News Impacting CA Schools for the Week Ending May 28
Federal
California’s application for improving its longitudinal data system to track students from pre-kindergarten through high school, college and into the workplace has also been given the cold shoulder. The system would have allowed the state to assess the effectiveness of its education programs, as well as monitor the progress of students through the entire education system.
They haven’t heard yet why the state placed 26th out of 50th in a grant competition that funded only the top 20 states. But they shouldn’t be surprised if the feds’ answer is, “Are you kidding? Why would you expect taxpayers to enlarge a data system when you have yet to get it to work right?”
Sacramento
For school board members who have aspirations for higher office, having to make decisions about keeping your school districts fiscally sound can come back to haunt you. Larry Miles is finding out the hard way, as his opponents uses attack ads that highlights his actions on belt tightening in his school district.
School Districts Impacts
Teachers in the Oceanside Unified School District have reached a tentative agreement with administrators to shorten teachers’ work year by six days next year and five fewer in the 2011-12 school year. The work year would then return to 185 days in 2012-13.
Ninety-three percent of the 2,150 union members who cast ballots last week supported the tentative three-year contract with the Long Beach Unified School District that ratified a labor deal that would have them take five unpaid furlough days next school year.
News Impacting CA Schools for the Week Ending May 21
Federal
The application form for round two of Race To The Top is due May 21st. While many California school districts will go through the motions of signing the necessary documents, it is highly unlikely California will receive any funding based on its poor showing in the first round of funding.
Sacramento
In Sacramento and San Francisco press conferences were held to announce a historic lawsuit was filed against the state of California requesting that the current education finance system be declared unconstitutional and that the state be required to establish a school finance system that provides all students an equal opportunity to meet the academic goals set by the State..
This lawsuit was brought forth by a broad coalition of students, parents, school districts and educational organizations. In 2007, two former lawyers turned teachers in Alameda Unified School District presented a report to the Alameda School Board that laid the foundation for this historic lawsuit.
Additional background on the lawsuit can be found here, including a timeline of events leading to the lawsuit, a summary of the lawsuit and reference materials.
Press coverage from around the state includes:
- Sacramento Bee
- San Jose Mercury News
- Washington Post
- Los Angeles Times
- Oakland Tribune (Alameda angle)
News Impacting CA Schools for the Week Ending May 14
Sacramento
The Friday release of Governor’s May Revise makes for a short news cycle. Press coverage is limited and by Monday there will be something else to focus. The Cliff Notes version is that Governor’s May Revise proposes more cuts and no new revenues which makes for a long summer of budget negotiations. In response, the California School Board Association offered a comment (In these dire circumstances, we are given no choice but to take drastic measures to fix our broken education finance system.) that foreshadows an announcement expected this week.
Reforming State and Local Governance
Public pensions continue to a punching bag as politicians like to score points with voters in this election year. However, the voters may reason to be concerned. Legislation in the state Capitol aimed at stopping public employee pension spiking has morphed into a giveaway to workers that would increase their retirement benefits and shut off public access to records about the payments.
As the California Teacher Association turned signatures to repeal corporate tax benefits approved by the Legislature, the biggest tax break (Prop 13) to California corporations is receiving more scrutiny. Since the passage of Proposition 13 three decades ago, residential property owners have borne an increasingly larger proportion of the property tax. Commercial property owners have been able to “exploit huge loopholes in the law to avoid reassessment upon a change in ownership” that would have led them to pay higher taxes. This study goes into the county by county detail.
School Districts Impacts
School districts across the State finalized layoff notices to teachers and the reality of state budget cuts is settling in. The first signs of actually salary rollbacks are starting to show up in tentative agreements. In Saddleback, under a tentative agreement that is yet to be ratified by union membership, teachers will make 9.72 percent in total pay concessions, including a 2.85 percent salary cut, higher health insurance costs and furlough days. In Poway, employees ratified a 4.3% reduction.
News Impacting CA School Districts Through May 7
Federal News
A half-dozen school districts , including Los Angeles Unified, will direct California’s second-round application to the federal Race to the Top competition. They must not only fight a tight deadline – June 1 for submission – but also the low odds of moving from 27th among states in the first round to the top 12 or 15 to get a piece of the remaining $3.4 billion
Sacramento News
The economy still appears to be recovering slowly as April personal income tax revenues are below last year’s by one billion dollars.
Reforming State and Local Governance
Backers of an initiative to lower the requirement to pass a budget to a simple majority turned over a million signatures in hopes of qualifying for the November ballot.
School District Impacts
The strike at Capistrano school district ended with the teachers accepting nearly all of the terms of the 10.1 percent pay cut imposed by the school board in March, including furlough days, increases in health insurance costs and salary concessions. The district begins restoring teacher pay upon receiving at least $1.7 million in state funding above current projections. Teachers would get 60 percent of these additional funds. First to be restored would be the furlough days that are student instructional days.
On May 5 nine school districts received news on their parcel taxes elections. Seven districts were successful and two failed. Four Bay Area school districts passed parcel taxes. For a complete list of list results and pending school parcel taxes go to Ballotpedia CA Parcel Taxes.
Furlough deals continue to be approved for the coming year. Manteca teachers accepted a defacto pay cut which shortens the school year with the elimination of five school days. Menifee teacher accepted furloughs of professional development days. Anaheim Union High School teachers accepted a furlough of six days with the impact on instructional days to be determined.