News Impacting CA Schools for the Week Ending January 8
Federal
State Superintendent OConnell issued this statement after passage of Race to the Top legislation that is expected to be signed by the Governor. CTA is urging local unions not to sign MOUs with their school districts.
At the end of a NPR interview, David Brooks of the New York Times was quoted as follows:
Race to the Top is the single-most successful program he’s (Obama) done. It’s changing education reform in state after state … Rahm Emanuel calls it the invisible revolution, but it’s really having bigger effects than almost anything else he’s done, save health care.
Sacramento
Despite his promise to “protect education” this time, the Governor’s budget proposal contains a $1.2 billion cut that would be sought in school district level administration. None of the cuts could be shifted to classroom reductions. For a historical perspective you can review the prior seven years of California state budget crisis, year by year.
On Wednesday the Governor delivered his State of the State speech that drew the usual partisan responses.
In advance of releasing his budget proposal, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will propose ending furloughs for state workers at the end of June but seek permanent pay cuts and higher employee retirement contributions in their place.
Former State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Delaine Eastin writes an opinion pieceon the dismantling of class size reduction due to defunding of public education.
Reforming State and Local Governance
Yet another reason why political reform is so difficult. The people who write the rules for campaign financing reform, know how to circumvent them.
During the first nine months of the year, interest groups spent $206 million lobbying state government. That’s enough to pay the salaries of all 2,200 legislative staffers and legislators during the same period — and still have about $98 million left. Use this database to search every interest group that paid lobbyists since the start of the year.
A proposed ballot initiative would change California’s constitution to allow a majority of the state legislature to pass a budget or to raise revenue with only 14 words.
With the thorny issue of delegate selection hashed out, a group calling for a constitutional convention to restructure the state’s government has been cleared to collect signatures.
Three long time Democrats from a new Silicon Valley firm today are rolling out a product that – for better or worse — promises to cut dramatically the cost of gathering signatures for ballot initiatives by using social networking and touch-screen technology.
Capitol Notes published their take on 9 Stories to Watch in 2010.
School Districts Impacts
Struggling with state budget cuts, nearly half of East Bay school districts and educational agencies report that they may not be able to pay their bills in the next three years. Perhaps it is no coincidence, that four Superintendents (Hayward, Fremont, Livermore and Pleasanton) have announced their retirement and one Superintendent (San Leandro) contract is not being renewed.
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