News Impacting CA School Districts Through December 25
Federal News
States’ applications to secure one of the Race to the Top grants will be scored on the basis of more than 30 selection criteria, involving such education improvement priorities as school turnaround, teacher and principal effectiveness, and encouragement of high-quality charter schools. For instance, regarding charter schools, states will be scored, in part, on the extent to which they have a law that does not prohibit charters or inhibit an increase in the number of high-performing charters.
Sacramento News
Hints of how the Governor will deal with the next budget are emerging. Facing a budget deficit of more than $20 billion, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is expected to call for deep reductions in already suffering local mass transit programs, renew his push to expand oil drilling off the Santa Barbara coast and appeal to Washington for billions of dollars in federal help.
Reforming State and Local Governance
It is widely considered one of the worst financial decisions in the state’s history – a toxin spreading through the budget books of cities and counties across California. Like lemmings jumping off a cliff, local governments copied the Legislature’s 1999 decision to increase tax-guaranteed pensions for public safety workers and other public employees. And now those governments are straining under the weight of the liberal pensions, a problem made worse by the recessionary downturn in tax revenues.
News Impacting CA School Districts Through December 18
Federal News
California Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell and Education Secretary Glen Thomas announced the release of key elements that will be included in California’s Race to the Top plan and requirements for local education agencies (LEAs) that want to participate in Race to the Top
Sacramento News
Bond debt will consume a substantially larger share of the state’s limited revenues over the next few years, according to two longtime budget watchers who testified before the Assembly Budget Committee this afternoon.
In a report by supervising pension actuary David Lamoureux, the CalPERS staff recommended the state’s contribution rise to $3.5 billion. That’s an increase of $200 million, or about 6 percent. The rate “smoothing” plan to begin replacing huge stock market-crash losses with a more manageable $200 million increase next year would leave CalPERS with an unusually low “funded ratio” after 30 years.
Reforming State and Local Governance
The state’s biggest business lobbying group has taken a stance on 14 of the nearly 90 proposed initiatives that are vying for voter approval in 2010.
Each year Capitol Weekly produces a scorecard showing the ideological makeup of the Assembly and Senate. As you might guess, the two extremes of “liberal” and “conservative” are well represented.
School District Impacts
Capistrano USD – Protests against proposed pay cuts
Shouting “We are united!” as passing cars honked their horns in support, about 1,000 Capistrano Unified teachers and their supporters rallied outside the district’s headquarters tonight to protest the school board’s insistence on 10 percent pay cuts to balance the district’s budget. About 700 teachers and other employees arrived in 12 yellow school buses, packing tightly into the northern end of Capistrano’s sprawling district office parking lot, wedged between rows of cars and cement planters. Union leaders pegged the crowd estimate as high as 1,500. Faced with a $25.1 million deficit in the 2010-11 school year, Capistrano Unified trustees on Tuesday approved a preliminary spending plan indicating the district might not be able to meet its financial obligations.
News Impacting CA School Districts Through December 11
Federal News
The Assembly Committee on Education pushed forward a bill ABX5-8 Wednesday, December 9th, favored by unions and effectively shut down a bill SBX5-1 supported by some education advocates and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has threatened to veto the Assembly’s “Race to the Top” bill if it is sent to his desk.
ABX5-8, would require that at least 80 percent of dollars from the Race to the Top be reserved for school districts. That’s 30 percentage points more than the minimum of 50 percent that the federal regulations call for. That would mean a lot less money for the Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell and the state Department of Education, which may have been coveting a very green Obama Christmas.
One provision in SBX5-1 that’s drawn opposition from the state school boards association and others would give parents in low-performing schools the right to send their children to a better school anywhere, as long as there’s room for them. Under current law, which was just renewed, districts can choose to accept students from other districts’ low-performing schools but can’t be forced to. The Republican governor and a top Democratic lawmaker have united behind legislation that would give parents the authority to trigger major reform at a persistently low-performing school.
U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan announced the final requirements for $3.5 billion in Title I School Improvement grants to turn around the nation’s lowest performing schools. The applications are now available at http://www.ed.gov/programs/sif/applicant.html and are due into the Department of Education by Feb. 8, 2010.
Sacramento News
State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell today announced a multiagency effort to distribute millions of protective masks and gloves to schools throughout California to help prevent and mitigate the spread of the H1N1 influenza virus and other influenza outbreaks.
Reforming State and Local Governance
Several progressives expressed concern that neither the set of initiatives put forth by California Forward, nor the constitutional convention package sponsored by Repair California, would amend the Prop. 13 framework on taxation in a way that would allow dramatic political change.
School District Impacts
As school districts across the state approve their 2009/10 First Interim fiscal reports, the grim reality of ongoing reductions to education funding until 2014 is triggering actions of school closures, employee furloughs, early retirement incentives, proposed pay cuts and elimination of programs like adult education.
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News Impacting CA School Districts Through December 4
Federal News
California is not just competing with other states to cash in on “Race to the Top” federal stimulus funds for education. Two rival bills have now been introduced- one in the state Assembly, the other in the state Senate – to ensure California is eligible to apply for grants. The bills are aimed at changing the state’s education system to meet the U.S. Department of Education’s application criteria for getting between $300 and $700 million in federal dollars. The Senate approved one version last month. But Assembly Education Committee Chair Julia Brownley has now introduced her own plan. The Assembly Education Committee is set to take up that bill Wednesday, with a full floor vote expected to follow. But Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said yesterday that he doesn’t think the Brownley bill does enough and urged quick action, citing the Jan. 19 “Race to the Top” application deadline. He supports the Senate version.
School District Impacts
Rather than cut $200 million from its $1.2 billion operating budget to offset massive funding reductions that are anticipated from the state, the San Diego school board wants the Legislature to rethink how it funds education. The San Diego school board passed a resolution that calls on the state to avoid making “draconian cuts … that will decimate the quality of education for all students.” The resolution goes on to state that the cuts could be avoided, “if the governor and state legislators make decisions to reform tax benefits for corporations or consider other new revenue options … .”
One issue the Oakland School board grappled was whether the central office — which now receives about 30 percent of the general purpose dollars — should absorb 70 percent of the $27 million cut, as CFO Vernon Hal and Superintendent Tony Smith proposed earlier this fall.
Antioch’s school district will go bankrupt in 18 months if it continues with business as usual. Superintendent Don Gill last month announced that in the face of state budget cuts the district will bring in a consultant agency in January to advise ways to consolidate programs and reduce costs.
Officials with the Long Beach Unified School District are considering cutting bus routes and increasing some class sizes next academic year to cope with state budget cuts. The proposed changes, which have not yet been approved by the Long Beach Board of Education, would raise class sizes in fourth- and fifth grades from 33 students per teacher to 35 students per teacher.
Lake Elsinore school officials are considering closing an elementary school and converting two other campuses to serve students in kindergarten through eighth grade as they look to cut into an expected $15.2 million budget deficit for the next school year.
The Brea Olinda Unified School District Board of Education will consider approving a tentative list of layoffs and reductions to be implemented in the 2010-11 school year. The cuts are needed to resolve a projected two-year $2 million deficit, school officials said. The list includes eliminating eight elementary and 13 high school teaching positions, custodial positions, as well as positions in information technology, accounting and in the district office. Funding for athletic teams could also be reduced.
Budget cuts are also impacting higher education. This year, admission requirements are tightening. Cuts in state funding have forced the Cal State systemto reduce enrollment over the next two years by 40,000. That means some campuses will turn away all but the most accomplished students. Others will favor applicants choosing under enrolled majors, or limit admission to local residents.