EDITORIAL: Little to love in schools' budget mess

EDITORIAL: Little to love in schools' budget mess

OUR VIEW: NORTH COUNTY DISTRICTS' BUDGETING GETS UGLY

• Story
• Discussion

By the North County Times Opinion staff -- opinion@nctimes.com | Posted: April 29, 2010 12:01 am | No Comments Posted | Print

Font Size:

Default font size

Larger font size

• Share

North County school districts heading into the final few weeks of grappling with massive budget deficits are now facing the truly hard choices of employee layoffs versus furloughs versus pay cuts.

Local schools face a June 30 deadline for approving balanced budgets for the 2010-11 fiscal year that begins July 1. And they take both concepts (deadlines and balanced budgets) seriously, unlike the state Legislature, which gives lip service to both.

The relatively "easy" cuts, if you can call them that, have been made, but deficits remain. And for our local districts, the going has been ugly and isn't likely to get much better.

With the nearly bankrupt state slashing the amount of money it gives per student, districts up and down California have had to take cleavers to their budgets for a third straight year. And with no white knights in the form of federal "stimulus" funds on the horizon, and most reserve funds nearing "empty," the only major things left to cut are people and wages.

In the Poway Unified School District, officials are attempting to plug a total budget deficit of $24 million. Oceanside Unified faces a deficit of $19 million; Vista Unified, $18.3 million; Escondido Union (the elementary district), $11 million; and so the list goes.

The districts are counting on major savings in total employee compensation ---- the largest single component of any district's general expenses. Many districts are still negotiating those projected savings with some or all of their unions.

Most districts have imposed unpaid furlough days, meaning shorter school years. And almost all are laying off some employees, including the heart of public education ---- classroom teachers.

Retirements are helping some districts, such as Vista Unified, avoid the loss of "permanent" teaching

Not all charter schools succeeding - San Jose Mercury News

Not all charter schools succeeding - San Jose Mercury News

Not all charter schools succeeding

By Sharon Noguchi

snoguchi@mercurynews.com

Posted: 04/28/2010 06:07:57 PM PDT

Updated: 04/28/2010 10:04:35 PM PDT

Click photo to enlarge

Resource Specialist Diana Carman helps Brian Westergren, 16, with his project at... (Patrick Tehan)

• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5
• »

More Education

• News, school information

Have your say

• Education forum

The Obama administration has touted charter schools as a key education reform, based on the phenomenal success some have scored in educating hard-to-teach students.

But just like regular public schools, some charters — publicly funded schools that run independently of school boards and education codes — have washed up on the shoals amid rough seas.

Locally, MACSA Academia Calmecac in San Jose and MACSA El Portal Leadership Academy in Gilroy lost their charters last year over financial irregularities. In perhaps the most embarrassing example, Stanford New Schools in East Palo Alto, a venture of the vaunted university's school of education, two weeks ago was denied a renewal by the Ravenswood City School District.

Charter schools have steadily multiplied, with 809 this year in California, including 34 in Santa Clara County and 16 in San Mateo County.

But the same independence that fosters charter success also hinders outside intervention when schools are flailing.

Take the case of South Bay Preparatory in San Jose, which won a charter two years ago for grades six to nine. The school's opening was delayed a year because it couldn't find a facility. It finally opened last fall with 65 students instead of the 200 planned.

Then South Bay's sponsor, the Santa Clara County Office of Education, determined the converted church auditorium the school was using wasn't appropriate

Imperial Valley News - Governor Schwarzenegger Issues Statement on TechAmerica Cyberstates Report

Imperial Valley News - Governor Schwarzenegger Issues Statement on TechAmerica Cyberstates Report

Governor Schwarzenegger Issues Statement On TechAmerica Cyberstates Report

Written by Imperial Valley News

Wednesday, 28 April 2010

Sacramento, California - Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger today issued the following statement after the TechAmerica Foundation released its 13th annual Cyberstates report, detailing national and state trends in high-tech employment, wages and other key economic factors: “News that California is the nation’s leader in high-tech jobs and wages comes as no surprise because our state’s tech-friendly policies and world class workforce create an environment ripe for high-tech success. But we must not stand still. We must work to ensure California remains number one, and that means continued investment in education, because the high-tech industry requires a well-educated workforce. That’s why my budget protects K-14 funding and boosts higher education funding and why I called for pension reform and a constitutional amendment in my state of the state to protect education funding over the long term. It also means smart tax policies, such as the singles sales factor corporate income tax that I fought for, to retain and attract high-tech businesses.”

California dreaming of school funds | Sasha Abramsky | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk

California dreaming of school funds | Sasha Abramsky | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk

California dreaming of school funds

The US cannot allow allow state and local education systems to implode through lack of cash. But will Congress intervene?

• 
• • Sasha Abramsky
  • guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 28 April 2010 19.00 BST
  • Article history

Last Wednesday, thousands of trade union members and concerned parents walked through downtown Sacramento to California's state capitol building, joining six marchers on the last leg of their 365-mile, 48-day, protest walk up California's Central Valley to highlight the impact of education cuts in California.

It was an event full of theatrics – a flag-flying flatbed truck at the head of the march blared the song California Dreaming from its speaker system; and on the Capitol's grounds a face-painted street theatre troupe from San Francisco did agitprop from the stage.

But, beyond the spectacle, the walkers were highlighting an extremely important recalibration of state-resident relations in recent years: as local and state governments have haemorrhaged cash, so education spending – which eats up the bulk of local budgets – has been mauled. The estimates vary, but teachers' groups calculate that somewhere in the region of $18bn has vanished from school districts', colleges', and universities' budgets in California over the past several budget cycles.

In the latest round of cuts, well over 20,000 teachers received pink slips, informing them they might not have jobs after schools open again following the summer break.

While California is an extreme case, the numbers nationally are also pretty dismal. Somewhere between 150,000 and 300,000 teachers and

Despite Proposition 13, California is still wasting taxpayer money - latimes.com

Despite Proposition 13, California is still wasting taxpayer money - latimes.com

State of ‘taxiness’

Despite Proposition 13, California is still wasting taxpayer money.

William Voegeli

April 29, 2010

For 32 years, California's Proposition 13 has been denounced by everyone — except the people. Before the June 1978 vote on the ballot proposition to roll back property taxes and make it harder for assessors and legislators to raise taxes, the state's superintendent of public instruction warned that Proposition 13 would "do nothing short of destroying education in California." After its landslide 65%-35% victory, Pat Brown, the Democratic governor from 1959 to 1967, said Proposition 13 had "cut the guts out of a great government."

Late last year, writing in this newspaper, the liberal columnist Harold Meyerson blamed Proposition 13 for "the fiscal straitjackets that make California ungovernable today." The website of the California Federation of Teachers still asserts that "the real problem that needs to be addressed to solve California's budget problems is Proposition 13."

And yet, in a state with huge Democratic majorities in Sacramento, one carried easily by every Democratic presidential nominee since 1992, Proposition 13 remains "the third rail of California government," according to the political scientist Jack Citrin. Jerry Brown, who as governor in 1978 opposed the initiative before promising to make it work, recently said of his 2010 gubernatorial

CALIFORN Laws, Life, and Legal Matters - Court Cases and Legal Information at Leagle.com - All Federal and State Appeals Court Cases in One Search

Laws, Life, and Legal Matters - Court Cases and Legal Information at Leagle.com - All Federal and State Appeals Court Cases in One Search

CALIFORNIA SCHOOLS BOARD ASSOCIATION v. CALIFORNIA STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION

CALIFORNIA SCHOOLS BOARD ASSOCIATION et al., Plaintiffs and Respondents,
v.
CALIFORNIA STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION, Defendant and Appellant;
JACK O'CONNELL, as Superintendent of Public Instruction, etc., et al., Real Parties in Interest.

Survey finds growing worry over Calif. school cuts - San Jose Mercury News

Survey finds growing worry over Calif. school cuts - San Jose Mercury News

Survey finds growing worry over Calif. school cuts

By TERENCE CHEA Associated Press Writer

Posted: 04/28/2010 09:00:56 PM PDT

Updated: 04/28/2010 09:00:56 PM PDT

SAN FRANCISCO—Californians are increasingly worried about how state budget cuts are affecting public schools, and they are unhappy with how their political leaders are handling education, according to a survey released late Wednesday.

The Public Policy Institute of California's sixth annual K-12 education survey found that 62 percent of residents believe there isn't enough state funding going to their public schools, a 12 percent increase over last year.

The survey found that 43 percent of public school parents say spending cuts have affected their children's schools a lot—a 15 percent jump—and another 38 percent said their kids' schools have been affected somewhat.

"The poll really indicates the degree of anxiety that the public has about the impact of budget cuts on public education," said Mark Baldassare, the institute's president and CEO. "More Californians are seeing the direct effect of the state's budget problems on children, teachers and the resources in their local schools."

Californians are worried about teacher layoffs, growing class sizes, shortened school years and the elimination of electives such as art and music, according to the survey. And 63 percent want K-12 education protected from furthe

Sarah Wessling, 'product of Iowa,' named top U.S. teacher | desmoinesregister.com | The Des Moines Register

Sarah Wessling, 'product of Iowa,' named top U.S. teacher | desmoinesregister.com | The Des Moines Register

Sarah Wessling, 'product of Iowa,' named top U.S. teacher

BY TODD ERZEN • TERZEN@DMREG.COM • APRIL 29, 2010

• Comments (1)
• Recommend
• Print this page
• E-mail this article
• Share
  
• Type Size A A A

Sarah Brown Wessling won't be in her classroom today, but she doesn't have to worry about getting in trouble.

The 35-year-old Johnston High School teacher will be in Washington, D.C., for a White House ceremony at which President Barack Obama will introduce her as the 2010 National Teacher of the Year.

For a woman who deals in words for a living, Wessling said Wednesday that she is struggling to come up with any to describe how "this humbles me and how it honors all the people I work with and the community I care so much about."

Wessling, a graduate of Winterset High School and Iowa State University, has helped students in Johnston learn the great lessons of literature for themselves and learn about life, too.

Her teaching colleagues and a student in her Advanced Placement English class said Wessling's modesty at being singled out just won't do.

Junior Claire Nagel said Wessling's ability to inspire is considerable.

"No matter what you want to learn about, she finds a way for you to learn about it through literature," Nagel said.

Teacher Rick Brooks said, "She's truly dedicated to the profession, and probably to a level, to be quite honest, that most of us probably aren't."

Daily Herald | Ayers speech at Univ. of Wyo. without incident

Daily Herald | Ayers speech at Univ. of Wyo. without incident

Ayers speech at Univ. of Wyo. without incident

Associated Press

William Ayers ASSOCIATED PRESS

1 of 1

Browse All Image Galleries

Published: 4/29/2010 6:46 AM

(0) | read | post

Buzz up!

LARAMIE, Wyo. -- In the end, the former 1960s radical delivered a professional speech that drew more than a thousand listeners and very few protesters.

Security was tight Wednesday as William Ayers spoke on education concerns at the University of Wyoming after a federal judge forced the school to host him.

UW President Tom Buchanan had decided not to allow the current University of Illinois-Chicago professor to speak on campus over concern that veiled threats the university had received from people opposed to Ayers would result in violence.

But the event, which included bag and coat searches and bomb-sniffing dogs, was held without any incidents at a campus gym that normally hosts volleyball and wrestling matches.

Ayers co-founded the Weather Underground, an anti-war group from the Vietnam Era that claimed to be responsible for a series of bombings, including nonfatal explosions at