Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Marty Hittelman: The Time to March for California's Future Is Now

Marty Hittelman is the president of the California Federation of Teachers.

It is no longer enough to say that "Sacramento politics is dysfunctional," or that the political and legislative processes in the Capitol are stymied by "partisan gridlock." These first impressions have some basis in reality but don't adequately address California's real problems. These impressions only lead to a feeling of inevitability, cynicism, and despair.

What we need in public discussion is a clear picture of the problem and then a plan to fix it. And we all need a sign of hope that change will come. That's why, on March 5, we begin a "March for California's Future." The March will start with a group of public employees who will walk from Bakersfield to Sacramento. By April 21 the March will swell, as it reaches Sacramento, to many thousands. This 250 mile march, sponsored by the California Federation of Teachers and its diverse allies from labor, the faith community, and other civic supporters, is designed to draw attention to the underlying causes of the state's woes as well as gather signatures for a majority budget initiative.

The "March for California's Future" plans to kick start a "reality" discussion on how all Californians can join the fight for a livable California. The three themes of the march are "restore the promise of public education," "a government and economy that works for all," and "fair taxes to fund California's future."

One of the marchers is Irene Gonzalez. She grew up in foster homes throughout the Central Valley. Determined to make something of herself, she worked hard to put herself through school, eventually earning a masters degree. Today she is a probation officer, helping her clients stay out of trouble and on the right track to become productive members of society. In that process she keeps the rest of us safer too.

Answering the attack on teachers | SocialistWorker.org

Answering the attack on teachers

It's open season on the teachers' unions--and President Barack Obama has joined the hunt.

"If a school continues to fail its students year after year after year, if it doesn't show signs of improvement, then there's got to be a sense of accountability," Obama said in praise of the recent decision to fire all teachers at Central Falls High School in Rhode Island.

But while Obama's open endorsement of an effort to bust a teachers' union may seem shocking, his administration has been hammering teachers since he took office. Obama's $4.3 billion Race to the Top (RTTP) initiative doles out grants to states that have laws attacking teacher seniority rights and that tie teachers' pay to student test scores.

With the recession drying up normal funding channels for schools, states are rushing to pass union-bashing laws to get a shot at the federal money--even as they impose layoffs and cutbacks to close huge budget deficits.

The two big teachers' unions--the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and the National

Thursday's strike at UCSC: plan for delays - Santa Cruz Sentinel

SANTA CRUZ -- Getting around on the Westside could be difficult Thursday, as students at UC Santa Cruz will be protesting budget cuts at the foot of campus during the March 4 Day of Action.
Starting as early as 6 a.m., hundreds of students are expected to attempt to block access to campus at both the intersection of Bay Drive and High Street and at the west campus entrance at Empire Grade Road and Heller Drive.
While the university has met with local enforcement agencies, including Santa Cruz police and the California Highway Patrol who will be on-call, the rallies mostly will be monitored by campus police and university staff, said spokesman Jim Burns.
"The priority will be to try and maintain access to campus and to ensure that the protest, at whatever scale, is safe," he said.
Campus shuttle buses are expected to run, although student throngs may impede their travel, he said. City buses, if need be, will drop students off at the base of campus. University officials have informed both Westlake Elementary School and Waldorf School, which neighbor the university of possible delays because of the protest and have talked to neighborhood associations surrounding campus to help during the day. Events are scheduled until 5 p.m. on campus, and afterward, members of all levels of education and the education community will gather at the Town Clock downtown for another rally.
Santa Cruz police spokesman Zach Friend said officers will be available

Region joins in awareness drive to help schools - The Reporter

Region joins in awareness drive to help schools

BY RYAN CHALK/

Posted: 03/03/2010 01:02:01 AM PST

A statewide campaign to Start the Day for Students and bring attention to the state's education funding crisis is generating interest locally with events planned for Thursday at many local schools.
With a big push coming from the California Teachers Association, schools will be rallying sites for teachers, parents, students and administrators to speak out about how painful effects budget cuts are having on students, schools and communities. Most schools in the area already have made plans to -- at the very least -- gather a one-half hour before school starts to hand out information about local cuts and how to contact lawmakers.

In the Travis Unified School District, elementary schools intend to participate in a Hands Around the School event in which a human chain, or fence of educators, parents and students, will be formed in front of the schools or on playgrounds as a symbol that more cuts will not be tolerated. These events will take place in the morning and be accompanied by leafleting.

Contact your individual school site for specific Start the Day for Students activities, or log on towww.standupforschools.org.

The Solano County Office of Education has also jumped on board, publishing a brochure for the schools to hand out which outlines, district by district, the effect that budget cuts have had on schools.

For example, Solano County schools, which serve more than 67,000 students, have suffered an
average reduction of 25 percent to their budgets from 2009 through 2011. According to the county office of education, that equates to $96.4 million in reductions to education funding.
These cuts during the last several years have resulted in massive layoffs, larger class sizes, elimination of

Restore democracy, end two-thirds rule

Restore democracy, end two-thirds rule:

Go to californiansfordemocracy.com

or ca4d.org, and download an individual petition.

"I celebrate the demonstrations this week to support public education in California, both K-12 and higher education."

But those demonstrations will mean little unless the California Democracy Act gets on the ballot by April 12 and passes in the November election. That is the only way that revenue can be raised to fund California's needs, including education.
The California Democracy Act is simple. It changes just two words in the Constitution: "two-thirds" becomes "a majority" in two places. That's all. The initiative is one sentence long: "All legislative action on revenue and budget must be determined by a majority vote." It's simple democracy. And because it is a ballot initiative, a simple majority can bring democracy by eliminating the two-thirds vote requirements.
The California Legislature is run by a minority of 37 percent - extremist conservatives who think that government should NOT serve public needs. They have taken a pledge not to raise revenue and are happily forcing the budget cuts that are hurting so many Californians and destroying our system of public education.
How can 37 percent run the Legislature? Because it takes a two-thirds vote - 67 percent - in BOTH houses to raise revenue and to pass a budget, one-third plus one can exert control by saying no and creating gridlock until the 63 percent Democratic majority gives in. California is the only minority-rule state in America.
In California, it takes 67 percent to act on virtually anything.
In California, the majority of voters can change this, simply by voting for the California Democracy Act. But first we have to get it on the ballot. Since there is no big money behind this initiative, it has to be a grassroots operation. The voters have got to act.
Luckily, it's not hard. You can do it online (see box). Don't be fooled by similar-sounding

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/03/02/ED6O1C9LQU.DTL#ixzz0h7QHDrgy

Michael Friedman, "All Out March 4 in Defense of Public Education!"

All Out March 4 in Defense of Public Education!
by Michael Friedman
The U.S. ruling class and its political representatives at all levels have launched an all-out assault on public education. While disparate elements of this campaign have been in place for the past three or four decades, we are today seeing a confluence and culmination of these trends, orchestrated by President Obama and his Education secretary Arne Duncan, under their "Race to the Top" (previously "No Child Left Behind") program. Cutbacks, school closings, tuition increases, the "business model," high-stakes testing, school closings, and privatizations/charterizations are all aimed at discrediting, fragmenting, and, ultimately, eliminating public education.
Disingenuous enemies of public education make the claim that charters -- independent schools owned and run by corporations, foundations, or other organizations, and ostensibly regulated by state and municipal governments -- are not private schools. Charters are housed in public school buildings and provided with tax money that should go to resource-starved public schools. Make no mistake: the goal of the push for charters is privatization. In a market economy, fragmented "quasi-private" charter schools will give way to for-profit corporations running chains of schools on economies of scale. In New York City, for example, several for-profit charter schools are already absorbing public resources, while others have been established with hedge funds which have no other purpose, ultimately, than to guarantee high rates of return for investors. And, in New York City, at least, the proliferating charter schools largely accept only students that score in the highest percentiles in standardized tests.
Public schools -- particularly urban public schools -- have deteriorated over the past decades as a result of waves of cutbacks, bureaucratic mismanagement, re-segregation, and marginalization of schools serving low-income communities – all of which served to create the self-fulfilling prophecy of failure conducive to the current onslaught. The response by the public education authorities has been increasingly to label such schools as "under-performing" and close them down, rather than providing the resources and assistance necessary to improve

The State Hornet - Guest Column: Fighting to save higher education in California

For the first time in California’s history, our state government spent more money on
prisons than higher education.

It’s a shocking figure – but not a surprising one when you consider how much education is
being cut: close to $800 million from the University of California and over $1 billion from
the budgets of Cal State University and California Community College systems combined.
As a result, tuition at our public universities has skyrocketed by over 30% – just as you
and thousands of other students are forced to endure budget cuts, slashed enrollment,
impossible waitlists and reduced course offerings.

My own parents worked as janitors so that I could be the first in my family to go to
college. I know firsthand that the true spirit of California opportunity and optimism is
nurtured in great schools.

That is why I am fighting to fund California colleges and universities by requiring Big Oil
to pay their fair share for the oil they pump out of our state’s land and water. California can
no longer afford to be the only major oil-producing state that doesn’t levy such a
fee. Texas, for instance, generates $400 million for higher education through a similar fee.

My bill, AB 656, would raise up to $2 billion a year for the UC, CSU and community
colleges with a 12.5 percent tax on oil extracted within California. That’s considerably less
than the 25-percent tax levied in Sarah Palin’s Alaska.

The fight to save higher education won’t be easy. The oil companies will tell you that they
already pay enough taxes and that this bill will result in jobs lost. Yet oil companies have
been experiencing record breaking profits for the past several years. Exxon Mobile, for
instance, raked in a $45.2 billion profit in 2008, the most ever by a publicly-traded U.S.
company.

More money for higher education means more classes and more financial aid for you.
Momentum continues to build for AB 656. We are more than halfway to reaching our goal
of organizing over 100,000 supporters – which will make it one of the most significant
grassroots efforts in California’s legislative history. AB 656 has also garnered the support
of the 700,000-member Courage Campaign – a powerful

Accent Advocate - Bill suggests diversion of oil money

Bill suggests diversion of oil money

By Lauren Shiraishi, opinion editor

One possible source came in the form of an assembly bill. Although AB 656, created by Assemblyman Alberto Torrico (D-Newark), failed to receive the two-thirds vote necessary to be passed by the State Assembly on Jan. 21, it passed the Assembly Floor on Jan. 27.

If passed, AB 656 would place a 12.5 percent severance tax on major oil companies. According to a fact sheet on AB 656, the revenue would be used to create the California Higher Education Endowment Corporation.

“Education has to be a priority,” Torrico said. “We spend more money on prisons than colleges, which is unacceptable. We should be opening doors, not closing them.”

Originally, the tax was set at 9.9 percent, and 60 percent of the revenue would be distributed to CSUs, while 30 percent would go to the UCs and 10 percent to community colleges.

On Jan. 25, the tax was amended to 12.5 percent, dividing the revenue so that the CSUs would receive 50 percent, and 25 percent each would be allocated to UCs and community colleges. Still, many community college supporters were disappointed.

“We’re pleased that the bill was introduced, but we wanted a higher percent (of the revenue),” Faculty Association of California Community Colleges Director Jonathan Lightman said. “We feel that (community college) students need at least 40 percent, because we have (a larger number of) students.”

Currently, California is the only oil-producing state in the nation that lacks a natural gas severance tax.

Contra Costa College economics professor Wendy Williams said she supports the idea of a severance tax. She compared AB 656 to a proposition on the 2006 ballot, which would have also placed a tax on oil companies.

The revenue would have been used to fund alternative energy rather than higher education. Proposition 87 failed to

Editorial: Student power comes to Capitol - Sacramento Opinion - Sacramento Editorial | Sacramento Bee

Finally, students, parents, faculty and administrators are coming to the right place to confront the governor and lawmakers about the state's eroding commitment to higher education – and public education in general.

It is the governor and lawmakers who have set state spending and taxing priorities, which have made deep budget cuts to California's public colleges and universities.

On Thursday, expect thousands from K-12 schools, community colleges, state universities and the University of California to descend on the Capitol for an "Educate the State" rally to protest 32 percent fee increases (not gradual, predictable increases that families can prepare for) and cuts to instruction and access.

The timing is right during this 50th anniversary year of the Master Plan for Higher Education. That 1960 plan made a commitment that "all Californians should be afforded the opportunity to receive a college education." It made California a national model. And for a generation, the 1960 Master Plan delivered prosperity to the state and a higher standard of living for residents.

But a gradual, steady decline in state funding for higher education over the last 30 years has diminished that promise. The state has drifted, without any deliberate choice of policy, toward quasi-privatization – increasing student fees and private funding from individuals, corporations, foundations and the federal government.

Viewpoints: State's higher education system is worth fighting for – and we will - Sacramento Opinion - Sacramento Editorial | Sacramento Bee

Sometimes I think there are two Californias out there. One of them is the California of small things and small thinking. It's the California that is obsessed with petty anti-tax politics. The one that wants to gut social programs and dismantle our public higher education system. It thrives on driving wedges between us and promoting divisiveness.

It's the California of Proposition 187 (cutting services to illegal immigrants), Nixon, Reagan and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. It includes a lot of people who hate government but are the first to complain when the garbage isn't picked up.

The other California is the California of bold ideas and dreams of a better future. It's the California that wants to conserve and protect its unique and beautiful state parks and wilderness, wishes to invest in its people and seeks common ground amid diversity.

It's the California of Proposition 215 (legalizing medical marijuana), John Muir, Cesar Chavez and Harvey Milk. It's the California that recognizes the vital role that our public colleges and universities play in laying the foundation for the state's future.

Sadly, the clear winner in recent years has been the California of small things and small ideas. Through an outdated flaw in the structure of governance, one-third of the Legislature has a stranglehold on the state's finances. The other two-thirds (the majority) knows the state is heading in the wrong direction. Yet given its lack of control over the purse strings, it's left flailing around

Statewide protests planned for March 4 : The Collegian Online

Some students, faculty, staff and members of the community will be participating in a planned march and rally on Thursday.

The march and rally, on March 4, are part of a statewide day of action planned by students, unions and educators from all levels of higher education – community colleges, California State Universities (CSU) and Universities of California.

The day’s events are a response to the state’s cuts from educational budgets. Fresno State saw a cut of $44.6 million at the beginning of the 2009-10 scholastic year.

Senior sociology major Matt Ford, one of the event’s organizers, said the demonstration has garnered support from labor unions, student groups and community members such as the United Farm Workers, Journey for Justice, Students for Quality Education and the local chapters of the California State University Employees Union and the California Faculty association (CFA).

Ford said, unlike last October’s walkout, this event would not come with demands for the administration.

“That’s kind of a dead-end road,” Ford said.

However, the event will be the unveiling of an academic constitution. Ford said the document is in its early stages, and still needs input from as many students as possible.

ASI senator Jamie San Andres, another organizer for the March 4 events, said students and community members have been meeting at least weekly since December to plan Thursday’s demonstration.

San Andres said her group reached out to community colleges and high schools in an effort to drum up support. She also said the university should be a place for social change.

“We believe that the university is a public asset,” San Andres said.

CSU Chancellor Reed Welcomes Obama's Stimulus Package, Promotes More Color Enrollment | AHN

Washington, DC, United States (AHN) - President Barack Obama's stimulus package helped save thousands of jobs at the educational institutions at the California State University, according to CSU Chancellor Charles B. Reed.

Reed, however, cautioned that the Obama Administration's goal of the U.S. having the most college degrees in the world by 2020, can not be reached without the "students of color," and "without California."
The CSU chancellor, while addressing a National Press Club Newsmakers press conference on March 2 in Washington, DC, said, "We're the most diverse university system in America by far," adding that seven of several CSU campuses, including Long Beach and San Diego, have more low-income students than the entire Ivy League, as measured by federal Pell grants.
With 56% of CSU students, of color and belonging to underserved communities of California, Reed said that he is "color blind."
Reed outlined a new graduation initiative to help reach Obama initiative 2020 with a two pronged strategy by "improving graduation rates 8% as a system by 2016" and "cutting in half the achievement gap for underrepresented minority students."
Reed, in his plan, mentioned such simple reforms as paying closer attention to the progress of students, taking roll in class, and contacting students who don't show up while introducing mandatory advising, to steer students to the right courses. Chancellor Reed, head of the largest public university system in the country with 23 campuses and 450,000 students, said that the CSU "is grappling with massive budge cuts," adding, "some call it melt-down," and "we have lost 20% of our state support (to the tune of) $625 million."
Reed noted, "we had been forced to raise student fees, cut enrollment by 40,000 students and furlough almost all of our employees two days a month."
"Current students absorbed a 32% tuition raise in a single year," he said, but adding, "even today CSU students only pay about $4,000 a year, far less than at comparable

Read more: http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7017984207?CSU%20Chancellor%20Reed%20Welcomes%20Obama's%20Stimulus%20Package,%20Promotes%20More%20Color%20Enrollment#ixzz0h7KimCb0

Racist incidents, protests spread at UC campuses | ABC 7 News

LOS ANGELES - A firestorm over racially and ethnically charged incidents at several University of California campuses spread Tuesday as UC San Diego announced a KKK-style hood was found on campus and students in Los Angeles and Irvine demonstrated against intolerance. "What kind of campus promotes an environment that allows people to think it's acceptable to target people for their ethnicity, gender or sexuality?" said Corey Matthews, one of about 200 mostly minority UCLA students who held a lunchtime rally. "It's something about the tone of the environment that allows this."

At UC Irvine, about 250 people gathered for a "student solidarity speakout" to condemn the recent spate of racist incidents at UC San Diego that targeted black students and another incident last month at UC Davis, which targeted a Jewish student with a swastika carved on her door, said Marya Bangee, an event organizer.

The protests came on the same day UC San Diego announced the discovery of a white pillowcase fashioned into a KKK-style hood - the third racist incident around the campus in as many weeks - and a day after UC Santa Cruz officials found an image of a noose scribbled on the inside of a bathroom door.

BeyondChron: San Francisco's Alternative Online Daily News � School Beat: Mobilizing Support for Public Education

School Beat: Mobilizing Support for Public Education
by Lisa Schiff‚ Mar. 03‚ 2010
Review it on NewsTrust

Reinstating simple majorities for budget and revenue decisions in Sacramento and for passing local parcel taxes. Closing corporate loopholes in Proposition 13. Suing the state of California for adequate funding for monies for schools as enacted in Proposition 98. These are the major actions discussed at last Thursday’s energizing “Funding Our Future” Town Hall meeting organized by six fed-up moms from one San Francisco elementary school (Sherman) and attended by almost 1,000 folks representing over 70 schools who share their frustration and are ready to make some change.

High energy and high expectations filled the room on Thursday, bolstered by the presence of elected officials and leaders who promised to talk about solutions to the endemic and catastrophic funding crisis our schools are facing. From San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) Superintendent Carlos Garcia’s call to sue the state for adequate funding, to Assemblyman Tom Ammiano’s bill to make progress on eliminating the corporate loopholes in Proposition 13, to State Senator Mark Leno’s legislative efforts to levy surcharges on entertainment tickets to raise dedicated money for arts education (noting that California ranks 51st — behind Guam — in arts spending) and his proposal to reinstate, possibly only at the local level, the vehicle license fee, which he reported has lost us $30 billion in the general fund this year, saving each individual car owner only $200 per vehicle.

Debbie Look, State Legislative Director of the California PTA, mentioned the PTA’s role in getting signatures to lower the threshold for setting local parcel taxes and, most exciting, signing on as a plaintiff on a lawsuit against the state arguing that the current funding system is unconstitutional. And everyone agreed

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Elk Grove Citizen : Local teacher gets royal treatment

Elk Grove Citizen : Feature Story

Local teacher gets royal treatment

Kings were late, but students still waited for their special treat

By Katie Freeman - Lifestyle & Arts Reporter

Published: Tuesday, March 2, 2010 4:07 PM PST

As a treat to her second grade class of last year, Sacramento County Teacher of the Year JoEllen Shanks invited the students to a “Reading Time-Out” with two Sacramento Kings on Feb. 24 at Stone Lake Elementary School in Elk Grove.

There was a glitch – players Donte Greene and Carl Landry were almost two hours late, causing some parents to leave with their children before the reading began.

Shanks and other teachers entertained the crowd of students by singing songs, playing guessing games and handing out books while they waited.

The two players were scheduled to arrive at the school at 3:30 p.m.

The special appearance and reading is a perk for being honored as County Teacher of the Year by the Sacramento County of Education, who partners with Maloof Sports & Entertainment.

“It feels pretty special,” Shanks said about being teacher of the year. “It’s not often that you get that kind of recognition.”

Shanks said she thinks of the award as something she shares with “all the good teachers out there because a lot of people in our profession don’t get recognized for all their hard work.”

Shanks invited the current second grade classes that are on track, as well as other teachers, so they could all enjoy the reading.

Report calls for school districts to end seniority-based layoffs | GothamSchools

Report calls for school districts to end seniority-based layoffs

by Maura Walz

School districts should abandon lay-off policies that require principals to dismiss the newest teachers first and instead incorporate measures of teacher quality into firing decisions, a new report out today from The New Teacher Project argues.

The report proposes a scorecard that would rank teachers, weighing their classroom management skills, attendance, performance evaluations and length of service to the district to determine who should be laid off. Under the group’s proposal, a teacher’s performance rating would be given the most weight, while his or her number of years served would count for only a tenth of their score.

By doing so, the report argues, school districts can avoid laying off their best teachers who may not have worked in the system the longest.

“Layoffs are not good for anyone, but they are worse when they result in the loss of top teachers,” the report states. “With so many jobs — and so many children’s futures — potentially at stake, districts and teachers unions must act now to reform these outdated rules so that schools will be able to hold on to their most effective teachers if layoffs become necessary.”

The report is based in part on a survey of 9,000 teachers in two large Midwestern city school districts (though the report does not name the districts, its description of the two districts seems to match Minneapolis and Detroit).

The survey asked teachers if they believed other factors besides seniority should be considered in layoff decisions. Around three-quarters of the teachers surveyed in both districts answered “yes.” Even among teachers with more than 30 years of experience in their district, more than half agreed that “additional factors should be considered” in excessing or firing criteria.

Eliminating the “last hired, first fired” requirement for excessing city teachers is one of Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s major political priorities in education, and a change to the system is on the city’s teachers contract negotiations wish list.

Looking back on school closure vote, officials question rationale | GothamSchools

Looking back on school closure vote, officials question rationale

by Anna Phillips

More than a month after the citywide school board voted to close 19 schools, City Council and Comptroller John Liu are reexamining the criteria that city officials used to declare the schools failures.

Liu, who campaigned for comptroller on the promise of auditing the Department of Education’s data, announced today that his office is beginning an investigation of the DOE’s progress reports — the annual report cards that assign each school a letter grade, largely based on students’ test scores. Later this afternoon, the City Council’s education committee held a hearing where members accused department officials of targeting large, struggling high schools without considering what would become of their current students. Department officials defended the schools they chose to close, citing the schools’ abysmal graduation rate.

“This is not a random list,” said Deputy Chancellor for Strategy and Innovation, John White. “These are the lowest performers even considered among a set of schools where students are not achieving at acceptable levels.”

After a month in which nearly every weeknight was occupied by a school closing hearing, many council members remain unconvinced that the department’s choices were reasonable.

“The DOE failed to follow its own criteria in selecting some schools for closure,” said Councilman Robert

AFL-CIO Backs R.I. Teachers; Union Files Labor Complaint - Teacher Beat - Education Week

AFL-CIO Backs R.I. Teachers; Union Files Labor Complaint

By Stephen Sawchuk on March 2, 2010 5:40 PM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

AFT President Randi Weingarten continues to call in the big guns on this Rhode Island school-turnaround drama. Now the AFL-CIO, the labor association that AFT (but not the National Education Association) belongs to, has put out this statement in support of the teachers.

The local teachers' union, meanwhile, has filed an unfair labor-relations complaint with the state labor-relations board, saying that Superintendent Frances Gallo didn't bargain in good faith with the union, The Associated Press reports. AP also says that the union claims that the teachers haven't been proven incompetent or accused of malfeasance.

I'm no lawyer, so I can't tell whether the terms of the school-improvement grant program can legally overrule state or local contractual language on dismissals. Any federal-education legal scholars care to weigh in?

On another note, Washington Post scribe Jay Mathews sides with Weingarten,

Schools Matter: Boards of education need to protect their districts

Schools Matter: Boards of education need to protect their districts:

Boards of education need to protect their districts

Sent to the Desert Sun (Palm Springs, CA)
Boards of Education need to protect districts
The proposed budget cuts in Desert Sands Unified are typical of what is going on nationwide, and are a tragedy that need not happen ("Faced with $14.8 million shortfall, Desert Sands board to weigh layoffs in tonight's meeting," March 2).
In order to save $14.2 million, Desert Sands is considering eliminating crucial and important positions, while the state continues to spend education dollars on expenditures that harm students.
For example: The plans include eliminating three teacher-librarian positions in Desert Sands high schools, while research shows that the presence of credentialed school librarians is related to

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