More on the legislature and teacher preparation

Good morning.
In the legislature you win some and you lose some. Last night we lost on AB 750 regarding the unfunded mandate imposed on future teachers by SB 1209/Scott. (see prior posts)
We needed 6 votes to get out of the Education Committee. We got 5 votes. At a critical moment a critical assesmblyman left for another crisis. Without his vote, we lost.
(There were only two negative votes).
So, this effort in the legislature ends.
Our long range effort has just begun. Our effort is to educate, agitate, and organize about these invalid assessments has just begun. Our opponents now know we exist.
The CSU Chancellor’s office disappeared from the room rather than take questions.

If we return to the capitol in a future fight – as proposed- we need more allies. When CTA stood silent on our bill hurt us significantly. Legislators wanted to know why CTA was not with us.

Of particular significance was that Education Committee Chair, Gene Mullin was not with us. In an earlier bill he left the Chair to introduce CTA’s bill on mandatory Kindergarten. He introduced Barbara Kerr. All members were deferential to him and C
TA. They had a near unanimous support.
Then, in our case, he declined to vote. He assured the committee members that there was a “deal” and that the TPA’s would be funded.
All of the Republican votes were against us from the start.

Also. If we return to the capitol.
The legislature, both Republicans and Democrats are convinced that more assessments are necessary. When they say assessments, they mean TPA’s, not the broader definition of assessments. Of the few legislators who understand this issue, former CTC staff are well placed in their committees. Thus, they get a CTC view as normal, natural, uncontested.


We will now begin to develop our next steps. I refer you to the strategy section of the paper at:
http://coefaculty.csus.edu/campd/index.html


This morning I feel like the day after having lost an election such as Prop. 209, or 227.
But, as Cesar Chavez taught us, you lose and you lose, time after time, right up to the day when you win.

Thank you for your work.
Duane Campbell
Sacramento

For the AB 750 team.

Its the budget- Stupid!

It’s the budget : Stupid!

Later this week a report will be released which concludes that California schools are woefully under-funded--one estimate of the shortage was nearly $1 trillion.

http://www.capitolweekly.net/news/article.html?article_id=1320
Anthony York.

The document, a collection several reports, is the most recent comprehensive evaluation of California’s school system.
The reports should be considered with care.

After all, the legislature and governors have tried everything else.
They have listened to the corporate over seers.
They have tried Immediate Intervention in underperforming schools. (IIUSP)
They have mandated phonics.
They have created API and High School Exit exams.
They have mandated assessment driven reform.
They have encouraged an A-G (college prep) curriculum.
They have imposed tests of teacher knowledge and skills.
They have mandated an unproven process of teacher performance assessment. (SB1209)
And more.

The legislature and governors have meddled and muddled, but they have not done their job. Their job is to decide upon a reasonable, fair tax system and to raise the money needed for schools. They have failed at this task for over 20 years while California’s public schools have been forced into a steep decline in quality.
Rather than facing the inadequate funding issue , major school reform efforts stress standardized testing as the driving force behind schooling at the k-12 level, particularly in low income districts. There is always some new advocate who has a solution to failing schools; phonics, exit exams, etc. rather than to face the real issue of grossly inadequate funding.
The testing mania has not improved schools, improved school funding, nor improved teaching. The current low level testing tells us what we already know, students in low income schools do poorly. (Rothstein, 2004)
In fairness, it is not the total legislature. The Democratic majority has usually been willing to spend more on schools, but they can not pass a budget without the votes of the Republican minority. Thus, a small group of Republican legislators have prevented adequate school funding.
Why has this avoidance of responsibility occurred? Because the legislatures and the Governors do not have their children in these schools. There children and grand children go to relatively well off suburban schools. So, they can easily conclude that the problem is that these poor Black and Brown kids just need to work harder, to take another test.
Duane Campbell

Baby bonuses and teacher preparation fees

As a blogger I certainly rely upon the mainstream press for some good comedy material.
Frequent readers will know that I have been working on and criticizing the legislature for passing SB 1209 an Omnibus Education bill last year.
The bill, and its predecessor SB 2042 have created havoc in teacher preparation programs and have not improved the preparation of teachers- but they allowed Legislators to appear to be doing something. The detailed story of what is wrong with SB 1209 and 2042 is here:
http://coefaculty.csus.edu/campd/index.html
Read the link entitled Problems with California Legislation on Teacher Performance Assessment and PACT.

“There are two things you don’t want to see made-sausage and legislation.”
Former German Chancellor Otto Von Bismark.
A major reason for SB 2042 was to create and institutionalize BITSA, and alternative teacher preparation program which directs significant funds to school districts rather than to universities and which created whole new promotion possibilities for school districts.
Well, more has become available. The Sacramento Bee on Friday had an editorial on Schmoozing for Dollars; and featured former legislator Marian Bergeson; the major advocate for BITSA. I encourage you to read the editorial and see how money gets allocated in California.
here: http://www.sacbee.com/110/story/131209.html
And, second, in my earlier reports I frequently mentioned that I was seeking the help of a legislator to introduce a piece of legislation to undue the harm of SB 1209, including a process that will cost each future teacher $300 – $500, to take a test to find out what we already know. ( But test creators are happy)
Well, the Saturday Bee was helpful. On page A 3 was a column by Steve Wiegand and a news story on the bill to provide a Baby Bonus. Whacky project.
Except you see, the bill to provide a baby bonus that has many at the capitol shaking their heads was authored by my Senator Darrell Steinberg. You guessed it- the same Senator that did not have enough room in his list of bills to include the proposed bill to fix last year’s problems created by the Legislature in SB 1209.
Now Darrell is a good guy. I have worked for him in a number of elections through my union and individually. I respect him and usually respect his decisions.
But, my Senator did not have time for a bill to save future teachers $500 each, and thus encourage people to become teachers, but he did have time for the moon beam proposal for baby bonuses. Go figure.
Duane Campbell