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."

KCBS - Educators Say Future is Bleak for CA Schools

KCBS - Educators Say Future is Bleak for CA Schools: "SACRAMENTO, Calif. (KCBS) -

California education leaders today painted a bleak picture of the future, as they asked Governor Schwarzenegger to restore a small piece of their budget.
They're actually only asking for $700,000.

When parents send their children to school, they assume the teacher has, essentially, a roadmap of what to teach for the year and how to do it. However, right now, that roadmap is 9 years old and because of an obscure Assembly bill signed by the governor, the state won't be able to update that framework until 2013.

The savings to the state amounts to roughly $705,000 each year."

"No new curriculum frameworks will be developed," explained California Superintendent of Public Instruction, Jack O'Connell. "It's the standards, what we want our students to know, the frameworks of how we want them to learn and to understand."

voiceofsandiego.org: Schooled... Sweetwater Teachers to Rally Wednesday

voiceofsandiego.org: Schooled... Sweetwater Teachers to Rally Wednesday:

"The back-and-forth over Sweetwater Union High School District teachers' contract continues: The teachers union is planning a rally Wednesday, the same day that the school district and the union will meet for a hearing with a panel to determine the facts and decide the next steps. Their slogans have grown more pointed over time: Teachers now hoist signs reading, 'I don't want to strike, but I will!'"

Sec. of Education Duncan, Obama want longer school years | Bay City News - - MLive.com

Sec. of Education Duncan, Obama want longer school years Bay City News - - MLive.com:

"Education Secretary Arne Duncan wants American kids to spend more time in school to catch up with competing students around the world."

Duncan’s argument for the change came in an Associated Press interview.

“Our school calendar is based upon the agarian economy and not too many of our kids are working the fields today,” he said.
Kids in the U.S. receive 1,146 hours of instructional teaching on average, more than some Asian countries that typically outscore the U.S. in math and sciences. Singapore spends 903 hours, Taiwan spends 1,050 hours, Japan is at 1,005 hours and Hong Kong spends about 1,013 hours.

Those Asian countries typically have a longer school year compared to the U.S., however, about 190 to 201 days to the U.S. 180 days.
With school districts across the county tight on cash, the decision to increase days would have to be financially responsible.

President Barack Obama is in favor with the addition, saying he wants schools to add time to classes, to stay open late and to let kids in on weekends so they have a safe place to go

Justice Sandra Day O'Connor still talking about education

Justice Sandra Day O'Connor still talking about education:

"Justice O'Connor has been working tirelessly to get people more educated, and more importantly, more involved in the political scene. She hopes that you will take some time to educate tomorrow's leaders about justice, civics, and politics."

Patrick Kennedy Campaign Update

Knocking on Doors in the Neighborhoods

The precinct walking continues to go very well. I am glad to have entered this stage of the campaign. There is nothing more rewarding than having the opportunity to talk directly with neighbors and discuss the issues facing our neighborhoods and our city.

Having talked with hundreds of neighbors, the response has been tremendous. From the Curtis Park Village proposal to the “Strong Mayor” initiative to speed bumps (aka speed humps; aka speed lumps; aka undulations. . .) and the City budget, our neighbors are engaged and ready to share their thoughts. Listening now will help me lead later.

I also want to thank all the volunteers who have joined us on walks and encourage everybody else to sign up on the Website.

Jerry and Dorothy Enomoto Endorse Patrick Kennedy for City Council

I am proud and honored to announce that two iconic leaders in our community have endorsed my candidacy, Jerry and Dorothy Enomoto. Jerry has a lengthy and most distinguished career in law enforcement. In 1994, he became the first Asian American to receive a presidential appointment as United States Marshall. Dr. Dorothy Enomoto is a trail blazer as well as the first African American woman to manage a California Department of Corrections Institution.

Executive Airport Master Plan Update

The Sacramento County Airport System is undergoing an update for the Executive Airport Master Plan. I had the privilege of participating in a less extensive review of the plan in the ‘90s as then-President of the Hollywood Park Neighborhood Association. County staff recently presented their current update activities at a recent HPNA meeting I attended. Like the last go-around, public input will play a major role in the future of the airport. Working with county staff, we must ensure the airport will be a thriving economic asset to the City while not creating any undue burdens to the surrounding neighborhoods. You can get the study materials online at http://www.sacairports.org/.

Sacramento Regional Internal Study Mission

I had the opportunity to attend this event, hosted by local ethnic Chambers of Commerce, LEED, SACTO, Sacramento Regional Transit, SACOG, UC Davis, and Valley Vision. Regional leaders spent two days on a bus tour studying the exciting work being done in economic development in the Sacramento Region. We saw first hand why Sacramento is, and can continue to be, the “Best of, First at, or a Leader in” so many discoveries, projects and business opportunities that will see us through the current economic downturn.

Thank you for taking the time to read this update. You can also follow us by visiting the campaign Website at www.patrick-kennedy.com, signing on as a fan on the campaign Facebook page or following us on Twitter. As always, please feel free to call me at 916-446-4434 with any input or questions, or if I can be of service.

Sincerely,

Patrick Kennedy