News Impacting CA Schools for the Week Ending April 2
Federal
After the Department of Education named only two states (Rhode Island and Tennessee) as round one winners of the Race to the Top funding, one has to wonder if states should be making policy changes based on promises of federal funding is a good idea.
Sacramento
The official list of candidates for Superintendent of Public Instruction has published by Debra Bowen, Secretary of State. On the June 8th ballot the following candidates will appear:
* Larry Aceves
* Karen Blake
* Alexia L. Deligianni
* Lydia A. Gutierrez
* Diane A. Lenning
* Leonard James Martin
* Grant McMicken
* Daniel M. Nusbaum
* Gloria Romero
* Faarax Dahir Sheikh-Noor
* Tom Torlakson Nonpartisan
* Henry Williams, Jr.
Reforming State and Local Governance
While Proposition 14 (The open Primary Initiative) will generate the most debate about its impact on the changing the election process, Proposition 15 (California Fair Election Act) also promises to reform the election process.
School Districts Impacts
After increasing class size or eliminating programs, the major tool left to reduce expenditures is lowering employee compensation. While many school districts like Los Angeles, San Diego and others have initially requested pay reductions at the bargaining table, unions have resisted .
A temporary year to year measure is to negotiate agreement for furlough days. This week, Los Angeles Unified School District announced an agreement subject to employee vote to reduce five school days in 2009/10 and seven school days in 2010/2011. The announcement was met with anger and relief .
As school districts cut back on instructional days, issues about practices such minimum days for teacher collaboration come into question.
As you may recall Hawaii approved a state budget reducing instructional days from 180 to 163. On Wednesday,the Hawaii teacher union approved a deal with Hawaii Board of Education to restore the 180 day school year. It remains be seen if the Republican governor will approve the legislation needed to fund the additional costs.
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Fri, 2nd Apr 2010 2:22 pm
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