Free Fall- Educational opportunities in California

Summary from the new report of UCLA Accord Center:
California Educational Opportunity Report.

Core Findings from our Surveys and Interviews:

• California high schools are providing less time and attention and fewer quality programs. As a consequence, student

engagement, achievement, and progress to graduation and college are suffering;

• School reform has all but sputtered to a halt due to staff cutbacks and the elimination of time for professional development;

• Even as high schools across the state are impacted by declining budgets, inequality is growing across and within schools;

• California’s high schools face growing demands from families experiencing economic crisis; these demands point to the interrelationship

of California’s education and social welfare budgets.

Rogers, J., Bertrand, M., Freelon, R., Fanelli, S. (2011). Free Fall: Educational Opportunities in 2011.

Los Angeles: UCLA IDEA, UC /ACCORD.

To access this report online, please visit http://www.edopp.org

London Protest of budget cuts grows to 400,000

Anti-Cuts March Swells to 400,000

 London hosts largest protest since Iraq war as

    workers and public demonstrate against

    government spending cuts  Guardian (UK)  March 
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/gallery/2011/mar/26/thousands-march-against-cuts-in-pictures

Around 400,000 people have joined a march in London to

oppose the coalition government's spending cuts.

In what looks like being the largest mass protest since

the anti-Iraq war march in 2003, teachers, nurses,

midwives, NHS, council and other public sector workers

were joined by students, pensioners and direct action

supporters, bringing the centre of the capital to a

standstill.

Tens of thousands of people streamed along Embankment

and past police barriers in Whitehall. Feeder marches,

including a protest by students which set off from the

University of London in Bloomsbury, swelled the crowd,

which stretched back as far as St Paul's Cathedral.

The biggest union-organised event for over 20 years saw

more than 800 coaches and dozens of trains hired to

bring people to London, with many unable to make the

journey to the capital because of the massive demand

for transport.

"I'm sure that many of our critics will try to write us

off today as a minority, vested interest," said Brendan

Barber, the general secretary of the Trades Union

Congress, which organised the march.

"The thousands coming to London from across the country

will be speaking for their communities when they call

for a plan B that saves vital services, gets the

jobless back to work and tackles the deficit through

growth and fair tax."

Barber is expected to tell this afternoon's rally in

Hyde Park that there is an alternative to the "brutal"

spending cuts, which have already led to the threat of

170,000 council job losses and another 50,000 elsewhere

in the public sector.

"No part of our public realm is to be protected. And

don't believe it when ministers say that the NHS is

safe in their hands. With over 50,000 job cuts already

in the pipeline - nurses, doctors, physios, midwives -

in the name of so-called efficiency savings of £20bn,

the NHS as we know it is already in intensive care.

"With David Cameron talking about selling it off to any

willing provider out to make a profit, the NHS is

facing the gravest threat in its history. Today let us

say to him: we will not let you destroy what has taken

generations to build. Let's be brutally clear about

these brutal cuts. They're going to cost jobs on a huge

scale - adding to the misery of the 2.5 million people

already on the dole."

The education secretary, Michael Gove, acknowledged the

public's concerns about the planned cuts, but insisted

they were necessary.

"Of course people will feel a sense of disquiet, in

some cases anger, at what they see happening," Gove

told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. "But the difficulty

we have, as the government inheriting a terrible

economic mess, is that we have to take steps to bring

the public finances back into balance."

Labour politicians will join the march, and party

leader, Ed Miliband, will address the rally in Hyde

Park.

Dave Prentis, general secretary of the Unison union,

will tell demonstrators that the government faces being

wiped out in May's elections.

"Every month when a library closes, a care home shuts

its doors, or services for struggling young people are

withdrawn, I want them to feel the fear, and anger of

the people who have come here today from every part of

the UK to vent their frustration and to stand up for a

fairer future."

Banks and stores in Oxford Street are being targeted by

the anti-cuts group UK Uncut. There are also plans to

target a secret location with a mass occupation.

Around 4,500 police officers were on duty, with the

human rights group Liberty sending 100 legal observers

to monitor their actions.

The senior Scotland Yard officer in charge of policing

the protests, Commander Bob Broadhurst, has pledged

that the controversial tactic of "kettling" protesters

into a confined area will be kept to a minimum. "The

issues will be with the fracture groups who might want

to spoil the party," he said.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/mar/26/anti-cuts-march-swells-400000

___________________________________________

State spending cuts make the recession worse

 WASHINGTON (AP) — Deeper spending cuts by state and local governments weighed down U.S. economic growth in the final three months of last year. The government's new estimate for the October-December quarter illustrates how growing state budget crises could hold back the economic recovery.

The Commerce Department reported Friday that economic growth increased at an annual rate of 2.8 percent in the final quarter of last year. That was down from the initial estimate of 3.2 percent.

The weaker figure was disappointing and prompted some economists to lower their forecasts for economic growth in the current January-March quarter. State and local governments, wrestling with budget shortfalls, cut spending at a 2.4 percent pace. That was much deeper than the 0.9 percent annualized cut first estimated and was the most since the start of 2010.

State spending cuts are the wrong way to go. They don’t work.

You can’t cut your way out of the recession. Cutting jobs makes the recession worse. Just look at the current situation of Ireland and Great Britain. You can see what a budget cut approach produces- stagnation.  This is what California is producing. See the story above from the Associated Press.

We need to build the promise of California.  That promise is a good job for all,  the opportunity to have  a rewarding career, and the chance for a good education.  The tax and budget cut mania  does not promote good jobs, rewarding   careers.  It only digs the hole deeper. Cutting k-12 and higher education makes matters worse.

So, we need to put teachers, firefighters, nurses, police back to work and stop cutting these jobs.  Then, they will buy groceries, gasoline, pay rent, buy houses, and create private sector jobs.  It is called demand.  You can’t cut your way out of the recession. Cutting jobs makes the recession worse. Just look at the current situation of Ireland and Great Britain. You can see what a budget cut approach produces- stagnation. 

See my post here  “An Open Letter to Governor Brown “  http://www.blogger.com/posts.g?blogID=11455634 providing a list of revenue sources to allow California to grow needed jobs.

We need to repeat this message over and over again, in all available venues.

This is a jobs depression !

 We need to build the promise of California.  The government was created to promote the general welfare.  That promise is a good job for all,  the opportunity to have  a rewarding career, and the chance for a good education.  The tax and budget cut mania  does not promote good jobs, rewarding   careers.  It only digs the hole deeper.

See my post here below listed as  “An Open Letter to Governor Brown “ providing a list of revenue sources to allow California to grow needed jobs.

You can’t cut your way out of the recession. Cutting jobs makes the recession worse. Just look at the current situation of Ireland and Great Britain. You can see what a budget cut approach produces- stagnation.

Governor Brown- the money is there

Jerry Brown claimed again today - as he does most days- that cruel budget cuts must be made because the money is just not there.   here http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2011/01/jerry-brown-says-budget-on-tra.html Governor Brown’s central argument that the money is not there is inaccurate.  The money is there if the state is willing to collect the revenue.  Here is a list of sources for at $26 billion dollars. http://choosingdemocracy.blogspot.com/2011/01/california-budget-crisis-sources-of.html (below)

It is a major mistake to make deep, immediate budget cuts in the middle of recession. This will make the recession worse. Instead,  we need to build the promise of California.

  That promise is a good job for all,  the opportunity to have  a rewarding career, and the chance for a life that is more than simply the workplace.  The austerity paradigm underlying the tax and budget cut mania  does not promote good jobs nor  rewarding   careers.   It will make the recession worse.

State budget crisis- alternatives

 At the national level almost all of the projected deficit through 2020 will be the result of three factors: the Great recession, the tax cuts of the early 2000s under George W. Bush, and the hundreds of billions of dollars of war spending.

            The just published report on Western State budgets (above) from the Brookings Institute shows that western states, where the housing bubble was the worst, also have the largest deficits now.  The economic crisis produced at least half of the current crisis.

            And, the national government will not be bailing us out.  Almost all of the projected national  deficit through 2020 will be the result of three factors: the Great recession, the tax cuts of the early 2000s under George W. Bush, and the hundreds of billions of dollars of war spending.

  In California we need to spend more state money to improve schools, to develop roads and infrastructure, and to create jobs.  Those who are well educated are more employed and paying taxes while those with less education, those who leave school, are in a prolonged economic crisis.  It is well documented that our schools and our universities are in a finance crisis.  We need to be preparing young people for new jobs and to create new industries.  The success of students in higher education will significantly determine California’s future competitiveness and prosperity.   Improving education, including both k-12 and higher education, makes California more likely to attract investment and the creation of new jobs and new industries.

California government must protect and empower our citizens. To foster prosperity  it must prepare the young for civic participation. (BTW. This has been recognized since the first California Constitution of 1849).  Protection includes health care, social security, safe food, environmental protection, safe streets, job protection, etc.

The finance capital collapse and theft on Wall Street produced this crisis, not immigration, not public workers.   Now Wall Street has recovered, but the states and specifically California is left with the destruction.  The best available response is for California to tax and spend to stimulate the economy- that is Keynesian stimulus. The anti tax radicals and the Republicans will oppose this approach.  They must be defeated.  

Specific proposals :

                        Pass an oil extraction tax.  Require that the oil companies pay taxes when they take our oil out of the ground and then refine it and sell it back to us.  Gain.10 Billions.  Pass the 10.1 billion dollar jobs package as proposed in the Assembly last year.  This would pay off debts to local governments and keep teachers in classrooms to avoid massive layoffs.

Pay for the Jobs package with a new oil severance tax.    Imposition of an oil severance tax. California is the only oil producing state in the country that imposes no taxes on the pumping of oil. The proposed tax was to be 6% of the sales price of oil.  Alaska and Louisiana both charge 12.5%.     

            Continue efforts to eliminate waste, fraud and abusive where it exists.  There may be legitimate savings here.  For example, clearly there are problems with the excessive pay of U.C. Administrators and the retirement of some police and fire captains. Repeal the 2009 and 2008 tax cuts for corporations passed to gain the extra Republican votes for the budget.  Savings $1 billion.

            As a consequence of the just passed federal tax reductions, including the reduction of taxes to the wealthiest taxpayers,  Washington-based Citizens for Tax Justice estimate that  California’s richest taxpayers will be saving about $14 billion annually on their federal taxes. The next wealthiest 4 percent, with an average income of $310,000, will save another $6.5 billion.  State taxes should be increased on these two groups to secure this available 20.6 Billion dollars to fund the necessary jobs creation projects.  

            Sell state bonds to gain funds for investment. At present we pay bond holders a market rate.  Rates are so low at present we should borrow and invest.  To achieve a Keynesian stimulus we could sell many more bonds in particular to  the public employees retirement system PERS  and STRS.   Once started ( stimulated) debt financed building will stimulate more building bringing private  debt financing into productive investments.

            Many more sources of revenue need to be developed.  We have been thinking too small and looking in the wrong directions.             

Brown's budget:

By Peter Schrag

Unless everything we know about Jerry Brown is wrong, and everything that he said even before his election was misleading, what we’re going to get today (1/10) is a bare bones budget – austerity in its most Draconian form – coupled with a challenge that if the legislature and the voters want anything more, they’ll have to provide the funds to pay for it.

If he were to be totally clear he’d say that California can’t dig its way out of its fiscal crisis without both major cuts and major increases in revenues.

Brown’s cuts will include significant reductions in the budgets for the University of California and the California State University, the elimination, as already announced, of the state’s redevelopment agencies, and a sharp reduction in the prison budget. It’s also likely that Brown will call for cuts in community college funding.

Indications are that Brown will propose no further cuts in the K-12 budget in this round, but issue a warning that if the legislature and voters don’t approve additional revenues in May or June – among them extensions of the income and sales tax and the vehicle license fees due to expire this year – then the schools will feel the ax as well.

California’s school funding has already been severely cut in the last few years and, as a percentage of personal income, now ranks among the lowest spending states in the nation. Additional cuts would almost certainly mean a still shorter school year, still larger classes and the elimination of whatever few school counselors, librarians, reading specialists and arts programs still remain in the schools.

…But even that may not be enough. Nothing may be enough until the doors actually begin to close, bridges start falling down and the fire brigade doesn’t come at all. It could happen as early this summer when, according to the same fiscal expert, Wall Street stops lending to California and the state is completely broke.

Excerpts from the longer piece. Read the entire piece at California Progress Report.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Peter Schrag, whose exclusive weekly column appears every Monday in the California Progress Report, is the former editorial page editor and columnist of the Sacramento Bee. He is the author of Paradise Lost: California’s Experience, America’s Future and California: America’s High Stakes Experiment. His new book, Not Fit for Our Society: Nativism, Eugenics, Immigration is now on sale.

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New Governor- same old budget crisis

New Governor; same old speeches.

Well, we have a new governor. His  inaugural speech did not say much.  Yes, there will be draconian budget cuts.  At least half of the current budget crisis was caused by the national economic crisis.  This crisis was created by finance capital and banking, mostly on Wall Street ,ie. Chase Banks, Bank of America,  Washington Mutual, AIG, and others.   Finance capital produced a $ 2 trillion bailout of the financial industry, the doubling of America’s unemployment rate and the loss of 2 million manufacturing jobs in 2008.  Millions are out of work.  You and I, and college students did not create this crisis.  Finance capital stole the future of many young people.

Budget cutting to balance the budget will not get us out of this hole.  Look at Ireland, Greece, or Spain.  Budget cuts only start a downward spiral of pain. We can not simply cut our way out of the crisis, budget cuts and lay offs make the recession worse.

School funding reveals the nature of crisis.  In the last two years the k-12 budget “solutions” have cut 4.6 billion dollars from the schools. We have larger classes and fewer teachers.  School reform has stopped- except for the politicians’ hot air.  School funding makes up a total of 30% of the state budget.  Any crisis in the state budget and any cuts in the state budget will make school budgets worse.

California will need to raise taxes to fund the schools and to repair the social safety net.  Anti tax radicals and Republicans  oppose any tax increases.   The state ‘solutions’ of the last three years depended upon receiving federal stimulus money.  The stimulus monies are almost finished and with the Republican winning control  of Congress there will probably not be more funds.

Since Governor Brown did not say much concrete, we will need to wait for the budget next week to see where are the conflicts.
Peter Schrag points out one alternate route.

By Peter Schrag
 


According the best numbers available, the Obama-GOP tax deal that Congress approved earlier this month will save the wealthiest 148,000 Californians – those in the top one percent in income, who make an average of $1,775,000 a year – an average of $95,000 each.

The numbers come from new data compiled by the liberal Washington-based Citizens for Tax Justice and the 2008 tax statistics of the California Franchise Tax Board, the most recent available. Combined, they show that California’s richest taxpayers will be saving about $14 billion annually.

The next wealthiest 4 percent, with an average income of $310,000, will save another $6.5 billion. All told, about 740,000 California taxpayers fall into those two rarefied regions.

Together, that amounts to some 75 percent of California’s projected budget deficit for this year and next.  As Sacramento scrabbles to get out of its budget deficits, those are numbers worth considering.

 Even half from the richest among us-- $10 billion – would make a big difference. 

In every recession there are loud claims that California’s taxes are killing business and driving jobs out of state. We had one just the other from the California Republican Party. No doubt that even an attempt by the legislature and governor to go after a fraction of the Obama-GOP windfall will lead to yet another set of warnings from groups like the Business Roundtable and the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association about an impending stampede to Arizona, Texas and Nevada.

But the more likely damper on economic development and the creation of new jobs would be still further declines in state support for education, higher and lower, still further erosion in police and fire protection, still more under-maintained roads and bridges, already rated among the worst in the country, still greater deterioration in the state’s parks and recreational facilities. .

So now the first, obvious, question is, do we want to compete with the low tax, cheap labor states? Whether by intent or sheer ignorance, that’s clearly where we’ve been headed in the last decade or so. If there have been any big winners in those years, it’s been those in the highest four or five percent of the nation’s income groups.

The extension of the Bush tax cuts – theoretically only for a couple of years, but very likely for much longer -- will make it even more difficult for the federal government to help the states, many of which are suffering  fiscal problems as great as California’s, and in a few cases greater.

There is no way that California can dig its way out of its deficit,  and the predicted deficits yet to come, without more revenue -- not without further truncating the school year and cutting yet more programs and courses, not without further cuts in university classes and higher tuition, not without still further damaging California’s economy and quality of life .

All that so that the richest among us can keep their big tax-cut windfall? All that in our mindless worship of the bitch-goddess “no new taxes”?

Budget Crisis to damage schools- again

The state  has a budget crisis again this year- the third year in a row.  As a result, the schools will again have a budget crisis.

California faces chronic challenges – an outdated tax system and a two-thirds vote requirement for passing  any tax increase.  Recent tax cuts  result in  that the state  not  bringing  in enough revenue to support its schools, universities and other public services.

The  current economic crisis that began in 2007 has made matters worse. This crisis was created by finance capital and banking, mostly on Wall Street ie. Chase Banks, Bank of America, AIG, and others.   Finance capital produced a $ 2 trillion bailout of the financial industry, the doubling of U.S. unemployment rate and the loss of 2 million manufacturing jobs in 2008. The crisis took over 12 Trillion $ from the economy.   Fifteen million people are out of work.  You and I, and college students did not create this crisis.  Finance capital stole the future of many young people.

Falling home prices and lagging earnings have pushed revenues down while, at the same time, an increase in need for  public services – including food stamps,  Healthy Families and more. As prison costs took more and more of the state budget, the state has increased its tuition for students in the CSU by over 240 % in the last eight years and a parallel amount in the U.C.s - far beyond inflation.

Passage of Proposition 25 on the November ballot made it easier to pass a budget by removing the 2/3 requirement for passing the budget, but it did not effect the 2/3 requirement to raise taxes.

Proposition 22 prevents the state from borrowing transportation funds for the general fund, as was done to balance prior budgets.  The failure of  Proposition 24 leaves untouched a series of large corporate tax breaks passed in 2008 to gain a budget passage vote that year.  Proposition 26 reverses the earlier practice of  taking money from the fuel tax to assist the state budget.

Prior budgets were passed with the significant assistance of federal stimulus money under the ARRAct.  These funds provided money to hire teaches, nurses, police and firefighters and helped to fund the state Medical system.  The victory of conservative Republicans in much of the nation- but not in California- means that federal stimulus money is unlikely in the next couple of years.  This lack of stimulus will cost more jobs at the state and local levels- including at least 15,000 teachers.

The legislature and the governor are entering a mean season.

California Budget problems grow !

Legislative Analyst’s Office;  Budget Projections

$25 Billion Budget Problem Needs to Be Addressed in Coming Months
Our forecast of California’s General Fund revenues and expenditures shows that the state must address a budget problem of $25.4 billion between now and the time the Legislature enacts a 2011–12 state budget plan. The budget problem consists of a $6 billion projected deficit for 2010–11 and a $19 billion gap between projected revenues and spending in 2011–12.

2010–11 Deficit. We assume that the state will be unable to secure around $3.5 billion of budgeted federal funding in 2010–11. This assumption is a major contributor to the $6 billion year–end deficit we project for 2010–11. We also project higher–than–budgeted costs in prisons and several other programs. In addition, our forecast assumes that passage of Proposition 22 will prevent the state from achieving about $800 million of budgeted solutions in 2010–11.

2011–12 Deficit. The temporary nature of most of the Legislature’s 2010 budget–balancing actions and the painfully slow economic recovery contribute to the $19 billion projected operating deficit in 2011–12. This gap is $2 billion less than we projected one year ago. Actions taken during the 2010–11 budget process to reduce Proposition 98 education spending are a major contributor to the decline.

Additional Savings From Proposition 98 [ Schools] Will Be Very Difficult

Our forecast indicates that General Fund revenues and transfers will decline by over $8 billion in 2011–12 due to the expiration of the temporary tax increases adopted in 2009. Because the Proposition 98 minimum school funding guarantee is affected by this drop, our budget forecast already reflects a $2 billion fall in the minimum guarantee between 2010–11 and 2011–12. This reduction would come at the same time that school districts exhaust the billions of dollars of one–time federal money they have received through the stimulus program and other legislation. For these reasons, it may be very difficult to achieve substantial additional budget reductions in Proposition 98 in 2011–12, compared to the levels already reflected in our forecast. In other words, if the Legislature funds schools at our projected minimum guarantee in 2011–12, it would mean billions of dollars in programmatic cuts to education but not contribute a single dollar to closing the $25 billion budget problem.

Teacher bashing, budget cuts and the media

From Rethinking Schools.

But if these attacks on teachers aren’t about ending the systemic racism that continues to undermine our education system, what is the goal?  With forces as seemingly disparate as the Obama administration, the Walton Foundation, the late Milton Friedman, and the New York Times all pushing the same ideas, this is a complicated question, but there are at least two major goals: destroy the power of the teachers’ unions, and turn the public school system from a public trust into a new market for corporate development. From the time of Reagan, who used his “welfare queen” stories to scapegoat the poor as a basis on which to destroy the welfare system, this has been a tried-and-true approach to privatization: use visceral anecdotes to whip up hysteria that a system is “broken,” argue that only market competition can fix the situation, and then sell off pieces of the public sector to private corporations. This time, teachers are the scapegoats.

So it’s no accident that a major thrust of the media and political campaign has been the elimination of teacher tenure, which is blamed for making it hard to fire “bad” teachers. Everyone—as student, parent, or colleague—has felt the impact of teachers who should not be in the classroom. But don't blame tenure. Tenure is not a guaranteed job for life; it’s the right, which all employees deserve, not to be fired without due process and without just cause. If the goal were really better teaching, Race to the Top would be promoting union/district peer review and mentoring programs that are effective in helping struggling teachers and removing those who can’t make the grade. Instead, President Obama and Secretary of Education Duncan have made linking retention and salaries to test scores a precondition for Race to the Top funds, and encouraged states to break the power of teachers’ unions.

The attacks on tenure are, in fact, essentially attacks on the teachers’ unions. Despite their problems, teachers’ unions are one of the few remaining bulwarks of organized labor. They are the only protection for teachers’ rights and, at their best, facilitate teachers joining forces with parents and students to fight for equitable, forward-thinking schools that meet the needs of communities and the future.

Teacher tenure—at both the K-12 and university level—is enormously important, not just to individual teachers, but also to society as a whole. Tenure is protection against shortsighted or vindictive administrators. Tenure is what enables teachers to collaborate with each other instead of competing, to speak up for the rights of students, and to fight for justice in the classroom, the school community, and the larger community that the school serves.

“Bad teachers” are being used as the excuse to turn schools into one more arena for corporate development. First Hurricane Katrina provided the context in New Orleans for firing all unionized teachers and replacing most of the public education system with market-driven charter schools. Now this phony “crisis of bad teachers,” piled atop the economic crisis, is supposedly the reason to dismantle much of the country’s commitment to public education. Just in the past few months, both Obama and Duncan publicly applauded the firing of every teacher at a Rhode Island high school; Detroit Public Schools Emergency Financial Manager Robert Bobb announced plans to close another 44 schools in that city and replace them with non-union private and semiprivate charters; and the Florida legislature voted to eliminate teacher tenure entirely and revoke credentials based on standardized test scores.

Teachers, teachers’ unions, and public education itself are under serious threat. It’s vital that we build alliances with everyone who stands to lose from these assaults on public education. 

The editors of Rethinking Schools. 

School budget cut proposals- Joel Klein

Joel I. Klein, the chancellor of the New York City school system, which is competing for Race to the Top money, said Congress should save the $800 million elsewhere, even if it meant cutting federal aid for schools with high-poverty students. “Here’s a chance with Race to the Top to really change the game,” he said. “Why would you take the money out of that?”

Mr. Obey, however, said the cut approved by the House would leave $3.2 billion for the favored programs. “To suggest we are being unduly harsh is a joke,” he said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/03/us/politics/03cong.html?_r=1&hpw

Remember, Joel Klein was considered for Secretary of Education 

Senator Darrell Steinberg - school policy and school budgets

  Sacramento Senator Darrell Steinberg  has authored and promoted SB 1285 that changes seniority rules for the lay off of teachers.  He  seems to listening to Ed Voice and the corporations promoting the wrong assumption that seniority causes problems in schools.  Lets see.  There are low performing schools – most of them in poverty neighborhoods.  There are high performing schools – most of them in middle class neighborhoods.  They both have the same seniority system.  Seniority is not the problem – poverty is. ( See prior posts on this).

Legislators  should provide  every student a high quality education by providing the adequate funding that schools need.  California fails at this.  We rank 46^th. out 50 states in per public  spending.  ( See the excellent new report by the California Budget Project, Race to the Bottom http://www.cbp.org/) That is a legislative decision. Adequate funding would allow schools to keep libraries open; hire back laid-off teachers, nurses, and counselors; and reduce class sizes to provide students with needed attention.

Senator Steinberg claims in a letter to constituents this week, “Since I became leader of the Senate eighteen months ago, we have been able to increase Proposition 98 funding by  $1.6 Billion.  This claim is puzzling. 

According to EdSource, California has reduced Prop. 98 funding  from 50.3 billion to 31.2 billion dollars during this period.  I called the Senator’s office for clarification.  I was transferred twice and then promised that I would get a call back from the press office.  That was Tues.  Perhaps some reader can explain  these numbers.  I can’t. Senator Steinberg is up for re-election this year. 

Assembly district 9 - Chris Garland and Kevin McCarty

            Sacramento Progressive Alliance

www.sacramentopa.org

There is an important election on  June 8, and it is important that you vote.

Assembly District 9. Endorsed:  Chris Garland and Kevin Mc Carty. Sacramento Progressive Alliance

Why vote for Chris Garland?  Its time to shake up the Capitol.

The Sacramento Progressive Alliance and others interviewed each of the major candidates for Assembly District 9 on May 19.  Most of the district lies within Sacramento.  This is the seat currently held by Dave Jones.  District 9 has a 55.9 % Democrat, 19.8 Republican, 19.4 % decline to state voter registration.  ( Plus American Independent 2.5%, Green 1%, Libertarian 0.5%, and Peace and Freedom 0.8%).

After considering the major candidates on the issues most important to the Progressive Alliance,  on May 22 we voted to  recommend that you vote for either Chris Garland or Kevin Mc Carty.  All four of the major candidates on the Democratic side were impressive.  We will be able to support anyone of them who wins the primary.

Garland explains his advocacy this way.  “ California’s in trouble.

 Our state budget is in a constant state of crisis, our policy-makers are gridlocked, and vital services are at-risk. Teachers are being laid off, and the promise of quality higher education for all may be a thing of the past.”

Chris Garland is currently the political director of the California Faculty Association. His responses were clearly closest to the perspective of the Progressive Alliance.  Like most of the candidates, he has served in positions as staff within the legislature.  He was deputy director of member services  for the Assembly Speaker’s office from 2005-2007.  We regard this significant legislative experience as valuable.  In this era of term limits, electing a person with prior experience in the legislature allows that person to lead rather than spend the first two years in on-the-job training.

 We regard dealing with the higher education budget crisis (along with that of k-12) as critical.  Of all of the candidates, Chris Garland best understood the crisis of  budgets and higher education in California. 

Note. See the complete list of endorsements below and a more detailed description of the differences in Assembly District 9 and the Superintendent of Public Instruction. -Torlakson. 

Lawsuit Challenges California Unconstitutional Education Finance

Historic Lawsuit Challenges California’s Unconstitutional Education Finance System

A historic lawsuit was filed today 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.

The case, Robles-Wong, et al. v. State of California, was filed in the Superior Court of California in Alameda County. Specifically, the suit asks the court to compel the State to align its school finance system—its funding policies and mechanisms—with the educational program that the State has put in place. To do this, plaintiffs allege, the State must scrap its existing finance system; do the work to determine how much it actually costs to fund public education to meet the state’s own program requirements and the needs of California’s school children; and develop and implement a new finance system consistent with Constitutional requirements.

The lawsuit was filed by a broad coalition, including more than 60 individual students and their families, nine school districts from throughout the State, the California School Boards Association (CSBA), California State PTA, and the Association of California School Administrators (ACSA).

“Filing this lawsuit was a last resort,” said CSBA President Frank Pugh. “Education funding has been in a deteriorating spiral in California for decades. A failure to act now threatens the future of California’s students and the future of our state. The Governor and lawmakers have known for some time that the current school finance system is harming students and they’ve done nothing to remedy the crisis. The $17 billion in cuts to education have only made a dire situation even worse. California’s unstable, unsound and insufficient school finance system is robbing our students of an education.”

“This lawsuit seeks to ensure that the State, the Legislature and the Governor comply with the Constitution and fund and deliver the promised education program to all students in the state,” said Bill Abrams, a partner at the law firm of Bingham McCutchen and counsel for plaintiff students and families. “The Constitution requires that school funding ‘first be set apart’ to meet program demands, and provides that education is a fundamental right and must be made equally available to every child. Too often, this isn’t the case, and the State balances its budget on the backs of its students by cutting or underfunding education programs, and thus prevents schools from meeting its own education standards.”

California’s broken school finance system has undermined the ability of districts to educate our children by making no connection between what is expected of schools and students and the funding provided in order to meet those expectations.

California has set clear requirements for what schools are expected to teach and what students are expected to learn. But the state has failed in its obligation to provide the resources necessary to meet these requirements. The state’s failure to support the required educational program adversely affects all students. Academic achievement results show California’s irrational, unstable and insufficient school finance system denies students the opportunity to become proficient in the State’s academic standards.

“Numerous reports during the last decade have documented the state’s failure to remedy the broken school finance system. The Governor’s own Committee on Educational Excellence in 2007 concluded that our current system is not producing the results that taxpayers and citizens are counting on and that our students deserve,” said Chuck Weis, president of the Association of California School Administrators. “We are asking the courts to require the State to meet the expectations set by law in the Constitution.”

California’s unique revenue and expenditure system makes our schools almost completely dependent on the state, and yet the Governor and Legislature have failed to make education a priority.

The Constitution gives education financing a unique priority by requiring that “from all state revenues there shall first be set apart the monies to be applied by the State for support of the public school system.” Instead, school financing has been battered by instability that prohibits necessary planning to deliver what has been promised to students, and as a result all students suffer. Only half of all California students are proficient in English-language arts; and less than half (approximately 46 percent) are proficient in mathematics. In addition, fewer than 70 percent of California students graduate from high school.

“We require students to meet high education standards and then deny them the resources they need to meet those standards,” said Jo A.S. Loss, president of the California State PTA. “We must have a system that allows schools to deliver a high-quality education for all children – in good times and in tough times.”

Currently, the state ranks 47^th among all states in its per-pupil spending on education, spending $2,856 less per pupil than the national average.

Yet most Californians, according to a recent poll conducted by the Public Policy Institute of California, believe there is not enough state funding going to public schools, and a majority single out K-12 education as the area that they most want to protect from spending cuts.

“Since I started going to school at Alameda High as a freshman, I know that summer programs have been cut. I know that teachers have been laid off. And I know that programs that are supposed to help my classmates and me go to college have been cut,” said Maya Robles-Wong, a 16-year-old 11^th-grader and a plaintiff in the lawsuit. “I’m not an expert in education finance, but I know enough to say that it’s not because my teachers and our schools aren’t trying to give us what we need. I know that the real problem is that the State is not providing the support my school needs to teach me everything I need.”

Ignoring the facts about our state’s education finance system will deny generations of students the opportunity to be competitive and successful in our global economy. California educates the most diverse student population in the nation and yet we rank nearly last in per-pupil funding. Unless the State fixes the broken school finance system, students will be denied the opportunity to become informed citizens and productive members of society.

For more information about the school finance lawsuit, please visitwww.fixschoolfinance.org.