Joint Venture: Activists Make Sure Marijuana Taxes Help Schools - Lily's Blackboard

Joint Venture: Activists Make Sure Marijuana Taxes Help Schools - Lily's Blackboard:

Joint Venture: Activists Make Sure Marijuana Taxes Help Schools

The first thing you notice about Barbara Clementi and Carole Partin is that gorgeous silver hair. (Pictures just don’t do it justice.) But listen to the retired Pueblo County, Colo. teachers talk, and it’s clear that their fervor for ensuring that all students have the opportunity for a great education is just as unforgettable as their sparkling manes. 

“Retirement” in the traditional sense of the word just isn’t for them. Yet they don’t want to do anything full time. So they approach post-retirement activism as a twosome, sharing the responsibilities and “subbing in” when one or the other needed a break.

Recently, they were named to Pueblo County’s marijuana licensing board, quite possibly making them the first teachers anywhere to serve on this kind of panel.

Now let’s get something straight at the outset: They always taught their middle-school students to steer clear of drugs and alcohol, and that is still their message. However, they are pragmatists. When Coloradans voted in 2012 to legalize marijuana for adults 21 and over and Pueblo County decided to allow growing, cultivating, and selling marijuana, the friends wanted to make sure public education would benefit from the revenue. That meant having a voice on the licensing board.

Colorado schools are desperate for resources. Since voters in 1992 passed the Taxpayer Bill of Rights, the most restrictive tax and spending limitation in the nation, funding for schools has plummeted. Within a decade of adopting the law, Colorado dropped from 35th in the country to 49th in spending on K-12 education as a Joint Venture: Activists Make Sure Marijuana Taxes Help Schools - Lily's Blackboard:

Badass Teachers Association

Badass Teachers Association:

My Wife is a Teacher, A Very Good Teacher

By: The husband of BAT Cathy Drew Benjamin

My husband of 41 years (a non-educator) posted this to his Facebook, as our local association begins to feel the wrath of an unkind BOE during failed/failing contract negotiations (~gulp! 25%increase in health care contribution! - among other issues). I love my family. They "get" it.

One of my heroes was Andy Rooney. I decided to write this in his style:

My wife is a teacher.

She goes to work before me and works an 11 hour day.
She takes so much pride in her job and her students.
Their successes and failures belong to her.
She knows because they come back years later to tell her and say thank you.
If she didn’t spend her own money on supplies her students would go without.
The Board of Education doesn’t supply enough. Sometimes she doesn’t even have textbooks.
The State stole some of her retirement money so they wouldn’t have to raise taxes.
It was never paid back. Now the state wants her to pay back the money they stole!
Isn’t that a little crazy? I guess the state thought so because they passed a law that said they would pay it back.
Well, the state broke that law too and now they still want my wife to pay back what they stole.
She never made a lot of money considering all the education she has.
She likes her job. It was never about the money or even benefits.
It was always implied “We’ll give you a decentBadass Teachers Association:

CURMUDGUCATION: The GOP Education Vision

CURMUDGUCATION: The GOP Education Vision:

The GOP Education Vision

Earlier this week, House Republicans released a... well, a thing. A reporty kind of thing, straight from the House GOP "Task Force" on Poverty, Opportunity and Upward Mobility. There's a website that goes with it, and the language there is pretty blunt and direct:

Our nation is on the wrong path. We can complain about it, but that won't help things. To get America back on track, we have to raise our gaze. We have to be bold. That's what A Better Way is about. It is a full slate of ideas to address some of the biggest challenges of our times. Developed with input from around the country, it looks past this president to what we can achieve in 2017 and beyond...

We can complain about it??!! You're the freakin' US Congress-- there's a hell of a lot more you can do than complain. But I get it-- if you're in the party that somehow just nominated a blustering dumpster fire of a con man for the highest office in the land, I can see how you might be feeling a little helpless right now. Or inclined to just fast-forward to next year. It is perhaps a bit of projection that Paul Ryan and his crew have set a goal of a "confident" America, because the Republican Party of Donald Trump certainly isn't looking very confident right now. Blustery, noisy, overcompensatingly bullyish, all laid over a second level of party members who can't decide whether they want to stand for some sort of principle or whether they would support a wet paper bag filled with dog poop as long as it had "Republican" written on the outside-- all that, but not confident. 

But hey. "Biggest challenges of our times." That must include education, right? Well, no. The six areas on the website are the economy, health care, poverty, national security, tax reform, and the Constitution.

Now, the GOP has noticed that many US citizens are "stuck." Let's shift over to the more easily-navigable position paper:

The American Dream is the idea that, no matter who you are or where you come from, if you work hard and give it your all, you will succeed. But for too many people today, that’s simply not true. Thirty-four percent of Americans raised in the bottom fifth of the income scale are still stuck there CURMUDGUCATION: The GOP Education Vision:

Maligned and Misunderstood: Muslim Students Speak Out

Maligned and Misunderstood: Muslim Students Speak Out:

Maligned and Misunderstood: Muslim Students Speak Out

Seventeen-year-old Entsar Mohamed is proud to be Muslim, but she admits it isn’t easy.

“Being a Muslim in America today is getting harder and I am worried that it will get worse,” says the senior at Mission High School in San Francisco, Calif. “Because of ISIS, Muslims are seen as bad and violent people.”

Anti-Islamic rhetoric has reached a fever pitch in America, spouting not only from presidential candidates and governors, but even from school board members, like one in Philadelphia who posted that she is “officially against Muslims” and “We don’t want them in America” on her Facebook page.

In New York, Chicago, and in Mohamed’s hometown of San Francisco, city bus ads paid for by millionaire Pamela Geller showed pictures of ISIS atrocities and proclaimed, “It’s not Islamophobia. It’s Islamorealism.”

For Muslims who ride city buses—including hundreds of school kids—the message was loud and clear: “Muslims are terrorists and must be feared.”

“It’s scary, unfair, and weird how we are in the year 2016 and people are allowed to be so openly biased and hateful,” says Mohamed Omar, 18, a senior at San Francisco’s Raul Wallenberg High School. “People look at us in a damning way, they have this image of us that’s hard to change, and it bothers me that Pamela Geller can have freedom of speech, but where is my freedom of religion?”

Islamophobia at School

Not surprisingly, Islamophobia from the larger society filters down into our schools. More than half of California’s Muslim students have experienced religion-based bullying, a rate double that of their non-Muslim peers nationally, according to a study of the California chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

Fakhra Shah, a teacher at Mission High School, knows first-hand what it’s like to be on the receiving end of anti-Muslim slurs and stereotyping. A Muslim who grew up in the Bay Area, she’s experienced them her whole life. One of her goals as an educator is to prevent bullying by teaching tolerance, which she does by demonstrating it, accepting perspectives, and creating a warm environment where all students feel loved and accepted.

“Growing up, I remember having to constantly start conversations with people about how ‘not all Muslims are…’ That’s a pretty terrible way to get to know people or make friends,” she says. “I still remember having to defend myself to my seventh-grade Maligned and Misunderstood: Muslim Students Speak Out:

Former College Board Exec: New SAT Hastily Thrown Together; Students: March SAT Recycled in June | deutsch29

Former College Board Exec: New SAT Hastily Thrown Together; Students: March SAT Recycled in June | deutsch29:

Former College Board Exec: New SAT Hastily Thrown Together; Students: March SAT Recycled in June

Manuel Alfaro is the former executive director of assessment design and development at the College Board.

Beginning on May 15, 2016, Alfaro has published a series of posts on Linkedin in an apparent effort to reveal the haphazard construction of the new SAT, released and first administered in March 2016 and again, in June. (He is also posting info on Twitter: @SATinsider.)

Below are excerpts from Alfaro’s Linkedin posts, all of which provide an enlightening read concerning the sham Coleman has thrown together and labeled the “new SAT.”

On May 15, 2016, Alfaro writes:

My name is Manuel Alfaro, former executive director with the College Board. I was recruited in 2013 by David Coleman, President of the College Board, to reform the SAT. The College Board will tell you that I am a disgruntled employee. This statement would not be entirely wrong, but it would not be entirely correct either. I am a disillusioned idealist, shocked by the reality I encountered at the College Board.

I just started a petition on the White House Petitions site, We the People to ask the federal government to investigate the College Board for making false claims about the redesigned SAT: https://wh.gov/is3Sf …

My first assignment with the College Board was to review a draft of the test specifications for the redesigned SAT. The document had been created by two of David Coleman’s cronies, two authors of the Common Core. This document is now known as the “research-based, empirical backbone” of the SAT Suite of Assessments. Back then, it was a subset of standards taken straight from the high school and middle school Common Core. My instructions were to rubberstamp the selection of standards and to rewrite the standard descriptions to make them unrecognizable, so that no one could tell they were Common Core.

From May 17, 2016:

David Coleman and the College Board have made transparency a key selling point of the redesigned SAT. Their commitment to transparency is proclaimed proudly in public documents and in public speeches and presentations. However, public documents, such as the Test Specifications for the Redesigned SAT (https://collegereadiness.collegeboard.org/pdf/test-specifications-redesigned-sat-1.pdf), contain crucial statements and claims that are fabrications. Similar false claims are also included in proposals the College Board wrote in bids for state assessments—I got the proposals from states that make them public.

To corroborate my statements and allegations, I needed the College Board to administer the tests. If I had gone public before the tests were administered, the College Board could have spun this whole matter as “research” orFormer College Board Exec: New SAT Hastily Thrown Together; Students: March SAT Recycled in June | deutsch29: 

Mapped: The students missing from America’s schools — Quartz

Mapped: The students missing from America’s schools — Quartz:
Mapped: The students missing from America’s schools

Debates in education often have to do with insufficient resources, whether it be the proper materials, the teachers, or the time to ensure quality learning for all students. Of course, those issues don’t arise if students themselves don’t show up—as is the case in much of the US right now.

According to a huge swath of data (pdf) released this week by the US Department of Education, roughly 6.5 million students, or a full 13% of the 50 million students enrolled in K-12 public schools in the country, are chronically absent from school. The government defines chronic absenteeism as missing 15 or more days of each school year, whether or not there’s an official excuse.

Using data from 95,000 public schools in the 2013-14 school year, the department found a range of absentee rates across the country, with some regions like the country’s capital of Washington posting rates as high as 31.5%.

Why are so many kids ditching school? For starters, attendance often has to do with income levels poorer students are more likely to miss school, for reasons such as ill health, unreliable transportation, or unstable family financial situations.

But steady attendance is proven to be a huge factor in academic success—so educators might do well to keep a closer eye. In China, where schooling is of utmost importance to many families, some teachers will go as far as tracking absent students down at their homes.

The US government will release more specific data on absentee rates, as well as other topics such as staffing quality and student suspensions, towards the end of the year.Mapped: The students missing from America’s schools — Quartz:

 A look at chronic absenteeism across America - http://go.shr.lc/1tkmC1w

Black students more likely to be suspended: U.S. Education Department - http://go.shr.lc/28nCGPO

Chronic Absenteeism Is A National Crisis - http://go.shr.lc/24CSjOH

States scramble to protect student data and privacy | PBS NewsHour

States scramble to protect student data and privacy | PBS NewsHour:

States scramble to protect student data and privacy

What if a child’s performance in a fifth-grade gym class could be used to set the rate for a life insurance policy when they’re 50? What if a computer program advertised interactive tutoring when your child struggled with long division?

Privacy advocates worry these scenarios could become reality as schools increasingly rely on outside companies to collect, manage and analyze the massive amount of data gleaned from standardized tests, transcripts, individual education programs and even cafeteria purchases.

This subcontracting is not new or uncommon, but it has often left school districts without explicit control over students’ personal information. And it has left some parents, administrators and privacy advocates worried that those companies might one day sell or mine the data for a profit.

With few protections on the privacy of student data beyond a decades-old federal law, states have been scrambling to regulate how student data is collected and stored. More recently they’ve begun governing how third-party companies can use student information.

In 2014, 21 states passed 26 student data laws mostly targeted at states and school districts. Many echoed a 2013 Oklahoma law that requires state approval to release student data and mandates that only aggregated data — no data tied to individual students — can be released.

By last year, lawmakers had shifted their focus to third-party companies. They passed 28 student privacy laws, in many cases mirroring a California statute that prohibits service providers from using data to target ads to students, selling student information, and creating student profiles for commercial purposes.

This year nine states — Arizona, Connecticut, Hawaii, Kansas, New Hampshire,Tennessee, Utah, Virginia and West Virginia — have added 11 new student data laws, mostly based on the California standard. A similar proposal is awaiting the signature of Colorado’s governor.

It’s impossible to know how companies could or would use the information they collect, said Joel Reidenberg, a privacy expert and law professor at Fordham University.

“What are they going to do with it? Are they going to use it for experimentation? Data analytics?” he said. “Will it wind up 10 years down the road being used in an insurance underwriting decision?”

School districts and their vendors are required to keep educational records confidential, under the 1974 federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act. But the law, written at States scramble to protect student data and privacy | PBS NewsHour:

A flood of campaign spending has paid off for the California Charter Schools Association | SanDiegoUnionTribune.com

upset on county ed board | SanDiegoUnionTribune.com:
Changes coming to education board
County school races pit charters against labor

SAN DIEGO — A flood of campaign spending has paid off for the California Charter Schools Association, which helped usher in at least one new candidate to the County Board of Education in Tuesday’s election.

The race for four seats on the board pitted organized labor against charter school advocates, which invested in the elections for the first time this year amid a rocky time for the industry. The county board has been seen as increasingly crucial in the effort to expand charters since members serve as the appellate for charter petitions rejected by their resident school districts.

With unsolicited support from charters, Mark Powell took 52 percent of the vote to unseat Gregg Robinson in the race to represent District 1 for the San Diego County Office of Education. The district covers coastal and central communities in of the city of San Diego.

Powell was the target of attack mailers from the local chapter of the American Federation of Teachers representing the Grossmont-Cuyamaca Community College Districts. He called the negative campaign disappointing.

“That campaign makes this win all the more substantial,” said Powell, a adjunct education professor at National University. “I will not rubber stamp charters. I don’t expect a big influx of charters coming in and taking over. What charters and parents can expect from me is fair, objective and reasoned decisions that put students, parents and teachers first.”

Guadalupe Gonzalez was re-elected with 55 percent of the vote with support from AFT, staving off former trustee Jerry Rindone’s bid to take her seat representing the southwestern swath of the county in District 2.

The contest to represent northern and eastern stretches of the county in District 4 was too close to call late Wednesday. Some 285,000 mail and provisional ballets were uncounted countywide. Incumbent Mark Anderson had the narrowest lead (by 451 votes) over Paulette Donnellon, a sitting member of the Escondido Union School District board who was backed by charter advocates. Donnellon also was the subject of AFT upset on county ed board | SanDiegoUnionTribune.com:

Big Education Ape: Analysis: EdVoice with an IE for Dodd; Educational Reform Group Has Ties to Vergara Suit and Wa... http://bit.ly/1SJq26U

Big Education Ape: News Analysis: Education fight ‘over shades of Democrat’ | CALmatters http://bit.ly/25csc6L

Big Education Ape: Local legislative races become battleground in statewide fight over educationhttp://bit.ly/1WMlJKA

Big Education Ape: Edvoice pumps cash into Assembly campaign | News | Palo Alto Online | http://bit.ly/1s8OhSi

Big Education Ape: Charter school groups spending big in California legislative races | 89.3 KPCChttp://bit.ly/1TYIvJj

Fewer field trips mean some students miss more than a day at the museum | Brookings Institution

Fewer field trips mean some students miss more than a day at the museum | Brookings Institution:

Fewer field trips mean some students miss more than a day at the museum

As every good teacher knows, education is not just about academics. It is about broadening horizons and discovering passions. (The root of education is the Latin e ducere, meaning “to draw out.”) From this perspective, extra-curricular activities count for a great deal. But as Robert Putnam highlights in his book Our Kids, there are growing class gaps in the availability of music, sports, and other non-classroom activities.

Fewer field trips?

Schools under pressure may also cut back on field trips outside the school walls to parks, zoos, theaters, or museums. In the 2008-09 school year, 9 percent of school administrators reported eliminating field trips, according to the annual surveys by the American Association of School Administrators (AASA). That figure rose through the recession:Fewer field trips mean some students miss more than a day at the museum | Brookings Institution:

 Fewer field trips mean some students miss more than a day at the museum | Brookings Institution:

Will Trump and Charter Schools Be Another Scam? Just Look at Pal Carl Icahn's Lucrative School 'Charity' | Alternet

Will Trump and Charter Schools Be Another Scam? Just Look at Pal Carl Icahn's Lucrative School 'Charity' | Alternet:

Will Trump and Charter Schools Be Another Scam? Just Look at Pal Carl Icahn's Lucrative School 'Charity'

There are troubling parallels between Trump and Icahn, who used his charity to turn a profit while enjoying massive tax savings.

 Most people know Carl Icahn as a real-life Gordon Gekko—the investor who helped drive Trans World Airlines to bankruptcy, selling the company’s prime routes and saddling it with debt, while pocketing millions for himself. Today, Icahn is once again in the national spotlight with Donald Trump, his former business associate, floating the possibility of making him Treasury Secretary.

Like Trump, Carl Icahn has also named a school after himself—seven charter schools in New York City to be exact (Icahn Charter School 1, Icahn Charter School 2, Icahn Charter School 3, etc.). And as with Trump University, the money trail suggests the organization running these schools may have served to enrich its billionaire founder, Icahn, at the expense of its own students. An AlterNet investigation finds that Carl Icahn appears to have treated his charity like a personal piggy bank, using it to make potentially tens of millions for himself while benefiting from tens of millions in tax deductions.

In 1997, Carl Icahn made a $100 million tax-deductible “contribution” to his public charity, the Foundation for a Greater Opportunity, scoring about a $45 million income tax reduction, according to an estimate by Gregg Polsky, a law professor at UNC. In January 2006, Icahn’s foundation suddenly sold back the stock gift to an Icahn corporation, Modal LLC. The $100 million gift in American Railcar Industries Inc. shares was conspicuously sold three days before the company was to go public, a process that often sparks a short-term hike in share value. The convenient date of the sale strongly suggests Icahn knew his limited liability corporation, rather than his educational charity, would make a killing off the public offering.

Three days after the sale was inked, American Railcar Industries went public, opening at $23.60 a share and jumping up almost 40 percent in a month. As of 2016, Icahn holds a majority stake in ARII and the company’s shares are upnearly 70 percent more than when Icahn reacquired them. Thus, even if his LLC held onto his foundation’s former shares, rather than selling in the initial surge, Icahn would be in line for tens of millions in profit.

“When he donates the $100 million, it’s not his asset anymore,” explains Marc Owens, a tax expert with the law firm Loeb & Loeb. “It can’t be transferred back other than as a sale at true fair market value. So Icahn basically induced the charity, presumably ignorant of the impending company’s public sale, into selling him the stock at an artificially low value.” 

Since the profits off the IPO surge went to Icahn, rather than his educational charity, Icahn was liable for a 25 percent “excess benefit” tax for that profit, potentially another 10 percent because of his role as director of the charity, and Will Trump and Charter Schools Be Another Scam? Just Look at Pal Carl Icahn's Lucrative School 'Charity' | Alternet:

Whatever Happens To Teachers Of Color Happens To All [The Progressive] | The Jose Vilson

Whatever Happens To Teachers Of Color Happens To All [The Progressive] | The Jose Vilson:

Whatever Happens To Teachers Of Color Happens To All [The Progressive]

In my latest article at the Progressive, I write about my visit to the US Department of Education fortheir first-ever Teacher Diversity Summit:

William A. Smith calls this “racial fatigue”— the mental and physical weariness of having to navigate personal and professional spaces that often favor white people. The educational subset of racial fatigue often posits educators of color as both the problem and solution to improving failing (read: failed) schools. No wonder teachers of color are coming in at higher rates than ever before, but also leaving faster than their white counterparts. As working conditions in places like Detroit, Newark, and Los Angeles continue to depreciate, leaders continue to push educators to do more with less (and even work for nothing).

Since the advent of No Child Left Behind, we’ve seen countless instances of teacher bashing, but the coded language used against educators has particular educational ramifications. For example, the old southern strategy, a technique used by politicians to appeal to disaffected white people, has historical ties to school desegregation.

Yes, I went in. Please read and let me know what you think.

photo c/o

About Jose Vilson

José Luis Vilson is a math educator, blogger, speaker, and activist. For more of my writing, buy my book This Is Not A Test: A New Narrative on Race, Class, and Education, on sale now.

Whatever Happens To Teachers Of Color Happens To All [The Progressive] | The Jose Vilson:

New Rules for the New Deal | Roosevelt Institute

New Rules for the New Deal

Rewriting the Racial Rules: Building an Inclusive American Economy

New Rules for the New Deal - Roosevelt Institute - http://go.shr.lc/1tiJGOa

New Rules for the New Deal - Roosevelt Institute - http://go.shr.lc/1tiJGOa

Streamed live 8 hours ago

On June 8, 2016, the Roosevelt Institute will host a discussion with Roosevelt Institute Chief Economist Joseph Stiglitz, Alicia Garza, Melissa Harris-Perry, and more about two new reports that look at how to curb the power of the economic elite and create a more inclusive society. 

2016 Summer Meal Service Sites - Food Programs (CA Dept of Education)

2016 Summer Meal Service Sites - Food Programs (CA Dept of Education):

2016 Summer Meal Service Sites

Provides parents and referral agencies with a list of locations where children may receive free nutritious meals during school vacation and off-track periods. Please call site contact to confirm participation.

Entities wishing to serve meals under the Summer Food Service Program should contact the sponsor listed.

Search

1. Use search to find the nearest Summer Meal Service Site. Search results will be in a map that opens in a new browser tab or window.
2. Once you have found the nearest site on the map, select the corresponding map pointer to get the site name and address: 
3. Site details will open in a dialog box above the selected site.
4. To get directions to the site, select/click the site address.
5. Google Maps will open with the selected site's address pre-filled as the destination. Enter your starting location and select "Get Directions".

Enter your zip code (99999) or a city and state (My City, CA):   

Image Map

Select a county to display a list of locations for that county, or choose from the list of counties in alphabetical order.

List of Counties in Alphabetical Order

• Alameda
• Alpine
• Amador
• Butte
• Calaveras
• Colusa
• Contra Costa
• Del Norte
• El Dorado
• Fresno
• Glenn
• Humboldt
• Imperial
• Inyo
• Kern
• Kings
• Lake
• Lassen
• Los Angeles
• Madera
• Marin
• Mariposa
• Mendocino
• Merced
• Modoc
• Mono
• Monterey
• Napa
• Nevada
• Orange
• Placer
• Plumas
• Riverside
• Sacramento
• San Benito
• San Bernardino
• San Diego
• San Francisco
• San Joaquin
• San Luis Obispo
• San Mateo
• Santa Barbara
• Santa Clara
• Santa Cruz
• Shasta
• Sierra
• Siskiyou
• Solano
• Sonoma
• Stanislaus
• Sutter
• Tehama
• Trinity
• Tulare
• Tuolumne
• Ventura
• Yolo
• Yuba

Complete List

2016 Summer Meal Service Sites (XLS; 1MB)

Program Information

For program information, please visit Summer Food Service.

Questions:   Nutrition Services Division | 800-952-5609

State Schools Superintendent Tom Torlakson Announces Statusof Teacher Recruitment and Training Bills at State Capitol

SACRAMENTO—State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson announced today that legislation is advancing at the state Capitol to help address a growing shortage of teachers in California.

Several bills moved forward last week as the Legislature faced a bill deadline. Torlakson spoke in favor of the legislation at a Capitol news conference earlier in the year, when legislators introduced new measures to recruit more educators and help them earn teaching credentials.

"I will continue to work with all members of the Legislature who want to help talented and committed people enter this rewarding profession," said Torlakson, who started his career as a science teacher and coach. "I am spreading the message when I speak at the state Capitol and at schools and events all around the state: California needs more teachers. Teaching is a wonderful profession with challenges—but also great rewards. Teachers have the opportunity to have a profound positive impact in a young person's life."

Enrollment in California's teacher preparation programs fell from more than 40,000 students during the 2008–9 school year to less than 20,000 in 2012–13.

In 2014–15, the Commission on Teacher Credentialing issued 15,000 credentials, while the California Department of Education (CDE) projected the need for California schools to hire 22,000 teachers.

The Legislature last week had a "house of origin" deadline, which means legislation introduced in the Senate in 2016 had to pass to the Assembly, and Assembly bills needed to pass to the Senate.

The Legislature has until August 31 to pass any bills in the 2015–16 session, and Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. must sign or veto bills by September 30.

Bills that Torlakson supports include SB 915 by Senator Carol Liu, D-La Canada Flintridge. This bill re-establishes the California Center on Teaching Careers (Cal Teach) to recruit qualified individuals into the teaching profession. The program boosted teacher recruitment through outreach campaigns in the 1990s but was discontinued due to state budget cuts. SB 915 passed the Senate 28-8 and is pending in the Assembly.

SB 933 by Senator Ben Allen, D-Santa Monica, would create a California Teacher Corps program that provides matching grants to local school districts to create or expand teacher residency programs. SB 933 passed the Senate 37-0 and is also pending in the Assembly.

Torlakson also sponsored SB 62, by Senator Fran Pavley, D-Agoura Hills, to reinstate and improve a phased-out state program to provide student loan forgiveness to new teachers. Under the Assumption Program of Loans for Education (APLE), a new teacher would teach for four years at a school with large numbers of disadvantaged students or at a rural school. This bill was introduced last year and is pending in the Assembly Appropriations Committee.

Torlakson also supports several other bills to expand and increase funding for teacher training. Information is available at the Legislative Information  Web site. In addition, those seeking more information about how to become a teacher can find it at Teach California  .

# # # #

Tom Torlakson — State Superintendent of Public Instruction
Communications Division, Room 5206, 916-319-0818, Fax 916-319-0100

Teacher Recruitment and Training Bills - Year 2016 (CA Dept of Education) - http://go.shr.lc/1rdQkTT