Sac City Unified OKs Budget Dodges Teachers Strike

Sacramento City Unified School District dodges teachers strike

Sacramento City Unified School District dodges teachers strike

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (KCRA) —The Sacramento City Unified School District has avoided a teachers strike that was originally planned for next week.

In announcing that the one-day, May 22 strike would not happen, Sacramento City Teachers Association President David Fisher said Thursday evening that "the third interim budget makes it clear that a state takeover is no longer imminent, and our contract can be fully implemented.”

The school district said in a statement it appreciates the union's decision to postpone the strike.

"It is the right decision for parents and students who would have been harmed most by another teacher strike," the school district said. "We look forward to commencing negotiations with SCTA leaders and working together to address our severe fiscal challenges."

The teachers union contract expires in June. The union and the school district have been negotiating the contract terms for several months. The teachers union wants smaller class sizes and a promised pay increase. The union held a one-day strike in mid-April and then later scheduled a second one for May, which has now been postponed.

SCTA represents 2,800 Sacramento Unified professionals, including teachers, school nurses, psychologists, social workers and others.

The announcement comes as the school district works to fight bankruptcy and a possible state takeover. The school district needs to cut $35 million for the 2019-2020 school year, as well as $35 million for the 2020-2021 school year.

The school district announced Thursday morning it has come up with a plan that could avert a state takeover.

According to district officials, the 178 job cuts announced last week, on top of all the other cuts made so far, may have been enough to temporarily stop the state takeover that was set for June 1 if the district uses $19.67 million of district reserves to cover next year’s expenditures.

This is a developing story. Stay with KCRA 3 for the latest.
Follow this story to get instant e-mail alerts from KCRA on the latest developments and related topics.

Sacramento City Unified School District dodges teachers strike

Sac City Unified OKs budget it says will avert takeover – but it’s not out of the woods yet

In a down-to-the-wire decision, the Sacramento City Unified School District board on Thursday night approved a spending plan officials say could temporarily spare the district from state takeover.

After slicing $28 million through cuts and layoffs in its third and final effort to correct its budget deficit and avoid insolvency, the district is still spending more than it has in revenue. But officials say they can cover the gap with reserves and avoid seeking an emergency state loan until fall 2020 – buying them time to achieve permanent savings through negotiations with the district’s teachers union.

The district’s initial budget was rejected by the Sacramento County Office of Education in August, and subsequent attempts were similarly disapproved because of high projected deficits.

In the report approved Thursday, the district assumed higher revenues and lower expenditures than its two previous midyear budget revisions, called interim reports.

The district also said it fixed a human error in the second interim report’s enrollment numbers, which left out five schools – more than 700 students. Because funding is tied to the number of students attending a district, the previous budget underestimated revenue by $9 million.

School board President Jessie Ryan said the person who made the oversight no longer works for the district.

While the deficit will increase, the district says it will not grow as much as projected in previous interim reports

The district will use $20 million in reserve funds to cover the budget deficit in 2019-20 – though the gap is expected to widen again to $34 million by 2022.

The meeting was marked by tearful and frustrated pleas from teachers, parents and students who at times criticized the district’s spending and possible future cuts.

“Right now, I’m not celebrating because urgent work needs to be done,” said Tara Thronson, co-founder of the group Parents United to Restore our Schools.

A school district pays for most of its operating expenses out of its general fund. The district made cuts by identifying unneeded general fund spending, redirecting funds for facilities out of the general fund, and reducing its contribution to retiree health care funds by $3 million.

Sacramento County Superintendent of Schools David Gordon, whose office will decide whether to approve the budget, said at the meeting Thursday he is confident the district will continue to scour the budget for additional savings.

“I can’t tell you what to spend your money on, but show me what you are willing to cut,” he said.

Gordon said the priorities must be to end deficit spending and stabilize the budget.

“Unfortunately, this is not a cause for celebration, but it is an opportunity for a fresh start in how you treat one another in this district,” he said.

The “vastly improved” financial picture was a primary reason the teachers union on Thursday postponed a second strike it had planned for May 22.

But confusion set in among parents and community members at the board meeting as many asked how Sacramento City Unified would end up with nearly exactly the same deficit, which officials for months had been projecting at $35 million.

Parent Eric Schranz asked the district to fix its budget so “we don’t have to play this silly game next year,” and to improve communication with parents.

“We are millions of dollars in the hole, and the union wants the district to spend millions more. Now is not the time to be squabbling over the contract,” said Jeanine Rupert, a teacher and parent of four children in district schools. “That idealistic ship has sailed.”

Continuing a practice of deficit spending, Sacramento City will dip into its reserves to cover expenses in 2019-20. State law requires school districts to maintain at least 2 percent of their budget in reserves, but the district would fall short of that provision unless it further reduces its spending.

Spokesman Alex Barrios said district leaders hope to find the money through union contract negotiations.

The County Office of Education will respond to the third interim report with suggestions in about a month. The district will have until the end of June to make more reductions.

A final adopted budget must be submitted by June 30, said spokesman Tim Herrera. The county will then decide whether to approve it.

Gordon said he is optimistic that the board can identify more savings, and added that all parties must come to the negotiation table to find long-term solutions.

The teachers union and district have been at war over their labor contract, an eleventh-hour bargain struck in November 2017 under threat of a strike. Teachers staged a one-day walkout April 11 and had planned another May 22. But the union delayed that strike indefinitely on Thursday citing the district’s new budget projections as a major reason.

Sacramento City Teachers Association president David Fisher said state Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond sent a letter this week in response to an SCTA request, saying he would bring the district, union and other leaders to the table to try to avert both a strike and receivership.

Teachers union Vice President Nikki Milevsky said the district should have made more cuts at the administrative level and should not consider eliminating student programs.

“You need to look at cuts that are not directed at kids,” Milevsky said.

FOLLOW MORE OF OUR REPORTING ON SACRAMENTO CITY UNIFIED IN CRISIS

Sac City Unified OKs budget it says will avert takeover – but it’s not out of the woods yet

Are School Playgrounds Still Empty? Animals Get More Recess!

Are School Playgrounds Still Empty? Animals Get More Recess!

Are School Playgrounds Still Empty? Animals Get More Recess!

Parents in Florida and Tennessee and many other states have fought for recess. Sometimes children in elementary school get 20-minute breaks once a day if they’re lucky. Children should get several recess breaks each day!

We should be looking at the benefit of school recess breaks for every grade level. Middle and high school students would benefit from recess too.

I have written about recess as a main topic in about twenty posts on this blog. I mention recess repeatedly. I have read other blog posts about the need for recess. There’s much research about the importance of recess for children. Usually the research shows that children do better in school with recess!

In 2002, Susan Ohanian wrote a book about recess called What Happened to Recess and Why are Our Children Struggling in Kindergarten? With a book like this, one would think Americans would have realized the importance of recess breaks for their children.

Anthony D. Pellegrini wrote Recess: Its Role in Education and Development in 2005.

I wrote a section about the importance of recess in the chapter “What Happened to  CONTINUE READING: Are School Playgrounds Still Empty? Animals Get More Recess!

Southern Education Foundation Reports on Budget Proposals | Diane Ravitch's blog

Southern Education Foundation Reports on Budget Proposals | Diane Ravitch's blog

Southern Education Foundation Reports on Budget Proposals

The Southern Education Foundation posted a very handy analysis of the education budgets of southern states. 

Florida’s budget is a big win for Jeb Bush and Betsy Devos. Governor Ron DeSantis has proposed a small increase in funding for K-12 public schools (about 5%), but the outlay for vouchers will grow by 50% from 2018-2020, and the outlay for charter facilities will triple in the same time period. Spending on colleges, universities, and Historically Black Colleges and Universities is flat.

In Louisiana, Governor John Bel Edwards has flat funded most everything, including vouchers, but has proposed $101 million to give every teacher a pay raise. He is one of only two Democratic governors in the south.

In all of the southern states, the vast majority of students attend public schools from K-12. In states with charters and vouchers, the vast majority of students will be shortchanged so that a small minority can attend charter schools and religious schools. Their “freedom” comes at the cost of equity for all.

Georgia’s Governor Brian Kemp has added nearly $500 million for teacher pay raises. There is also a curious $2.2 million for a “chief turnaround officer.” I wonder how the state will find that magician.

In Mississippi, Governor Phil Bryant has flat funded most everything, but added $25 million for teacher pay raises. I guess he is satisfied with the status quo.

In Alabama, Governor Kay Ivey proposes a 29% increase in funding for Pre-K, a 4% increase in teacher pay, a small increase for higher education and HBCUs, and a small increase (under 10%  for K-12) schools.

Tennessee’s Governor Bill Lee adds new money for CONTINUE READING: Southern Education Foundation Reports on Budget Proposals | Diane Ravitch's blog

School Segregation in America 65 Years after “Brown v. Board of Education” | janresseger

School Segregation in America 65 Years after “Brown v. Board of Education” | janresseger

School Segregation in America 65 Years after “Brown v. Board of Education”

Today, May 17, 2019 is the 65th birthday of the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education. Marking the anniversary is the publication of a new report from the Civil Rights Project at UCLA on the state of racial integration in the public schools. Rucker C. Johnson at the University of California at Berkley has also published a new book: Children of the Dream: Why School Integration Works.

Johnson, an economist, examined massive data sets as the basis of his unequivocal support for racially integrated schools: “What follows is not an impassioned argument about diversity and integration…. Instead, this book uses data to show the power of integration and related efforts. Contrary to popular wisdom, integration has benefited—and continues to benefit—African Americans, whether that benefit is translated into educational attainment, earnings, social stability, or incarceration rates. Whites, meanwhile, lose nothing from opening their classrooms to others. And overall, society benefits from a decrease in the kind of prejudice that, in the past several years, has threatened to tear us apart.”

The Washington Post‘s Valerie Strauss summarizes concisely an update on our nation’s changing demographics in the Civil Rights Project’s report: “Public school enrollment stands at nearly 50 million. White students are less than half of the student population: 48.4 percent in 2016. Latinos are 26.3 percent of the student population; blacks 15.2 percent; Asians, 5.5 percent; multiracial, 3.6 percent; and American Indians, 1 percent.  Despite the increase in diversity, segregation has intensified and expanded. Over the last three decades, black students have been increasingly segregated in intensely segregated schools (which are defined as being 90 to 100 percent nonwhite). By 2016, 40 percent of all black students were in schools with 90 percent or more students of color. New York, California, Illinois, and Maryland are the four states in which a majority of black students attend intensely segregated schools. New York remains the most segregated state for African American students, with 65 percent of African American students in intensely segregated schools. California is the most segregated for Latinos, with 58 percent of those students attending intensely segregated schools… White students continue to attend schools in which nearly seven out of 10 are also white, a much higher percentage than their overall share of the enrollment.”

In the report itself, the Civil Rights Project highlights an important overall change in the CONTINUE READING: School Segregation in America 65 Years after “Brown v. Board of Education” | janresseger

NYC Educator: Betsy and Me

NYC Educator: Betsy and Me

Betsy and Me

by special guest Mindy Rosier

A few weeks ago, a little birdy informed me that Ms. Betsy DeVos herself would be traveling to NYC. After looking into this tip, it turned out that she would be receiving an award from the dreadful Manhattan Institute on May 1st, May Day, at Cipriani’s on 42nd Street.

As a lifelong New Yorker & a veteran special education teacher, I felt that it was very important to give Ms. DeVos a big Bronx cheer!! It had been awhile since I was part of a good protest and I was totally up for it.

Two years ago during Teacher Appreciation week, then Speaker Paul Ryan visited NYC. He was here, not to visit any public schools, but rather to visit my other favorite education villain, Eva Moskowitz. Of all the co-located buildings with Success Academy to visit, he choose mine. My school building is where Success Academy began and that in itself is another story.

I contacted every one of my connections from Grassroot Orgs to Elected Officials to my union, The United Federation of Teachers. I was on the news, in the papers, and online. I was everywhere. I mean, how dare you visit a public school building, during Teacher Appreciation Week, and NOT visit the public school located in THAT building? How dare you miss all the hard work we do?

If that weren’t enough, my school is D75, which means all of my students have special needs and many, if not most of our families receive Social Security benefit assistance. At that time, Ryan had his own view of Social Security benefits. What he proposed would have affected my students and their families for sure. I wanted nothing more that day than for him to look at the faces of our students who would be affected by those cuts. Those were my messages of the day. Apparently, I did such a good job with my messaging, that hundreds upon hundreds of people shut down that 118th street corner in Harlem.

Not only that, (and this is is my favorite part,) two of Ryan’s secret servicemen spoke to my at the time principal, CONTINUE READING: NYC Educator: Betsy and Me

The Hype of “Transforming” Teaching and Learning | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

The Hype of “Transforming” Teaching and Learning | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

The Hype of “Transforming” Teaching and Learning

Three years ago, I published this post. I didn’t expect anything much to happen with the over-use of the word “transform” and nothing did. The word continues to be used both seriously and casually without much scrutiny. So here is that post again. While I am modest about my reach and influence among educators, I remain an optimist at heart.

We have the opportunity to completely reform our nation’s schools. We’re not talking about tinkering around the edges here. We’re talking about a fundamental re-thinking of how our schools function—and placing a focus on teaching and learning like never before…. With the first decade of the 21st century now history, we’ve committed to securing the vitality of our nation by transforming the way we teach our students.  U.S. Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, 2010

Transform the way teachers teach and how children learn by replacing group-based, teacher-centered instruction with personalized, learner-centered instruction….

Transform the quality of work life for teachers, administrators, and support staff by transforming a school system’s organization culture, its reward system, job descriptions, and so on, to align with the requirements of the new teaching and learning processes….

Transform the way in which educators’ create change by replacing piecemeal change strategies with whole-system change strategies.... Francis Duffy, 2010

Computers, the Internet, online courses, smart phones, cameras, CONTINUE READING: The Hype of “Transforming” Teaching and Learning | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

CURMUDGUCATION: Miracle School's Secret Sauce

CURMUDGUCATION: Miracle School's Secret Sauce

Miracle School's Secret Sauce

Here's news of yet another miraculous charter school. Can we look closely and see what the secret of their success might be.

Southland College Prep School in Chicagoland had 100% of its mostly-Black graduating class accepted to college. It's the sixth straight year for this achievement, and it's been covered widely in the area. The school is the only charter high school in the state to earn an exemplary rating, and it seems devoid of the kind of nasty undertones of T.M. Landry Prep, another miracle school that turned out to be much less than a miracle.

So if Southland is one of the charters from which public schools can learn something, what can they learn.

Well, there's the usual attrition thing. The 116 graduating seniors started out as 163 freshmen. So between the self-selection process of application and the self-unselection process of leaving the school, Southland gets to have a culture of students and families who are committed to the educational goals.

There's the school day. Southland students are in school for nine hours.

There's the course requirement, which is higher than the course requirement for most schools in the region.

There's the school size, which is small enough for a personal touch. The school serves 530 students, smaller than the small town/rural high school where I taught. However, Southland has a teacher-student ratio of 12-1 or 13-1 or 15-1, depending on who's telling you. Both administration and staff CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: Miracle School's Secret Sauce

NYC Public School Parents: We win! The Chancellor withdraws the proposal to close PS 25; let's hope as its enrollment grows, he keeps its class sizes small

NYC Public School Parents: We win! The Chancellor withdraws the proposal to close PS 25; let's hope as its enrollment grows, he keeps its class sizes small

We win! The Chancellor withdraws the proposal to close PS 25; let's hope as its enrollment grows, he keeps its class sizes small

Today we won our fight to keep PS 25 open!  DOE had tried to close the school last year, despite the fact that it is an excellent zoned neighborhood school in Bed Stuy that gets stellar results despite a highly disadvantaged student body: 27% kids with special needs, 18 % English language learners, 92% Black and Hispanic, and a 96% economic need index- which combines measures of poverty, public assistance and homelessness. And yet the school performs as well as the citywide average in ELA (46% proficient vs. 46% citywide) and far above the city average in math (71% proficient compared to 47% citywide), according to the DOE's performance dashboard.

Last year, as I pointed out in my open letter to Chancellor Carranza, published in the Washington Post, the school had the fourth highest rating of any elementary school in the city according to it's "impact score", which measures achievement and attendance compared to schools with students of a similar demographic background.  And yet under Carmen Farina, the DOE tried to close the school anyway because of its low enrollment.

At the same time, it was as a result of its low enrollment that PS 25 students had the benefit of very small classes, ranging from 10 to 18 per class - which was one of the main reasons for its success, along with excellent, experienced teachers and a collaborative principal. This year, class sizes at PS 25 are even smaller: 8 to 16 students per class. In essence, the school has served as a natural experiment in class size, showing the heights at which disadvantaged students can achieve if given the right conditions and a real opportunity to learn.

Yet despite the great track record of the school, in February 2018, at the recommendation of then-Chancellor Farina, the Panel for Educational Policy voted 8-5 to close it, with the eight mayoral appointees all rubber-stamping the proposal.  The following month, I helped PS 25 parents file a lawsuit to prevent its closing, with the assistance of Laura Barbieri, our pro bono attorney from Advocates for Justice.

Our primary legal hook was that the Community Education Council in District 16 had never voted to approve closing the school,  which would be required according to NY Ed Law section 2590-E and Chancellor’s regulations A-185, since PS 25 is a zoned CONTINUE READING: 

Education is a hot topic for some candidates in the Democratic presidential field — and potential trouble for others - The Washington Post

Education is a hot topic for some candidates in the Democratic presidential field — and potential trouble for others - The Washington Post

Education is a hot topic for some candidates in the Democratic presidential field — and potential trouble for others

One promised to spend $315 billion to raise teachers’ pay. Another vowed to hire a former public school teacher as U.S. education secretary. A number of them want to eliminate tuition at public schools and forgive a mountain of student loans.

They are the Democratic candidates seeking their party’s 2020 presidential nomination, and education is a hot topic among a good number of them in the field of 23. It is also potential trouble for some candidates whose past positions, once dominant in the party, have been losing luster in the era of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos.

American voters have long declared education an important issue but never prioritized education in general elections — at least not until the 2018 midterm elections. That’s when some races were won or lost — depending on your point of view — on education issues. Scott Walker lost his bid for a third term as Wisconsin governor to Tony Evers, a former state education superintendent who campaigned against Walker’s assault on public education.

A remarkable string of teacher strikes in states led by Republicans and Democrats started in early 2018 and put new focus on the issues affecting public schools. The strikes were not just about bolstering teacher pay and benefits but about winning new funding for schools sorely needing resources, and an effort to support the U.S. public education system, which DeVos once called “a dead end.”

Now, as they seek to win the votes of millions of members of teachers unions and secure the endorsement of those organizations, some Democratic candidates are throwing out big ideas for raising teacher salaries, creating free universal prekindergarten, rebuilding crumbling school buildings and fixing other problems facing K-12 public education and higher education. For example:

• With a new report saying that teachers earned 21.4 percent less in weekly wages in 2018 than professionals with comparable educations, Sen. Kamala D. Harris (Calif.) made her first big campaign policy pronouncement a plan to boost teacher pay: spending $315 billion over 10 years. Julián Castro, a former U.S. housing secretary and mayor of San Antonio, just released a comprehensive education  CONTINUE READING: Education is a hot topic for some candidates in the Democratic presidential field — and potential trouble for others - The Washington Post

Gates Foundation Launches Major Higher Ed Initiative | Education News | US News

Gates Foundation Launches Major Higher Ed Initiative | Education News | US News

Gates Foundation Asks: Is College Worth It?
The philanthropic group plans to spend the next year studying the question to guide its upcoming investments.

THE BILL AND MELINDA Gates Foundation, the philanthropic and sometimes controversial group whose funding has influenced major education policy decisions in the U.S., is launching a new higher education initiative to answer the question, "Is college worth it?"

"More than at any other time I can remember, students and families across America are asking themselves, is college worth it,'" Sue Desmond-Hellmann, president of the Gates Foundation, said. "As the cost of a credential rises and student debt goes to record levels, people are actually asking a question I never thought I'd hear, 'Is going to college a reliable path to economic opportunity?' This question of value needs to be addressed, and we feel that it needs to be addressed urgently."

[

SEE: 

The Week in Cartoons for May 13-17 ]

To that end, the foundation has convened a 30-person commission to evaluate the returns of education after high school, especially for low-income students and students of color.

Desmond-Hellmann said the foundation plans to use the commission's conclusions to make investment decisions, though it has not allotted a specific amount of money to the effort yet, nor has it outlined preordained policy proposals it's seeking to back.

RELATED CONTENT

College Enrollment Continues Decade-Long Flat…

The Gates Foundation spends about half a billion dollars each year on its U.S. programs, but Desmond-Hellmann said she's "excited" that the commission' work could increase result in new investments in higher education.

"I expect new investments, but we'll make announcements when the investments are ready," she said.

"Our experience has been that – given the diversity of thought, the importance of this issue and that we will actually make investments – that really pulls people together and drives the kinds of outcomes we want so that the public and the thought leadership group will care," she added.

The three-pronged goal of the commission is to develop a definition of the value of college, create a way to measure how individual colleges and universities create value for students – CONTINUE READING: Gates Foundation Launches Major Higher Ed Initiative | Education News | US News

Jackie Goldberg’s win changes LAUSD equation for unions, charters and Beutner - Los Angeles Times

Jackie Goldberg’s win changes LAUSD equation for unions, charters and Beutner - Los Angeles Times

Jackie Goldberg’s win changes LAUSD equation for unions, charters and Beutner

Jackie Goldberg began her first day after winning election to the L.A. school board making an appearance with schools Supt. Austin Beutner, all smiles and talking about a unified vision to fix the troubled school district.

But the camaraderie belied what could be a rocky road ahead: They are two strong-willed titans of L.A.’s education universe with some fundamentally different views on crucial issues facing the nation’s second-largest school district.

Goldberg, 74, will have an outsize role on the seven-member body in confronting seemingly intractable problems such as lagging student achievement, deep-rooted financial strains and the growth and oversight of charter schools.

A political veteran who served on the board more than two decades ago, Goldberg won major support from the teachers union, which has been at odds with Beutner and with board members who support charter schools.

The growth of charters has hit the Los Angeles Unified School District’s finances hard and was a central factor in the teachers’ strike this year. Beutner has been working on plans to reorganize the district and set it on a firmer financial path.

With Goldberg back on the board, the political dynamics are changing.

Ronald W. Solórzano, education professor at Occidental College, said the central challenge is making sure that all district schools are of consistently high quality. With the election over, “now either the real education work begins, or the political battle begins.”

For the moment, Goldberg and Beutner have one huge issue that unites them: passage of a school funding measure on the June ballot. Officials say the measure is essential to improving the district’s shaky finances. And on Wednesday, Goldberg and Beutner stumped for it together.

“Our shared perspective: to help kids,” Beutner said. “I think we are going to do great things.”

Goldberg won about 70% of the vote over Heather Repenning, a district parent and former public works commissioner.

Goldberg, who also served on the City Council and in the state Legislature, benefited in her campaign from name recognition, a scandal-free record, an obvious command of the issues, a charismatic personality and the backing of the teachers union. The latter was especially helpful in the wake of a six-day January strike that invigorated public support for teachers.

More than anything else, Goldberg is stressing the need for better funding — a point of agreement among many combatants in the education wars, including charter supporters.

“We’ve been starving schools,” Goldberg said during an appearance Wednesday at Micheltorena Street Elementary in Silver Lake. “It is a crime that we are not investing in children the way they did when I was a kid.”

Beutner, the unions and charter school leaders have united behind Measure EE, a property tax that would raise an estimated $500 million a year for local schools. Expect no recriminations, leadership changes or controversial moves before June 4, when voters will go to the polls.

The California Charter Schools Assn. even expressed congratulations, though Goldberg’s election was just about the last thing its leaders wanted. The powerful association officially sat out the campaign — a result either of strategic pragmatism, internal disorganization or some combination of the two.

Repenning relied on help from Local 99 of the Service Employees International Union, which represents most nonteaching employees, and the backing of L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti. She and her supporters spent toe-to-toe with those backing Goldberg — well over $1 million on each side.

Advertisement

In recent weeks, however, the simultaneous campaign for Measure EE may have diluted efforts for Repenning, who raised less and had less spent on her behalf in the runoff, political consultant Lewis Myers noted.

The push for Measure EE became “more important to the mayor, parents, students, United Teachers Los Angeles and Local 99 than Heather winning,” said Myers, who did not work for either candidate.

Goldberg’s win turned around a losing streak for the teachers union. Until Tuesday’s election, charter school supporters, fueled by wealthy donors, were outspending the unions in L.A. school board contests. And in July 2017, candidates they backed claimed a board majority.

Charters are privately operated, mostly nonunion and compete with district schools for students and the funding that follows them. They enroll close to 1 in 5 district students. It will not be easy to find the way forward on charters, because most rules governing their expansion and oversight are made at the state level.

While the L.A. teachers union has remained a political force, its influence in local board elections was being eclipsed by charters.

With its success Tuesday, the teachers union might be riding something of a national wave, said Julie Marsh, professor at USC’s Rossier School of Education.

“We’re seeing some shifts in the narrative around charter schools,” Marsh said. Charter backers long have pointed to the bipartisan appeal of these schools, but their embrace by President Trump and his polarizing Education secretary, Betsy DeVos, “make it difficult for Democrats to associate with these reforms.”

Goldberg will fill the seat most recently held by Ref Rodriguez, co-founder of a charter school group.

Rodriguez resigned in July after pleading guilty to political money laundering, a scandal that tarnished the local charter brand. He held on just long enough to cast an essential vote needed to hire Beutner, a businessman and philanthropist, as superintendent.

Beutner accepted the job knowing that his majority on the board could become tenuous, and during the strike, teachers union leaders made him a personal target. For her part, Goldberg expressed exasperation that district leaders would choose a non-educator to lead a school system.

Even so, Goldberg insisted Wednesday — as she has before — that she has no agenda to push Beutner out. CONTINUE READING: Jackie Goldberg’s win changes LAUSD equation for unions, charters and Beutner - Los Angeles Times

CURMUDGUCATION: Why The Big Standardized Test Is Useless For Teachers

CURMUDGUCATION: Why The Big Standardized Test Is Useless For Teachers

Why The Big Standardized Test Is Useless For Teachers

In schools throughout the country, it is testing season--time for students to take the Big Standardized Test (the PARCC, SBA, or your state's alternative). This ritual really blossomed way back in the days of No Child Left Behind, but after all these years, teachers are mostly unexcited about it. There are many problems with the testing regimen, but a big issue for classroom teachers is that the tests do not help the teacher do her job.

Folks outside of schools often imagine that one of the benefits of the test is to check to see how students are doing and adjust instruction accordingly. Unfortunately, the tests provide no such benefit.

First, the timing does not serve that purpose. Tests are being given now, close to the end of the year. By the time test score come back, these students will be in a different teacher’s classroom. There will be zero opportunity for a teacher to say, “Okay, these students are having trouble with fractions, so I’d better review that unit and add some extra instruction on the subject.” Those students are gone. New students arrive with their own test scores, but their new teachers have no first-hand knowledge of how instruction went last year.

But that’s not the worst of it. Even if the tests were great (that's a discussion for another day) and the results came back instantaneously, they would still be of little use for informing instruction.

Imagine that you are a basketball coach, tasked with training your team for great things. Imagine CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: Why The Big Standardized Test Is Useless For Teachers

Avenue to the Stars: What an Elite Private School Teaches about the Future of For-Profit Education – Have You Heard

Avenue to the Stars: What an Elite Private School Teaches about the Future of For-Profit Education – Have You Heard

Avenue to the Stars: What an Elite Private School Teaches about the Future of For-Profit Education

High-end for-profit private schools are a growing segment of the education ‘marketplace.’ In this episode, we’re joined by Mike Levy, former curriculum director at Avenues World School in New York City who gives us an inside look at what $60,000 + in tuition buys. Hint: a top-flight private school education along AND a healthy dose of free-market ideology.

Full transcript of the episode is here. And if you’re a fan of Have You Heard, show your love by supporting the show on Patreon.

Avenue to the Stars: What an Elite Private School Teaches about the Future of For-Profit Education – Have You Heard

Charter School Support Fades: U.S. House Appropriators Seek to Cut $40 Million from Charter Schools Program | janresseger

Charter School Support Fades: U.S. House Appropriators Seek to Cut $40 Million from Charter Schools Program | janresseger

Charter School Support Fades: U.S. House Appropriators Seek to Cut $40 Million from Charter Schools Program

Last week, the Appropriations Committee in the U.S. House of Representatives, a body now dominated by Democrats, sent forward to the floor of the House an education appropriations proposal to cut—by 10 percent—Congressional funding for the federal Charter Schools Program. This year the program is funded at $440 million. The Democratic appropriations committee has proposed the allocation of $400 million for next year.

By contrast, the President’s budget—proposed in mid-March—reflects the priorities of Betsy DeVos, the U.S. Secretary of Education, who seeks an additional $60 million next year for a total Charter Schools Program allocation of $500 million in FY 2020.

Education Week‘s Andrew Ujifusa describes the House Appropriations Committee’s proposed 2020 education budget: “A bill to increase the U.S. Department of Education’s budget by more than $4 billion is headed to the floor of the House of Representatives…  (T)he House appropriations committee approved legislation that would provide significant increases for grants aimed at disadvantaged students, after-school programming, and social-emotional learning…. While Democrats want more money for several programs, they want $40 million less for federal charter school grants, a cut of nearly 10 percent to $400 million.  The move symbolizes how opposition to charter schools has gained more traction in the Democratic Party recently….”

Ujifusa adds: ” It’s the first time since 2010 that Democrats have controlled the appropriations process in the chamber, but their bill is very, very far from becoming the law of the land… The legislation hasn’t been approved by the full House yet.  More importantly, the Senate, which is controlled by Republicans, will likely introduce a bill that’s different in several key respects.”

But the move by the Appropriations Committee to cut charter school funding indicates an important political shift.  The proposed reduction is evidence that Democrats, who have been part of a bipartisan wave of support for neoliberal public-private partnership via charter CONTINUE READING: Charter School Support Fades: U.S. House Appropriators Seek to Cut $40 Million from Charter Schools Program | janresseger