the requests from the city's biggest big wigs to be part of the town hall keep coming


Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/cityinsider/detail?entry_id=57881&tsp=1#ixzz0gYg5imWC

SOU sees drastic increase in California students | KDRV

SOU sees drastic increase in California students | KDRV:

"MEDFORD, Ore. - Southern Oregon University is seeing its highest winter enrollment of all time.

The university credits its increase to widespread recruitment.

SOU officials say more students are transferring from California community colleges than ever before.

California transfers can attend SOU for the same price as a student paying instate tuition.
With the decrease in Oregon funding for higher education, universities are reaching out to other students to encourage them to attend school in Oregon.

'Its easier for us to afford getting more out of state students to come here because the revenue they bring in is the same as a state student with tuition and state support,' said Jonathan Eldridge, V.P. of Student Affairs."

Will Tea Party groups threaten community college funding? - USATODAY.com

Will Tea Party groups threaten community college funding? - USATODAY.com

As if the recession had not given community college advocates enough to worry about, some fear that the anti-tax sentiment stirred by Tea Party activists could endanger their federal, state and local funding.

One Tea Party group in New Jersey is questioning Warren County Community College's plans to open a satellite campus, meant to accommodate the institution's burgeoning enrollment in outlying areas and free up space on its main campus. As required by New Jersey law, half of the $7.3 million bond to buy and renovate a commercial building for the new campus would be paid from an existing pool of state funds. The remainder, officials say, would be paid for by leasing additional space in the renovated building to interested tenants.

At Inside Higher Ed:Taxes and higher education

Cash-poor, bond-rich: Colleges struggle with state budget cutbacks

Though the plan for the new facility would not raise taxes or pass along any extra costs to area residents, some activists are still questioning the move, arguing that the college should simply expand its existing campus and that outlying students should make the drive if they want to attend classes.

Money "doesn't grow on trees," John Clemmer, founder of the Warren County NJ Tea Party Patriots, told The Express-Times, a local newspaper."We don't print money. It's our money, no matter what you're talking about doing."

	INSIDE HIGHER ED For more breaking news, features and commentary from the world of higher education, visit:insidehighered.com.

In face of fresh assaults, a new student movement rises - Opinion

In face of fresh assaults, a new student movement rises - Opinion

For years, when people talked about a "student movement," they referred to something that was perhaps more theoretical than tangible, a force that was more wishful thinking than reality. That is no longer the case. 

Throughout the country and especially in California, students are becoming mobilized, having been jarred out of their apathy by an combination of fee increases, predatory loan practices and assaults on their access to higher education that have become even more unacceptable in recent years.

In California especially, we have seen this in action. In September, tens of thousands of students participated in actions across the state, joining with faculty, staff and other community members to send a message to the state government and the University of California administration that the situation was unacceptable. In October, hundreds gathered at UC Berkeley to plan further moves through the spring. Through the fall, actions were organized, Regents' meetings disrupted and thousands of students mobilized in the wake of tuition and fee hikes. Throughout that time, California saw some of the largest campus protests in a generation. 

Now, at the beginning of a new spring, students from across the state and the country are gearing up for several months of intense action and advocacy. This coming week will see national actions in support of the DREAM Act, which would ensure educational access and a path to legalization for undocumented students who, under the current system, are denied the opportunities that their peers enjoy. 

Additionally, March 4 will see strikes and marches in California and across the nation, with actions reportedly planned in other states such as Rhode Island, Michigan and New York. Later in March, students from across the country will attend the United States Student Association Legislative Conference to discuss possible solutions to the problems that college students face and meet with national legislators to advocate for them.

Sonoma State Star - Students for Quality Education organize campus walk-out for “Day of Action”

Sonoma State Star - Students for Quality Education organize campus walk-out for “Day of Action”

On March 4, SSU will be participating in not only a statewide movement, but a countrywide Day of Action. Rallies, demonstrations, walkouts and sit-ins will be seen throughout all 23 CSU’s, as well as UC and community college campuses, in an effort to invoke change in the diminishing quality of higher public education.

California has been joined by 17 other states in America to take a stance against the budget cuts and student fee increases.

“Schools around the nation and around the world have basically said we support this action and we will be doing something of our own to support higher education,” said sophomore, Kia Kolderup-Lane, the head of Students for Quality Education (SQE).

The reason behind this nationwide movement is due to the efforts of more than 800 students, faculty and staff members from over 100 different schools and organizations throughout the state.

On Oct. 24 of last year, UC Berkeley held a huge conference, the purpose of which ws to find a way for California to take action. After much discussion and an eventual vote, they came to the consensus that on March 4 college campuses all across the state would unite for the same cause.

SSU will display their frustration with the CSU system by beginning March 4 with a walk out.

“I can’t stand around and do nothing,” said Aleena Conway, sophomore and treasurer of SQU. “Fortunately, the budget cuts haven’t affected me as much as much as my fellow students and as much as they will affect students to come for generations. I have many friends who are struggling just to get by with the 32 percent increase in tuition. I am hopeful that this walkout will really open some eyes of other students, faculty and people who control our money.”

At 11:30 a.m. on March 4, the walkout at SSU will begin.

“We chose 11:30 a.m. as the starting time because it’s a time when students will be

The Schoolyard Foodie: Squash is Camote–Dual Language Immersion in the Kitchen | San Francisco Bay Area News - Crosscurrents from KALW

The Schoolyard Foodie: Squash is Camote–Dual Language Immersion in the Kitchen | San Francisco Bay Area News - Crosscurrents from KALW

Dave Chappelle just performed 21 straight shows in Oakland to an incredibly diverse group of people. Some nights he performed 5 hours straight without a break. And you know what he said he wanted to be when he was growing up—A TEACHER!! He is of course a teacher in another sense. He helps to relieve us of the multi-cultural boundaries that exist between us.

Which brings me to the importance of multi-cultural education in schools. Youth need to identify themselves with where they came from and they also need to learn and appreciate that about others.

Regardless of where you are on the planet, food is an excellent tool for breaking down social and cultural barriers. Dave Chapelle makes a pretty good living hammering away at our insecurities around race and gender. If you visit a school cooking class, you will see that it too is an excellent space for doing the same. The other day at our school farmer’s market, I overheard a brief argument between two students and a parent about the produce in front of them.

“Squash is camote.”
“No squash is calbasa.”
“What you be calling squash? This is a sweet potato!”

It’s hard to stay quiet about what you put into your body. Like language, the food we eat influences how we identify ourselves, how we interact with others, and how we interpret different tastes and 

SJA continues protests as March 4th approaches - News

SJA continues protests as March 4th approaches - News

Students and faculty gathered around the Bell Tower last Wednesday to protest the recent 32 percent fee hike.

Led by members of UCR's Social Justice Alliance, the protestors circled the Bell Tower and weaved through the HUB pavilion carrying signs proclaiming "Invest in the future," "32% WTF," "Free the UC" and "CA #1 Economy, #48 Education."

An officer for the Social Justice Aliance and a leader of the protest, Eddie Valencia, described the goal of the day's action: "We're marching to raise awareness about the status of education in California."

Kimberly Hutter, a first-year unaffiliated with the SJA, protested for different reason.

"I'm protesting because I am in support of lower education fees, but mainly I'm just trying to find out more about the situation," said Hutter.

The first few minutes of the protest were silent, as the students and faculty involved showed respect for the Ash Wednesday ceremony also taking place at the Bell Tower.

However, once the area cleared the protesters began to chant: "What do we want? Education! When do we want it? Now!"

The protestors had done more than organize the afternoon's march.

Jorge Serrato, another member of SJA and leader of the protest, had met with visiting Regent Charlene Zettel to ask 

Education program embraces Indians - SignOnSanDiego.com

Education program embraces Indians - SignOnSanDiego.com

OLD TOWN — Every week in the outskirts of Old Town, where the Kumeyaay Indians were colonized by the Spaniards more than 200 years ago, scores of urban Indians meet to dance, eat and keep their heritage alive.

Some children and their families perform traditional grass dances while others beat on drums and sing native songs.

The weekly meetings at the Ballard Parent Center are part of the San Diego Unified School District’s federally funded American Indian Education Program. In addition to the music and dance offerings, the program also helps the district’s Indian students with tutoring, counseling, career guidance and other services.

The program is designed to support American Indian children who do not have the benefit or network of services offered to those living on a reservation, said Director Vicki Gambala, who oversees the program and its annual $80,000 budget. Of the district’s 130,000 students, 680 are listed as American Indian. A little more than 400 participate in the federal program.

“We are urban Indians. Unlike reservation Indians, we don’t have big, extended families here,” Gambala said. “The biggest challenge for our children is self-esteem. Our children feel different. How many Indians attend a school? Usually one.”

Chandler Hood, a senior at High Tech High, remembers being a student at Hearst Elementary School in Del Cerro and being asked if he lived in a teepee.

“It was embarrassing, but also discouraging,” said Hood, who hopes to attend Harvard or Stanford next year. “It’s nice to have a place where I can come back to and practice my grass dancing and where I can get support.”

The program picked up where the history books left off, usually right around the fourth-grade lessons about California missions.

San Diego Unified’s American Indian students make up a fraction of the district’s population. The demographic is so small that it rarely — if ever — surfaces in discussions about test scores, dropout rates or attendance.

Yet American Indians score among the lowest of any other ethnic group.

UC Riverside, African-American Students Are Staying and Succeeding

UC Riverside, African-American Students Are Staying and Succeeding

African-American students at the University of California, Riverside continue beyond their first year and graduate at higher rates than any other ethnic group, according to the latest retention and six-year graduation figures.

African-Americans in the fall 2002 freshman class had a 73.9 percent graduation rate by 2008, while the overall campus graduation rate was 64.3 percent. Their first-year retention rate was 92.8 percent, while the campus persistence rate was 84.9 percent.

A student celebrates success at UC Riverside's commencement.

Nationwide, about 54 percent of full-time students at four-year public universities graduate in six years, but the rate for African- Americans is 38 percent, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

“I’m delighted to see concrete evidence of what we have known anecdotally – that our African- American students are doing as well, or in many instances, better, than UCR students overall,” said UCR Chancellor Timothy P. White.

“However, our goal is to further increase both retention and graduation rates for African-American students as well as for all student groups.”

Campus officials are not entirely sure why African-Americans do so well at UCR, but they believe a critical factor is that African- Americans feel comfortable on the campus, which is the most diverse in the UC system and was ranked fifth most diverse nationally by U.S. News and World Report.

“Critical mass matters,” said White, “and UCR’s undergraduate student body reflects the face of California.” African-Americans are 7 percent of UCR’s student body, not the 1 percent they are on some college campuses.

Fund education, not banks & war
March 4 protests coast to coast

Fund education, not banks & war

By Larry Hales 

Published Feb 24, 2010 5:53 PM

On March 4 students and workers from all around the country will take action to defend education against increased privatization of pre-kindergarten through 12th grade schools, budget cuts, layoffs, furloughs and tuition increases at college and universities — especially the public institutions.

Workers and students have shouldered the brunt of the capitalist crisis, while bankers and corporations have been given hundreds of billions of dollars of public monies in order to be bailed out of a crisis that was made by the capitalist system, not the masses.

Michigan State University students, workers rally and march on Feb. 3. WW photos: Bryan G. Pfeifer

Young people in particular are faced with a grim future — one where well-paying jobs with benefits are becoming scarcer — and where the educational system is being increasingly privatized, teachers’ unions busted and curriculums dumbed down to prepare future generations for the current and emerging social order of worldwide competition for low-wage jobs.

Colleges and universities are getting further out of reach, and those who are able to attend must mortgage away their futures.

It is the current political climate, on top of drastic measures being taken by state governments across the country, that helped give birth to the idea of having a national day of action to defend education.

California students and faculty, teachers and other workers first called for March 4 to be a statewide day of action

TDA: Should the ability to pursue a higher education be a right, regardless of finances?�|�Daily Titan

TDA: Should the ability to pursue a higher education be a right, regardless of finances?�|�Daily Titan

Education should be a right for everyone. Those who wish to succeed in life and increase their efficiency throughout the work force by achieving a higher level of education, deserve it. However, obstacles such as finances always seem to come to play with such controversial topics such as this. For those who are not financially privileged, they don’t have many choices.

Those who do not have the funds to participate in higher-level learning, often turn to the military. Yet, according to an article on nybooks.com, the government spends about $40 billion every three or four months just to be in Iraq. See the irony? Wouldn’t it just be easier and morally sound to spend that money to help students by sending them to school and not sending those same people to war? I understand that there are reasons why we can’t just pull out of the war, but that’s a different story.

I realize that some colleges do offer help through financial aid, but only if you are approved. As luck would have it, you sometimes need to be financially stable to be approved for that as well. It’s like when trying to apply for your first credit card, you need credit to obtain it, but without someone’s help, you’re not going to get accepted. It’s an endless cycle that can only be broken if you find financial means elsewhere.

Scholarships are great if you earn them early on in your educational career, but what about those who performed poorly earlier in their lives, but have recently found motivation to do well in life? Should we really be restricting students with inspiration to succeed, after they just left a gang, or strayed from other unfortunate decisions that they had made earlier? These are the ones that need it the most. It’s hard to imagine 

Teen Pregnancies at Record Low In California - ParentDish

Teen Pregnancies at Record Low In California - ParentDish
Teen pregnancies in California have hit an all-time low, something state officials attribute to girls receiving sex education and having access to family planning programs and reproductive health services.

Officials at the California Department of Public Health released fresh statistics Feb. 22. They report teen pregnancies reached a record low in 2008.

About 35 babies were born that year for every 1,000 female teenagers. That's two fewer babies than the 2007 rates.

Laurie Weaver, the chief of the department's Office of Family Planning, tells the Los Angeles Times that this is a testament to teaching sex education and giving girls as many options as possible.
"We believe the only 100 percent effective way to prevent pregnancy and sexually transmitted disease is through abstinence," Weaver tells the newspaper. "But we do believe it is important to teach teens that if they choose to be sexually active, that they should be fully informed of contraceptives and have access to services."

Meanwhile, teen pregnancy rates nationally have been increasing in recent years. Compared with California's 2007 rate of 37.1 percent, the U.S. birth rate for 2007 was 42.5 percent -- up from 40.5 percent in 2005.

As U.S. Aid Grows, Oversight Is Urged for Charter Schools - NYTimes.com

As U.S. Aid Grows, Oversight Is Urged for Charter Schools - NYTimes.com

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration plans to significantly expand the flow of federal aid to charter schools, money that has driven a 15-year expansion of their numbers, from just a few dozen in the early 1990s to some 5,000 today.

But in the first Congressional hearing on rewriting the No Child Left Behind law, lawmakers on Wednesday heard experts, all of them charter school advocates, testify that Washington should also make sure charter schools are properly monitored for their admissions procedures, academic standards and financial stewardship.

The president of one influential charter group told the House Education and Labor Committee that the federal government had spent $2 billion since the mid-1990s to finance new charter schools but less than $2 million, about one-tenth of 1 percent, to ensure that they were held to high standards.

“It’s as if the federal government had spent billions for new highway construction, but nothing to put up guardrails along the sides of those highways,” said Greg Richmond, president of the National Association of Charter School Authorizers.

Charter schools operate mainly with state financing, and with less regulation than traditional public schools. A provision of the No Child law offers federal startup grants, usually in the range of $150,000 per school, to charter organizers to help them plan and staff a new school until they can begin classes and obtain state per-pupil financing.

The federal money has provided crucial early support to many successful charter schools, but has also attracted many people with little education experience who have opened chaotic schools that have floundered.

Obama Official Applauds Rhode Island Teacher Firings - Political Hotsheet - CBS News

Obama Official Applauds Rhode Island Teacher Firings - Political Hotsheet - CBS News

Watch CBS News Videos Online

Education Secretary Arne Duncan has "applauded" the move to fire every teacher at Rhode Island's Central Falls High School, the Providence Journal reports.

Central Falls, the smallest and poorest city in Rhode Island, is also one of the state's most troubled school districts, with more than half of the students at the high school not making it to graduation.

Union members are fighting for the teachers' jobs, arguing that the move to fire the school's 70-plus teachers will harm students. George Nee, president of the Rhode Island AFL-CIO, said at a rally Tuesday that the action was "immoral, illegal, unjust, irresponsible, disgraceful and disrespectful," according to the Journal. 

It’s Time to March Forth | City on a Hill Press

It’s Time to March Forth | City on a Hill Press

It’s Time to March Forth

By City on a Hill Press

City on a Hill Press

Illustration by Rachel Edelstein.

“I have class.” “It won’t make a difference.” “I’m not an anarchist.” “I don’t even know what’s happening.”
These are just some of the excuses UC Santa Cruz students can use to justify not going to Sacramento on March 1 and 4 to speak up for higher education. As UC students, we are excellent at complaining. And for good reason — dissent is a vital part of democracy, and Lord knows we have plenty to bemoan. But grumbling alone will never change anything.
When Student Regent designate Jesse Cheng came to speak at UCSC several weeks ago, he echoed a scary truth. “The public seems to think that we are the entitlement generation,” he said.
We deserve quality educational institutions that are affordable and accessible, but we can’t sit back and wait for someone else to defend our opportunities. We need to show California voters and decision-makers that we back up our demands with action by marching on the Capitol on March 1 and 4. They won’t listen unless we make them, and words are not enough.
For many of us at UCSC, it’s not that we don’t care. We constantly see protests and demonstrations that go disregarded and seem to have no effect. But it’s important to remember the power that we as a student body have always had. In 1985, UC student protests helped convince the regents to divest $1.7 billion from companies operating in apartheid South Africa. This was a key part of a global movement that eventually forced the end of the racist apartheid system.
This year, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger proposed to restore $370 million to the UC budget. This isn’t the full amount that has been cut from the UC, but higher education is one of the only areas of the budget where there is any increase at all. Social programs, prisons and public transportation, among other things, are all facing cuts even larger than last year’s.
A Schwarzenegger staff member said that the widespread demonstrations around the state in support of higher education this year contributed to the governor’s decision to restore funding, even though the state’s fiscal situation is in an ever-deepening downward spiral. Now is our chance to demand even more support.

The ‘March’ for Higher Education

By Julie Eng

City on a Hill Press Reporter

Illustration by Joe Lai.

On March 1 and 4, members of the University of California community will rally at UC campuses and in Sacramento in an effort to gain support for higher education.
In the first week of what the University of California Student Association (UCSA) has declared “a month of action,” large numbers of students are expected to converge on the state Capitol.
“It’s the same realm of action,” said Victor Sanchez, external vice chair of UC Santa Cruz’s Student Union Assembly (SUA). “There’ll be opportunities on both days for folks to express their voice.”
Sanchez, who also serves as president of the UCSA, said the close proximity of the two events will make them that much more effective in gaining support for higher education. He predicted that this month, named the “March for Higher Education” by the UCSA, will see “continual waves” of student action.
March 1, UC Student Lobby Day, follows a weekend of workshops — beginning on Saturday in Sacramento — designed to teach students to lobby their legislators. The annual UC Student Lobby Conference provides students with opportunities to learn more about effectively lobbying their elected representatives. Attendees from UCSC were chosen by the SUA through an application process.

Community colleges lose students to budget cuts - San Jose Mercury News

Community colleges lose students to budget cuts - San Jose Mercury News
State leaders expect California's community colleges to enroll slightly fewer students this year, despite a record number of high-school graduates and staggering unemployment.

The 110-college system — "soon to swell to 112 schools" — will lose an estimated 21,000 students in 2009-10, state Chancellor Jack Scott told reporters Wednesday. The system enrolled 2.89 million last year.

Budget cuts have left many unable to get the classes they need, he said.

The surprising enrollment decline "is a result of a lack of resources," Scott said. "We're on the road to a disastrous decline in college enrollment in California."

With nearly 3 million students, California's community college system is, by far, the largest higher-education network in the country. Enrollment had swelled by about 5 percent per year for much of the past decade.

But an 8 percent budget cut last year has taken its toll, Scott said. The system is educating about 200,000 students for whom the state is not paying, he said, a circumstance that has forced colleges to trim unaffordable course offerings.

Students at Diablo Valley College in Pleasant Hill say demand for classes far outweighs supply.

"Some of my classes, people have to sit on the floor," said Alex Pristinsky, who's in his fourth year at the college.

"Every class has to have a waiting list and even the waiting lists are full," said Kelsey Wise, a first-year psychology major. She

said she was unable to get into an introductory psychology course this semester because both the class and wait list were already full.

With fewer seats available, the open-access colleges have t

Community colleges lose students to budget cuts - San Jose Mercury News

Community colleges lose students to budget cuts - San Jose Mercury News

L.A. Unified is sued over teacher layoffs at 3 low-performing schools - latimes.com

L.A. Unified is sued over teacher layoffs at 3 low-performing schools - latimes.com

Concepciona Manuel-Flores couldn't answer many of the questions on a standardized English test in December, even though she says she's a straight-A student. "I had six or seven substitute teachers," the Markham Middle School seventh-grader said. "All we did in English was silent reading or the same assignments, over and over."

Concepciona is one of the plaintiffs in a class-action lawsuit filed Wednesday in Los Angeles County Superior Court on behalf of students at three of the city's worst-performing middle schools. The suit claims those students were denied their legal rights to an education and aims to prevent the Los Angeles Unified School District from laying off more teachers there.

The last round of L.A. Unified teacher firings affected thousands of instructors and led to chaotic conditions on some campuses, especially at Samuel Gompers, Edwin Markham and John H. Liechtymiddle schools, according to a complaint against the school district and the state filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, Public Counsel and Morrison & Foerster. Between half and three-quarters of the teachers at those campuses were laid off last year, according to the suit.

Citing state law, school districts typically dismiss teachers on the basis of seniority during budgetary shortfalls. Lawyers who filed the suit said California law allows districts to circumvent the seniority rule on the basis of need or if cuts disproportionately affect certain groups.

The suit would require the district to lay off teachers at those schools at the same or lower levels than at any other campus in the district. Even though low-performing schools often receive more funding than others, the suit also requested that district officials be barred from denying the schools financial resources to maintain a teaching staff.

The student body at the three schools is almost exclusively minority, and campuses in more affluent areas were not hit as hard by teacher layoffs.

Soapbox: Video surveillance issue at Hartnell points to a lack of accountability | thecalifornian.com | The Salinas Californian

Soapbox: Video surveillance issue at Hartnell points to a lack of accountability | thecalifornian.com | The Salinas Californian:

"As a Hartnell College trustee, I learned about video cameras installed in some classrooms only after reading about it in The Salinas Californian. The Dec. 5-6 headline reads, 'Hartnell removes cameras.'

Not only was the governing board not notified, the other college 'shared governance bodies' were left out of the decision to install the cameras. These shared governance bodies include the Academic Senate, Student Senate, labor unions and faculty union. Shared governance is an accreditation requirement and also required under state law.

The cameras were installed just before Halloween, but here it is coming up on Easter and the questions posed at the last Hartnell board meeting about a classroom surveillance incident have not been answered: Who made the camera installment decision? Where did the money come from — general funds, Measure H, Title V? Were the appropriate oversight bodies informed? Who has access to the video images. What is their confidentiality clearance level? Where are the video records archived? Will the records eventually be disposed of and, if so, how?"

Coffee’s bill will open doors for Oklahoma charter schools | Tulsa Beacon

Coffee’s bill will open doors for Oklahoma charter schools | Tulsa Beacon

Senate President Pro Tem Glenn Coffee will introduce legislation, SB 1862, giving large city mayors chartering authority, while removing the number of caps on allowed charter schools, a major education reform that will increase opportunity for students and parents in the state’s two largest cities.

“Mayors across the nation are enthusiastic about this opportunity to reform their local schools and provide more quality educational access to their respective cities,” Coffee said. “We want to make this available to our cities, and we believe this will expand a very successful reform that has increased student achievement and parental involvement in the educational process.

“Charter schools provide greater opportunity for minority and poor students, require greater accountability, and have been proven to produce a higher level of achievement for their students.

“This is a win-win proposition for our kids and our state.”

Key points of SB 1862 include:

The Signal - Santa Clarita Valley News - Two-year colleges near max

The Signal - Santa Clarita Valley News - Two-year colleges near max
College of the Canyons leaders have watched enrollment soar in recent years, even as state budget cuts have forced officials to cut the number of courses each term.

But that trend might end soon unless state funding turns around and community colleges, like COC, can add classes to meet the demand from students dealing with an economic downturn, officials said Wednesday.

“You really can’t continue to grow,” COC spokeswoman Sue Bozman said. “We’re going to start seeing a leveling out.”

Enrollment levels off when a college can’t hold more students and begins to drop when courses are continuously cut.

Declining enrollment is already taking place at many community colleges across the state.

On Wednesday, California Community Colleges Chancellor Jack Scott announced that 2009-10 enrollment projections show that the number of students has dropped by 1 percent, or 21,000 students.

The figures back up the historical trend that community college enrollment suffers whenever state funding drops.

“Our enrollment is not dropping due to a lack of demand,” Scott said in a statement. “As demonstrated by last year’s record high enrollment of nearly 3 million students, our colleges are more