Flags will fly at Sacramento elementary schools to indicate air quality - Sacramento News - Local and Breaking Sacramento News | Sacramento Bee

Flags will fly at Sacramento elementary schools to indicate air quality - Sacramento News - Local and Breaking Sacramento News | Sacramento Bee

Flags will fly at Sacramento elementary schools to indicate air quality

by blindelof@sacbee.com (Bill Lindelof)

Poor air quality is on the horizon with summer approaching, prompting three Sacramento schools this year to fly flags alerting students to smog levels.
The school-based Air Quality Flag program is designed to help protect children's lungs on days when dirty air poses a health threat.
Colored flags will be flown each day at three elementary schools: Fruit Ridge, 4625 44th St.; Ethel Phillips, 2930 21st Ave.; and Theodore Judah, 3919 McKinley Blvd.
The flags represent a different air quality category, ranging from green for good to purple for very unhealthy. Schools can choose not to have children play outside on bad air days.
The Breathe California of Sacramento-Emigrant Trails clean air organization, which as been working with schools for three years to employ the color-coded flags, said that reducing exposure to harmful pollutants is important for those who suffer from asthma. Pollutants also increase susceptibility to illnesses such as bronchitis and

City Brights: Dr. Jim Taylor : Five Unconscionable Public Education Practices

City Brights: Dr. Jim Taylor : Five Unconscionable Public Education Practices

Five Unconscionable Public Education Practices

It is a scenario that I just don't want to believe because it affirms my (our!) worst impressions of public education for the poor in America. This post has everything you would expect from a massively flawed and inertial monolith: a system failed, a bureaucracy corrupted, teachers subverted, and young people disserved. It has all the makings of a tragedy for students, teachers, and the public education system as a whole.

Let me begin with a disclaimer that the information in this post comes from just a few sources and that it may not represent a complete or balanced picture of what is happening. Nonetheless, the flagrant abuses that I describe provide, at a minimum, a glaring illustration of the massive problems that stand in the way of meaningful reform of public education for the poor. Also, except for one key player, I have kept all other parties anonymous to protect the innocent (and, unfortunately, also protect those who may be guilty).

Let me introduce you to Leonard Isenberg, a veteran teacher of 23 years who possesses not only a master's degree in Education and a teaching certificate, but also a law degree. After a career in the motion-picture and real estate industries, he gave up the income and trappings of success to pursue a career in teaching, first as a university professor and, for the last 15 years, as a teacher in Los Angeles-area high schools that serve disadvantaged children. Sounds like one of those unsung heroes of public education to me.

Here's where the tragedy begins. In the fall of 2009, Mr. Isenberg filed a formal complaint with the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) challenging the validity of high school diplomas that students at the high school at which he taught received the previous June based on his review of students' Standardized Testing and Reporting (STAR) reading test scores. The STAR is a state-wide, computer-based assessment given by teachers several times during the school year, the purpose of which is to evaluate students' initial reading level upon entry into class and their progress through the school year. Mr. Isenberg found that almost 50% of the graduates who had STAR scores on record were reading at an elementary school level, with some as low as 2nd grade proficiency. The response from the high school's and LAUSD's administrations was uniform: students just blew off the test because they were already guaranteed their diploma. One LAUSD official formally determined that Mr. Isenberg's allegations were without merit without ever interviewing him or reviewing the evidence he had collected. By the way, having this particular official, who is just two steps removed from teachers in the same school district food chain,

Dr. Jim Taylor

Ph.D., Psychology, author, speaker

Five Unconscionable Public Education Practices

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/jtaylor/detail??blogid=180&entry_id=62665#ixzz0msQ4Op4C

Notes from the news, May 3 Philadelphia Public School Notebook

Philadelphia Public School Notebook

Notes from the news, May 3

Submitted by Erika Owens on Mon, 05/03/2010 - 10:05 Posted in Notes from the news | Permalink

At Potter-Thomas, change the only constant The Notebook blog
Potter-Thomas has had six principals in the past eight years and now it's slated for another round of new management as a Renaissance School, or Promise Academy.

10 injured in Phila. schoolyard attack The Inquirer
Teens from King High School were arrested for attacking students at Howe Elementary during recess.

See also: No new arrests in Phila. school attack The Inquirer
Teens terrorize elementary-school students Daily News
Young adults attack grade schoolers with bats 6 ABC

At Daroff, outside providers woo community The Notebook blog
Dozens of Daroff community members gathered to hear from prospective managers of the elementary school.

Mastery's formula for successful schools The Inquirer (opinion)
Paul Davies argues "Mastery's success shows that fixing failing schools isn't rocket science."

The Bill Gates Experience Practical Theory blog
Student-produced video of Bill Gates' visit to Science Leadership Academy.

Philly culinary schools change, at what price? AP via Centre Daily Times
The schools are changing focus from back of the house jobs to better paying front of the house jobs.

Earring likely saved high school student from gunshot Daily News
A gun accidentally went off at Communications Technology High School, and an earring stopped and shattered the bullet.

See also: Earring Saves Philly Student From Bullet CBS 3

A Deserved Reputation? A Very Public Education blog
Public Ed Mom answers all the naysayers who stereotype the Philly public schools and their students.

Big crowd likely at Phila. teacher-hiring fair The Inquirer

Please email us if we missed anything today or if you have any suggestions of publications, email lists, or other places for us to check for news.

Click here to get Notes from the news in your inbox every day.

Notes from the news

Read More »

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: 'Will close schools for $$$' -- Huberman

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: 'Will close schools for $$$' -- Huberman

'Will close schools for $$$' -- Huberman

by Mike Klonsky

They call it "reform" but...

Chicago schools CEO Ron Huberman told aldermen yesterday the federal government is now offering financial incentives for districts to close schools or fire staff. (WBEZ)

HUBERMAN: There’s theoretically $2 million on the table for every time CPS exercises one of these models.

Aldermen warned Huberman that his community outreach efforts could be undone if it looked like the district’s

Secretary Arne Duncan Addresses Parenting Magazine’s Mom Congress on Education and Learning – ED.gov Blog

Secretary Arne Duncan Addresses Parenting Magazine’s Mom Congress on Education and Learning – ED.gov Blog

Secretary Arne Duncan Addresses Parenting Magazine’s Mom Congress on Education and Learning

Watch Secretary Duncan’s speech to the Mom Congress at at 10:30 am EDT today.
Below is a press release on the event.
51 Moms Win Trips to D.C. to Represent Their States at Parenting Magazine’s Mom Congress on Education, Learning Conference

Mom Congress Delegates Join Parenting, Education Secretary Duncan, Nation’s Leading Education Experts, Advocates at Georgetown University, May 2-4
FOR RELEASE:
April 29, 2010
WASHINGTON – Parenting magazine and Georgetown University’s School of Continuing Studies will kick off the first annual Mom Congress™ on Education and Learning Conference May 2 in Washington, D.C. Fifty-one moms, representing each state and Washington, D.C., were chosen to receive an all-expense paid trip to the event for their outstanding contributions and dedication to improving local schools. The Mom Congress on Education and Learning conference is presented by KinderCare, in partnership with LeapFrog.
U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan will keynote the conference on Monday, May 3, where he will host a Town Hall meeting with Mom Congress delegates and hundreds of D.C.-area parents about the crucial role that parents play in helping implement America’s education goals for improving the country’s school system and the educational opportunities available to our nation’s children.
During the conference, the Mom Congress delegates will work towards creating Parenting’s “Lesson Plan for Change”, a guide to help empower parents nationwide to get more involved in their children’s education. Attendees will collaborate with members of the Mom Congress advisory board, which includes leaders from the National PTA, the National Education Association, PBS, MomsRising, the George Lucas Educational Foundation and others. Faculty members from Georgetown University’s School of Continuing Studies – the Mom Congress educational provider – will also lead sessions during the event, and the school will offer scholarships for non-credit courses to up to 10 outstanding mom advocates per semester.
Driven by the ever-increasing role that parents play in advocating for positive change in the education system, Parenting magazine launched the Mom Congress initiative in March 2009 to celebrate and connect moms fighting for better schools. Each month, the School Years edition of Parenting gives readers the education news and resources they need to make a difference, and highlights one of 17,000+ Mom Congress members whose efforts have brought about positive change for students.
“Preparing our children for success in school and in life is everyone’s responsibility, and as their child’s first teacher, parents have a crucial role to play,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. “The members of the Mom Congress join countless parents and other family members across the country who are pushing for education reform from the classroom to the capitol—not just for their own children but for the children of their communities and our nation.”
“This event brings to life everything that Parenting has tried to accomplish with the creation of the Mom Congress on Education and Learning,” said Susan Kane, editor-in-chief of Parenting magazine and editorial director of The Parenting Group. “We’re gathering 51 of the country’s most passionate mom education advocates in the hope of effecting real change in our education system and mobilizing millions of parents to do the same. It’s no easy task, but there’s no better group to tackle this mission than the moms that we’ve assembled here today.”
“We look forward to helping families learn how to change the lives of local school children and are honored to host the first Mom Congress conference at Georgetown,” said Robert L. Manuel, dean of the School of Continuing Studies. “Georgetown will provide the knowledge, tools and skills parents need to engage in dialogue that can make a difference in their communities.”
In its role as presenting sponsor of the Mom Congress on Education and Learning conference, KinderCare Learning Centers, a leading provider in early childhood education with more than 1,700 centers nationwide, will be providing the Mom Congress delegates with the resources they need to advocate for early childhood education programs in their school districts. In addition, KinderCare will be working with each of the 51 mom delegates to donate in their name a book station complete with a bookcase and dozens of books to an underserved family center, school or community organization within their state to encourage childhood literacy. LeapFrog Enterprises, Inc., a leading designer, developer, and marketer of innovative, technology-based learning products and content, will contribute to the early literacy conference discussion and donate more than $100,000 worth of products to schools designated by the delegates. The LeapFrog donations will consist of Tag School Reading Systems – an interactive tool that brings books to life and gets children excited about learning to read – and a full library of Tag phonics-based learn-to-read sets, storybooks, and activity books.
“As an organization that is passionate about the well being, growth and development of every child, KinderCare is honored to be a part of the first ever Mom Congress,” said Dr. Elanna Yalow, Executive Vice President of Knowledge Universe, the parent company of KinderCare (www.KinderCare.com) and the largest private provider of early childhood and school-age education and care, and Vice Chair of Knowledge Learning Corporation. Yalow, who will speak at Mom Congress, continued, “We are eager to meet each mom delegate and hear their insights and perspectives on positively impacting education within their community and state. KinderCare is also especially excited to donate a book station to an early reading program in the hometown of every Mom Congress delegate – because our outstanding educators know that a fundamental first step in early childhood education is literacy and access to books.”
“At LeapFrog, we encourage kids to learn to read and love to read by making it fun, engaging, and interactive. During the early literacy session, I will be sharing tips to help empower moms to support and reinforce their children’s growing reading skills beyond the classroom. LeapFrog is excited to be a part of the first annual Mom Congress as a champion of moms across the country,” said Dr. Carolyn Jaynes, Literacy Expert for LeapFrog.
For more information on the Mom Congress on Education and Learning and live updates throughout the conference, visit the Mom Congress blog at Parenting.com/momcongress. U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan’s Town Hall presentation to the Mom Congress delegates will be webcast live onwww.parenting.com/momcongress on Monday, May 3 at 10:30 am EDT.

This entry was written by jjohnson, posted on May 3, 2010 at 7:58 am, filed under Headlines, News. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post. Both comments and trackbacks are currently closed.

« Sarah Brown Wessling: Teacher of the Year

Teachable Moments: Lawsuit decided on eighth-grade algebra

Teachable Moments: Lawsuit decided on eighth-grade algebra

Teachable Moments: Lawsuit decided on eighth-grade algebra

BY MARSHA SUTTON, SDNN

Sunday, May 2, 2010 no comments | be the first to comment!

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The California School Boards Association won the appeal in its 2008 lawsuit against the State Board of Education, which was filed over the SBE’s decision to mandate Algebra I for all eighth graders in California. On April 30, the Third District Court of Appeal supported CSBA’s position and declared that the SBE had violated the Bagley-Keene Open Meeting Act by failing to give adequate notice of its intended action and violating the state’s open-meeting laws.

According to CSBA, “SBE had conceded to the court that it had violated the open meeting law and as a result, the court held that the SBE’s action mandating Algebra I for all eighth graders was null and void.”

The CSBA challenged the state board’s action to require school districts to begin testing students in Algebra I as the state’s sole eighth-grade math assessment. But the suit centered not on the decision to mandate Algebra I for all eighth graders but on the process, holding that the SBE failed to give the public adequate notice of its intentions.

The lawsuit addressed SBE’s failure to give the public timely notice that such a fundamental change in state policy was being considered. CSBA’s contention was that the SBE didn’t consider the public’s need to respond to the major ramifications that this revised policy would have on all aspects of the education system.

These concerns included teacher credentialing, allocation of instructional time, professional development, instructional materials, and areas in which existing kindergarten through seventh-grade math standards must be strengthened, CSBA officials said.

“The appellate court acknowledged that a significant reallocation of resources would be needed in order to make

Read more: http://www.sdnn.com/sandiego/2010-05-02/blog/teachable-moments/teachable-moments-lawsuit-decided-on-eighth-grade-algebra#ixzz0ms1paKDX

Welcome to Workday Minnesota, your leading source for labor news!

Welcome to Workday Minnesota, your leading source for labor news!

Teaching labor in the schools: New opportunities

By Deborah Rosenstein

2 May 2010

MINNEAPOLIS - To provide more resources for teaching about workers and labor history, the Labor Education Service has released a new video and website devoted to teaching about the Minneapolis truckers’ strikes of 1934. LES also has embarked on a new student-focused project documenting the history of the state Capitol.

Meanwhile, the AFL-CIO, the American Federation of Teachers, the National Education Association and the United Association for Labor Education have all passed resolutions supporting the expansion of labor-in-the-schools efforts. Some states, including Wisconsin, have passed legislation requiring labor history to be taught in the schools. Multimedia classroom resources available The 1934 strike by Minneapolis Teamsters was the most important single event in Minnesota labor history and paved the way for landmark federal worker rights legislation. Yet few Minnesota students learn about this important struggle. LES hopes to address this need through a new website, video and curriculum titled “Minneapolis Truckers Make History.” An 18-minute film, designed for classroom use, chronicles the strike and helps students connect their own lives with people in the 1930s. The video streams on the website, www.minneapolis1934.org and is also available to purchase on DVD through LES and theMinnesota Historical Society. While supplies last, Minnesota teachers may request one free copy for classroom use. Interested teachers should contactles@umn.edu. Minneapolis1934.org contains a wealth of resources, including participatory

This Week In Education Media: New Times Writer Getting Up To Speed

This Week In Education

Media: New Times Writer Getting Up To Speed

from This Week In Education by Alexander Russo

Journalists new to the beat often seem to have to write about all they're learning along the way, and so it's boring but not entirely unexpected that recently re-assigned Times writer Trip Gabriel spends much of his 3,600-word article (Challenges in Replicating Charter School Success) rehashing topics we already know about and have read before: the slew of financial and celebrity fancypants who are currently supporting charters, the accountability and replication challenges, the use of data at Uncommon Schools, etc. Indeed, some of the story elements are quite dated -- early questions about Duncan's view of charters, the CREDO study, last year's NSVF summit in Pasadena. That being said, there are a few likable elements to the piece: the comparison between the high-flying Williamsburg school and the ordinary Cleveland one (rather than, say, a more

California’s Book Ban | FrontPage Magazine

California’s Book Ban | FrontPage Magazine

California’s Book Ban

State Senator Leland Yee, a liberal San Francisco Democrat, wants to bar California from adopting any new material from curriculum changes in Texas, which he and other critics view as right-wing revisionism. Though much publicized, the charge fails to stand up, but some textbooks do need correction. Those would be California textbooks, and this is not a new problem.

“They’re all horrors, and there is no reason for them.” State Supt. of Public Instruction Bill Honig said that in 1988 about California’s watered-down texts. Honig, a liberal San Francisco Democrat, duly invited scholar Diane Ravitch to revise California’s history curriculum, which had been tasked to instill pride in accredited victim groups.

“Telling publishers that their books must instill pride only guarantees a phony version of feel-good history,” Ravitch wrote. “Publishers, as a result, bend over backward to be positive, whether writing about the genocidal reign of Mao Tse-tung (presumably to avoid offending his admirers) or the unequal treatment of women in Islamic societies (to avoid offending Muslims).”

Texts should be accurate, Ravitch wrote, “but to impose contemporary political requirements on how the events are portrayed only ensures that the history we teach our students is inaccurate and dishonest.” In California, it certainly has been that.

The textbook An Age of Voyages: 1350-1600 showed Sikh founder Guru Nanak wearing a crown instead of a turban, and a beard that was trimmed instead of long, as alert Sikhs pointed out. At the time, the California Department of Education had no mechanism for ensuring that textbooks were “factually accurate.” Little wonder that errors became commonplace.

“Studies have found hundreds of errors in California textbooks,” says the website of the Textbook Trust, a watchdog group. The mistakes include geography, such as the notion that California’s southern border is the Rio Grande. It isn’t, and that river ventures nowhere near the Golden State, whose textbooks also fail to get

Editorial: More local control on spending is key to boosting K-12 education - ContraCostaTimes.com

Editorial: More local control on spending is key to boosting K-12 education - ContraCostaTimes.com

Editorial: More local control on spending is key to boosting K-12 education

MediaNews editorial

Posted: 05/02/2010 12:01:00 AM PDT

THIS YEAR'S ANNUAL survey by the Public Policy Institute of California assessing the public's views on K-12 education reveals some disturbing trends but also could be used to improve the state's schools.

According to the PPIC survey 62 percent of Californians believe there is not enough state funding going to their public schools. That's an increase of 12 percentage points since last year. Also, 62 percent say the are very concerned about further cuts in K-12 education because of the budget deficit.

What concerns Californians most about school funding cuts is laying off of teachers, with 92 percent saying they are very concerned or somewhat concerned about it.
More than half of those surveyed are very upset about larger class sizes, fewer days of school and elimination of art and music programs.
Californians also are concerned that public schools are not preparing students for college or the workforce. The survey showed 53 percent think schools are not so good or poor at getting students ready for college and 64 percent say schools are not good or poor at preparing students for jobs.
These results might be even worse if more of those surveyed realized that California ranks near the bottom in student achievement as measured by standardized tests and that California now ranks 43rd among the states in per-student spending. Only 49 percent of those surveyed knew how poorly student performance

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was and just 37 percent thought per-student spending was below the national average.
So who's to blame for problems with California's schools? The survey found Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's approval rating on handling K-12 education is a mere 16 percent. The Legislature's approval rating on K-12 education is worse, at 15 percent.
A sizable majority (63 percent) of Californians most want to protect K-12 education from further budget cuts. That

Manteca Bulletin - Arizona weeding out teachers that can’t speak English correctly

Manteca Bulletin - Arizona weeding out teachers that can’t speak English correctly

Arizona weeding out teachers that can’t speak English correctly

By Dennis Wyatt
Managing Editor
dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com
209-249-3532

UPDATED May 3, 2010 1:05 a.m.

Three cheers for Arizona.

No, it Is not for the infamous illegal immigration law that gives local police in Arizona the responsibility to verify immigration status if there is a “reasonable suspicion” that the person they have stopped for an infraction is in this country illegally.

Instead it is for the Arizona Department of Education for grasping the meaning of a passage in the federal No Child Left Behind Act and actually enforcing the provision. In a nutshell, the federal law requires schools that accept federal funds must teach students who are learning to speak English be instructed by teachers who are fluent in English.

Arizona has told locals school districts that they must remove teachers whose spoken English is ungrammatical or heavily-accented from classes where students are still learning English.

Critics claim it is part of the anti-immigration sentiment they contend is sweeping Arizona. If you’re so inclined to jump on that bandwagon consider these statistics for a minute. The Arizona Department of Education indicates that 46 percent of the students in kindergarten and second grade in that state are English language learners. It drops to 24 percent in third through fifth grades, 16 percent in sixth through eighth grades, and 14 percent in high school. Overall, 150,000 of the 1.2 million students in Arizona public schools are learning to speak English.

Teachers who can’t pass the muster have two options - they can take classes to improve their English or, if there is a position available switch to a classroom where there are not English learners. If they can’t do one or the other then they’re history.

Arizona hired hundreds of teachers in the 1990s whose first language was Spanish as part of a bi-lingual program that the voters axed in 2000. The teachers had to then stop teaching in Spanish and do so in English. Many of those teachers, by the way, were recruited out of Latin America.

There is little doubt continuing to teach kids of immigrants in their parents’ native language is a detriment. California proved that when they dropped bi-lingual classes - again by voter edict. Within several years test scores and other performance measures showed a marked improvement in

Teachers need full support - The Daily Breeze

Teachers need full support - The Daily Breeze

Teachers need full support

By Ann Collins

Posted: 05/02/2010 04:11:53 PM PDT

I am a teacher. I have been teaching since 1980. I have a master's degree, two credentials, three certificates and vast training experiences.

I have seen many of the students who have passed through my classrooms become successful at whatever they have chosen to do. I have been dedicated to my craft and have experienced joy in what I chose as a profession. Today, I no longer have that joy or desire. Education has become a sad place. Districts have no money and have made cuts and laid off good teachers.

Districts are being forced to cut days and teacher pay. This not only hurts teachers, it is also a crime against the children we are teaching. It is not about teacher salaries, but about the negative impact on the students.

Now the state wants to pass a bill that would take away teachers' rights to due process and protections against discrimination and unfair evaluation. The bill will not help solve any of the problems facing education today, but simply blames the teachers.

It would ignore teacher experience in the classroom when making layoffs and rehiring decisions and creates a system based on performance evaluations that may have not even been done for years. It would allow districts to fire employees for any reason, including for speaking out on student safety and employment issues. It gives principals the power to discriminate against older teachers, setting back hard-won protections against age discrimination. It would also

eliminate the notice to teachers subject to reductions in force and eliminate their right to request a hearing.

p2pnet news � Blog Archive � Black students and online victimization

p2pnet news � Blog Archive � Black students and online victimization

Black students and online victimization

p2pnet view Freedom | P2P:- The amount of “hateful speech directed at African-Americans has risen sharply since the election of President Barack Obama”, says a new survey.

And black students are liable to be targets for more online racial discrimination than whites, claim Brendesha M. Tynes of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and Suzanne L. Markoe of the University of California at Los Angeles, says the Chronicle of Higher Education.

Their online survey of 217 African-American and European-American college students to “gauge factors such as online victimization, social networking, and campus racial climate” found black students spent more time online and had more diverse contact, says the story.

“About 60 percent of the black students surveyed said they were unambiguously bothered by the images, compared with only about 20 percent of their white peers”, it says, going on:

“The study found that white students with ‘colorblind’ racial attitudes, who believe racial differences in society do not or should not exist, were more likely to not take offense at those pictures; those low in colorblindness tended to display their opposition to those photos more vocally.

“But black students reported higher rates of online victimization and more negative racial climate on their campuses.”

Online discrimination “can be as simple as viewing a racist picture posted on Facebook, and the impact on students can be depression and anxiety”, according to Tynes, who also said “the amount of hateful speech directed at African-Americans has risen sharply since the election of President Barack Obama”, states Wired Campus, going on >>>

But the impact of positive online contact appears to be less than its offline counterpart. According to the survey to be presented at the AERA conference, while diverse offline contact has been associated with a more positive campus for both black and white college students, similar online contact had no such effect.

It’s possible that the negative online interaction outweighs the positive, although that area needs further research, Ms. Tynes said.

State superintendent race tests education reforms, union power - SGVTribune.com

State superintendent race tests education reforms, union power - SGVTribune.com

State superintendent race tests education reforms, union power

By Rebecca Kimitch, Staff Writer

Posted: 05/02/2010 04:29:10 PM PDT

The race for the state's highest elected education official, Superintendent of Public Instruction, features candidates, from left, Gloria Romero, Tom Torlakson and Larry Aceves. (Courtesy Photos)

California residents looking for their chance to sound off on charter schools, open enrollment between districts, and other major education reforms will find an opportunity on the June ballot.

The race for the state's highest elected education official, Superintendent of Public Instruction, is shaping up to be a referendum on much-debated school reforms, as well as a test of the enduring power of California's teachers unions.

The race pits reform-minded Democrat Sen. Gloria Romero, who has long represented parts of the San Gabriel Valley, against her Democratic colleague, union-backed Assemblyman Tom Torlakson, who represents a district in the Bay Area.

"This is an early and significant test case of a Latino Democrat willing to take on the unions versus a traditional Democrat backed by the unions," said Bruce Fuller, a UC Berkeley professor of education and public policy.

Romero, who heads the Senate Education Committee, has been one of the biggest advocates of controversial education reforms backed by President Barack Obama, including increasing the number of charter schools and

Saving money now on education will cost lots later | DailyTidings.com

Saving money now on education will cost lots later | DailyTidings.com

Photo 1 of 1 | Zoom Photo +

Portrait of Cynthia Tucker NABJ Journalist of the YEARAJC

By Cynthia Tucker

May 03, 2010

WASHINGTON — When you see a cluster of elementary schoolchildren at a bus stop or street-crossing, struggling with bristling backpacks full of textbooks and school papers, it's hard to imagine that kids in distant lands are carrying even weightier tomes, slogging through more homework and spending longer hours in class. But many of them are. That's among the reasons that American children consistently post lower test scores than children in several other countries.

Education activists — from mega-wealthy wise men such as Bill Gates to policy experts such as Education Secretary Arne Duncan — believe the nation's economic competitiveness depends on lifting our academic standards. Some even worry that the current generation of schoolchildren may be the first whose level of educational attainment falls below that of their parents.

Given widespread fears about the nation's ability to maintain its leadership in a world growing smaller and flatter, should we allow school systems to go broke as a result of the recession? Is this any time for widespread teacher layoffs, overcrowded classrooms and shorter school days?

Yet that's just what some local school leaders are proposing. Across the country, from California to Georgia, school superintendents are proposing severe austerity cuts to cover budget shortfalls. Duncan — who recently said that between 100,000 and 300,000 teachers nationwide could lose their