This is the latest in our SAUSD threads. Unlike the other threads, this one will be devoted to keeping track of the interesting stories that appear in the local media and other sources, regarding the SAUSD.
SAUSD related news & links
– February 8, 2009Posted in: "The OC", Fresh Juice, Santa Ana, SAUSD
Email Blast from SAUSD board member, John Palacio:
Supreme Court Weighs Funding for Special Education
Private-School Tuition at Heart of Case
By Robert Barnes and Daniel de Vise
Washington Post Staff Writers
Monday, April 27, 2009
The Supreme Court will consider a question this week that has riled parents, cost local school boards here and across the country hundreds of millions of dollars, and vexed the justices themselves: When must public school officials pay for private schooling for children with special needs?
The issue has emerged as one of the fastest-growing components of local education budgets, threatening to “seriously deplete public education funds,” which would then detract from the care of students with disabilities who remain in the system, according to a brief filed by the nation’s urban school districts.
It has also become one of the most emotional and litigious disagreements between frazzled parents and financially strapped school officials, with the battles often ending in court. District of Columbia schools allocated $7.5 million of this year’s $783 million budget just for such legal costs.
Congress and the court have made it clear that every child with disabilities has a right to a “free appropriate public education.” If the school system can’t provide one for a child with a disability, it must reimburse parents for private school costs.
But the question for the court now is whether schools must be given a first chance to provide those services before placing the child in a private school. Some parents say that could force students, especially poor ones, to spend time in an undesirable situation before getting the help they really need.
“It’s a teensy, teensy percentage of families that would be able to take the risk of placing their students” in private school with their own funds and then seek reimbursement, said Lyda Astrove, a longtime Maryland special-education advocate.
But the schools and their supporters say a ruling in favor of the parents would “open the door for parents to completely bypass the public school system and go directly to private school, and then ask for reimbursement,” said Nancy Reder, deputy executive director of the National Association of State Directors of Special Education, an Alexandria group that has filed an amicus brief in the case.
The trend in special education is toward inclusion of special-needs students in the general student population, a goal mandated by federal law to end the academic segregation of children with disabilities. School systems in the Washington region tend to oppose sending students to private settings for that reason, as well as for its cost.
In Montgomery County, for example, private tuition expenses have risen from $21 million in fiscal 2000 to a projected $39 million in fiscal 2010.
The Montgomery school system, which has a more comprehensive special-education department than many other systems, has 614 students attending private schools this year. Fairfax County schools spent $15 million on tuition in the 2007-08 academic year, the most recent data available. The system now has 233 students in private schools.
But others spend much more. Prince George’s County schools, with fewer services, this year spent $56 million on 1,168 students. And the District, with a historically troubled special-education department, has 2,300 students receiving private care at a cost of $141 million.
The students tend be older adolescents, usually male, with emotional disturbances, autism or other disabilities that require more adult supervision than public schools can provide.
The issue before the court is over two parts of the federal Individuals With Disabilities Education Act. First, the act guarantees a free, appropriate public education to “all children with disabilities.” But a 1997 amendment to the act specified tuition reimbursement for students who “previously received special education and related services.”
Officials in Forest Grove School District in Oregon said that meant they did not have to reimburse the private school costs for a boy referred to in court documents as T.A. Even though the boy had attended public schools from kindergarten to high school, no learning disability had been diagnosed (although his counselors discussed whether he had one), and thus he had never received special-education services.
During his troubled junior year of high school, his increasingly worried parents enrolled him in a private school and paid for testing, which showed he had attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and other disabilities.
The legal battle between the parents and the school system over the diagnosis and tuition reimbursement began in 2003 and stretched until last year, when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit ruled for the parents.
It said Congress’s intent was that “all” children be covered by the law, not just those who had previously received special-education services.
The Obama administration told the Supreme Court that any other interpretation of the law would produce “absurd results, especially in cases like this one, where the only reason the child did not receive public special education is that the school district wrongly refused to provide it.”
But appeals courts have split on the issue, and so has the Supreme Court. The justices — without Anthony M. Kennedy, who recused himself — tried to settle the same issue two years ago in a case from New York but divided 4 to 4. As is the tradition on the court, Kennedy did not say why he sat out the first case or why he is now back in.
His often pivotal status seems even more so in Forest Grove School District v. T.A. School officials and parents hope the court will provide clarity. But disputes between the two sides are not likely to end.
The Lindner family of Chevy Chase risked $75,000 to send their son Peter John to the private Ivymount School in Rockville for a year after reaching an impasse with the public school system, which wanted him in a program for children with orthopedic disabilities. Their son suffered, Theresa Lindner said, from a terminally degenerative neurological disorder.
The family lost an administrative law hearing and appealed unsuccessfully to federal court. They have moved to a Boston suburb to care for Peter John, who can no longer attend school.
“It ended up that it cost them more to fight us than it did to pay for the single year at Ivymount,” Theresa Lindner said.
She and other advocates worry that they are losing ground in the courts.
“I think many of us have concerns that the IDEA is slowly being chipped away,” Lindner said. “I have great concerns that we’re not moving forward, we’re moving backward.”
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Publication:Freedom – Orange County Register; Date:April 26, 2009; Section:Local; Page Number:Local 6
STIMULUS FUNDS BY ORANGE COUNTY CITY
OUR TOWNS: STIMULUS PACKAGE
Cities have prepared requests for or are waiting to receive money from the $787 billion spending program President Barack Obama enacted.
ALISO VIEJO
The city’s share of funding funneled through the Orange County Transportation Authority is $500,000, said Gina Tharani, director of financial services/ treasurer. In addition: The city has applied for a Justice Assistance Grant that could bring an additional $14,400. The city is seeking funding under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act for a project to rehabilitate the pavement on a section of Pacific Park Drive between Cheyenne and Aliso Viejo Parkway. The estimated cost for design and construction is $600,000.
— Vik Jolly
ANAHEIM
Funds available so far total $9.6 million. Other money is available through a competitive grant process – the exact total is not yet clear.
About $3 million will be spent to improve the energy grid, fund energy-conservation projects and provide grants to help make homes energy efficient; $1.3 million will go toward developing affordable housing and related programs.
An estimated $2 million will help people from becoming homeless, and another $2.3 million will pay for career training for the unemployed.
— Adam Townsend
BREA
Anticipated funds include:
$38,195 from the Edward Byrne Justice Assistance Grant program for police hiring and enforcement.
$191,000 for Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant projects that reduce energy use and fossil-fuel emissions.
$566,479, part of an Orange County Transportation Authority request, for the resurfacing of Associated Road from Birch Street to Imperial Highway.
$190,723 from a grant for a civilian crime scene investigator and crime analyst position.
$550,000 under the COPS Hiring Recovery Program, under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. to hire four police officers – two for the retail crime team and two for the DUI team.
— Lou Ponsi
BUENA PARK
Officials have applied for $2.7 million to hire police and improve roads. According to department heads, included in the amount are:
$550,000 for public safety. The funds are to be used for technology, the Police Service Aide program and the hiring of additional officers.
$738,000 for energy efficiency projects. The funds may be used for lighting and other upgrades at the recreation and senior centers.
$589,000, as part of a joint application, that may be used for the First Time Home Buyers Program.
$892,000 for street improvements.
— Michael Mello
COSTA MESA
More than $3.75 million will likely to come to Costa Mesa, officials report.
The money would cover street paving, construction of a bike trail, prevention of homelessness and making City Hall more energyefficient, among other things. Final approval is still needed for the paving funds, which total $1.4 million.
Also, the city requested $6 million to fund 18 police officer positions over three years. Officials tentatively expect to lay off 10 police employees because of a budget deficit. The full $6 million will not likely be granted, officials say.
Some of the projects, such as the bike trail, were previously planned but lacked funding until the stimulus money came through. Others, such as $311,000 in “neighborhood stabilization” funds that could address foreclosed properties, weren’t planned before the federal money.
— Jeff Overley
CYPRESS
Cypress is already in line for a $36,000 grant for the Police Department, which is likely to go toward equipment. In addition, the city has filed another application for law enforcement funding, though it’s unknown how much the city could receive.
Cypress also has applied for a $202,000 energyefficiency grant. How the city would use the funds has not been determined.
Cypress is still looking at others ways of pulling in dollars.
— Michael Mello
DANA POINT
More than $1 million could be headed to Dana Point. Brad Fowler, public works director, said that at the county level, $328,000 has been designated for water circulation studies in Dana Point Harbor. Money for the city has been designated as well – $500,000 in potential transportation funds, $148,000 in potential energy funds and about $40,000 from the Justice Department. Dana Point hopes to use the transportation funds on road repairs on Stonehill and Del Prado.
— Chris Daines
FOUNTAIN VALLEY
The city could receive an estimated $1.2 million for road and energy projects, including the replacement of the police station’s heating and cooling system.
Fountain Valley is set to receive $533,000 from Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grants. The city has proposed using the money to replace the heating, ventilation and air conditioning system in the police station.
Work on the system is expected to begin in October.
The city will also get an estimated $670,000 to begin street rehabilitation in March 2010. Public works officials said the department began road repairs last year but now lacks the money to complete the project.
The list of “shovelready” projects submitted at the 2008 U.S. Conference of Mayors included $2 million for street pavement projects. Other requests included $1 million to fix sidewalks and $5 million for two pump stations.
— Amanda Luevano
FULLERTON
Fullerton will use the following:
$210,150 from the Edward Byrne Justice Assistance Grant program administered through the Department of Justice. Of that, $21,000 is for an Orange County program to eradicate methamphetamine labs. The remaining dollars will be set aside as “new money” for anti-gang programs.
$1.25 million from the Department of Energy for energy efficiency, conservation programs and alternative fuel systems for city vehicles.
$100,000 for law enforcement body armor.
$190,000 to help renovate the Boys and Girls Club.
— Barbara Giasone
GARDEN GROVE
The city will receive about $3.5 million in various grants. That includes a $1.5 million energy grant, $1.7 million Housing and Urban Development grant and $700,000 for a “shovel-ready project,” said City Manager Matthew Fertal. These funds are expected to arrive in June or July.
The city also plans to apply for several other grants. The top three categories the city is spending the new money on are energy, emergency shelter and Community Development Block Grant projects .
— Deepa Bharath
HUNTINGTON BEACH
The city could get more than $8.2 million, which would go toward police programs, street and traffic improvements and help with energy-saving projects such as upgrading air-conditioning systems and building retrofits.
The Police Department is eligible for $197,000 for general law-enforcement activities.
The department is also applying for money to fund four officer positions that had to be taken out of the budget in the fall because of revenue concerns, city spokeswoman Laurie Payne said.
The Public Works Department could get $1.7 million to help rehabilitate Slater Avenue between Graham and Goldenwest streets, Payne said. The department is also seeking $2.3 million toward a project that is expected to divert an estimated 1 million gallons of urban runoff, clean it naturally and allow the water to fill Talbert Lake in Central Park.
The city is also eligible for $1.78 million to help reduce energy use and impacts on the environment. About $370,000 could go toward community development and $566,000 to prevent homelessness.
In addition, the Fire Department is applying for funding to revamp the Murdy Fire Station, and the Community Services Department could get money for nutrition programs, Payne said.
— Annie Burris
IRVINE
Officials are seeking nearly $6 million for a variety of programs, including high-profile construction projects, environmental efforts, public safety and homelessness prevention.
A little under $2.5 million in highway funds will go toward work on Red Hill Avenue, with an additional $354,000 for the Jeffrey/I-405 bicycle bridge.
The city also hopes for a more than $2 million grant from the Energy Department for environmentally friendly efforts, a $66,000 public safety grant, a $540,000 homelessness prevention grant and a $350,000 Community Development Block Grant.
Officials say the money will supplement existing funds.
The city expects to receive the money in the next 18 months.
— Sean Emery
LAGUNA BEACH
Laguna Beach plans to seek $4.3 million in grants, including a confirmed $100,000 grant for transit and $20,000 for police stun guns. The city is also planning requests for about $2.7 million in grants for improvements to the sewer system, $700,000 for urban water diversion and $900,000 for community-oriented policing services. The transit and stun gun grants would likely be made available in the next fiscal year.
— Chris Caesar
LAGUNA HILLS
Assistant City Manager Don White said the city expects to get an estimated $524,000 by the end of this year. Of that, $500,000 will go toward Laguna Hills Drive resurfacing and $24,000 will go to public safety. “We haven’t decided how the public safety money will be spent yet,” White said.
— Alejandra Molina
LAGUNA NIGUEL
Officials hope to receive $646,000 from the Federal Highway Construction Program through the Orange County Transportation Authority and Caltrans, according to City Manager Tim Casey. Plans call for resurfacing Aliso Creek Road between Alicia Parkway and La Paz Road. Also: The city plans to incorporate energy efficiency and conservation into the new City Hall with a $573,000 block grant it will seek. The city will use $25,000 from the Justice Assistance Grant program for miscellaneous police equipment. Supplemental block funds will come to $91,000.
— Lois Evezich
LAGUNA WOODS
Laguna Woods does not know whether it will receive stimulus money, said City Manager Leslie Keane. “All the programs are competitive and require application. None are for ongoing operations,” she said. “Most will require staff support that we do not have.”
— Janet Whitcomb
LA HABRA
La Habra anticipates the following: $92,079, as part of the Edward Byrne Justice Assistance Grant program, for law enforcement. $500,000, through federal funding to the Orange County Transportation Authority, for road improvements. $528,000 in Energy Efficiency Block Grant funds to upgrade city facilities. $200,000 in Community Development Block Grant funds for unspecified projects.
La Habra will also apply for funding to hire up to three police officers, through the COPS Hiring Recovery Program.
— Lou Ponsi
LAKE FOREST
If Lake Forest meets eligibility requirements, the city expects to receive $749,310 in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds for a resurfacing project on Trabuco Road from Lake Forest Drive to El Toro Road. Construction is anticipated to start in August and end in October.
— Erika I. Ritchie
LA PALMA
Officials are hoping to get money for law enforcement and road improvements.
City Manager Dominic Lazaretto said the city has applied for funds to augment equipment dollars for the Police Department. How much the city receives and what will be purchased has not been determined.
Through the Orange County Transportation Authority and Caltrans, the city has also applied for $500,000 to help repave Orangethorpe Avenue from the 91 Freeway eastward to the city line, near Valley View Street. Orangethorpe west of the freeway was resurfaced last year.
— Michael Mello
MISSION VIEJO
About $1.9 million is in line for the city of Mission Viejo, according to city officials. About $900,000 will go toward repaving a segment of Olympiad Road, Alicia Parkway and Trabuco Road, Public Works Director Mark Chagnon said. More than $132,000 will go to the Community Development Agency, said Community Development Director Chuck Wilson. City officials are waiting for spending guidelines from the Housing and Urban Development Department. The city will receive an $876,000 grant for energy efficiency and conservation projects, City Manager Dennis Wilberg said.
— Lindsey Baguio
NEWPORT BEACH
More than $2 million will benefit projects in the city, officials say.
About $850,000 will be put toward making street lighting more efficient, almost $1.1 million will go to street resurfacing, and nearly $100,000 will cover compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
City officials also need $13 million to complete dredging of Upper Newport Bay, and they hope stimulus funding will come through to help with at least part of that cost.
— Jeff Overley
ORANGE
The city is receiving $3.3 million. Of that, $1.7 million will be used to improve the Santiago Creek Bike Trail and will replace lost funding from the Transportation Enhancement Act.
The remaining $1.6 million will be for street rehabilitation along Chapman Avenue and will supplement existing funds.
— Eugene W. Fields
PLACENTIA
City Administrator Troy Butzlaff said the city is hoping for:
$500,000, through the Orange County Transportation Authority, for street-related projects.
$50,000 for police equipment and about $200,000 from the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant Program.
The city is also applying for several state and federal grants available through the stimulus package. The City Council approved 19 applications this month.
— Heather McRea
RANCHO SANTA MARGARITA
The city could be in line for a $200,000 grant from the Energy Department for energy-efficient projects. Public works projects could receive funding from other sources, but City Manager Steve Hayman said he wasn’t certain of the amount or source yet. If Rancho Santa Margarita does receive the money, it should get it by the end of 2009, according to Hayman.
— John Crandall
SAN CLEMENTE
The city expects to receive $1.17 million, including: $566,500 for energy efficiency and conservation projects. $107,000 in Community Development Block Grant funds. $500,000 to fund a rehabilitation of Ola Vista. The city also applied for a Bureau of Reclamation $2.6 million grant to expand wastewater recycling. The bureau is part of the Interior Department.
— Fred Swegles
SANTA ANA
The city stands to collect nearly $12 million, including:
More than $3.2 million to make City Hall, police and fire stations, parks and other facilities more energy-efficient.
About $1.4 million for street repairs and more than $2.5 million for improvements to bigger roads, such as Civic Center Drive.
$1.7 million for a careertraining program for youth and about $1.4 million for other job programs for adults and dislocated workers.
$1 million for public safe ty and policing efforts. The city also will compete for separate Community Oriented Policing Services grants.
Santa Ana also expects to receive a significant share of $2.3 million given to Orange County to help stabilize neighborhoods hard hit by the economic crisis and of $2.3 million to weatherize homes.
— Doug Irving
STANTON
Stanton is getting $500,000 to resurface Dale Avenue and fix curbs and storm drains along the street in the coming months.
City Manager Carol Jacobs said another $148,000 is pending approval. This money is meant to improve energy efficiency at city facilities and reimburse homeowners for energyefficient upgrades.
— Adam Townsend
TUSTIN
The city is expecting $781,000 to help fix part of Jamboree Road, said city spokeswoman Lisa Woolery. The money will be allocated through the Orange County Transportation Authority, but the city does not yet know when. The funds will pay for about 1 inch of asphalt over one mile, Woolery said.
— Elysse James
VILLA PARK
The city is applying for $500,000 through the Orange County Transportation Authority for road improvements, said Finance Manager Michelle Danaher.
— Eugene W. Fields
WESTMINSTER
The city is expected to receive about $1.8 million this summer, said Economic Development Specialist Chet Simmons.
The top three categories where the money is going are Community Development Block Grant projects, housing and infrastructure. This new money will help pay for projects that have remained unfunded because of the economic downturn, Simmons said.
— Deepa Bharath
YORBA LINDA
Finance Director and Treasurer Susan Hartman said the city is seeking:
$525,000 to be used for street work – if approved by City Council members.
Roughly $20,000 for the Police Department, contracted through Brea, to upgrade its crime lab equipment.
The stimulus money received will not replace any money in the general fund, but will add new funds for new projects, Hartman said.
The city is also planning to apply for other grants. “We don’t know what grants we are eligible for and what we want to go forward with,” Hartman said. “Each department has been getting e-mails about [stimulus] money and we’re just wading through that information right now to see what we can get.”
— Erin Welch
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Friday, April 24, 2009
County Officials defend firefighter Overtime of $28 million
More than 85 percent of overtime is spent staffing fire stations on normal days.
By NORBERTO SANTANA JR. AND RONALD CAMPBELL
The Orange County Register
Overtime costs at the Orange County Fire Authority hit $27.9 million last year, a 55 percent increase since 2003, an Orange County Register analysis of payroll records has found.
Most of the overtime – 86 percent – is spent to keep fire stations open on a 24 hour basis—not for major disasters like the Santiago and Freeway Complex fires.
Interviews and records show that a key factor behind the growth of overtime is the enhancement of pension benefits granted to firefighters in 2001. The pension benefits have boosted the cost of each firefighter dramatically, simultaneously discouraging the agency from new hires and encouraging more early retirements.
The result is more vacancies and larger overtime bills to cover empty shifts. Last year, the 61 vacant positions contributed to more than 30 percent of overtime payouts.
Meanwhile, the overtime has helped to transform firefighting from a blue-collar job to a high-paying profession. Last year OCFA’s 814 firefighters, engineers and captains earned a median annual pay of $137,784. Overtime made up $36,488 of that. (Median is the number in the middle—half the firefighters made more and half made less.)
That compares to $111,082 for a senior deputy at the OC sheriff’s department.
The Register analysis also found that:
•Overtime now makes up more than 26 percent of firefighter paychecks and more than 12 percent of the county fire authority’s budget. Overtime pay has increased at twice the rate of base pay.
Overtime costs have been boosted by a series of annual pay raises. From 2003 to 2006, OCFA granted 4 percent raises each year. In 2007 and 2008, the raises were 3 percent. During that period, the agency added just 49 firefighters, a 6 percent increase. But its payroll swelled by 35 percent.
Because of the high cost of funding pensions, OCFA has restricted new hires: Only 40 new firefighters were hired in 2008. Today a quarter of the firefighters, engineers and captains who remain have been on the job for more than 20 years.
Fire authority administrators and union officials say the overtime is necessary to fully staff fire stations around the clock – a practice referred to as constant staffing – standard in most large fire departments.
“It really gets down to, we either have the overtime to cover time off, or we shut the engine down,” said Fire Chief Chip Prather.
Most fire departments across the country have similarly large overtime bills. Orange County pays proportionally more fire overtime than some nearby jurisdictions—although the City of Los Angeles is higher still.
The City of San Diego spent 12 percent of its salary costs on overtime in fiscal 2007-2008, compared to the 26 percent spent at OCFA. Los Angeles County spent 21 percent of its salary and benefits budget on overtime.
The City of Los Angeles spends far more—in part because it staffs each fire engine with four firefighters—compared to three per engine for OC and most of Los Angeles county.
The Register asked for overtime spending numbers from the city of Los Angeles but officials said a response would be delayed because of numerous inquiries on this topic. The Los Angeles Daily News reported last week that the Los Angeles Fire Department spent nearly 25 percent of its total budget on overtime last year.
“We should appreciate the fact they’re willing to put in the extra hours to keep fire engines in service in their community,” said Joe Kerr, union president for the Orange County Professional Firefighters. “I don’t think that people realize how many hours firefighters put in.”
Kerr said the pay reflects the work and training demands placed on firefighters. “The amount of training rivals that of an attorney or doctor over the course of their career,” he said.
It’s more accurate in today’s world to call it a “grey collar job,” Kerr said.
Larger pensions equal fewer firefighters
In 2001, OCFA board members enhanced retir
ement benefits to allow sworn staff to retire at age 50, with an annual pension that can mirror final salary. Overtime is not included in pension calculations, officials said.
But the expanded benefit – along with steep investment losses within the county’s pension plan – have caused annual payments to the retirement system by OCFA to rise from $42 million in fiscal 2006-2007 to more than $52 million in the current fiscal year.
Even with that increased payment, OCFA still faces a $185 million gap between what it pays into the pension system and what actuaries say the full cost will be.
Today, funding a fire captain’s retirement costs the county $54,449 each year, officials say. An engineer’s future retirement costs the county $46,765 a year and a firefighter $40,295.
Because of the soaring cost of pensions, OC fire officials, like many across the country, have avoided new hires, instead depending on overtime to cover shifts and keep balanced budgets.
And as older workers take advantage of the benefit and retire, they add to the vacant slots that in turn fuel more overtime.
OCFA officials say overtime is significantly cheaper than hiring new workers with full pension benefits –and other major fire departments agree.
Compared to a standard five-day, 40 hour work week, firefighters work staggered 24-hour schedules—and are paid whether responding to emergencies or waiting at the station.
For example, in a month, a firefighter might work two 24-hour days the first week, three the next, two after that and three the final week.
For the month, that would be 10 days on and 20 days off.
Lori Zeller, Assistant Chief for Business Services, calculates that to fill in a shift for a firefighter, the OCFA pays $47.93 per hour to cover pay and benefits. That same shift filled through overtime (which only includes base and overtime pay) totals $38.41 per hour. The biggest factor in that calculation is the $18.32 paid on an hourly basis for pension benefits.
Thus, it’s cheaper by $9.52 per hour, or about 25 percent, to fill a shift on overtime rather than through a new hire, Zeller said.
Firefighters point out that some overtime shifts are mandatory because of staff shortages.
“I was forced (to work) for 370 hours of backfill (overtime) last year,” said Robert James, 42, who works as an engineer/paramedic and has been at the agency since 1994.
James worked a lot of overtime last year because of a shortage of engineers. He earned more than $75,000 in overtime, which put him in the top 20 earners and helped propel his annual pay to $194,657.
While firefighters welcome the supplemental income, James said, so much overtime does take a toll.
“Being forced (to work) that many hours definitely affects your family,” said James, who is married with three daughters. “Friends and neighbors realize it because they try to get hold of me. They tell me, ‘you’re never home.”
But James added, “Someone has to be there every day to save lives, property and respond to all the different emergencies.”
County Supervisor Bill Campbell, who sits on the OCFA board, has expressed concern at the current cost of overtime.
“It seems too high to me,” Campbell said. “I think highlighting this will get management’s attention. Then we have to see what we can do.”
Fremont Fire Chief Bruce Martin, who recently wrote a column for Fire Chief Magazine on the overtime debate, said the constant staffing model doesn’t leave much wiggle room.
To avoid overtime, Martin said, agencies would have to hire more staff, meaning that on some days a station would have extra firefighters.
“I can make a dent in overtime but you’re going to have to pay for extra firefighters,” Martin said.
Constant staffing works firefighters hard and leaves little time for training, community outreach or other non-emergency functions, Martin said. And not hiring new workers creates challenges for the future as firefighters get older and they aren’t replaced by younger hires.
That is already becoming a challenge at OCFA where a quarter of the firefighters, engineers and captains have been on the job for more than 20 years.
Kerr, the firefighter union leader, said paying out overtime isn’t exactly a strategy for the future.
Kerr added that he expects OCFA to eventually craft a new – and cheaper – retirement benefit for new hires, which would allow more staff and lower overtime payouts.
“It’s one of the things we recognize is going to be on the table,” Kerr said.
Who’s earning the overtime?
Last year, after an Orange County Register investigation into the sheriff’s department, county supervisors launched a performance audit that found widespread flaws in the management of sheriff’s overtime.
OCFA says it manages overtime opportunities through computer scheduling software that helps them to spread the shifts equitably and still allow for effective coverage of training, sick days and vacation.
Unlike the Sheriff’s department, where lower ranking deputies earn most of the overtime, captains – including those in administrative slots – are the big earners at the OCFA. Other high ranking officials, such as battalion chiefs, also get overtime.
In 2008, captains earned on average more than $43,000 in overtime, compared to an average of $25,000 earned by firefighters. Engineers averaged $42,000 in overtime.
In 2008, four captains and four engineers were able to boost their salaries over $200,000 through overtime.
OCFA’s top overtime earner over the past six years has been Fire Captain Robert Hutnyan, who does training for the agency and has earned more than $662,626 in overtime since 2003.
Last year, Hutnyan earned $107,821 in overtime. Hutnyan declined to be interviewed by The Register.
Kerr, the union president, earned more than $40,000 in overtime during 2008 despite the fact that he’s on a union leave. Kerr said his leave allows him to focus on lobbying on behalf of OCFA, but he still puts in for overtime shifts.
OCFA pays 70 percent of Kerr’s salary and the union pays 30 percent. At the sheriff’s department, the union covers 100 percent of their labor leader’s pay.
Fire officials say the union boss is a good deal for taxpayers because Kerr has been helpful in securing legislation from Sacramento and helped negotiate a solution to the agency’s $66 million unfunded liability for retiree medical benefits.
But Campbell says those kinds of work schedules – people earning overtime when they haven’t already worked a 40-hour week – make him uncomfortable.
“That’s not what the federal requirement is, but it’s what we’ve allowed,” Campbell said. “We’ve got to correct that and we have to address that when we next reopen the (bargaining) agreements.”
Contact the writer: 714-796-2221 or nsantana@ocregister.com
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OCTA expects to get $212 million from U.S.
By SERENA MARIA DANIELS
THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
The Orange County Transportation Authority is in line to receive as much as $212 million in federal stimulus money – about $130 million for freeway and street projects and $76 million for bus and rail operations, maintenance and rail safety, agency officials said.
Officials are eyeing funds for two projects that are in the pre-construction and design phases:
One is the widening of the eastbound 91 from the 241 toll road to the 71 in Riverside County.
The other is the West County Connectors program, which involves building interchanges for car-pool lanes between I-405 to the 22 and I-605 freeways.
Staff members recommend that about $71 million of the stimulus money go toward the 91 project. An additional $4 million will come from toll revenue and state funds, and $5 million will come from the Riverside County Transportation Commission.
Nearly 2,000 jobs would be created by the 91 widening project, the agency said. Construction is scheduled to begin in July.
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http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-sci-swine-flu27-2009apr27,0,3534516.story
From the Los Angeles Times
Americans warned to be ready for swine flu outbreaks
A public health emergency is declared as a precaution, officials say. Twenty swine flu cases have been found in the U.S. Canada reports six. In Mexico, the flu death toll has climbed to 86.
By Jim Tankersley and Thomas H. Maugh II
12:44 PM PDT, April 26, 2009
Reporting from Los Angeles and Washington — Federal officials today declared a public health emergency involving human swine flu, warning Americans to prepare for widespread outbreaks now or in the future, yet urging them not to panic.
In a briefing at the White House, the acting head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Richard Besser, said that eight cases of suspected swine flu in New York had been confirmed and that another had been identified in Ohio, bringing the U.S. total to 20 cases.
“As we continue to look for cases, we are going to see a broader spectrum of disease,” Besser said. “We’re going to see more severe disease in this country.”
Canadian officials said this morning that four cases had been confirmed in Nova Scotia and another two in British Columbia, marking the first time that the disease has appeared north of the border. All six Canadian cases were mild, like those in the United States.
Mexico’s Health Secretary Jose Angel Cordova said five more deaths had occurred from influenza in that country overnight, bring the death total to 86. Two of the new cases were confirmed as swine flu, but it is not clear how many of the others were.
Janet Napolitano, U.S. Homeland Security secretary, said the government would release a quarter of its 50-million-unit strategic reserve of antiviral medications, which combat the disease in infected patients, to states where outbreaks have occurred. Besser said the CDC has isolated the swine flu virus and prepared a “seed stock” for the manufacture of a vaccine but will not distribute it to pharmaceutical companies until the situation becomes more severe. Manufacture of a new vaccine will require months.
The officials cast the moves as aggressive but precautionary, and they counseled calm.
Swine flu is “serious enough to be a great concern to this White House and to this government,” White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said on NBC’S “Meet the Press,” adding that President Obama is receiving frequent updates on the situation.
“We are taking the proper precautions to address anything that happens,” Gibbs said. “It’s not a time to panic.”
Napolitano said the “emergency” declaration was a routine move to ensure the government is prepared “in an environment where we really don’t know, ultimately, what the size or seriousness of this outbreak is going to be.”
The eight confirmed cases in New York involved students at St. Francis Preparatory School in Queens. City officials said Saturday that the virus involved was probably swine flu, and that was confirmed overnight by researchers at CDC.
Some of those students had taken a spring break in Mexico. Flu-like symptoms have been reported in some of the parents, but causes have not been confirmed. Officials also tested children at a daycare center where illness had been reported, but those tests came back negative.
The new case in Ohio is a 9-year-old boy in Lorain County. He has a mild case of the disease and is recovering at home.
The Nova Scotia Department of Health Promotion and Protection said today that four cases had been confirmed in Windsor, Hants County, just across the river form the United States. The four victims were students who recently traveled to Mexico. None of them have been hospitalized.
An additional two cases have been confirmed in British Columbia in Western Canada, but details have not yet been released. Those cases are also reported as mild.
“This is moving fast,” Besser added later, “but I want you to understand that we view this more as a marathon.”
The symptoms of swine flu are nearly identical to the symptoms of other influenza, including high fever, aches, coughing and congestion. It is spreading by human to human contact. No cases of infection from pigs have been confirmed. And although Russia and some other countries have banned imports of pork from Mexico, there is absolutely no evidence that it can be transmitted by eating meat, said Dr. Keiji Fukuda, assistant director general of the World Health Organization.
Countries around the world moved quickly to limit the disease’s spread today. Some issued travel warnings for the United States or Mexico. Others began screening some incoming international air travelers for signs of high fever.
Besser and other officials at the press conference stressed simple steps that the U.S. public can take to limit spread of the disease: Wash hands frequently, stay home and don’t board airplanes if you feel sick; and keep sick children out of school.
Gibbs said it was too early to speculate about economic effects of an outbreak. And he dismissed reporters who asked if the federal response was hampered by the fact that the Senate had not yet confirmed President Obama’s nominee to lead the Health and Human Services department, Gov. Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas.
“It’s all hands on deck and we’re doing fine,” Gibbs said. “I would say that we hope we have a new secretary shortly.”
jtankersley@latimes.com
thomas.maugh@latimes.com
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California health officials ramp up testing for swine flu
ShareThis
By Stephen Magagnini
smagagnini@sacbee.com
Published: Sunday, Apr. 26, 2009 – 12:00 am | Page 1A
To contain an outbreak of swine flu that has stricken seven Southern Californians, top state health officials Saturday announced widespread testing for the potentially deadly virus.
“We want all our medical providers to be aware,” said Dr. Bonnie Sorensen, chief deputy director for the California Public Health Department.
“Because of the concern in Mexico, we’ve ramped up testing,” Sorensen told The Bee. “We’ve asked all emergency rooms, hospitals and private doctors to test any patients who come in with flu symptoms and to send samples to public health labs to see if there’s more swine flu out there.”
Californians who don’t have flu symptoms or know anyone who does have nothing to worry about right now, Sorensen said.
While Sorensen expects more cases to be detected in California as testing kicks into high gear, “looking at what’s going on in Mexico,” she said, “the cases detected in the U.S. have been relatively mild.”
She provided this advice:
• If you’re not sick or around anyone who’s contagious, “you’re in good shape.”
• Avoid people who are sick and wash your hands frequently.
• If you’re sick, stay home from work or school and get tested, she said.
“Folks who have what they think is a mild case of the flu and don’t get tested (could be) spreading it,” she said. “We don’t really know how widespread it is.”
According to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, the symptoms of swine flu are expected to be similar to those of regular human flu, including fever, lethargy and coughing. Some people with swine flu also have reported vomiting and diarrhea.
The good news, Sorensen said, is that if you test positive, two anti-viral drugs on the market – Tamiflu and Relenza – “can lessen the symptoms and spread.”
California’s large number of uninsured people “need to go to whomever your normal doctor is,” Sorensen said.
The state and nation is far better prepared to perform tests and prevent illness this year “than we were 20 years ago,” said Sorensen, who’s been fighting potential epidemics for two decades.
She said California’s preparations for the avian flu scare in 2006 have helped the state respond quickly to the current crisis.
Since March 28, California health officials have detected four cases of swine flu in San Diego County and three in Imperial County.
None of the cases involved immigrants from Mexico or anyone who has recently visited Mexico, Sorensen said. “The seven cases are just folks living in California.”
The most recent case, a 35-year-old woman in Imperial County, “is more moderately ill than previous cases,” Sorensen said. “She was ill earlier this month and was in the intensive care unit for a day.”
California’s cases have hit people whose ages ranged from 7 to 54 – neither the very old or the very young, who are usually most susceptible to flu.
She said the California and Mexican cases seem to be very similar strains of swine flu, though it’s a totally different strain of swine flu than that detected at Fort Dix, N.J., in 1976, Sorensen said.
Swine flu is a virus “that someone in the world caught from a pig and it mutated such that it could move from human to human,” Sorensen said.
California health officials are in constant contact with the CDC.
“It’s very early,” she said. “The CDC called it a marathon, not a sprint. We’re going to learn more and more about this over the next couple of weeks.”
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has called for expanded public health lab testing of potential flu specimens, enhanced animal disease surveillance and a joint emergency operations center coordinated by the Department of Public Health and the California Emergency Management Agency.
State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell has directed California school officials to download a free “Keep Our Schools Healthy” tool kit in multiple languages to help prevent the potential spread of swine flu.
ShareThis
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Call The Bee’s Stephen Magagnini, (916) 321-1072.
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http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-dems27-2009apr27,0,4714993.story
From the Los Angeles Times
CALIFORNIA ELECTIONS Ballot measures
State Democrats decline to endorse 3 of 6 ballot measures
The sharply split party’s decision could increase voter confusion on the May 19 measures meant to ease California’s budget crisis.
By Michael Finnegan
April 27, 2009
Reporting from Sacramento — Efforts by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and legislative leaders to win voter approval of six budget measures on the May 19 ballot grew more difficult Sunday when a sharply split state Democratic Party declined to back three of them.
The mixed verdict by more than 1,200 delegates to a state party convention came after a nasty floor fight over the grim menu of proposed solutions to California’s severe budget crisis.
“We’ve got all kinds of divisions,” Art Pulaski, leader of the California Labor Federation, AFL-CIO, said of the fractures among unions that drove the party’s internal rift. “It’s not unusual for us.”
Republicans, too, are split on Propositions 1A through 1F. The state Republican Party has broken with Schwarzenegger, its standard-bearer, and begun fighting the measures.
Taken together, the muddled messages from California’s two major parties threaten to fuel the sort of voter confusion that often spells doom for complicated ballot measures.
The propositions stem from a byzantine deal that lawmakers struck with Schwarzenegger in February to break the political impasse over closing a $42-billion budget shortfall that put California on the brink of insolvency.
On Sunday, the Democrats rejected recommendations from their party’s legislative leaders to support Propositions 1A, 1D and 1E, staying neutral instead. The party endorsed Propositions 1B, 1C and 1F.
Proposition 1A, the most contentious among Democrats, would create a state spending cap and rainy-day reserve — steps pushed by Republicans — while extending billions in new tax increases for up to two years.
“Help us get to the other side of this crisis,” state Senate leader Darrell Steinberg of Sacramento, one of the plan’s brokers, urged fellow Democrats. “Help us to get to a place where we can reinvest in education and healthcare.”
Extending the tax hikes would produce $16 billion for future budgets, he said, and a companion measure, Proposition 1B, would restore $9.3 billion in school cuts starting in 2011. Proposition 1B, backed by the powerful California Teachers Assn., will take effect only if 1A passes.
But Willie L. Pelote Sr., political and legislative director of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees’ California chap- ter, countered Steinberg by bellowing across the vast convention hall that the party must “stand against Republican tyranny” by voting down Proposition 1A.
“Proposition 1A is the most dangerous thing I’ve ever seen,” hollered Pelote, who represents thousands of public employees who fear that a spending cap would put their jobs in jeopardy.
Both sides wielded teachers to beseech delegates to vote their way on 1A, lest classrooms face devastating cuts. Both also argued that their opponents were playing into Republican hands.
When the delegate vote on 1A fell just shy of the 60% needed for an endorsement, Steinberg, improbably, said he was happy with the result. “I consider it a convincing victory,” he said of the loss.
More heated exchanges took place over Propositions 1D, which would free for other purposes more than $600 million now dedicated to children’s programs, and 1E, which would do the same with more than $225 million in mental health care money.
Assemblyman Wesley Chesbro of Arcata said the mental health programs were worthwhile. But when voters approved Proposition 63, the 2004 measure that raised income taxes on the wealthy to pay for the programs, they did not anticipate “the worst budget crisis in the history of the state since the Great Depression,” he said.
An emotional retort came from Anne Zerrien-Lee, a Highland Park teacher who said her 39-year-old son was schizophrenic. She told delegates that Proposition 1E would “kill people who are now receiving treatment.”
“My baby is a flesh and blood baby,” she said. “And I don’t want him thrown under the train.”
Of the measures that won the party’s support, 1C would borrow $5 billion against future lottery revenue to generate quick cash to narrow the budget gap, and 1F would deny lawmakers and statewide elected officials pay raises in years when the state is running a deficit.
michael.finnegan@latimes.com
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http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-ed-endorse26-2009apr26,0,6036380.story
From the Los Angeles Times
ENDORSEMENTS 2009
Yes on 1A, 1C, 1D, 1E and 1F
No on 1B
The good in state propositions outweighs the bad. The Times recommends a yes vote, but not on 1B.
April 26, 2009
Most of the measures on the May 19 special election ballot would help California begin to climb out of its current budget mess while laying a foundation for later, more thoughtful and more far-reaching reform. The Times recommends a yes vote on Propositions 1A, 1C, 1D, 1E and 1F.
Each has negative aspects, and we cannot be as cheerful as the campaign ads that began running last week (“Short-term revenue, long-term stability”). But except for 1B, as explained below, the good outweighs the bad. More details about each of the measures will follow on this page over the coming week, but here’s our thinking on the overall package.
Proposition 1A is the heart of this special election and comes in three key parts: It would create a new, larger “rainy day” reserve that would lock up some state revenue in good years so that there would be enough to help the state weather bad years, like this one, without having to once again jack up taxes or slash programs that Californians don’t want to slash; it would impose a soft spending cap to block lawmakers from launching expensive, ongoing programs with one-time revenue windfalls; and it would extend by up to two years the temporary tax increases that lawmakers adopted in February as part of their long-delayed budget deal.
Holding more money in reserve makes sense. The Legislature has demonstrated its inability to steward revenue that exceeds expectations; lawmakers spend it on new programs that can’t be sustained, or they distribute tax cuts among special interests and find that those cuts too are unsustainable in future years. A larger reserve, with restrictions on when money could be released to pay for new programs, would help protect California from the kind of budgeting disaster that hit last year and will linger at least into next year.
The reserve fund is closely linked to the spending cap, and that gives us pause, because The Times has long objected to hands-free budgeting — decision-making that removes human thinking from the fiscal planning process. But after several decades’ worth of ballot measures that impose formulas to grab cash for education and other favored programs, California finds itself so far down the robo-budgeting road that it may need a bit more automation just to regain its bearings.
Extending the recent sales, vehicle license and income tax increases for a year past their current 2011-2012 sunset date provides revenue crucial to moving the state forward. The benefits outweigh the pain.
Proposition 1B is a different story. Unlike 1A, 1C, 1D and 1E, it brings nothing to the table — no spending reform, no revenue. Most of the propositions are part of a solution, however imperfect. 1B is part of the problem.
It’s ostensibly intended to restore $9.3 billion in funding that public schools and community colleges would get in better economic times under Proposition 98 (the granddaddy of ballot-box budgeting measures, passed in 1988 as an attempt to ensure adequate school funding). But in doing so, it could ratchet up the autopilot spending that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger says he’s trying to stop. We support better funding for schools, but not by imposing more inflexible formulas.
1B isn’t needed for the rest of the package to work as intended. It’s there to persuade the California Teachers Assn. not to campaign against the package. That’s not a good enough reason to pass it.
Proposition 1C would revamp the state lottery, allowing it to be “modernized” through new games, prizes and marketing, while raising $5 billion upfront by allowing investors to buy the rights to future lottery profits. Schools would lose their existing claim on one-third of lottery revenues but would come out ahead, with a new guarantee of $1.1 billion from the general fund.
If borrowing for today against future revenues sounds like a desperate move, well, it is. It’s gambling on gambling. But the investors take most of the risk. Also, unlike 1B, 1C brings in money and does so without additional tax increases. Without the $5 billion it brings, California would have to make up the difference by again raising taxes or by making deeper, and ultimately more expensive, cuts. 1C is a decent bet.
Proposition 1D asks voters to modify a ballot measure they adopted in 1998 that imposes a tobacco tax, including 50 cents on every pack of cigarettes, to fund the successful “First 5″ preschool and child services programs. It’s on the ballot because, to be blunt, the tobacco tax fund has some money, the general fund needs it, and Sacramento deal-makers found it useful to go after it.
The tax has protected children’s programsfrom the revenue roller coaster, and it delivers good results. But without 1D, the state would have to cut other programs that children and their families rely on — foster care, in-home care, health and hospitalization. That means First 5 children and their families may actually be better off with 1D than without it, even though the people who administer the programs may not. First 5 programs would regain complete control of the tobacco tax funds in five years. It’s not an ideal solution, but it’s a useful and pragmatic one.
Proposition 1E is different only in that the fund from which it diverts money is the Proposition 63 “millionaire’s tax,” used for mental health programs. It’s a shame to see money taken from successful programs. But it’s temporary — in this case, only two years — and it’s needed.
Proposition 1F may embody the most frustrating twist of this special election. In polling, Californians say they like this proposition the best, but we suspect that’s because of their mistaken belief that the measure would deprive lawmakers of their pay when the budget is late or out of balance. It wouldn’t. It would merely block their pay raises when a deficit is predicted. This measure is, well, OK. It won’t help much. But it won’t hurt much either.
If 1A, 1C, 1D, 1E and 1F pass, California will still face difficult times. But if they fail, our options will be fewer and more difficult.
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http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-cap27-2009apr27,0,7820430.column
From the Los Angeles Times
CAPITOL JOURNAL
Governor keeps Prop. 1A simple
George Skelton
Capitol Journal
April 27, 2009
From Sacramento — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is concerned the public may be confused about Proposition 1A, the spending control measure he’s backing on the May 19 ballot.
That’s because the Republican right, he asserts, is being “disingenuous” in spinning 1A as a tax increase.
It’s also because people like me, he says, write about how complicated the measure is.
“It’s already complicated as it is,” the governor says, “but the more you write about how complicated it is, the more complicated you make the complication.”
“Explain it a little bit simpler,” he urges in a phone chat.
And how would he explain it, I ask.
“We should just simply describe 1A as a measure that will fix the broken budget system once and for all so that you never have to make those severe cuts again,” he answers. “And you never have to go back to the people for tax increases again. That’s it.”
OK, that’s a stretch, but it gets close to the measure’s intent.
There is a tax element, however, that can’t be ignored and is widely known because of news reporting and talk radio. And it should have been addressed candidly by the Prop. 1A campaign weeks ago.
It’s that if Prop. 1A passes, separate legislation — not on the ballot — automatically will continue sales, income and car tax hikes for up to four years.
The governor explains that when he and legislative leaders were negotiating how to fill a $42-billion deficit hole, they agreed to raise taxes for four years. But they inserted “a little tweak” to discourage public employee unions from pouring money into a ballot fight against the negotiators’ spending cap proposal. They decreed that if 1A lost, the tax hikes would be cut off after two years.
“It’s not fair, really, to say that [1A] raises taxes,” he insists. “I understand that the right spins it that way. But it’s disingenuous.”
In fact, however, the tax hikes will last longer if Prop. 1A passes than if it doesn’t. What’s he tell people when they point that out and complain? He answers:
“You ask people if they want to take that money instead from education. They say ‘No.’ Well, then, do you want to let out prisoners. They say, ‘No, no, no. We don’t want to do that.’ You want to take it from law enforcement? ‘Oh, no.’
“I say, ‘There’s only so much money to go around. You’ve got to make a decision.’ They say, ‘I’d rather pay a little extra in sales taxes and those things.’ ”
Schwarzenegger notes it’s the time-tested tactic of anti-prop strategists to confuse voters.
“Make them feel like the status quo is safer,” he says. “Special interests will always side with the status quo because . . . they can push the legislators around to spend more money and to live beyond our means.”
In this case, Schwarzenegger’ definition of a special interest is any labor union opposed to the 1A spending cap.
“And then the Republicans, of course, are total ideologues,” he continues. “They just care about one thing: Let’s defeat this and let’s see how much power John and Ken have.
“Are John and Ken running the state or is the governor running the state? Who is running the state here?”
John Kobylt and Ken Chiampou are popular talk radio hosts on KFI-AM (640) who regularly rail against taxes, 1A and Sacramento. They rile up the right. Does the governor ever listen? “No. I don’t have time to listen to radio.”
One huge hurdle for the budget-fix ballot measures is the voters’ mistrust of Sacramento. And one contributor to the mistrust was a previous Schwarzenegger “spending control.”
Five years ago, Prop. 58 was supposed to have fixed the budget for all time too. Like 1A, it had a “rainy-day fund.” The new governor vowed to “tear up the credit card and throw it away.”
“We now recognize,” Schwarzenegger says, that the Prop. 58 rainy-day reserve “was not strong enough. It was used always as a slush fund. . . . I should have stayed tougher.”
Under that measure, 3% of annual general fund revenue was supposed to have been transferred into the rainy-day reserve. But the governor could stop the transfer, and twice he did. Also, the reserve could easily be used for any purpose, and it was. So it operated like a petty cash box.
The Prop. 1A rainy-day fund would be bigger and more protected. It ultimately would equal 12.5% of the general fund, roughly twice the size of the envisioned Prop. 58 reserve. The governor could only stop feeding it if money were needed to match the previous year’s spending, adjusted for inflation and population growth.
Again, 3% of general fund revenue would go into the new reserve. But this time it would be harder to raid.
If both Props. 1A and 1B pass, schools will receive half the annual payment — 1.5% — until $9.3 billion in previous budget cuts are restored. If Prop. 1B doesn’t pass, that 1.5% will be spent for infrastructure or bond repayment. Beyond that, the reserve could be tapped only during an emergency, such as an earthquake.
Spending growth would be capped based on the previous 10-year revenue trend. Any excess revenue would go into the rainy-day fund. Prop. 58 lacked such a spending limit.
The idea is to prevent Sacramento from blowing all its money in boom times and to require it to stash a pile for when the economy goes bust.
Sorry, governor, Prop. 1A is complicated. It defies a simple explanation, especially when linked with a tax bill and school funding prop.
There’s stuff to hate for the right and the left. The state Republican Party opposes 1A because of the taxes. The Democratic Party at its state convention Sunday went neutral, fearing the spending control.
But for the broad center — if it bothers to vote — the choice should be simple: Trading temporary taxes for permanent spending constraints is a bargain.
george.skelton@latimes.com
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This story is taken from Sacbee / Capitol and California
Prop. 1C looks to California Lottery to balance state budget
swiegand@sacbee.com
Published Sunday, Apr. 26, 2009
First in a series of stories explaining the measures on the May 19 special-election ballot.
It has been called “the idiots’ tax” and “the poor man’s stock market” – and California’s elected leaders are banking on it to balance the state budget.
It’s the California Lottery, a 23-year-old institution that has never lived up to its promise, but is expected to generate billions of dollars in new revenue if voters approve Proposition 1C on the May 19 special-election ballot.
“We think modernizing the lottery just makes sense for California,” said Rog
Email blast from John Palacio:
Stimulus money may fund summer school, teacher pay
By LIBBY QUAID – 11 hours ago
WASHINGTON (AP) — Education Secretary Arne Duncan has some suggestions for how schools can spend their windfall from the economic stimulus law, including summer school and extra pay for teachers to coach struggling colleagues.
The nation’s schools will get an unprecedented amount of money — about $100 billion, double the amount of education spending under President George W. Bush — over the two-year life of the new stimulus law.
The Obama administration has said generally how it wants the money spent, and it has warned states not to use the money to plug budget holes, despite loopholes created by Congress that would allow that to happen.
On Friday, Duncan planned to outline some ideas on how schools can use the money in a speech at the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls.
“You can identify your best teachers and pay them to coach their colleagues who are having trouble,” Duncan said in prepared remarks. “You may have to scale this down after two years, but it can really help your younger teachers get up to speed.”
Duncan also recommended adding afternoons, weekends and summer days to the school calendar: “Our school day, week and year is too short as it is. Many kids just need more time on task,” he said.
He planned to appear with Gov. Chet Culver and Iowa’s two senators, Democrat Tom Harkin, who serves on key education panels, and Republican Charles Grassley.
Iowa is getting $411 million for education from the stimulus law, which was President Barack Obama’s first order of business when he took office in January.
The education secretary listed several ideas that, where they have been tried, have shown they can help kids learn. They include:
_Sophisticated evaluation systems for teachers and principals.
_Extra pay to reward excellence in teaching or to lure teachers and administrators into struggling schools.
_New charter schools.
_Closing failing schools and reopening them with new staff.
_More technology for classrooms along with training for teachers.
_Modernized science labs and other facilities.
On the Net:
Education Department: http://www.ed.gov
Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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Friday, April 24, 2009
Santa Ana Unified School District Contract cuts back younger teacher retirement benefits
Educators with less than 10 years with Santa Ana Unified will lose five years of health benefits.
By SCOTT MARTINDALE
The Orange County Register
SANTA ANA – Younger teachers are always hit hard when public schools cut their budgets – they’re the first to get pink-slipped and the last to be rehired under seniority-based layoff systems.
In the Santa Ana Unified School District, where nearly 500 teachers face layoffs in June, those fortunate enough to keep their jobs this year will still face some setbacks.
The school district’s 2,700-member teachers union ratified a contract today that strips five years’ worth of retirement health insurance coverage from teachers with less than 10 years of Santa Ana Unified employment. It is expected to be approved Tuesday by the school board.
The new contract will end retirees’ full medical, dental and vision coverage at age 65; that coverage currently runs to age 70. An estimated 800 to 850 employees – all those hired after May 12, 1999 – will be affected, according to the teachers union.
“In this economic climate, it’s all about reducing our costs,” said Juan Lopez, Santa Ana Unified’s associate superintendent of human resources. “We have a very generous medical plan, and we needed to bring it back to something that’s reasonable.”
Affected employees won’t be left high and dry at age 65, however. The teachers, like all retirees nationwide, will qualify for federal Medicare insurance beginning at age 65. Santa Ana Unified expects to be able to offer them affordable supplemental insurance plans as well, Lopez said.
Union leaders said they agreed to the plan to ensure the district would be able to continue to provide some retirement benefits for all employees.
“The retiree plan is very expensive, and we need to have long-term stability with our benefits,” said Ron Shepherd, first vice president of the Santa Ana Educators Association union. “There’s no change to the benefits – the only difference is how long you get them until.”
Santa Ana Unified union leaders said they agreed to set the cut-off date at 10 years because that is when employees become “vested” in the district. Employees must work for Santa Ana Unified for 10 years before they can get full district benefits upon retirement.
“Bargaining teams often have to make tough choices,” said Frank Wells, spokesman for the California Teachers Association. “Some chapters agree to changes that affect one age group more than another because the impact might be much harder on someone who’s already been vested in the system for a long time and who may not be as mobile as a younger member.”
School districts run the gamut in terms of retirement benefits they’re able to offer employees, with the most generous plans offering lifetime coverage, he added.
Contact the writer: 949-454-7394 or smartindale@ocregister.com
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Friday, April 24, 2009
Lowrider show raises money for school
Participants, patrons unite for benefit event.
By THERESA CISNEROS
The Orange County Register
SANTA ANA – A lowrider car show benefiting Roosevelt Elementary School was held Friday night on the school’s field.
About 3,000 spectators and exhibitors flocked to the campus last year. And although attendance figures were not immediately available, organizers estimated that even more would show up this year, said Erik Rossman, the teacher who organized the event.
Drivers paid a $5 entrance donation, and food was sold to help raise money for Roosevelt, which like many schools is experiencing financial hardships.
Participants ranged from those flipping the switches on classic Impalas, to those putting a last-minute shine on chrome bikes. The contest, which included an award ceremony, ran from about 4 to 8 p.m.
Many said they were compelled to enter the show as a way to give back to the community, while at the same time challenging the public perception that many lowrider owners are gang members and trouble makers.
Juan Resendiz, 37, belongs to a car club called Swift, which encompasses more than 100 members in cities ranging from San Diego to Salinas. He said in addition to showcasing their cars in lowrider shows, members often participate in school fundraisers, charity events and blood drives.
The Mercado family of Santa Ana decided to participate to show off the fruits of their labor and to illustrate that sprucing up bikes can be a good way to keep kids from getting swept up in gang and street life.
They belong to a lowrider bike club called Sick Side that’s based in Santa Ana. Along with other club members, the Mercados often fix up salvaged bicycles and enter them in lowrider bike shows. Ten club members are children, who are required to keep their grades up in order to participate.
“It shows the kids to respect the value of a dollar in that they find ways to earn money to buy parts for the bike,” said Cindy Mercado, 35.
“It also shows them that it’s easy to start and finish a project,” added her husband, Chris “Tiny” Mercado, 37.
Those who attended the show said they were there to support the school in this time of financial difficulty.
“Anywhere that we can support our kids, we’re there,” said Santa Ana Unified School District parent Vivian Martinez.
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Stimulus money puts teachers in layoff limbo
Funds trickle out, leaving many state and local education budgets in flux.
By Stacy Teicher Khadaroo | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
from the April 21, 2009 edition
districts. Educators welcome the aid, but with most districts just starting to get estimates of how much they’ll receive, it’s adding complexity to an already confusing budget cycle.
Particularly challenging – and emotional – are decisions about how many teachers’ jobs to fund for next year.
Deadlines have been coming up for renewing contracts, yet many state and local education budgets are in flux. That’s putting tens of thousands of teachers into layoff limbo.
In some cases, jobs have already been saved. But pink slips are also going out, even as district leaders hope a good number of those jobs can be salvaged in time for the new school year.
A look at several states and school districts sheds light on the tension between multiple goals for the stimulus money – saving jobs, reforming education, and avoiding becoming too dependent on a funding stream due to dry up in two years.
“Nobody’s ever seen a raft of new money like that [for education] … so people have had a hard time figuring out what to do,” says Bruce Hunter, an associate executive director of the American Association of School Administrators (AASA) in Arlington, Va.
In some states, such as California, the stimulus money won’t be enough to offset budget shortfalls. “The problem now is the state revenue estimates keep dropping,” Mr. Hunter says. “It has made it nearly impossible to plan … so people have handed out a lot of layoff notices.”
An AASA survey found that 44 percent of school districts planned to lay off staff for 2009-10. The survey was taken in March – after the stimulus legislation had passed, but before school districts could know details.
Absent the stimulus, the number of K-12 jobs lost by 2011 would probably total about 574,000 – 9 percent of the field, according to a February analysis by University of Washington professor Marguerite Roza.
It will be a while before anyone knows how many school jobs the stimulus really saves. But in Los Angeles, it has already spared some teachers. The school board voted last week to rescind nearly 2,000 layoff notices that had gone out to elementary school teachers in March.
But more than 5,000 other teaching, administrative, and support positions are still slated for elimination.
One of those jobs is Julie Van Winkle’s. She’s a math and science teacher at the John H. Liechty Middle School, and with five years of experience, she’s a mentor to other teachers. But because she taught at a charter school for several years, her seniority clock started over when she returned to the district this year.
“It’s frustrating because … there aren’t a lot of teachers whose first choice is to teach middle school … particularly in this community,” where most of the students come from low-income families, Ms. Van Winkle says.
Because so many teachers at her school are relatively new, about 70 percent received termination notices from the district. “It could really change the whole culture at our school,” she says.
Her union, United Teachers Los Angeles, has urged the district to make other cuts and use more of the stimulus money right away to save teachers’ jobs. “The district is playing with people’s lives,” says president A.J. Duffy. “If they continue what they say they are doing, which is finding the fat, they could find the extra money,” he says. The group is planning demonstrations in the coming weeks.
With a projected shortfall of $1.4 billion over the next two years, largely because of state cuts, the L.A. schools cannot avoid increasing class sizes and cutting some teachers, district leaders say. Without the stimulus, “it would have been twice as bad,” says school board president Mónica García. More than 1,000 jobs are being cut from the administrative side, she notes.
The board plans to seek additional stimulus dollars that the US Department of Education will be handing out on a competitive basis to districts that pursue key reforms. “We didn’t want to just preserve the status quo … and we heard Washington say loud and clear … ‘We’re going to be holding you accountable for results,’ ” Ms. García says.
For states to obtain one part of the stimulus designated primarily for education (called stabilization funds), they must submit an application to the US Department of Education explaining how the money will be used. California, South Dakota, and Illinois are the first states to have their applications approved. Almost $4 billion – $2.6 billion of it for K-12 – was released to California last weekend, for instance, and it can apply for another $2 billion this fall.
Three other states – Maine, Utah, and Mississippi – have sent in applications, and many more are expected to soon. The department has pledged to respond to applications within two weeks.
Van Winkle says she understands that budget cuts are necessary, but she thinks they’re falling too heavily on teachers. In her school, students stay with the same teacher in sixth and seventh grades, so they “could be losing a teacher they’ve made a deep connection with,” she says. She and many of her colleagues are hopeful that putting up a fight might save their jobs, “but it would be naive to count on that,” she says. “We should start looking, but we’re so attached to our school and our students that we’re kind of in denial.”
In Arizona, educators are waiting to see how deep state cuts will be. The Gilbert Public School district looked at a “worst-case scenario” and sent layoff notices to 267 teachers and more than 100 other staff by an April 15 deadline, says board president Thad Stump. Under this scenario, the district will need to cut $27 million for next year, a little more than 10 percent of its current budget.
Officials there hope to find savings in other areas and recall a substantial number of those teachers once the budget is finalized. But it could be late June before budget numbers come in from the state.
Hundreds of people showed up for a recent board meeting in Gilbert, including teachers, students, and parents pleading to save teachers’ jobs. “There were tears, both in the audience and from the board members. I have never seen a meeting that was full of that much emotion,” Mr. Stump says. But in the end, the board was unified on budget cuts and teacher layoffs. “Everybody understands that there is an economic crisis,” he says.
Setting budgets based on the worst-case scenario is one way for districts to protect themselves if revenues continue to decline, but it’s “a scary thing,” says Edward Kealy, executive director of the Committee for Education Funding, an education coalition in Washington. “Once you lay off teachers, they may not be available if you want them in the coming months.”
For Andre Ravenelle, superintendent of the Fitchburg, Mass., public schools, federal money for low-income and special-education students is a major boost. But it just doesn’t seem wise to count on the other portion of the stimulus – about $500,000 that his district has been told it will receive through state stabilization funds. “Either the state or the town could reduce our budget accordingly,” he says.
Through a consolidation of middle schools and other cuts, he expects to reduce the district’s staff by about 20 positions. To ensure that some teachers are available for rehire as jobs open up over the next few years, he hopes to create full-time substitute positions – an idea that came up in conversation with other education leaders in the state who are searching for ways to use the stimulus money without falling off a funding cliff when it disappears in two years.
The debate over how to use the state stabilization funds has been most pronounced in South Carolina, where Gov. Mark Sanford (R) has argued that the money should be used to pay down state debt. A high school senior filed a lawsuit last Thursday trying to force open the way for the legislature to spend the money on schools without the governor’s approval.
“There is definitely concern that [the stimulus money] will get diffused and diluted by other political pressures within states,” Mr. Kealy says.
To keep up pressure to use the money to truly improve schools, the Coalition for Student Achievement was launched last week by more than 30 education, civil rights, business, and philanthropic groups in the US.
“It’s awfully hard, when you’re trying to keep teachers in the classroom and school buses running, to be thinking about, ‘How do I bring real reform?’ But … the public doesn’t expect business as usual in any aspect of the economy,” said Bob Wise, president of the Alliance for Excellent Education, a member of the coalition, in a conference call with reporters last week. “No one should think that coming out of the economic crisis with the same educational outcomes is a success.”
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How Prop 1A is Being Packaged
By Anthony Wright
Executive Director of Health Access California
So much of the campaign around Prop 1A is to package it with the other initiatives, and then sell the entire package as a whole, even though the parts are very different, with different consequences.
The Governor has made two arguments. One is to sell the package as the ultimate solution to our budget crisis: “We have a chance to fix this once and for all.” But no one believes that. Not the LAO. Not his own budget crunchers. Not the budget passed earlier this year, nor the pending ballot measures package, solve the fundamental issue of the mismatch between the level of services the state provides, and the revenues the state brings in. Severe cuts were made, but the revenues are temporary. And even in the short-term, given the extent of the economic crisis, California has a significant deficit on May 20th regardless of the vote on May 19th.
Unable to continue that argument with a straight face, there’s a new line. The new tact has been arguing that the state will fall off a cliff if the package is voted down. But let’s tease out the package: Proposition 1A will have zero impact on the deficit on May 20th. The impacts of its passage, whether of additional revenues for 1-2 years in 2011-13, or the long-term constitutional contraints on spending and investment, don’t kick in for a few years.
The measures that do have an impact on the deficit on May 20th are Propositions 1C, and to a lesser extent, Props 1D & 1E. Proposition 1C would allow the state budgeters to book $5 billion in budget solutions. While some may question the wisdom or even the actual ability of California to “securitize” the lottery, it’s Proposition 1C’s failure that will make the deficit $5 billion bigger.
Similarly, if Props 1D &1E are voted down, and the general fund is thus not able to take money from voter-approved funds for services for children and the mentally ill, then the general fund deficit is bigger, but at a smaller scale–less than $1 billion for both measures.
It would be more forthright if the proponents, in their alarmist rhetoric, focused on Proposition 1C, arguing that if that measure goes down, the budget outlook of cuts or taxes would be significantly worse. But they don’t think they can sell it. So they are trying to package it with the other measures, and use the elements of Prop 1A to somehow sell Proposition 1C.
Besides, the Governor in particular sees his legacy in Prop 1A. As he said, “I mean, I’ve been fighting for five years now for budget reform, to put a rainy-day fund aside and to put a certain cap on spending. I wasn’t successful. I tried through the Legislature when I first came into office; I tried in 2005 to go directly to the people, but apparently it wasn’t inclusive enough so that failed — the idea was good but it failed. And so here was our chance again…. ”
There’s an irony here. He failed in 2005 to pass a spending cap in Proposition 76, which was unpopular from the start. Voters didn’t like placing limits on the services they depend on–education, health care, public safety, etc; nor did they like giving the Governor unilateral authority to make certain cuts. (I believe they still don’t.) The opponents used Proposition 76 to help discredit the Governor and the entire package, including other measures that ended up losing by much closer margins.
Now the Governor is trying to use another spending cap proposal to prop up his entire package. But it’s a fundamentally unpopular notion to begin with, so I don’t know if it will be successful. It seems it is a strange strategy, given recent history.
Health Access California promotes quality, affordable health care for all Californians.
Health Access California is a statewide health care consumer advocacy coalition of over 200 groups. This article has also been published on the Health Access Weblog.
Posted on April 21, 2009
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Props 1A-1E, A True Plan
Jay Hansen,
Legislative Director, State Building & Construction Trades Council, AFL-CIO
There has been discussion on these pages recently in relation to Props 1A-1E, calling on Legislators to come up with an alternative “May 20 strategy”. However, such calls are both politically unrealistic and fail to acknowledge the significant gains our Democratic legislators accomplished in this past year’s budget and in putting Props 1A-1E on the ballot.
True, there is something for everyone to dislike about this budget. Healing a $40+ billion deficit while dealing with the tyranny of a 2/3 budget requirement inherently means that any budget will have to be about compromises. Until our flawed system is changed, these are the rules we must operate under.
But the fact is that this budget deal – and Props 1A-1E by extension – represent a compromise that upholds essential Democratic values and programs while putting in place a budget system that will stabilize spending over the long term to ensure we have savings to stave off the deepest of cuts during future recessions. In short, it could have been a lot worse and if these measures don’t pass, rest assured it will be.
We cannot ignore that, for the first time in a long time, this budget brings in more than $30 billion in new revenues to our state to fund vital services and protect against even more draconian cuts. And let’s be clear: there are no more tax increases where these came from – there will only be budget cuts regardless of the severity.
So instead of lamenting about some ill-defined “new solution” that’s both politically and practically infeasible, members of the Democratic Party need to rally behind our leadership and support Props 1A-1E. Passing Props 1A-1E is our May 20 strategy. It’s as simple as that.
The reality is that without these reforms the state is right back to where it was with a monumental deficit that threatened people’s quality of life. In fact, given the change of Senate Republican leadership, without Props 1A-1E, next years’ budget will be monumentally worse and crippling to the programs and services Democrats care most about.
If these initiatives do not pass, the Republican minority, already entrenched in their beliefs against taxes at all costs, will be empowered by the belief that these measures failed on the premise that Californians do not want more taxes. The minority party will rally behind their calls for further, crippling cuts with no revenues and the state government will be in another stalemate without an end in sight. Additionally, the spending cap proposals will become more and more onerous and in all likelihood an outside third party will run a ballot initiative on their own capitalizing on the anger of everyday Californians.
We just need to look back four months to remember what a prolonged budget standoff cost our state and its hard-working families. Tens of thousands of our members in the construction trades saw their jobs on the line as construction projects were near shut-down due to the state’s financial dysfunction. Tens of thousands of public employees were being furloughed. Seniors, kids and lower income were at risk of losing services. Small businesses that provide services and goods to the state were being shunned. Taxpayers nearly had refund checks delayed.
So instead of more revenue being pumped into our state as well as a comprehensive budget system to protect from significant deficits in the future, without Props 1A-1E California will be left with a gaping hole in the budget and an empowered minority party. This is not fear-mongering, but an honest assessment of the current situation.
The simple fact is that this budget was difficult. This budget was not pretty. But under very difficult circumstances our Democratic leaders negotiated what is the best political deal they could. And Props 1A-1E need to be ratified to protect us against something far worse.
Jay Hansen is the Legislative Director for the CA Building Trades Council, AFL-CIO representing their 350,000 members before the California State Legislature.
Posted on April 22, 2009
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dailypress.com/news/dp-local_hnurses_0422apr22,0,1618855.story
dailypress.com
Schools will lose nurses as their roles become more demanding than ever
By Samieh Shalash
247-4537
April 22, 2009
HAMPTON — A brown-haired girl muffles a constant cough as she walks into the clinic at Booker Elementary. She shows a freshly-ripped thumbnail to the nurse.
Martha Wayman bandages the thumb, listens to the girl’s lungs with a stethoscope, then calls her mother to recommend cough medicine.
Next year, students may not find such quick help when they stop by their school’s clinic.
Every school will open with a full-time nurse but may lose them through attrition. When nurses resign, schools with 299 or fewer students will be allotted a half-day nurse. Four schools have enrollment lower than 300 in Hampton.
The shift is a casualty of a $7.6 million shortfall in the district’s budget.
Losing full-time nurses will move the 22,500-student school system at least a decade back in progress, said Linda Lawrence, the district’s health services coordinator.
The responsibility for health care will fall to teachers and secretaries if a nurse isn’t available, Wayman said, and staff will have to dial 911 if they can’t handle a situation.
At Booker, Wayman works daily with two diabetic fourth graders. They measure their blood sugar in her clinic, count carbs after they eat lunch and calculate how much insulin they need.
Students with asthma drop by her office to puff on their inhalers. Others come in with stomach aches to lie down. A line forms after lunch time of students who need daily behavior medication.
Chronic illnesses have shot up in the past few years, Lawrence said. As of October, there were 3,300 asthmatic students and 780 received inhalers at school.
There were 149 students with documented seizure disorders, 1,612 students with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. About 140 students have epi-pens at the school clinic for severe food allergies.
Without a full-time nurse on staff, the burden to treating students will cut into a teacher’s day, Wayman said. She’s worked at Booker for six years.
“It’ll be hard for everybody,” she said. “If the kids are sick, they may not be learning. I just don’t think teachers should have to be nurses, they are busy, busy, busy.”
Fourth-grade teacher Nancy Trimble has worked at Booker for 36 years and remembers the days when nurses weren’t there full time.
“Now we much more readily send a child to the clinic because we know there’s an expert there,” she said. “If someone’s not there, we’d have to screen them more carefully, which takes us away from instructional time.”
And since she’s not a triage nurse, Trimble said there’s more room for error when untrained staff members treat children.
She sends children to Wayman about three times a week for everything from diabetes treatment to sore throats.
“She’s very alert to every child’s needs,” Trimble said. “She personalizes every child.”
As more parents lose jobs and insurance because of the economy, Wayman anticipates them depending even more on school nurses.
Pat Haith, a nurse at Bridgeport Academy, urged the School Board to reconsider the cuts at a public budget hearing in March.
She described her peers as constantly busy helping students with urinary catheters, tube feedings, seizure management, suicide risk assessments, substance abuse assessments and teen pregnancies.
“While cuts in nursing could result in lower costs,” Haith said, “there’s a real risk of false savings. Children deserve to have someone trained and licensed to attend to medical needs.”
Going part time
Schools with 299 or fewer students will cut back to part-time nurses through attrition next year.
Schools with enrollment below
299 as of March 31:
Moton Early Childhood Center
(a pre-K school): 250 students
Hampton Harbour Academy,
an alternative middle school:
75 students
Mary Peake Gifted Center for 3rd, 4th and 5th graders: 177 students
Bridgeport Academy, an alternative high school: 174 students
Copyright © 2009, Newport News, Va., Daily Press
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LAUSD targets teacher shields
By George B. Sanchez, Staff Writer
Updated: 04/22/2009 10:26:28 PM PDT
Daily News
Embarking on a monumental task that some say is doomed to fail, Los Angeles Unified school officials are taking aim at state laws that make it virtually impossible to fire teachers.
Facing unprecedented layoffs, including 3,500 teachers with less than two year’s experience, district officials and their allies say they need the power to cull bad teachers from the ranks or students will suffer in the classroom.
“It’s about weeding out people who shouldn’t be working with our kids,” said Tamar Galatzan, a board of education member who represents part of the San Fernando Valley.
On Tuesday, the school board is scheduled to vote on a pair of resolutions to change state teacher protections as well as internal teacher promotion policy. Among them, they will seek to rewrite codes that favor teacher and administrator seniority during layoffs that allow senior staff to “bump” less senior staff out of their jobs, creating a domino effect that leads to the loss of new, nontenured teachers.
Also, the board has proposed a new evaluation method that would automatically fire teachers if they received two consecutive poor performance reviews. A better evaluation method, say district officials, will improve teaching morale and student achievement.
If approved, the measures will kick off a drawn-out fight with California’s powerful teachers unions, who hotly oppose any changes to existing laws. The rules protecting teacher jobs are so effective that just 31 teachers have lost their jobs in the state in the past five years.
Teachers union officials say employees deserve job protection so that they can not be arbitrarily fired by a principal with a grudge.
“Does the public want vocal teachers to be fired because an administrator doesn’t want to have a voice of opposition?” said A.J. Duffy, president of United Teachers Los Angeles.
District officials missed the Feb. 27 deadline to introduce new legislation this year, so if they do decide to move forward they will have to wait until 2010.
Still, LAUSD board members and Superintendent Ramon Cortines – with the support of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa – say it is time to overhaul the decades-old legal codes that protect teachers by seniority, but pay scant attention to competency and performance.
While recognizing their proposal will start a long struggle with the teachers unions and likely unsettle political alliances in Sacramento, board members say with so much attention on public education right now, there’s no better time to begin.
California school districts do not have the authority to fire teachers, according to state law. If a teacher is targeted for dismissal, teachers have the right to take their case to an administrative hearing, where an administrative judge and two school officials hear the case and decide.
In the past five years, 31 teachers across the state have lost their jobs after administrative hearings, said Kathleen Collins, an attorney for LAUSD.
Approximately 149 LAUSD teachers are currently awaiting a dismissal hearing and have been removed from the classroom. All but 17 – a total of 132 people – continue to receive a paycheck, according to district records.
“There is an incentive for a bad employee to fight because they continue to get paid,” Galatzan said.
The two motions were first introduced by board members Marlene Canter and Galatzan on April 14, the same day the board voted 4-3 to lay off nearly 7,000 teachers.
The layoffs were prompted by the district’s budget deficit, which some fear could reach $1.3billion over three years.
The layoffs come at a difficult time for Villaraigosa, who this academic year began overseeing 10 schools under a partnership with the district. He has begun to speak out against the layoffs, which could effectively cost him all of the principals and assistant principals and about 200 teachers at the 10 schools.
“I believe in seniority, but you can take things to a point where it becomes unfair to other people, too,” Villaraigosa said. “Why should administrators be able to bump into the school? They should bump other administrators but not all the way down.”
The motion to change state law, Canter explained, is the first step in an attempt to fix a broken dismissal system.
“These conversations are being held all over town,” Canter said.
The second resolution, authored by Canter, calls for changes to the district’s internal process that promotes teachers to tenure.
Currently, teachers become permanent after two years with little internal scrutiny.
“It’s a passive process,” Canter said. “If nothing is done, teachers still become permanent.”
The day after voting to lay off teachers, Canter flew to Sacramento to discuss the resolutions with state lawmakers Gloria Romero, Julia Brownley, Karen Bass and Secretary of Education Glen Thomas.
“This type of legislation would be a difficult challenge,” said Santiago Jackson, director of LAUSD’s governmental affairs unit. “Similar attempts have been made in the past but they failed due to opposition from the California Teachers Association and UTLA.”
Mike O’Sullivan, president of the Associated Administrators of Los Angeles, had an even bleaker view.
“It has no chance of passing,” O’Sullivan said.
The head of the Los Angeles teachers union said the problem is not with state laws that protect teachers, but principals who fail to help teachers become better educators.
“If administrators would do their jobs and identify teachers who are struggling, give them guidance and assistance; and if those people do not improve, then they should be written up,” Duffy said. “If administrators did their job, then we could deal with the issue now.”
Over the past months as district officials crept slowly toward making mass layoffs, parents demanded that young and probationary teachers be spared. But parents also understand it is a delicate issue that must balance reform while maintaining protections.
“Many parents feel the seniority should be revised but teachers need protection against discrimination and favoritism,” said Diana Kunce, whose children attend Westwood Charter School. “We’re interested in true collaboration and true reform. This is a complex issue.”
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Matilda Del Torre, 10, rises from her walker to shoot a goal at the Kiwanis Barrier Free Park during ceremonies Thursday. Larry Foster, at left, of the Fast Breakin’ Lakers wheel chair basketball team was on hand to help the children break in the handicapped-friendly court in Santa Ana. JEBB HARRIS, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Sports court for the disabled dedicated in Santa Ana
Wheelchair-accessible area is open to children from across the county.
By THERESA CISNEROS
The Orange County Register
3
SANTA ANA Raul Ayala Jr. always dreamed of rising from his wheelchair and walking.
But as muscular dystrophy robbed him of that goal, the teen delighted in something equally as freeing: zooming along long, concrete paths inside a handicapped-accessible area of Carl Thornton Park.
Although the Valley High School student died in 2006 of complications from the disorder, his spirit lives on through a new wheelchair-accessible sports court, dedicated today in his honor.
“My son felt that he was worth less than other people,” Raul Ayala Sr. said in Spanish, with tears welling in his eyes. “But here, at the park, he felt normal.”
The Raul Ayala Jr. Sports Court is the most recent amenity added to the Barrier Free Park, which was established in 1993 by the Kiwanis Club of Santa Ana inside Thornton Park to give disabled kids the chance to engage in a range of recreational activities, often for the first time.
The green and burgundy court can host entertainment events, and games like badminton and shuffleboard. It also features adjustable backboards that can be lowered for use in wheelchair basketball matches.
The project was more than three years in the making and cost about $300,000. Financial backing came from various sources, including the city, the county, the Kiwanis Club, companies and individuals.
While he was alive, Ayala served as the poster child for the club’s fundraising campaign. Organizers said his story inspired donors, enabling the club to contribute about $100,000 toward the project.
In the future, club members also hope to raise enough funds to install restrooms, lights, bleachers, and a touch-and-feel garden for the blind inside the Barrier Free Park.
Handicapped-accessible play spaces are a rare but increasing contingent in Orange County, said Janis White, chief operating officer for the Regional Center of Orange County, which serves about 9,000 children with varying degrees of disabilities.
She said places like the Barrier Free Park help form a sense of community, in that they encourage families with disabled children to interact with others.
“This gives families the opportunity to take children with disabilities outside with other children instead of staying in their backyard on the swing set,” she said. “They’re able to be out with everyone else.”
Kiwanis member George Upton, who’s led the club’s outreach efforts to the disabled community since the 1980s, emphasized that the facility is open to children across the county.
“We don’t want this to be just a Santa Ana park,” he said. “We want it to be a park for everyone.”
Information: http://kiwanissantaana.com
Contact the writer: tcisneros@ocregister.com or 714-704-3707
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Friday, April 17, 2009
Santa Ana Lions Club: Soccer tourney raises funds for needy kids
Santa Ana Host Lions Club will use donations to provide vision care and glasses.
By THERESA CISNEROS
The Orange County Register
The Santa Ana Host Lions Club is hosting an inaugural soccer tournament Saturday to raise funds to provide vision care and glasses for needy children.
The 2009 Fred Walker Cup runs from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Century High School, 1401 S. Grand Ave.
It’s named for longtime club member Fred Walker Sr., who owned and operated Walker’s Market on the corner of Tustin Avenue and 17th Street from the 1950s to the 1980s.
Admission to the event is free and open to the public.
It features soccer matches, food vendors, informational booths and more.
There will also be opportunity drawings for prizes like gift certificates to local restaurants, and lunch and a tour of the police station with Police Chief Paul Walters.
Registration is $450 per team and $25 per individual. Sign ups for both are still open. All players receive a commemorative jersey and lunch.
The group is seeking to raise between $2,000 and $2,500 through Saturday’s event, said President Cecilia Aguinaga. Funds will go toward eye care for children in the Santa Ana Unified School District.
The Santa Ana Host Lions Club was founded in 1922 and is part of Lions Clubs International.
For more information, call Cecilia Aguinaga at 714-478-2918 or visit http://www.fredwalkercup.com.
Contact the writer: tcisneros@ocregister.com or 714-704-3707
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Some graduation rates worse with high school exit exam, study finds
ShareThis
By Melody Gutierrez
mgutierrez@sacbee.com
Published: Wednesday, Apr. 22, 2009 – 12:00 am | Page 4A
Low-achieving students from California high schools are graduating at a substantially lower rate than those in the past who were not required to take the state’s exit exam, according to a Stanford University study released Tuesday.
Up to 22,000 students each year do not graduate as a result of the high school exit exam.
The study counters the claim that a required test to graduate from high school will motivate low-achieving students to work harder.
The Stanford study looked at graduation rates for students who stayed in school all four years – both before and after California initiated the exit exam. Since the test became a requirement, the study found, a disproportionate number of those who didn’t graduate because of the test are minorities and girls.
“These are clearly troubling (numbers), and no one can be happy that they are having a disproportionate effect,” said Sean Reardon, associate professor of education at Stanford University and author of the study. “We find no positive impact at all on student achievement.”
Twenty-two states require students to pass a high school exit exam in order to graduate, including California, which instituted the test in 2006.
“Effects of the California High School Exit Exam on Student Persistence, Achievement and Graduation” shows that graduation rates dropped 15 percent to 19 percent among minorities and girls after the introduction of the exit exam.
“I continue to believe that the exit exam plays an important role in our work to ensure that a high school diploma has meaning,” State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell said in a statement released Tuesday.
“While reports like this call for us to redouble our efforts to improve instruction and effective interventions, I remain wholly committed to maintaining a high standard of expectations for all students,” he said.
Reardon, the study’s author, cited “stereotype threat,” in part for some students’ failure. High-stakes tests, he said, create more stress in minority students and girls because they worry their performance will confirm negative perceptions about their group.
Cassandra Mendez, head counselor at Foothill High School, said the stereotype that girls are low performers in math leads to more test anxiety among female students.
“I just had a girl who said she wanted to drop out of school because she didn’t pass the math part (of the California exit exam),” Mendez said. “It’s a constant struggle for them. It’s heartbreaking.”
Students begin taking the test their sophomore year and have multiple chances to pass it. Foothill has 22 seniors who will take either the math or English portion of the exit exam on May 12 and 13. Six of those are girls who need to pass math.
“We have different programs and we try to do interventions and have teachers do an intensive program,” Mendez said. “If we keep this test around, we need more programs to build these kids’ self- esteem.”
The Stanford study examined four large California school districts in Fresno, Long Beach, San Francisco and San Diego. Reardon said the results were similar throughout the four districts, suggesting a statewide problem.
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Call The Bee’s Melody Gutierrez, (916) 326-5521.
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Dan Walters: Stanford study of exit exam shows fallacy
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By Dan Walters
dwalters@sacbee.com
Published: Wednesday, Apr. 22, 2009 – 12:00 am | Page 3A
California celebrates diversity and individualism as virtues, but oddly, when it comes to public education, we try to stuff 6 million students from countless ethnic, cultural, linguistic and economic backgrounds into rigidly constructed curricula and expect them to adhere uniformly to arbitrary “standards.”
This approach – imposed by adults for their own reasons – manifests itself in such fallacious policies as compelling all students in some districts to take college prep classes, denigrating vocational and other nonacademic offerings and, most illogically, decreeing that no one can obtain a high school diploma without passing a so-called “exit exam.”
Such one-size-fits-all policies undermine the very essence of education, which should be to provide students with widely varying aptitudes, talents, interests, aspirations and, yes, intelligences with the opportunity to develop to their fullest potentials, whatever they may be.
Not surprisingly, that approach has failed miserably. California ranks near the bottom in nationwide achievement tests of basic skills. At least a quarter of its students don’t make it through high school – more than 50 percent in some districts.
Stanford University has been at the forefront of conducting deep research into California’s educational shortcomings, most notably a 1,700-page study a few years ago calling for a top-to-bottom reform, which so far has been ignored by politicians whose interest in education begins and ends with money.
Stanford’s Institute for Research on Education Policy has released a new study, this time zeroing in on the high school exit exam that was finally implemented a few years ago after several false starts, concluding that it’s been a bust.
The study found no evidence that exit exams had elevated overall academic achievement. It did determine that female, African American and Latino students underperform on the mathematics portion of the test, while all nonwhite students do relatively poorly on the English language portion.
“The exit exam has reduced graduation rates among girls and students of color in the lowest- performing quartile by nearly 20 percentage points,” says a synopsis of study findings.
One aspect of the Stanford study’s findings is what researchers call the “stereotype threat,” defined as the extra stress on female and nonwhite students to do well on tests, fearing that failure would confirm negative stereotypes.
California’s education crisis will not be solved by quick fixes such as exit exams, no matter how superficially appealing they may be. The earlier Stanford studies showed the way – policies based on sound research into what really works in the classroom and what doesn’t, backed up by enough money to provide the varied curricula that an infinitely diverse student population requires.
Schools, after all, are supposed to benefit kids – and the state – not be an arena for adults’ ideological jousting.
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Call The Bee’s Dan Walters, (916) 321-1195. Back columns, http://www.sacbee.com/walters.
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April 23, 2009
Study Cites Dire Economic Impact of Poor Schools
By JAVIER C. HERNANDEZ
The New York Times
WASHINGTON — The lagging performance of American schoolchildren, particularly among poor and minority students, has had a negative economic impact on the country that exceeds that of the current recession, according to a report released on Wednesday.
The study, conducted by the management consulting firm McKinsey & Company, pointed to bleak disparities in test scores on four fronts: between black and Hispanic children and white children; between poor and wealthy students; between Americans and students abroad; and between students of similar backgrounds educated in different parts of the country.
The report concluded that if those achievement gaps were closed, the yearly gross domestic product of the United States would be trillions of dollars higher, or $3 billion to $5 billion more per day.
This was the second report on education issues by the firm’s social sector office, which said it was not commissioned by any government, business or other institution. Starting in fall 2008, the researchers reviewed federal and international tests and interviewed education researchers and economists.
In New York City, an analysis of 2007 federal test scores for fourth graders showed strikingly stratified achievement levels: While 6 percent of white students in city schools scored below a base achievement level on math, 31 percent of black students and 26 percent of Hispanic students did. In reading, 48 percent of black students and 49 percent of Hispanic students failed to reach that base level, but 19 percent of white students did.
The New York City schools chancellor, Joel I. Klein, who introduced the findings at the National Press Club in Washington, said the study vindicated the idea that the root cause of test-score disparities was not poverty or family circumstances, but subpar teachers and principals. He pointed to an analysis in the report showing low-income black fourth graders from the city outperformed students in all other major urban districts on reading (they came in second in math).
“Schools can be the game changer,” he said. “We are able to get very, very different results with the same children.”
On Tuesday, Mr. Klein was in Albany attempting to persuade legislators to leave control of the city’s schools in the hands of the mayor, a governance model adopted by the state in 2002 that is due to expire in June. A crucial measurement of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s seven years at the helm will be Mr. Klein’s progress in narrowing the achievement gap in a city where 32 percent of students are black and 40 percent are Hispanic.
While state test scores have shown improvement since Mr. Klein took office, eighth-grade scores on federal math and reading tests, known as the National Assessment of Educational Progress, have not shown significant increases since 2002.
In an interview after the speech here, Mr. Klein said he would be the first to acknowledge that the city was not where it needed to be in closing the gap, particularly in middle schools. But, he added, there have been signs of progress among younger students, and he believed the city’s four-year graduation rates — 69 percent for white students, 47 percent for black students and 43 percent for Hispanic students — could reach state averages within five or six years.
He said it would require a focus on finding ways to recruit high-quality teachers.
Nationally, the gap in test performance between white and Hispanic students grows by 41 percent from Grade 4 through 12, and between white and black students it grows 22 percent, the report said. Students educated in different regions also showed marked variation in test performance, despite having similar demographic backgrounds. In Texas, for instance, schools are given about $1,000 less per student than California schools, but Texas children are on average one to two years of learning ahead of their counterparts in California.
The Rev. Al Sharpton, Mr. Klein’s partner in leading an alliance that is attempting to electrify the cause of making radical changes in education, criticized those who opposed their efforts.
“There are no sacred cows in this,” Mr. Sharpton said to the audience of 200 education leaders at the press club.
Arne Duncan, the federal secretary of education, told the audience that the report showed the need for robust data systems to track student and teacher performance; for alignment of American standards with those in other countries; and for incentives to keep good teachers and principals.
“In many situations, our schools are perpetuating poverty and are perpetuating social failure,” he said, adding that the federal education bureaucracy had often hindered past efforts.
He expressed support for the idea of radically restructuring the bottom 1 percent of schools in the country, possibly by closing and reconstituting them.
The writers of the study pointed to signs of optimism amid the dreary numbers. Byron G. Auguste, the director of the social sector office at McKinsey, which produced the study, said there was evidence that two dozen countries over the past two decades had significantly overhauled their educational systems and closed achievement gaps. He also pointed to high-performing systems in the United States, like those in Massachusetts and Texas. The trick, he said, would be to share effective strategies.
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Cities in Crisis 2009: Closing the Graduation Gap
Cities in Crisis 2009: Closing the Graduation Gap, prepared for America’s Promise Alliance by the Editorial Projects in Education Research Center, shows that despite some progress made by several cities from 1995-2005, the average graduation rate of the 50 largest cities is well below the national average of 71%, and there remains an 18 percentage point urban suburban gap. Cities in Crisis 2009 finds that only about half (53%) of all young people in the nation’s 50 largest cities are graduating from high school on time. Cities in Crisis 2009 was released on April 22 as a follow-up to the original Cities in Crisis report released in April 2008.
Cities that saw the greatest improvement in graduation rates include Philadelphia, Pa. (23 percentage points); Tucson, Ariz. (23 percentage points); Kansas City, Mo. (20 percentage points); El Paso, Tex. (14 percent percentage points); Portland, Ore. (13 percentage points); and New York City (13 percentage points). Other cities with an increase of 10 or more percentage points in graduation rates were Atlanta, Ga.; Austin, Tex.; Columbus, Oh.; Dallas, Tex.; Fort Worth, Tex.; Mesa, Ariz.; and Miami, Fla. Still, nineteen of the country’s 50 largest cities have seen the graduation rate at their principal school district decline within the last decade. Those with the greatest decrease in graduation rates include Las Vegas, Nev. (-23 percentage points); Wichita, Kan. (-18 percentage points); Omaha, Neb. (-15 percentage points); Arlington, Tex. (-12 percentage points); Albuquerque, N.M. (-7 percentage points); and San Francisco, CA (-7 percentage points).
Nationwide, nearly one in three U.S. high school students fails to graduate with a diploma. In total, approximately 1.2 million students drop out each year – averaging 7,000 every school day or one every 26 seconds. Among minority students, the problem is even more severe with nearly 50 percent of African American and Hispanic students not completing high school on time.
Cities in Crisis 2009: Closing the Graduation Gap also looked at the economic and employment landscape for those with varied educational levels, including those without a high school diploma. It revealed that those who drop out of high school are less likely to be steadily employed, and earn less income when they are employed, compared with those who graduate from high school. Approximately one-third (37 percent) of high school dropouts nationwide are steadily employed and are more than twice as likely to live in poverty.
The report revealed that high school dropouts account for 13 percent of the adult population, but earn less than six percent of all dollars earned in the U.S. In the 50 largest cities, the median income for high school dropouts is $14,000 – significantly lower than the median income of $24,000 for high school graduates and $48,000 for college graduates. Nationally, high school dropouts were also the only group of workers who saw income levels decline over the last 30 years.
The report, funded in part by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, analyzes school district data from the U.S. Department of Education’s Common Core of Data (2004-05). The country’s 50 largest cities were identified using 2006 data from the U.S. Census Bureau and economic and employment conditions were gathered from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2007 American Community Survey.
In an effort to reduce America’s high school dropout rates, the Alliance introduced the Dropout Prevention Campaign in April 2008. To date, 35 high-level summits have been held in cities nationwide – bringing together more than 14,000 mayors and governors, business owners, child advocates, school administrators, students, and parents to develop workable solutions and action plans. An additional 51 are planned to take place before the end of the year, and all 105—one in all 50 states and 55 cities with the largest dropout rates—will be completed by April 2010.
Other Report Findings:
Other findings of the analysis include:
Sixteen of the nation’s 50 largest cities had a graduation rate lower than 50 percent in the principal school district serving the city.
Those with the lowest graduation rates include Indianapolis (31 percent), Cleveland (34 percent), Detroit (38 percent), Milwaukee (41 percent), Baltimore (41 percent), Atlanta (44 percent), Los Angeles (44 percent), Las Vegas (45 percent), and Columbus (45 percent).
Students in the suburban areas of the nation’s 50 largest cities were considerably more likely to graduate (77 percent) than students in the country’s urban schools (59 percent).
Cities with the largest gap between their suburban and urban schools include Cleveland (43 percent), Baltimore (39 percent), Columbus (38 percent), Milwaukee (35 percent), and Nashville (33 percent).
What is being said about Cities in Crisis 2009:
“The ten-year graduation rates show that progress is being made in some of America’s largest cities, but significant work remains. In order to continue to move forward and make the U.S. competitive in today’s global economy, we must work together like never before to provide the supports that young people need in order to graduate high school ready for college, work, and life.” — Alma Powell, chair of America’s Promise Alliance
“As the president said, every young person who drops out of high school is not only quitting on himself but is also quitting on his country. Similarly, every high school dropout represents not only a failure on the part of a school and an individual, but a larger failure of society to lead our children to success in education.” — Arne Duncan, U.S. Secretary of Education
“Research is clear about what helps kids stay in school and as we’ve all come to realize with the current economic crisis, investing in education is not only an essential part of improving graduation rates, but of supporting meaningful economic recovery. Our government has shown bold leadership in elevating education, but this means the real work must begin now. We must seize this historic moment and make sure that young people are surrounded by strong support systems, caring teachers, proper nutrition, a safe place to learn and be after school, and opportunities to give back to others. Learning from the example set forth by our summits, we know that by working together we can make sure our children graduate with the skills they need to succeed.” — Marguerite Kondracke, president and CEO, America’s Promise Alliance
Changes in Graduation Rates for the Main School Systems in the Nation’s 50 Largest Cities
City
Principal School District
Graduation Rate
(Class of 2005)
Graduation Rate
(Class of
1995)
Change (Percentage Points)
Philadelphia Philadelphia City School District 62.1%
38.9%
+23.2
Tucson Tucson Unified District 71.6%
48.9%
+22.7
Kansas City Kansas City School District 53.5%
33.6%
+19.7
El Paso El Paso ISA 60.6%
46.6%
+13.9
Portland, Ore. Portland School District 68.6%
55.4%
+13.1
New York New York City Public Schools 50.5%
37.8%
+12.8
Dallas Dallas ISD 50.8%
38.2%
+12.7
Columbus Columbus Public Schools 44.7%
32.1%
+12.6
Mesa Mesa Unified District 76.6%
64.6%
+12.0
Austin Austin ISD 58.9%
47.5%
+11.5
Atlanta Atlanta City School District 43.5%
32.8%
+10.8
Fort Worth Fort Worth ISD 56.5%
46.1%
+10.4
Miami Dade County School District 55.9%
5.6%
+10.4
Houston Houston ISD 52.9%
43.1%
+9.8
Chicago City of Chicago School District 51.0%
41.8%
+9.2
Oakland, Calif. Oakland Unified 50.5%
41.3%
+9.2
Virginia Beach Virginia Beach City Public Schools 68.5%
59.7%
+8.8
Baltimore Baltimore City Public School System 41.5%
33.8%
+7.7
Denver Denver County School District 58.6%
51.7%
+6.9
Detroit Detroit City School District 37.5%
30.5%
+6.9
San Antonio San Antonio ISD 47.3%
40.9%
+6.4
Phoenix Phoenix Union High School District 58.0%
52.4%
+5.6
Indianapolis Indianapolis Public Schools 30.5%
25.2%
+5.3
Oklahoma City Oklahoma City Public Schools 47.0%
41.7%
+5.3
Milwaukee Milwaukee Public Schools 41.0%
35.8%
+5.2
Sacramento Sacramento City Unified 62.1%
57.2%
+4.9
District of Columbia District of Columbia Public Schools 57.6%
52.8%
+4.8
Colorado Springs Colorado Springs School District 68.8%
64.1%
+4.6
Honolulu Hawaii Department of Education 67.4%
63.7%
+3.6
Nashville Nashville-Davidson Co. School District 45.2%
42.0%
+3.1
Jacksonville Duval County School District 50.8%
50.2%
+0.7
Louisville Jefferson County School District 63.4%
63.7%
-0.3
Seattle Seattle School District 68.9%
69.6%
-0.7
Memphis Memphis City School District 51.2%
52.5%
-1.2
Fresno Fresno Unified 51.9%
53.4%
-1.5
Boston Boston Public Schools 58.6%
60.3%
-1.7
Minneapolis Minneapolis Public Schools 45.3%
47.0%
-1.7
San Jose San Jose Unified 73.3%
75.0%
-1.8
Tulsa Tulsa Public Schools 48.5%
50.6%
-2.0
Charlotte Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools 60.5%
62.7%
-2.3
San Diego San Diego Unified 63.7%
66.0%
-2.4
Los Angeles Los Angeles Unified 44.4%
48.0%
-3.6
Long Beach Long Beach Unified 64.0%
67.7%
-3.7
Cleveland Cleveland Municipal City School District 34.4%
39.3%
-4.9
San Francisco San Francisco Unified 57.1%
63.6%
-6.5
Albuquerque Albuquerque Public Schools 49.0%
55.6%
-6.6
Arlington, Tex. Arlington ISD 60.3%
72.0%
-11.6
Omaha Omaha Public Schools 49.6%
64.4%
-14.8
Wichita Wichita Public Schools 54.5%
72.1%
-17.6
Las Vegas Clark County School District 44.5%
67.6%
-23.1
50-City Average 52.8%
48.3%
+4.4
National Average 70.6%
65.8%
+4.8
NOTE: Graduation rates are calculated using the Cumulative Promotion Index method with data from the U.S. Department of Education’s Common Core of Data. Rankings are based on non-rounded statistics. SOURCE: EPE Research Center, 2008
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April 22, 2009
Large Urban-Suburban Gap Seen in Graduation Rates
By SAM DILLON
It is no surprise that more students drop out of high school in big cit
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/flu-county-swine-2383725-cases-case
Thursday, April 30, 2009
O.C. schools braced for swine flu outbreak
Proximity of reported cases, size of the county and abundance of schools means a local swine flu case inevitable, officials say.
By FERMIN LEAL
The Orange County Register
Comments 2| Recommend 1
Orange County’s schools remain on the alert today as the swine influenza continues to spread through surrounding counties.
Still, no cases of swine flu have been reported in the county. But some educators and health officials say it’s only a matter of time before a case develops at a local campus.
“I’m a bit surprised that a case of the swine flu has not broken out here,” said Pamela Kahn, a nurse and director of health and wellness with the Orange County Department of Education. “If it hasn’t happened yet, it’s probably going to happen soon.”
Kahn and others say the proximity of reported swine flu cases and the sheer size of Orange County, with more than 3 million people and more than 800 public and private schools will make the swine flu difficult to avoid locally.
Statewide, the tally of confirmed swine flu cases stayed steady at 14, but the number of probable cases jumped to 29, including two cases in Los Angeles County, four in Riverside County, one in San Bernardino County, and eight in San Diego County.
Educators and health officials continue advise students, parents and staff to stay home if they show flu-like symptoms.
Superintendents from Santa Ana Unified, Anaheim Union, Huntington Beach City, Fullerton School District, Ocean View School District, Fountain Valley School District all said Wednesday during a news conference that they do not have significant spikes in absentee rates this week despite the flu threat.
The state Department of Education has also announced that schools with a confirmed case of the swine flu must close for a minimum of seven days. State officials also released a checklist for all schools to follow in the event of a suspected or confirmed swine flu case.
Click here for the state checklist.
Contact the writer: 714-704-3773 or fleal@ocregister.com
From SAUSD Board Member, John Palacio’s email blast:
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Stimulus funds won’t avert massive layoffs, educators say
O.C. educators said the federal money is welcome, but not enough to save many of the 3,500 targeted for layoffs.
By FERMIN LEAL
The Orange County Register
COSTA MESA – Federal stimulus funds won’t provide enough money to prevent Orange County’s cash-strapped districts from laying off many of the 3,500 teachers and other staff facing termination, local education leaders said Wednesday.
“A lot of people feel that when they hear that hundreds of millions are coming to schools from the federal stimulus that all the problems have gone away. That is not true,” said county Superintendent William Habermehl during a news conference at county Department of Education headquarters.
“There is a great amount of hoopla from both the federal government and the state government when it comes to rescinding layoff notices,” he said, flanked by several superintendents and other leaders from the county’s 27 school districts.
Countywide, about 3,500 teachers and other certificated staff were notified in March they could lose their jobs next school year. Local school district officials have also said they need to cut a combined $250 million from budgets over the next 18 months.
Habermehl and the other educators said they welcome the funding earmarked for education from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. But lawmakers and others need to realize the money won’t be nearly enough to avert layoffs of hundreds of teachers and other staff, or cuts to services including music and arts, after-school programs, they said.
In California, the federal stimulus will provide up to $8.6 billion to public schools. About $3.1 billion could begin flowing to schools in early May, said state education officials last week.
Officials from the county Department of Education said that it’s too early to determine how much Orange County schools will receive. But some districts have already made estimates and determined they won’t get nearly enough.
For example, Anaheim Union High School District Superintendent Joseph Farley said he expects his district to receive about $9 million to $10 million in stimulus funds. But, the district is planning on cutting $23 million from the budget this year and another $24 million next year.
Best case scenario, the stimulus funding will allow Anaheim Union to save only about 10 of the 151 jobs targeted for layoffs, Farley said.
County officials said they expect about $110 million in stimulus funding to help offset special education costs locally.
“This is still not going to meet our needs,” Habermehl said, referring to the more than $328 million annually local districts pay out of their general funds to offset special education costs.
Habemehl and the other school leaders said the fate of the state propositions on the May 19 ballot and other developing economic factors in the next few weeks will largely influence how much funding schools will receive from the state next year. But school districts are under a tight timeline to approve budgets. Districts are required by law to finalize layoffs May 15, and must approve budgets for the upcoming school year in late June.
Fountain Valley School District Superintendent Marc Ecker said lawmakers need to reevaluate education funding to prevent cuts to school spending in the future.
“We need to look to Sacramento to attempt to solve systemic problems,” he said. “If Sacramento continues to cut, the stimulus will not help in the long term.”
Contact the writer: 714-445-6687 or fleal@ocregister.com
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JUSTICE IN EDUCATION
SPRING DISTINGUISHED SPEAKERS SERIES
Thursday, May 7, 2009
6:00 P.M. to 8:00P.M.
GEORGE CROOK
SPECIAL EDUCATION ATTORNEY
NEWMAN, AARONSON & VANAMAN
When is DUE PROCESS warranted?
What you must know!
Sessions are free, seating is limited, sign up now!
2101 North Tustin Avenue, Santa Ana
714-542-1707
JIE CLINICS SPONSORED BY LEGAL AID
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Dems torpedo GOP’s try to trash the waste board….proposal saves $2 million to $3 million
By Steve Wiegand
swiegand@sacbee.com
Published: Tuesday, Apr. 28, 2009 – 12:00 am | Page 4A
Faced with a choice of saving between $2 million and $3 million a year, or preserving a potential and lucrative post-legislative retirement haven, Democratic lawmakers in both houses rejected bills today that would have abolished the state’s Integrated Waste Management Board.
Senate Bill 44, by Sen. Jeff Denham, R-Merced, was torpedoed by the Senate Environmental Quality Committee, while Assembly Bill 1150, by Assemblyman Ted Gaines, R-Roseville, was scuttled by the Assembly Natural Resources Committee. Neither bill received any votes from Democrats.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger had sponsored the bills. They would have shifted the board’s duties to other state agencies – and wiped out $132,178-a-year jobs for three former legislators who were appointed to the board by the governor and Legislature.
“A vote against this is a vote against a more streamlined, more cost-effective and more efficient manner of running government and meeting our environmental goals,” the governor said in a news release following the votes.
Denham was more succinct: “In the midst of a multi-billion dollar budget deficit, if the Legislature can’t even make this – the easiest of cuts – it’s going to be a long summer.”
Schwarzenegger appointed former Sen. Carole Migden to the board; the Legislature appointed former Sen. Sheila Kuehl and former Assemblyman John Laird.
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Call Steve Wiegand, Bee Capitol Bureau, (916) 321-1076.
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The latest on California politics and government
April 29, 2009
AM Alert: Legislative pay under review
Contrary to popular belief, legislators can’t approve their own pay raises.
For that, we turn to the California Citizens Compensation Commission, the awkwardly-named panel that meets Wednesday in Sacramento to decide whether our fair solons deserve a pay raise.
Just a hunch, but we’re guessing lawmakers shouldn’t count on extra padding in their pay checks. Don’t count out a decrease, however.
Most legislators currently receive $116,208 each year and are eligible to receive an additional $35,000 in per diem payments to pay for living expenses. They also receive a state vehicle allowance. The seven-seat commission — which currently has only four members — can only adjust legislative pay.
The panel last year voted to freeze legislative salaries rather than impose a 10 percent cut, as one commissioner proposed.
The commission also will consider salaries for constitutional officers starting at 10 a.m. at the Sacramento City Hall second floor hearing room, 915 I Street.
Speaking of freezing pay, don’t forget about executives at the California Community Colleges and California State University system, says Sen. Leland Yee, D-San Francisco. The Senate Education Committee on Wednesday will hear his Senate Bill 217, which freezes pay and eliminates bonuses for those executives in years when their systems receive no budget increase.
The Senate Education Committee also will consider a bill by Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Los Angeles, requiring that schools spend 15 minutes teaching ninth and 10th-grade health students about organ donation and transplants.
In other legislative action, the Senate Committee on Labor and Industrial Relations will consider two business-backed proposals by Sen. John Benoit, R-Palm Desert. SB 187 allows employers to implement 10-hour shifts without overtime pay within a standard 40-hour workweek, and SB 807 relaxes rules related to meal and rest breaks. Unions successfully defeated those proposals as part of the February budget negotiations.
Crime Victims United of California and the California Correctional Peace Officers
Association will hold a 20th annual rally honoring victims on the West Steps at 11:45 a.m.
And over on the East Lawn, the California Physical Therapy Association will conduct wellness screenings. According to the group’s website, activities will include gait analysis and blood pressure readings. And for our six-figure salaried legislators, there’s even a golf-swing analysis.
Compiled by Kevin Yamamura
Posted by Kevin Yamamura
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State auditor finds $580,000 of wasted funds in whistle-blower claims
12:08 PM | April 28, 2009
Los Angeles Times
SACRAMENTO — The state wasted $580,000 by leasing office space in San Diego and then leaving it vacant for four years, and an administrator was improperly reimbursed for $71,747 for commuting from her Southern California home to her Sacramento office, including lodging and meal costs, the state auditor said today.
State Auditor Elaine Howle said her office completed nine investigations of whistle-blower claims received during the last six months of 2008 that turned up “substantiated allegations’’ in several state agencies.
“Through our investigative methods, we found waste of state funds, improper payments, improper contracting and misuse of state resources,’’ Howle wrote to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Her audit found that the state had paid $580,000 for San Diego office space for the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. But the space sat unused between December 2004 through December 2008. She blamed a combination of miscommunication and bureaucratic bungling.
In a separate case, a high-level official, formerly with the Office of Spill Prevention and Response in the Department of Fish and Game, received reimbursements that she was not entitled to for commuting expenses between her Sacramento headquarters and her Southern California residence.
The unidentified manager also was paid for lodging and meals near her headquarters and her residence from October 2003 through March 2008. The expenses totaled $71,747.
“In addition, despite lacking the necessary authority, current and former officials for the spill office allowed Official A to informally claim that her residence was her headquarters,’’ the audit found. State law says an employee cannot claim per diem expenses for locations within 50 miles of his or her office.
The employee charged the state for $45,233 for flights between her home in Southern California and her office in Sacramento and $7,608 in airport parking.
She also improperly billed more than $10,000 for lodging within 50 miles of her headquarters, $6,970 for meals and incidentals within 50 miles of her office and more than $600 for meals and lodging within 50 miles of her residence.
“Moreover, we found several instances in which Official A incurred airport parking expenses for weekend days on which she apparently conducted no state business,’’ the audit said.
Howle called on the Fish and Game Department to seek recovery of the money. Department officials said they are investigating their options.
– Patrick McGreevy
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http://orangejuiceblog.com/2009/04/whos-who-in-santa-ana-100000-annual-retirement-pension-club/#more-21257
Orange Juice Blog.com
Who’s Who” in Santa Ana $100,000 Annual Retirement Pension Club
Posted by: Larry Gilbert : Category: Fresh Juice
The information below was obtained under the Freedom of Information Act
from the California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS).
Search the $100,000 Pension Club database …
There are currently 50 retired employees in the city of Santa Ana who receive in excess of $100,000 per anum in CalPERS pensions. That represents $5 million for these “$100, 000 Pension Club members
NAME MONTHLY ANNUAL CITY
PHILLIP GARCIA $14,481.34 $173,776.08 SANTA ANA
FRANKLIN JENSEN $12,188.29 $146,259.48 SANTA ANA
WAYNE BOWMAN $11,844.52 $142,134.24 SANTA ANA
GEORGE SAADEH $11,735.42 $140,825.04 SANTA ANA
RAYMOND COMEAU $11,526.09 $138,313.08 SANTA ANA
WILLIAM ZASTROW $11,496.04 $137,952.48 SANTA ANA
ROBERT TYLER $11,456.02 $137,472.24 SANTA ANA
ANDY MONEY $11,357.72 $136,292.64 SANTA ANA
ALLEN CARTER $11,318.81 $135,825.72 SANTA ANA
JON RIBBLE $11,166.41 $133,996.92 SANTA ANA
ROBIN MCCOY $10,797.10 $129,565.20 SANTA ANA
BALTAZAR DE LA RIVA $10,541.01 $126,492.12 SANTA ANA
DAVID NICK $10,116.64 $121,399.68 SANTA ANA
MICHAEL FOOTE $10,110.23 $121,322.76 SANTA ANA
KENNETH HALL $10,102.41 $121,228.92 SANTA ANA
JOSE GARCIA $10,098.93 $121,187.16 SANTA ANA
JOHN PEREZ $10,090.95 $121,091.40 SANTA ANA
PHILIP ARCHER $10,052.99 $120,635.88 SANTA ANA
CHARLES MAGDALENA $9,938.32 $119,259.84 SANTA ANA
FELIX OSUNA $9,931.13 $119,173.56 SANTA ANA
ERNEST HOEFT $9,795.19 $117,542.28 SANTA ANA
WILLIAM TEGELER $9,759.27 $117,111.24 SANTA ANA
COLLIE PROVENCE $9,592.54 $115,110.48 SANTA ANA
JIMMY DALTON $9,493.80 $113,925.60 SANTA ANA
THOMAS SKELLY $9,481.95 $113,783.40 SANTA ANA
CHARLES MILLER $9,427.26 $113,127.12 SANTA ANA
JOHN CHAMBERS $9,357.69 $112,292.28 SANTA ANA
TIMOTHY GRABER $9,352.39 $112,228.68 SANTA ANA
GUADALUPE GARCIA $9,332.61 $111,991.32 SANTA ANA
ROBERT HELTON $9,259.72 $111,116.64 SANTA ANA
RAYMOND DAVIS $9,183.66 $110,203.92 SANTA ANA
CHARLES DEAKINS $9,171.83 $110,061.96 SANTA ANA
WILLIAM SANDLIN $9,106.28 $109,275.36 SANTA ANA
HUGH MOONEY $9,103.43 $109,241.16 SANTA ANA
GERARDO MATA $9,036.53 $108,438.36 SANTA ANA
IRMA MANDELL $8,991.36 $107,896.32 SANTA ANA
GARY ADAMS $8,951.98 $107,423.76 SANTA ANA
RICHARD MARTIN $8,817.42 $105,809.04 SANTA ANA
KEVIN BROWN $8,747.09 $104,965.08 SANTA ANA
DENNIS STUELAND $8,695.57 $104,346.84 SANTA ANA
JAMES DITTMAN $8,640.19 $103,682.28 SANTA ANA
BRUCE LEAMER $8,627.51 $103,530.12 SANTA ANA
ROBERT SAYNE $8,592.21 $103,106.52 SANTA ANA
WILLIAM BARRETT $8,552.88 $102,634.56 SANTA ANA
GARY BIDGOOD $8,537.41 $102,448.92 SANTA ANA
WILLIAM SCHEER $8,409.86 $100,918.32 SANTA ANA
ROBERT STEBBINS $8,390.68 $100,688.16 SANTA ANA
WILLIAM MCCOY $8,384.73 $100,616.76 SANTA ANA
RICHARD BOUCHARD $8,361.09 $100,333.08 SANTA ANA
MICHAEL OVERN $8,353.15 $100,237.80 SANTA ANA
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Monday, April 27, 2009
Santa Ana College to close center used by thousands
Marketplace Educational Center to shut its doors on May 29.
By THERESA CISNEROS
The Orange County Register
SANTA ANA In an effort to cut costs in tough economic times, Santa Ana College is closing a continuing-education center that has helped thousands learn English and earn high school diplomas over the last decade.
The Marketplace Educational Center, positioned in the heart of downtown at Bush and Fourth streets, is set to close May 29.
School officials decided to close the campus because of the current economic climate and a dwindling state budget, said Ed Ripley, vice president of continuing education.
The center’s 10-year lease expired in June. Since then, the Rancho Santiago Community College District – which encompasses the Marketplace, Santa Ana College, Santiago Canyon College and other sites – has been leasing space in the two-story building on a month-to-month basis, Ripley said.
The lease runs about $215,000 annually – $208,000 for the building and $7,000 for use of parking spaces, said Santa Ana College spokeswoman Nikita Flynn. This amount does not include all operating costs, such as utilities, she added.
The college has until June 30 to move out and to restore the grounds to their original condition.
The Marketplace Educational Center opened its doors in August 1998. It employs 82 faculty members, 32 support staff members and had a 2007-08 enrollment of 8,454.
Courses offered there this spring include English, high school subjects, job training, citizenship and GED test preparation.
The college’s School of Continuing Education holds courses at more than 60 sites throughout the city, including churches, hospitals, elementary schools, community centers and apartment complexes. The Marketplace is among the largest.
Dave Hall is president of the Continuing Education Faculty Association, a chapter of the California Teacher’s Association that represents 600 part-time teachers at Santa Ana and Santiago Canyon colleges.
He hopes the college will help affected instructors retain their jobs.
Ripley said the district is working to reassign teachers and staff to other positions, and said that some could be routed to departments other than continuing education.
When asked if all those affected will be reassigned, he said he “assumes” that they will but cannot “guarantee that.” The details are being hammered out, he said, as the college puts its summer schedule together.
After the center closes, classes will be redistributed among Santa Ana College, the Centennial Education Center and other community sites, Ripley said. He added that the district is working to find new class sites, including one downtown.
Hall said the center’s departure creates a deep void for those adults in the center of town who are seeking to better their lives. He’s urging district officials to find an alternate site downtown.
“They’re trying to balance the budget on the backs of the people of downtown Santa Ana,” he said.
Contact the writer: tcisneros@ocregister.com or 714-704-3707
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Field Poll: Angry voters are ‘tuned out’ in run-up to special election
By Steve Wiegand
swiegand@sacbee.com
Published: Thursday, Apr. 30, 2009 – 12:00 am | Page 1A
Judging by the results of this week’s Field polls, California voters:
(a) Are mad as hell and aren’t going to take it anymore.
(b) Don’t give a rat’s patootie about the May 19 special election.
(c) Are highly skeptical that the half-dozen propositions on the aforementioned election’s ballot are going to do much to buoy the state’s sinking finances.
The correct answer, based on interviews with veteran observers of the California political scene, as well as voters themselves, is (d) all of the above.
“They are extremely leery of budget proposals coming out of Sacramento,” said Jack Pitney, a professor of governmental studies at Claremont McKenna College. “I think there is widespread sentiment that the whole (election) package is booby-trapped.”
The package of which Pitney speaks consists of a half-dozen proposals pieced together by the Legislature and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in February, in an effort to close a gaping hole in the state budget.
They include creation of a rainy day reserve fund (and the extension of $16 billion in tax hikes); a restoration of $9.3 billion in education funds; a loan of $5 billion from future lottery revenues; paying day-to-day state bills with money from funds currently restricted to mental health and children’s health programs; and banning pay raises for elected officials in years the state runs a deficit.
Should the ballot package fail, proponents have warned, the fragile budget-balancing mix of tax hikes and spending cuts agreed to in February will shatter, leaving lawmakers and the governor with a gargantuan mess to clean up before the start of the new fiscal year July 1.
But the Field surveys indicate voters are an unsympathetic lot.
The polls show that five of the six measures are dropping like paralyzed falcons: None garnered more than 40 percent approval from likely voters. The only one favored was the one that would prevent pay hikes for elected officials in down fiscal years.
One reason for all the negativity is anger.
“People feel unrepresented by their elected representatives,” said Mark Meckler, a 47-year-old Nevada County attorney. “My experience is that politicians have always had self-interest, but they’ve become more and more self-interested. … They do what’s good and expedient for them.”
Meckler’s experience also includes being the chief organizer of a “Tax Day Tea Party” protest that drew a crowd of 5,000 to the Capitol’s steps two weeks ago.
“This is totally unscientific, but I would estimate that 90 percent of the people you saw at that rally had never attended a protest,” he said. “I think we’ve finally crossed a line where people who used to be apathetic are angry, really angry, and finally stepping up and saying ‘enough.’ ”
But some are apparently angry and apathetic about the May 19 election.
The Field Poll’s DiCamillo said pollsters had hoped to gather data from 1,000 “likely voter” respondents around the state between April 16-26, but finally had to settle on only 901 when many of those called declined to participate.
“They’re just tuned out,” he said. “They’re not aroused by the election. We believe this will be a very low turnout.”
As ominous for the propositions’ supporters is DiCamillo’s prediction that the turnout will be disproportionately Republican and elderly. Those blocs historically have been suspicious of ballot measures and less likely to give elected officials the benefit of the doubt.
But old Republicans are by no means alone in their lack of appetite for the May 19 electoral menu.
Janet Upton, a state worker who lives in Elk Grove, is a Republican, but at 45, is hardly elderly.
Upton, who said she is “fairly certain” she will vote in the special election, hasn’t made up her mind on the propositions yet.
“But you expect the people you hire (through voting for them) to do their jobs, just like we do our jobs,” she said, “and they’ve failed … and now they want us to do it for them?”
Michael Degmetich, who at 74 certainly qualifies as a senior citizen, is a Democrat. But the retired middle school teacher who lives in the rural community of Magalia, east of Chico, agrees with Upton.
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Call Steve Wiegand, Bee Capitol Bureau, (916) 321-1076.
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Dan Walters: Complex ballot measures still falling short
By Dan Walters
dwalters@sacbee.com
Published: Wednesday, Apr. 29, 2009 – 12:00 am | Page 3A
A sturdy axiom of ballot- measure politics is that voters who are confused or uncertain about a proposition’s effects will vote against it.
That’s why a measure’s opposition forces often use advertising and other political tools not to make a conclusive case, but to plant doubt and/or confusion. Conversely, of course, proponents try to hammer home a simple, positive message.
The six budget-related measures on the May 19 special election ballot are especially complex, as if Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and legislators purposely set out to make them as confusing as possible, with interrelated wordage, triggers and poison pills.
And that contributes to the reluctance of voters to embrace them.
A new statewide Field Poll of likely voters confirms anew that the ballot measures, with the singular exception of the one (Proposition 1F) prohibiting legislators from getting pay raises during fiscal crises, are falling well short of majority approval three weeks before election day.
Compounding their dilemma is that the governor and others who put together this package as part of a February deal are very unpopular with voters. So they shy away from personal identification with the measures while, ironically and a bit misleadingly, their advertising tells voters that passing the measures, particularly Proposition 1A, would punish “the politicians.”
Still another confusing element is the strange-bedfellows alliances on either side. The state Republican Party is officially opposed, while the state Democratic Party is all over the map and couldn’t muster enough votes at its convention to endorse Proposition 1A, the linchpin measure that would impose a rolling spending limit while extending newly enacted state taxes.
Conservative anti-tax groups are lining up against Proposition 1A and the other measures, saying the spending limit is a sham and merely a smoke screen to hide more taxes, but liberal pro-spending groups denounce the limit as a damper on much-needed public services.
Business is divided, as are labor unions, and there’s even a deep division within the Service Employees International Union.
The final complicating element is that the special election will draw a fraction of the state’s registered voters, but it’s uncertain how low turnout will be – 20 percent is the number being kicked around – or who those voters may be.
Another axiom of California politics is that a low-turnout election generally has a disproportionately higher number of older and conservative voters, and the Field Poll finds that conservatives are more likely to vote against the measures than liberals.
There is one thing 72 percent of the poll’s respondents did agree on – that “if the budget measures are defeated it would send a message to the governor and the Legislature that voters are tired of more government spending and higher taxes.”
Even 60 percent of Democrats, who generally are inclined to vote for the measures, concur with that statement.
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Call The Bee’s Dan Walters, (916) 321-1195. Back columns, http://www.sacbee.com/walters.
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Poll: California voters oppose 5 of 6 measures
By JUDY LIN Associated Press Writer
Posted: 04/29/2009 06:04:47 AM PDT
Updated: 04/29/2009 06:09:10 AM PDT
SACRAMENTO—Just three weeks before California’s special election, a poll released Wednesday finds Californians opposed to five of the six ballot measures.
The Field Poll suggests Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Democratic legislative leaders face a significant hurdle in persuading voters to support their complicated budget plan. The half-dozen measures were the result of a bipartisan budget package to deal with the state’s $42 billion shortfall through June 2010.
“It appears that most likely voters are now on the ‘No’ side on each of the propositions, from 1A through 1E. None of them are getting more than 40 percent support,” said Field Poll Director Mark DiCamillo. “They each have a long way to go.”
Only Proposition 1F, which would prohibit elected state officers from receiving raises during deficit years, was the only measure supported by likely voters, with 71 percent in favor. Less than a quarter were opposed.
The poll found likely voters skeptical that the centerpiece of the budget package will solve the state’s roller coaster budget cycles by creating a state spending cap and strengthening a rainy day fund. Proposition 1A trails among likely voters, with 49 percent opposed and 40 percent in support.
The survey yielded the same results for Proposition 1B, which would provide public schools and community colleges $9.3 billion in future years to make up for recent reductions. Forty-nine percent opposed Proposition 1B, while 40 percent
supported it.
The Field Poll surveyed 901 registered voters in English and Spanish from April 16-26. Out of those, 422 were considered to be likely voters. The sampling error for the likely voters was plus or minus 4.9 percentage points.
Wednesday’s results were similar to a poll taken in March by the Public Policy Institute of California, which found voters divided on propositions 1A through 1E.
Proponents of the May 19 special election package have been pitching the spending cap and rainy day fund contained in Proposition 1A as a way to stabilize the state treasury. Complicating their task is that approval of the measure would trigger an extension of the tax hikes the Legislature approved in February.
With expected low turnout, DiCamillo said the special election will be decided by an older voting block composed evenly of Democrats and Republicans despite a Democratic voter registration edge in the state.
“The average age of voters appears to be 55, 10 years older than the overall electorate’s age,” DiCamillo said.
He said it’s possible voters are confused by the complicated budget measures. For example, only 43 percent of those surveyed could say that Proposition 1B will not take effect unless Proposition 1A is approved.
Opponents, including some unions and fiscal conservatives, seized on Wednesday’s results as illustrating voter dissatisfaction with the budget plan.
“With ballot pamphlets now in voters’ hands, the hastily drafted Proposition 1A is getting the scrutiny it deserves,” said Mike Roth, a spokesman for the No on 1A campaign. “Despite the proponent’s $14 million war chest, when people read it for themselves, they’ll see it doesn’t do what it says it will do.”
AARP California President Jeannine English said in a statement on behalf of Budget Reform Now, a coalition backing all six measures, that working Californians will suffer if the measures fail.
“The distrust most of us have for government is justifiable, but Props 1A, 1B, 1C, 1D and 1E are about protecting real people from harmful cuts that will be much worse than what we have seen already,” English said.
The poll found the highest resistance to Proposition 1C, a plan to borrow $5 billion based on the value of future lottery revenue. Likely voters were wary of claims that the measure could generate higher lottery earnings simply by increasing prize payouts.
Proposition 1C was trailing 59 percent to 39 percent.
Large majorities of likely voters stated they didn’t know the impact of propositions 1D and 1E, according to the poll. The first would transfers child development money from a special fund to the general fund and the second transfers mental health funding.
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On the Web:
Field Poll: http://www.field.com/
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Ad Watch: Proposition backers target voters’ anger over budget
By Kevin Yamamura
kyamamura@sacbee.com
Published: Tuesday, Apr. 28, 2009 – 12:00 am | Page 3A
A committee backed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger launched its first television ad Wednesday in support of the propositions on the May 19 special election ballot, just as the counties began sending out mail ballots to voters. Here’s a text of the ad and an analysis by Kevin Yamamura of The Bee Capitol Bureau.
Text
Father: We’ve always had to live within a budget – but the politicians haven’t – and they got us in quite a mess. I’ve been reading about a way for us voters to clean things up by passing a spending limit they can’t change, reforms that will give us budget stability in Sacramento, hold the politicians accountable and help hold the line on higher taxes.
Son: Hey, Dad! Wanna play catch?
Father: Two things I’m doing for my boy – playing ball and voting yes on 1A through 1F.
Analysis
The ad targets voter anger over the state’s budget problems, attacking “the politicians” at a time when state legislative ratings are below 20 percent, according to the latest Field Poll. It’s a curious approach, considering that the politicians themselves – legislators and Schwarzenegger – placed these measures on the ballot and called the special election.
The ad sells Propositions 1A through 1F as a package that would do the following:
1. Clean things up by passing a spending limit that legislators can’t change. Reforms that will give us budget stability in Sacramento. These claims refer specifically to Proposition 1A, which would limit spending in good fiscal years and bolster a “rainy-day” fund that could be tapped in bad times. While proponents believe this would clean up the state’s up-and-down revenue problem, the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office says the precise effects are unknown, though it could smooth out spending from year to year. While legislators can’t change the constitutional limit in Proposition 1A, they can still pass new tax increases with a two-thirds vote that would enable spending above that limit.
2. Hold the politicians accountable. This is a likely reference to Proposition 1F, which would ban legislative pay hikes in deficit years. While Proposition 1F is popular among voters who want to punish lawmakers, many argue that eliminating pay raises – rather than pay altogether – is not enough of a disincentive to hold lawmakers accountable.
3. Help hold the line on higher taxes. Proposition 1A actually would extend already approved tax increases for two years, from 2011 to 2013. Proponents believe a stronger “rainy-day” fund would even out revenues and discourage the need for emergency taxes of the sort lawmakers and Schwarzenegger approved this year. The changes, however, would do nothing to prevent the Legislature from approving future taxes with a two-thirds vote.
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Call Kevin Yamamura, Bee Capitol Bureau, (916) 326-5548.
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After debate, no progress in L.A. teacher layoff plans
8:24 AM | April 27, 2009
Los Angeles Times
Local education leaders debated this weekend at the Los Angeles Convention Center about how to prevent looming layoffs of thousands of teachers, including many who were in the room watching. But officials failed to make any discernible progress toward saving the teachers’ jobs.
The event was a one-day conference for participants in Teach for America, the nonprofit that places talented recent college graduates in urban schools for a two-year teaching stint. The closing panel included key players talking about how to avoid laying off about 3,500 non-tenured teachers in the Los Angeles Unified School District.
The layoffs are part of a fiscal-survival plan that slashes $596.1 million from next year’s budget and, in the process, increases class sizes while sharply reducing services to students. These actions areexpected to result in about 5,400 job losses in all, when custodians, cafeteria workers, secretaries and others are added in.
“I don’t want to lay off any teacher,” said school board President Monica Garcia, who had voted in favor of the budget plan that passed this month by a vote of 4 to 3. Garcia said she was prepared to take a 10% cut to her $45,000 salary as an elected board member — and that other employees also should accept “shared responsibility and shared sacrifice.” She noted that teachers, collectively, will automatically receive millions of dollars in added compensation tied to years of experience and new education credits. Forgoing those salary enhancements would save jobs, she said.
Her call for compensation concessions may have been her most direct to date. The Board of Education cannot, however, unilaterally impose measures that reduce wages, but would have to win union approval.
Teachers union President A.J. Duffy, who sat next to Garcia on the discussion panel, wasn’t ready to go there. Instead, he urged the teachers in the audience to take part in union mobilization efforts to pressure the school board to rescind the layoffs. Before he would even consider compensation cuts, he said, he would want to see much more of the federal stimulus money applied to this year’s shortfall and much deeper cuts in the district’s central and regional offices.
Also on the panel was Marshall Tuck, a top education advisor to Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. In addition, Tuck is the chief executive of the Partnership for Los Angeles Schools, the nonprofit overseeing school-improvement efforts at 10 district schools on behalf of the mayor. These schools would be especially hard-hit by layoffs because many of the teachers and administrators lack sufficient seniority.
In an interview after the panel discussion, Tuck said that, one way or another, teacher layoffs had to be avoided. He and the mayor have suggested a middle position of both compensation reductions and use of more federal stimulus dollars right away. The mayor will continue to press his case this afternoon at Warner Avenue Elementary, east of the UCLA campus.
Also on the panel were former school board member and state legislator Jackie Goldberg and charter school operator Steve Barr.
– Howard Blume
Blume is twittering about the LAUSD budgeting process. Follow his updates @howardblume.
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The New York Times
April 29, 2009
School Nurse’s Response to Flu Wins Applause
By ANEMONA HARTOCOLLIS
Too often school nurses are all but forgotten in the education wars over test scores, standardization and vouchers. Across the country, from Atlanta to New York City, amid budget cuts and economic turmoil, advocates say, the jobs of school nurses are increasingly at risk.
Now nurses are crowing over the role of one of their own, Mary Pappas, in uncovering the first swine flu cluster in New York State. Through her quick thinking, she might have lifted the status and perhaps even saved the jobs of thousands of nurses.
It was her call to the New York City Health Department last Thursday morning that prompted the city to send samples from sick students to Atlanta for testing, and resulted in the first eight confirmed cases of swine flu in New York State on Sunday, triggering a nationwide response.
Five days later, Ms. Pappas has become a sort of folk hero to nurses across the country, interviewed on radio and celebrated by the National Association of School Nurses.
Ms. Pappas, who is responsible, with two assistants, for 2,700 students at St. Francis Preparatory School in Queens, first spotted signs that something was wrong last Thursday, when five or six seniors came to her office complaining of sore throats and fever soon after school opened.
By 10 a.m., dozens of students were pouring into the hallway outside her office, sitting miserably on the floor, nauseous and confused.
“Wow, we have something going on here,” she recalled thinking in an interview on Tuesday.
“I don’t feel like I’m a hero,” said Ms. Pappas, who had not been identified on Sunday when the city revealed her role in spurring its investigation. “But I feel like I have very good instincts, based on my experience, and that’s why I’m here. I think school nurses should be at all schools. You’re like the hub, if something doesn’t go right.”
Among her previous experiences was a whooping-cough outbreak, which forced the postponement of a few football games, but nothing else of the magnitude she was seeing.
By about 10:30 Thursday morning, she said, she had gone to the principal’s office and called Dr. Gary Krigsman, a supervising doctor in the bureau of school health, on his cellphone to tell him that students were dropping sick, many with fevers of 101.5 and 102 degrees. (Her son, a junior at the school, also came down with a mild fever.)
Dr. Krigsman connected her to Ada Santiago, a nurse who works closely with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.
“Then I felt better and went back to my office, where it was pretty chaotic,” Ms. Pappas recalled. Her two assistants, her mother, Agnes, and Kathy Carroll, were so busy that they had been joined by secretaries, assistant principals and even school security officers. Everyone was taking temperatures, triaging cases and using cellphones to call parents to come and take their children home.
Students sat on the floor, miserable and confused, as school employees scrambled to find enough chairs. Ms. Pappas sent 102 students home on Thursday and another 80 on Friday, even though a small number of those, she noted, were suffering from allergies and injuries rather than flu symptoms.
The health department had asked for a list of absences beginning the day before, along with her log of every student and their symptoms.
Swine flu never occurred to her, even though she recognized the symptoms as some kind of flu.
Oddly, Ms. Pappas said, neither she nor anyone who worked with her that day has become sick. They took no special precautions, she said, beyond washing hands because there just wasn’t time.
“I don’t live life like that, in fear,” she said. “I try to just do my job and stay calm. The know me, they trust me. If we were calm, they were better.”
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http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-college29-2009apr29,0,1296881.story
From the Los Angeles Times
Some colleges checking out applicants’ social networking posts
A new report indicates that some schools’ admission or scholarship decisions are being influenced by what they find about an applicant on the Internet. The issue raises ethical concerns.
By Larry Gordon
April 29, 2009
High school students, beware! College admissions and financial aid officers in California and elsewhere may be peeking over your digital shoulder at the personal information you post on your Facebook or MySpace page.
And they might decide to toss out your application after reading what you wrote about that cool party last week or how you want to conduct your romantic life at college.
According to a new report by the National Assn. for College Admission Counseling, about a quarter of U.S. colleges reported doing some research about applicants on social networking sites or through Internet search engines. The study, which included 10 California colleges, did not specify which schools acknowledged the practice or how often scholarships or enrollment offers might be nixed because of online postings.
David Hawkins, director of public policy and research for the counselors group, said the moral is clear: “Don’t post anything that you don’t want your mother or father or college admission officer to see,” he said.
Colleges’ use of such Internet sites raises ethical issues that need further study, including regarding whether online postings are genuine, Hawkins added.
The report, which also looked at colleges’ use of the Internet to recruit students, was written by Nora Ganim Barnes, director of the Center for Marketing Research at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. She said some colleges turn to the social websites because “no school wants to give a prestigious scholarship to someone standing on a beer keg and wearing a lampshade.”
Calls Tuesday to several California campuses turned up none that acknowledged any online snooping.
“Do you think we have time for that?” asked Susan Wilbur, the UC system’s director of undergraduate admissions, which received more than 100,000 applications this year. “We have not even discussed that.”
larry.gordon@latimes.com
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http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-lawmaker-raises30-2009apr30,0,7632222.story
From the Los Angeles Times
Governor backs 10% salary cuts for legislators
Schwarzenegger fills three vacancies on a compensation panel with new members he says are likely to support reductions.
By Patrick McGreevy
8:05 PM PDT, April 29, 2009
Reporting from Sacramento — Legislators and other elected state officials appeared to be headed for a pay cut after Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Wednesday endorsed a reduction and appointed new members, who he said were like-minded, to a panel that sets the salaries.
The California Citizens Compensation Commission, which determines the pay for legislators, the governor and other officers, moved Wednesday to slice 10% from the salaries, noting that they are higher than in many other states and that the Golden State is in poor financial shape.
“Given the economy, the budget . . . to vote for a decrease across the board is the only way we should go,” said commission Chairman Charles Murray, who owns an insurance business in Los Angeles.
A decrease would apply to officials elected next year. Current officeholders would have their pay frozen through December 2010.
The commission on Wednesday voted 3 to 1 for the pay cut, then learned from its attorney that four “yes” votes would be required. There were three vacancies on the board when it met. But Schwarzenegger quickly named people to fill them who “share my belief that state government needs to cut back just like every California family and business is doing,” he said in a statement.
Schwarzenegger appointed Glendale business executive Scott Somers, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Sgt. John Stites and AT&T Vice President Denita Willoughby of Los Angeles.
The three new commissioners, who do not require confirmation, did not return calls seeking comment. Meanwhile, Murray said he would schedule another vote by June 1.
The 10% pay cut was proposed by Commissioner Kathy Sands, who noted that most state employees had their pay reduced by 9.2% starting in February, when Schwarzenegger ordered them on twice-monthly unpaid furloughs.
“So many people have already had salary decreases. . . . I think we are in a terrible fiscal challenge,” Sands said.
Cutting officials’ pay is necessary, she added, “so they can really share in this [budget] deficit that they helped create.”
The lone vote against the pay squeeze was by Commissioner William Feyling, a carpenters union official. Feyling said he would vote for a 5% cut.
“While I understand the emotion behind” the 10% proposal, he said, “I don’t believe it produces the effect we’re seeking.” He noted that the reduction would not affect those currently in office.
Legislators did not protest the planned cuts.
“The voters set up the commission as an independent entity, so of course we’ll respect whatever decision it makes,” said Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento).
The panel was established in June 1990 through voters’ passage of Proposition 112 and must meet at least once a year to set pay and benefits. Murray said the commission needs to review officials’ benefits to determine whether those also should be altered, but that effort has been hampered by the state’s failure to provide an analysis of them. He has renewed his request for that information, he said.
A survey prepared in recent months by the state personnel department showed that the annual salaries of $212,000 for the governor and $116,208 for state legislators are much higher than in eight other states surveyed, including New York and Texas.
Although Schwarzenegger accepts no salary, his official pay is higher than the $179,000 paid to the governor of New York. The next-highest pay for legislators is $79,650, in Michigan. California’s controller, secretary of state, insurance commissioner and lieutenant governor are also paid more than their counterparts in other states.
However, the study found that the pay for California’s schools chief and treasurer rank fourth and second, respectively, among the states surveyed.
patrick.mcgreevy@latimes.com
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GOP ideas will take hold if May 19 budget package fails, Senate leader says
By Susan Ferriss
sferriss@sacbee.com
Published: Thursday, Apr. 30, 2009 – 12:00 am | Page 4A
If voters reject proposals May 19 to fix the state budget, GOP Senate leader Dennis Hollingsworth predicted Wednesday that “by default” his party’s ideas for cutting public spending and easing business regulations will catch fire.
“Eventually they’re going to have to start listening,” Hollingsworth, R-Murrieta, said of the Democratic majority in the state Legislature. “There won’t be revenues available to do what they want to do. They’re killing the golden goose.”
Speaking with reporters in his office, Hollingsworth said that if most of the set of six measures on the special-election ballot fail, the next day “it gets uglier.”
The GOP will be ready with proposals “global in nature,” he said, for cutting public spending to plug an $8 billion deficit that would swell to an estimated $14 billion.
Hollingsworth’s counterpart in the Assembly, Minority Leader Mike Villines, R-Clovis, said persuading voters to pass the measures is “an uphill battle.”
But he’s not giving up, he said, and is urging people to vote for the proposals – or face another round of deeper cuts that would have to be inflicted “across the board.”
People say they want smaller government, Villines said, but are often reluctant to agree to cuts to programs they favor.
“There’s a structural disconnect” at times, he said.
Villines helped negotiate the ballot package and supports all the measures, unlike Hollingsworth.
Villines, for example, supports Proposition 1A, a constitutional amendment that calls for transferring money during healthy fiscal years to a “rainy day” fund, limiting spending using a long-term formula, and extending recently approved sales, vehicle and income tax increases another two years.
Villines said he believes that “rank and file GOP” understand the need for the spending limits in 1A, and “they get that temporary taxes are better than permanent” taxes.
Hollingsworth said 1A isn’t worth the taxes it imposes.
He supports only three measures: 1C, which permits the state to borrow money based on future lottery profits; 1D, which transfers some of voter-approved early childhood development money controlled by counties to other programs; and 1E, which transfers voter-approved mental health services money to fund general state mental health services.
Both 1D and 1E were Republican ideas, Hollingsworth acknowledged. Democratic leadership agreed to them as a compromise, and the measures are now under attack by various county boards of supervisors and mental health and child welfare activists.
If voters reject 1D and 1E, Hollingsworth said, “It’s a fair argument” that voters don’t want the GOP to target those kinds of programs.
But he said voters might also be inclined to reject those propositions – and others – out of general anti-tax sentiment and frustration that legislators are turning to voters to solve the budget crisis.
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Call Susan Ferriss, Bee Capitol Bureau, (916) 321-1267.
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Test scores stagnate for high schoolers
By: Leah Fabel
Examiner Staff Writer
04/28/09 10:45 AM
Younger students fare better
Reading and math scores for high school students have stagnated since the early 1970s, according to national test results released Tuesday by the Department of Education.
But scores among 9- and 13-year-olds increased slightly over the same time period on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, often referred to as the Nation’s Report Card.
Since the last release in 2004, achievement gaps between white students and their black and Hispanic counterparts have remained largely unchanged. Among 17-year-olds, gaps in reading scores have widened.
“For 17 year olds, the final products of our system, we don’t seem to be able to make any improvements,” said Neal McCluskey, associate director of the Center for Educational Freedom at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank. “The lesson is that we have an education system largely impervious to change. A lot of rhetoric, but little ever happens.”
Education analysts cited some good news in the increased number of students taking higher-level math courses, a heavy focus in local districts like Montgomery and Fairfax counties.
In 1986, 16 percent of 13-year-olds were enrolled in an algebra course. By 2008, that had nearly doubled to 30 percent. Those students subsequently scored higher on the test, the report said.
Also, since 2004, students whose parents did not earn a high school diploma made larger gains in math than students whose parents had at least a high school degree. Even so, they remained the lowest achievers.
“The gains are modest,” said David Driscoll, former Massachusetts commissioner of education. “But one would hope those current 9- and 13-year-olds, when they become 17-year-olds will bring their higher scores with them.”
Rep. George Miller, D-California, chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, called the report “further proof that we must do better.”
“While it’s good news that younger students are making meaningful gains in reading and math, it’s deeply troubling that many high school students are not,” Miller said.
“This is another in a long line of test results that show a little improvement, but nothing to write home about,” said McCluskey, a staunch advocate for charter schools and private school vouchers. “It’s nothing that seems to justify how much additional money we‚ve spent on education, year after year, for decades.”
lfabel@washingtonexaminer.com
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Obama redoubles push to improve science education
By Janet Raloff
Web edition : Monday, April 27th, 2009
During his address to members of the National Academy of Sciences, today, President Obama outlined a number of budget and policy priorities. Key among them: boosting interest among youngsters in science and math — with an eye towards encouraging them to consider careers in allied fields. The president also pledged to improve the quality of educators that train the nation’s youth in science and math.
“We know that the nation that out-educates us today will out-compete us tomorrow,” the president said. And U.S. students no longer stand on a pedestal. They have fallen behind their peers in Singapore, Japan, England, the Netherlands, Hong Kong and Korea, among others, Obama noted. And in one assessment, American 15-year olds “ranked 25th in math and 21st in science when compared to other nations.
“We know that the quality of math and science teachers is the single most influential factor in determining whether a student will succeed or fail in these subjects,” he said. “Yet in high schools, more than 20 percent of students in math and more than 60 percent of students in chemistry and physics are taught by teachers without expertise in these fields.“ Moreover, Obama noted, this problem is slated to worsen substantially: “There is a projected shortfall of more than 280,000 math and science teachers across the country by 2015.”
What to do? The president pointed to one reasonably new incentive. Starting today, he said, “states making strong commitments and progress in math and science education will be eligible to compete later this fall for additional funds under the Secretary of Education’s $5 billion Race to the Top program.” Created through the Stimulus-funding package, this program rewards states that boost their academic standards, assessments, curricula and partnerships with outside groups.
The president also challenged schools to find better educators in math and science — individuals who will more reliably “engage students and reinvigorate those subjects.” Toward that end, he said his administration would support “inventive approaches” — such as programs that retain and reward “effective” teachers. We’ve heard that line before. Reward teachers’ performance, not attendance. Unions may not like that, but something’s clearly got to change.
Obama also called for creating “new pathways for experienced professionals to go into the classroom. There are right now chemists who could teach chemistry, physicists who could teach physics, statisticians who could teach mathematics.” He’s right. Only there’s more to teaching than knowing the subject matter. Subject proficiency should be a prerequisite (how novel), but knowing how to communicate effectively should also be a minimum requirement. And as we all know, many good scientists aren’t patient, don’t have good communication skills, and/or don’t know how to motivate headstrong adolescents with everything on their mind but chemistry, physics and math.
In fact, Obama seems to recognize this too. Which is why he recommended that scientists and educators encourage students “to get a degree in science fields and a teaching certificate at the same time.”
In today’s address, the president also challenged researchers to visit classrooms throughout the nation so that more students could understand the role of science and engineering in shaping the world — their iPod-driven, texting oriented, Facebook-dominated environment — and witness the “enthusiasm” of researchers that led to these and other elements of everyday life.
The new administration has also set a goal to enhance the United States’ ability to compete for high-wage, high-tech jobs and to foster the next generation’s best scientists and engineers. By 2020, the president pledged, “America will once again have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world.” Tax credits and grants will be there to “make a college education more affordable,” he added.
The president’s new budget would also triple the number of National Science Foundation research fellowships to graduate students. (Really huge applause.) Obama noted that this program was created a half-century ago as part of the space race. However, in the succeeding years, its size has changed little, despite the skyrocketing number of students now available to benefit from them.
Federal investments can do a lot to revamp the nation’s flagging research and education enterprises. But there’s also plenty that money can’t buy, the president told research dignitaries in the room. “So today I want to challenge you to use your love and knowledge of science to spark the same sense of wonder and excitement in a new generation.”
Other highlights of the President’s address today included several other recycled themes, such as:
1) the decision to make new programs that produce, use and save energy the #1 priority for federal investments in innovation. Indeed, Obama noted, that’s one reason “why we put a scientist in charge of the Department of Energy.” That scientist, Nobel physicist Steven Chu, was sitting in the audience and won a huge round of applause.
2) The Obama administration is in the process of working to put a market-based cap on carbon emissions. Big business is not a fan of this proposal, Congress is learning. I guess the carbon cap-and-trade proposal was highlighted in hopes of getting the science community to help lobby for its adoption.
3) And on March 9, the president noted, he signed an executive memo pledging that “the days of science taking a back seat to ideology are over.” The president noted that his new science adviser has been tasked with making sure that in future “facts are driving scientific decisions, not the other way around.” Amen to that.
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Monday, April 27, 2009
O.C. schools on alert over flu pandemic
No cases of swine flu have been reported at local campuses, but schools officials warn parents and staff to take precautions.
By FERMIN LEAL
The Orange County Register
Educators across Orange County are advising staff, students and parents to take precautions to prevent the spread of germs and viruses in the wake of the outbreak of swine influenza that is spreading across the world.
So far, no cases of swine flu have been reported in the county. But officials at many of local school districts said they’re on high alert for anyone showing flu-like symptoms, and encouraging sick students and staff to stay home.
It’s still unclear if absentee rates have increased today because of the flu threat. School officials should have more solid data by this afternoon. But officials from many districts said they have not noticed significant spikes in absences.
“We are observing precautions as with any other form of influenza,” said Alan Trudell, spokesman for Garden Grove Unified School District.
More than 375 students enrolled in Fullerton Union High School agriculture department classes were alerted today to warning signs and safety tips for the swine flu. Fliers will also be sent to parents this afternoon to allay fears of catching the disease around the pig projects.
Shannon Alcott, chairman of the ag department, told students all pigs at the high school have been vaccinated against the swine flu, but not against the hybrid strain. The high school buys the pigs from a farm in Tulare, she said.
“Students have been taught pigs have the same symptoms as humans: stuffy noses, coughs, labored breathing,” Alcott said.
“And if they have blue snouts, it’s an indication of pneumonia.”
Fullerton Union High School District is sending out informational notices today to all parents and also alerting them through electronic phone calls, Alcott said.
Statewide, at least one case may be linked to the swine flu. St. Mel’s Catholic School in Fair Oaks near Sacramento will be closed until at least Thursday while health officials determine if a seventh-grader has a flu linked to the outbreak, according to an e-mail sent to parents.
State Superintendent Jack O’Connell urged every parent and educator to take safety measures during a press conference Sunday from Sacramento.
“By taking simple precautions like washing hands often, students can increase their chances of avoiding the flu, so they can stay healthy, stay in school and keep learning,” he said. “These simple steps will help everyone protect their health so students and teachers will have fewer sick days.”
However, O’Connell advised parents against keeping students out of school unless instructed to do so by school officials.
The state Department of Education has set up a Web site for parents with tips and other information on flu prevention. Parents can log on to http://www.cde.ca.gov/ls/he/hn/fluinfo.asp.
Are you keeping your children home from school today? Contact us at 714-704-3773, or fleal@ocregister.com.
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Obama: Schools with infections may need to close
April 29, 2009
BY ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON—- President Barack Obama suggested Wednesday that school closings may be necessary, in an escalating global health emergency that claimed the first death in the United States and swept Germany onto the roster of afflicted nations. Obama said local educators across America should consider shuttering schools if conditions worsen.
Giving an update on a raging health menace that has dominated public officials’ time and caused universal anxiety, Obama said, “Every American should know that the federal government is prepared to do whatever is necessary to control this virus.”
He said he wanted to extend “my thoughts and prayers” to the family of a 23-month-old Texas boy who died, representing the first confirmed U.S. fatality in addition to more
SAUSD Board Member, John Palacio’s email blast:
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-lausd-teachers4-2009may04,0,781983.story
From the Los Angeles Times
FAILURE GETS A PASS
School officials call for legislation easing firing of teachers
Union vows to fight such a move, prompted by a Los Angeles Times report on the difficulty of firing teachers that provoked strong responses on both sides of the issue.
By Jason Song
May 4, 2009
Top Los Angeles school officials, acknowledging that they have teachers in classrooms who should be fired, called Sunday for new state legislation that would make it easier to dismiss tenured instructors. The teachers union has vowed to fight such a move.
Reacting to a Times story published Sunday about the cumbersome process for removing substandard tenured teachers in California’s public schools, L.A. Unified Supt. Ramon C. Cortines said the system is a “sacred cow, and I do think it should be overhauled.”
School board member Marlene Canter said she would again ask the board to push for revision of teacher discipline laws statewide. She initially brought the proposals to the school board last week, but a majority of her colleagues balked after objections from union leaders and a state senator. They agreed only to form a task force to study the issue.
“This is too urgent to put to a task force,” Canter said Sunday.
The article found that firing permanent teachers can involve years of rehabilitation efforts, union grievances and administrative and court appeals. Administrators must spend months — sometimes years — observing and documenting the flaws of poorly performing teachers. Teachers can appeal firings to specially convened panels, which overturn the dismissals more than a third of the time.
The newspaper examined all available decisions by those panels over the last 15 years — 159 cases statewide — finding that teaching performance was rarely a factor in firing an instructor. The vast majority of educators were dismissed for egregious misconduct.
The newspaper received hundreds of comments in response to the article, the first in a series on California school districts’ ability to remove educators who harm or poorly serve their students.
Many readers decried the difficulty of the process. Others contended that administrators were to blame for failing to evaluate instructors properly, help them improve or apply discipline fairly.
On Sunday, A.J. Duffy, the president of United Teachers Los Angeles, said the union would oppose any reform efforts unless union officials are included in the process.
“UTLA has tried for years to work with the district and the Board of Education to come up with a sane and reasonable policy for evaluation which could fix most of the problems. And the district has consistently refused,” he said through a spokeswoman. “The fault lies with the corrupt bureaucracy that refuses to do its job.”
State Sen. Gloria Romero (D-Los Angeles), who last week opposed any hasty action on L.A. Unified’s part, said Sunday she believes the system needs reform. The state should allow the education code to expire and rewrite it, she said.
But the L.A. Unified resolutions were introduced too late in the legislative cycle to be considered this year and were politically motivated, she said.
“Quite frankly, it’s a stunt to make LAUSD look good and Sacramento look bad,” she said.
District officials, however, want to press ahead, according to their Sunday morning news release.
“If the dismissal process is not reformed, we will continue to face the choice of returning to schools some teachers that we don’t want working for us, or keeping them out of the classroom and paying them to do nothing while great teachers face layoffs,” said Dave Holmquist, the district’s chief operating officer, whose duties include overseeing legal risks.
Many readers shared their experiences working with poor instructors or trying to get them fired. One retired administrator said it took her five years to persuade a bad teacher to retire.
Some teachers countered that they had been victimized by vindictive or incompetent administrators.
Paul Ifozaki, a math and social science teacher at Monterey High School in East Los Angeles and 30-year L.A. Unified veteran, said in an interview that he was falsely accused of making sexually inappropriate remarks to female students. Even though he was cleared of the allegations, Ifozaki said, he was still suspended for five days because his principal didn’t like him.
jason.song@latimes.com
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http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-teachers3-2009may03,0,679507.story
From the Los Angeles Times
FAILURE GETS A PASS
Firing tenured teachers can be a costly and tortuous task
A Times investigation finds the process so arduous that many principals don’t even try, except in the very worst cases. Jettisoning a teacher solely because he or she can’t teach is rare.
By Jason Song
May 3, 2009
The eighth-grade boy held out his wrists for teacher Carlos Polanco to see.
He had just explained to Polanco and his history classmates at Virgil Middle School in Koreatown why he had been absent: He had been in the hospital after a failed attempt at suicide.
Polanco looked at the cuts and said they “were weak,” according to witness accounts in documents filed with the state. “Carve deeper next time,” he was said to have told the boy.
“Look,” Polanco allegedly said, “you can’t even kill yourself.”
The boy’s classmates joined in, with one advising how to cut a main artery, according to the witnesses.
“See,” Polanco was quoted as saying, “even he knows how to commit suicide better than you.”
The Los Angeles school board, citing Polanco’s poor judgment, voted to fire him.
But Polanco, who contended that he had been misunderstood, kept his job. A little-known review commission overruled the board, saying that although the teacher had made the statements, he had meant no harm.
It’s remarkably difficult to fire a tenured public school teacher in California, a Times investigation has found. The path can be laborious and labyrinthine, in some cases involving years of investigation, union grievances, administrative appeals, court challenges and re-hearings.
Not only is the process arduous, but some districts are particularly unsuccessful in navigating its complexities. The Los Angeles Unified School District sees the majority of its appealed dismissals overturned, and its administrators are far less likely even to try firing a tenured teacher than those in other districts.
The Times reviewed every case on record in the last 15 years in which a tenured employee was fired by a California school district and formally contested the decision before a review commission: 159 in all (not including about two dozen in which the records were destroyed). The newspaper also examined court and school district records and interviewed scores of people, including principals, teachers, union officials, district administrators, parents and students.
Among the findings:
* Building a case for dismissal is so time-consuming, costly and draining for principals and administrators that many say they don’t make the effort except in the most egregious cases. The vast majority of firings stem from blatant misconduct, including sexual abuse, other immoral or illegal behavior, insubordination or repeated violation of rules such as showing up on time.
* Although districts generally press ahead with only the strongest cases, even these get knocked down more than a third of the time by the specially convened review panels, which have the discretion to restore teachers’ jobs even when grounds for dismissal are proved.
* Jettisoning a teacher solely because he or she can’t teach is rare. In 80% of the dismissals that were upheld, classroom performance was not even a factor.
When teaching is at issue, years of effort — and thousands of dollars — sometimes go into rehabilitating the teacher as students suffer. Over the three years before he was fired, one struggling math teacher in Stockton was observed 13 times by school officials, failed three year-end evaluations, was offered a more desirable assignment and joined a mentoring program as most of his ninth-grade students flunked his courses.
As a case winds its way through the system, legal costs can soar into the six figures.
Meanwhile, said Kendra Wallace, principal of Daniel Webster Middle School on Los Angeles’ Westside, an ineffective teacher can instruct 125 to 260 students a year — up to 1,300 in the five years she says it often takes to remove a tenured employee.
“The hardest conversation to have is when a student comes in and looks at you and says, ‘Can you please come teach our class?’ ” she said.
When coaching and other improvement efforts don’t work, she said, “You’re in the position of having to look at 125 kids and just say, ‘I’m sorry,’ because the process of removal is really difficult. . . . You’re looking at these kids and knowing they are going to high school and they’re not ready. It is absolutely devastating.”
‘Really disheartening’
In his first major education speech in March, President Obama called for a system that would be the “envy of the world” — one that nourishes good teachers and casts out the “bad” ones.
“I reject a system that rewards failure and protects a person from its consequences,” he said. “We can afford nothing but the best when it comes to our children’s teachers and the schools where they teach.”
In many California school districts, that goal seems impossibly distant. Laziness, apathy or poor performance often aren’t firing offenses, some school officials complain
“We as administrators, knowing how difficult it is, tend to make excuses for the employee, and I think in some cases, accept mediocrity,” said L.A. Unified Supt. Ramon C. Cortines.
Strapped districts are forced to keep tenured staffers they deem unworthy even as they must consider layoffs for less-experienced teachers, without regard to their talents.
“It’s really disheartening,” said Dr. Mitchell Wong, president of Act4Education, a group of parents trying to improve school performance in West Los Angeles. “What message does it send to the students, to the community and to the teachers who are doing their job?”
Kathleen Collins, associate general counsel for L.A. Unified, explained it this way: “Kids don’t have a union.”
Teachers have won strong job protections over the years, the legacy of labor battles in the early 20th century, when instructors could be fired for frivolous infractions. Some experts say the tenure system has outlived its usefulness.
Union leaders say tenure and collective bargaining are not the problem, nor is it fair to use egregious cases to indict the entire system.
“The union is bound by law to defend our members, and we do,” said A.J. Duffy, president of United Teachers Los Angeles. “That should in no way deter the resolve of the district to do their job, which is to help failing teachers to get better, or, if they can’t, to work to get rid of them.”
Outspoken teachers can be victimized, union leaders say, and principals and parents sometimes take aim at people they simply don’t like. Teachers, they say, are entitled to a presumption of innocence.
Cynthia Acerno was a last-minute hire at an elementary magnet school in the San Diego Unified School District, according to a summary of her case by a review commission. Though known for being strict, the district veteran had had no previous problems.
But “vocal, politically well-connected” parents accused her of being a “menace,” and started unfounded rumors that she was screaming at children, drinking and using drugs, the panel found. Some pulled their children from her class.
“The case against her was a cocktail of hearsay on hearsay with an ill-will chaser,” the panel commented in its ruling in favor of Acerno, who could not be reached for comment. “. . . Many of these scurrilous and damaging things were said in front of the children of this class by parents. This was shameful.”
Despite such problems, the system in California provides teachers protections that go beyond what they receive in many other states. Teachers here can gain tenure after two years instead of three, which is common elsewhere.
Proposing changes can amount to stepping on a political third rail. Last week, when Los Angeles school board members Marlene Canter and Tamar Galatzan introduced measures to streamline the firing process, more than an hour of debate ensued in which UTLA leaders, a state senator and fellow board members warned against hasty action and an end-run around the unions. A milder motion was approved to create a task force to discuss the issue further.
The process has remained more or less the same for years:
The onus initially is on principals to document their case. Their evidence must pass muster with district officials and lawyers, who decide which cases should be taken to the school board.
Once the board approves a dismissal, teachers may appeal to Commissions on Professional Competence, review panels that have final administrative authority on who gets fired or laid off in California schools. In many other states, such appeals are handled by administrative law judges alone. But California panels also include two educators, one appointed by the school district and the other by the employee under review.
The grounds for termination seem clear enough. They include immorality, persistent violation of school rules, unprofessional conduct, commission of a felony or sexual harassment, unsatisfactory performance and the catchall “evident unfitness to teach.” In practice, however, even the panelists can disagree on whether these grounds are met, and if met, whether they merit firing in a particular case.
Districts complain that in review hearings, where lawyers go head to head, the testimony of student witnesses is often discounted because their memories have faded, they are scared or reluctant to talk about traumatic events, or they can’t withstand intensive cross-examination.
But it is not uncommon for districts to sabotage themselves with technical missteps. In Polanco’s case, for example, L.A. Unified administrators began firing proceedings before giving him the required 45 days’ “notice of unprofessional conduct” — one factor in the commission’s decision to overturn his firing.
And if the teacher or district is dissatisfied with the commission’s decision, each has the right to appeal the case to superior and appellate courts, which sometimes force the panels to reconsider.
Records show that from the time principals tagged teachers for possible termination, hundreds of cases were dropped or settled — often through district buyouts — between 1994 and 2008. No specific documentation was available, however, on how each case was resolved.
Even so, the cases reviewed by The Times open a window onto the firing process from start to finish, showing many of the ways it works or does not along the way.
District struggles
L.A. Unified officials have struggled with the system more than most. Of the 15 tenured employees on record as fighting their terminations before review commissions in the last decade and a half, nine won their jobs back.
The main reasons: Commissions did not find the district’s evidence damning or persuasive enough.
The district wanted to fire a high school teacher who kept a stash of pornography, marijuana and vials with cocaine residue at school, but a commission balked, suggesting that firing was too harsh. L.A. Unified officials were also unsuccessful in firing a male middle school teacher spotted lying on top of a female colleague in the metal shop, saying the district did not prove that the two were having sex.
The district fared no better in its case against elementary school special education teacher Gloria Hsi, despite allegations that included poor judgment, failing to report child abuse, yelling and insulting children, planning lessons inadequately and failing to supervise her class.
Not a single charge was upheld. The commission found the school’s evaluators were unqualified because they did not have special education training. Moreover, it said they went to the class at especially difficult periods and didn’t stay long enough.
Four years after the district began trying to fire Hsi, the case is still tied up in court, although she has been removed from the classroom. Her lawyer declined to comment on her behalf. The district’s legal costs so far: $110,000.
Classroom ineffectiveness is hard to prove, administrators and principals said. “One of the toughest things to document, ironically, is [teachers'] ability to teach,” Wallace, the Daniel Webster principal, said. “It’s an amorphous thing.”
District officials thought they had a strong case against fourth-grade teacher Shirley Loftis, including complaints and other evidence they said dated back a decade.
According to their allegations before the commission, Loftis, 74, failed to give directions to students, assigned homework that wasn’t at the appropriate grade level and provided such inadequate supervision that students pulled down their pants or harmed one another by fighting or throwing things. One child allegedly broke a tooth, another was hit in the head after being pushed off a chair, a third struck by a backpack.
The commission, however, sided with Loftis. It acknowledged that she showed signs of burnout and “would often retreat from student relationship problems rather than confront them.”
But it said the district did not try hard enough to help her and suggested administrators find her another job –perhaps training other teachers. “. . . [S]he’s obviously an intelligent lady, and such a program might well succeed.”
When the district took the case to Superior Court, lost and appealed, Loftis retired. The district agreed to pay $195,000 for her attorney’s fees. Through her attorney, the former teacher declined to comment.
Collins, whose first case with L.A. Unified was Loftis’, recalled being frustrated because, although the problems allegedly had gone on many years, the district was allowed to present just four years of evidence under the state education code.
“This is not an LAUSD story — it is a statewide reality,” Collins said in an e-mail.
But L.A. Unified doesn’t pursue as many firings as other major districts, considering its size. The district, which has about 30,000 tenured teachers, fires 21 a year — well under 1 per 1,000, according to district statistics for the last five years. Long Beach fires 6 per 1,000, and San Diego fires about 2 per 1,000.
Evidence suggests that L.A. Unified does a poor job of tracking teacher performance overall, making it tough to prove anyone is a bad apple.
A one-time study of teacher evaluations from the 2003-04 academic year, for instance, showed that 98.9% of all tenured teachers were said by supervisors to have “met standards.”
The only categories in which a substantial percentage were said to have needed improvement concerned punctuality and attendance. Five percent had difficulty showing up on time.
Even some teachers union representatives said they do not believe the evaluations accurately portray the quality of teacher performance. Joshua Pechthalt, a United Teachers Los Angeles vice president, said the process is “fraught with problems” and results in teachers, especially young ones, not getting the guidance they need.
“I don’t know any workplace where 98% of the people are doing a good job,” Pechthalt said.
Contrition can help
In other districts, as well, review panels found officials to be too harsh, or determined that their firings weren’t supported by “the preponderance of evidence” — a standard also used in most civil cases.
San Diego Unified administrators tried and failed to fire an elementary school reading teacher who one district evaluator said could not follow a lesson plan.
“It was evident . . . that the teacher was likely not the most gifted or skilled,” the commission said in reversing the dismissal. “However, her performance was not ‘unsatisfactory’ simply because she was not the most capable or the quickest study.”
In many instances, an apology — or at least an acknowledgment of error — went a long way.
One teacher and coach from the San Ramon Valley Unified School District in the Bay Area was contrite after being accused of leering at teenage swimmers, making sexually charged remarks to students and instructing girls to “bark like seals” while they did push-ups.
“There is good reason to believe the respondent’s conduct will not recur,” the commission wrote of the teacher, who had worked in the district for 24 years.
In several cases, the commissions were torn. Ronald Hafner, a chorale teacher with a long history of favorable evaluations in the Lake Elsinore Unified School District, was accused of serious misconduct during a trip he led with 24 students and five chaperons to Las Vegas. According to a commission summary, the district accused him of drinking alcohol in front of students, making offensive remarks — such as suggesting that girls in his charge should apply to be strippers — and touching a female student inappropriately.
Hafner disputed many of the accusations and argued in the hearing that he was the subject of a “witch hunt” by fundamentalist Christians. He could not be reached for comment.
In 2005, the panel found that Hafner’s behavior was “shameful and inexcusable and demonstrates a severe lapse of judgment.” But the teacher kept his job, because the district’s allegations were not fully proved and did not warrant dismissal, according to the panel majority.
A middle school assistant principal on the panel wrote a sharp dissent:
“As a parent I would not allow my child in his classroom. As a colleague I cannot condone his conduct or attitude. As an administrator I could not trust him beyond my sight.”
Too daunted to try
Faced with such frustrations, many principals don’t even attempt to navigate the firing process. Letting a bad teacher slide or making him someone else’s problem is far easier than trying to document his failings, some say.
The prospect of union grievances, and a protracted battle against labor representatives and attorneys, makes the endeavor even less appealing.
Joseph Walker, a former principal of Grant High School in Van Nuys, was sued by a special education teacher whom he tried to dismiss for alleged repeated sexual harassment. A civil jury sided with Walker — but the review commission decided the teacher shouldn’t be fired. The case, now in the courts, has dragged on seven years.
Confronting uphill battles like this, Walker said: “You’re not going to fire someone who’s not doing their job. And if you have someone who’s done something really egregious, there’s only a 50-50 chance that you can fire them.”
Walker is now principal of Discovery Charter Preparatory Academy in Pacoima, where he said he had fired three teachers so far this year. None were fired during his three years as head of Grant. The difference: His school’s teachers are not unionized and can be fired at will.
On regular public school campuses, some principals simply pass problem teachers from school to school.
Judith Perez, principal of Hancock Park Elementary School in Los Angeles, recalled a situation in which a fellow principal had one more teacher than he needed. Under union rules, the teacher with the least seniority was to be transferred. Instead, the principal pushed out a poorly performing veteran by threatening to make her life miserable with frequent observations of her classes, Perez said.
The teacher ended up at Perez’s school. When Perez called the principal for information, he quickly apologized. “I’m so sorry,” she recalled him saying.
Perez soon found out why, concluding that her new teacher was “a total incompetent. . . . She had no idea how to conduct a lesson in reading or math.”
Perez committed herself to either making this teacher improve or forcing her out.
“I was a [teachers] union leader,” Perez said. “I believe in teachers’ rights and protections. . . . But my bottom line is I’m in this profession for children. . . . Basically, I dedicated my year to getting rid of this teacher.”
She kept a detailed diary, conducted a series of formal meetings with the teacher and her union representatives — all called for under the teachers’ contract — and finally persuaded the woman to quit.
A principal at Le Conte Middle School in Hollywood got a very different result.
To Linda Del Cueto, David Daniel’s physical education class looked more like recess than an instructional period.
Half or more of the students refused to change into gym clothes, and it sometimes took Daniel more than 15 minutes to get enough control to take roll, administrators reported in commission and court documents.
Del Cueto and her assistants repeatedly observed Daniel, counseled him and offered help, compiling meticulous records over three years.
But the commission sided with Daniel, saying the evaluations by Del Cueto and her staff were so frequent that they undermined Daniel with his students.
“Students at the middle school level are very perceptive,” the commission wrote. “This atmosphere led students to believe that they could openly defy [him].”
Essentially, the administrator was faulted for making too many observations.
“When that decision came out,” Del Cueto said in an interview, “I really thought it was a classic example of damned if you do, damned if you don’t.”
Daniel agreed to resign from the district in late 2006. As part of a settlement, the district agreed to pay lifetime health benefits and $50,000 in attorney fees. Daniel’s attorney said the former teacher did not want to comment.
In the Polanco case, as in Daniel’s, there was no shortage of documentation. The account of the history teacher’s interactions with the apparently suicidal boy came primarily from his teaching assistant, who wrote a detailed letter to administrators. In addition, students submitted written statements that were introduced at Polanco’s hearing.
One student wrote that Polanco had told the boy that he “should cut himself more bigger next time (cuts himself like a little wussy).” Another wrote: “Polanco tell [him] that he should cut himself with something sharper.” A third wrote that “Polanco would call [him] ‘the cutter kid’ and would sometimes call [him] stupid.”
Polanco testified at his hearing that he had not made these remarks and instead had told the boy — who was not named in the commission documents — that he was glad his suicide attempt had not succeeded. The documents suggest he had showed concern about the boy, asking a counselor about his well-being.
“Knowing that I caused pain, whether I did it on purpose or without knowing it, it’s a weight on my shoulders because I’m responsible [for] what happened in my classroom,” testified Polanco, who declined to comment for this story.
The commission accepted the accounts of the teacher’s aide and students as accurate. But it did not see the statements of Polanco, an otherwise well-regarded teacher and former union representative, as goading or callous. The teacher, the panel concluded, was trying “to defuse the awkward situation.”
The Times could not determine what became of the boy. As for Polanco, he now teaches at East Valley High School in North Hollywood.
jason.song@latimes.com
Times staff writer Seema Mehta contributed to this report.
Villaraigosa suggests a compromise to avoid teacher layoffs
12:11 PM | April 28, 2009
Los Angeles Times
L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is advancing his latest version of a compromise to avert teacher layoffs in the nation’s second-largest school system.
The mayor said that the Los Angeles Unified School District should use as many of the federal economic-stimulus dollars as needed to avert teacher layoffs this year. But, in exchange, employee unions should consent to conditional compensation givebacks that would apply to next year. These wage concessions would take effect in the likely event that district economic woes persist.
The proposed compromise has the potential to break a deadlock between L.A. Unified and the teachers union that, at the moment, threatens to result in the layoff of as many as 3,500 teachers.
L.A. Schools Supt. Ramon C. Cortines wants to spread federal aid over both the 2009-10 school year and the 2010-11 school years — because the financial picture in the second year could be worse than in the first year. Cortines is determined that L.A. Unified not face bankruptcy on his watch.
But the teachers union, United Teachers Los Angeles, advocates a different strategy: Use as much of the money as necessary now to save teachers’ jobs. That approach would provide both the best education result in the near term and the fullest economic stimulus, union leaders contend. Then, the district and public-school advocates would have the better part of a year to avoid the looming budget cliff.
The Villaraigosa compromise, which was crafted with critical input from top mayoral education advisor Marshall Tuck, would save jobs now, while also assuring district solvency next year. But it’s not clear that UTLA would be willing to go along. For one thing, its leaders say they aren’t convinced that L.A. Unified has made as many cuts as possible to the district bureaucracy.
If the “heart of the bureaucracy” were “cut and slashed till it is no more,” and if all the stimulus money were insufficient to avoid layoffs, then and only then should teachers support unpaid-furlough days and other measures that reduce compensation, said UTLA President A.J. Duffy, speaking at a weekend conference of Teach for America, a nonprofit that has placed hundreds of young teachers in L.A. schools.
Even in the worst-case scenario, fewer than 3,500 teachers are likely to lose jobs. The school system is attempting to save some positions if it can use funds currently in reserve because of legal uncertainty. Still, unless most of the layoffs are averted, particular schools could be hard hit because they are staffed largely by teachers who lack tenure protections. These are the teachers who would be targeted by layoffs. The 10 schools overseen by the mayor’s education nonprofit would be among the most affected.
The Villaraigosa compromise is laid out in a release that accompanied the mayor’s Monday afternoon appearance at Warner Avenue Elementary, east of Westwood. The mayor’s full range of “suggestions” are online at SaveLATeachers.org, a site set up by the mayor’s staff.
The school board is not scheduled to take up the budget at its regular meeting today.
– Howard Blume
Blume is twittering about budget woes at the Los Angeles Unified School District. Follow his updates @howardblume.
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California ballot package caters to special interests
sgoldmacher@sacbee.com
Published Sunday, May. 03, 2009
As California’s legislative leaders and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger rushed to craft a budget compromise in February, there were two key political goals.
The first: Obtain enough votes to get it through the Legislature.
The second: Keep the state’s richest interest groups happy with the result.
The latter goal was critical. Six elements of the final budget deal, Propositions 1A through 1F, will face the voters in a May 19 special election.
Legislative leaders knew that any well-financed campaign against the delicate package could sink the whole thing.
“Any time you do a ballot measure – any ballot measure – you always sit around and say, ‘Who could be the potential opposition?’ ” said Assembly Speaker Karen Bass, a Los Angeles Democrat and one of four lawmakers at the negotiating table. “You also always sit around and say, ‘How do I get that opposition on board or neutral at best?’ ”
The entire architecture of the ballot pact that emerged was heavily shaped by leaders’ desire to please – or at least neutralize – the state’s most powerful political players.
Now, some of those very interest groups protected in the budget deal are bankrolling the campaign to ratify it.
For the oil industry, the package omits a once-proposed 9.9 percent oil severance tax. Energy companies have given more than a million dollars to pass the plan, led by a $500,000 donation from Chevron.
For the liquor, beer and wine industry, increased alcohol taxes were shelved. Alcohol industry heavyweights, such as E. & J. Gallo Winery ($100,000) and California’s Beer and Beverage Distributors ($50,000), have all opened their checkbooks.
For the teachers union, the list of ballot measures includes a separate measure to ensure repayment of deep cuts to schools and protections for top-priority programs. The California Teachers Association has contributed $7 million to the passage of Propositions 1A and 1B.
For casino-operating Indian tribes, the state lottery measure avoids any new games that could threaten their gambling operations. Tribes, who could have been major contributors against the lottery proposition, have kept their checkbooks closed.
The influence of such groups is, more often than not, simply unspoken.
“If somebody has a history of putting tens of millions of dollars into lobbying and ballot measures, they don’t have to say anything,” said former Assemblyman John Laird, who was the Democrats’ chief budget negotiator for several years.
In 2006, for instance, the oil industry spent $100 million to defeat an oil severance tax on the ballot.
Negotiators know that an industry with that track record “would quite probably be willing to do it again,” Laird said.
At the start of 2009, lawmakers and the governor faced a daunting $40 billion budget hole made worse by a cash shortage so severe the state would soon no longer be able to pay all its bills.
Democrats, who control a strong majority in both houses of the Legislature, were stymied by Republicans and California’s constitutional requirement that two-thirds of lawmakers approve tax hikes.
Lawmakers of both parties and Schwarzenegger squabbled for months before settling on a complex plan that raises broad taxes (the sales tax, personal income tax and vehicle fees) on most Californians, borrows heavily and slices deeply into state services.
Bass said Democrats also fought hard to protect programs for the poor, aged, blind and disabled.
“If it was just as black and white as who yelled the loudest and who had the most money, we would have wiped out (in-home supportive services) and we would have wiped out (welfare programs),” she said. “They would have been gone.”
The linchpin of the ballot deal was Proposition 1A.
If passed, the measure would allow $16 billion in continued tax hikes and create a stronger rainy-day fund to constrain future state spending.
Large special interests played a key part in determining which taxes were raised.
Democrats had wanted to tax the rich, but GOP lawmakers nixed that idea. Then, on New Year’s Eve, the Schwarzenegger administration proposed taxing oil, alcohol and extending the sales tax to certain services, such as sporting events.
The business community objected loudly, as did Republican lawmakers, who had long insisted on closing the budget gap without new revenues.
The California Chamber of Commerce said it didn’t object to all tax increases – but didn’t like those targeted at particular businesses.
Then, ever so slowly, the GOP leadership moved toward embracing broad-based taxes, such as the sales and income tax.
“If you’re going to raise taxes, you should do it where everybody sees it and feels it and gets mad,” said Assembly Republican leader Mike Villines of Clovis.
In the end, any industry-specific taxes were left out.
There was no new sales tax on event tickets. The Golden State Warriors, Los Angeles Clippers, Los Angeles Lakers and their parent company, Anschutz Entertainment Group, have combined to donate $200,000 for the measures.
Many industry donors declined to comment for this story. Those that did generally said they contributed because, as Chevron put it, they are “committed to playing a positive role in restoring fiscal health to our state and building a stronger future for all citizens.”
Anschutz said “we should all be very concerned with these propositions” because, if they fail, “This will be catastrophic.”
Linking the spending constraint and taxes in one ballot measure was also driven by Republican lawmakers, who feared a repeat of 2005.
That year, a package of Schwarzenegger’s self-styled reform measures – including a controversial spending cap – went down to defeat thanks in large part to a $100 million union-led opposition campaign.
“Their demand at the table was that there be some relationship between spending restraint and the length of the taxes,” said Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento. ” … They didn’t want all of the constituencies that would ordinarily fight such a measure to be able to do so without some sort of an impact on revenue.”
The structure of the ballot package has divided the union coalition that pummeled the 2005 measures. The state’s two largest teachers unions are on opposite sides. The state council of the 700,000-strong Service Employees International Union has donated $850,000 to defeat 1A, while the California Labor Federation is neutral.
“You could have organized labor completely against Prop. 1A,” Steinberg said. “You don’t.”
Lawmakers also linked Proposition 1A to Proposition 1B, which will take effect only if the first measure also passes.
Proposition 1B, which would require paying an additional $9.3 billion to schools in the future to compensate for current budget cuts, was designed to keep the California Teachers Association from bankrolling a campaign against 1A.
Education consultant Kevin Gordon said the move was “smart politics.”
“A campaign with the education community led by CTA to oppose Prop. 1A would have been the death knell to all the measures on the ballot,” Gordon said.
CTA President David Sanchez has called the final budget package “unconscionable” because of its deep cuts to school funding. Yet CTA is spending millions to ratify the package.
The third measure on the ballot, Proposition 1C, sounds simple enough.
It would borrow $5 billion against future years of the state lottery’s proceeds to balance the current budget. Current levels of school funding from the lottery would be maintained, thereby avoiding conflict with the education lobby. It would also increase payout to gamblers in hopes of luring more players (and thus generate more revenues for the state).
Its evolution is a testament to the power of large interests.
First approved by voters in 1984, the lottery needs voter approval for most changes. That meant neutralizing potential campaign spending by rival gambling interests and the union that represents lottery workers was a necessity.
“The lottery thing had to be crafted in such a way that it wouldn’t be killed by the tribes, or by racing, or by card clubs, by all of the various interest groups,” Bass said. “I don’t think there’s anything unusual about that.”
The negotiations were led by the Schwarzenegger administration, which first proposed in 2007 to lease the underperforming lottery to a private company. That firm would then be granted the power to operate new, high-tech gaming.
The tribes opposed that model, believing it would infringe upon their sole right to slot machines. So did SEIU, whose union members account for roughly two-thirds of the 600 workers at the state’s lottery agency.
Schwarzenegger’s second proposal kept the state in control of the lottery’s operations but still “modernized” the games played. The tribes didn’t like that either; SEIU – no longer threatened with losing workers to a private vendor – was OK with it.
The final proposal kept the state in charge and dropped the high-tech games.
Both SEIU and tribes are now supportive, or at least neutral, on the plan.
David Quintana, the political director for a coalition of casino-operating India
n tribes known as the California Tribal Business Alliance, said the final lottery package that emerged was a “completely different animal.”
“It went from a wolf to squirrel,” he said.
The sheer complexity of an issue can increase the clout of special interests, said former Democratic Assembly Speaker Bob Hertzberg, especially “when you’re trying to deal with issues of governance that don’t have direct, popular appeal but are necessary for the operations of the state.”
“Anybody can come along with a few dollars and try to knock you off,” said Hertzberg, who now co-chairs a government reform group called California Forward.
Joe Mathews, who studies California government and the initiative process at the New America Foundation, said California’s “incredible, powerful and inflexible direct democracy” means that many such public policy decisions have to go to the ballot.
As a result, he said, “a major negotiation on legislation is, more often than not, really actually a campaign strategy session.”
Villines said lawmakers do the best they can.
“Anybody who says that there isn’t a heavy influence in Sacramento is not telling the truth,” Villines said. “There is influence in Sacramento. And our job is just to sort of push that back as much as possible.”
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Call Shane Goldmacher, Bee Capitol Bureau, (916) 326-5544.
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From the Editor: Budget secrecy undermined public trust
By Melanie Sill
msill@sacbee.com
Published: Sunday, May. 3, 2009 – 12:00 am | Page 1E
I don’t know about you, but when someone tells me they’re looking out for my financial interests, I put my hand on my wallet.
OK, I do know about you, or at least about Californians likely to vote on six budget-related ballot propositions May 19: Many of you are putting your hands on your wallets.
“The majority of voters just doesn’t believe what is being sold to them,” Field Poll director Mark DiCamillo told reporter Peter Hecht the other day after new poll results showed five of the six propositions headed for defeat.
(The sixth proposal, which voters are favoring, is the “punish your leader” provision barring raises for legislators and state officers when there’s a budget deficit.)
If I were wearing the cowboy boots in the big state Capitol office now guarded by a bear statue, I’d be paying less attention to poll numbers than to the narrative behind them.
The story of distrust is one that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and state legislative leaders helped write by leaving the public out of the budget process.
Through two budget dramas in 2008 and early 2009, the governor and four legislative leaders made deals and decisions largely in secret, then rushed them through votes.
Schwarzenegger, Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg and Assembly Speaker Karen Bass were the key players this last go-round, talking frequently of tough choices and the need for sacrifice.
What they didn’t do, despite the dramatic talk, was to outline the situation in detail and go through the messy but valuable hearing process to air arguments on various sides.
In a story published Feb. 4, Bee reporter Kevin Yamamura highlighted the secrecy and its causes. Mainly, it seemed, the leadership believed that if budget proposals became public too early, lobbyists would have time to kill them by pressuring legislators to protect special interests.
I think this is backward thinking, and indicative of the problems that have cost California elected leaders their collective credibility.
Voters aren’t likely to respect politicians who can’t handle politics. They can’t be expected to support politicians who stand up to pressure if they don’t see anyone standing up.
The secrecy might have reduced the influence of special interests, but given the hundreds of millions in lobbying money moving through the state’s political universe, it’s doubtful that these power brokers lost much clout.
Instead, the legislators and governor lost their chance to do the most important work of leadership, which is helping people understand the choices at hand and the issues at stake in decisions.
Facing a budget deficit pegged at $40 billion, Steinberg, Bass and others put together a complex plan combining spending cuts, tax increases and borrowing. They shared details on Feb. 11 and got just enough votes to win passage about a week later.
Some of the money in the plan rests on voters approving the six propositions on the May 19 special election ballot.
The Bee’s reporting confirms the Field Poll’s findings that many voters find the propositions complex, confusing or worse (shady, dishonest, etc.). The tide could turn, and we can expect a big fight in the next couple of weeks.
For those who want details on the propositions, go to http://www.sacbee.com/elections to find an online version; we published a two-page spread in the print edition last Sunday.
At http://www.sacbee.com/budget, you’ll find a collection of key stories on California’s budget problems. You’ll also find a detailed graphic and stories explaining how we got here and what factors contribute to the deficit.
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Reach The Bee’s editor, Melanie Sill, at (916) 321-1002.
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This story is taken from Sacbee / Capitol and California / Elections
Daniel Weintraub: Anti-tax activists miss the point of Prop. 1A
dweintraub@sacbee.com
Published Sunday, May. 03, 2009
The irony isn’t lost on Roger Niello.
The Republican businessman and legislator was one of six GOP lawmakers who voted to raise taxes in February. But before he took a step he had long tried to avoid, Niello insisted that any new taxes be temporary and that they be linked to the placement of a constitutional spending limit on the May 19 ballot.
Now Niello’s former allies in the anti-tax movement are fighting the spending limit – Proposition 1A – and it appears that opposition from Republican voters might ultimately bring that measure down, leaving in place only the tax increases that Niello refused to support without reforms.
Many fiscal conservatives don’t like Proposition 1A because it would also extend for two additional years the temporary taxes Niello helped enact. But their reasoning ignores the path 1A took to the ballot and the perverse outcome that will result if the measure’s opponents prevail. The anti-tax groups, when it comes down to it, are working for a result that Democrats would have loved to enact by themselves in the Legislature.
“We are snatching defeat from the jaws of victory,” Niello told me last week, shaking his head. “It’s incredible.”
Niello is part of a Sacramento family that owns car dealerships. The increased sales tax and near doubling of the vehicle license fee could hit that already beleaguered business hard. But Niello still thinks the budget package – a temporary tax increase coupled with spending cuts and reform – was the best of a lot of bad options for the state.
Facing a $42 billion shortfall and out of cash to pay its bills in a timely manner, the state in February desperately needed a comprehensive solution to right the ship. Niello said he believes several California counties and a few cities would have gone bankrupt this spring or summer without a new state budget in place. Vendors who sell goods or services to the state and weren’t getting paid would also have been squeezed, and many of them would have gone under as well.
“We would have seen gradually increasing chaos,” Niello said. “The courts would have been clogged with lawsuits.” Ultimately, the state controller, a Democrat, would have been given the power to decide which bills to pay and which to ignore. Pressure from the public to do something, anything, to break the logjam might have opened the door to a Democratic plan to raise taxes with a majority vote, without the need to make any concessions at all to Republicans in the Legislature.
Eventually, Niello accepted the idea that temporary taxes might have to be part of the package. But he says he told legislative leaders that he would not vote for a deal that did not include reform. That stand, shared by other Republicans, forced the Democrats to accept a spending limit that would require the Legislature to set aside tax revenues in good times in a rainy day fund that could be tapped only when the economy slowed.
Niello says he was surprised when he heard that the Democrats finally were going to agree to the spending limit, because they had been fighting the concept for years.
“I didn’t think they would go there,” he said. But they did go there, after they saw it was their only route to even a temporary tax hike.
But there was a hitch. The spending limit, being a constitutional amendment, would have to go on the ballot. Republicans feared a double-cross. They worried that the Democrats, after agreeing to the budget deal, would try to kill the spending limit when it went to the voters. So Republicans agreed to vote for only half the taxes up front, and linked the second two years of tax hikes to passage of the spending limit by the voters on May 19.
Without that linkage, Niello says, “all the public employee unions would have opposed the spending cap” in the special election.
Instead, the unions are split, and the most vociferous opposition is coming from the right. And in a strange twist, the anti-tax groups are taking aim at the link between the spending limit and the extension of the taxes, the very linkage that Republicans used as leverage to force the Democrats into supporting a spending limit.
If the opposition succeeds and Proposition 1A is defeated, Californians will still get higher taxes for at least two years, but no spending reform. If Republican lawmakers had offered that deal to the Democrats in February, the majority party would have accepted it in a nanosecond.
But Niello says: “They wouldn’t have gotten Republican votes for that.”
Fiscal conservatives think they will be able to win voter approval, eventually, for a much tougher spending limit than the one contained in Proposition 1A. But for now their strategy has a puzzling theme to it: The anti-tax groups are simultaneously criticizing Niello and the other Republicans for voting for tax hikes while those same groups are working for an outcome that would kill the part of the package that Republicans demanded in exchange for their votes on those taxes.
Only in California.
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Sunday, May 3, 2009
2 swine flu cases confirmed in Orange County
County’s tally now at 7 probable and 2 definite cases, says Orange County Health Care Agency.
By SONYA SMITH
The Orange County Register
Orange County health officials today confirmed swine flu in two previously reported cases and reported two additional suspected cases, bringing the county’s total to seven possibly infected people and two people confirmed infected.
The new suspected cases are a 22-year-old woman from Anaheim and a 17-year-old man from Anaheim, according to the Orange County Health Care Agency. Those cases were discovered today.
“To limit the spread of this and other influenza viruses, it is very important that individuals who are sick stay at home until they are symptom-free,” Dr. Eric Handler, the county’s health officer, said Sunday afternoon.
The 17-year-old attends Anaheim High School. The 22-year-woman is not known to be attending school at the present.
Anaheim High will not be closed, though Anaheim Union High School District is expected to send a notification to parents tonight and will continue to monitor attendance and call students who don’t show up to ask if they’re sick. Last week’s attendance numbers for Anaheim High were a little below average, said Howard Sutter, the health agency’s spokesman.
Health specialists talked to family members, discussed the situations with school administrators and consulted with state health officials to determine that it was unnecessary to close any schools, Sutter said.
The health agency confirmed two previously suspected cases of swine flu in Irvine, in a 26-year-old man and an 18-year-old University High School student. University High in Irvine remains open because the student had stayed home while he was sick.
Sutter said there is no known relation between any of the people believed or confirmed to have swine flu in the county. All cases in Orange County are mild to moderate; some people are already fully recovered, while others are still recovering, Sutter said. No Orange County flu patients are hospitalized.
The other Orange County suspected flu cases are: an 8-year-old girl from Placentia; an 8-year-old girl who is not an Orange County resident but who was tested in the county; a 5-year-old girl from Santa Ana; a 20-year-old man from Anaheim; and a 20-year-old woman from Santa Ana.
At Camp Pendleton, officials said Saturday that there are now three confirmed cases of swine flu at the base just south of San Clemente.
As of 2:30 p.m. today, the California Department of Public Health counts 29 confirmed cases and 130 probable cases (up from 110 probable cases reported Saturday). That total includes nine probable cases from Orange County, rather than the Orange County Health Care Agency’s latest information of seven probable and two confirmed cases.
Also today, an inmate at a state prison in the Imperial Valley is the first known case of swine flu in the state’s correctional system, and visiting hours and other activities at the prison 120 miles east of San Diego have been suspended, state officials said.
The inmate is only mildly affected, has been isolated and is getting appropriate medical care, the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said.
Register staff writers Gary Robbins and Sarah Tully and City News Service contributed to this report.
Contact the writer: sosmith@ocregister.com
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http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-swineflu4-2009may04,0,4331151.story
From the Los Angeles Times
Swine flu confirmed in Orange, Riverside counties
Top Los Angeles County health official warns against panic and urges public to take normal precautions.
By Ari B. Bloomekatz
May 4, 2009
Two cases each of swine flu were confirmed in Orange and Riverside counties Sunday, following confirmation a day earlier of the first three Los Angeles County cases of the new strain of influenza.
In a news conference Sunday, the top public health official in Los Angeles County cautioned against panicking, saying that the disease “looks and is acting like the regular, seasonal influenza that we already know.”
Jonathan Fielding, Los Angeles County director of public health, said one of the local cases was contracted by a student at Cal State Long Beach, another by a young adult in central Los Angeles and the third by a young adult in the southeastern part of the county.
All of those individuals are doing well and have not been hospitalized, Fielding said.
He said he expected that cases of swine flu would at some point be confirmed in all parts of the county. Health officials were continuing to keep a close eye on possible reports of the virus in schools and hospitals, he said.
“You can prevent the spread of this new virus by following the same precautions that you normally follow to avoid getting sick,” Fielding said. He warned parents not to send their children to school if they are sick and said workers who are ill should stay home.
Meanwhile, state prison officials stopped all visitation and other nonessential activities in 33 adult prisons and six youth facilities after they received word of an inmate at Centinela State Prison in Imperial County with a 95% probable case of swine flu. Visits from attorneys and other critical and legally mandated activities will continue, officials said.
The inmate who was diagnosed with the possible virus and his cellmate have been isolated from other prisoners, and the case appears to be mild, officials said.
After the two cases of the disease were confirmed in Riverside County, health officials said that four public schools, including Indio High School, had been closed from April 30 through May 13 as a precaution. No public school closures have been announced in Los Angeles or Orange counties.
Imperial County officials have confirmed seven cases of swine flu and 28 probable cases. Four schools have been closed: Kennedy Gardens Elementary in Calexico; Washington, Sunflower and McKinley Elementary Schools, all in El Centro, and two preschools.
In San Diego County, where the first U.S. swine flu case was discovered, there are 15 confirmed cases.
ari.bloomekatz@latimes.com
Times staff writer Tony Perry contributed to this report.
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Friday, May 1, 2009
Santa Ana withholds documents on streetcar decision
The city chose a lower-ranked company to lead a $6 million project.
By DOUG IRVING
The Orange County Register
SANTA ANA – City officials have refused to release several key documents that could shed light on how they chose a low-ranked firm to head a $6-million streetcar project.
Those documents include price estimates, internal memos and scoring sheets from an expert panel that reviewed the three companies that applied for the job. The City Attorney’s Office said that releasing those documents “unnecessarily impinges” on the city’s deliberations and negotiations as it tries to ink a final contract.
The city did release the proposals each company submitted and the average score each company received from the evaluation panel, in response to a request by the Register under California’s public-records law. Those show that the company chosen to lead the project, Cordoba Corp., received the lowest average score from the evaluation panel, by a wide margin.
Nonetheless, the City Council voted last week to put Cordoba in charge of the two-year effort to better plan and design a streetcar loop between Santa Ana and Garden Grove. That contract will be worth as much as $6 million.
Cordoba’s president, George Pla, was among the local politicians and business leaders who founded the Santa Ana Business Bank. Councilman Carlos Bustamante, who serves with Pla on the bank’s board of directors, did not vote on the streetcar contract or participate in the discussion.
Pla said his work with the bank “has nothing to do with it” and said he won the contract because he put together a team that knows the city and knows its needs. “It’s not about political connections,” he said. “It’s about trust…. Getting this project to be a success is about having trust in the team.”
The documents held back by the city get into the “internal evaluation and deliberative process” used to select Cordoba, City Attorney Joseph Fletcher wrote in response to the Register’s request for records. California courts have allowed cities to withhold such information from the public to protect the integrity of the decision-making process, he wrote.
“It sounds like a fairly strong case” for invoking that protection, said Peter Scheer, the executive director of the California First Amendment Coalition.
That’s because the city has not yet signed a final contract for the project. If it were to make the price estimates and other details public now, Scheer said, it might not be able to negotiate a better contract and lower prices going forward.
The streetcar that Santa Ana envisions would trundle from the city’s train station, through its Civic Center and eventually up to the 22 Freeway. It would connect with bus lines running south to John Wayne Airport and north into an entertainment district that Garden Grove envisions along Harbor Boulevard.
City officials estimate that an initial segment from the train station to Bristol Street could be ready to run within five years – and will likely cost upwards of $300 million. For now, the focus is on designing and planning the line, an effort paid for almost entirely by the Orange County Transportation Authority using money from a half-cent sales tax.
Three companies submitted proposals to do the work. In its instructions to them, Santa Ana explained how it would select a winner: “An evaluation committee appointed by the Executive Director of the Public Works Agency will review the proposals.”
That evaluation committee included the city managers of both Santa Ana and Garden Grove, as well as city planners, an engineer and a representative of the OCTA. It met in early February, heard presentations from each of the companies, and gave a team led by Parsons Brinckerhoff the highest average score, 93.7.
A second company, David Evans and Associates Inc., came in second with a score of 77. Cordoba, with a score of 72.9, was just a few percentage points above the city’s minimum-qualification cutoff of 70.
A month later, three members of the City Council interviewed the three companies during a meeting of the Transportation Committee. Out of that came the idea of cobbling together a “hybrid” team borrowing from the best of all three companies, Mayor Miguel Pulido, who chairs the committee, has said.
By the time that proposal reached the full City Council, it had been translated into an organization chart with Cordoba in the lead. The council voted 6-0 to move forward and begin negotiating with Cordoba.
That decision “raises serious doubts as to the integrity of the process,” Parsons Brinckerhoff wrote in a letter to the city.
City Manager David Ream said the final recommendation was his alone, made after taking into account both the expert ratings and the council interviews. He said individual staff and council members offered suggestions about who should be included in the organization chart, but never made formal recommendations.
Ream was part of the expert panel, but declined to say how he scored the three companies, or whether he ranked Cordoba at the top. “I really don’t want to start talking about the specifics of the review panel,” he said.
Contact the writer: 714-704-3777 or dirving@ocregister.com
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Home › News › Local News
Teachers want audit of Gateway School District
By Rob Rogers (Contact)
Redding.com
Friday, May 1, 2009
Gateway Unified School District’s chief business officer and teachers association are calling for a state audit of the district’s books.
The decision of the teachers association – its executive board voted Thursday night to push for the audit – comes on the heels of an independent investigation commissioned by the district’s board, which was completed in late March.
Jody Thulin, Gateway’s chief business officer, complained in February to the board that Superintendent John Strohmayer mismanaged bond money and irresponsibly spent district funds.
The investigation, which was conducted by Fresno attorney Jeffrey Kuhn, found no wrongdoing.
Regardless, the teachers association believes the district needs an audit.
“We’re very concerned about the allegations,” said Anita Brady, president of the teachers association. “We don’t know what to believe.”
Thulin had been the district’s business officer since last summer and went on leave in February, shortly after she appeared in front of the district board. Calls to her home Friday were not returned.
She told trustees that Strohmayer had overspent the district’s 2002 bond money for facility modernizations, which forced the district to seek certificate of participation loans to pay for f
Email blast from John Palacio dated May 2,2009
Saturday, May 2, 2009
O.C. schools shortchanged by $14 million annually
It’s bitter pill to swallow in a tight budget year; history is to blame.
By SCOTT MARTINDALE
The Orange County Register
Orange County schools are shortchanged about $14 million in state-allocated funding each year compared to the statewide average, a funding gap that underscores the complex nature of California education financing despite four decades of effort to eliminate such disparities.
As education leaders in Orange County grapple with how to close a combined $287 million budget deficit and prepare to shed more than 3,000 jobs, all but four of the county’s 27 school districts are being reminded they receive less funding per pupil than the California average.
And that’s after lawmakers and courts have spent the past 41 years trying to equalize this type of funding.
“We have a horrible formula that is not a good business model,” Orange County schools Superintendent Bill Habermehl said. “We send our tax dollars up to Sacramento and they get redistributed to Los Angeles and other areas. Our tax dollars should go back to support the school districts in Orange County.”
Most Orange County schools have always received less than their fair share of this money, officials say – a bitter pill to swallow considering this type of funding, known as the revenue limit, makes up about two-thirds of all education funding.
In fact, the phenomenon is frequently cited by local educators as one reason school districts have such a tough time balancing budgets in lean years. (Click here to view a district-by-district breakdown O.C. school funding.)
“It helps explain why we’re having to make budget cuts,” said Lisa Howell, assistant superintendent for business services for Irvine Unified, which must cut $2.3 million this year. “We need to get districts like Irvine up to at least the statewide average.”
Irvine Unified is the lowest-funded of Orange County’s 12 unified districts.
HISTORY TO BLAME
California’s funding system has its roots in the 1970s, when the state largely assumed control of doling out public-education dollars and drastically altered the funding landscape.
Up until 1973, public schools were funded with local property taxes and other local fees, so families living in pricey communities got well-funded schools and families living in areas with low property values generally ended up with poorly funded schools.
Orange County, being largely agricultural and rural at the time, tended not to have many well-funded schools, officials said.
But the state Supreme Court ruled it was illegal to have such disparities and insisted school funding gradually be equalized. The state spent the next four decades trying to give every district the same dollar amount per student, without cutting down any district’s funding.
In 1978, Proposition 13 added its influence to the change, rolling back the support schools received from local property taxes and making them more dependent on state money derived from other sources, including sales tax.
Orange County schools, for the most part, fell well below the average initially and had to sit tight for many years as their funding levels inched upward, much to the chagrin of local educators and parents.
While the state has made considerable progress with equalization – the funding gap in Orange County has been about halved over the past 15 years – political wrangling in Sacramento and state funding shortfalls have made full equalization a seemingly impossible task, and it remains a key issue of contention today.
“It’s not fair, and it’s not something we can just disregard,” said longtime Fountain Valley schools activist Joanne Lew, president of the Fountain Valley Educational Foundation fundraising group and a former school board member. “Basically they’re saying it costs less to educate a student in one district than another. It costs the same no matter what district you’re in.”
On May 19, voters will go to the polls to decide the fate of an education-funding bill known as Proposition 1B, which includes a provision that would provide up to $200 million in equalization funding in the 2011-12 school year.
Education officials say the equalization dollars would help raise per-pupil funding levels in many Orange County school districts, but it’s not clear yet by how much.
HIGHER FUNDING IS RELATIVE
School districts funded below the state average agree they deserve more money, but a murkier area exists for the few districts lucky enough to be funded above the state average.
Los Alamitos Unified gets $110 more per student each year than the state average, which translates to a $1 million windfall annually. But the district’s budget has so many fixed costs that it’s not able to consider that money to be extra cash, said Superintendent Gregory Franklin.
This year alone, Los Alamitos Unified is looking at $5.6 million in budget cuts.
“Any money you can get is good, but once you’re in a system, it doesn’t matter whether you’re above or below the average – what matters are your year-over-year changes,” Franklin said. “We don’t know if we’re rich or poor, but we know if you give us more or less next year.”
With so much of their financial health reliant on the state, many school districts look with envy at Laguna Beach Unified and Newport-Mesa Unified, the only two districts in Orange County that consistently escape the state’s budget cuts.
Referred to as basic-aid districts, Laguna Beach and Newport-Mesa rake in such high local property taxes – even after the Prop. 13 downward adjustments – that they don’t need revenue-limit assistance from the state.
Rather than send the money elsewhere, the state permits them to keep virtually all of it, allowing them to be funded last year at 196 percent and 137 percent, respectively, above the state average.
But these districts must be much more frugal about raiding their coffers. Unlike most school districts in California – which have constitutionally protected minimum funding guarantees – basic aid districts cannot rely on the state for money when property values sink.
Laguna Beach Unified, for example, maintains a rainy-day reserve fund equal to 18 percent of its total budget, a striking contrast to the single-digit reserves kept by most districts.
“It’s always a difficult and fine line to walk spending today’s dollars on today’s students vs. having reserves for times when there are downturns,” said Norma Shelton, Laguna Beach Unified’s assistant superintendent for business services. “We know it doesn’t matter if our property values are declining – our costs escalate every year.”
IMPACT OF OTHER FUNDS
The debate over funding equalization also is muddled because certain districts receive large amounts of other types of state and federal aid as a result of enrolling student groups with special needs.
For example, part of the $787 billion federal stimulus package aimed at public education is expected to disproportionately bolster the coffers of districts with large numbers of impoverished students.
But even for state revenue-limit funding, there’s no foreseeable conclusion to the efforts at equalization. The state lacks the cash to immediately bring every district up to the same funding level, and the political will is just not there for sweeping changes anyway, analysts say.
“We want to believe there must be a rationale behind why one school district gets more than the other, but the logic is buried in years and years of legislation and history,” said Mary Perry, deputy director for Mountain View-based EdSource, an independent education policy analyst. “It’s layer after layer of regulation and good-meaning reforms on top of what was, at its essence, a very simple approach.”
Contact the writer: 949-454-7394 or smartindale@ocregister.com
Funding shortfalls
Twenty-three of Orange County’s 27 school districts lag behind the state’s average funding level in receiving a form of state aid known as a revenue limit, which comprises about two-thirds of total education funding.
Two O.C. districts are slightly above the average, and two exceed it greatly thanks to an alternative funding system that allows them to take advantage of high property taxes.
The O.C. districts that rely on state revenue-limit funding are shortchanged about $14 million annually.
HIGHEST FUNDED
Newport-Mesa Unified
Disparity: $2,153 above average per pupil, $44.4 million total (property tax supported)
Expected cuts: $5 million this year, no layoffs
Laguna Beach Unified
Disparity: $5,570 above average per pupil, $15.4 million total (property tax supported)
Expected cuts: None
LOWEST FUNDED
Fountain Valley Elementary
Disparity: $52 below average per pupil, $306,753 total
Expected cuts: $4 million this year, 22 teachers
Irvine Unified
Disparity: $47 below average per pupil, $1.2 million total
Expected cuts: $2.3 million this year, 164 teachers
Santa Ana Unified
Disparity: $43 below average per pupil, $2.3 million total
Expected cuts: $9 million this year, 164 teachers
RANGE OF FUNDING
Elementary districts
O.C. average: $5,531 per pupil
State average: $5,567
O.C. range: $5,515 to $5,557
State range: $5,343 to $9,205
O.C. underfunding: $3.2 million annually
High school districts
O.C. average: $6,669 per pupil
State average: $6,690
O.C. range: $6,648 to $6,684
State range: $6,631 to $7,603
O.C. underfunding: $1.6 million annually
Unified districts
O.C. average: $5,801 per pupil
State average: $5,821
O.C. range: $5,774 to $5,931
State range: $5,752 to $7,727
O.C. underfunding: $9.2 million annually
Note: Per-pupil averages and ranges exclude all property tax-supported districts.
Sources: 2007-08 data, California Department of Education, Orange County Department of Education
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Friday, May 1, 2009
Chart: O.C. school district revenue-limit amounts, compared with state
Most local schools receive less than state’s average funding.
By SCOTT MARTINDALE
The Orange County Register
Orange County school districts are disproportionately impacted by the state’s education-funding formulas, which dole out a unique, per-pupil dollar amount to each district known as the revenue limit. The revenue limit constitutes about two-thirds of total education funding; the remainder comes largely from federal and state funds, including grants and earmarked categorical money.
While most districts fall below the revenue-limit state average by only $30 to $50 per student, the shortfall can translate to millions of lost dollars every year for an entire school district.
Only two local districts that receive revenue-limit funding – Los Alamitos Unified and Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified – are paid above the state average; they get a combined $1 million extra each year.
Exempt from this strict funding mechanism are Laguna Beach Unified and Newport-Mesa Unified, where property taxes exceed the state’s targeted funding level. The state allows such so-called “basic aid” districts to keep all of their property taxes, so they typically have high per-pupil funding numbers.
O.C. schools shortchanged by $14 million annually: Click here to return to an analysis of the funding disparities
District Type Per-pupil revenue limit State average Per-pupil difference from state average Percent of state average Number of pupils (ADA) Total difference from state average All education funding per pupil All funding Revenue limit percent of all funding
Anaheim City Elementary $5,532 $5,567 -$35.44 99.4% 19,135 -$678,151 $9,239 $176,793,946 59.9%
Buena Park Elementary $5,541 $5,567 -$25.51 99.5% 5,769 -$147,172 $8,979 $51,801,095 61.7%
Centralia Elementary $5,531 $5,567 -$36.20 99.3% 4,699 -$170,107 $8,666 $40,720,105 63.8%
Cypress Elementary $5,530 $5,567 -$36.86 99.3% 4,136 -$152,436 $8,701 $35,984,533 63.6%
Fountain Valley Elementary $5,515 $5,567 -$51.64 99.1% 5,940 -$306,753 $7,633 $45,343,422 72.3%
Fullerton Elementary $5,557 $5,567 -$9.76 99.8% 13,220 -$129,031 $8,384 $110,835,052 66.3%
Huntington Beach City Elementary $5,526 $5,567 -$40.59 99.3% 6,397 -$259,673 $7,767 $49,690,749 71.2%
La Habra City Elementary $5,530 $5,567 -$37.19 99.3% 5,687 -$211,500 $8,683 $49,377,491 63.7%
Magnolia Elementary $5,535 $5,567 -$31.94 99.4% 6,219 -$198,634 $9,198 $57,203,827 60.2%
Ocean View Elementary $5,523 $5,567 -$43.88 99.2% 9,227 -$404,894 $8,524 $78,649,715 64.8%
Savanna Elementary $5,530 $5,567 -$37.27 99.3% 2,326 -$86,683 $8,456 $19,666,375 65.4%
Westminster Elementary $5,522 $5,567 -$44.78 99.2% 9,730 -$435,692 $8,663 $84,284,876 63.7%
Anaheim Union High school $6,648 $6,690 -$41.64 99.4% 31,827 -$1,325,289 $9,950 $316,696,276 66.8%
Fullerton Joint Union High school $6,684 $6,690 -$6.24 99.9% 14,687 -$91,646 $10,032 $147,339,181 66.6%
Huntington Beach Union High school $6,676 $6,690 -$13.98 99.8% 15,410 -$215,428 $10,862 $167,379,146 61.5%
Brea Olinda Unified $5,784 $5,821 -$37.08 99.4% 5,911 -$219,162 $8,174 $48,313,300 70.8%
Capistrano Unified $5,783 $5,821 -$37.82 99.4% 49,658 -$1,878,063 $7,966 $395,579,460 72.6%
Garden Grove Unified $5,780 $5,821 -$40.65 99.3% 46,991 -$1,910,170 $8,923 $419,299,450 64.8%
Irvine Unified $5,774 $5,821 -$46.59 99.2% 25,574 -$1,191,493 $8,557 $218,829,643 67.5%
Laguna Beach Unified $11,391 $5,821 $5,570.00 195.7% 2,762 $15,382,613 $14,019 $38,715,828 81.3%
Los Alamitos Unified $5,931 $5,821 $110.12 101.9% 9,105 $1,002,669 $8,570 $78,031,998 69.2%
Newport-Mesa Unified $7,974 $5,821 $2,153.19 137.0% 20,613 $44,384,136 $11,809 $243,424,165 67.5%
Orange Unified $5,787 $5,821 -$34.29 99.4% 27,041 -$927,229 $8,466 $228,937,773 68.3%
Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified $5,822 $5,821 $1.02 100.0% 25,462 $25,972 $8,351 $212,642,371 69.7%
Saddleback Valley Unified $5,785 $5,821 -$36.34 99.4% 32,095 -$1,166,333 $8,187 $262,768,109 70.7%
Santa Ana Unified $5,778 $5,821 -$43.16 99.3% 52,659 -$2,272,757 $9,145 $481,576,425 63.2%
Tustin Unified $5,786 $5,821 -$34.75 99.4% 20,269 -$704,349 $8,198 $166,171,671 70.6%
Source: California Department of Education
Note: O.C. officials continue to adjust numbers. The state’s figures are certified as of February 2009. ADA stands for Average Daily Attendance and is the basis for calculating how much money school districts receive.
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http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-schools30-2009apr30,0,1938454.story
From the Los Angeles Times
Survey finds California school funding dilemma
Those polled say they want education spared from state budget cuts, but an increasing number of people are less willing to pay more taxes to make up for the shortfall.
By Mitchell Landsberg
April 30, 2009
Californians want public schools spared from state budget cuts, but are less willing than before to foot the bill with more taxes, according to a statewide poll released Wednesday.
In its annual survey on education issues, the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California found deep dissatisfaction with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Legislature over education policy and growing skepticism that money is the answer to the problems facing public schools.
“I think that the public’s really concerned about what they’re hearing about budget cuts, especially as they relate to schools,” said Mark Baldassare, the institute’s president and chief executive. At the same time, he said, there is “a real ambivalence about taxes and . . . a very strong sense that the state leadership is really lacking today.”
Just 20% of those surveyed approved of Schwarzenegger’s handling of education, and even fewer — 18% — approved of the Legislature’s record on the issue. Both are the lowest ratings in the five years that the institute has been conducting the education poll. “I didn’t even know it could go that low,” said Baldassare, who has been polling in California for more than 20 years.
Six in 10 of those surveyed said more money probably would result in higher quality schools, but an even larger majority said schools could make better use of the money they have.
A majority was worried about the impact of state budget cuts on schools, but respondents were almost evenly split on paying more taxes to make up the shortfall: 48% said they would be willing to; 49% said they would not. Five years ago, 67% were willing to pay more taxes for schools.
The survey found Californians restive about education, with roughly six in 10 saying public schools need “major changes,” and a majority saying the quality of education is a big problem for the state. People were especially concerned about the high school dropout rate.
Los Angeles residents were among the least satisfied with their local public schools, and had by far the least confidence in their local school leaders.
“Clearly, there is greater unhappiness in Los Angeles than elsewhere in the state,” Baldassare said, adding that there were also “greater challenges in Los Angeles than anywhere else, in terms of the size of the [Los Angeles Unified School] district and the makeup of the student body.”
The survey revealed strong statewide support for the high school exit exam, which some have criticized for keeping students in low-performing schools from graduating. Interestingly, the strongest support for the exam came from Latinos, who have one of the highest failure rates. Eighty percent supported the exam as a graduation requirement, compared with 69% of Asians, 65% of whites and 53% of African Americans.
The poll was conducted among 2,502 California adults, including 252 interviewed randomly on cellphones, between April 7 and April 21. The margin of error was plus or minus 2 percentage points, higher for subgroups.
mitchell.landsberg @latimes.com
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Thursday, April 30, 2009
See districts’ lists: Are you losing your teacher?
Districts release names for planned 2009-10 teacher terminations, layoffs.
By SCOTT MARTINDALE and FERMIN LEAL
The Orange County Register
Orange County school districts, in response to a public records request from the Orange County Register, are releasing the names of teachers who received reduction in force notices on March 15 and temporary teachers who have been informed their contracts will not be renewed next year.
The cuts are in response to more than $10 billion in state cuts this year and in 2009-10, and involve more than 3,000 educators in the classroom, in teaching services and other posts. Hundreds of support staff also face layoffs.
School districts must make certificated employee (meaning teachers and many administrators) layoff decisions permanent by May 15; temporary teachers can be let go at any time.
Final school budgets are to be adopted before July 1, when the new fiscal year begins.
Click on the district name for its layoff report:
Anaheim City
Anaheim Union
Brea-Olinda Unified
Buena Park Elementary
Capistrano Unified
Centralia Elementary
Huntington Beach City Elementary
Irvine Unified
La Habra City Elementary
Ocean View
Orange County Department of Education
Saddleback Valley Unified
Santa Ana Unified
These districts plan no layoffs:
Garden Grove Unified
Laguna Beach Unified
Lowell Joint
Newport-Mesa Unified
Savanna Elementary
Westminster Elementary
Layoff reports are pending from the following districts:
Los Alamitos Unified
Magnolia Elementary
Cypress Elementary
Fountain Valley Elementary
Fullerton Elementary
Huntington Beach Union High
Orange Unified
Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified
Tustin Unified
Fullerton Joint Union High
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http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-legis2-2009may02,0,7379013.story
From the Los Angeles Times
California Legislature: Where cost-cutting plans go to die
Committees kill proposals to freeze state executives’ salaries, abolish a well-compensated board, rein in a lottery headquarters project and more. Even Democrats’ measures fall victim.
By Patrick McGreevy and Eric Bailey
May 2, 2009
Reporting from Sacramento — Despite the swelling state deficit, the Legislature this week dumped several proposals that would have saved taxpayers millions of dollars.
Killed in committee were plans to freeze salaries for top-paid state workers; to abolish a waste board stacked with handsomely paid former legislators; to scale back a $185-million project for a new lottery headquarters; and to generate up to $2 billion by selling surplus property.
Republicans pitched most of the plans to help deal with the deficit — which is expected to hit $8 billion by summer — but even some from moderate Democrats were rejected.
“If the Legislature can’t even make this, the easiest of cuts,” said the author of the waste board proposal, Sen. Jeff Denham (R-Atwater), “it’s going to be a long summer.”
Senate Minority Leader Dennis Hollingsworth (R-Murrieta) criticized the ruling Democrats’ “hardheadedness.”
Democrats said some of the Republican bills would have jeopardized important programs for minimal savings.
“Wholesale deregulation — anti-environment, anti-worker, anti-consumer bills — smack of the Bush-era policies the nation and Californians in particular overwhelmingly rejected in November,” said Shannon Murphy, spokeswoman for Assembly Speaker Karen Bass (D-Los Angeles).
Some of the GOP ideas, such as selling the L.A. Memorial Coliseum, were just “goofy,” said Sen. Roderick Wright (D-Inglewood).
State officials have projected the midyear budget shortfall as a result of the recession. And if voters reject the budget-related ballot measures in the May 19 special election, the deficit could top $14 billion.
Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger supported SB 44 to abolish the Integrated Waste Management Board and save up to $3 million a year, Denham said. The Senate Environmental Quality Committee rejected it Monday on a party-line vote.
The board has been criticized as a way station for retired lawmakers. Among its members are former legislators Sheila Kuehl, John Laird and Carole Migden; each is paid $132,000 a year.
“A vote against this is a vote against a streamlined, more cost-effective and more efficient manner of running government and meeting our environmental goals,” Schwarzenegger said.
Committee Chairman Joe Simitian (D-Palo Alto) said the board had helped local agencies meet the state’s goal of diverting 50% of waste from landfills and develop new markets for recycling.
Another GOP proposal, to eliminate compensation for 12 state commissions that pay big salaries and meet once or twice a month, would have saved $7 million a year, according to its author, Sen. Tony Strickland (R-Thousand Oaks). But SB 685 died Tuesday in a deadlocked Senate Government Organization Committee.
Wright, the committee’s chairman, said that commissioners worked many more days than they meet and that they earn their pay.
But Strickland called it “irresponsible” to hand out “massive paychecks” to part-time commissioners at a time of teacher layoffs and government furloughs.
In the Assembly, Chino Hills Republican Curt Hagman argued that a proposal to spend $185 million on a state lottery headquarters, including two office towers to be rented out, should be scaled back to a $40-million renovation of the lottery’s existing building.
But the Assembly Governmental Organization Committee disagreed, voting down his bill to do so, AB 662.
Opponents of his plan said backing away from the larger project would send a negative message amid efforts to borrow against future lottery revenue.
One of the measures on the special election ballot would authorize such borrowing.
Sen. John J. Benoit (R-Palm Desert) proposed to require random drug tests for welfare recipients — and to eliminate payments to those who didn’t complete a drug treatment program. The Senate Committee on Human Services rejected his SB 384 along party lines.
Denham, author of the waste board bill, had another proposal blocked too: SB 28, which would have raised up to $2 billion by selling San Quentin State Prison to a developer. Senate Public Safety Committee Chairman Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) shelved the bill, saying it could add to prison overcrowding.
Republicans were not the only ones to see their cost-saving ideas shot down.
Assemblyman Anthony Portantino (D-La Cañada Flintridge) proposed AB 53 to freeze salary increases and overtime until 2012 for state employees earning more than $150,000 — saving at least $2.5 million and affecting 820 executives, he said.
But opponents on the Assembly Appropriations Committee said freezing pay would make it hard to recruit and retain executives.
patrick.mcgreevy@ latimes.com
eric.bailey@latimes.com
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Santa Ana Unified officer Brian Harris receives his commendation from Superintendent Jane Russo during a recent school board
Friday, May 1, 2009
Santa Ana schools officer earns commendation
Police officer Brian Harris is credited with saving man laying on tracks of oncoming train.
By FERMIN LEAL
The Orange County Register
SANTA ANA Santa Ana Unified School District Police Officer Brian Harris recently received a commendation for performing a valiant act that saved the life of a Santa Ana resident.
In late February, Officer Harris responded to a call to render aid to a man who was lying on the railroad tracks near Grand Avenue and East Chestnut Street. Officer Harris quickly responded by moving the person from the tracks to an area of safety immediately before a Metrolink train passed. He ensured the victim was transported to St. Joseph Hospital for further treatment.
“This commendation is a testament to not only his work ethic and dedication on the job, but shows a real commitment to serve the community of Santa Ana as well,” said school board President José Alfredo Hernández. “We are fortunate to have an individual who is as dedicated as he among our ranks.”
Officer Harris has been a patrol officer for the district since 2007 and is the school district’s informal liaison to the Orange County Gang Investigators Association. He was previously a district safety officer assigned to Saddleback High School in 2006, having come to SAUSD with six years of law enforcement experience in California. He consistently performs at a high level and takes pride in his duty to serve, school district officials said.
Most recently, Officer Harris led the school police department’s efforts in disbanding an organized crime ring responsible for a rash of school burglaries. His subsequent investigation revealed that a group of adults and juveniles had been stealing laptop computers and overhead projectors from several Santa Ana schools over the past five months. Five adults and seven juveniles involved were arrested and taken into custody.
Contact the writer: 714-704-3773 or fleal@ocregister.com
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This story is taken from Sacbee / Capitol and California
Prop. 1A is lightning rod among May 19 measures
kyamamura@sacbee.com
Published Saturday, May. 02, 2009
One in a series of stories explaining the measures on the May 19 special election ballot
Is Proposition 1A a long-needed solution to set aside money in good economic times so the state doesn’t have to slash programs and raise taxes in bad years?
Or is it essentially a way to get voters to approve $16 billion in additional tax hikes?
Depends on whom you ask.
Proposition 1A means vastly different things to different people, as reflected in the political alliances emerging on each side of the measure.
The multifaceted May 19 proposal is only one piece of the budget accord struck by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and two-thirds of the state Legislature in February. Yet it has become a lightning rod for the entire election.
“Proposition 1A has been given most of the attention in this special election, and voters are paying more attention to it and pivoting off of it when deciding how to view the rest of the ballot,” said Mark DiCamillo, Field Poll director.
Proponents have linked Proposition 1A to the current budget mess, but it would have no direct impact on the state’s fiscal situation until 2011.
At that point, it would pump money into state coffers through temporary tax extensions, limit spending in robust economic years, place restrictions on the state’s “rainy-day fund” and restore $9.3 billion in education funding if Proposition 1B passes.
Groups backing the plan say it would create a predictable stream of revenue less dependent on the economy. They compare it to families placing bonuses and windfalls in savings to use in emergencies.
“I don’t know if any one thing is a magic bullet, but we think Proposition 1A is what works to get us out of the problems we’ve had,” said Lou Paulson, California Professional Firefighters president. “We see it as budgeting consistency.”
The measure originated with GOP legislative leaders, who demanded that a spending limit be part of any budget compromise they negotiated.
Under the plan, the state each May would establish a spending amount based on a trend line from the previous 10 years, ignoring temporary tax revenues or bond money. It also would set a spending number equal to the previous budget year, adjusted for inflation and population growth.
Whichever number is higher would be the limit for spending that year. Any extra revenues would go first toward schools to meet constitutional requirements and then into the state’s rainy-day fund. The state would increase its reserve to 12.5 percent of the general fund, roughly $12 billion now.
The state also would continue to set aside 3 percent of its general fund revenues in the reserve each September. If Proposition 1B passes, half of that money would go toward schools until the state pays them $9.3 billion total. The governor could block transfers for the reserve, but not schools, in particularly bad years.
The state could tap the reserve fund in limited cases, primarily when revenues fall below the previous year’s spending (with adjustments for population growth and inflation). It also could use the money in cases of natural disasters.
Once the reserve is full and schools receive repayment, the state would use additional money to pay down debt.
Michael Cohen, a deputy analyst with the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office, said 1A’s effect “is hard to predict in any particular year, but over the long term you should have a more smooth spending line.”
He noted that in February, when lawmakers were grappling with a then-projected $40 billion deficit, a $12 billion reserve would not have solved the entire problem. “It’s not going to get rid of all the volatility in the state’s budgeting, but I think it definitely would require that more money be set aside than today’s system.”
Supporters include the California Teachers Association and the California Chamber of Commerce, two powerful lobbying groups that were at odds the last time voters considered a spending limit in 2005.
CTA, a statewide union that represents more than 340,000 school employees, backs the measure largely because it would allow schools to receive $9.3 billion over time, adding to their long-term base of funding (as long as Proposition 1B passes) and also contains specific protections for education.
Despite Proposition 1A’s Republican origins, rank-and-file GOP members have become some of its fiercest critics.
Most conservative opposition focuses on the measure’s $16 billion in tax hikes. If Proposition 1A passes, it would trigger in 2011 an extra year of the state’s current 1-cent sales tax hike and two years more of the state’s vehicle license fee and personal-income tax hikes.
“Even Keynesian economists try to avoid tax increases in a recession, so to compound the problem with $16 billion in additional taxes on top of what has already been agreed to is really unacceptable,” said Lew Uhler, president of the National Tax Limitation Committee.
Republicans also believe the proposal’s spending limit is too weak. The measure doesn’t impose a strict cap on spending as lawmakers still could approve tax hikes and fees allowing them to spend above Proposition 1A’s formulas.
Schwarzenegger and state lawmakers added $16 billion in temporary taxes largely as a political calculation to appease labor unions and discourage them from spending heavily to kill the proposal.
Unions haven’t yet raised enough money to run opposition ads. But the Service Employees International Union and several other public employee groups have formed a campaign committee against 1A with more than $1 million. They believe it would lock in current spending levels, which they feel are too low to maintain adequate services.
“For us, Proposition 1A provides no prospects that we will ever be able to restore CSU higher education at a level that even resembles the need the state has,” said Lillian Taiz, a history professor at California State University, Los Angeles, and president of the California Faculty Association.
Jean Ross, director of the California Budget Project, an advocate for low-income residents, said 1A’s formula-driven limits are unreasonable because costs for health care and corrections have risen faster than the rate of inflation and population growth.
Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, said he disagrees with unions who are afraid the measure will hurt state services. He and Assembly Speaker Karen Bass, D-Los Angeles, have led the charge for the measure on the Democratic side.
“Reasonable people can disagree on its impact, but I know that every penny that goes into the reserve fund comes out either directly for services or to pay down debt, which creates more room in the budget to fund services,” Steinberg said.
Proposition 1A also would allow the governor to cut general government spending and reduce cost-of-living increases for social services in the middle of a fiscal year, but not alter most state employee salaries, according to the Legislative Analyst’s Office.
The latest Field Poll showed voters oppose Proposition 1A by a 49 percent to 40 percent margin. DiCamillo said three in five voters are aware the measure contains tax hike extensions.
Voters also have grown cynical of any spending limit plan.
“They’ve been sold these budget limits before, and they feel the other ones didn’t seem to work,” DiCamillo said. “They’re basing it on past history, and they’re not trusting their elected officials right now.”
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Call Kevin Yamamura, Bee Capitol Bureau, (916) 326-5548.
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http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-lausd2-2009may02,0,5015121.story
From the Los Angeles Times
L.A. teachers union plans 1-day strike
The work stoppage could fall on a day for AP testing.
By Howard Blume
May 2, 2009
The union representing Los Angeles teachers announced Friday that its members have voted to endorse plans for a one-day strike this month to protest looming teacher layoffs and larger class sizes.
Union leaders called on parents to join them, while acknowledging the demonstration would sacrifice instruction and complicate student testing. It also would violate the union contract.
“We expect parents to understand that the loss of one day to stop the chaos that would occur with larger class sizes and the laying off of teachers is well worth it,” said A.J. Duffy, president of United Teachers Los Angeles. “This is about maintaining the integrity of the education program.”
Last month, the school board voted 4-3 to cut $596.1 million to help balance a nearly $6 billion general fund. Some 5,400 employees could lose jobs, including 3,500 less-experienced teachers who lack tenure. The cuts would take effect by July 1, the start of the 2009-10 school year.
Federal stimulus money has prevented additional job losses, and could yet save more jobs. As a precaution, however, district officials have spread the money over two years, because next year’s fiscal situation could be equally dire in the L.A. Unifed School District.
The teachers union wants the federal money to save jobs now. The union also challenged the direction of reforms under Supt. Ramon C. Cortines.
Beyond the cuts, Cortines decided to give school sites unprecedented control over budgets, which allows them to “buy back” certain positions he is cutting districtwide. Duffy said that school-site councils were unprepared, resulting in confusion and unwise, undemocratic decisions. Union leaders are pushing for a centralized program that prioritizes hiring teachers — even though the union has long preached school-site control.
District officials acknowledge likely disruptions: Low-poverty schools will see class size soar and will lose teachers as a result. High-poverty schools (which have more money) might retain the same number of teachers, but it won’t necessarily be the same people — because many instructors at these schools typically lack tenure.
“This is going to completely destabilize the school environment,” said Rebecca Solomon, a social studies teacher at L.A. High.
District officials have argued that wage concessions are needed to preserve faculties and class sizes, an approach many teachers oppose.
“Taking away from teachers is a socially acceptable mechanism for taking away from students,” said Dipti Baranwal, a first-year teacher at risk of being laid off. Close to 60% of teachers voted, and 73.8% of those authorized the strike.
Parent Donna Rodriguez, whose third-grader attends Ivanhoe Elementary, said she intends to march with teachers because “I’m there to do whatever it takes to have my daughter get a good education.”
But longtime parent activist Bill Ring called the union’s move disappointing for its impact on instruction and testing.
May is the month for giving state standardized tests. And the tentative May 15 strike date coincides with some Advanced Placement tests, which are important for college applicants.
“I don’t see the benefit for kids in this,” Ring said.
howard.blume@latimes.com
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L.A. teachers union to announce one-day strike to fight layoffs
1:02 PM | May 1, 2009
Los Angeles Times
The union representing Los Angeles teachers is moments away from announcing plans for a one-day strike on May 15 to protest the pending layoffs of as many as 3,500 teachers.
The tentative plan has teachers picketing outside their schools that morning, then meeting at one or more locations for an afternoon rally. Demonstrators would be protesting against increased class sizes for students in the Los Angeles Unified School District as well as the layoffs.
Rallies against layoffs — outside of school time — have been taking place episodically across the nation’s second-largest school system.
Union leaders hope to pressure district officials to use as much federal economic stimulus money as necessary to avoid layoffs in the 2009-2010 school year, which begins July 1 for year-round schools.
Currently, Supt. Ramon C. Cortines intends to split the money over two years because the financial outlook for the 2010-2011 school year is at least as bad. Cortines and others have argued that employees unions should consider salary reductions, such as unpaid furlough days, to avoid layoffs.
“No one is buying what LAUSD is selling,” said A.J. Duffy, president of United Teachers Los Angeles, in a release. “It’s not about furlough days or seniority or any of the other issues they are trying to distract us with. Our members know the stimulus money was sent specifically to schools to save jobs, and they are willing to take bold action to make that happen.”
Union leaders said they chose May 15 “to have the least conflict with monthlong testing,” including the state’s STAR tests, which are the most prominent yardsticks for a school’s academic standing. But there are Advanced Placement tests, which are important for college applicants, scheduled for that day.
Some schools may also have been planning to give STAR tests or makeup STAR tests for students on that day. The STAR tests could be rescheduled provided that they are given with a mandated range of days.
Cortines urged teachers to remain in class.
“We need our teachers there to ensure vital instruction is occurring, schools are safe and Advanced Placement and state testing goes on as planned, ” he said in a release. “It is irresponsible for the UTLA leadership to push this work stoppage action that violates the law and the union contract. We value our teachers and expect them to carry out their teaching responsibilities every single day including Friday, May 15.”
Last month, the Los Angeles Board of Education, by a 4-3 vote, approved a budget package that could result in more than 5,300 job losses, including about 3,500 teachers who lack tenure protection.
– Howard Blume
Blume is twittering about budget woes in the Los Angeles Unified School District. Follow his updates: http://twitter.com/howardblume.
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Dan Walters: What’s Plan B if five ballot measures fail?
By Dan Walters
dwalters@sacbee.com
Published: Friday, May. 1, 2009 – 12:00 am | Page 3A
Prospects are rapidly diminishing for the five ballot measures that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and legislative leaders say they need to keep the state budget from drowning in red ink.
So, one might ask, what’s Plan B?
Rejection of three measures (Propositions 1C, 1D and 1E) would have a direct impact totaling nearly $6 billion on the 2009-10 budget, which was supposedly balanced by Schwarzenegger and legislators in February.
Legislative Analyst Mac Taylor has already proclaimed that the 2009-10 plan is $8 billion out of whack, so rejection of those three measures would create a $14 billion hole. But wait, there’s still more bad news.
Taylor’s projection assumes that the state’s economy will begin picking up in 2010, but the most recent state economic forecasts don’t support that assumption.
“There is no measure of economic strength that provides even a glimmer of hope for California’s economy in the near term, none,” says William Watkins of the University of California, Santa Barbara, Economic Forecast Project. Watkins sees unemployment, now over 11 percent, rising to near 14 percent next year as well as at least two more years of economic decline.
State income tax receipts, a critical measure of revenues, appear to be falling short, as well. Through Wednesday, income taxes for the fiscal year were a whopping $8 billion under what the state had received by that time in 2008.
Another measure: The California New Car Dealers Association reported new car sales this year running 43 percent under 2008, adding that sales for 2009 could fall below 1 million autos, less than half of sales three years ago.
The economy is in free fall, and if Schwarzenegger and legislators lose on May 19, they could face another $20-plus billion deficit in 2009-10, beginning with a severe cash crunch in July that will force them to float short-term loans – if they can find lenders.
More taxes? Rejection of Proposition 1A, the linchpin measure, would not only short-circuit the taxes enacted in February but probably make any additional levies politically impossible. Democratic leaders could try again to enact taxes without Republican votes but would face a legal challenge and political fallout. A massive bailout from Washington? Unlikely.
This is an immense mess, partly caused by the recession, partly caused by years of fiscal irresponsibility. And it may be the day of reckoning that Capitol politicians had long avoided, compounded by the obvious anger of voters.
A new statewide Field Poll has found historically low approval ratings for the Republican governor and the Democratic- controlled Legislature, just 33 percent for the governor and 14 percent for the Legislature. So their credibility to marshal support for any plan is virtually nil.
Wholesale slaughter of state spending may be their only option. This is a pivotal point in California political history, a fiscal Armageddon.
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http://www.latimes.com/business/la-me-benefits30-2009apr30,0,7422776.story
From the Los Angeles Times
Charter school staff face dilemma on benefits
Workers at three campuses must decide whether to give up lifetime coverage, change schools or retire.
By Howard Blume
10:02 PM PDT, April 29, 2009
Three local charter schools, including two that are widely acclaimed, face a potential exodus of teachers and others who are fearful of losing generous Los Angeles Unified School District health benefits.
This unexpected dilemma is being forced on school staffs at Granada Hills High, Palisades High and Pacoima Elementary. They must either leave those campuses or surrender lifetime health benefits they have earned through L.A. Unified.
Citing long-term worries over the cost of benefits for retirees, district officials issued an ultimatum in mid-April. Non-teaching employees have until Friday to leave the charters or lose their retiree health benefits. Teachers have until May 15.
The affected employees can retire now if they already qualify for retiree benefits. If they don’t, they must work at a traditional school, where, because of a hiring freeze, they are likely to bump someone else out of a job.
The returning employees would exacerbate pending layoffs in L.A. Unified, where more than 5,000 workers could lose jobs due to $596.1 million in cuts from a nearly $6-billion general fund.
There’s also a cost to maintaining the status quo for the charter school employees.
According to a recent actuarial study, each year an employee works adds about $5,000 to the district’s unfunded future obligations to retirees, said chief risk officer George Tischler.
As a result, the district believes it makes financial sense to reduce the number of people who are eligible. L.A. Unified has always retained the option of discontinuing health benefits for the charters, even though those schools have paid their share of ongoing premiums for current and retired workers.
“As our insurance rates continue to increase, it is likely and understandable that a charter would decide to no longer buy benefits from us and potentially leave us with an obligation,” district chief operating officer Dave Holmquist said. “And if the charter goes out of business, what happens?”
Tischler added that district layoffs would make it harder to manage special arrangements with charters.
The district has not been consistent when it comes to trimming the rolls for benefits. In late 2007, the school board — against the recommendation of staff — extended health benefits to thousands of part-time cafeteria workers under pressure from unions.
But charter workers are not on the district payroll. Charter schools are independently managed and typically handle their own benefits, but a handful have had a different arrangement.
These three schools were traditional campuses that converted to charter status. But they remained affiliated with the district’s teachers union and also kept — and paid for — the benefits package. These employees assumed the arrangement would continue, as did the teachers union.
“This came out of nowhere,” said Tom Alfano, a United Teachers Los Angeles representative. “This was dropped on us at the very last minute. There was never a negotiation.” Alfano insisted that the union is ready to work through all the district’s concerns, and that it’s worth the effort.
“Granada is the best high school the district has,” said Alfano, who represents teachers at that school. “Their act is so together.”
Granada Hills has scored in the top 20% of California high schools on state tests with nearly one-third of its students from low-income families. Enrollment at the school has risen steadily to 4,156 students during a period when overall district enrollment has declined. Palisades has performed comparably. Test scores at Pacoima are low but rose substantially last year.
The district’s expectation is that many employees will retire.
That may be the best option for 75-year-old Betty Zigler, who manages an independent study program at Granada Hills.
“From the first day I’ve been there, 22 years ago, I thought I died and went to heaven,” Zigler said. She wants to keep working, but without retiree benefits, she would lose dental and vision coverage and she’ll pay more for prescription drugs and other medical services, including her husband’s pending heart-valve operation.
Granada Hills could look substantially different next year: 88 out of about 180 teachers will have to leave or lose retiree health benefits. The same is true for 68 of 124 teachers at Palisades. Overall, more than 700 employees stand to lose benefits, including non-teachers.
Two other charter elementary schools, Montague in Pacoima and Santa Monica Boulevard Community in east Hollywood, also are affected. But most teachers at these schools already surrendered their right of return to the district. Their choice is starker: Retire now, if eligible, or lose the benefits.
The charter schools would, if necessary, develop their own health plans, but nothing is likely to match what employees have with L.A. Unified.
At 55, Palisades physical education teacher Pamela Harbour isn’t ready or financially able to retire. She’s also been looking forward to sharing the campus with her daughter, who will be attending Palisades next year.
But she and her daughter have had expensive health issues in recent years.
“I don’t know what I’m going to do,” she said.
howard.blume@latimes.com
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http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-special-election2-2009may02,0,4210590.story
From the Los Angeles Times
CALIFORNIA ELECTIONS: Ballot Measures
This time, a different political picture
In November 2005, money was plentiful, labor was unified and Democrats were pitted against the governor. Not now.
By Eric Bailey
May 2, 2009
Reporting from Sacramento — The last time California voters faced a slate of ballot measures crying for “reform,” there was a pitched political battle featuring TV ads aplenty and campaigns awash in cash. There were unified labor unions and Democrats pitted against the Hollywood-style marketing of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
That was November 2005. What a difference 42 months make.
Just weeks from the May 19 special election on six proposals intended to solve the state’s budget crisis, a fraction of the money is in play, unions are divided, Democrats are aligned with Schwarzenegger, and the governor — his approval rating in the dumps — has avoided the campaign spotlight.
Only the mood of the electorate remains the same. Voters drubbed the Schwarzenegger ballot measures in 2005, and polls suggest they’ll do the same this time around.
“The good news is the California Teachers Assn. is on the governor’s side this time,” said Rob Stutzman, a GOP strategist, referring to the defeat the union dealt Schwarzenegger in 2005. “The bad news is the voters smell a rotten deal.”
Some analysts say the election might already be largely decided. Strategists expect a low turnout and say most participants could be “permanent absentee” voters who may have already cast their ballots by mail. Election officials say one in three California voters is registered permanently as absentee, prompting speculation by strategists that up to 70% of ballots will be cast by mail.
Instead of blanketing the state with TV ads, the campaigns have targeted those voters specifically by hitting early and hard with mailers.
“This election will be over well before election day,” said Arnold Steinberg, a Republican strategist.
A recent Field Poll showed that four of the measures — hashed out by Schwarzenegger and lawmakers during the budget deal in February to help close a $42-billion deficit — are favored by just 40% of likely voters. A fifth measure, Proposition 1C, which would allow the state to borrow $5 billion from a revamped California lottery to help balance the budget, is worse off: Voters oppose it nearly 2 to 1.
The only proposal that appears headed to victory is Proposition 1F, which takes direct aim at statewide officers and legislators by proposing a freeze on their salaries in deficit years.
“The big difference from 2005 is we’ve had four more years of Gov. Schwarzenegger and four years of less-than-stellar performance by the Legislature,” said Jack Pitney, a Claremont McKenna College political scientist.
Only one of the measures proposes an enduring change in the operation of state government. Proposition 1A would introduce limits on future spending and enlarge the state’s rainy-day fund. But it also would extend for up to two years the tax hikes signed by Schwarzenegger in February.
Opponents say lawmakers are dressing up a tax increase as government reform.
“In 2005 the governor, broom in hand, was looking to sweep out the status quo special interests,” said Jon Fleischman, a conservative blogger at FlashReport.com. “Now he’s carrying these ballot measures that attempt to solidify the status quo. He’s become part of the problem instead of the solution.”
Pundits not involved in the race say that, at the very least, the ballot measures — crafted to assuage foes from the 2005 campaign — have voters thoroughly befuddled. And such voters usually vote no.
“The governor and legislative leaders were so eager to avoid a repeat of 2005 that they put together a package that sidelined most of the opposition but may have confused most of the voters,” said Dan Schnur of the Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics at USC.
The teachers union, which vigorously opposed the 2005 measures, this time is pushing hard for Propositions 1A and 1B, which would restore up to $9.3 billion in education funding in the coming decade.
Other powerful labor groups, such as the Service Employees International Union, have balked at mounting a big-spending opposition campaign — and spent more supporting one of the ballot measures. SEIU has put up $868,000 against Proposition 1A, a fraction of what it spent to oppose the 2005 proposals. The union and one of its chapters have spent $1,050,000 in support of the lottery measure.
Supporters of the measures have raised more than $17 million, but that’s roughly a tenth of the total spent in the 2005 campaign.
There’s also a big difference in the run-up to election day. Schwarzenegger began touting his proposals at least 10 months before the 2005 election. The campaign this time will stretch barely 10 weeks.
And the tenor of the campaign is far different, said Adam Mendelsohn, a strategist for the “yes” side.
“The 2005 race was basically the governor against the world, whereas this campaign is built around an extremely large coalition,” Mendelsohn said. “That campaign was about anger; this one is about the positive steps that can be taken to fix Sacramento — and the consequences of failure.”
State leaders have said that if the propositions don’t pass and the economy continues to sag, they could be left with a $14-billion deficit.
“Without these measures,” Mendelsohn said, “it’s going to mean even more cuts to schools and even more cuts to healthcare.”
eric.bailey@latimes.com
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Voters take a dim view of governor, Legislature
By Kevin Yamamura
kyamamura@sacbee.com
Published: Friday, May. 1, 2009 – 12:00 am | Page 1A
With the economy and state budget in turmoil, California voters are more frustrated than ever with state lawmakers and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, according to a Field Poll released today.
Only 14 percent of registered voters approve of the Legislature’s performance, compared with 74 percent who disapprove of the Democratic-led institution. That is the lowest mark for the California Legislature in the Field Poll’s 27-year history of tracking its job performance rating.
Schwarzenegger also hit a new personal low, with 33 percent saying they approve of the Republican governor, compared with 55 percent who disapprove. And a slightly higher percentage of Democrats approve of him than do members of his own Republican Party, according to the poll.
“You have to budget in your own home, and if you can’t do the job in balancing the state budget on time, you should step down,” said Claire Northcutt, a 49-year-old independent voter from Sacramento who runs an in-home nursing business. “If I didn’t pass the budget of my business on time, where would I be?”
The paltry approval numbers couldn’t come at a worse time for state leaders. They are asking voters to approve six measures they placed on the May 19 special election ballot to help close the state’s budget deficit.
With the election fast approaching, Schwarzenegger and lawmakers have done little publicly this week to promote the measures. Instead, they have relied on teachers, firefighters and AARP to promote their cause in ads and events, perhaps a recognition that state leaders are politically toxic right now.
For instance, backers of Propositions 1A through 1F are running an ad that actually uses politicians as a foil. In the 30-second spot, a father says that politicians have “got us in quite a mess.”
“We’re not going to be on the TV ads,” said Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento. “We’re involved, however. You know, the Legislature is generally unpopular, but people tend to like their own legislator. So in my caucus, people are out there speaking in their communities.”
Schwarzenegger is a rare politician in that Democrats, Republicans and independent voters all have roughly the same view of his performance.
Republicans give him the lowest support, with 30 percent approval and 57 percent disapproval. By comparison, 32 percent of Democrats said they approve and 56 percent said they disapprove.
The governor has drawn criticism from Republicans for helping to craft a budget that contains temporary tax hikes on sales, income and vehicles.
“What’s remarkable about his job rating numbers is that there’s no differentiation between the two parties,” said Field Poll Director Mark DiCamillo. “I can’t think of another elected official who, when getting negative ratings, scores just as poorly among his own party as among the opposing party.”
Julie Soderlund, a political spokeswoman for Schwarzenegger and the campaign to pass the ballot measures, said that voters should resist taking their anger out on the special election propositions because various programs will suffer as a result.
One measure, Proposition 1C, would raise $5 billion for the budget by borrowing against future California Lottery revenues.
“If these don’t pass, there will be a significant hole in the budget, and that has a direct impact on people as a whole, not the politicians,” Soderlund said.
Donald Dougherty, 60, a Colfax retiree, said he plans to consider the ballot measures on their own merits because “we shouldn’t get sucked up in our negativity.” Though he’s a Democrat, Dougherty approves of Schwarzenegger but disapproves of the Legislature.
“I think he’s trying to do the right thing,” Dougherty said of the governor. “He’s not perfect, but he’s got some good ideas.”
Of the Legislature, he said, “They’re not helping the people to succeed. They’re fighting amongst themselves and have their own agendas individually.”
Northcutt, however, says she plans to take out her frustrations on the ballot measures.
“I’ve decided that if it involves any taxes whatsoever, I’m voting no,” she said. “I would have to say I’m just down on all government. It wouldn’t matter if it was Arnold in there or Billy Bob, I just don’t think they’ve done a good job.”
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http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-financialaid1-2009may01,0,2573251.story
From the Los Angeles Times
College-bound students run into financial wall
More families request aid, but universities and the government tighten up, jeopardizing enrollment of some students at schools where the cost of a four-year education can reach $200,000.
By Gale Holland
May 1, 2009
Krystal Rodriguez and her mother both cried with joy in April when she received her college acceptance letter from USC.
“I was shaking and I felt like throwing up, but in a good way,” Krystal Rodriguez recalled.
But her parents said they were shocked during a subsequent campus visit to discover that neither the government nor the university would be offering substantial help with the $53,000 annual cost of attendance.
Although they were very proud of their daughter, the Cerritos couple told her that they didn’t think they could swing the $200,000 tab for four years at the private university.
The Rodriguez family’s discussion echoed a number of painful conversations this spring as recession-battered parents delivered some variation of the same message: Congratulations, you got in, but we can’t afford it.
With the traditional enrollment deadline for many schools today, experts said it was too soon to assess the full scope of the recession’s effects on college decision-making for the fall. But there were early signs that more families were seeking help with college costs this year, and weighing enrollment decisions especially carefully.
By April 25, nearly 20% more students than last year, a total of almost 8.5 million, had filed applications for federal student aid, officials said. Filling out the lengthy form, known as FAFSA, is the first step in establishing eligibility for loans or need-based scholarships.
Admissions officers at several public and private universities also said this week that more applicants than usual appeared to be delaying their college decisions until the last minute, perhaps taking extra time to study or negotiate financial aid.
Many colleges, including USC, expanded their financial aid budgets this year, but individual awards were often less generous than in previous years, several experts said.
“There wasn’t enough money to go around,” said College Board senior analyst Sandy Baum, who teaches at Skidmore College.
At the same time, home equity and stock values that families might have borrowed against have plummeted. Many parents, given the economic uncertainty, are wary of taking on college loans. And some are rethinking the value of a $200,000 private, or even a $100,000 public, education.
“The middle class has been financing the rise in college costs by borrowing,” said Patrick M. Callan, president of the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education. “Now people are starting to question: ‘Is it worth it?’ ”
Families tend to have unrealistic expectations of financial aid, which often consists mainly of eligibility for loans and work study jobs, the experts said. Still, many households had a far rosier financial outlook last fall, when students applied to college, and many were caught flat-footed by the gaps between their aid offers and their resources.
Ruth Rodrigu
SAUSD Board Member John Palacio’s email blast dated May 6, 2009:
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-teachers6-2009may06,0,3038809.story
From the Los Angeles Times
FAILURE GETS A PASS
L.A. Unified pays teachers not to teach
About 160 instructors and others get salaries for doing nothing while their job fitness is reviewed. They collect roughly $10 million a year, even as layoffs are considered because of a budget gap.
By Jason Song
May 6, 2009
For seven years, the Los Angeles Unified School District has paid Matthew Kim a teaching salary of up to $68,000 per year, plus benefits.
His job is to do nothing.
Every school day, Kim’s shift begins at 7:50 a.m., with 30 minutes for lunch, and ends when the bell at his old campus rings at 3:20 p.m. He is to take off all breaks, school vacations and holidays, per a district agreement with the teacher’s union. At no time is he to be given any work by the district or show up at school.
He has never missed a paycheck.
In the jargon of the school district, Kim is being “housed” while his fitness to teach is under review. A special education teacher, he was removed from Grant High School in Van Nuys and assigned to a district office in 2002 after the school board voted to fire him for allegedly harassing teenage students and colleagues. In the meantime, the district has spent more than $2 million on him in salary and legal costs.
Last week, Kim was ordered to continue this daily routine at home. District officials said the offices for “housed” employees were becoming too crowded.
About 160 teachers and other staff sit idly in buildings scattered around the sprawling district, waiting for allegations of misconduct to be resolved.
The housed are accused, among other things, of sexual contact with students, harassment, theft or drug possession. Nearly all are being paid. All told, they collect about $10 million in salaries per year — even as the district is contemplating widespread layoffs of teachers because of a financial shortfall.
Most cases take months to adjudicate, but some take years.
Kim, 41, has persisted the longest.
He argued unsuccessfully in a lawsuit that he was the victim of disability discrimination. Born with severe cerebral palsy, he has limited use of his limbs, must use a wheelchair and requires a full-time personal aide (who is paid about $14 an hour by the district). He declined repeatedly to be interviewed, as did his attorney, Lawrence Trygstad.
Kim’s long-term stay in paid professional limbo highlights how long it can take to move through the thicket of legal protections afforded educators in the Los Angeles Unified School District, the nation’s second-largest.
“It’s a glaring example of how hard it is to remove someone from the classroom and how the process is tilted toward teachers,” said school board member Marlene Canter, who recently proposed — unsuccessfully — to revamp the disciplinary process.
National issue
The problem of what to do with teachers in trouble extends well beyond Los Angeles Unified. But not every district in California, or the country, handles it the same way.
In New York City public schools, which make up the country’s largest district, teachers are confined to “rubber rooms.” About 550 of the district’s 80,000 teachers spend school hours “literally just doing crossword puzzles, waiting for the end of the day” until their cases are resolved, spokeswoman Ann Forte said. Some have been there for years.
In Chicago, the dismissal process moves faster and the 30 teachers waiting for their cases to be resolved are assigned clerical tasks. “They’ve got to be doing something,” senior assistant general counsel James Ciesil said.
San Francisco Unified employees are either sent home or assigned to tasks such as working in warehouses, doing inventory or answering phones, said Jolie Wineroth, the district’s senior executive director for human resources.
“I don’t want to give anyone a free vacation,” she said.
Former union leaders say teachers in the Los Angeles district used to be assigned non-teaching jobs when they were housed. “They should not just sit there like zombies,” said Hank Springer, United Teachers Los Angeles president from 1975 to 1980.
But the practice has changed in the last dozen years or so. Now, district officials say, they are prohibited from assigning chores under the contract with the teachers’ union. Although there is no specific reference in the contract to housed employees, an attorney for L.A. Unified pointed to Article 9, Section 4.0, which defines the “professional duties” of a teacher, such as instructional planning and evaluating the work of pupils.
With no mention of photocopying, stuffing envelopes or answering telephones in the contract, the district and union have interpreted this provision as prohibiting clerical duties.
“Why would we denigrate [teachers] by forcing them to do something they’re not supposed to do?” said A. J. Duffy, who is now president of UTLA, adding that housed teachers are entitled to a presumption of innocence.
Los Angeles Unified Supt. Ramon C. Cortines thinks the policy should be changed. “I don’t believe they should just be sitting — that’s taxpayer money,” he said.
Some employees newly housed by L.A. Unified are dissatisfied with the practice for a different reason: They haven’t been told what they are alleged to have done, nor whether the district is planning to fire them.
“Prisoners in Guantanamo Bay have more rights than I do,” said Jeffrey Brown, a ninth-grade teacher at Fulton College Preparatory School in Van Nuys.
In a lawsuit filed against the district in April, Brown alleges that he has been housed for roughly 70 days but told nothing about why.
His lawyer, Joseph Hart, said he was amazed at the secrecy of the system and its lack of regard for individual rights. “I’m surprised nobody has challenged it in court before,” he said.
District officials said that with rare exceptions, employees are informed all along of the allegations against them.
Misconduct complaints
Despite severely restricted movement and speech that was hard to understand, Kim racked up remarkable achievements before beginning his teaching career.
As a child he learned to paint with a brush and to type with a stick — both held in his mouth. He earned a bachelor’s degree in physics from UC Berkeley, then went on to get two master’s degrees, one in astrophysics and the other in special education. He was also active in the disability rights movement.
When he applied for a full-time teaching job, he was turned down by more than 15 schools in L.A. Unified, he said in a 1999 letter filed in court. Only after he threatened to sue the district for disability discrimination did he get a teaching job at Grant High School, records show.
Kim’s troubles with the district began in 2000, when a classroom aide reported inappropriate comments and advances.
In class one October day, according to her testimony before an administrative panel, Kim asked her to stand closer to him while interpreting his speech for the students. When she moved closer, she said, he touched her breast with his left hand, the only one he could slightly control.
Students immediately started making comments about what they’d seen. One said: “Oh, come on, Mr. Kim, you know you liked it,” according to a summary of allegations against Kim prepared by a state review panel in 2008. Kim responded to the students that he had.
Over the next two years, another adult andsixstudents would make similar complaints against Kim,according to the summary.
The same month the aide complained, Kim asked a girl if she had a boyfriend and if she was a virgin, according to the girl’s testimony during an administrative hearing.
Another girl said that Kim kept staring at her and urged her at one point not to change her hair color, according to documents filed with the state.
Joseph Walker, then the principal at Grant, confronted Kim, who denied most of the allegations. Walker then wrote a memo to the teacher telling him that it was important “to stay out of the students’ personal life and personal space,” according to district records filed in court.
It was the first of several attempts by the principal to bring the teacher into line. In addition to chastising him for his conduct, he also found fault with Kim’s teaching skills.
“Communication with the students is a slow and laborious process leading to frustration and loss of instructional time,” Walker wrote in a letter later filed in court.
In 2002, Kim passed a major milestone: his second anniversary with the district. Under state law, he was now a tenured teacher, entitled to a detailed set of protections. These included taking the district to an administrative review hearing and to court.
Difficult process
Complaints of misconduct kept coming, according to district records filed in court.
After a male classroom aide reported that he had seen Kim touch a girl on the shoulders and near her crotch, Walker asked for advice from L.A. Unified’s personnel division. The principal noted that Kim “has been charged with sexual harassment for the fourth time within a one-year period,” according to his December 2001 memo in court files.
Two months later, a school counselor complained that Kim ran his hand back and forth across one of her breasts during a meeting, according to the court filings and the commission summary.
Walker now wanted Kim out, and the district personnel department agreed.
“I wasn’t big on firing people because I knew what you had to go through,” Walker said in a recent interview. He also was afraid Kim would sue him for discrimination.
But after so many complaints, Walker said he had no choice. “I was really compelled to do something,” he said.
In February 2002, the district ordered Kim housed at an administration building while the allegations were formally investigated. The school board voted to fire Kim in October 2003.
For seven years, the district and Kim have battled in administrative forums and courtrooms.
Kim sued Walker and the district for disability discrimination and ultimately lost. By then, Walker had retired — exhausted, he said, by the battle to fire Kim. He currently heads a charter school in Pacoima.
Separately, a Commission on Professional Competence — a three-member panel with ultimate administrative authority over teacher firings — concluded that Kim had indeed engaged in unprofessional conduct by touching three female students. But, the panel decided, he should not be fired because “his conduct was a result of poor judgment, rather than overtly sexual.”
The panel found no evidence that Kim was a poor teacher or that he had injured his students. Instead it faulted the district for poorly documenting its case and not informing Kim promptly of the allegations.
The district successfully appealed to the superior and appellate courts, which sent the case back to the commission for reconsideration. Earlier this year, the commission backed Kim again, ruling this time on a 2-1 vote that all of the touching was the result of “involuntary arm movements.”
And so it goes on, with no end in sight. As Kim continues to collect his teacher’s salary, the district is planning yet another court appeal.
jason.song@latimes.com
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Dan Walters: Schwarzenegger uses scare tactics on ballot fight
By Dan Walters
dwalters@sacbee.com
Published: Wednesday, May. 6, 2009 – 12:00 am | Page 3A
Arnold Schwarzenegger says “I don’t like to use scare tactics,” but he’s doing exactly that by threatening to sharply reduce firefighters and close fire stations as the wildfire season begins unless voters approve a series of budget-related ballot measures this month.
This week, the Schwarzenegger-led campaign rolled out a television ad in which Los Angeles County Fire Department Capt. Chris Judd declared, “Sacramento’s budget mess has already forced departments to lay off firefighters and paramedics. And it could get even worse. Without Props 1A and 1B, we have $16 billion in new cuts coming. Could lose another 24,000 firefighters and police. And you know who that hurts? The people who depend on us.”
Then the governor’s minions peddled to the media – without direct attribution – a proposal to eliminate 1,100 seasonal firefighters, more than 600 permanent firefighters, and more than 30 firefighting camps and stations if the measures don’t pass.
Finally, on Tuesday, Schwarzenegger and state firefighting officials staged a news conference in Davis on the paper-thin pretext of signing an order directing – duh – the state’s emergency response system to prepare for the fire season and urging Californians to be careful.
He and his advisers knew, of course, that the leaked plan to slash firefighters would be raised by reporters at the event, thus giving Schwarzenegger an opportunity to deny using scare tactics in one breath and warn of dire consequences in the next.
“We owe it to the people of California to tell what the consequences are,” he said, adding, “Fire protection, without any doubt, will suffer if the measures don’t pass.”
Really?
Proposition 1A, which is Schwarzenegger’s highest priority, has absolutely nothing to do with this year’s budget or the 2009-10 version that will go into effect on July 1. If it’s rejected, some new taxes would short-circuit after a couple of years, so its financial impact would come then, not this year.
The only measures that affect next year’s budget are Propositions 1C, 1D and 1E, which would grab about $6 billion in lottery proceeds and other special funds for the 2009-10 budget, roughly 5 percent of its financing.
But does that mean that their rejection would result in massive cutbacks in firefighting capability, implicitly leaving homes to burn? Not on your sweet bippy. No governor would entertain such neglect and Schwarzenegger knows it. Whatever else might be sacrificed – schools, health care or welfare – the state would spend what’s needed to fight wildfires.
We’ve seen it in California before – police and fire protection trotted out as sacrificial lambs during budget crises. Another version is threatening to free violent felons from prison.
This week’s shameless scare tactics really tell us that Schwarzenegger and his allies are scared, given the negative polling results, that voters will reject the ballot measures a fortnight hence.
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Call The Bee’s Dan Walters, (916) 321-1195. Back columns, http://www.sacbee.com/walters.
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Inland Valley Daily Bulletin
Pomona district rescinds all teacher layoff notices
Mediha Fejzagic DiMartino, Staff Writer
Created: 04/23/2009 06:54:03 PM PDT
POMONA – Kate Porter was singing with her kindergarten class at Cortez Elementary School on Thursday when a fellow teacher ran in.
“You have to read this,” the teacher said pointing to an e-mail on her laptop.
Porter, who received a layoff notice in February with 645 other Pomona Unified School District teachers, could not believe her eyes – their jobs were safe, according to the e-mail.
“We were so happy,” Porter said. “That never happens. We never interrupt each other.”
After making sure that $10.3 million in federal stimulus funds is coming its way, the Pomona Unified school board on Thursday morning voted 5-0 to rescind all layoff notices that had been distributed to certificated employees, such as those who have teaching credentials.
“It’s exciting and wonderful news,” Superintendent Dr. Thelma Meléndez de Santa Ana said. “There were never any guarantees.”
On May 11, Pomona Unified is set to receive $4 million from the State Fiscal Stabilization Fund and $6.3 million from federal Title 1 funds.
The Stabilization Fund is designed to avert cuts and retain teachers and professors. It also supports the modernization and repair of school and college facilities.
Title I funds support the educational needs of low-achieving students attending high-poverty schools, those with limited English proficiency as well as young children in need of reading assistance.
Pomona Unified on April 17 got a green light from the U.S. Department of Education to receive the stimulus funds.
The estimated amounts were revealed on Monday and the district on Tuesday sent in its application to the state.
To comply with the requirements attached to receive the stimulus money, the school district will focus on reform efforts.
Pomona Unified is assigning certificated staff to work on teacher development, hold reading workshops, develop strategies for English learners and offer support to teachers as well as students, Meléndez said.
The move will open up about 70 positions to be filled by teachers who were otherwise going to be laid off.
The good news arrived just three days before the Reduction In Force hearings – conducted to determine if the district had followed the education code procedure properly and accurately notified employees – were set to commence.
“One part of me feels ecstatic, I want to scream for joy,” said Morgan Brown, president of the Associated Pomona Teachers. “But the other part is very angry and upset. How could you put our dedicated teachers through this needlessly?”
Pomona Unified had sent out layoff notices more than a month ahead of a March 13 deadline required by law. In March and early April, the district was able to rescind 238 of the notices.
“They jumped the gun big time,” Porter said. “The state budget was not approved, they didn’t know what kind of money they were looking at. None of other school districts were doing it. They terrified everybody.”
To make things worse, many mistakes were done by personnel department, Brown said. Some teachers were told to go to the office to pick up their notices, just to find out it was a mistake.
He also said that the district does not have an adequate seniority list and that many of the layoff notices were sent to teachers who should have never received them, such as those with 30 years experience.
“It was just pure incompetence,” Brown said. “Had things been done thoughtfully and carefully, no people above five years (of seniority) should have received the notices.”
Ultimately, the real losers are the kids, he said.
“When you receive a layoff notice, you are distracted, you are not sure if you’ll be able to pay for your house,” Brown said. “Teachers should be focused on their students.”
Meléndez responded by saying that the school district is addressing the concerns that have been brought to them.
“We are working on making sure that we are accurate as much as possible,” she said.
Meléndez also said it’s always easy to look backwards.
“We didn’t know what is going to happen,” she said. “We plan for the worse and hope for the best.”
The district will still have to make cuts, including 14 administrative positions as well as some classified positions.
In addition, district administrators will continue to make 3.2 percent less in the 2009-10 school year.
For Meléndez, the pay cut amounts to 5 percent.
“This (stimulus money) is only a one-year event,” she said. “We have to be cautious about it.”
mediha.dimartino@inlandnewspapers.com
(909)483-9329
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Special Education’s Challenges
Isolation & lack of administrative support can challenge special education teachers
By Christy Chambers
December 2008
Feelings of isolation, too little time with students, lack of administrative support, and increasing demands are challenges facing special education teachers and contributing to teacher shortages. If we are to provide the high quality programs necessary for our children and youth with disabilities, while ensuring that they make good progress toward attaining their goals and meeting increasingly rigorous academic standards, the recruitment and retention of qualified, committed and talented teachers is essential. As leaders in our educational system, all too often we make well-intentioned decisions that have unintended consequences.
We ask ourselves what we can do to address the teacher shortage crisis, and yet we increase the requirements for earning special education teacher credentials while at the same time offering enhanced incentives to experienced teachers to elect early retirement. We are directly contributing to the severe teacher shortage we are facing in special education. As school districts compete for the same special education teachers, administrators must use strategies that give their district an advantage by learning what compels a teacher to work and remain in a district.
Increased Isolation
The design of special education delivery systems in many schools leads to increased isolation when special education teachers enter their classrooms and close the door. These educators become isolated from the teams and collaborative instructional models of education in the 21st century and in a digital age when we are all so personally and professionally connected through technology. As leaders in special education we must find new and creative ways to connect our teachers to their resources and supports. The National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future (NCTAF) is convinced that the isolation of the classroom is more than a relic of an industrial-age model: “It is a factor driving many of our best teachers out of the classroom and driving new teachers from schools that need them the most.” As we look at today’s digital-age generation of teachers, one that is mastering the use of multiple technologies—the Internet, cell phones, PDAs and more—we find that these educators are often working alone.
Teachers in Need
I became a special education teacher to work with children with disabilities and make a difference in their lives. I chose special education because I wanted to work with the children with the greatest challenges and who needed me the most. I believe that we fail our teachers and subsequently fail to retain them when we repeatedly remove them from instruction and assign them to conduct assessments, attend meetings, complete paperwork, and work with other educators and the community. Although these assignments are important and necessary, they should not consume the significant portion of a special education teacher’s time that they do today.
Where’s the Support?
Genuine administrative support is also seen as a key need by Luann Purcell, former assistant superintendent of the Houston County (Ga.) School District and now executive director of the Council of Administrators of Special Education. Calling upon her 18 years of experience as assistant superintendent, Purcell notes that “no matter what teachers or speech pathologists have to do, if they perceive that they are supported, genuinely supported, they stay!” In her experience, the number one reason that special educators were not retained was not money, but rather the level of support they received.
I believe we fail our teachers and fail to retain them when we repeatedly remove them from instruction and assign them to conduct assessments, attend meetings, complete paperwork, and work with other educators and the community.
“Many teachers are overwhelmed by the intense demands, especially in their first few years,” says Mary Kealy, assistant superintendent for pupil services in the Loudoun County (Va.) Public Schools, a growing district serving about 58,000 students and increasing by 3,000 students annually. Despite participating in coursework and professional development to give them the knowledge and skills needed to be effective in their new roles, new teachers experience high levels of stress. Kealy adds that she sees “high turnover due to increasing demands, impact of school budgets on salaries, challenging students with little training on how to meet their needs, time commitments for meetings and paperwork and professional development.”
What Districts Can Do
Given that teachers need administrator support, professional development, time with their students, and connections to resources and materials, what can districts do to successfully recruit and ultimately retain special education teachers?
The Council for Exceptional Children (CEC), headquartered in Arlington, Va., is the largest international professional organization dedicated to improving the educational success of individuals with disabilities and gifts and talents. CEC advocates for appropriate governmental policies, sets professional standards, provides professional development, advocates for individuals with exceptionalities, and helps professionals obtain conditions and resources necessary for effective professional practice. CEC surveyed over 400 veteran special education teachers in Kentucky to determine what keeps them in special education. Knowing that factors inherent in school and in the professional climate (lack of administrative support, role conflict, difficulty working with colleagues) are often associated with attrition, veterans ranked the influence of several items on their decision to stay in a particular school and in special education. Working with students, seeing students progress, and feeling a sense of personal accomplishment were the three most influential reasons. These were followed by positive school climate, administrative support, collegial support and collegial friendships. At the bottom of the list were salary and benefits.
Kealy administers a successful “grow your own special education teachers and administrators program” in Loudoun County Public Schools. This cohort approach, in collaboration with local universities, targets teacher assistants with bachelor’s degrees, professionals interested in making a career change, other teachers seeking licensure in special education, speech and language assistants, and substitute teachers. These cohorts are specialized and include special certificate programs in fields such as autism and special education leadership, as well as special education master’s degree programs. Master’s degree programs offer advanced degrees with salary incentives to bachelor’s level teachers who are interested in becoming special education teachers but are not interested in earning a second bachelor’s degree.
Beginning at initial steps of recruitment, administrators must demonstrate that they provide technical supports and ongoing professional development with financial support. In addition to assignment and salary information, the savvy recruiter will advertise and explain the technical assistance and ongoing professional development and organizational support provided to special education teacher applicants. Special education teachers need supervision from administrators with knowledge and experience in their specialty areas.
End the Isolation
We must end the isolation to end the exodus. In this digital age, administrators should promote and provide technology supports and access to learning communities and to communities of practice such as those offered by the IDEA Partnership, a collaborative community of 55 national organizations with cross-stakeholder work supporting professionals, parents and communities. Online supports such as “How I Survived the Paper Snowstorm of Special Education” and “How to Get Help to You and Your Students” are also accessible through the CEC Web site. In addition to online activities, offering a balance of face-to-face mentoring and networking through professional organizations and ongoing professional development can provide the web of support and the opportunity to reach beyond the isolation of the classroom. Above all, administrators must ensure that teachers have access to software applications to support instruction and monitor progress, interventions matched to their students’ needs, and adequate instruction time.
Resources
Council for Exceptional Children http://www.cec.sped.org
IDEA Partnership/National Association of State Directors of Special Education http://www.ideapartnership.org
National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future http://www.nctaf.org
High quality programs not only promote student learning but also support teacher retention. When their students achieve, special education teachers feel they are making a difference in the lives of their students and their families, and in their schools and communities, which was their motivation to become special education teachers in the first place.
Christy Chambers is past president of the Council of Administrators of Special Education and a consultant for Beyond the Box LLC, an education consulting group providing technical assistance and training.
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http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-four-day4-2009may04,0,5367225.story
From the Los Angeles Times
Schools consider four-day weeks
Districts facing budget cuts nationwide are contemplating the measure. It’s an appealing alternative to cutting staff or programs, but it can create child-care problems for parents.
By Nicholas Riccardi
May 4, 2009
Reporting from Denver — Facing deep funding cuts during the economic downturn, increasing numbers of school districts nationwide are contemplating trimming the traditional school week to four days to save money.
A four-day week has long been confined to a few small rural districts looking to save on fuel costs. Indeed, many of the districts thinking of shaving a day off their weekly calendar have small enrollments — such as the 940-student district in Bisbee, Ariz.
But some districts contemplating the move serve suburban or urban areas. The idea is being floated in South Florida’s Broward County, the nation’s fifth-largest school system.
A recent University of Washington study found that states are cutting 18% of their education spending over the next three years, eliminating as many as 574,000 jobs.
“When everything’s lean and states have no money and are cutting budgets to schools, it’s an easy way to save money without cutting staff,” said Gary Spiker, superintendent of the tiny Ash Fork School District in northern Arizona, which has had a four-day week since the 1980s.
Analysts say only about 100 of the nation’s 15,000 districts operate on a four-day schedule. Eighteen states, including California, allow districts to choose a four-day week, and bills have been introduced in six states this year to permit it.
California’s Department of Education does not track the number of districts on a four-day week. The state permits districts to shorten their week with specific legislative permission. This year, Alpaugh Unified School District in Tulare County is seeking that authority. And last month, Potter Valley Unified School District in Mendocino County shifted its high school to a four-day schedule.
Typically, districts that hold classes four days a week extend school hours 60 to 90 minutes per day. Education experts say there are no definitive data showing whether a four-day week benefits or harms students.
Some educators worry that young children will lose focus with a school day that can run from 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. But the most common concern is voiced by parents who may have to scramble for an extra full day of child care.
“For parents, the issue is if Johnny’s not in school on Monday or Friday, where is he going to be?” said Marc Egan of the National School Boards Assn.
Accordingly, large school districts approach the issue cautiously. In Douglas County, home to a ring of affluent suburbs southwest of Denver and Colorado’s third-largest district, officials raised the idea of a four-day week during the district’s budget process in January. The district was soon swamped with calls from angry and concerned parents.
“It was surprising to see how much attention we got for even uttering those words,” spokeswoman Whei Wing said. “It is a big undertaking, and we want to make sure we have time to research the pluses and minuses.”
The district can’t rule out the concept because it has already had to cut 10% of its budget after local bond issues failed to pass in November. Meanwhile, it is bracing for a large funding cut from the state, which is wrestling with a $600-million deficit.
The biggest share of state budgets is education spending, and with states facing a combined $350-billion shortfall over the next three years, districts across the nation are seeing their budgets slashed, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
In Bisbee, 93 miles southeast of Tucson, Supt. Gail Covington assumed her post last summer and surveyed the damage. The district had no guidance counselor or advanced-placement courses in its one high school, and libraries in two other schools had been shuttered. Covington suggested a four-day week.
“In tough economic times, we just can’t keep doing things the way we have,” she said.
Her school board unanimously approved, and Bisbee will switch to the new calendar in August. But parents are worried.
Adel Lewis, who has three children in the district, says she’s spoken with parents who are trying to transfer their children to neighboring, five-day districts. Her 8-year-old will spend Fridays with her grandmother. The school board is hoping money from the federal stimulus package will fund new day care slots, but Lewis is skeptical.
“It is a big leap and it is kind of scary,” Lewis said.
Conversely, Cathy Hobbs can’t imagine her children spending five days in school. She lives in the East Grand School District in the mountains of northern Colorado, which switched to a four-day schedule in 1982. Hobbs and her husband run a log-home-building business and were able to rearrange their schedule to provide child care.
In their recreation-heavy community — just south of Rocky Mountain National Park — the Hobbses didn’t have to worry about their children staying idle on Fridays. Local towns have programs to take youths to ski resorts, and Hobbs’ two daughters learned to ski and snowboard during their days off.
“If I were in Denver and I were working a career down there, I would probably want a four-day week,” Hobbs said. “So why should I want my kids to have a five-day week?”
Teachers are also fans of four-day weeks. Administrators in rural districts say it’s one way they can entice teachers to take lower pay and live farther from big cities. That’s one reason the 2,400-student Elizabeth School District, southeast of Denver, is considering a four-day week, said Supt. Paul Dellacroce.
Dellacroce previously was superintendent in a rural district with a four-day week and said convenience is a good argument for it. “With an extra day off, kids are a little more rested,” he said. “The weekends are stuffed with karate, soccer games and church. This may be a way to give them a little more down time.”
But larger districts remain wary. In the Broward County School District, spokeswoman Nadine Drew stressed that the proposal was only “one of many ideas that have been tossed out there in a brainstorming session.” The district is mulling over many ways of saving $55 million this year, including mandatory furloughs for employees and ending sports at many schools.
The school district in Oregon City, a suburb of Portland, looked at a four-day week to help cut its budget by 13%, but Supt. Roger Rada has recommended against it. He said police had voiced concern about so many teenagers possibly being unsupervised on Fridays.
Instead, Rada will renegotiate union contracts in the hopes of saving money. Regardless, he expects to have to cut as many as 10% of his teaching positions. “It is really brutal right now,” he said.
nicholas.riccardi@latimes.com
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Ad Watch: TV spot ties Props. 1A, 1B to public safety
Sacramento Bee
Published: Wednesday, May. 6, 2009 – 12:00 am | Page 3A
Backers of the May 19 ballot measures have a new television ad warning that local public safety jobs and services are at risk if Propositions 1A and 1B lose. Here is a text of the ad and an analysis by Kevin Yamamura of The Bee Capitol Bureau.
Script
Los Angeles County Fire Department Capt. Chris Judd: “Sacramento’s budget mess has already forced departments to lay off firefighters and paramedics. And it could get even worse. Without Props. 1A and 1B, we have $16 billion in new cuts coming. Could lose another 24,000 firefighters and police. And you know who that hurts? The people who depend on us.”
Announcer: “Log on and get the details on these critical propositions.”
Judd: “We’re voting yes on 1A and 1B to prevent further cuts to public safety, control spending and get California back on track.”
Analysis
In suggesting that 24,000 firefighters and police could be laid off, proponents are relying on a worst-case scenario in which the state would have to borrow $2 billion in local property tax revenue from counties. The administration on Tuesday told local governments that it would seek to borrow that money if the measures fail. Still, that scenario suggests counties would in turn make up the entire difference by cutting public safety jobs, an unlikely outcome given the public’s support for such services.
The biggest omission in the ad is that Propositions 1A and 1B likely wouldn’t do anything this year to avoid having to borrow local government funds. The measures would have no direct impact until 2011.
The ad ignores Proposition 1C, which would borrow $5 billion against California Lottery revenue – something that would have a significant impact on the 2009-10 budget. The state would have less of a need for that $2 billion in borrowing from local governments if it could get $5 billion from borrowing against the lottery. Even if all the ballot measures pass, the nonpartisan legislative analyst has estimated, the state will have at least an $8 billion projected revenue deficit this summer.
The ad mentions $16 billion in potential cuts. That could be true – in 2011 through 2013. The ad doesn’t say that avoiding those cuts means approving the additional $16 billion in tax hikes in Proposition 1A.
ShareThis
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Call Kevin Yamamura, Bee Capitol Bureau, (916) 326-5548.
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Q&A: Why labor is divided on Proposition 1A
Published: Tuesday, May. 5, 2009 – 12:00 am | Page 3A
Sacramento Bee
The staff members of The Bee’s Capitol Bureau, including columnist Dan Walters, answer readers’ questions about the state budget and the budget-related measures on the May 19 special election ballot.
Unions usually stand together. Why are some supporting Proposition 1A and some opposing it or staying neutral?
Labor unions have long opposed spending limits for fear that restraining the growth of state spending would mean fewer public services and jobs for the people they represent. But unions have split over Proposition 1A because they believe that it would affect them in different ways because of the way it was crafted.
The largest union to support Proposition 1A is the California Teachers Association. Proposition 1A offers two things for the CTA – it protects the state’s minimum funding guarantee for schools under Proposition 98, and it provides a way to give schools supplemental payments totaling $9.3 billion starting in 2011-12. The school payments are part of Proposition 1B, but the Legislature made the success of that proposition contingent upon passage of Proposition 1A.
Other unions remain opposed. The largest is the Service Employees International Union California State Council, which says it represents more than 700,000 members in positions funded by state and local governments. The SEIU believes that a spending limit, over time, will reduce the amount of money available for health care, education and social services.
The SEIU does not have a constitutional guarantee similar to Proposition 98, so it is concerned that its members could be harmed in future years if lawmakers are required to set aside revenues in a “rainy-day fund” rather than use them for new programs.
The SEIU branch representing 95,000 state workers, SEIU Local 1000, has taken no position on Proposition 1A despite the state council’s public opposition to the measure.
Local 1000 may be conflicted because the governor and Legislature hold considerable power over its members’ jobs – including approval of a tentative contract – and both the governor and two-thirds of the Legislature want Proposition 1A to pass.
I believe that when all these propositions are defeated there will be election fraud to alter the outcome of the election. Are there any special safeguards to prevent this election from being hijacked by the Democrats who want all the propositions passed so they can continue their support of illegal immigrants and their spending spree?
Elections are essentially conducted by 58 different county officials, so fraud would require a huge, multiperson conspiracy that is, to put it mildly, unlikely.
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Districts adhere to difficult job ritual
Layoff notices often rescinded
By Chris Moran Union-Tribune Staff Writer
2:00 a.m. May 4, 2009
This time they mean it. Or do they?
For the third time in seven years, local school boards have issued more than 1,000 tentative layoff notices to teachers. The last two times, almost no jobs were lost. And districts around the county already are beginning to rescind hundreds of the pink slips they issued just weeks ago.
It’s becoming a familiar ritual: A catastrophic state budget forecast brings warnings of huge school-spending cuts. Local school boards proclaim a funding crisis that forces them to issue layoff notices en masse. Then the budget picture changes, and the school boards cancel the pink slips.
Bob Wells, executive director of the Association of California School Administrators, said he has heard from officials in Sacramento: “Why do you guys bother doing that when you know you’re going to rescind the notices?”
But this time the crisis is not only real but it could get worse, administrators say.
School boards are backed into a corner. They have to start deciding how much they can spend in the upcoming fiscal year before the state lets them know how much money they actually will have.
During previous budget crises, the governor announced a preliminary state spending plan in January. Two months later, districts face a state-mandated deadline to tell teachers that they might not have a job in the coming school year.
Revisions to the state budget are common. And those revisions often leave schools with substantially more money than first envisioned. When that occurs, the pink slips are thrown away.
Last year, San Diego Unified School District issued layoff notices to 910 educators, but ultimately offered all of them their jobs back. In 2003, the district issued 1,487 notices and rescinded them six weeks later.
This year, San Diego Unified is planning to cut $146.7 million from its budget without resorting to layoffs. Its budget plan proposes an early-retirement incentive for veteran employees, mandatory work furloughs, increased health care premiums from employees and possibly shutting down smaller schools and specialty programs.
In other districts, the routine commenced anew in mid-March as school districts statewide issued an estimated 26,000 tentative layoff notices to teachers. In the seven weeks since, districts have been reeling them back in by the thousands. Los Angeles Unified has rescinded 2,000 notices. San Francisco Unified has rescinded 400.
Locally, Del Mar Union School District has rescinded 30 of its 52 pink slips to teachers; Cajon Valley Union, 45 of 93; Escondido Union, 14 of 55; South Bay Union, 58 of 88; National, 15 of 103; San Marcos Unified, 45 of 49; and Sweetwater Union High, 72 of 109.
That’s even before the federal stimulus package has delivered a cent of its promised $8 billion to California schools.
Even so, some of the more than 1,400 teachers in San Diego County who received tentative layoff notices in March will not be in classrooms come September, education officials predict.
“This year is for us very different,” South Bay Union School District Superintendent Carol Parish said. “There will be teachers we are not able to bring back unless there are more people who choose to leave or retire at the end of the year.”
In fact, this year’s crisis could get worse, administrators say. The state’s legislative analyst reports that the California’s budget deficit has grown by $8 billion since February, when the Legislature passed a budget for the year that begins July 1.
Escondido Union School District Superintendent Jennifer Walters calculated that the newly emerged state deficit could translate into an additional $10.8 million in cuts for her district on top of the $11.4 million the school board cut Thursday night from the coming year’s budget.
In addition, February’s state budget depends on the outcome of five ballot measures May 19. Polls show they are headed for defeat, and if that happens the state’s budget hole deepens by an additional $6 bil lion.
Even if the measures pass, Wells said, “There’s nothing that’s going to happen in May that says ‘Happy days are here again. You get to rescind all (26,000) layoffs.’ ”
Local school boards aren’t clear on when they’ll get their federal stimulus money and what they can do with it when it arrives. Some of it is reserved for special education and some must be targeted toward low-income students. No local superintendents have yet calculated how much of it can be spent on payroll to save jobs.
“There will definitely be some layoffs. It won’t be as great as we thought, because our teachers have agreed to a pay cut for next year and the following year and also because the federal stimulus money is coming in,” said Alpine Union School District Superintendent Greg Ryan.
Alpine and Poway’s teachers unions also have accepted pay cuts in hopes of saving members’ jobs. Other districts’ management teams are trying to negotiate similar savings.
Still, layoffs are coming this year, administrators say.
“I would love to be wrong,” Walters said.
Chris Moran: (619) 498-6637
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Stimulus funds up the ante for public schools
By Greg Toppo, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON — Handing $100 billion to needy public schools in an economic crisis is an unalloyed good thing, right?
Depends.
School districts across the USA are gearing up to receive the first payments under the federal economic stimulus. It temporarily — and substantially — increases the federal government’s share in funding public schools over the next two years, promising to save the threatened jobs of thousands of teachers. Education Secretary Arne Duncan calls it a “historic opportunity” to jump-start reforms that “will transform public education in America.” He’s pushing schools to use the money not just to save jobs but to improve student achievement.
A few observers say they’re concerned that a two-year span is not — and has never been — enough time to generate big gains. By 2011, they say, critics of greater education spending will undoubtedly cite the dearth of results to push for less education spending — perhaps even an end to federal funding.
“If you were trying to set the system up to look bad, one good way to do it is to throw an awful lot of money at it — money it can’t possibly absorb in two years — and then expect that you’re going to see changes in student achievement,” says David Shreve of the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Could the very thing that Duncan hopes will push public education into the 21st century set it back decades?
“You can certainly imagine a scenario where this makes things tougher for public school advocates,” says Rick Hess, an education policy expert at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank.
Looking ahead two years, he says, “I would be astonished if anything showed up — period.”
That may be the nature of the stimulus, the vast majority of which aims simply at saving jobs. Of the $100 billion, $95 billion “is the cost of doing business,” says Joe Williams of Democrats for Education Reform, a New York-based political action committee. Most of the remaining $5 billion, slated to go out this year, makes up Duncan’s “Race to the Top Fund,” a competitive grant that will reward innovation. Duncan says he’ll withhold funding in the second year from districts that don’t try something new, such as raising academic standards, adopting innovative teaching models, reassigning their best teachers to the neediest schools and investing in long-term student-tracking systems.
“Money gives you the leverage to bring people to the table and change the way things are done,” he said last week.
Amy Wilkins of the Education Trust, an education advocacy group based in Washington, says that even if schools can’t produce better academic results in two years, they can show “that we’ve broken the habit of ‘business as usual’ ” by killing ineffective or unproven programs.
“This is sort of ‘stand and deliver’ time for education,” she says. “If the education community doesn’t deliver change with this money, this becomes ‘TARP for Public Schools’ — and that’s a huge danger. The next time we go hat in hand, it’s going to be awfully hard to justify another investment.”
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7 Habits of Highly Ineffective Principals
By Jay Mathews
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, December 5, 2008; 6:19 AM
Joe Nathan, a University of Minnesota school leadership scholar, dropped by recently to tell me about his latest project: the Minnesota Leadership Academy for Charter and Alternative Public Schools. He wants to produce all-star principals for innovative schools, including the charter school movement he has been studying since its beginnings.
Nathan gave me a report he just produced with Carleton College junior Joanna Plotz. Their paper, “Learning to Lead,” reveals the secrets of good management of schools and companies, derived from interviews with 24 business leaders. In the Leadership Academy, which opened this fall in cooperation with the Minnesota Department of Education, each participating educator has two mentors, one a successful business executive and the other a successful school leader.
That sounds peachy, but it doesn’t get to the heart of what many teachers tell me is the key issue in school leadership today: How did we produce so many lousy administrators?
It occurred to me that what Nathan is doing with the report and the academy might be easier to understand by looking at his main points from a reverse angle. Call it a devil’s advocacy. Let’s stand Stephen R. Covey’s self-help classic on its head and reveal the Seven Habits of Highly Ineffective Principals. (Please keep in mind it is totally my idea, not Nathan’s, to summarize his very upbeat paper this way.)
1. Insist on being trained at one of our leading schools of education. In their report, Nathan and Plotz cite former Columbia University Teachers College president Arthur Levine’s conclusion that “educational administration is the weakest program that schools of education offer. . . . Few strong programs exist; most vary in quality from inadequate to appalling.” Nathan told me many of the great school leader training programs he knew were outside the ed schools, such as Building Excellent Schools, New Leaders for New Schools, the Knowledge Is Power Program Leadership Institute and the Broad Foundation. That might be because Nathan thinks it is important for schools to show significant increases in student achievement, as assessed by tools such as tests. Many of our education schools don’t buy into such narrow measures and don’t think you should either.
2. When you become a principal, make sure you keep your goals to yourself and avoid mission statements at all costs. I endorse this view. I often make fun of mission statements. But what do I know? My term as student body president of Hillsdale High School was a disaster, and I have avoided all leadership responsibilities since. Kris Johnson, the former chief administrative officer of Medtronic, the medical technology company, told Nathan and Plotz it is “vital to have alignment between what a person is doing and what the organization has established as priorities.” Dave Larson, executive vice president at the food and agriculture company Cargill, said his company tells new employees on their first day how their work will help the company accomplish its goals. Contrast this with schools that hand new teachers a curriculum but don’t explain how it will help teachers reach their students.
3. Fight the current fad to assess students regularly. It is intrusive and insulting to teachers. Many school critics argue that we should let teachers test and grade in whatever way makes sense to them. The business and school leaders Nathan has recruited for his academy disagree. They think consistent means of assessment are important in diagnosing each child’s progress and what the school is doing to help.
4. Crack down on mistakes. People have to be brought up short whenever they screw up. Otherwise they will keep doing it. Avert your eyes from this bit of pap from Nathan and Plotz: “Mistakes within some limits are a vital part of growth. Organizations making a great deal of progress sometimes will make errors. Learning from mistakes is an important part of progress.”
5. Don’t let teachers meet regularly to talk about students and share ideas. They will only gossip and plot against you. Notice that one of the reasons why many successful charter and alternative public schools have lengthened the school day is to have time for these gab sessions. One of the business leaders in the Nathan-Plotz report, former General Mills Foundation director Reatha Clark King, said an important way to improve quality is to “encourage people to think outside the box and free up their thinking.” This is obviously someone who does not know how to survive in a big school district, where ineffectiveness is often seen as a virtue because the lethargic administrator is less of a threat to others.
6. Inspiration is for saps. Your staff must know you’re their boss, not their preacher. This seems obvious, but Nathan, Plotz and the executives they consulted don’t buy it. They say, “The most effective leaders encourage and inspire people. Threats and fear will not produce the highest achievement.” There they go, back to that achievement thing. Real world administrators don’t need to be effective. They just need to survive.
7. Whatever you do, don’t try to select and train a successor. Nathan told me that, although many districts have principal training programs, he rarely found principals or superintendents who see it as a key responsibility, as corporate chiefs do, to develop talented people who could take over for them. He thought this was a great waste, but experienced school leaders would see this as avoiding possible betrayal. Nathan’s academy is designed to train junior administrators or teachers with administrative ambitions. Maybe that’s why he makes such a big deal about finding the next generation of leaders. Only superintendents and principals who share his view are going to allow their best staffers to attend his academy. They might see this as a great idea, but they better be careful.
Which is the more prevalent mindset in school districts these days — Nathan’s or the ineffectiveness rules above? I think it is a close call. Let’s see how the graduates of his new academy handle the deadening devotion to routine and fear of change in the average school district before we decide who has the upper hand.
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County to spend $3.6 million on garbage exhibits at Science Center
May 5th, 2009, 3:00 am · 10 Comments · posted by Teri Sforza, Register staff writer
Orange County Register
Orange County’s children may soon be sorting through trash, thanks to the County of Orange’s Waste & Recycling department and the Discovery Science Center.
Last week, county supervisors agreed to spend $3.6 million to create the “Eco-Shopping Store” and the “Waste Identification Game” – two new exhibits at the popular Santa Ana kids’ museum designed to teach environmental stewardship.
(This is no joke, though we promise to provide you with one at the end of this post.)
The Eco-Shopping Store – phase one – will cost $2 million. It “simulates a real life shopping experience where patrons earn points by purchasing products with
less packaging, reusable containers, recycled packaging, recyclable products, and recyclable shopping bags,” according to a staff report.
The Waste Identification Game – phase two – will cost $1.6 million. It’s a “large scale interactive learning game. Teams will earn points by correctly identifying and sorting waste on a conveyor belt and placing it in appropriate receptacles (e.g. bins for yard waste, recyclables, trash, and hazardous materials). In addition, strategically placed learning stations with videos will demonstrate where these materials go after collection and that proper recycling preserves landfill capacity.”
spending money on, er, trashy museum exhibits? To reduce the amount of
garbage going into landfills.
These hands-on, interactive exhibits will reinforce the message about waste reduction, reuse and recycling. and will help change behaviors that will extend the life of the landfills, officials have said. Or, in more prodding parlance:
“The California Integrated Waste Management Act of 1989 (AB 939) requires that cities and counties reduce the amount of waste disposed in landfills by 50% or potentially incur fines of up to $10,000 per day,” the staff report says. “Educational outreach programs related to waste reduction are critical to meeting diversion goals.”
As many as 400,000 people visit the Discovery Science Center annually, “and this project will provide the opportunity to sharpen their everyday knowledge on important waste reduction attitudes and behaviors,” the staff report says.
The $3.6 million will come from a surcharge on folks who haul their own trash to the county landfills. The surcharge was approved by supervisors in 2006 ”to encourage self haulers to use material processing facilities and increase recycling efforts rather than direct hauling their waste to County landfills. By law, AB 939 Surcharge revenue must be used for programs and initiatives that promote waste reduction, reuse, and recycling,” the report says.
The Discovery Science Center will be responsible for operating and maintaining the exhibit for 10 years. Costs will be offset by an endowment fund to be established by the Discovery Science Center through grants and donations.
“In addition to constructing, housing, and operating the exhibit, the Discovery Science Center will collect data to measure the exhibits’ success in achieving predefined goals and report the results on a quarterly basis,” the report says. “The waste diversion education goals include:
reducing waste creation through thoughtful purchasing decisions,
identifying the different types of waste,
knowing what to do with each type of waste,
learning where waste goes after collection,
understanding the finite capacity of County landfills; and
realizing that environmental stewardship is everyone’s responsibility.”
And there’s more! The Discovery Science Center will seek matching funds from the state to finance additional environmental exhibits that focus on air quality, water quality, and pollution prevention, the staff report says.
“Many waste reduction initiatives are focused on the end of the waste stream,” the report says. “This project shifts the emphasis to prevention and sustainability through education to change perceptions and practices that lead to a reduction of waste at the beginning of the waste cycle.”
We leave you, now, with an old Henny Youngman joke about his wife forgetting to take out the garbage. She hears the truck rumbling down the street and runs out after it. ”Am I too late?” she yells. “No!” The garbage workers say. “Jump in!”
Read the staff report here; see a slideshow of the envisioned exhibit here; and the agreement with the Discovery Center here.
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This story is taken from Sacbee / Capitol and California
California legislators hire pals, ex-colleagues with no bidding
jsanders@sacbee.com
Published Monday, May. 04, 2009
When Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg launched an effort this year to root out waste in state spending, he tapped a Sacramento attorney who is one of his best friends to lead it.
Assembly Speaker Karen Bass turned to a termed-out assemblywoman and a politically connected former utility company executive, among others, to supplement her staff with outside expertise.
The Legislature’s nine personal service contracts – touted as a way to cuts costs in tough times – went largely to those with personal relationships or political ties to lawmakers.
None of the nine contracts was competitively bid, so anyone not known to Capitol officials had no chance to be hired or to propose a lower fee. Most have vague terms that don’t require specific hours to be worked.
The Bee obtained the contracts under a public-records request to examine the extent of behind-the-scenes hiring that does not show up on staff rosters.
Five of the nine pacts involve retired government workers who are getting both a pension and a paycheck from taxpayers, working as legislative consultants or aides.
The Legislature will pay about $458,000 this year under its nine personal service contracts, only a tiny fraction of its $262 million budget.
Bass says it makes fiscal sense to fill special needs with short-term contracts rather than by hiring more full-time employees.
“I just think it’s an efficient way to go about business,” she said.
Bass, in rescinding pay increases to more than 120 Assembly aides this month, touted belt-tightening by saying the house had “left several positions unfilled and used temporary or part-time contracts to fill other roles.”
Steinberg hired close friend
Steinberg, through the Senate Rules Committee, contracted with John Adkisson’s one-man law firm to run the Senate’s new investigative unit and to provide legal advice for $150,000 this year – as a part-time job, records show.
Adkisson has a separate $150,000 contract with the state Legislative Counsel Bureau to handle litigation and training for the Senate, duties he has performed for more than a decade, long before Steinberg joined the house.
Steinberg calls Adkisson “one of my dearest friends,” a closeness tracing to law school days together and to the senator’s first stab at politics in 1992, when Adkisson ran his successful campaign for Sacramento City Council.
But Steinberg said he is extending no favors by tapping Adkisson for the new oversight role.
“He’s the finest investigative lawyer I have ever known,” Steinberg said.
Adkisson’s oversight unit recently released a 116-page report that identified shortcomings in the state’s $5.4 billion program of in-home care to disabled or frail, elderly adults.
“He’s multitalented and someone who, when I became pro tem, I wan
John Palacio
show details May 14 (1 day ago) Reply
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Orange County schools begin finalizing layoffs
Santa Ana, Huntington Beach City, Fountain Valley OK final notices.
By FERMIN LEAL AND SCOTT MARTINDALE
The Orange County Register
Orange County school districts are finalizing their teacher layoff lists this week in anticipation of Friday’s deadline for sending out final notices to certificated staff.
Educators were warned of possible layoffs March 15 — a state deadline — but districts typically must finalize those lists by May 15, 45 days before the new budget year begins July 1.
Orange County’s Santa Ana Unified has named 497 certificated staff, the most of any local district. Certificated staff is a category that includes teachers and administrators.
Many districts are also finalizing contract terminators for temporary teachers and notifying classified staff — support workers, such as custodians and bus drivers — of their potential for layoffs, too.
In March, more than 3,000 O.C. educators were slated for layoff as districts prepared for about $290 million in cuts in the face of billions in state budget cuts.
Since then, they’ve received millions in federal stimulus money as well as dire warnings the state might need to cut billions more.
Huntington Beach City School District has rescinded four of about 66 planned layoffs, crediting staff attrition for its ability to retain the staff.
Anaheim City School District has finalized 120 of 198 layoffs, but the remaining 70 are still pending. The district received an extension on the state’s May 15 deadline due to the large number of hearing requests.
Fountain Valley School District has announced plans for 18 layoffs, down from its estimate of 22. The district has not yet released a list of those who will be laid off.
Click on the district name for its layoff report. Districts in bold include final layoff data:
Anaheim City
Anaheim Union
Brea-Olinda Unified
Buena Park Elementary
Capistrano Unified
Centralia Elementary
Huntington Beach City Elementary
Irvine Unified
La Habra City Elementary
Magnolia School District
Ocean View
Orange County Department of Education
Saddleback Valley Unified
Santa Ana Unified
These districts plan no layoffs:
Garden Grove Unified
Laguna Beach Unified
Lowell Joint
Newport-Mesa Unified
Savanna Elementary
Westminster Elementary
Layoff reports are pending from the following districts:
Los Alamitos Unified
Cypress Elementary
Fountain Valley Elementary
Fullerton Elementary
Huntington Beach Union High
Orange Unified
Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified
Tustin Unified
Fullerton Joint Union High
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Wednesday, May 13, 2009
New Saddleback class-size plan to save $257,000, 20 jobs
All classes in first through third grades would be capped at 24 kids next fall.
By SCOTT MARTINDALE
The Orange County Register
MISSION VIEJO – Saddleback Valley Unified officials on Tuesday unveiled a revised district cost-cutting plan in the primary grades that would preserve about 20 teaching jobs slated for elimination and net the district $257,000 in savings.
Average class sizes in the first through third grades at all elementary campuses would be capped at 24 children each next fall, with the net savings from the strategy allowing the district to retain more library/media clerks and campus supervisors. The remainder of the money would be used to delay shuttering the International Baccalaureate program at two high schools.
“I would caution the board to not be too optimistic,” Superintendent Steven Fish told trustees at a Tuesday school board meeting. “There are enough funds to be able to add back some of what you reduced.”
Saddleback is still looking at nearly $10 million in budget cuts for the 2009-10 school year, a plan that would wipe out the elementary-level Language Arts Assistance reading tutorial program and slash funding for scores of other programs, from sports to bus transportation to guidance counseling.
At El Toro and Trabuco Hills high schools, the IB program would continue running for the next two years – allowing students in the program to finish – and then be shut down, rather than immediately canceled.
In all, about 129 employees would lose their jobs, including about 13 classroom teachers.
“We are faced with really rotten choices,” Trustee Suzie Swartz said. “It kills me to even think about saying, let’s look at what we can make do.”
Saddleback’s prior cost-cutting strategy called for more a complex approach to paring class sizes at the district’s 24 elementary schools.
In the third grade – where 10 children are currently pulled out of larger classes of about 30 for half the day to receive instruction in language arts and math – the original plan was to move to all-day larger class sizes.
In the first and second grades – which currently have all-day 20-to-1 pupil-teacher ratios – the plan was to move second grade to the half-day model and leave first grade untouched.
The new class-size strategy saves an additional $257,000 over the prior plan and the jobs of about 20 teachers.
Saddleback’s new plan was made possible by recent changes in California school funding laws. These changes, approved by the state Legislature in February, essentially allow school districts more flexibility with setting their class sizes by lowering the funding penalties for districts that increase their class sizes beyond the 20-to-1 pupil-teacher ratio.
The changes were intended to help education leaders cope with February’s $8.4 billion statewide cut to public education through June 2010.
Saddleback officials noted that the district is expecting to receive millions of dollars of federal stimulus money, but cautioned against restoring programs and jobs because more cuts from the state could essentially wipe out the effects of that stimulus money.
If the state moves forward on a proposal to cut $3.6 billion more from public education, Saddleback would be looking an additional $18 million cut, perhaps in the middle of the next school year, Fish said.
“We don’t see our state situation improving,” Fish said.
Parents and students who spoke at Tuesday’s meeting lamented this year’s budget cuts, from library/media clerks to guidance counselors, and urged the school board to find other solutions.
“I’m graduating, but I feel so passionately that counselors could be cut,” said Ginny Sklar, 18, a senior at Laguna Hills High School. “They’ve helped so many students prevail and make it through high school.”
Others highlighted the merits of the Language Arts Assistance Program, an elementary-level tutoring program for children struggling to read.
“Without the LAAP program, many students would be denied the opportunity to get the help they need,” said parent Liz Montoya, whose 19-year-old son went through the program and was just accepted to UCLA. “It is not an enrichment program; it is a program of necessity.”
Contact the writer: 949-454-7394 or smartindale@ocregister.com
Budget adjustments
Saddleback Valley Unified officials plan to cap class sizes in the first through third grades at 24 children each, which would save $257,000 more than the previous budget-cutting plan. The savings would help preserve some library/media clerks, campus supervisors and the high school International Baccalaureate program.
$257,000: Money saved by creating class sizes of 24 students each in first through third grades
Previous proposal: In the third grade, eliminate the half-day class-size reduction program; in the second grade, eliminate full-day CSR in favor of the half-day program; in the first grade, maintain 20-to-1 student-teacher ratio
Current proposal: Create class sizes of 24 students each in grades 1-3
-$153,087: Money needed to preserve additional part-time library/media clerks
Previous proposal: Lay off 8 library/media clerks in intermediate and high schools and 12.14 clerks in elementary schools
Current proposal: Preserve a half-day library/media clerk in intermediate and high schools, and a one-day-a-week library/media clerk in elementary schools
-$71,471: Money needed to preserve all campus supervisors
Previous proposal: Cut hours of campus supervisors in middle and high schools
Current proposal: Preserve staffing levels
-$35,955: Money needed by preserve the college-level International Baccalaureate program at two high schools for the next two years
Previous proposal: Eliminate IB program at El Toro and Trabuco Hills high schools immediately
Current proposal: Phase out IB program at the two schools over the next two years, allowing those already enrolled to finish the program
Source: Saddleback Valley Unified School District
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http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-teachers13-2009may13,0,3359575.story
From the Los Angeles Times
School board members acknowledge swifter firings are needed
Four L.A. Unified board members say state laws need to be changed to get rid of underperforming teachers. Support for such efforts has increased in the wake of a Times investigation.
By Jason Song
May 13, 2009
A majority of Los Angeles school board members said Tuesday that they believe state laws governing teacher discipline need to be revised to allow more swift and effective removal of substandard teachers and other employees, although they acknowledged that changes appear unlikely this year.
In a recent series of articles detailing the lengthy and arduous process of dismissing tenured teachers and other educators in California, The Times found that firing a permanent teacher can often take years of paperwork and hearings. Such instructors can appeal their dismissals to specially convened state boards, which have overturned firings more than a third of the time.
While the process inches forward, scores of teachers are removed from schools and paid their full salaries but given no responsibilities, the newspaper found. The district pays about $10 million annually to such “housed” employees.
District officials believe that the problem rests in state law, which they say sets up hurdles to dismissing even poorly performing employees. The Times, however, found that some of the problem rests with the Los Angeles Unified School District, which dismisses relatively few teachers compared with other districts and loses more appealed cases.
Shortly before The Times’ series was published, board member Marlene Canter asked her colleagues to press state legislators to revise laws governing teacher dismissals. She withdrew the motion when it was clear that she did not have enough support, following vehement opposition from union officials. The board then agreed to form a task force to study the issue.
Canter reintroduced her motion Tuesday, and four of the seven board members said in interviews that state law needs to be changed. Board President Monica Garcia, among others, cautioned that the solution would be complicated and needed careful study.
“We need a comprehensive strategy, we need to present a well-thought-out legislation, and we [need] someone who will carry legislation. We have to do all of our homework,” said board member Yolie Flores Aguilar.
State Sen. Gloria Romero (D-Los Angeles), who is chairwoman of the Senate Education Committee and objected to Canter’s proposal two weeks ago, said Tuesday that she wants to study the issue.
Romero said she believes state law needs only “tweaks.” She said L.A. Unified officials are mainly to blame for not getting rid of poor instructors.
She cited cases outlined in The Times in which district administrators hurt their chances to fire teachers by not giving them prompt written notice of poor performance. Romero also said L.A. Unified has not stood up to the teachers union, citing the district’s habit of not giving accused teachers work while they are on administrative leave.
“At the end of the day, you can’t legislate backbone,” Romero said.
L.A. Unified Supt. Ramon C. Cortines, who has called state laws protecting errant teachers a “sacred cow,” said he doubted that Sacramento lawmakers could make any changes this year. In the meantime, he said, the district could take steps to strengthen its policies.
Cortines already has pushed to have claims against administrators investigated faster because he believes that it could save money. He also said that he would recommend that local district superintendents be held responsible for ensuring that principals spend more time in classrooms to evaluate teachers.
“Someone needs to be held accountable,” Cortines said.
jason.song@latimes.com
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Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Federal stimulus won’t bail out Capistrano district, officials say
Capistrano Unified will receive an estimated $25.8 million, but it may not be enough to save jobs and programs.
By SCOTT MARTINDALE
The Orange County Register
SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO – Capistrano Unified officials on Monday expressed pessimism at being able to use federal stimulus dollars to preserve jobs and programs like the popular class-size reduction program, even as the district announced it would receive an estimated $25.8 million in stimulus money.
Speaking a school board meeting, Deputy Superintendent Ron Lebs said the school district needed to be prudent with the one-time funds and brace for the possibility of more budget cuts from the state, including potential cuts in the middle of the next school year.
“We have to be very cautious in managing our cash flow and cautious in managing our personnel,” Lebs told trustees.
Capistrano Unified is preparing to cut $25.5 million from its 2009-10 school year budget in response to state funding shortfalls, which would decimate the 20-to-1 student-teacher ratio in the primary grades and slash funding to scores of other programs, from music to counseling to sports.
“We need to prepare for the worst-case scenario,” Trustee Anna Bryson said. “We need to be prepared to go through the typhoon and come out intact for the children.”
Although the district is anticipated to receive $25.8 million in stimulus funds from American Recovery and Reinvestment Act over the next two years, large portions of that funding will come with strict guidelines limiting how it can be spent, officials said.
Nearly $2.3 million is anticipated to go to schools with a Title I poverty designation, and $10.1 million is anticipated to go to special education. The remaining $13.4 million would be deposited in the general fund.
Officials also noted the one-time stimulus money would only help the district weather about two years of depressed funding levels.
The school board on Monday authorized issuing layoff notices to about 80 non-classroom workers, ranging from secretaries to maintenance workers to instructional assistants.
Those pink slips will come on top of about 440 Capistrano teachers and other employees who were notified in March they could be out of a job at the end of the school year.
“I would stress that you think long and hard about your decision,” Capistrano Unified technical support specialist Ken Jensen told trustees. “Who will do the work? Who will take care of the children? I strongly urge you to reconsider.”
Capistrano officials have not yet factored any of the stimulus funds into the district’s budget. They said Monday they are waiting until Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger releases a budget plan later this month that will offer a clearer picture of California education funding in 2009-10 and beyond.
Capistrano Unified could be looking at an additional $30 million cut later this year if the state follows through on a proposal to slash $3.6 billion more from public education, Lebs said.
“The feds are going to give it to us, and the state is going to take it away,” board President Ellen Addonizio said.
The budget and the stimulus funds will be discussed again at a June 8 school board meeting.
Parents who addressed the board urged trustees to find other ways to solve the budget crisis. Many wore buttons from a Capistrano employee union that said, “Who will do the work?” Others held up signs urging the board to save the class-size reduction program in the primary grades.
“It will save the many talented teachers I’ve come to know,” said Capistrano parent Todd McAteer, who has two sons and works as a school principal in Oceanside. “I hope you will consider supporting this research-based program and its benefits to students.”
Contact the writer: 949-454-7394 or smartindale@ocregister.com
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Alarm Sounded On Social Security and Medicare
By Amy Goldstein
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
The financial health of the Social Security system has eroded more sharply in the past year than at any time since the mid-1990s, according to a government forecast that ratchets up pressure on the Obama administration and Congress to stabilize the retirement system that keeps many older Americans out of poverty.
The report, issued yesterday by the trustees who monitor the government’s two main forms of help for the elderly, shows that Medicare has become more fragile as well and is at greater risk than Social Security of imminent fiscal collapse. Starting eight years from now, the report says, the health insurance program will be unable to pay all its hospital bills.
The findings put a stark new face on the toll the recession has taken on the two enormous entitlement programs. They also intensify a political debate, gathering strength among Democrats and Republicans, over how quickly President Obama should tackle Social Security when health-care reform is his administration’s most urgent domestic priority.
In announcing the results of the trustees’ annual forecast with other Cabinet members, Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner said, “The president explicitly rejects the notion that Social Security is untouchable politically.” Still, he reiterated that the administration intends to “work to build a bipartisan consensus to ensure the long-term solvency of Social Security” only after it collaborates with Congress to slow health-care spending and enable more Americans to obtain medical insurance.
Congressional Republicans and some Democrats seized upon the findings to argue that the administration should work rapidly to ward off the looming insolvency of Social Security and Medicare.
Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.), who withdrew from nomination as Obama’s commerce secretary, said yesterday’s report shows that the recession is “accelerating the arrival of a massive, trillion-dollar entitlement crisis on our doorstep.” He added: “Trying to kick the can down the road will not make it go away. We need to take meaningful action now.”
Specifically, the trustees’ report predicts that the trust fund from which Social Security payments are made will be unable to pay retirees full benefits by 2037, four years earlier than forecast a year ago. In particular, the trustees single out the financial weakness of the part of the program that subsidizes disabled Americans, saying that fund will run out of money in 2020.
Only three times in the past 15 years have the trustees predicted that Social Security would run out of money sooner than previously expected. Last year, they forecast no change from the 2007 prediction, and in 2007, they predicted that the fund would last a year longer than they had previously thought.
Yesterday’s report also said the Social Security trust fund will begin to spend more money than it takes in through tax revenue in 2016, one year sooner than predicted a year ago.
Administration officials said that if Congress were to act immediately, the impending gap could be filled three ways: by raising workers’ Social Security payroll taxes by 2 percentage points, from 12.4 percent to 14.4 percent; by reducing benefits by 13 percent; or a combination of the two approaches. The officials briefed reporters on the condition of anonymity on the technical aspects of the trustees’ findings.
Medicare’s financial health, the report shows, deteriorated less sharply in the past year than Social Security’s, but it remains the more urgent problem. The trust fund that pays for hospital care under Medicare is now predicted to run out of money in 2017, two years earlier than forecast a year ago. That fund does not involve the parts of Medicare that cover doctor’s visits or coverage for prescription drugs.
The nation’s economic downturn has added to the fragility of Medicare and Social Security because worsening unemployment means that fewer workers are contributing to the two trust funds through payroll taxes. Since the recession began in December 2007, the country has lost 5.7 million jobs.
But even if the economy were stronger, the programs would be facing pressure in coming years as the large baby-boom generation reaches old age and people tend to live longer, leaving comparatively fewer workers to pay benefits for a large cadre of retirees.
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius sought to use the report to build momentum for health-care reform, reiterating the administration’s contention that the best way to strengthen Medicare’s finances is to, as she put it, “fix what’s broken in the rest of the health-care system.” If Americans have health insurance and receive adequate medical care when they are younger, she said, they will be healthier and less expensive patients when they become old enough to join Medicare, usually at age 65.
Some key lawmakers in both parties have said they want to devise a plan to keep the retirement program solvent by increasing the retirement age, slowing the growth in the size of retirement checks to wealthy Americans and bringing in new revenue.
Several Democrats and Republicans would prefer to create an independent commission to propose Social Security reforms, but congressional leaders, particularly in the House, have balked, saying the matter should be handled by Congress’s regular committees.
Last week, House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) said Congress could start work on the retirement program this fall if it passes health-care legislation by late summer — a timetable that others called unrealistic. Yesterday, Hoyer said he was encouraged that Geithner, the Treasury secretary, “stated the administration’s support for moving forward with Social Security reform after health-care reform has passed.”
Staff writer Lori Montgomery contributed to this report.
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L.A. Unified goes to court to fight teachers strike
7:11 PM | May 11, 2009
School officials said they will seek an immediate court injunction to stop Friday’s scheduled one-day teachers strike.
The expected Tuesday morning filing in L.A. Superior Court is part of a two-pronged legal strategy by the Los Angeles Unified School District. Last week, in its first move, the school system filed an unfair labor practice charge with the Public Employment Relations Board in Sacramento. That action, too, could lead to a court injunction ordering a halt to the strike.
But the employment board might not act in time to stop the strike, or it might simply decide against intervening.
“We’ve decided to go to court tomorrow morning to directly seek a temporary restraining order against the strike,” said district general counsel Roberta Fesler. “Time is of the essence.”
The school system also unsheathed a weapon in the public-relations war over the looming strike. Officials said that about a third of teachers at Verdugo Hills High have elected to cross picket lines if necessary and donate that day’s salary to the cost of retaining teachers at risk of being laid off.
Nearly three-quarters of the teachers who cast ballots favored the strike. But a majority of teachers overall either did not vote or voted against the one-day walkout. Organizers said the purpose of the action is to protest teacher layoffs and the campus disruptions that would result because of increasing class sizes and because many teachers would have to switch schools. More than 2,500 teachers are at risk of being laid off, as are about 2,600 non-teaching employees.
Employee unions have urged the school system to use as much of its federal economic stimulus money as necessary to save jobs now.
District officials have insisted on splitting the money between the 2008-09 and the 2009-10 school years because each is expected to be economically dire. They say jobs can be spared if employees agree to wage concessions, such as unpaid furlough days.
In a related budget move today, L.A. Unified announced an early-retirement incentive for non-teachers. The union representing these workers supports this initiative. A similar plan for teachers has netted nearly 1,400 participants, which has reduced the number of anticipated layoffs.
– Howard Blume
Blume is twittering about budget woes in the Los Angeles Unified School District. Follow his updates at http://twitter.com/howardblume.
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http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-lausd-strike13-2009may13,0,1958124.story
From the Los Angeles Times
Judge prohibits L.A. teachers strike
He grants a restraining order against the walkout planned for Friday, saying it defies the United Teachers union contract.
By Howard Blume
May 13, 2009
A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge Tuesday prohibited the city’s teachers union from staging a one-day strike this week to protest layoffs and other budget-cutting proposals. The United Teachers Los Angeles contract explicitly bars a strike, said Judge James C. Chalfant, who also cited concerns about student health, safety and welfare in granting the restraining order against Friday’s planned walkout.
Supt. Ramon C. Cortines hailed the decision as a victory for students and education in the Los Angeles Unified School District. He added: “I am more than willing to meet with the bargaining unit. This gives us some time now to come together.”
In a letter to teachers, Cortines warned of possible discipline for those who strike Friday in violation of both the contract and the court order.
Because of a budget shortfall, more than 2,500 teachers without tenure could lose their jobs July 1. In addition, hundreds of others could be bumped out of their current positions and onto other campuses. About 2,600 non-teaching employees also could lose jobs.
The union wants L.A. Unified to use as much federal economic stimulus money as necessary to avoid teacher layoffs in the 2009-2010 school year. District officials have apportioned about half of the money for the following year because of dire economic forecasts for California.
The district aborted plans for ending the school day early Friday and will conduct Advanced Placement testing as previously scheduled. But about 150 scheduled field trips remain canceled, including one to the county Natural History Museum for 20th Street Elementary and another to Glendale Community College for Lincoln High. Tennis championships and track and field playoffs must be rescheduled.
Union leaders met with their attorneys Tuesday to weigh options, said UTLA President A.J. Duffy.
“It is unfortunate that the courts ruled against our members’ democratic right to protest class-size increases and layoffs and to stand up for students,” Duffy said in a statement
A school-day rally called by some parents, dubbed the Lemonade Initiative, will go forward as planned at 10 a.m. Friday at the Balboa Park soccer fields in Encino.
Organizers have been critical of both the school system and the union.
“This is about the parents having a voice,” said parent Elisa Taub. “The court decision has changed nothing. The system is still broken.”
howard.blume@latimes.com
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This story is taken from Sacbee / Capitol and California
California’s election turnout expected to be tiny
kyamamura@sacbee.com
Published Wednesday, May. 13, 2009
Compared to the record number of California voters who cast ballots in November’s historic presidential contest, Tuesday’s special election should be the equivalent of a democratic hangover.
Voters generally participate less in special elections outside the even-year cycle, but they have shown even greater levels of apathy and resentment this time around, election experts say.
“This election has not captured voters’ imagination in any way, shape or form,” said Mark DiCamillo, director of the Field Poll. “Most voters have a limited knowledge or interest in what’s taking place May 19.”
The Tuesday contest contains six measures that the Legislature placed on the ballot as part of a February budget compromise with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. The proposals range from a spending limit and tax hike (Proposition 1A) to borrowing $5 billion against future California Lottery revenues (Proposition 1C).
Polls show that voters have a sour view of all but one measure, Proposition 1F, which would ban pay hikes for state legislators in deficit years. Voters also have given record-low approval ratings to Schwarzenegger and the Legislature as an institution, which they associate with the measures.
The electorate in Tuesday’s contest will be an older, more conservative group of voters, DiCamillo said. They will be habitual participants rather than the young rookies who signed up for last year’s contest.
DiCamillo anticipates a 25 percent to 33 percent turnout in this election. By comparison, 79.42 percent of registered California voters participated in November’s election.
He predicts that 42 percent of the electorate will be Democrats and 40 percent Republicans – a much more partisan balance than the latest registration figures show.
According to the secretary of state’s office, 44.6 percent of voters are registered Democrats and 31.1 percent are registered Republicans.
“This is going to be a ‘Tea Party’ turnout with everybody who’s angry about taxes, and that’s a big advantage for the ‘no’ side,” said Bill Carrick, a Democratic strategist unaffiliated with the campaigns.
Gale Kaufman, a consultant with the California Teachers Association working on the Yes on 1A and 1B campaign, said last month that turnout would be low, but it’s difficult to determine exactly who will participate.
She acknowledged that conventional wisdom says the electorate will be older and conservative. “But I could make an argument that people who just start voting are more excited about continuing to do so, so it could be younger and more Democratic. I think it’s all a guess.”
Many voters this year – if not most – will have cast their ballots by mail at some point before Tuesday, DiCamillo said. So each side has had to focus on reaching voters even earlier than normal.
Coalitions for and against the ballot measures are trying to combat apathy by relying on labor unions, public safety groups and business organizations to galvanize their members. In a low turnout election, Carrick said, campaigns may gain more benefit than usual from grass-roots efforts.
Budget Reform Now, the well-financed coalition led by Schwarzenegger, has raised more than $13 million for television ads and other media efforts.
But it also has relied on groups such as the California Teachers Association, the California State Council of Laborers and the California Professional Firefighters to contact members.
Julie Soderlund, spokeswoman for the proponents, said the campaign is using phone banks, as well as e-mail and social networking Web sites to contact supporters.
Public-employee unions and interest groups that oppose the measures are also using their existing networks to drive turnout. That may play a more crucial role on the No on 1A side, which has raised far less money than proponents and launched its only television ad this week.
Mike Roth, a spokesman for the labor-backed No on Prop. 1A committee, said his groups are using phone calls, mailers and workplace communication to oppose the measure.
Jon Coupal, president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association and an opponent of Proposition 1A, said talk radio will also drive turnout.
In Los Angeles, for instance, KFI-AM’s John Kobylt and Ken Chiampou have assailed the measures each afternoon.
State leaders added the $16 billion in temporary tax hikes to the spending limit in Proposition 1A in order to appease labor unions and envisioned it as a secondary part of the plan. But the tax hikes have defined the entire ballot for conservative-leaning voters.
“I think the turnout is going to be pretty low for all the conventional reasons, but I do think conservatives are pretty motivated, and part of that is driven by the talk-radio folks,” Coupal said. “I think there’s an anathema to tax increases among independents and Republicans.”
Call Kevin Yamamura, Bee Capitol Bureau, (916) 326-5548.
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http://www.latimes.com/news/la-me-budget14-2009may14,0,4167667.story?track=ntothtml
From the Los Angeles Times
Gov. proposes selling L.A. Coliseum, other properties to raise cash
Other state assets that could be put on the block include San Quentin State Prison and the Orange County Fairgrounds. The move could raise between $600 million and $1 billion, according to a proposal.
By Michael Rothfeld
May 14, 2009
Reporting from Sacramento — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger wants to sell the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, San Quentin State Prison, the Orange County Fairgrounds and other state property to raise cash amid the state’s growing fiscal crisis, according to a copy of a proposal reviewed by The Times.
Sale of the properties, to be included in the governor’s revised budget plan today, would raise between $600 million and $1 billion, although it would not provide financial relief for two to five years, according to the proposal.
“There are thousands of buildings and land parcels throughout California that represent billions of dollars of equity,” the plan says. “California’s current fiscal crisis has prompted new ways of thinking about how the state can unlock some of this value.”
Other items on the list for potential disposal include Cal Expo, site of the state fair in Sacramento; the Del Mar Fairgrounds in San Diego County; the Cow Palace, a nearly 70-year-old exhibition hall in Daly City, bordering San Francisco; and the Ventura County Fairgrounds.
It is not clear whether lawmakers would be willing to part with the real estate the governor has identified. Proposals to sell San Quentin and the Coliseum have not advanced in the Legislature in recent weeks.
And many other questions remain unanswered, including where the state would put death row, even as it is spending hundreds of millions of dollars to build new housing for condemned inmates at San Quentin, which sits on a stunning Marin County waterfront property, or how much a new prison would cost.
Administration officials said that almost all the plans would require cooperation from lawmakers, either to approve the sales or make changes to state law to address how the state should handle the proceeds.
One official, who requested anonymity because the governor had not yet announced the plan, said lawmakers who expressed opposition to such property sales in the past might be more willing to compromise now. The state faces a deficit projected at $15.4 billion — more, if voters reject a slate of ballot measures on Tuesday.
“It’s different times,” the official said. “The choices aren’t great, obviously.”
State lawmakers reached late Wednesday were of mixed minds. Sen. Roderick Wright (D-Inglewood) said selling the Coliseum is a bad idea, because it is well-used and turning a profit.
“You’ve got a depressed market, so you are not going to get its full value,” Wright said. “To try to sell the Coliseum now in a fire sale is not a prudent thing to do.”
Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, president of the L.A. Memorial Coliseum Commission, called the idea of selling the property an attempt to divert attention from the state’s problems.
“The idea is absurd,” he said. “The Coliseum is a national historic monument. You cannot sell it anymore than you can sell the Statue of Liberty or the Washington Monument.”
If the Coliseum were for sale, USC, which signed a long-term lease last year, could be a likely buyer.
“If that were the only way to ensure the Coliseum would be improved and maintained for its current uses, for the right price the university would have to consider it,” said Kristina Raspe, USC’s associate senior vice president for real estate and asset management.
Before agreeing to a deal with the Coliseum Commission last year, the school had offered to run the stadium and invest $100 million in improvements.
State Sen. George Runner (R-Lancaster) called the governor’s plan a “fine idea.”
“There is no reason for the state to keep those assets [and] the cost of maintaining them,” he said.
Schwarzenegger’s proposal would also raise up to $660 million by selling 11 large state office buildings and leasing them back. It is the kind of mechanism used by commercial property owners to free up cash, the governor’s plan says; in some deals, the original owner would receive the site back after a period of time, perhaps 25 years.
The Ronald Reagan building in downtown Los Angeles is on a list of such sites in the proposal, along with others that house the state attorney general’s office, the Franchise Tax Board and the California Emergency Management Agency in Sacramento, and the Public Utilities Commission in San Francisco.
A proposed alternative is restructuring debt on state office buildings instead of selling them and leasing them back. That could provide cash in the short term but higher costs in the long term, the plan says.
Most of the large properties the state would sell, including the 30 acres that contain the Coliseum and the Sports Arena, are controlled by District Agricultural Associations, state entities run by boards appointed by the governor. Officials said they wanted to sell the Coliseum land and buildings. The state is a part-owner of the buildings, and officials said they were still researching the stakes of other owners.
The Coliseum Commission currently leases the land from the local agricultural association and subleases it to USC.
The plan contains brief sales pitches for each of the properties.
The Orange County Fairgrounds, for instance, is “very well located in the coastal community of Costa Mesa,” near the 55 Freeway, making it “a very high value, centrally located . . . development opportunity for Orange County.”
Del Mar Fairgrounds is north of San Diego and includes several pavilions, a grandstand and racetrack. The property is across from the ocean, leading to the slogan “where the turf meets the surf.”
In proposing to sell it for up to $650 million, officials called it “perhaps the state’s most valuable commercially used property.”
michael.rothfeld@latimes.com
Times staff writers Patrick McGreevy in Sacramento, Garrett Therolf and Sam Farmer in Los Angeles and Tony Perry in San Diego contributed to this report.
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http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-rutten13-2009may13,0,734726.column
From the Los Angeles Times
Opinion
California’s budget propositions: a no-win vote
If they reject the budget propositions, Californians will hurt themselves most.
Tim Rutten
May 13, 2009
The late John Kenneth Galbraith might have had next week’s statewide special election in mind when he described politics as “choosing between the disastrous and the unpalatable.”
According to the most reliable California polls, the state’s voters already have chosen the former. All of the budget-balancing propositions that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Legislature placed on the May 19 ballot appear headed for resounding defeat — except the one allowing temporary cuts in lawmakers’ salaries.
The solid majority of voters is leaning this way even though it’s clear that rejection will set in motion a historic fiscal bloodletting with wholesale cuts in popular programs and vital services. To understand why so much of the electorate prefers this clear disaster, you have to understand just how unpalatable Californians find not only the budget initiatives but also the politicians who produced them.
The most recent survey by the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California found that Schwarzenegger’s approval rating among likely voters is at a low of 34%. More than half of all Republicans, Democrats and independents disapprove of the job the governor is doing. The Legislature fares even worse: 80% of likely voters disapprove of the job it’s doing, while just 12% approve.
There’s an even more corrosive finding in the poll. For the last five years, its survey has asked this question: “Would you say that state government is pretty much run by a few big interests looking out for themselves, or is it run for the benefit of all the people?” This time, 76% of the respondents who are likely voters said they believe that special interests call the tune in Sacramento. And the truth is, they’re right.
Corporate income taxes contribute just 11% of the state’s annual revenues. Sales and use levies generate 35%. One of the reasons California’s revenue picture is so catastrophic is that Sacramento now depends on the personal income tax for more than 50% of its annual income.
Personal income is extraordinarily vulnerable to the vagaries of the business cycle because recessions increase unemployment, and downturns squeeze the high-income earners, who pay a disproportionate share of the income tax. Last year, collections on capital gains fell 55%, and probably will decline 10% more this year. The governor’s budget people project that sales taxes will fall 15%, while property taxes will decline 4%.
What’s most distasteful about the package of budget compromises is that Schwarzenegger and the legislators spared many of the most powerful special interests any responsibility for helping Californians cope with this crisis. The major financial backers of the budget initiatives are the interests that got their way in the negotiations — Indian casinos and a major teachers union, and businesses that blocked any new taxes on their operations.
Major oil companies are among the measures’ biggest backers — Chevron has given $500,000 and Occidental $250,000 — as are liquor and beer distributors and vintners, such as E&J Gallo ($100,000), and pro sports franchises, which killed a proposed ticket tax. (Anschutz Entertainment Group, which owns Staples Center and is developing LA Live, has given $125,000 and the Lakers and Clippers $25,000 each.)
The obvious cynicism of this quid pro quo is not lost on voters, an overwhelming majority of whom told the Public Policy Institute that they are pessimistic about the California economy. In fact, just 16% of likely voters told the pollsters they trust Sacramento to do the right thing most of the time.
The problem here is that even though voters are drawing rational conclusions about Sacramento’s incompetence and malfeasance, the reaction they’re choosing is self-destructive. After these measures fail and Schwarzenegger and the Legislature begin to hysterically close a looming shortfall of more than $20 billion, they won’t eliminate the obscure board that regulates Shasta County beekeepers and provides comfortable incomes for their old political cronies. They’ll go after the programs that fund local government services, because what Sacramento does best is pass the pain.
Thus, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa — who on Tuesday asked the L.A. City Council to declare a fiscal emergency to cope with a budget shortfall that may exceed $1 billion next year — has been told by his staff that the ballot measures’ failure may lead Sacramento to withhold as much as $76 million in sales tax revenues.
L.A. County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky says rejection of the measures may cost the county, which provides most essential human services, several hundred million dollars. “Children, the poor, the elderly and the sick are the most politically marginalized members of our society. They don’t vote and they don’t make the contributions the special interests do.”
The paradox, Yaroslavsky points out, is that the need for services is rising dramatically, while Sacramento seems likely to make draconian cuts in funding. The number of county residents receiving general relief, for example, has risen 1.5% in each of the last 18 months.
The question for voters, then, is this: Is it worth “sending Sacramento a message” when the people who ultimately are on the receiving end are our neediest and most vulnerable neighbors?
timothy.rutten@latimes.com
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http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-campaign14-2009may14,0,3761980.story
From the Los Angeles Times
Campaign for budget measures struggles to appeal to voters
The governor and his allies have bounced from one strategy to another. TV ads promoting the propositions, which would generate nearly $6 billion, have been ditched.
By Michael Finnegan
7:39 PM PDT, May 13, 2009
In the final sprint to Tuesday’s election, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has warned day after day of teacher layoffs, fire-station shutdowns and other dire consequences if voters fail to pass budget measures that would produce almost $6 billion to ease California’s fiscal crisis.
Yet Schwarzenegger and his allies have abandoned TV advertising — the main vehicle for reaching voters statewide — on the three measures that would produce that money: Propositions 1C, 1D and 1E.
Instead, they are running TV ads solely for Propositions 1A and 1B, measures that would do nothing to slow California’s slide toward insolvency this summer, but in future years could help the budget’s bottom line and Schwarzenegger’s political image.
The contradiction reflects the muddled approach of a campaign that has struggled to find a coherent argument to fit the surly mood of California voters.
Led by the Republican governor and Democratic leaders of the Legislature, the campaign for six budget measures has lurched from one strategy to another, even as tens of thousands of voters were already mailing in their ballots.
At the same time, the campaign has cast about for credible representatives to market the measures, no small task when polls show that most Californians give the governor and Legislature abysmal ratings on the budget crisis.
With soaring unemployment, plummeting home values, vanishing retirement savings and a state still billions short of a balanced budget even with new tax hikes, voter wariness is no surprise.
“When you get a combination of they don’t trust the messengers, and they don’t trust the message,” said Democratic strategist Bill Carrick, “we know what happens.”
From the start, the budget package, Propositions 1A through 1F, has faced an uphill fight. With the glaring exception of 1F, which would deny pay raises to elected officials when the state is running a deficit, voters are leaning toward rejection of the measures, polls show.
The Sacramento leaders opened their campaign by trying to play off voter anger directed at them. The first TV spot featured a man on his front porch saying politicians “got us in quite a mess” by failing to live within a budget. By passing all six ballot measures, the man told viewers, Californians could “hold the politicians accountable and help hold the line on higher taxes.”
Left unsaid was that the politicians in question were the ones running the ad. Schwarzenegger’s name was buried in a blur of fine print that flashed on screen. Also unmentioned: Proposition 1A would not just cap state spending, as the ad said, but also extend the state’s recently passed tax hikes for up to two years.
“Voters knew there was more to the story, and there was,” said Steve Smith, a Democratic campaign strategist.
A leader of the campaign, Assembly Speaker Karen Bass (D-Los Angeles), said voters were right to be cynical about the possibility that sponsors of the measures were “tricking them,” even if, in her view, the proposals are worthy. “They always feel they’re being lied to about propositions, so there’s nothing unique about this,” she said in an interview.
In this case, the campaign has stoked public skepticism by omitting from its ads and website crucial facts, such as the $16 billion in tax-hike extensions.
That can backfire, strategists said, with the older and relatively well-informed voters who are most likely to cast ballots in a low-turnout special election like the one next week.
“This is a case where information is not the ‘yes’ side’s friend,” Carrick said. “The more people learn, the less they like it.”
In the campaign’s final days, Schwarzenegger and his allies have switched strategies, warning of doomsday cuts should voters reject Propositions 1A and 1B, which would restore education cuts in future years. In one TV spot, a firefighter with soot smeared on his forehead walks alongside a red fire engine. “Without Props 1A and 1B,” he says, “we have $16 billion in new cuts coming, could lose another 24,000 firefighters and police.”
In fact, that is a roundabout reference to the $16 billion in tax-hike extensions that would not hit for more than a year — and that have no bearing on any cuts that state leaders might impose if voters refuse to approve the nearly $6 billion tucked into Propositions 1C, 1D and 1E.
Proposition 1C would let the state instantly borrow $5 billion against future lottery revenues, while 1D and 1E would, for the current budget, free up $838 million that voters had previously restricted to children’s and mental health programs, respectively. More money would be shifted from those programs in later years.
“Voters are hypersensitive to exaggerated facts, and that’s why trying to threaten people in 30-second TV commercials is not going to have an effect,” said Democratic pollster Jim Moore. “The voters’ perspective these days is, ‘Just give me the facts, and I’ll draw my own conclusions.’ ”
Also unmentioned in the ads is that California has laid off almost none of its 238,000 employees as part of the deal that Schwarzenegger and lawmakers struck in February to cut spending, raise taxes and borrow to close a $42-billion budget gap.
At public events this week, Schwarzenegger has threatened to release 40,000 nonviolent prison inmates, close 20 fire stations, force layoffs of 51,000 teachers and shut down every school in the state for at least 18 days if voters reject the three measures that would generate nearly $6 billion in quick revenue.
Asked why the campaign was no longer spending money on TV ads promoting those measures, Schwarzenegger political advisor Adam Mendelsohn said it was sending out mail promoting the full package.
But Schwarzenegger would reap clear political benefits if voters pass the two measures his campaign is promoting on TV, 1A and 1B: a cap on state spending as a centerpiece of his legacy, along with more money for schools.
Still, Schwarzenegger has tried to keep a relatively low profile in the campaign’s closing days, thanks to his unpopularity; on Wednesday, he had no public schedule. In a Field Poll last month, his job approval rating sank to a new low of 33% among registered voters, while the Legislature’s bottomed out at 14%.
“People are fed up,” said Republican ad consultant Don Sipple. “They expect the political leadership to take care of things and not come back to them all the time.”
michael.finnegan@latimes.com
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http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-cap14-2009may14,0,3341182,full.column
From the Los Angeles Times
CAPITOL JOURNAL
Schwarzenegger to lay out ugly options for voters
The governor will tell voters not to squawk if they reject the budget proposals Tuesday and draconian program cuts ensue.
George Skelton
Capitol Journal
May 14, 2009
From Sacramento — Normally it’s called the “May Revise.” But what Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will unveil today is a “get out of jail free” card for himself and legislators.
First the background:
Each May, California’s governor revises his January budget proposal for the fiscal year starting July 1. The spending plan is updated to reflect the state’s latest revenue take, particularly the April income tax returns. This year’s returns were the sorriest since the Great Depression.
Schwarzenegger had planned to wait until after next Tuesday’s special election to revamp his proposal — much of it already enacted in February — because nearly $6 billion in budget money is riding on the results.
But with polls showing all the key propositions headed for defeat, Schwarzenegger decided to spell out the potential upshot to voters now.
He’ll produce two budget versions. One will assume that the ballot props he and the Legislature proposed somehow pass. The other will assume that they are rejected.
If they pass, there’ll be a need for draconian spending cuts totaling only $15.4 billion — on top of $16 billion already slashed in February. If the props fail, the level of cutting will be practically unfathomable — $21.3 billion.
To put those numbers in perspective, we’re looking at total general fund spending of from $85 billion to $90 billion.
So what does Schwarzenegger’s roll-out today mean politically?
By detailing the hideous options that will remain if the budget props fail, the governor is shielding state policy makers from blame for the ugly results.
They’ll be freed — or at least should be — from the consequences of their inevitably unpopular actions.
Voters can ignore the governor or refuse to believe him. They can dismiss his warnings as phony scare tactics, as the propositions’ opponents contend. But the choice is theirs.
The day afterward, if the props are rejected, Capitol politicians will be free to butcher programs, fire public employees, even raise “fees” with majority votes. They’ll have a voter mandate to do just about anything they want.
What about the voters’ “message?” After all, this is being promoted by opponents as a “Send ‘em a message!” election.
And what message would that be? Whatever the missive, it won’t be coherent. It’ll be loud gibberish:
Quit raising taxes!
Stop cutting services!
Live within your means!
No spending controls!
Huh?
All these conflicting messages are being shouted by the odd coalition of anti-tax conservatives and pro-spending liberals opposed to the ballot package’s linchpin, Proposition 1A. It would impose permanent spending controls, which the left detests, while triggering a two-year, $16-billion extension of temporary tax increases, which the right won’t tolerate.
My guess is the loudest, most sustained noise is coming from the tax haters, inspired by small organizations whose existence depends on widespread fear of the tax bogeyman. Schwarzenegger used to spread the horror stories himself.
But the spending lobby also is in full throat, led by some public employee unions (California Federation of Teachers, Service Employees International Union) and cottage industries that have grown up around programs for kids under age 5 and the homeless mentally ill.
Both programs were created by previous ballot-box budgeting through initiatives and have stashes of money they currently don’t need. Props. 1D and 1E would seize some of their surpluses for the general fund.
The big ticket item on the ballot for current budget-balancing is Prop. 1C, which would authorize expansion of the lottery and borrowing $5 billion against future profits. Some outfits opposed to Prop. 1A do support 1C. But it’s virtually meaningless.
Prop. 1A is the focal point, the symbol for the entire package. How it fares likely will determine the fates of Props. 1B through 1E. Even if voters approve 1B, which ultimately would restore $9.3 billion in budget cuts for schools, it can’t take effect unless 1A also passes.
So Schwarzenegger’s not-so-subtle message to voters today will be something like this:
Don’t pack the Capitol steps protesting thousands of teacher layoffs, ballooning class sizes and a shorter school year if the ballot props fail. Schools will be cut again regardless of the election outcome, but they’ll be crushed if the props go down and Sacramento needs to find an additional $6 billion. You’re on notice. Don’t blame us.
State employee layoffs are a virtual certainty. But there’ll be a lot more if the props lose. Go talk to the unions that opposed 1A.
And if you’re a conservative who fears felons even worse than taxes, don’t be stunned when tens of thousands of prisoners are freed because the state can’t afford to keep them locked up.
There’ll be fewer firefighting camps — and less state aid for rural law enforcement.
In fact, you can expect the state to forcibly “borrow” billions from local governments, thus causing severe cuts in many city and country programs.
And, oh yes, the elderly poor, blind and disabled — welfare moms and children’s healthcare? They’ll take the biggest hits, as usual. Some services will be eliminated. Others will be reduced to the bare minimum, even below what’s permitted by federal law. Federal “waivers” will be sought. Blame the libs who fought the Prop. 1A spending controls.
Voters are forewarned. Killing the props will license the governor and lawmakers to slash and burn while safely possessing a “get out of jail free” card. What they must not do again, however, is use Monopoly money to “balance” the budget.
george.skelton@latimes.com
John Palacio
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http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-greendot11-2009may11,0,3289443.story
From the Los Angeles Times
Parents urged to demand more from L.A. schools
Green Cot charter operator Steve Barr wants to organize grass-roots power to improve public education.
By Howard Blume
May 11, 2009
Risk-taking charter school operator Steve Barr is launching an effort through which parents would wrest political control of the L.A. school system from employee unions, school bureaucrats and other entrenched interests.
The plan is for parents to form chapters all over town and improve schools, one by one, using the growing leverage of the charter school movement. The goal is to unite a city of overworked and isolated parents with a brash promise:
If more than half of the parents at a school sign up, Barr’s organizers say they will guarantee an excellent campus within three years. They call it the Parent Revolution.
With parents, they predict, they’ll have the clout to pressure the Los Angeles Unified School District to improve schools. They’ll also have petitions, which Barr and his allies will keep at the ready, to start charter schools. If the district doesn’t deliver, targeted neighborhoods could be flooded with charters, which aren’t run by the school district. L.A. Unified would lose enrollment, and the funding would go to the charters instead of to the district.
Based on past performance, the school district would be challenged to meet parents’ heightened expectations, Barr said. “We’re not trying to prove the district is doing things wrong. But our kids are at stake.”
The initiative is the latest envelope-pushing project for the publicity savvy Barr and his Green Dot Public Schools. The Los Angeles-based nonprofit operates 10 local charters as well as Locke High, the district’s first traditional high school to be taken over by a private operator.
Despite this milestone, Barr and his lieutenants have expressed frustration with what Green Dot can accomplish on its own. They also wanted to make more of the fledgling Parents Union, a Green Dot spinoff that Barr envisioned as an independent, assertive alternative to the PTA.
“You can’t just have meetings,” Barr said. “Unless you’re driving a tangible outcome, you’re just setting people up.”
The three-year pledge was conceived by Marco Petruzzi, a business consultant who was a Green Dot board member and now is Barr’s chief executive: “What was really missing was a value proposition for parents,” Petruzzi said. “If you do this, you get this.”
The initiative is directed by attorney Ben Austin, a longtime political consultant who has reshaped the Parents Union, which has a mailing list of thousands but a much smaller active core. So far, the Parents Union has been a useful but limited political vehicle for causes Barr supported, such as Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s unsuccessful attempt to win control over the school district.
Barr’s parent organization gave Villaraigosa’s campaign a grass-roots visual that it otherwise would have lacked. And his paid staffers hit the right rhetorical notes for Villaraigosa, while identifying themselves to reporters and officials only as parents.
If the new effort succeeds, Green Dot will have to let go of the reins, Austin said. But he characterized a proper school as one that is safe, orderly and small, where the principal can personally and rapidly fire ineffective teachers, where nearly all dollars get to the classroom and where every child is progressing toward college.
“Not every school needs a revolution,” he said. “I’m going to send my daughter to Warner Elementary, because it’s a great neighborhood school. I’d actually oppose a revolution there. But I’m already actively working on a revolution for Emerson, her middle school, because it’s not good enough for her.”
In its endeavor, Green Dot also has enlisted Bright Star Schools and the Alliance for College-Ready Public Schools, two other successful charter operators.
Funding for the parent groups has come from Green Dot, philanthropist Eli Broad, the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce and the Service Employees International Union.
The campaign is already underway in Spanish, with Univision radio stations agreeing to air ads, pro bono, that promote an 800 number and a website that features a promotional video. And, for months, a handful of organizers fanned out to speak at churches, schools and meeting halls.
L.A. Unified continued with its own parent outreach last week. Supt. Ramon C. Cortines met with long-established parent groups, and he previewed a survey of parents that will be included in future school evaluations.On Friday, he met with Barr to discuss future collaborations.
The Parent Revolution “has never been raised with me,” Cortines said. “I’m somewhat taken aback by this, but I look at a traditional school and a charter school as choices for parents. I think that competition is healthy, but I don’t think any of us have all the answers. We should be collaborating.”
On a recent night in Tujunga, before Parents Union organizer Mary Najera could even begin her pitch, she listened to parents unload at a neighborhood gathering.
Among concerns: Local activist Lydia Grant was worried about the lack of outdoor lighting at the nearby middle school; people felt unsafe after dark. A grocery store worker said that her disabled daughter has been taunted in school by gang members and that no adult has intervened. A third woman complained of a teacher who called her daughter “lazy” and a “loser.” Formerly an A student at a private school, the girl is feeling lost after one semester in her crowded public school that she said is not nurturing.
Parents couldn’t sign Najera’s petition fast enough — and the Parents Union had not even targeted Tujunga. Mark Twain Middle School in Venice and Garfield HighMark Twain Middle School in East L.A. will be the first to officially take part.
A man suggested they call their affiliate the “I’m as mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore” chapter.
Najera assured them: “This is a legitimate threat to the school district. And this is how we have to play to be heard. This is going to steamroll.”
At some schools, administrators rebuffed Najera when she tried to distribute fliers, and some meetings attracted only a few people. Someone once called a school police officer to question organizer Shirley Ford, but at other places, principals quietly welcomed her.
At a recent meeting at a Boys & Girls Club in Venice that drew more than 100, Laura Alice held 8-month-old Wren as she listened to Austin and Petruzzi. She wants neighborhood parents to leave private schools and return their children to the local elementary school.
“In my little pod of 30 parents, it’s hard to get 15 who will commit,” said Alice, a business manager for artists. Some say they’re with her, she added, only until they get off the private-school waiting list.
howard.blume@latimes.com
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Monday, May 11, 2009
District-by-district: $125.6 million in stimulus to O.C. schools
First wave of money for districts’ general funds will help avert some, but not most, layoffs, educators say.
By FERMIN LEAL
The Orange County Register
Orange County’s public schools will receive a combined $125.6 million this month in federal stimulus funds aimed at offsetting budget cuts resulting from loss of state funding.
The money will go toward districts’ general funds, meaning districts will have flexibility over where to spend. Much of the funding will go to help reduce the number of layoffs, state and local officials have said. Districts must finalize layoffs of certificated and classified employees by Friday as required by law.
Funding was determined by the amount of budget cuts in each district, officials said. Statewide, schools will get $2.56 billion in this wave from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, state Superintendent Jack O’Connell announced this weekend.
Another $1 billion in similar funding will be allocated to districts this fall, while about $1.2 billion will also be awarded to schools in coming weeks to offset costs to special education and Title I.
In all, public schools in California will receive about $8 billion in federal stimulus funds over the next two years.
“These funds will have an immediate and noticeable impact on California’s k-12 by helping schools keep teachers and other important staff employed, by continuing our efforts to improve student achievement, and furthering our work to close the achievement gap,” O’Connell said.
State Superintendent William Habermehl said that although local educators welcome the stimulus money, parents and others should understand that the funds won’t be enough to avert scores of layoffs. Local district are planning on cutting budgets by about $300 million over the next 18 months, and planning on eliminating nearly 3,000 employees.
Also, all stimulus money is merely a temporary solution for balancing budget because it’s one-time funding, Habermehl said. Districts may just be able to postpone cuts another year or two and will likely find themselves in the same situation in coming years, Habermehl said.
“The money will help us out a lot,” Habermehl said. “But this money is far short of what our schools need.”
Here is the district-by-district breakdown of the funding.
Anaheim City, $4,794,261
Anaheim Union High, $9,941,133
Brea-Olinda Unified, $1,555,313
Buena Park Elementary, $1,409,221
Capistrano Connections Academy Charter, $205,283
Capistrano Unified, $13,414,895
Centralia Elementary, $1,185,805
Cypress Elementary, $1,025,580
Edward B. Cole Academy, $82,112
El Sol Santa Ana Science and Arts Academy, $118,969
Fountain Valley Elementary, $1,535,023
Fullerton Elementary, $3,381,243
Fullerton Joint Union High, $4,572,939
Garden Grove Unified, $12,564,750
Huntington Beach City Elementary, $1,662,414
Huntington Beach Union High, $4,785,640
Irvine Unified, $2,936,940
Journey, $53,959
La Habra City Elementary, $1,419,428
Laguna Beach Unified, $0
Los Alamitos Unified, $2,541,389
Magnolia Elementary, $1,573,653
Newport-Mesa Unified, $0
Nova Academy Early College High, $33,433
Ocean View, $2,385,635
OCHSA, $398,945
Opportunities for Learning, $31,487
Orange County Department of Education, $5,277,530
Orange County Educational Arts Academy, $132,378
Orange Unified, $7,533,299
Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified, $7,020,918
Saddleback Valley Unified, $8,670,954
Santa Ana Unified, $14,320,048
Santiago Middle, $273,575
Savanna Elementary, $612,972
Tustin Unified, $5,642,231
Westminster Elementary, $2,521,473
Orange County Total, $125,614,828
Contact the writer: 714-704-3773 or fleal@ocregister.com
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http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-budget12-2009may12,0,3686032.story
From the Los Angeles Times
Governor to release plans for what will happen if budget measures fail
With income tax collections projected to drop and the budget already $15.4 billion out of balance — even if the measures pass — Schwarzenegger warns of ‘severe cuts’ if Props. 1A through 1E fail.
By Michael Rothfeld
6:02 PM PDT, May 11, 2009
Reporting from Sacramento — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger told legislative leaders Monday the state’s annual income tax collections are expected to fall this year for the first time since 1938, punctuating a budget shortfall that he said will reach $21.3 billion if voters reject a slate of ballot measures next week.
With passage of the measures appearing unlikely, Schwarzenegger announced that he would release plans Thursday — five days before the May 19 special election — to show Californians the devastating consequences for government if the propositions fail.
State finance officials have been drafting plans for cuts in fire services, prisons, schools and other areas in the event that Propositions 1A through 1E, which plug a $6-billion budget hole, cannot overcome strong voter opposition reflected in recent polls.
The second scenario, if the measures pass, will still be devastating: The state budget will still be $15.4 billion out of balance since Schwarzenegger and lawmakers approved it in February, administration officials said Monday. That is nearly double recent projections.
In a letter to legislative leaders, Schwarzenegger explained why state finances have plunged so quickly since February, when he signed a spending plan intended to keep the state solvent through June of next year. Collections from personal income — which the state relies upon heavily — are expected to be lower this year than last, something that has not happened in more than 70 years, the governor wrote.
Schwarzenegger had postponed the unveiling of his revised budget from May 14, when it normally would have been released, until May 28, nine days after the special election. But in a visit to a senior center in Culver City on Monday, Schwarzenegger said he would release a summary for the two alternatives on the original date “so that people see what the difference is.”
“The way it is right now, severe cuts will happen,” he said. “And it’s important also for people to know this is not a scare tactic. This is just to let you know what could happen. ”
Some of the harsh contingency plans have already leaked out and been the focus of media reports in recent days.
Jon Coupal, president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Assn., which is leading the opposition to the ballot measures, said it appeared that the governor was trying to politicize the budget process.
“It strikes me that the timing certainly raises the appearance of being wholly politically driven,” Coupal said, predicting the strategy would backfire. “They’re clearly trying to persuade voters to vote in a certain manner.”
Schwarzenegger used the phrase “severe cuts” nine times to describe what could happen.
He spoke of closing fire stations and reducing engine crews, releasing nearly 40,000 prison inmates, slashing $3.6 billion from education and laying off tens of thousands of school employees, borrowing billions from local governments and making further cuts to healthcare programs.
“None of those options are pleasant, that is the important thing for people to know,” he said.
The May 19 propositions are intended to have a direct impact on this year’s budget by changing the lottery and redirecting voter-allocated funds for early childhood education and mental health programs. They also would affect the state’s finances over the next several years, by extending recently enacted tax increases for an additional period.
The only measure that appears likely to pass is Proposition 1F, which would prevent elected state officials from receiving salary hikes in deficit years.
michael.rothfeld@latimes.com
Times staff writer Evan Halper contributed to this story.
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Speaker Bass says Assembly budget cuts will save $2.3 million a year
1:27 PM | May 11, 2009
Los Angeles Times
Assembly Speaker Karen Bass (D-Los Angeles) announced today that she’s cutting Assembly members’ operating budgets by 10%, a move that comes weeks after she landed in hot water for trying to raise the salaries of legislative aides.
Bass also ordered the shutdown of the Assembly’s special office in Washington by the end of June, placed a freeze on staff salaries and put a cap on new hires until the state’s fiscal problems are settled.
Under her plan, the base allowance used for staff will decrease for each Assembly lawmaker from $292,000 to $263,000, for a total $2.3 million in annual savings for the whole Assembly.
The announcement comes a week before the May 19 special election on budget-related ballot measures. Bass is among the biggest boosters of the propositions, which would raise about $6 billion toward balancing the 2009-10 budget.
Last month, Bass drew public criticism after The Times and other media reported that she was planning to boost salaries for 120 Assembly employees. Bass rescinded the pay hikes a day later.
Bass said the latest cuts, which she announced in a morning meeting with the Los Angeles Times’ Sacramento Bureau, come on the heels of an overall belt-tightening in January that slashed spending on Assembly operations by $15 million.
She expressed frustration over the criticism she drew during last month’s salary-hike flap, which would have boosted the wages of about 10% of the Assembly’s more than 1,000 employees at a total cost of about $500,000.
“I regret the timing,” she said of the wage increases. But, she added, “I felt after cutting $15 million … spending $500,000 was a reasonable approach.”
– Eric Bailey
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This story is taken from Sacbee / Latest News / E-mail Alerts — Breaking News / E-mail Alerts — Election News
State budget deficit now $21.3 billion
kyamamura@sacbee.com
Published Monday, May. 11, 2009
California’s projected budget deficit has grown as large as $21.3 billion through next June due to a sharp economic decline, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger disclosed Monday in a letter to the Legislature.
The latest projection means lawmakers will consider deep spending cuts in education, corrections and welfare, as well as borrowing and new fees, to bridge the gap.
The announcement comes less than three months after the Legislature and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger closed $34 billion of a then-$40 billion state budget deficit with tax hikes and spending cuts and asked voters to eliminate the rest in next week’s special election.
“Since that time, the severe economic downturn that California, like the rest of the nation, has been facing has worsened substantially,” Schwarzenegger wrote. “These changes in the state’s economic and revenue pictures have caused a significant new budget problem to emerge.”
The Republican governor’s Department of Finance has projected a budget gap of $15.4 billion if the May 19 special election ballot measures pass and $21.3 billion if they fail. The state would gain nearly $6 billion in solutions if Propositions 1C, 1D and 1E pass, including $5 billion in 1C’s borrowing against the California Lottery.
“The numbers are clearly within the ballpark that we were considering,” said Legislative Analyst Mac Taylor, who will provide his own review in the coming weeks. “What they’ve added in are some expenditure increases and a worsening economic and revenue picture since March when we had our last estimate. It’s not surprising to us.”
Schwarzenegger announced Monday he will present two versions of his revised May budget Thursday, one that brings the $15.4 billion deficit into balance and another that solves the $21.3 billion problem.
The governor did not disclose his proposed solutions Monday. But he warned groups last week that he will consider borrowing $2 billion from cities and counties, releasing low-level offenders in state prisons and reducing school funding by $3.6 billion. The state also could eliminate its planned $2 billion reserve.
California faces limitations in how much it can cut without jeopardizing federal stimulus funding. For instance, the state cannot cut too much in higher education, K-14 schools or Medi-Cal eligibility without running afoul of federal stimulus guidelines.
The governor originally planned to release only one plan at the end of May before deciding instead to release a dual option five days before the election. He emphasized that if the three ballot measures fail, state leaders will have to approve deeper spending cuts across the board.
“The $6 billion worth of the solutions will now go before the voters, a critical piece to the state’s budget puzzle,” Schwarzenegger said at the Culver City Senior Center. “Whether they pass or fail, I think we have the responsibility to plan for either of the scenarios.”
Polls show that Proposition 1C, which would expand California Lottery payouts and allow the state to borrow at least $5 billion against the game’s future revenues, is trailing by more than 20 percentage points.
Campaign opponents immediately attacked Schwarzenegger for trying to threaten voters with a list of harsh cuts so they vote for the ballot measures next week. Only Propositions 1C, 1D and 1E would help bridge the current budget gap, but Schwarzenegger and other proponents have grouped all six ballot measures together as one budget solution.
“I think the timing of this release is another in a line of tactics to scare voters into voting for these failing measures,” said Mike Roth, spokesman for the labor-backed No on 1A campaign.
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Education secretary: Stimulus money is for next two years
6:35 AM | May 8, 2009
The top education official in the Obama administration says that federal stimulus dollars for school districts are meant to be spent over two years, which aligns with the position of L.A. school officials in their ongoing political war with employee unions over looming layoffs.
The comment by Education Secretary Arne Duncan is significant because unions have been campaigning for district officials to spend as much of the stimulus money as needed to save jobs now. District officials have countered that employees must agree to conditional salary concessions if all jobs are to be saved.
District officials have argued that federal stimulus money should be split over two years, in large measure because both years are likely to prove economically dire.
Over past few weeks, the teachers union in particular has cited Duncan’s professed desire to preserve the jobs of teachers as justifying a spend-it-now approach.
Duncan fielded the issue in response to a question from the L.A Times during a telephone news conference Thursday about the newly unveiled federal education budget.
“I don’t know the details of L.A. obviously,” Duncan said. “This is two-year money and so spreading it some—again I don’t have any of the specific details there, but just big picture—spreading it between the years makes a lot of sense.”
He added that the funding was a one-time only appropriation.
Duncan’s statement hardly settles the issue because he didn’t say the money had to be split evenly. And members of Congress have suggested they understood their vote favoring the stimulus package was an endorsement of spending what’s needed to save jobs now.
Other advocates on the issue speculate about a second stimulus package or they argue for saving jobs now while a political coalition is assembled to increase funding for education.
In his remarks, Duncan noted that saving jobs remains a priority, but he placed a greater emphasis on an underlying imperative of the Obama administration.
“We want these investments to save hundreds of thousands of teachers’ jobs around the country, but also [to] drive real reform,” he said.
Money spent merely to preserve the status quo will be judged a poor use of federal funds, he said.
“The first question we’re going to be asking every state is what did you do innovatively…with stimulus dollars…to drive up achievement and close the achievement gap,” Duncan said.
Schools, school districts and states that only maintain “the status quo without moving the bar–they might as well tear up the application” for forthcoming lucrative federal grants, he said.
“They’re not even going to be in the ballgame,” he said. “And so we’re going to watch very, very closely and have both real carrots but also sticks for folks that aren’t doing the right things by children.”
– Howard Blume
Blume is twittering about budget woes in the Los Angeles Unified School District. Follow his updates @howardblume.
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From the Los Angeles Times
U.S. threatens to rescind stimulus money over wage cuts
The Obama administration threatens to rescind billions in stimulus money if Gov. Schwarzenegger and lawmakers do not restore wage cuts to unionized home healthcare workers.
By Evan Halper
May 8, 2009
Reporting from Sacramento — The Obama administration is threatening to rescind billions of dollars in federal stimulus money if Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and state lawmakers do not restore wage cuts to unionized home healthcare workers approved in February as part of the budget.
Schwarzenegger’s office was advised this week by federal health officials that the wage reduction, which will save California $74 million, violates provisions of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Failure to revoke the scheduled wage cut before it takes effect July 1 could cost California $6.8 billion in stimulus money, according to state officials.
The news comes as state lawmakers are already facing a severe cash crisis, with the state at risk of running out of money in July.
The wages at issue involve workers who care for some 440,000 low-income disabled and elderly Californians. The workers, who collectively contribute millions of dollars in dues each month to the influential Service Employees International Union and the United Domestic Workers, will see the state’s contribution to their wages cut from a maximum of $12.10 per hour to a maximum of $10.10.
The SEIU said in a statement that it had asked the Obama administration for the ruling.
The cut was highly contentious during last winter’s budget talks. Republican lawmakers insisted that the rapidly growing, multibillion-dollar state program, In Home Supportive Services, be scaled back significantly.
Democrats fought major reductions in the program, which they say is a cost-effective alternative to nursing-home care, but ultimately compromised.
Reversing the wage cut would require a two-thirds vote of the Legislature, meaning Republican support would be needed.
Schwarzenegger on Wednesday sent U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius a letter urging the federal government to reconsider.
“Neither the Legislature nor I make decisions to reduce wages or benefits lightly, but only as a last resort in response to an unprecedented fiscal crisis,” Schwarzenegger wrote.
evan.halper@latimes.com
Times staff writer Eric Bailey contributed to this report.
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http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-cal-healthcare11-2009may11,0,1771873.story
From the Los Angeles Times
SEIU may be linked to ultimatum on withholding stimulus funds
California officials say the union may have influenced a federal requirement that a pay cut be reversed for home healthcare workers.
By Evan Halper
6:45 PM PDT, May 10, 2009
Reporting from Sacramento — Officials in the governor’s office say a politically powerful union may have had inappropriate influence over the Obama administration’s decision to withhold billions of dollars in federal stimulus money from California if the state does not reverse a scheduled wage cut for the labor group’s workers.
The officials say they are particularly troubled that the Service Employees International Union, which lobbied the federal government to step in, was included in a conference call in which state and federal officials reviewed the wage cut and the terms of the stimulus package.
California Secretary of Health and Human Services Kim Belshe said she could not recall another instance in which the federal government invited a significant stakeholder group into such government-to-government negotiations.
“The involvement of a stakeholder in this kind of state-federal deliberative process is unusual at best,” she said. “This was really atypical and outside any norm I am familiar with.”
SEIU and White House representatives did not respond to requests for comment.
In addition to several state and federal officials, participants in the April 15 conference call included an SEIU associate general counsel in Washington, a lobbyist for SEIU in California and a representative from SEIU’s policy staff in California, according to a list provided by the Schwarzenegger administration.
During the call, state officials say, they were asked to defend the $74-million cut scheduled to take effect July 1. The cut lowers the state’s maximum contribution to home healthcare workers’ pay from $12.10 per hour to $10.10.
The California officials on the call, who requested anonymity for fear of antagonizing the Obama administration, said they needed the savings to help balance the state budget.
The wages go to some 300,000 people who care for the elderly and ill in their homes. Those workers collectively pay millions of dollars in dues each month to SEIU and another union.
SEIU was among the biggest donors to President Obama’s campaign, contributing $33 million. The union is also consistently among the biggest donors to Democrats in Sacramento and had aggressively fought the wage cut during state budget negotiations.
But Democratic lawmakers voted for the reduction in February as part of a budget deal they struck with Republicans, who have repeatedly targeted the multibillion-dollar home-care program.
The rapidly expanding program is intended to keep low-income elderly and disabled Californians out of nursing homes. People who qualify for the program can hire anyone they choose to take care of them, including relatives and friends.
The Obama administration has ruled that California must revoke the wage cut — which would require a two-thirds vote of the Legislature and thus would need GOP support — or lose $6.8 billion in federal stimulus funds. The administration says the cut violates the terms of the stimulus money because it forces strapped local governments to make up the lost pay.
Belshe said the California program, called In Home Supportive Services, allows local governments to reduce caregiver wages if the state cuts funding. At the direction of the state, she said, counties negotiated clauses into their labor agreements that allow them to change pay rates if state funding is reduced.
The union argues otherwise, pointing to contracts negotiated with various counties that labor leaders say prevent those counties from cutting salaries.
State Health and Human Services staffers who participated in the call said the Obama administration requested that SEIU representatives be included.The state officials said federal representatives sided with the state during the call.
But on April 30, California officials received a letter from the federal Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services informing them the wage cut must be rescinded.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has appealed to U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius to overturn the ruling. The state is awaiting her decision.
evan.halper@latimes.com
Peter Nicholas in Washington contributed to this report.
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http://www.latimes.com/features/health/la-me-cal-healthcuts12-2009may12,0,376097.story
From the Los Angeles Times
White House officials say no decision has been made to rescind state’s stimulus payment
The Obama administration has taken no action regarding $6.8 billion in funds. The issue centers on the legality of a wage cut for home healthcare workers who belong to a politically powerful union.
By Peter Nicholas and Evan Halper
9:51 PM PDT, May 11, 2009
Reporting from Sacramento and Washington — The Obama administration said Monday that it has made no decision about whether to rescind $6.8 billion in stimulus money allotted to California in a dispute over the legality of a wage cut for home healthcare workers who belong to a politically powerful union.
The announcement is at odds with what state officials said they had explicitly been told. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s administration said they were notified by senior Obama staff on May 3 that California’s plan to cut wages for unionized home healthcare workers violated the law that authorized the stimulus package.
“No final determination has been made. We are continuing to work closely with the state of California, and a legal review of the requirements of the Recovery Act [the stimulus law] with respect to this issue is ongoing,” said Nick Papas, a spokesman for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
The governor’s office said Monday that messages coming from the Obama administration have been inconsistent. On April 30, officials in the governor’s office got a letter from the Obama administration notifying them that the wage cut violated the stimulus law, and spelling out the legal reasoning.
An Obama administration official said Monday the letter was sent out “inadvertently.”
Kim Belshe, California Secretary of Health and Human Services, said Monday: “We are encouraged the decision isn’t final. . . . We have received mixed signals from Washington. This process has been quite unusual.”
The Obama administration’s stance has sparked concerns about the influence of the Service Employees International Union. The wages at issue are paid to unionized workers who look after about 440,000 disabled and elderly Californians.
The workers contribute millions of dollars in dues each month to SEIU and the United Domestic Workers.
In an effort to save money and balance the state budget, Schwarzenegger and the Legislature planned to cut the state’s contribution to employee wages, effective July 1, from a maximum of $12.10 an hour to a maximum of $10.10, saving the state $74 million.
SEIU opposed the cuts and asked the Obama administration to look into whether they ran afoul of stimulus package provisions.
A phone call between the Obama and Schwarzenegger administrations took place April 15. California officials said they were troubled that the Obama administration invited SEIU officials to participate.
No one from the Obama administration would speak for the record about SEIU’s participation in the conference call. But one Obama official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said SEIU was allowed on the call in hopes of creating a dialogue “and in the interest of time and efficiency.”
“It was thought that it would be smart to put the parties together so they can discuss these issues and hear responses,” the Obama official said. “None of the parties objected to the arrangement when the call took place.”
An SEIU spokeswoman, Michelle Ringuette, has called suggestions that the union’s involvement was inappropriate “absurd.”
SEIU has myriad political ties to the Obama administration.
The union was among President Barack Obama’s largest campaign donors, contributing $33 million. The White House political director, Patrick Gaspard, is a former executive vice president of SEIU 1199, and federal lobbying reports show that Gaspard acted as a lobbyist for SEIU 1199 last year on children’s health issues.
SEIU’s California State Council is actively opposing a May 19 state ballot measure, with help from a consulting firm founded by one of Obama’s most trusted advisors. The “No on 1A” campaign paid AKPD Message and Media $230,000 last month for Internet advertising, California campaign finance records show. David Axelrod, an architect of Obama’s 2008 victory and now a senior advisor in the White House, founded AKPD.
Axelrod said in January he was selling his stake in the firm. His son Michael is an associate with the firm. Obama’s campaign manager, David Plouffe, is now a senior advisor to AKPD. Neither Plouffe nor Michael Axelrod is involved in the California ballot measure, according to John Del Cecato, a partner in the firm.
AKPD’s website features pictures of David Axelrod and Plouffe, along with Obama.
Two “No on 1A” officials who signed the committee’s campaign finance statements are also on the staff of the SEIU California State Council. “No on 1A” describes itself as “a coalition of teachers, faculty, nurses, healthcare providers, seniors and public employees.”
Mike Roth, a spokesman for “No on 1A,” dismissed any suggestion that the firm was chosen for its White House ties.
“The notion that there’s some connection there with the No on 1A campaign is absurd,” Roth said.
peter.nicholas@latimes.com
evan.halper@latimes.com
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From the Los Angeles Times
Senate approves software as an alternative to textbooks
L.A. Unified supports the bill, which moves to the Assembly.
By Patrick McGreevy
May 12, 2009
Reporting from Sacramento — California teenagers may be spared having to lug back-breaking loads of textbooks to school under a proposal that would make it easier for campuses to use electronic instructional material.
Allowing high schools greater freedom to spend state money on software to put textbooks on laptops and other electronic devices was backed by the Los Angeles Unified School District and approved Monday by the state Senate.
The Assembly will consider the proposal, drafted by state Sen. Elaine Alquist (D-Santa Clara). “Today’s K-12 students represent the first generation to have spent their entire lives surrounded by and using computers, video games, digital music players, video cameras, cellphones and all the other gadgets of the digital age,” Alquist said after the 36-0 Senate vote.
“Today’s students are no longer the students of blackboards and chalk.”
California law limits how school districts can use state funds for instructional materials, requiring them to purchase enough textbooks for all students before spending money on electronic material.
As a result, some districts have purchased materials in both book form and software or have refrained from buying software, Alquist said.
SB 247 would allow districts to satisfy textbook requirements if they can provide each student with hardware and software that meet the same accessibility requirements that printed textbooks offer.
L.A. Unified has conducted a pilot program, as have schools in Lemon Grove and Fullerton, working with tech companies, including Apple, to provide students in select classrooms with laptops, which they can take home.
However, fewer than 1,000 students in L.A. Unified have been able to participate so far, officials said.
“This is really the wave of the future,” said Virginia Strom-Martin, a lobbyist for L.A. Unified.
A separate measure in the state Assembly would require publishers to furnish instructional materials in an electronic format at less cost than the print version. That measure is AB 314 by Assemblywoman Julia Brownley (D-Santa Monica).
patrick.mcgreevy@latimes.com
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http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-injunction7-2009may07,0,3405672.story
From the Los Angeles Times
Judge bars drug tests for students in band, chess club
There is no evidence that illicit substances are used to enhance a student’s flute playing, Northern California judge writes.
By Victoria Kim
May 7, 2009
One student plays the trumpet and French horn competitively. Another competes with her flute ensemble. A third has been raising his prized market hog for a livestock show.
Under a policy adopted by a school district in Redding, Calif., about 200 miles north of San Francisco, those students are subject to random drug tests, like any others participating in competitive activities.
On Wednesday, a Shasta County Superior Court judge ruled that the policy probably violates students’ constitutional rights and granted a preliminary injunction barring the Shasta Union High School District from enforcing the drug testing program.
Judge Monica Marlow ruled that the random testing would probably be found to be a “serious invasion of privacy” that violates students’ constitutional rights against unreasonable search and seizure.
“Unlike participation in athletics, students participating in a math club, chess club, choir, band, symphony, or Future Farmers of America are not involved in routine regulation and scrutiny of their physical fitness and bodily condition,” Marlow wrote. “Unlike athletes, there is no evidence that drugs are used to enhance a student’s flute playing, choir performance, chess playing, debating skills, math team skills, or farming skills.”
The district, which has about 5,000 students, began testing students in the fall. The American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California filed a lawsuit in December challenging the policy on behalf of students and their parents, arguing that students participating in competitive activities are less likely than other students to be involved in drugs.
John Kelley, an attorney for the district, said students involved in competitive activities face “unique dangers” because they travel for competitions, sometimes staying overnight at hotels where they cannot always be supervised. He cited a November 2007 incident in which three choir students were caught selling prescription medication, including Vicodin, to other students on a bus returning from a competition in San Francisco.
“We should give children every incentive possible to refrain,” he said. “Why any parent would not want to know if their child is taking illegal substances is beyond me.”
The district also argued in court that the invasion of privacy is negligible because someone listens to the students urinate into a cup rather than observing them.
But some parents said the district was arbitrarily choosing groups of students to test for drugs, and added that they objected to their children being tested on principle.
“They’re testing without any reason for suspicion,” said Deborah Brown, mother of senior Benjamin Brown, who sings in choir and plays the trumpet and French horn. “Our country’s founded on innocent until proven guilty, not the other way around.”
As of January, the district had tested 391 students, including athletes, of whom eight tested positive.
District officials testified in depositions that one or two of those students were not athletes, ACLU attorney Michael Risher said.
victoria.kim@latimes.com
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This story is taken from Sacbee / Capitol and California
What effect will ballot measures have on state workers?
Published Monday, May. 11, 2009
The Bee’s Dan Walters answers readers’ questions about the state budget and the budget-related measures on the May 19 special election ballot.
What effect will passage or rejection of the propositions have on state workers, especially those with less seniority?
That would be impossible to predict. The immediate fiscal effect of rejection would be to deprive the 2009-10 budget of about $6 billion of revenue, most of it to be borrowed against the state lottery. So, rejection would make closing the projected 2009-10 deficit that much harder. How the governor and Legislature would react is unknown, even to them. It could result in layoffs of state workers, or not, depending on what approach they took.
What is the downside to voting yes on Proposition 1F?
Prop. 1F would have very little impact on the budget itself, if any, so there’s really no downside – or upside, other than expressing anger.
How have the Legislature and governor been able to ignore Proposition 58, passed in 2004? Why should voters believe in Proposition 1A’s spending limits when Proposition 58′s spending cap has been ignored?
Prop. 58 had very weak provisions that are easily ignored or honored in the breech.
Why shouldn’t all state employees and elected officials and staff take a 15 percent salary cut like private industry has had to do? Demand that unions go along. Would having a part-time Legislature and non-paid commissions resolve the spending problem?
As you imply, cutting state salaries would require union contracts to be changed, plus negotiations. And much of the state’s spending is locked into law, including the state constitution.
How could we accomplish the fiscal goals of the initiatives without having children being the ones paying the price under Propositions 1D and 1E? Why can’t we cut prison costs or reduce the scope of government in other areas?
Cutting prison costs by any major amount would involve releasing a substantial number of the 170,000 inmates, which is theoretically possible but faces an uphill political path.
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This story is taken from Sacbee / Capitol and California / Dan Walters
Dan Walters: Fiscal crunch provides opening to overhaul California school finance
dwalters@sacbee.com
Published Monday, May. 11, 2009
Few Californians have ever heard of the Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team, also called FCMAT, much less know what it does.
Based in Bakersfield, FCMAT monitors the financial health of California’s roughly 1,000 school districts and intervenes when one of them gets into trouble. It’s seeing more trouble these days, with about 10 percent of districts facing serious difficulty.
Declining enrollment, erratic and/or declining state aid, a deep economic recession and cash flow crunches are plaguing school systems. Joel Montero, who runs FCMAT, says he’s seeing more districts flirting with fiscal failure, especially smaller ones.
“If you’re tiny, you have no margin of error,” Montero told a legislative committee last week during his annual briefing on school district finances.
King City Joint Union High School District, in a rural portion of Monterey County, is the latest district to seek state loans and probably face some sort of state intervention. Montero told the committee of several others on the brink.
There would be even more on the watch list, he said, had the governor and the Legislature not agreed in February to loosen strings on categorical aid – funds designated for specific purposes or groups. That gave districts more flexibility to move around cash and keep themselves afloat.
Montero expects the list of troubled districts to expand later this year as the Capitol copes with another budget deficit. Although the 2009-10 budget passed in February was supposedly balanced, it’s beginning to bleed red ink even though it won’t go into effect until July 1.
Legislative Analyst Mac Taylor says the deepening recession has put it $8 billion out of balance, below-forecast revenues for the current year will add a couple billion dollars more to the deficit, and if Propositions 1C, 1D and 1E are rejected by voters on May 19 – all are trailing in the polls – it would punch another $6 billion hole in the 2009-10 budget.
Recent economic forecasts have been gloomy, which will make the state’s fiscal crunch even worse, and the state’s prospects of borrowing as much as $23 billion or more in July to keep its check-writing machines going are not bright. A major problem for local districts, especially the smaller ones, has been the state’s practice of deferring its aid payments, which create cash crunches at the local level.
As gloomy as it may be, the schools’ financial plight is also an opportunity for structural reform. It already has pushed the Legislature into doing what would have been unthinkable a few years ago – loosening the strings on categoricals.
It should push lawmakers into re-energizing a program that was launched in the 1960s only to falter later – encouraging the unification of small elementary and high school districts into larger, but not too large, K-12 districts that would have more economy of scale.
Oddly, the state’s school aid system discourages such unification. Changing this should be on the table.
Call The Bee’s Dan Walters, (916) 321-1195. Back columns, http://www.sacbee.com/walters.
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Sports teams give big bucks for Prop. 1A
May 11th, 2009, 11:53 am · posted by Martin Wisckol, Politics reporter
Orange County Register
The Golden State Warriors, San Jose Sharks, Los Angeles Lakers, Los Angeles Clippers, San Francisco Giants, and Oakland A’s have each pitched in $25,000 to help pass Proposition 1A, and the San Francisco 49ers added $10,000, according to the latest campaign finance filings.
Their interest? Helping balance the state’s ravaged budget before lawmakers start eyeing sporting events for a new tax. The San Francisco Chronicle’s Matier & Ross have a post on the phenomenon here.
Also of note: the state GOP gave Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s ballot-measure committee $650,000 prior to a special election being called. The state Republican Party’s executive committee subsequenlty voted to oppose all of the ballot measures. Schwarzenegger is the lead backer of the propositions.
Among the many other donations in favor of the measure, here’s three that jumped out at me: Philip Morris, $350,000; the California Chamber of Commerce, $125,000; the Orange County-based New Majority, a GOP group, $160,000.
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UCI gets mixed grades in latest US News rankings
May 11th, 2009, 5:00 am · 1 Comment · posted by Gary Robbins, science writer-editor
Orange County Register
US News and World Report’s much-watched ranking of college and university graduateprograms recently hit newsstands and UC Irvine improved in many areas — particularlyengineering – but the campus remained largely invisible in others, such as politicalscience and history.
Irvine’s doctoral program in engineering jumped two spots nationally, tying Duke University for 35th place. UCI raised eyebrows in academia last year when it recruited MIT’s Raphael Bras to be the new dean of engineering.
The campus made an especially large jump in the specialized discipline of biomedical engineering, rising 10 spots to 30th place. Although the program continues to lag nationally, based on where it is located. Orange County is home to one of the world’s largest concentration of biomedical device and instrumentation companies.
UCI did poorly in the medical research category, falling from 41st to 45th place. And the campus again failed to crack the top 50 in primary care, medical. However, UCI opened a large new modern hospital in Orange this year, and that gives Irvine the chance to improve in both primary care and research. The medical program also got a lift last week, announcing a $21 million posthumous gift for UCI Medical Center in Orange from the late M.A. Douglas. The center will now be known as UCI Douglas Hospital.
Other bright spots from the new graduate-level rankings:
UCI ranked No. 1 nationally in literary criticism and theory, No. 5 in criminology, No. 22 in English, No. 27 in sociology and No. 29 in psychology.
Irvine’s Merage School of Business failed to crack the top 50, lagging behind many schools that aren’t famous nationally, including the University of Texas-Dallas and Babson College. UCI also remains relatively unknown in the field of education (it has a department, not a school), overshadowed by even small schools, like the College of William and Mary, which has a School of Education. Further, UCI’s history and political science programs didn’t make the top 50.
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http://www.mcall.com/news/local/all-a14_5k12.6893305may09,0,6717810.story
themorningcall.com
Bringing art to students takes everyone, study says
Parents, teachers must coordinate better to fulfill potential, experts agree.
By Arlene Martínez
OF THE MORNING CALL
May 9, 2009
Area educators see the arts as a critical component of a child’s education, and overwhelmingly students are exhibiting their work or strutting their stuff in theatrical performances.
But there exists a disconnect in how teachers work with each other to incorporate art into their subject areas as well as how much support parent groups give arts programs.
Those are the major findings of a survey being released today by the Lehigh Valley Arts Council at a forum called ”Arts, Education, Imagination: Connecting Schools and Community.”
The arts council surveyed 22 districts in Lehigh, Carbon and Northampton counties to gauge students’ exposure and educators’ perspectives toward art. A separate survey looked at the Allentown Catholic Diocese.
”The thing I’m most pleased about is having a large majority of all the schools invest time and energy in having performances open the public,” said Randall Forte, arts council executive director.
Of more than 700 educators who responded, 80 percent said their students had exhibited their artwork or performed in events open to the community.
The study also showed that while 94 percent of teachers believed the arts could help their content areas, just 40 percent reached out to teachers of other subjects to try to do so.
And less than half of parent-teacher organizations support arts programs, respondents said.
Forte is hopeful forums like the one being held 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. today at the Baum School of Art and Zion’s Reformed Church in Allentown will help bridge that gap.
”There are a lot of resources put into arts and education into this community but there’s no coordination among them,” said Forte.
Some teachers take the initiative on their own.
Allentown School District teacher Scott Cole is in the middle of a project in which his fifth graders write and illustrate their own comic books.
It can be challenging, he said, to incorporate art into lesson plans when there’s such a heavy focus on ensuring students pass state mandated tests.
”Part of it is just having to be creative with having to find way to teach the standards with different materials,” said Cole, who teaches at Lehigh Parkway Elementary School.
Being able to use graphic media helps students who are more naturally visual learners, said Cole, who found comic books also improved his students’ vocabulary, grammar and reading comprehension.
The arts council also surveyed 42 public school administrators. Sixteen reported having an art materials and supplies budget of more than $10,000, while 12 reported having no arts budget.
Slightly less than half said the visual and performing arts teachers worked with teachers of other subjects on curriculum.
arlene.martinez@mcall.com
610-820-6530
Copyright © 2009, The Morning Call
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May 12, 2009
Obama wants to turn around 5,000 failing U.S. schools
The Associated Press
WASHINGTONPresident Barack Obama intends to use $5 billion to prod local officials to close failing schools and reopen them with new teachers and principals, Education Secretary Arne Duncan said Monday.
The goal, Duncan said, is to turn around 5,000 failing schools in the next five years by beefing up funding for the federal school turnaround program in the No Child Left Behind law enacted under former president George W. Bush.
Obama doesn’t have authority to close and reopen schools himself. That power rests with local school districts and states. But he has an incentive in the economic stimulus law, which requires states to help failing schools improve.
Duncan said that might mean firing an entire staff and bringing in a new one, replacing a principal or turning a school over to a charter school operator. The point, he said, is to take bold action in persistently low-achieving schools.
“We could really move the needle, lift the bottom and change the lives of tens of millions of underserved children,” Duncan said in a speech at the Brookings Institution.
In particular, he said, the administration wants to fix middle schools and high schools, focusing on “dropout factories” where 2 in 5 kids don’t make it to graduation.
What happens to teachers when an entire staff is replaced depends on local contracts with teachers unions.
In Chicago, some lost their jobs, while some reapplied and were hired. In New York, some were reassigned as substitutes.
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Monday, May 11, 2009
1st confirmed swine flu case in Saddleback Valley district
5th-grade student has confirmed case.
By ERIKA I. RITCHIE
The Orange County Register
LAKE FOREST – A fifth-grade student at Rancho Canada Elementary School has been confirmed to have the N1H1 virus known as swine flu, the first such case on a Saddleback Valley Unified campus.
According to Saddleback Valley Unified School District spokesperson Tom Turner, the student became ill on May 2 and has not returned to the school.
Last week a sample sent to the state testing site revealed that the student tested positive for the swine flu. This is the first student in the 34,000-student school district to be stricken with the flu.
A letter was sent out to parents on Friday informing them. Officials decided to keep the school open, said Turner.
“There was no abnormal number of absences,” he said. “Orange County Public Health was consulted and we decided no to close the school. The fifth-grader appears to be responding well to treatment.”
So far there have been 12 confirmed cases in the county. There are also 16 more probable cases awaiting test results.
Last week Moiola Elementary School in Fountain Valley became the first OC school to be closed on May 4 after a student was confirmed to have the flu. The school re-opened the following day.
The guidelines to handle the flu from the Centers for Disease Control have changed, said Tricia Landquist, a spokesperson for the county health agency.
“Each case is looked at in a case-by-case review” she said. “If there are not a number of absences and if the student has not had close contact with other students then there is no need to close the school.”
Contact the writer: 949-454-7307 or eritchie@ocregister.com
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Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Prop. 1A backers make case for ‘no’
Members of the ‘yes’ camp confirm the spending cap is illusory.
Jon Coupal
President
Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association
In true David-versus-Goliath fashion, the opponents of Proposition 1A are the underdogs in the political battle, which will culminate in the May 19 special election. There is little doubt that they will be outspent by a margin of at least 15 to 1. And they face a well-organized campaign machine financed by the two giants of California politics: the California Teachers Association and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s California Dream Team.
Because it is being sold as budget reform, Prop. 1A should be a slam dunk with voters. Indeed, in the closing days of the campaign, proponents are inundating the airwaves and voters’ mailboxes with the message that the proposal will bring real reform to California’s dysfunctional budget process by moderating spending in boom years.
Prop. 1A won’t work as advertised. Spending can be increased in any one year by the amount the Legislature and the governor are willing to raise taxes.
And Prop. 1A is a tax increase. The taxes that Sacramento politicians just approved that give Californians the heaviest tax burden in the nation, are scheduled to expire in two years. Prop. 1A extends these taxes for two more years.
When caught ignoring the issue, backers are cued to respond that Prop. 1A amounts to just a tax extension, but its actual impact will more than double the amount in taxes Californians will pay, an amount that could cost a typical family thousands of dollars.
Prop. 1A’s complexity, both within itself and its impact on other pieces of the budget puzzle, has presented a challenge to backers and an opportunity for opponents. That complexity, coupled with the high level of public cynicism and mistrust of political leadership, could very well sink the measure, not withstanding the tsunami of political ads we will continue to hear until Election Day, telling us that Prop. 1A is more important than the Bill of Rights.
But in their effort to try to present a clear, simple message of support for Prop. 1A, its Goliath backers have given their much punier opponents some great rocks to put in their slings. Most notable was Gov. Schwarzenegger’s comment about Prop. 1A to Los Angeles Times columnist George Skelton: “It’s already complicated as it is but the more you write about how complicated it is, the more complicated you make the complication.”
This ranks right up there with a famous presidential quote, “It depends on what the definition of ‘is’ is.”
Better yet, Steve Maviglio, former press secretary to Gov. Gray Davis and spinmeister for the Left, was more honest in his recent column, “Top 10 Reasons Why Progressives Should Support Prop. 1A,” posted on the Web site California Progress Report. Among his justifications for a “yes” vote are, “There are no restrictions on spending in typical years,” “Increases annual spending by $1.5 billion,” and “Allows for all revenues from new tax increases to be appropriated.”
Therein lies the true challenge for the proponents of Prop. 1A. One major backer, the governor, is claiming that Prop. 1A will bring real spending discipline to Sacramento, via its purported cap on state spending. The other major backer, the teachers union, is claiming that Prop. 1A is no big deal as budget reform but is needed to make sure education spending can continue as if California still had a robust economy.
Complexity and inconsistency. David, it seems, has plenty of stones to hurl against Goliath.
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O.C. ranks high in adults with bachelor’s degrees
May 11th, 2009, 5:24 pm · 11 Comments · posted by Gary Robbins, science writer-editor
Orange County Register
Graphic by Cindy O’Dell, The Orange County Register
A study by the California Postsecondary Education Commission says that Orange County ranks fairly high when it comes to the percentage of adults who’ve earned a bachelor’s degree. (Original study). In 2007, 35.4 percent of county residents 25 or older had earned a bachelor’s degree, almost 6 percentage points higher than the state average and almost 25 percentage points higher than the lowest-ranked county — Imperial.
Only eight counties — Marin, San Francisco, Santa Clara, San Mateo, Yolo, Alameda, Santa Cruz and Contra Costa, finished ahead of Orange County. All of those counties are in the northern half of the state, which means that Orange County has the highest percentage of adults with bachelor’s in the southern half.
The commission didn’t provide an explanation for why one county finished higher than another — and the stats are a bit curious. As the chart shows, far fewer adults in Los Angeles County earn bachelor’s degrees, even though that county is home to many top schools, including UCLA, USC and Caltech. There are also many other large, less elite schools, including Cal State Los Angeles and Cal State Long Beach.
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Monday, May 11, 2009
Special Olympics athletes gather for Mission Viejo competition
Participants compete in variety of sports at Special Olympics.
By LINDSEY BAGUIO
The Orange County Register
MISSION VIEJO – Hundreds of athletes from Southern California came to Mission Viejo on Saturday to participate in the Special Olympics’ Orange County Regional Spring Games.
Saddleback College hosted the event that had athletes involved in a range of activities from running to swimming to jumping.
Special Olympics Southern California is a non-profit organi
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Attached are two budget documents from the Governor’s Office regarding his proposed May Budget Revise for the State of California:
1) Proposed Savings in State Government
2) Proposed Two Budget Scenarios.
Attached is also a Summary that was prepared by the California State Assembly Budget Committee highlighting the Governor’s Proposed May Budget Revise.
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Friday, May 15, 2009
School layoffs may continue through August 15
State officials say continued budget cuts may force additional layoffs, and fewer school days.
By FERMIN LEAL
The Orange County Register
Orange County public schools may continue layoffs of teachers and other staff for the upcoming school year as late as August 15, state officials said today.
Districts may also be allowed to trim the next school year by five or seven days to tighten their budgets as the state’s financial forecast continues to worsen.
Those moves might be prompted by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s announcement Thursday that new cuts to education could range over the current and next fiscal year from $3 billion if the slew propositions pass next week, or up to $5.4 billion if they fail.
“This is the type of situation you never want to be in,” state Secretary of Education Glen Thomas said during a news conference this morning. “The governor has done everything possible to minimize cuts to education, even though they have been very significant.”
Thomas, appointed by the governor, said that in years that the state fails to increase revenue limits for districts by 2 percent, the Education Code allows for districts to lay off teachers and staff by Aug. 15. Districts across the county had begun finalizing layoffs this week, ahead of the May 15 deadline required by state law in a typical year without the severe budget constraints.
Numbers for Orange County’s final layoffs are still rolling in, but appear to be slightly lower than March’s expectations. Then, they just topped 3,000. Now, they are hovering at about 2,800. Still, that’s about 1,000 more than last year, and it doesn’t include the hundreds of classified jobs also at risk.
Thomas also said shortening the school year by five to seven days, which would essentially mean a furlough for all employees, may reduce the amount of additional layoffs. But changing the school calendar would require districts to negotiate with the unions of teachers and classified employees.
State schools Superintendent Jack O’Connell said the governor’s latest budget proposals were “devastating and horrific.”
“Cuts of this magnitude will have immediate negative impacts in every school in our state,” he said. “Class sizes will increase. Fewer teachers who received pink slips will be retained. The ratio of students to school counselors and school nurses will widen further.”
Officials from many local school districts said they have not yet begun to determine where additional cuts would come from and are reviewing the governor’s latest proposal.
Federal stimulus money already allocated for public schools in California, about $8 billion, should still finds its way to schools over the next two years to help soften the state budget hit, state officials said. But some districts were already looking at stimulus money to help fill gaps left by previous state cuts.
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Friday, May 15, 2009
2,760 Orange County educators still face job losses
By SCOTT MARTINDALE
The Orange County Register
Nearly 2,800 educators across Orange County are slated to lose their jobs at the end of this year, down about 200 from March estimates, according to local district reports this week.
While most of the saved jobs have been a result of retirements and case-by-case appeals, education leaders don’t expect the numbers to drop by much more in the coming months – and certainly not dramatically as in years’ past.
“The problem this year is that things just keep getting worse,” Orange County schools Superintendent Bill Habermehl said. “We have not hit a bottom yet. We understand the devastation of telling a person you won’t have a job, but our school districts have no other choice.”
Last year at this time, about 1,560 educators in Orange County faced layoffs in response to a dismal state budget outlook, but as state officials revised their anticipated funding allocations for public education, only about 100 ultimately lost their jobs. (Click here to see lists of local teachers who are losing their jobs.)
This year, with the state’s financial woes growing deeper every day, even the estimated $8 billion in federal stimulus money allocated for California public schools likely won’t be used to save all jobs.
“Any stimulus or bailout money is for two years,” Saddleback Valley Unified Superintendent Steven Fish said at a school board meeting this week. “Once that $8 million or $10 million or $12 million goes away (for Saddleback), we don’t see the sun rise on the horizon.”
Orange County schools are slated to receive $125.6 million this month in stimulus money aimed offsetting budget cuts resulting from the loss of state funding. Additional stimulus funds will come later this year, but those will be earmarked for special education and schools with a Title I poverty designation.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced Thursday that further budget cuts likely would be coming for public education, ranging from a $3 billion cut if the state’s May 19 ballot measures pass, to a $5.4 billion cut if they fail.
Those cuts could wipe out any financial gains from the stimulus money, local education leaders say.
For example, the Capistrano Unified School District would face an estimated $30 million budget deficit in the next school year if the state cut education funding by $3.6 billion statewide as recommended by the state’s Legislative Analyst’s Office, Deputy Superintendent Ron Lebs said at a recent school board meeting.
The $30 million deficit would be on top of the $25.5 million deficit Capistrano is trying to close by June.
And the news could get worse. Schwarzenegger also announced Thursday a proposal to shorten the school year by five to seven days, as well as extend the deadline for laying off teachers and other staff to Aug. 15, which would make it possible for school districts to issue even more pink slips.
The news that federal stimulus money might not be used to save jobs and programs is a bitter pill to swallow. In Capistrano Unified, where the 20-to-1 pupil-teacher ratio in the primary grades could be completely eradicated next fall, some say the money needs to – and must – go to preserving smaller class sizes.
“The money being allocated by the federal government is being allocated to save jobs and classroom programs,” Capistrano Unified Trustee Mike Winsten said.
“I’m not saying that it’s going to be easy or that I have any great insight on solving the long-term budget problems yet, but we have this money for the next two years and we need to spend it on class-size reduction now. And then we’ll continue studying our budget and reacting based on economic conditions.”
Contact the writer: 949-454-7394 or smartindale@ocregister.com
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This story is taken from Sacbee / Our Region / Top Stories
Schwarzenegger budget plans to cut state workers, school year
swiegand@sacbee.com
Published Thursday, May. 14, 2009
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger unveiled two new visions of the state budget today – bleak and bleaker.
The governor’s proposals to balance the tottering state budget include $9 billion in cuts – as much as $5 billion of which could come from school spending. They also include laying off 5,000 state workers, accelerating collection of or increasing $2.8 billion in fees and borrowing a staggering $7.5 billion from financially strapped local governments and a cash-strapped private investment market.
“This is the harsh reality of the crisis we face,” Schwarzenegger told a Capitol news conference. “Sacramento is not Washington … we can’t spend what we don’t have.”
Schwarzenegger offered two versions of the traditional “May Revise” of the budget because of Tuesday’s special election. Voter approval of three of the six ballot measures – 1C, 1D and 1E — would give Schwarzenegger and legislators $5.9 billion more in general fund revenues to close the gaping red-ink wounds in the current fiscal year’s budget and the budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1.
With voter approval of the three measures, the deficit is estimated at about $15.4 billion. Should voters reject the propositions – as polls have consistently predicted they will do – the gap grows to about $21.3 billion.
Schwarzenegger’s “Plan B,” predicated on the measures losing, includes $2.3 billion more in spending cuts for schools; $1.7 billion higher fees and $1.4 billion in additional borrowing.
What neither plan includes are further tax increases. The governor and legislators closed a $40 billion gap in February in part with $12.8 billion in temporary tax hikes.
“To look for new revenues is out of the question,” Schwarzenegger said today.
The governor said that borrowing money from cities and counties, which don’t have to repaid for three years, was unavoidable, and preferable to more tax increases.
“I despise going to local governments,” he said, “… but we are now in such a terrible situation, there is really no other way out.”
Other elements of the plan, some of which were leaked prior to today’s news conference, include:
• Cutting the school year by from 5 to 7.5 days; increasing class sizes, and laying off more teachers.
• Slicing $510 million each from the University of California and California State University system, and replacing the money with federal stimulus funds.
• Selling state property, including the Los Angeles Coliseum, Cal Expo, the Cow Palace in San Francisco and the state prison at San Quentin.
• Reductions in monthly aid to low-income elderly, blind or disabled.
• Lowering the amount paid to in-home health care workers and limiting services to the most needy.
The worst-case budget also calls for remanding about 19,000 illegal immigrants in state prisons to the federal government, saving the state about $182 million, and transferring “low-level” inmates who were convicted of lesser crimes to county jails. That would save the state about $100 million, but drive up the counties’ costs.
The plan also calls for sending layoff notices to 5,000 state workers, with the intent to have them off the payroll by the July 1 start of the fiscal year. It was unclear whether notices would be sent to some of the 20,000 state workers who were warned of possible layoffs earlier this year.
And it envisions seeking waivers from the federal government that would let the state make $750 million in cuts without risking the termination of federal matching money. A $150 million cut in welfare-to-work programs, for example, could cost the state $600 million federal social service funds.
Schwarzenegger also made a pitch for the ballot measures, which include creation of a rainy day reserve fund that is designed to squirrel away funds in good years for use in bad ones. He appealed to voters to look beyond their antipathy with elected officials.
“I know that the people are sick and tired of hearing about Sacramento’s dysfunction,” he said. “Many Californians have reached the point where ‘the budget’ and ‘deficit’ are four-letter words … (But) this is what this election is all about. It’s about California’s future; it’s about California’s legacy. It’s not about me, it’s not about the legislators or anybody in Sacramento.”
Call The Bee’s Steve Wiegand, (916) 321-1076.
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http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-budgetside15-2009may15,0,131129.story
From the Los Angeles Times
California’s bleak budget options
Two sets of plans to deal with the state’s financial troubles would force deep spending cuts for education, healthcare, social services, law enforcement and local governments.
Times Staff Reports
May 15, 2009
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Thursday proposed two sets of budget revisions to deal with the state’s financial troubles. They contain an array of grim options:
Education
The governor’s cuts would start at $3 billion and rise to $5.3 billion if voters fail to pass the package of ballot propositions in Tuesday’s special election. More than $1 billion would come from the current school year, which is nearly over.
Requiring districts to cut in these waning days would lower the governor’s future funding obligations. That’s because, under state law, education spending is based largely on past funding.
“This is a cynical manipulation” to reduce base funding for schools, said Jack O’Connell, state superintendent of public instruction. “It would be extraordinarily difficult, if not impossible, to realize these savings with 45 days left.”
Deputy Finance Department director H.D. Palmer said he expected school districts to balance their books by taking advantage of reserves, eased restrictions on state money and federal economic stimulus dollars.
Many districts, including Los Angeles Unified, had penciled in the federal money for the school year that begins July 1. The added deficit in Los Angeles could be about $250 million, said Chief Financial Officer Megan Reilly. The district already was expecting to lay off as many as 2,500 teachers and 2,600 other employees.
The state also plans to defer more payments to school districts, which could create a cash-flow crisis, said Ken Shelton, an assistant superintendent with the Los Angeles County Office of Education, which oversees the finances of the county’s 80 kindergarten-through-12th-grade school districts.
Higher education leaders around the state warned of course-schedule reductions, overcrowded classrooms and staff layoffs in the fall.
California Community Colleges Chancellor Jack Scott predicted that hundreds of classes taught by part-time instructors would be canceled even as enrollment surges.
If the ballot propositions are approved, the 10-campus University of California system will face a net reduction of $240 million for next year out of $3 billion in general funds. If the ballot measures fail Tuesday, the net reduction will rise to $322 million, according to the University of California.
For the California State University system, the worst-case budget would be equivalent to reducing enrollment by 50,000 students and laying off 4,000 to 5,000 employees. “There are no good options,” Chancellor Charles B. Reed said.
Among the possible cuts are about $50 million in UC and Cal State outreach programs, which mainly get high school students ready for higher education. And fewer students would qualify for financial aid, while eligible students would receive less.
Healthcare
No matter how Tuesday’s vote turns out, Schwarzenegger’s proposals would hit hard at Medi-Cal, which provides medical care for the poor. The plan calls for saving $750 million, likely by restricting patient eligibility and cutting payments and benefits.
The governor wants to save on pharmacy costs as well. He would require that the state review prescriptions for antipsychotic drugs before they could be dispensed. He also wants to create a force of investigators to police for fraud by physicians in the program, as well as in adult healthcare centers and pharmacies, for a potential savings of nearly $50 million.
Medi-Cal payments to private hospitals would be reduced by 10%, and the reimbursement rate for family-planning services would be rolled back to pre-2008 levels, saving nearly $37 million. Schwarzenegger also would cut services for newly qualified legal immigrants ages 21 and older.
If the ballot measures are defeated, the state would cut more deeply into Medi-Cal programs. It would limit an adult day healthcare program to three days a week and cut by 10% the money the state pays to providers of substance abuse treatment.
Tobacco tax money that now goes to county health programs would be shifted to Medi-Cal. Eligibility for the state’s Healthy Families program, which serves the working poor, would be tightened. That would make health coverage unavailable to about 225,000 children.
In addition, the state would halt a dental disease prevention program that serves about 300,000 preschool and elementary school children in 31 counties.
Funding would be cut off from local healthcare organizations that provide HIV education and prevention programs. The governor also would halt funds to a program operated by local jurisdictions to improve the health of mothers, children and families.
Social services
The governor proposes deep cuts in a number of programs that provide assistance to the poor, regardless of Tuesday’s outcome.
The state contribution to the wages of home care workers for elderly and disabled Californians would be slashed from a maximum of $10.10 per hour to the state minimum wage of $8 per hour. Another cut would limit certain services provided by the program to “individuals with the highest levels of need.” And the state would put more resources into rooting out fraud in that program, called In Home Supportive Services, in hopes of saving $15.8 million.
Cash grants available to low-income elderly and disabled Californians would be cut in an effort to save $249 million. That reduction, which would take effect Sept. 1, would lower the monthly grant for an individual from $907 to $830, the federal minimum allowed under the program.
The state also would cut CalWorks welfare grants for poor children by $157 million. Emergency assistance intended for the children of parents who have been in the program more than five years would be ended if the parents do not meet federal work participation requirements.
If the ballot measures are defeated Tuesday, the state would cut an additional $300 million from In Home Supportive Services. Funding for Child Welfare Services, which exists to protect the health and safety of children and their families, would be cut by 10%.
And a $20.4-million domestic-violence program, which funds 94 shelters that provide emergency services to victims and their children, would be eliminated.
Law enforcement
No matter what voters decide, the biggest share of the 5,000 proposed state worker layoffs would affect the prison system, the governor’s aides say, though it remains unclear how big that hit would be.
If the propositions are rejected, Schwarzenegger would save money by reducing the state’s prison population. A prime target would be the 19,000 illegal immigrants currently serving time in California lockups.
The governor said the federal government is not providing enough money to offset the incarceration costs for those inmates. He wants to begin shifting nonviolent prisoners who are illegal immigrants to federal custody unless the U.S. government boosts its funding.
The governor also wants to save $100 million by altering sentencing options for an estimated 23,000 low-level offenders so more would be put in county jails rather than in state prisons. But shifting that burden to local governments — which could have their state funding cut by $2 billion — doesn’t sit well with law enforcement officers.
“You cannot balance the state budget woes on the back of the county jail system,” said Steve Whitmore, a spokesman for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, which has already had its budget cut by $72 million this year. “This isn’t a good scenario.”
Schwarzenegger proposes eliminating $108 million for programs that provide substance abuse and crime-prevention treatment to offenders. An additional $20 million would be cut for 94 domestic violence shelters around the state.
Local government
If voters reject the ballot measures, the state would borrow nearly $2 billion from local governments under the governor’s plan. The money would come from local general funds that pay for police, fire, library and other basic services.
That could mean the loss of $120 million for the city of Los Angeles and $290 million for the county, according to an analysis by the League of California Cities. The money would have to be paid back to the cities in three years.
“I absolutely despise taking money from local government, but this is only in the worst-case scenario,” Schwarzenegger said.
The impact of such cuts would be significant, said Los Angeles County Chief Executive Officer William T Fujioka.
“All of us are experiencing significant economic effects,” he said, “and this just adds to it.”
Times staff writers Eric Bailey, Howard Blume, Larry Gordon, Evan Halper, Patrick McGreevy and Michael Rothfeld contributed to this report.
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If California cuts too deep, it loses stimulus funds
Matthew Yi, Chronicle Sacramento Bureau
Thursday, May 14, 2009
(05-14) 04:00 PDT Sacramento – —
California officials who face a staggering new budget deficit that could reach $21.3 billion are up against an unexpected problem – the potential loss of billions of dollars in federal economic stimulus money if education and health care spending is cut too deeply.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is expected to address that issue today when he outlines two revisions of the budget based on whether voters approve or reject measures Tuesday aimed at pumping money into the state’s dwindling coffers.
The governor has said officials would be forced to make drastic cuts in public safety, education and social services if voters reject his budget-related ballot measures in the statewide special election. He also will propose raising as much as $1 billion by selling state properties, including San Quentin prison, according to documents obtained by The Chronicle.
But closing a deficit for the fiscal year beginning July 1 that ranges between $15.4 billion and $21.3 billion has become much more complicated because of Washington’s requirement that states maintain a minimum level of spending and services in exchange for stimulus funds.
Services that face federal rules in California are education, health care and social services, which together represent well more than half of the state’s $92 billion spending plan for the coming year.
$20 billion at stake
Failing to abide by terms of the stimulus funds – by cutting too much from those programs – could jeopardize as much as $20 billion in federal funds.
“Trying to balance our budget in this fiscal environment is challenging enough,” said H.D. Palmer, a spokesman for the Department of Finance. “Doing it under Washington’s multiple requirements in order for us to receive federal funds multiplies that challenge.”
The main problem is that the state has reduced spending levels to near the minimum requirements for federal funds, said Michael Cohen, a deputy legislative analyst.
For example, the federal government requires states to maintain spending in education to at least the levels in 2005-06, when California spent $38.4 billion on K-12 schools. The state’s budget for the coming year, approved in February, would spend about $1 billion more than that for schools, Cohen said.
The difference in spending for the state’s public universities is even slimmer – about $150 million more in the coming year than was spent in 2005-06, he said.
Some subjectivity
Numbers may shift depending on how state finance officials calculate the spending, and there may be a some subjectivity in meeting federal requirements, Cohen said.
Under federal stimulus rules, California is not allowed to change eligibility rules for Medi-Cal, the state’s health care system for the poor, to save money. The state reversed an earlier change in eligibility rules for children in order to qualify for federal funds.
Anthony Wright, health care advocate for the poor, said there are three key ways to cut Medi-Cal: changing eligibility rules, reducing provider rates and cutting benefits. While the federal government forbids changes in eligibility rules, the state has cut optional benefits and is mired in a lawsuit over reducing provider rates, Wright said.
A budget that cuts programs without raising revenue will not be plausible to close a $15.4 billion to $21.3 billion deficit without losing federal funds, he said.
“Our inability to raise revenues would force unimaginable cuts and make us lose billions of federal dollars that should come to California,” Wright said.
State Director of Finance Mike Genest said Wednesday that while there is no federal waiver provision for federal dollars for the state’s health care system, the state can seek a waiver for funds received for education. He would not say whether the governor would seek such an exemption.
Revenue required
Assembly Speaker Karen Bass, D-Baldwin Vista (Los Angeles County), said it will be difficult to close the state’s gaping budget hole without risking the loss of federal dollars unless revenue is part of the solution.
Jim Evans, a spokesman for Senate leader Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, said the federal stimulus funds are important to help California’s economy recover and to help solve the state’s fiscal crisis.
“Whatever minor complications exist, they pale in comparison to the huge benefits of federal economic stimulus,” he said. “Sometimes it’s easy to say we can just do cuts but I don’t think what we can do is a cuts only budget.”
Assembly Republican leader-elect Sam Blakeslee of San Luis Obispo said he needs to study the potential problems of the federal rules but added: “California can’t have its hands tied when we need maximum flexibility.”
Budget revisions
– Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will present two revised budget forecasts at 2 p.m. today in Sacramento, one with a $15.4 billion budget deficit and a second with a $21.3 billion deficit if voters reject the budget measures in Tuesday’s statewide special election.
– The Capitol news conference will be shown live at http://www.gov.ca.gov.
E-mail Matthew Yi at myi@sfchronicle.com.
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South Bay schools reap federal stimulus funds — and face losing more in state funds
By Sharon Noguchi
Mercury News
Posted: 05/14/2009 04:52:41 PM PDT
Updated: 05/15/2009 06:50:45 AM PDT
Just in time, Uncle Sam has opened a fat wallet to financially flailing school districts. Yet, the $8 billion in federal stimulus funds for California schools come with a lot of ifs and buts attached, leaving educators struggling to understand how they can spend the largesse.
In examining the mouth of the federal gift horse, districts are finding all sorts of problems — requirements to create new programs with one-time money, limits on replacing local funding and demands that their programs further the Obama education reform plan, even though the plan hasn’t been rolled out yet.
Normally, educators would rejoice over million-dollar grants. But Uncle Sam is doling out dollars just as Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has announced that California’s financial hole is billions of dollars deeper than expected, meaning that schools are likely to lose some of what they thought they already had this year. And looming next week is the possible failure of five ballot measures that underpin the state and schools’ budgets.
As a third-grader could calculate, $8 billion (cut by the Legislature in February) plus $8 billion (in federal stimulus funds) minus $3 billion (under the governor’s optimistic calculation released Thursday) equals negative $3 billion — or possibly negative $5.4 billion if the propositions fail.
The stimulus funds “will provide a little bit of a buffer zone,” said Erika Hoffman of the California School Boards Association, noting
it would have been worse if there were state cuts without any federal infusion.
This week, state officials who are parceling out the federal funds announced Santa Clara County schools will receive $50.8 million to partially fill in for state cutbacks in February. Districts that are mostly funded from local property taxes — and didn’t suffer as severely during the state cuts — didn’t get any federal money this time but will be in line for other stimulus funds later this month. The school stimulus funds will be doled out in several batches: barrels of funds for special education and for poor students announced earlier; a kettle of general-purpose funds partially announced this week, then smaller pots for disparate programs like data systems, technology, school lunches and the homeless.
Offsetting earlier cuts
San Jose Unified, the largest district in the county, for example, is preliminarily set to receive $12 million, and probably considerably more, from the feds. Yet its share of the potential $3.6 billion cut in state school funding — without factoring in the expected failure of Propositions A through E next week — would be $18 million.
“It’s impossible to imagine how we would function without $18 million,” said Ann Jones, the district’s budget chief. The multimillion-dollar infusion of stimulus funds offsets some earlier cuts.
But federal funds cannot simply substitute for vanishing state money. Uncle Sam is demanding assurances that his money is being spent as he likes.
Districts will be audited to see how well they comply with Washington’s rules. “This is supposed to help school districts achieve the Obama reform agenda. We don’t even know what that is yet,” said Scott Plotkin, executive director of the California School Boards Association.
The feds insist the bulk of the stimulus money, known as the State Fiscal Stabilization Funds, should be used to avoid layoffs, preserve programs and create new ones. But districts aren’t supposed to spend all the money upfront. Nor are they supposed to totally replace local funds.
“What is supplemental and what is supplanting?” asks Jerry Kurr, associate superintendent of the East Side Union High School District. More specifically, Kurr wants to know, can he use the federal funds to retain counselors that the district notified might be laid off?
‘Funding cliff’
And then there’s the order to create new jobs, amid a reality of people losing old jobs. “The feds say ‘avoid the funding cliff’ of relying too heavily on stimulus funds for ongoing programs,” said Jannelle Kubinec of School Services, a Sacramento firm that advises districts. “You don’t want to commit to things that we will have to cut later.”
Or as Nella Kovner, chief financial officer of the Sunnyvale School District, which is expecting nearly $2 million in stimulus funds, put it: “You don’t create new jobs and then in two years have to lay off people.”
There are more detailed rules, such as the restrictions on money for special education — $48 million for Santa Clara County schools. One-third of the 32 school districts in the county have been informed that they don’t comply with newly minted state regulations on special education. For instance, some districts may get dinged if they’ve labeled too many children of one ethnicity “mentally retarded” or suspended too many special-ed students.
The California Department of Education is recalculating compliance figures this week. But if the findings hold, then although the districts will still get stimulus funds, they won’t be able to use them on existing special-education services, but would have to create new ones.
“Districts are very frustrated” with the complicated rules, said Pamela Ptacek, who runs the group that coordinates and funnels state and federal special education funds in Santa Clara County.
But districts can’t wait for clarity. They must issue final layoff notices for next school year by today and craft 2009-10 budgets by June 30. Finance officers are hoping the school funding picture will be clear enough after the election to predict revenue.
Contact Sharon Noguchi at snoguchi@mercurynews.com or 408-271-3775.
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2009-05-15
League of California Cities Opposes Proposed Shotgun “Loan” of City Funds to Bail Out the State Budget
Proposal is Reckless and Threatens Californians’ Public Safety
Just as mayors and city councils statewide slash city budgets and reduce services to deal with the worst economic crisis in decades, they learned Thursday that state leaders may try to coerce local governments into providing a forced $2 billion bailout of the state budget if the May 19 ballot measures fail. The May Revise option released by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Thursday, May 14, containing that bailout, or “loan,” essentially forces cities to rescue the state from its financial quagmire and would cripple city services. To take money from cash-strapped cities now amounts to a profound “anti-stimulus” action by the state.
Yesterday, the Governor said he absolutely “despised the proposal.” He also said earlier this week in a meeting with mayors and council members that he understands this proposal would be devastating to public safety services and that he did not know how the state would pay back the loan. Statewide opinion polls consistently show a vast majority of Californians themselves don’t believe borrowing should be used to balance the state’s budget and oppose public safety cuts.
California cities cannot afford to bail out the state when they are already adopting extremely painful cuts to balance their own budgets. This shotgun “loan” of city property tax revenues would force additional service cuts including police and firefighter layoffs and result in longer emergency response times and fire station closures.
Here is a small snapshot of what some of California’s cities are facing:
Los Angeles is facing a $529 million budget deficit and Mayor Villaraigosa has urged the city council to declare a fiscal emergency to give him authority to layoff and furlough thousands of city employees;
Rohnert Park may have to lay off 31 employees, including 17 sworn police officers and nine public safety technicians – and would still not be able to balance its budget;
Stockton , to address a $31 million budget deficit, sent layoff notices to 55 police officers, 35 civilian employees and demoted seven officers; and
Vallejo , facing bankruptcy, may be forced to decimate city services by 20 percent and staff are recommending that the city council cut 30 sworn officer positions as well as close two fire stations;
“It’s absolutely unthinkable that the state would consider sacrificing local public safety at a time like this. City officials are already making painful cuts locally, laying off employees, cutting services and much more, to make our budgets balance. Taking local funds used for public safety to bail out the state budget is the last thing the public wants to see,” said League President and Rolling Hills Estates Mayor Judy Mitchell.
“It’s painful. We’re going well below our ability to provide essential services. We have nothing left to cut,” said Vallejo city Council Member Stephanie Gomes.
Reflecting the impact that the stagnating economy has had on city budgets, cities across the state are passing resolutions declaring a state of severe fiscal hardship. To date, close to 100 cities have either passed or are scheduled to pass a resolution.
California ‘s news leaders understand why it’s fundamentally wrong for the state to raid local revenues. Writing in an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times on May 14, D.J. Waldie, a contributing editor, expressed it poignantly stating: “The quality of life in California’s neighborhoods will be part of the wreckage. Closed libraries mean kids won’t have a place to go after school. Unsupervised parks means they won’t have a safe place to play. Furloughed workers won’t be available to process your business license, check your building plans or deal with your complaint. Everyday life – the level at which local government works — will be harder and coarser.”
During the meeting the Governor held with city officials earlier this week, he told the assembled city officials that he will be under extraordinary pressure to “borrow” local government funds if the ballot measures fail and the budget deficit reaches $21.3 billion. The League and the city officials present told the Governor that they strongly opposed any borrowing on top of the $900 million cities already provide the state each year in city property taxes. The League endorsed the propositions on April 6.
“The League is supporting Props. 1A – F because they provide a framework for beginning to responsibly balance the state budget without gimmicks. The state should follow the lead of the cities of California in dealing with its budget deficit – cut spending, sell assets, enhance revenues and don’t borrow ,” said League Executive Director Chris McKenzie.
City officials will fight any budget proposal that attempts to raid local property tax revenues to bail out the state budget.
last updated : 5/15/2009
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ACSA Advisory:
Release of the 2009-10 May Budget Revision
By Adonai Mack, ACSA Legislative Advocate
Thursday afternoon, the Governor Released his 2009-10 May Budget Revision. The proposal is separated into two versions dependant on whether the ballot propositions pass or fail on May 19th. The following is a brief summary of the May Revision. ACSA will provide a broader and more in depth analysis of the May Revision impact on K-adult programs in the following days.
What is the May Revision?
Historically, the May Revision is an update to the Governor’s January budget proposal. The document is an annual event that marks the “real” start of the budget development process. However, this year the May Revision will act as the starting point for mid-year cuts to the Budget Act enacted in February. The Revision contains up-to-date revenue projections that include April tax receipts. The Legislature will use the proposal as a benchmark for determining which reductions to make in an effort to balance the 2009-10 budget. Historically, the May Revision would “kick start” the budget deliberation process in an effort to enact a budget by the June 30 deadline. This year is strange in that the state has already enacted a budget and it is unclear what timeline will be used to make any revisions to the existing budget act. Even during these strange times, the next couple of months will be a critical stage in the advocacy of K-adult education funding.
May Revision Overview
The state economy is consistent with the national and global slow down. The recession has reached the longest period of time since the World War II era. These recessionary times have caused the revenue estimates established in the 2009 Budget Act to fall far below expectations. The governor’s proposal also takes into account the impact of the May 19th ballot propositions. The first version is based on the propositions passing and the second version makes additional cuts based on the failure of the propositions.
Passage of the Initiatives
Proposition 98
Since Proposition 98 is closely tied to the state’s economic conditions, as the state general fund revenues fall so does the calculation for Proposition 98. The governor’s proposal reduces the minimum guarantee by $1 billion in 2008-09 and by $2 billion in 2009-10. Proposition 98 funding would be reduced to $49.7 billion from $50.7 billion in 2008‑09 and to $53.7 billion from $55.9 billion in 2009‑10.
The reductions to education funding would be enacted by:
Reducing school district revenue limits by $694.3 million in the 2008-09 fiscal year on a one-time basis.
Reducing school district revenue limits by $950 million in the 2009-10 fiscal year.
Deferring $640 million in school district apportionment payments from 2009-10 fiscal year to the 2010-11 fiscal year.
The governor is also including additional flexibility options by allowing school districts to reduce the school year by five days and easing the restrictions to contracting out school district services.
Finally, the May Revision also includes a reduction to child care programs to the tune of $36 million. This reflects an adjustment associated with the high incidence of overpayments to providers in voucher-based programs.
Failure of the Initiatives
Proposition 98
If Propositions 1C through 1E fail, the state deficit will increase by $5.6 billion. To account for this possible reduction, the governor proposes to reduce education funding by an additional $617 million in 2008-09 and $2.66 billion in 2009-10. The minimum guarantee would be reduced to $49.1 billion in 2008-09 and $51.1 billion in 2009-10.
The additional reductions include:
Reducing school district revenue limits by $617 million in the 2008-09 fiscal year on a one-time basis.
Reducing school district revenue limits by $475 million in the 2009-10 fiscal year.
Deferring $1.038 billion in school district apportionment payments from 2009-10 fiscal year to the 2010-11 fiscal year.
The governor also proposes to reduce the school year by 2 more additional days. The governor also notes that if Proposition 1C (the lottery securitization) is not approved by the voters, the funding provided in lieu of the lottery funding will not be added to the Proposition 98 guarantee. Instead, education would receive their traditional share of the lottery proceeds.
ACSA analysis
This is the first examination of the governor’s May Revision. In the next couple of days ACSA will provide you with a broader analysis of the May Revision including an examination of the economic conditions impacting the state budget, and the impact of this on local school districts. Further, we will examine the impact of the May Revision proposal on federal stimulus funds. Please to not hesitate to contact me via email at amack@acsa.org, or via telephone at 1-800-608-2272 should you have any questions.
© 2008 Association of California School Administrators
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http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-teachers15-2009may15,0,4932443.story
From the Los Angeles Times
Some L.A. teachers may defy restraining order
Although a judge has barred a strike, they plan to engage in civil disobedience at the district headquarters to protest potential budget cuts.
By Jason Song
8:22 PM PDT, May 14, 2009
Teachers union officials said Thursday that some of their members would not report to work at Los Angeles Unified School District campuses this morning and instead would engage in civil disobedience at the district headquarters to protest potential budget cuts.
United Teachers Los Angeles had planned a one-day strike today, but a judge earlier this week issued a restraining order prohibiting the action.
If teachers continued with the work stoppage, they each would have faced a $1,000 fine and the possible loss of their credentials.
Instead, some educators plan to be at the district headquarters about 10 a.m. for civil disobedience, according to teachers union officials. Union members also will hold a protest in the afternoon.
Teachers who plan to go to L.A. Unified’s headquarters in the morning have requested substitute teachers, according to union officials.
L.A. Unified officials said Thursday afternoon that about 2,800 teachers have requested substitutes, which is more than average for a Friday in May.
Any teachers who leave campus during school hours would be in violation of the restraining order, according to district officials.
L.A. Unified lawyers went to court Thursday afternoon to ask for a new or modified restraining order, but a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge said another order was not necessary.
District officials also said they would pursue discipline against any teachers who ignore the restraining order.
jason.song@latimes.com
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Protesting L.A. teachers arrested outside district offices
1:24 PM | May 15, 2009
About 45 Los Angeles teachers and union leaders were arrested and booked for unlawful assembly outside school district headquarters today after they sat in the middle of the street and refused to move in an act of civil disobedience meant to protest possible layoffs.
Among those detained outside Los Angeles Unified District offices on Beaudry Street, between Third and Fourth streets, was L.A. teachers union leader A.J. Duffy. The protesters were warned four times by police via bullhorn to move out of the street before they were handcuffed. They were then led to a waiting Los Angeles Police Department bus.
The teachers’ action was part of a protest against budget cuts that could include thousands of layoffs.
Schools throughout Los Angeles were disrupted today as thousands of teachers called in sick and hundreds of high school students walked out of classrooms to protest the budget cutbacks at the nation’s second-largest school district.
Teachers said they planned to storm the district’s headquarters and “jump on some desks” as an act of civil disobedience, according to a memo circulated to officials by schools Police Chief Lawrence Manion.
District officials said they did not plan to make arrests. But if arrests became necessary, they would let Los Angeles Police Department officers step in.
About 700 more teachers than usual called in sick today in the Los Angeles Unified School District, days after a judge ordered the teachers union to call off a planned one-day strike. Today’s actions occurred despite a renewed warning from the judge against violations of his order.
On a normal Friday in May, about 2,300 of the district’s 34,000 teachers would be out of class. Several hundreds of these are scheduled absences for school-related duties, such as meetings to update individual education plans for disabled students. But the overall call for substitute teachers was about one-third higher than normal.
The teachers’ union Thursday requested hundreds of substitutes — that it planned to pay for — to allow selected teachers to leave class to participate in acts of civil disobedience, some of which were intended to lead to arrests.
A flier at one school called for teachers to put up anti-district posters on their classroom doors and to lead class discussions relevant to the labor dispute. This news was enough to send district officials hurrying back to court. L.A. County Superior Judge James C. Chalfant declined to issue a new order but warned that his original order remained in effect, according to district lawyers.
The union, United Teachers Los Angeles, has contended that its actions would not violate the court order.
Students have joined the fray, walking out of class at several high schools and holding sit-ins in support of teachers. About 500 students at Garfield High School in East L.A. walked out of campus this morning and sat in the central yard. Later, the students were moved to the bleachers, and a sound system was provided by the school so students could discuss why they didn’t want teachers laid off. The group dispersed after a break and about 150 returned to the bleachers afterward.
At Jordan High School in South L.A., some 200 students gathered in the quad to show their solidarity with teachers and another 200 at Maywood Academy in Maywood walked out of class. Shortly after the nutrition bell rang at 11 a.m. at Franklin High School in Highland Park, hundreds of students chose not to return to their classrooms.
“We care about the teachers,” Jasmine Guerrero, a senior, said in a phone interview. “But it’s more about us. One teacher for 45 students, it’s not a productive learning environment.”
The mood was quiet this morning at Huntington Drive Elementary, an outpost on the district’s eastern front, where Supt. Ramon C. Cortines sat in for Principal Roberto Salazar, who was attending his doctoral graduation at USC. Cortines arrived at El Sereno school shortly after 7 a.m. and after walking the campus, strode out front to talk with teachers picketing outside.
The union had scheduled pre-school picketing across L.A. Unified and a post-school rally in place of the strike to spare teachers the risk of $1,000 fines and the possible loss of their teaching credentials for violating the court order.
The presence of Cortines with picketers triggered rumors through the union network that Cortines was walking the line with teachers. That was not true, but he shook hands with each teacher, exchanged introductions and talked shop.
“You can’t be doing this for a better principal,” a teacher told him, thanking him for filling in. At least a dozen of the school’s 45 teachers were picketing and cars honked their support as they drove past on busy Huntington Drive. Three teachers were absent. Student enrollment was normal for the school of 600 students.
Teachers at the school had voted strongly in support of the union’s call for a one-day walkout, said faculty members, but some picketers also expressed relief that it would not be taking place.
“I did not want to walk out,” said Maureen Barbosa, a special education preschool teacher who was walking the line. “But we also don’t think our pay should be cut. I struggle to make a living and my husband could lose his job at any time.”
She added that she could accept unpaid furlough days as a last resort. Cortines did not pass up the opportunity to launch a charm offensive.
“Obviously, the teachers here care about their kids,” he said as he walked the asphalt playground. “You can see how much these children like their school.”
Parent Adela Castellanas, who is taking a morning class for adults at the campus, also praised the school but told Cortines she was concerned about security at a middle school in the area.
UTLA has been vying to reverse the possible layoff of as many as 2,500 teachers. An additional 2,600 non-teachers also could lose their jobs under a budget plan aimed at closing a $596.1 million deficit. That projected deficit grew by about $250 million Thursday under the latest state budget revision from Gov. Schwarzenegger.
The union has demanded that L.A. Unified use as much federal stimulus money as needed to save jobs now. District officials have countered that the federal money has to last two years and that compensation concessions are needed to avoid layoffs, which would result in larger classes and reduced services across the district.
– Howard Blume, Jason Song, Ruben Vives and Amanda Covarrubias
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Thursday, May 14, 2009
Proposed sale of O.C. fairgrounds tough sell in Costa Mesa
City officials say they won’t change zoning just to help governor raise cash.
By NORBERTO SANTANA Jr. and BRIAN JOSEPH
The Orange County Register
Angry Costa Mesa officials said Friday they won’t go along with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s plan to sell the Orange County Fairgrounds and will refuse to rezone the property, which could make it worth far less to prospective buyers.
The fairgrounds are one of seven “high value” state landmarks the governor proposed selling in order to raise as much as $1 billion for the cash-strapped state government. Other key landmarks on the block are the Los Angeles Coliseum and the
“We’re not feeling too good about the governor today,” said Costa Mesa City Manager Allan Roeder. “The city of Costa Mesa is not going to change the zoning and land use of the Orange County Fairgrounds. It’s now zoned as open space. And it’s our intention to keep it like that.”
The city council has said it would not rezone the property ever since State Sen. John Campbell proposed selling the fairgrounds in 2004.
“I believe the city council would be very solid on keeping it institutional,” Mayor Allan Mansoor added.
That means any private investor looking at buying the fairgrounds would be looking at a big open field with little to no prospects for commercial development. That’s a far cry from the estimated value in the governor’s budget of up to $180 million.
Mansoor said he doesn’t support selling “the heart of the community” just to balance a budget. He said the governor’s plan is nothing more than a bluff.
“This is just scare tactics by the governor. He’s playing the role of the big bad wolf saying, ‘I’ll huff and puff and blow your house down if you don’t vote for my borrow-and-tax initiatives,” he said.
“I feel like I’m being held up and need to call 911.”
Orange County lawmakers, however, generally support the idea. State Sen. Bob Huff, R-Diamond Bar, said that many state properties are underperforming and in the hands of a private owner might be busier and generate more sales tax revenues.
Assemblyman Jose Solorio, D-Santa Ana, also said the idea has merit, but added that he’d like to see the governor “collaborate” with Orange County officials on the idea.
Orange County fair board members, who are appointees of the governor, said they were told by state officials to keep operating on a “business as usual” basis.
On a Thursday morning conference call, President Julie Vandermost said, state officials said a potential sale would take some time. “It’s important that the public know that nothing has changed. Everything is status quo,” she said.
Fair officials are preparing this weekend for a popular off-road exhibition show.
And across the state, other fairs are busy looking into the restrictions on their deeds.
Many of those fair grounds were donations by families to the state governments and may have title restrictions, said Stephen Chambers, executive director of the Western Fairs Association.
“It’s important that the public understand that the state didn’t buy this land, but instead it was donated locally,” Chambers said.
Orange County fair officials are preparing to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the fairgrounds, which were donated by the U.S. military.
Contact the writer: 714-796-2221 or nsantana@ocregister.com
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This story is taken from Sacbee / Our Region / Top Stories
California state workers outraged at possible layoffs
jortiz@sacbee.com
Published Friday, May. 15, 2009
State workers were outraged and anxious on Tuesday after learning that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger wants to lay off 5,000 of them in the coming weeks.
Although the administration didn’t break down which departments would lose jobs, it did say the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, which runs the state prison system, would lose the most positions.
And one official said the state may need to cut more jobs if California’s recession worsens and the state’s general fund revenue keeps dwindling.
“This may not be the only layoff,” said Vickie Bradshaw, deputy chief of staff and Cabinet secretary to the governor.
That possibility unnerves Justin Salenik, who started his state career with the Education Department last year.
“This really worries me,” Salenik
said Thursday afternoon as he waited for a light-rail train. “If they do more, I’d be one of the first to go.”
State officials offered few details about the layoffs, saying they wanted to get the details to employees through workplace channels first.
Finance Director Mike Genest said that “there is no way to know” exactly how much money the government will save by cutting what amounts to about 5 percent of the 100,000 state jobs paid from general fund money.
The layoffs are based on seniority. Workers who get notice that their job is going to be axed can look for other jobs in state bureaucracy funded by other sources, such as the Employment Development Department (federal funds) or DMV (vehicle and license fees).
Corrections is the $84 billion general fund’s biggest personnel expense, with about 63,000 employees and an operating budget of about $10 billion, most of that from the general fund.
Salaries, mostly for correctional officers, have added more than $1 billion to the department’s expenses in the past decade.
The California Correctional Peace Officers Association, which represents about 33,000 prison officers, could not be reached for comment Thursday.
The process from formal layoff notice to termination can take up to 120 days, but “we don’t like to focus on the last day,” Bradshaw said, since the sooner employees shift into other jobs, the sooner the savings begin.
EDD worker Adrienne Suffin said she expects some state workers facing termination will apply for jobs in her department.
“When there is a threat of layoffs, people will want to come here,” she said.
Thursday’s announcement prompted the state’s largest public workers union, Service Employees International Union Local 1000, to criticize Schwarzenegger for ignoring what it says are other ways to curb expenses.
The union has suggested a list of policy changes it says would save billions of dollars, such as cutting down on big service contracts with private companies and giving the work to state employees.
“The governor said, ‘If you have ideas, come forward with a paper and pencil,’ ” said SEIU Local 1000 President Yvonne Walker. “Well, Local 1000 is ready to meet with the governor right now to talk about the $9.5 billion in potential savings and efficiencies we’ve been promoting for the past 18 months.”
Schwarzenegger said Thursday that he viewed cutting state jobs as a drastic but necessary step to solving the “budget puzzle.”
The state’s slumping economy has forced many families to make difficult financial decisions, and “we have to show we have the same discipline,” the governor said.
But many state workers believe Schwarzenegger’s budget just adds to the already unfair financial burden they bear. In February, about 238,000 of them started taking two unpaid days off each month, a controversial furlough policy mandated by Schwarzenegger aimed at saving about $1.3 billion in wages through June 2010.
“People are really feeling that they’re scapegoats,” said Marie Harder, an SEIU union activist and Public Health Department employee. “Around here people are saying, ‘Why does everybody want to take it out on me?’ ”
Besides layoffs, Schwarzenegger’s budget calls for saving $132.2 million starting in January by contracting lower costs for state worker health insurance.
The revised budget requires new state hires to work for at least 25 years before qualifying for free lifetime health benefits. Current policy sets eligibility at 20 years of service.
Call The Bee’s Jon Ortiz, (916) 321-1043.
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This story is taken from Sacbee / Capitol and California
$4.3 million raised to fight California ballot measures
jsanders@sacbee.com
Published Friday, May. 15, 2009
Millions of dollars have been raised to fight the linchpin of ballot measures in Tuesday’s election, a package that was carefully crafted to discourage big-bucks opposition.
Though vastly outspent, opponents of Proposition 1A have parlayed $4.3 million in contributions and anger at state politicians into a solid advantage in recent polls.
The measure, stemming from this year’s bitter budget fight, would place long-term spending restrictions on state government and extend recent tax increases for up to two years.
Major donors to No on 1A, state records show, include the California State Council of Service Employees International Union, $1.3 million; California Faculty Association, $1.2 million; Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, $680,000; and California Federation of Teachers, $517,000.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and a coalition of teachers, construction interests and business groups have raised nearly $26 million to pass 1A and all five other propositions.
Donors supporting 1A, whose campaign is touting other measures as well, include the California Teachers Association, $9.2 million; National Education Association, $3 million; and A. Jerrold Perenchio, former Univision owner, $1.5 million.
The effort also has attracted $2.5 million from Schwarzenegger’s ballot measure committee – including $650,000 from the California Republican Party – and sizable sums from oil, liquor and professional sports interests that won concessions in negotiations that preceded crafting of the ballot measures.
Money always talks in elections, but maybe not as loudly Tuesday since the number of ads touting 1A may be offset by voter confusion and anger over recession and deficit, political analysts say.
“The biggest challenge is an initiative package that’s very difficult to explain to voters,” said Dan Schnur, director of the Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics at the University of Southern California.
“When those voters are angry and suspicious, it’s an even harder sell,” he said.
The campaign against 1A is an odd marriage of groups that disagree over whether the measure would expand or contract government.
“The main groups that are opposing these measures have two completely contradictory and separate messages,” said Julie Soderlund, spokeswoman for Yes on 1A. “Both cannot be true.”
Opponents counter that the measure itself is a contradiction, hurting taxpayers temporarily while restricting spending permanently.
California’s massive budget crisis makes passage of 1A vital, according to Schwarzenegger and legislative leaders. The proposition would provide $16 billion in future revenue to stabilize government, while companion measures – 1C, 1D and 1E – would raise $6 billion more quickly to ease the state’s massive budget gap and temper cuts to schools and social services.
Mike Roth, spokesman for No on 1A, said voters are tired of costly special elections sparked by political gridlock. “What they really want is the governor and the Legislature to do their job,” he said.
Call Jim Sanders, Bee Capitol Bureau, (916) 326-5538.
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http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-budget15-2009may15,0,6045334.story
From the Los Angeles Times
Schwarzenegger outlines drastic budget cuts
The governor would slash $3 billion from schools, lay off 5,000 workers and sell state property, even if voters approve ballot measures next week.
By Michael Rothfeld
May 15, 2009
Reporting from Sacramento — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger unveiled a pair of financial disaster plans Thursday, proposing to address the state’s budget crisis by slicing up to seven days off the public school year, releasing thousands of inmates from prison and packing others into county jails, cutting off healthcare to more than 200,000 children and drilling for oil off the Santa Barbara coast.
The governor presented lawmakers with two alternative budgets. The first was grim, addressing a $15.4-billion deficit that finance officials say the state will face even if voters approve a set of ballot measures in Tuesday’s special election.
The second, a contingency plan, held more extreme remedies intended to close a $21.3-billion gap if the measures fail. Under that sc
I found a couple of old SAUSD news articles from my google alert that I think SAHSTeacher and other old timers might enjoy:
SANTA ANA – School Board Adds Trustee With Insight
By Greg Hernandez
December 05, 1990
Gerardo Mouet, who grew up in Tijuana, said that experience gives him insight into the needs of the large immigrant population of the Santa Ana school district, which he was chosen this week to serve.
Mouet, 33, who was named to the school board, was born in San Diego but grew up in Mexico. He crossed the U.S. border every day to attend classes at San Ysidro Academy, a private Roman Catholic school.
“I witnessed a lot of poverty and suffering,” Mouet said. “It made me realize that I had a unique opportunity to take advantage of the educational system.”
Mouet gained experience creating such opportunities for students during his six years with UC Irvine’s Educational Opportunity Program/Student Affirmative Action Department, where he developed and coordinated a program designed to prepare students to become active and socially responsible leaders.
Mouet now works for the city of Santa Ana’s personnel services department and is responsible for overseeing the city’s affirmative action plan. He is also chairman of the Orange County Fair Housing Council.
Besides creating more educational opportunities for students, Mouet would also like to increase the Santa Ana Unified School District’s contact with parents.
“One of the biggest challenges for this district is to communicate with the parents and the community on the issues,” Mouet said. “I think I am very capable in this area and have a good track record of being able to communicate with parents of all ethnic heritages.”
Mouet was chosen from among 12 applicants to fill the remainder of the term vacated by Robert L. Richardson, who stepped down after being elected last month to the City Council. Mouet will be sworn as a member of the five-member board Dec. 11 and will serve until the term expires in November.
Board member Sal Mendoza, who supported community activist John Raya for the vacant position, cast the only vote against Mouet. But after the vote, Mendoza supported his new colleague.
“He’s very impressive, and I think he’s going to be a great asset to the board,” Mendoza said. “He brings some strengths that maybe the other board members don’t have.”
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SANTA ANA – Trustees to Choose Year-Round Schedule
February 04, 1991
The school board Tuesday is to decide on a year-round schedule for four elementary schools.
The board will choose between a schedule of 60 days of school and 20 days of vacation, or 45 days of school and 15 days of vacation. Either rotation will begin on July 1.
District administration is recommending the 60-days-on, 20-days-off schedule for all four of the schools because it will require a minimum number of room changes. A survey of school staffs and parents also indicated a preference for this particular schedule, a spokesman said.
The board’s decision will affect 3,621 students at Adams, Garfield (to open in September), Hoover, and Washington elementary schools, which were placed on a year-round schedule to ease overcrowding and accommodate growth.
Santa Ana school board renews Nova Academy charter
About 100 parents, students, teachers and others attend Tuesday’s meeting to support school.
By FERMIN LEAL
The Orange County Register
Comments 1| Recommend 0
SANTA ANA The Santa Ana Unified School Board renewed the charter Tuesday for Nova Academy, a school focused on allowing students to simultaneously take college courses and high school classes.
Nearly 100 students, parents and teachers from the school attended Tuesday’s meeting to support the new five-year charter.
Nova Academy, with 79 students, allows some students to earn associate arts degrees from Santa Ana College at the same time they earn high school diplomas. The campus was originally granted a charter as a school for foster children and orphans, and is sponsored by Olive Crest Homes and Services for Abused Children.
Charter schools receive funding directly from the state. They have to provide their own facilities and other services. School districts provide oversight of charter schools’ finances and curriculum and can deny charters if districts believe the schools are falling short of their obligations.
Santa Ana Unified officials had said there were concerns that the number of instructional minutes of many students did not meet minimum state standards. Some students left their high school courses early, or arrived late, so they could attend their college courses, district officials said.
But Nova Academy administrators said students now make up the lost minutes in extra classes during the week.
1 Comment was left:
systemvictim wrote:
SAUSD is concerned about MINUTES? OCR- do an investigation on their SARB program (student attendance review board)
They have students- entire families of school age children that haven’t been to school in days, weeks and months. Clean your own house before you pass judgment on a program where kids are LEARNING.
5/13/2009 3:44:07 PM
From SAUSD Board member, John Palacio’s email blast, here are a series of current articles on various aspects of education and educational reform. Some of these blasts have charts, files and graphics attached. These items are not posted to this blog for technical reasons. If you wish to receive all of those nice features, then please send a request to John Palacio directly to be added to his blast. He sends out these emails periodically. He respects all members of his email list and you will not see your email or anyone else’s email listed for privacy’s sake.
jpalacio@pacbell.net
This story is taken from Sacbee / Our Region / Top Stories
Federal strings prevent some state cuts
rhotakainen@mcclatchydc.com
Published Saturday, May. 16, 2009
WASHINGTON – As California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger tries to plug a budget hole that could swell to more than $21 billion next week, he’s quickly discovering a universal truth: Uncle Sam controls the strings.
The Republican governor and state officials find themselves unable to cut spending as deeply as they’d like in some areas because of the potential loss of federal funds.
Schwarzenegger wants to save $750 million by rolling back the state’s Medi-Cal program, tightening eligibility and reducing benefits.
It won’t necessarily be easy.
To get his way, the governor needs special permission from the federal government, which pays the lion’s share of the costs. It’s an example of the many restrictions that Congress ties to its programs, making it more difficult for states to act on their own when times get tough.
While “maintenance of effort” payments by states have been required for years in some federal-state programs such as Medi-Cal, the web of strings has grown with the recent infusion of federal stimulus dollars.
State officials around the nation often complain about interference from Washington, but the architects of the federal programs say restrictions are necessary to maintain minimum standards and to spend money as Congress intends.
“The federal government wouldn’t want to give a state a billion dollars for health care and then find out they spent it on highways,” said Brian Riedl, senior federal budget analyst with the Washington-based Heritage Foundation. “They have to provide some rules.”
On average, Riedl said, the federal government pays 57 percent of all Medicaid costs. And he noted that states have an option if they don’t want to put up with Washington’s restrictions.
“Nobody’s forcing states to participate in these programs,” Riedl said. “If they don’t like federal rules, they can simply opt out. If you don’t like the rules, don’t take the money. What states generally want is all of the money with none of the strings.”
In California, according to one estimate, only $38 billion of the state’s $92 billion general fund – roughly 41 percent – can be targeted for cuts because of a combination of federal strings and constitutional protections.
State officials learned how difficult it can be to make cuts just last week, when the Obama administration accused the state of running afoul of stimulus rules and threatened to withhold nearly $7 billion in federal aid.
The administration told the state it must scrap its plan to reduce the state’s contribution for home health care workers from $12.10 to $10.10 per hour. The home health care workers are members of the Service Employees International Union, which endorsed President Barack Obama’s election. And many Republicans say the administration intervened to benefit its political allies.
“I’m upset about it, but that’s what you would expect the Obama administration to do, is screw the taxpayers and reward the unions,” said Republican Rep. Tom McClintock, who represents a district that extends from Roseville to the Oregon border. “That’s been a pretty clear pattern since Day One.”
The former state lawmaker had harsh words for state officials as well, saying “there’s never been a state as fiscally irresponsible as California.”
Republican Rep. Dan Lungren of Gold River was equally irked: “I mean, this is crazy. We’ve got a huge budget problem in California.”
But he said the case makes a broader point: “Once the federal government starts calling the tune, you gotta dance to it.”
Addressing a round-table discussion in San Jose earlier this week, Schwarzenegger called the dispute with the Obama administration “an additional challenge.” The governor said the state was accused of violating a “maintenance of effort” clause that prohibited the cuts, but the administration believes it has the power to reduce in-home worker pay. The governor’s latest proposals, in fact, call for further cuts to $8 an hour.
Asked if he could legally make his proposed cuts without violating maintenance-of-efforts provisions, Schwarzenegger noted that the state had been successful in getting waivers approved in the past.
“We will try,” he said. “As I have said many times that we have a good relationship with the administration, and we will go back and explain to them why this is very important for us to work together on that. And we think that it is possible, yes.”
State officials say they’re doing the tedious and time-consuming work of sorting through all of the rules and regulations for more than 300 pots of money included in the massive stimulus bill, which was approved by Congress in February. It’s expected to send nearly $50 billion to the state, but most of the money is targeted for special programs, such as transportation and health care, and cannot be used to balance the general fund.
While Schwarzenegger is proposing big cuts in education, the state is planning to keep spending at 2006 levels, eliminating the need for a waiver. To satisfy the federal government, the state must also maintain minimum funding standards for programs involving transportation, welfare, AIDS/HIV treatment and substance-abuse treatment, among others.
Making cuts to the Medi-Cal program could be especially tricky. State officials say that while some waivers can be approved by Obama’s Health and Human Services Department, changing eligibility rules would require an act of Congress because those guidelines were specifically included in the stimulus bill.
Paul Weinstein, a senior fellow at Johns Hopkins University and the Democratic Leadership Council, said Congress attaches strings to its programs just as the state attaches strings to its programs for cities and counties and other local units of government.
“They have a series of goals they want met. There’s nothing wrong with the federal government attaching strings to money if there’s things that are in the national interest,” he said. “I wish we were in a better fiscal position at the federal level to help the states more. Unfortunately, we’re not.”
Weinstein said states usually target cuts at items that do not require federal approval, such as administrative costs, supplies, vehicles and office space. And of course, states are free to lay off workers, as Schwarzenegger is proposing.
“They’re another easy target,” said Weinstein.
Riedl said no waivers would be needed if states financed programs on their own, eliminating the federal government as a middleman. And he said states such as California that seek waivers “are scapegoating Washington” for their inability to manage their budgets.
“It’s tough to be sympathetic for California,” Riedl said, “when they’ve been increasing spending so fast themselves.”
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Call Rob Hotakainen, McClatchy Washington Bureau, (202) 383-0009.
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Friday, May 15, 2009
State repeatedly has raided cities, counties for money
Plan to borrow $2 billion would mark 4th time since ’90s that state has drawn from municipalities to balance budget.
By BRIAN JOSEPH, JAIMEE FLETCHER and VIK JOLLY
The Orange County Register
SACRAMENTO – It was budget déjà vu this week as Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger proposed fixing the state’s fiscal problems by borrowing $2 billion from cities and counties.
Since the early 1990s, Sacramento has raided local property taxes three times to painful results. City and county officials in Orange County and across the state complain that the state’s meddling in 1992, 1993 and 2003 plundered their reserves, crippled their services and pushed their finances to the breaking point.
Even the governor agrees that pillaging local governments is wrong, but with the state facing yet another multi-billion deficit, he says his hand’s been forced. Statewide, city and county officials are cringing.
“It’s the worst position that the state Legislature and governor have ever put us in,” said Homer Bludau, city manager of Newport Beach.
According to figures calculated by the League of California Cities, Bludau’s city would lose more than $5.8 million in property tax revenue under the governor’s plan. San Juan Capistrano will lose $814,674.
“We’ve done a lot of scaling back and balanced the budget,” said Cindy Russell, San Juan Capistrano assistant city manager/treasurer. “This would put us out of balance again.”
In all, Orange County and its 34 cities would lose more than $110 million, according to the league’s analysis.
That’s on top of the nearly $900 million a year the state takes from cities already.
“This is just adding insult to injury,” said Catherine Standiford, Santa Ana assistant city manager.
The governor’s plan is to borrow 8 percent of local tax revenues to help balance a state budget deficit that would balloon to $21.3 billion if the fix-it measures on Tuesday’s ballot fail. If they pass – and polling indicates that’s a big if – the deficit will shrink to $15.4 billion, which the governor thinks can be covered without borrowing from local governments.
In the past, when Sacramento wanted local governments’ tax revenue, it just took it. But now, thanks to Prop. 1A, approved by voters in 2004, the state can’t simply raid local government. Now the state’s only option is to borrow the local money and pay it back, which the governor proposes to do in three years.
That’s an improvement, concedes Paul McIntosh, executive director of the California State Association of Counties. But in today’s economic climate, any loss – even a temporary one of three years – is going to hurt, he said.
“Counties’ ability to absorb this loss is less than it was in earlier times,” McIntosh said. “Cities and counties have been on the ropes for some time.”
That said, the governor needs legislative approval to borrow money from local governments and McIntosh and others leading the fight against this plan are banking on lawmakers with roots on city councils to oppose it.
Orange County State Sen. Bob Huff, R-Diamond Bar, served on the Diamond Bar City Council from 1995 to 2004 before joining the Legislature. He wasn’t pleased to hear the governor wanted to borrow from local government.
“That’s a non-starter for me,” he said.
Contact the writer: 916-449-6046 or bjoseph@ocregister.com
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Thursday, May 14, 2009
Orange County faces $8 million loss on risky security; treasurer hangs on
By RONALD CAMPBELL
The Orange County Register
Orange County Treasurer-Tax Collector Chriss Street is holding onto a troubled security that other investors dumped at a steep discount.
The security is Whistlejacket Capital Ltd., a structured investment vehicle or SIV that defaulted in February 2008.
More than half of Whistlejacket investors bailed out in an auction two weeks ago, the Bloomberg financial news service reported.
Not Street. He refused to sell when bidders didn’t meet his price.
He confirmed Thursday that he is keeping Whistlejacket in hopes of getting all the county’s money back. But that could mean waiting four years or longer for an investment that was supposed to pay off in January.
“My belief is that it has a greater value than the auction,” Street said.”Somebody’s buying it, and if they’re buying it, I’m holding it.”
Street bought $80 million of the multi-billion-dollar Whistlejacket fund in two slices in January and July 2007. The court-appointed receiver has repaid much of that, reducing the county’s stake to $53.3 million – on paper. But the current market value is about $44.8 million, or 84 cents on the dollar.
Street says he can earn a higher return by waiting.
Since Whistlejacket first got into trouble in December 2007, Street repeatedly has said he expects the county to get its money back.
San Bernardino County Treasurer-Tax Collector Dick Larsen said he doesn’t understand why Street invested in Whistlejacket in the first place.
“I’m just a dumb county treasurer who invests in safe investments,” Larsen said. “I’ve never lost a dime on any transaction. … My job is to follow the law, not to risk my constituents’ money.”
Street said his office has handled a difficult situation well.
“At the start, people were saying this was a valueless security,” Street said. “We have managed through the challenge. We appear to have acted wisely through the whole process, and we’re closer to recovery than we were before.”
Whistlejacket is a casualty of the worldwide credit crunch that erupted days after the county made its final purchase. Like other SIVs, Whistlejacket used short-term credit to buy longer-term assets such as car loans, credit card receivables and corporate debt.
As credit dried up, Whistlejacket had to scramble to raise money. Its manager, British bank Standard Chartered, initially promised to back the fund but pulled out in February 2008 as Whistlejacket’s assets wilted.
With that, Whistlejacket – named for a famed 18th century British racehorse – limped into receivership and default.
Bloomberg reported that Whistlejacket receiver Deloitte & Touche sold more than half of the SIV’s assets at an auction beginning April 29 for an average of 67.1 percent of face value. With cash and principal paid earlier, those investors will get about 83 cents on the dollar.
The remaining assets will be spun into a new company, called Serpentine, managed by Goldman Sachs.
Contact the writer: Contact the writer at 714-796-5030 or rcampbell@ocregister.com
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Publication:Freedom – Orange County Register; Date:May 17, 2009; Section:Front Page; Page Number:News 20
System provides uneven pensions Big retirements and lost investments could destroy CalPERS, critics say.
By TONY SAAVEDRA and RONALD CAMPBELL THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Loopholes and lucrative increases in pensions approved by municipal agencies have created an unequal state retirement system in which half the pensioners make $15,948 a year or less, while the top 1 percent make more than $100,000.
An Orange County Register examination of California Public Employees’ Retirement System records shows that 4,817 of the 476,000 retirees in the system make more than $100,000, and 24 have pensions in excess of $200,000.
This comes at a time when the value of CalPERS’ investments has fallen by 28 percent and the agency’s assets have dropped by about $73 billion.
“The trend is, if we don’t get more money, there is a risk of insolvency,” said pension watchdog and Sacramento accountant Marcia Fritz, a member of the California Federation for Fiscal Responsibility.
Edward Fong, spokesman for CalPERS, said he prefers to take an optimistic view of the market, which could bounce back in a few years.
“It’s a pendulum that goes back and forth. We look at the long term,” Fong said.
If the bank gets broken, it will not be because of the average CalPERS retiree, who gets $23,820 a year, critics say. It will be because of police, fire and other workers who get lucrative pensions worth as much as their salaries, all guaranteed by the taxpayer.
It also will be because of the high-end managers who garner salaries in excess of $200,000 and – in many cases – shepherded the public-safety retirement raises and collected the same for themselves, critics say.
Of the 351 Orange County retirees who make $100,000 or more, nearly two-thirds were publicsafety
workers.
A Register examination of the top pensioners also shows that some municipalities can spike employees’ pensions to astronomical rates. The 5.5-square-mile Los Angeles County city of Vernon, population 110, paid Bruce Malkenhorst Sr. $600,000 a year to serve in six different capacities at once, spiking his pension to $499,674. Malkenhorst now is fighting a criminal indictment charging him with embezzling $60,000 for such things as massages.
Years-of-service clauses allow officials to ring up large pensions, then retire and take another government job while drawing the pension. Former Anaheim City Manager Jim Ruth, who retired in 2001 on a pension of $219,045, went on to serve another year as a consultant to the city for $192,000. Ruth later did a stint as Orange County’s chief executive and now is the county sanitation district chief, with an annual salary of $225,000. Between retirement and salary, he collects $444,000.
Retirements often are used as escape hatches when officials run into trouble. For instance, Art Simonian, 28-year city manager of Yorba Linda, was suspended in August 1999 amid accusations by the City Council that he doled out $600,000 in unapproved bonuses to himself and others. After a 10-month feud, Simonian agreed to resign with $200,293 in severance. He continues to receive $173,204 in retirement pay.
“It seems unfair. People who retired 20 years ago are getting small pensions. I have friends in their 70s who are doing substitute teaching because their pensions aren’t enough,” said Jack Dean, who advocates for changes in the pension system and runs the Web site pensiontsunami.com.
Beginning in 1999, state legislators and local municipalities approved major pension increases – allowing police and fire officials to retire as early as age 50 with 3 percent of their pay for every year of service. Under that “3 at 50” formula, a police officer or firefighter gets a pension equal to his pay after 34 years. Public safety unions aggressively pushed for the benefits, and now nearly every police department in California offers it. General employees also got a bump that was not as lucrative as the one public-safety workers received.
Many larger municipalities have their own pension systems, independent of CalPERS. Most Orange County employees, for instance, are covered by the Orange County Employees’ Retirement System, which also pays “3 at 50” to publicsafety workers.
Police and fire representatives contend that the benefits are a small price for the public to pay considering the risks public-safety workers take. They say their departments must offer the benefits to remain competitive with other agencies. And they doubt their pensions are enough to bankrupt CalPERS or their employers.
“I cannot fathom a city, or a county or the state, would give something that they absolutely could not afford,” said Ron Cottingham, president of the Peace Officers Research Association of California.
Cottingham also noted that most officers contribute to their own retirement plans. The Register found, however, that in many municipalities across the state, including Buena Park, Costa Mesa and Newport Beach, this is not true: The city covers the employees’ share of the pension costs.
City officials in Orange County say they are concerned that the economic downturn mixed with the benefit costs will come back to bite their budgets. Many expect their payments to CalPERS to rise by 5 percent in the next two years.
“It’s ‘oh my God’ for every city. We’re not in a unique situation,” said Sung Hyun, Buena Park finance director. “We’re going to have to figure out a way to restructure our budget.”
With a judge ruling against Orange County’s efforts to take back some of the benefits it gave to sheriff’s deputies, the answer may lie in cutting pensions to future employees or trimming public services.
“We’re going to have to start making decisions,” said Fullerton pension watchdog Dean. “We’ll have to cut back on services or sell a baseball field to fund pensions.”
Ruth, the former Anaheim city manager, worked for more than 50 years but didn’t start making big money until he retired. Even he says the system needs to be harnessed.
“We’re at a point, now, I think there’s going to have to be some changes to the system,” he said.
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Friday, May 15, 2009
Meet the top 20 PERS pensioners over $200,000
The Orange County Register
Meet the most elite public retirees in California, the top 20 highest-paid pensioners in the California Public Employees’ Retirement System.
1) Bruce Malkenhorst Sr. – who was Vernon’s city manager, finance director, city clerk, redevelopment director, treasurer and chief of light and power, all at the same time – tops the list at $499,674. He is fighting criminal charges of embezzling $60,000 for such personal costs as massages. Malkenhorst was able to buy more benefits at a discount rate, pushing his retirement even higher.
2) Joaquin Fuster, a physician and researcher at the UCLA Institute of Neuroscience and Human Behavior, collects $296,555. He was born in Barcelona, Spain and is a well-published scientist.
3) Donald Gerth, former president of California State University, Sacramento. He collects $278,054 and is now a member of the master’s program in “Public Policy and Administration.” The school was criticized by a state audit in 2007 for overgenerous pensions.
4) James Stahl, formerly chief engineer and general manager for the Sanitation Districts of Los Angeles County, he enjoys a yearly benefit of $265,740.
5) John Schlag, a former neurobiology professor at UCLA, collects $255,600.
6) William Garrett, a retired city manager of El Cajon, collects $254,745.
7) Ray Patchett, former city manager of Carlsbad, is collecting $239,635. He worked 20 years for the city.
8) Robert Toone Jr, the ex-city manager of Palmdale, collects $232,947.
9) Dianne Oki, former president of the State Compensation Insurance Fund, collects $231,164. Oki served three years as president and worked 37 years for the fund. Criticized by state legislators for the funds’ slow response in reducing premiums.
10) Carl Boronkay, ex-general manager of the Metropolitan Water District, collects $224,812.
11) Kenneth Bollier, former president of the State Compensation Insurance Fund, collects $222,489.
12) Robert McDonell, ex-Newport Beach police chief, is collecting $221,554. After his predecessor was accused of creating a sexually hostile workplace, McDonell was initially credited with bringing back order to the Newport force. Then a recent lawsuit accused him of fostering a homophobic climate and favoring officers who shared his deep religious beliefs. The lawsuit ended with a $1.2 million award.
13) Jim Ruth, former city manager of Anaheim, collects $219,045. He spent 22 years with the city, 11 as city manager. He now heads the Orange County Sanitation District, making $225,000.
14) James T. Butts, ex-Santa Monica police chief, collects $218,868. He now is head of security at Los Angeles International Airport and Ontario International Airport, earning $186,876.
15) Kent Imai, former medical director of Santa Clara County’s health plan, collects $215,578.
16) Timothy Riley, former Newport Beach fire chief, collects $214,600.
17) George Kennedy, former district attorney of Santa Clara County, collects $211,596
18) Philip Gatch, ex-city manager of Thousand Oaks, collects $208,664.
19) Francis Harlow, former theoretical physicist at Los Alamos National Laboratory, collects $207,389.
20) Milton Finger, ex-deputy director defense department programs at Lawrence Livermore, collects $205,759.
Search the PERS 1 percenters
Click here to search a database of the 4,817 state pensioners who collect more than $100,000. Public employees from some large municipalities–like the counties of Orange and Los Angeles–have separate systems and are not included in this data.
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http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-summer-school15-2009may15,0,2350227.story
From the Los Angeles Times
Santa Ana College students mobilize to save summer school
They are seeking donations and selling hot dogs to restore at least some of the more than 100 courses that have been cut because of a shrinking budget. So far enough has been raised to keep one class.
By Tony Barboza
May 15, 2009
So much for dreading summer school. At Santa Ana College, the students are buying it back, one class at a time.
Budget cuts at the community college have been severe, eliminating an extra session in January and forcing more than 100 summer courses to be cut, leaving some students panicked that they won’t have the classes needed to be able to transfer to a four-year school this fall or next spring.
“You can’t transfer or graduate without those classes,” said Phien Vu, 40, whose plans to transfer to Cal State Fullerton to study criminal justice will probably have to be put on hold for another semester.
Now, in a move both creative and desperate, students are raising money to help pay for summer classes by selling food and by pleading with politicians — and even instructors — to contribute.
For every $4,500 that students raise for the Summer Session Rescue Fund, one class for 30 students will be saved, school administrators say. The school’s nonprofit arm, the Santa Ana College Foundation, has pledged to pay for any shortfall between student fundraising and a full class offering.
For the last few months, members of student government and the Phi Theta Kappa honors society have mobilized by holding rallies and barbecue fundraisers on the campus’ busy quadrangle, peddling hot dogs, candy and soda and hitting up professors and community leaders for donations.
One English student, Jim Yarrow, even lobbied state legislators for funds while on a trip to Sacramento, but got only sympathy.
On a recent afternoon, a group of 10 students eager to save English and math classes this summer grilled hot dogs and burgers, piled up plates of nachos and served soft drinks under a canopy.
“For us, this is a way to do something proactive instead of sitting back and letting a class fly by,” said Richard Santana, 19, who wants to transfer to Cal State Fullerton to study political science.
In one afternoon they took in more than $800. The hot dogs, at $1.50 each, went so fast that they had to run to a store across the street for more. They’ve raised enough so far to save one class, probably a core subject such as English or math. They’re hoping to salvage at least a few more.
The weak economy has added to the enrollment at community colleges such as the 26,000-student campus in Santa Ana. Statewide, the system is over-enrolled by about 100,000 students, according to the Community College League of California.
As the economy tanked and the budget strife in Sacramento worsened, summer classes were slashed and waiting lists for core classes grew.
“Students aren’t able to get the courses they need, and for some that means they’re going to turn away and won’t come back; for others that means it’s going to slow down their progress,” said Erik Skinner, vice chancellor for fiscal policy with the California Community Colleges system.
Joceline Zaragoza, 19, said she joined the campaign in Santa Ana because the scaled-back general education offerings this summer will force her to stay at the college an extra semester before transferring, she hopes, to UC Irvine or UC Santa Barbara to study psychology.
“I’m trying to pursue a better career, but it’s really hard to get into any classes,” she said. “When that resource has been taken away from us, what else are we going to do?”
tony.barboza@latimes.com
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This story is taken from Sacbee / Capitol and California
Ad Watch: Prop. 1A foes call reserve-fund restrictions a ‘loophole’
kyamamura@sacbee.com
Published Saturday, May. 16, 2009
The union-backed No on Proposition 1A campaign launched the first opposition television ad of the campaign this week, featuring Sacramento City College professor Dennis Smith. Following is a text of the ad and an analysis by Kevin Yamamura of The Bee Capitol Bureau.
Script
SMITH: As an accounting professor, I teach my students to look at the fine print. So when the politicians behind our budget mess wrote Prop 1A, I read it closely. Turns out, their so-called “rainy day” fund includes a “supplemental account,” a loophole that lets them spend billions on pork barrel projects outside the regular budget.
And for all their talk about crisis, 1A won’t kick in for two years.
NARRATOR: Read the fine print for yourself at voterguide.sos.ca.gov.
SMITH: Vote no on 1A.
Analysis
The “loophole” criticism refers to the fact that Proposition 1A requires the state to eventually use half of the September “rainy-day” reserve transfer for infrastructure or debt retirement, which the No on 1A campaign dubs “pork barrel projects.”
If Proposition 1B fails, that would happen starting in 2011. If Proposition 1B passes, that would happen after the state repays schools $9.3 billion – not for several years after 2011.
While the measure does allow money to go toward public works projects, however, Proposition 1A generally places more restrictions on how the state uses its reserve than currently exist.
As it stands, the state is required to transfer 3 percent of its general fund into a reserve each September unless the governor suspends it. The governor and lawmakers already have the ability to spend that money on “pork barrel” projects or any other type of spending they deem appropriate.
Public employee unions opposed to 1A dislike the restrictions because they would rather have the reserve money go toward other state spending that supports their jobs.
The ad is correct that the measure would have no impact on the current budget crisis and that it would not take effect for another two years.
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Call Kevin Yamamura, Bee Capitol Bureau, (916) 326-5548.’
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http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-spendingcap17-2009may17,0,5260218.story
From the Los Angeles Times
Results mixed when voters set spending caps
Backers of Proposition 1A say it would control state spending, but similar plans elsewhere don’t always work as intended.
By Evan Halper
9:27 PM PDT, May 15, 2009
Reporting from Sacramento — The centerpiece of Tuesday’s ballot is pitched as a simple concept and as the path toward ending California’s repeated flirtations with financial ruin.
Voters are being asked to force Sacramento to build a huge savings account available for withdrawals almost exclusively in times of fiscal crisis. No longer would lawmakers be allowed to spend the windfalls the state receives when the economy is humming and revenue soars. Those extra billions would be socked away under Proposition 1A.
Similar plans are already in place in other states. They haven’t always produced the desired effect, though, and experts say it is impossible to predict whether the proposed spending controls would achieve the intended goal in California.
“It is challenging to get it just right,” said Susan Urahn, managing director of the Pew Center on the States. “There are a lot of unanswered questions about whether or not [spending limits] are a useful tool.”
The California measure is trailing in the polls, though not necessarily because voters oppose financial restraint. Many don’t like the fine print: As part of a deal lawmakers and the governor rushed together in the Capitol’s back rooms, Proposition 1A would also extend for up to two years billions of dollars in temporary tax hikes that recently took effect.
That very large caveat aside, even some supporters of the plan hedge when asked how effective it would be.
Former Assembly Speaker Bob Hertzberg, now co-chairman of California Forward, a think tank focused on solving the state’s budget problems, says voters should support the measure because a well-stocked savings account is always a good thing. But they should be under no illusion that it’s a cure-all.
“These spending caps are just artificial ways to not deal with the underlying problem,” he said.
An outdated and unpredictable tax structure that relies too much on windfalls of income, a dysfunctional and complex relationship with local governments, and the absence of stringent oversight on government spending are among the fundamental problems that Hertzberg says the state needs to tackle.
Some states that have experimented with spending controls found that they forced spending down so much that there was not enough money for basic government services.
In Colorado, for example, many of the same fiscal conservatives who sold voters on tough spending limits came back to the electorate several years later, asking that the controls be relaxed. Voters obliged after being warned that the state would otherwise be forced to abandon the repair of some essential roads and be deprived of other fundamental services.
California went through the same exercise decades ago. Voters capped state spending, through what is known as the Gann limit, in 1979 in the midst of a taxpayer revolt. The cap forced down spending so much that people panicked about school funding and voted to ease it in 1988, and relaxed it further in 1990.
Now the Gann limit allows so much spending that Sacramento didn’t come close to reaching it as the state ran up the latest deficit, projected at $21.3 billion if Tuesday’s ballot measures don’t pass.
In other states, lawmakers have found ways to step around spending controls without asking voters. Escape clauses are typical, providing governors and lawmakers with the option to raid their reserve funds or delay deposits.
Jean Ross, executive director of the nonprofit California Budget Project and an opponent of Proposition 1A, says Nevada and Arizona have spending caps on the books, yet their financial condition is as bad as, or worse than, California’s right now.
She says that of the five states with the smallest budget gaps this year, only one has a spending limit.
“These limits don’t always result in a better fiscal outcome,” she said.
Supporters of California’s bipartisan proposal say they have learned from the mistakes others have made in crafting spending controls.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and legislative leaders tried to strike a balance with Proposition 1A, giving it some of the teeth of the earlier tough spending limits enacted here and in other states while providing release valves intended to keep the measure from strangling government.
Under the plan, yearly state spending could grow only as much as state revenue grew, on average, during the previous 10 years. Analysts say that would allow for a roughly 5% annual increase.
If tax collections exceeded the sum the state was permitted to spend, the extra money would go to the rainy-day fund. The fund would be considered full when it reached 12.5% of overall state spending. That would currently amount to about $12 billion.
Once the fund is full, excess revenue could be used only for one-time purposes such as paying debt or rebates to taxpayers — not for long-term programs.
However, lawmakers could dodge the spending controls by raising taxes. That new revenue would not be subject to the cap for several years and could be used to boost spending beyond the 5% or so allowed.
The proposition would permit the state to tap the rainy-day fund for education if voters pass the accompanying Proposition 1B on Tuesday. It also would permit lawmakers to raise the amount they spend on public works — opponents say that could include pork projects — at the cost of healthcare, social services, law enforcement and other government programs.
What would the long-term effect of all this be?
1A and 1B are among six proposals that include the diversion of hundreds of millions of dollars from early childhood education and mental health programs, borrowing against the state lottery, and a salary freeze for elected state officials in deficit years. Experts say it’s fairly simple to predict the effects of most of the measures. But not so with the ballot’s signature proposal.
“There is no question it would have been a lot more helpful to have $12 billion in the bank this year instead of near nothing,” said Michael Cohen, chief deputy at the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office, which lawmakers look to for financial advice. “But it is hard to know how this would play out.
“There are a lot of moving parts here,” Cohen said. “The formulas in this proposal might not make sense for situations the state finds itself in in the future.”
Backers of 1A say that, at the very least, the measure would require more financial planning in a state that seems incapable of managing its books. California is the only state that never really closed its budget gap from the last recession — the deficit that helped move voters to throw Gov. Gray Davis out of office in the 2003 recall.
The state has since been pushing the problem into the future with accounting maneuvers and borrowing, and now finds itself — again — with a projected deficit that dwarfs those of other states.
Scott Pattison, executive director of the National Assn. of State Budget Officers, said he is not taking a position on Proposition 1A. But he did say the state might benefit from “anything that creates some discipline and a little more long-term thinking.”
evan.halper@latimes.com
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http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-week17-2009may17,0,2940925.story
From the Los Angeles Times
THE WEEK
Schwarzenegger’s doomsday message may be too late
Thanks to mail-in voting, about 2 million ballots were cast before he spoke.
By Cathleen Decker
May 17, 2009
Arnold Schwarzenegger unleashed Armageddon last week. No, not the sequel to the movie where the giant asteroid threatens Earth, but rather his proposed budget, which seemed to menace California.
There were two budgets, actually. One, which assumed voters would pass state ballot measures on Tuesday, would cut deeply into state services to address a $15.4-billion deficit. The other assumed the measures’ defeat. It would lay off thousands of workers, cut billions from schools, strip poor children of healthcare coverage, slice money for child welfare services, swipe billions from cities and send tens of thousands of convicts to county jails or federal custody, all to fill a yawning $21.3-billion hole.
Immediately, critics howled that the governor was stoking the fears of citizens. They implied that the governor was hoping fearful voters would storm polling places on Tuesday and reverse what surveys suggest is the looming defeat of the ballot measures.
Although politics was undeniably on the governor’s mind, that scenario ignored a California reality: Many of the state’s most reliable voters had already cast ballots by the time the governor released his doomsday options.
As of the close of last week, according to state voting officials, almost 2 million ballots had been collected at registrars’ offices across the state, a huge chunk of the vote for an election where turnout is otherwise expected to be paltry. Indeed, many voting officials expect that this will be the first statewide election in which mail-in ballots make up more than half of those cast.
The mail-in ballot has radically reshaped politics in California. The traditional political calendar, in which a campaign seeks to roar like a tsunami onto the beach on election day, flattening the opposition on momentum, is of little use when voters can cast ballots on any of the 29 days before election day.
Even television, the device most used by California campaigns to reach voters, loses some of its utility. Some campaigns — particularly those that, like the ballot measure advocates, are strapped for cash — figure their money is better spent appealing by phone and mail to reliable mail-in voters than lofting expensive ads to an audience dominated by people who won’t show up.
The demographics of mail-in voters, too, can alter the outcomes in races where turnout otherwise is expected to be low. Although the margins are narrowing, mail-in voters still tend to be older, more conservative, more white, more Republican and more Bay Area by residence than traditional precinct voters.
Part of the reason for each of those characteristics is the exceptionally low proportion of mail-in voters in the state’s biggest county, Los Angeles.
According to statistics gathered by the state elections officials, 17% of the county’s registered voters will be eligible to vote by mail on Tuesday, compared to the state average of 39%.
Although officials elsewhere have beaten the bushes to attract mail-in voters, Los Angeles has undertaken no special effort. The reason, county Registrar-Recorder Dean Logan said, is the numbers.
Los Angeles County has 4.3 million registered voters. Just over 750,000 are eligible to vote by mail in Tuesday’s election. That is more than the number of registered voters in 51 of the state’s 57 other counties. As it is, county elections officials are swimming in a sea of mailed ballots.
“We’re getting anywhere from 12,000 to 25,000 ballots back in the mail each day,” Logan said. “It literally takes up a floor in our building.”
Once retrieved from the post office, mail-in ballots need to be sorted by precinct, verified against voter signatures on file and prepared for counting. And this has to be done as workers are gearing up for the traditional precinct election, which in Los Angeles County on Tuesday will involve more than 3,000 polling places.
“It’s really the equivalent of two different elections at the same time,” Logan said.
In Los Angeles, as in the state, the numbers of mail-in voters are growing with each election. And they are having an intriguing effect on the task of getting California’s blasé voters to vote.
In November’s presidential election, turnout beat 80% in each of the 10 counties with the highest percentage of mail-in voters. Sonoma County, one of the success stories in mail-in voting, saw more than 93% of its voters cast ballots in November.
Of the 10 counties with the lowest percentage of mail-in voters, by contrast, only three counties hit 80%.
“Making it easier to vote tends to increase turnout,” said Joe Holland, the Santa Barbara County clerk-recorder and assessor. In his county, Holland said, up to 70% of mail-in voters take part, about double the proportion of non-mail voters.
Los Angeles County had its own experiment on the subject earlier this month, when San Marino voted on a parcel tax. In the mail-only election, more than 50% of voters cast ballots, a huge percentage for a special election. By contrast, a traditional April election in Arcadia drew less than 14%. And Los Angeles’ mayoral primary drew a bleak 17%.
For those trying to boost voter turnout, there is a central question about mail-in voters: Are they taking part because of the ease of voting from home, or are they signing up to vote by mail because they already are civic-minded? If the former is true, the numbers will grow exponentially; if it’s the latter, growth may at some point slow.
“I think both those dynamics are true,” said Logan, the Los Angeles voting czar. “There certainly are voters who are just very highly civically engaged, who signed up because they want to be sure they are voting in every election. . . . And there are others who are driven by the intuitive: Because it arrives in the mail, they are more likely to cast that ballot.”
cathleen.decker@latimes.com
Each Sunday, The Week examines one or more major stories and their implications. Previous editions of The Week are archived at latimes.com/theweek.
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http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-calstate-fees14-2009may14,0,1989171.story
From the Los Angeles Times
CSU trustees approve 10% hike in student fees
Officials of the 23-campus university system vote 17-2 in favor of the increase, which will tack an extra $306 to $378 on students’ annual bills, to offset state budget cuts.
By Gale Holland
10:35 PM PDT, May 13, 2009
California State University trustees Wednesday approved a 10% increase in undergraduate and graduate student fees for the coming school year, with one board member saying it was the only way to absorb deep funding cuts without turning away thousands of students and eliminating teaching posts.
“Until California changes its priorities . . . we only have bad choices,” Board of Trustees Chairman Jeffrey Bleich said before the 17-2 vote.
The hike of $306 a year for undergraduates will boost Cal State’s average annual basic fees to $3,354, beginning in the fall. For students pursuing their teaching credential, the increase means an additional $354 a year, and for other graduate students, an extra $378.
With room, board, books and additional fees imposed by each institution, the total cost of attendance for an undergraduate living on campus will now range from $16,752 a year at Cal State Bakersfield to $22,158 at San Francisco State, according to CSU estimates.
It was the sixth basic fee increase in seven years for the 23-campus university system, which educates 450,000 students a year. University leaders said the higher fees will offset state cuts in the system’s $2.6-billion budget, including $96 million in 2008-09 and an additional $57 million for 2009-10.
University officials said Cal State fees remain below those of similar institutions in other states, although critics said the comparisons discount California’s high cost of living.
Voting against the fee increase were Lt. Gov. John Garamendi and student trustee Curtis Grima, who attends Cal State Sacramento. Garamendi asked the board to reject the hike and instead to support AB 656, a proposed oil and natural gas severance tax whose revenues would go to the state’s higher education systems.
“The Legislature and the governor are pushing off on the board a tax increase on students and student families,” Garamendi said, calling the fee boost “a foolish and stupid tax.” His motion died for lack of a second.
Chancellor Charles B. Reed warned of possible further cuts to Cal State’s budget after Tuesday’s special election, which includes education funding measures that are widely expected to fail.
“I’ve been in government service for 45 years . . . and I have never seen anything like this,” Reed said. “It is nothing short of an economic meltdown. I don’t anticipate things getting better for 18 months or up to 24 months.”
Bowing to the inevitable, only a handful of students showed up at the meeting in Long Beach to protest the expected decision. But the speakers made up in passion what they lacked in numbers.
“I do not receive adequate financial aid to live on campus due to the fact that all the members of my household are working . . . to pay the rent,” Cal State Northridge student Daniel Santana told the board. “I work two jobs and take the bus three hours each way from South-Central Los Angeles just to get to school.”
“You’ve heard Cal State students walk in here year after year with heartfelt stories,” said Dominguez Hills senior Kayla Mason. Breaking into tears, she continued, “Yet nothing changes.” The trustees’ action followed a vote last week by University of California regents to raise undergraduate student fees for the fall by 9.3%.
gale.holland@latimes.com
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Cost of attending UCI to rise at least $662
May 15th, 2009, 5:00 am · Post a Comment · posted by Gary Robbins, science writer-editor
Orange County Register
The UC Board of Regents has increased fees for resident undergraduates by 9.3 percent — or $662. The vote means the basic cost of attending UC Irvine — Orange County’s largest research institution — and the nine other UC campuses will rise to at least $7,788 during the 2009-10 academic year and could average $8,720 if campuses impose other fees, the UC Office of the President says in an analysis.
UC officials say (read statement) that the system might have to impose further fee increases, and trim enrollment, if the state’s voters defeat Proposition 1A on the May 19 ballot. The initiative is meant to increase reserves in the state’s general fund.
The news isn’t entirely bad: The UC also says that more state and federal financial aid will be made available to students.
“Taken together, these programs are expected to provide, on average, between $1,150 and $1,500 in additional resources to UC undergraduate families with incomes below $180,000 — fully offsetting the cost of the $662 fee increase for most of those families,” the UC says in its budget analysis.
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Conflict? Councilwoman backs $24 million tax break for upscale hotel near her upscale bar
May 15th, 2009, 3:00 am · posted by Teri Sforza, Register staff writer
Orange County Register
So the Fair Political Practices Commission is sniffing around about a potential conflict of interest for Anaheim City Councilwoman Lucille Kring. Again.
Kring has a wine bar called Pop the Cork in the (somewhat-slow-to-take-off) Anaheim GardenWalk, which is a stone’s throw from Disneyland (if you have a good arm).
Pop the Cork is also in rather intimate proximity to the new chi-chi, four-star, Las Vegas-style hotel that the City Council approved on March 31 (drawing above) at Harbor and Katella boulevards.
Now, the city council also voted to extend a rather generous subsidy/incentive/tax break to the developer of this hotel, valued at some $24 million or $44 million (depending on who you ask) over the next 15 years.
So when Kring (left) voted in favor of said subsidy for an upscale hotel so close to her upscale wine bar, she “enriched herself,” says the complaint to the Fair Political Practices Commission. (Click below for a resort map to see where these things are in relation to one another; to puzzle over why a developer needed help to build at one of America’s primo tourist intersections; and to learn how the incentives work.)
Anyway, the complaint was filed by the rather colorful director of the anti-Disney group
Anaheim HOME (Home Owners Maintaining their Environment), William D. Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald also filed the last complaint about Kring with the Fair Political Practices Commission last year.
(We note here that Fitzgerald’s middle name is Denis, and most of his friends call him Denis, but he was rather upset that we used his full name in an earlier story because ”the newspaper only uses full names for criminals.” So, we avoid his full name here.)
AGAIN?
Kring sounded a bit weary when we talked to her about all this. “He does that all the time with me,” she said of Fitzgerald’s complaint. “This is the second or third time. I’ve known him for years. We were both members Anaheim Republican Assembly. He has written me checks.”
Last year, the Fair Political Practices Commission advised Kring that she is responsible for deciding if she must abstain from voting on projects that would financially benefit her bar. It gave her eight standards to weigh when determining if she has a conflict, one of which is: Does she stand to gain $20,000 or more a year from customers at the project?
(At, say, $10 a glass, that would be an extra 2,000 glasses of wine sold to hotel customers.)
Anaheim’s city attorney, meanwhile, has said that unless a project is within 500 feet of Pop the Cork, Kring should be able to vote without a problem.
Kring has already said she’ll abstain from voting on projects within GardenWalk itself.
“I never, ever, ever make a vote that has a possibility of a conflict,” Kring said. “If they said I had one, I would have opted out, but they analyzed it, and according to everything in the books, I did not have a conflict….I’m a very conservative Republican. I don’t know how I enhanced myself when it won’t be built for three to four years.”
While HOME’s Fitzgerald suspects that Disney is behind the chi-chi hotel development (and is going to pocket that $24-or-so million), Kring suspects that HOME would stop complaining if the council put the kibosh on Disneyland’s nightly
fireworks. ”Unfortunately, we’d be hanged in effigy if we stopped those fireworks,” said Kring, taking words out of the mouths of Disney Annual Passholders everywhere.
FOUR STARS/$24 MILLION
The new hotel in will be at 1820 South Harbor Blvd., the southeastern bit of the intersection.
Lake Development of Newport Beach will build a nine-story, 252-room luxury hotel with rooftop night club, two-level sky lofts, and 8th floor sky lounge with an indoor/outdoor water feature and retractable roof, etc. etc. It will rise where the agonizingly ordinary Zaby’s Motor Lodge (photo right) now stands.
Thing is, it looks like the market can only sustain a 3-star hotel here.
But the city wants a 4-star hotel, to help round out the lodging mix.
So, the developer would only build the 4-star hotel with “financial incentives.”
The city laid the ground work for this last year, when it “recognized the economics of a high-end hotel were difficult” and adopted an incentive program.
Luxury hotels would pay city bed taxes as if they were three-star, rather than four-star, establishments; the luxury hotels would get to keep the difference.
This is the first project approved under that program.
So just how much money does that work out to over 15 years? Well, it’s a guess, but Pringle said $24 million. Councilwoman Lorri Galloway – the council’s lone Democrat, and lone vote against the incentive – calculated it to be more like $44 million, according to the meeting minutes.
Councilman Bob Hernandez argued it was more of an investment than a subsidy, and the eventual return would be much larger than the investment.
Councilman Harry Sidhu stressed that the property was earning “zero dollars” now, and the hotel development would create jobs and spur the economy.
Kring also voiced her support, “stating you build in poor times and open in good times, and this high-end construction would add a true entrance to the Resort area.”
Glass of wine, anyone?
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http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-election18-2009may18,0,2568556.story
From the Los Angeles Times
Schwarzenegger pleads for passage of ballot measures
California’s governor visits three Los Angeles churches to try to convince voters of the need for the measures to be approved in Tuesday’s special election, to help fix the state’s fiscal crisis.
By Cathleen Decker and Michael Finnegan
6:23 PM PDT, May 17, 2009
Battling anger and indifference on the part of California voters, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger implored them Sunday not to make the state “the poster child for dysfunction” by defeating a host of measures on Tuesday’s ballot that seek to restructure the state’s bleak finances.
The governor’s visits to three African American churches in Los Angeles came as proponents and opponents of the ballot measures marshaled the last of the millions of dollars they have collected for the special election. Schwarzenegger said Sunday he had been told that about 25% of voters are expected to show up, a paltry percentage that underscores the difficulty of the quest for reliable voters.
Schwarzenegger, accompanied by Assembly Speaker Karen Bass and other officials, sought Sunday to summon a strong turnout by a voter bloc traditionally concerned about cutbacks in government programs of the sort the governor has threatened if the measures are defeated.
“We are at a crossroads,” he told congregants at West Angeles Church of God in Christ. “Do we want to go . . . down the road of financial disaster or do we want to go and get up, dust ourselves off and slowly march back toward prosperity? That is the question on Tuesday.”
But even among the church crowds who listened to the official pitch there was skepticism about the proposals. Jo Evelyn Payne, 62, a retired loan servicing assistant who lives in Inglewood, said she was wavering over the package. She said she had little faith in California ballot measures and also mistrusts Schwarzenegger.
“I’ve never been able to see the money go to where they say it’s going,” said Payne, clutching a Bible outside the newly renovated Second Baptist Church, where Schwarzenegger also spoke. “I’m not entirely convinced that if we pass it, that the money’s going to go where they say it’s going to go.”
Judith Younger, 49, a Santa Monica resident who works at LAX, said she had been leaning toward supporting at least Propositions 1A and 1B but changed her mind after reading “the fine print.”
“I was discouraged and felt betrayed,” she said between spoonfuls of yogurt on the church’s front steps. “I don’t think it’s going to help.”
The sheer complexity of the ballot measures was only one of the reasons that polls showed most of them lagging among voters likely to cast ballots. With employment and savings plummeting, voters forced to tighten their own belts were responding angrily to a demand from state officials for more money. And many voters appear to be throwing up their hands at the constant call to the polls.
Schwarzenegger and other officials were trying to tamp down those sentiments. “We understand that anger,” the governor said. “We understand that frustration.”
But, he added in a brief news conference after he spoke at First A.M.E. Church, “The people should know that this is about California’s legacy, this is about California’s future, because I think that we should not become . . . the poster child for dysfunction. We should be known as the state where everything is possible.”
Even without a highly organized, money-heavy campaign or many rallying events, the opponents of the ballot measures were confident they had voters on their side.
“We’ve got our Internet networks up and we’re cranking out last-minute information, but we’re doing it on the cheap and it’s been effective so far,” said Jon Coupal, president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers’ Assn.
The ballot measures were the product of a budget deal earlier this year between Schwarzenegger and lawmakers. Proposition 1A would boost the state’s rainy day fund, invoke a spending cap and trigger the extension of recent tax hikes for up to two years. Proposition 1B would begin to restore cuts to schools if 1A is also approved. Proposition 1C would allow officials to borrow $5 billion in state lottery money for general purposes. Propositions 1D and 1E would transfer money for budget use that currently is set aside for children’s and mental health services. Proposition F, the only one that polls show voters leaning toward approving, would ban raises for legislators and state officeholders in years when California runs a deficit.
The propositions not only have been complicated for voters to understand but also fragmented the state’s typical electoral architecture. Republicans were forced to choose whether a spending cap that they have long sought outweighed a temporary extension of taxes. Democrats were pinched between a spending cap they have abhorred and the fact that if it fails, the money taken in the past from education would not be repaid. Labor groups that have marched in lockstep for years, often against Schwarzenegger, were suddenly split, with many of the more prominent ones allied with their former foe.
Amid it all, money poured into the campaigns. Between Schwarzenegger and the California Teachers Assn.’s fundraising efforts, more than $25 million had been raised by the weekend, and $3 million more had been raised by backers of Proposition 1C, the $5-billion lottery measure. Among the contributions in recent days were $340,000 from the state Democratic Central Committee and $150,000 from SEIU Local 99, the Los Angeles City and County School Employees Union.
“Some people say it’s too late, but we’ll leave that to the voters to decide,” said Bob Mulholland, the Democratic Party’s senior advisor.
SEIU’s financial decisions testified to the unusual tenor of the campaign. While Schwarzenegger and his allies were begging for a straight yes vote on all the propositions, SEIU and its locals were the biggest donors to 1C but also contributed $1.3 million against Proposition 1A, the second-largest amount given to that campaign.
Along with the statewide measures on the special election ballot are several local matters. In Los Angeles, voters will decide the new city attorney and the District 5 City Council member. Replacement elections are also being held for the 26th state Senate and 32nd Congressional Districts, whose incumbents have moved on to new jobs.
cathleen.decker@latimes.com
michael.finnegan@latimes.com
Times staff writer Eric Bailey contributed to this report.
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http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editorials/la-ed-endorse17-2009may17,0,3821948.story
From the Los Angeles Times
ENDORSEMENTS 2009
Yes on Props. 1A, 1C, 1D, 1E and 1F
No on Prop 1B
The budget propositions must pass to prevent even more draconian actions.
May 17, 2009
Californians face a special election Tuesday amid deep recession, fiscal emergency, voter anger and the latest chapter of an ongoing quandary: Pay more when we can least afford it, or cut essential programs when we need them most?
It would be easier to embrace or reject a
Diane Lenning is running for CA State Supt of Public Instruction 2010. She has been visiting this page and the page that I made her. She is answering questions. Please visit the link below if you have any questions for this candidate. She wants to fix mismanaged districts. I intend to continue to write to her about my opinions on education whether it helps or not. Maybe she will win and she will change everything…who knows? All we can do is….TRY
Diane Lenning answers your questions
Publication:Freedom – Orange County Register; Date:Aug. 19, 2009; Section:Front Page; Page Number:News 1
Test scores keep improving
Local students in all grades boosted their results this year.
Orange County’s public school students have again outperformed peers statewide on state tests in English, math and other core subjects.
Scores for local students on the California Standards Tests have also increased for the seventh straight year. More than 381,000 students in grades two through 11 took the tests this spring. English and math scores increased over last year for all grades tested.
Still, many educators continue to be disappointed in the achievement gap between white and Asian students, and Latino and black students. Students from different socio-economic backgrounds also showed disparate results. NEWS 2
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Publication:Freedom – Orange County Register; Date:Aug. 19, 2009; Section:Front Page; Page Number:News 2
Scores up in math, English
Local students also outscore peers statewide on California Standards Tests.
By FERMIN LEAL THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
For the seventh straight year, Orange County’s public school students made steady gains on state tests measuring how well they’re learning math, English and other core subjects, figures released today reveal.
Results from the California Standards Tests also show that local students continue to surpass students statewide.
“These results are a direct reflection of the focused, hard work of our teachers, support staff, administrators, and school boards who ensure high quality instruction every day,” county Superintendent William Habermehl said.
English and mathematics scores increased over the past year for all grades tested. The largest improvement in English was by 6 percentage points in grades three, four and six. The largest improvement in math was by 7 percentage in grades four and five.
Between 49 percent and 69 percent of students countywide in grades two through 11 scored proficient or above, the passing rate in English tests, while between 52 percent and 70 percent passed math in grades two through seven.
Statewide, between 40 percent and 61 percent passed in English, while between 43 percent and 66 percent passed in math. About 4.7 million California students were tested.
The California Standards Tests were administered in the spring to 381,000 students countywide in grades two through 11. These results, along with other measurements, are used to create a school’s Academic Performance Index. They also help determine whether schools meet testing targets required by No Child Left Behind. API and No Child Left Behind scores will be released Sept. 2.
OXFORD BRINGS IN SOME PERFECT SCORES
Many educators give credit for the yearly improvements to California’s standardized curriculum, called content standards, developed 10 years ago so teachers can prepare students for testing just by following daily lesson plans. Some critics say this forces “teaching to the tests” and limits classroom creativity.
Oxford Academy in Cypress had the highest scores on English tests among all secondary schools. One hundred percent of students in grades seven, nine, 10 and 11 at the magnet school for Anaheim Union High School District passed English tests.
Irvine Unified had the highest overall scores among the county’s 27 school districts. Between 82 percent and 87 percent of Irvine students passed math tests, while between 67 percent and 90 percent passed in English.
Jean Mylen, principal at Vista Verde School in Irvine, said she was thrilled with her school’s scores. Between 76 percent and 99 percent of students passed in English, while between 77 percent and 92 percent passed in math.
Mylen credits collaboration among teachers at all grade levels and an intervention program for struggling students.
“We have really tremendous teachers and staff that do a fantastic job of working together,” Mylen said. “That has helped push our scores.”
El Sol Science and Arts Academy, a charter school in Santa Ana that opened in 2001, has made some of the largest jumps on math scores over recent years.
This year, 99 percent of second-graders and 95 percent of third-graders passed in math. Four years ago, only 14 percent passed in math from both grades.
Principal Alberto Hananel credits El Sol’s success to a new after-school program aimed at struggling students.
“We have a very strong teaching team that provides an extension of the school day for those students who need the extra help,” he said.
Hananel also credited a new math curriculum from the MIND Research Institute that allows students to learn math through computer games.
Besides English and math, students in upper grades are tested in science and social science, including chemistry, biology, world history and U.S. history.
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Monday, August 17, 2009
State releasing STAR results Tuesday
More than 400,000 students across Orange County took these tests in the spring.
By FERMIN LEAL
The Orange County Register
The state on Tuesday will release results of the slew of tests in math, English and other core subjects administered to more than 400,000 public school students this spring.
Results for the Standardized Testing and Reporting, or STAR, program include scores for the California Standards Tests, the Standards-based Tests in Spanish, California Modified Assesment, and California Alternate Performance Assessment.
Students in grades 2-11 in Orange County’s nearly 600 public schools took these tests. STAR results, along with other measurements, are used to determine schools’ Academic Performance Index and federal No Child Left Behind scores. Those will be available Sept. 2.
Last year, from 44 percent to 63 percent of students in the county scored proficient, the passing rate, or better in English on the California Standards Tests. From 50 percent to 65 percent of students in math in grades 2 through 7 passed.
Local scores have been steadily improving on these tests for six straight years.
This year’s STAR results will be available at 10 a.m. on Tuesday here.
Contact the writer: 714-704-3773 or fleal@ocregister.com
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Tuesday, August 18, 2009
CHARTS: 2009 California Standards Test
Top score highlights, school-by-school breakdowns.
By FERMIN LEAL
The Orange County Register
The 2009 Standardized Testing and Reporting (STAR) results show that, once again, Orange County students test scores continue to improve. There are 37 different tests in the CST alone. This file includes key links to school data, a summary for English and Math scores, and individual links to each school’s scores on Great Schools, the Register’s data partner.
DISTRICT-BY-DISTRICT SCHOOL SCORE LINKS (click for list)
Anaheim City School District
Anaheim Union High School District
Brea-Olinda Unified School District
Buena Park Elementary School District
Capistrano Unified School District
Centralia Elementary School District
Cypress School District
Fountain Valley Elementary School District
Fullerton School District
Fullerton Joint Union High School District
Garden Grove Unified School District
Huntington Beach City School District
Huntington Beach Union High School District
Irvine Unified School District
La Habra City Elementary School District
Laguna Beach Unified School District
Los Alamitos Unified School District
Lowell Joint School District
Magnolia Elementary School District
Newport-Mesa Unified School District
Ocean View School District
Orange Unified School District
Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District
Saddleback Valley School District
Santa Ana Unified School District
Savanna Elementary School District
Tustin Unified School District
Westminster Elementary School District
Orange County Highlights
Second Grade English
Rank District School % Tested % At Or Above Proficient
1CentraliaLos Coyotes Elementary10097
2Orange UnifiedChapman Hills Elementary97.595
3Irvine UnifiedTurtle Rock Elementary10094
4Los Alamitos UnifiedWeaver Elementary10094
5Cypress ElementaryMorris Elementary10092
Second Grade Math
Rank District School % Tested % At Or Above Proficient
1Orange UnifiedChapman Hills Elementary97.5100
2Santa Ana UnifiedEl Sol Charter10099
3Capistrano UnifiedLadera Ranch Elementary10098
4H.B. CityHuntington Seacliffe Elementary10098
5Los Alamitos UnifiedHopkinson Elementary10097
Third grade English
Rank District School % Tested % At Or Above Proficient
1Los Alamitos UnifiedWeaver Elementary10093
2Newport-Mesa UnifiedAndersen Elementary9791
3Tustin UnifiedPeters Canyon Elementary97.890
4Irvine UnifiedStone Creek Elementary10089
5Irvine UnifiedCanyon View Elementary96.686
Third grade Math
Rank District School % Tested % At Or Above Proficient
1Tustin UnifiedLadera Elementary98.898
2Capistrano UnifiedTijeras Creek Elementary96.297
3Los Alamitos UnifiedWeaver Elementary10097
4Santa Ana UnifiedEl Sol Charter10095
5Irvine UnifiedBrywood Elementary9294
Fourth Grade English
Rank District School % Tested % At Or Above Proficient
1Newport-Mesa UnifiedAndersen Elementary98.5100
2Orange UnifiedPanorama Elementary93.2100
3Irvine UnifiedVista Verde10099
4Irvine UnifiedStone Creek Elementary98.999
5Orange UnifiedChapman Hills Elementary10099
Fourth Grade Math
Rank District School % Tested % At Or Above Proficient
1Fullerton ElementaryFisler Elementary97.999
2Garden Grove UnifiedAllen Elementary98.498
3Placentia-Yorba LindaBrookhaven Elementary91.298
4Cypress ElementaryDickerson Elementary89.897
5Garden Grove UnifiedBarker Elementary88.697
Fifth Grade English
Rank District School % Tested % At Or Above Proficient
1Irvine UnifiedCanyon View Elementary98.496
2Irvine UnifiedStone Creek Elementary10095
3Los Alamitos UnifiedWeaver Elementary10095
4Garden Grove UnifiedAllen Elementary10094
5Irvine UnifiedTurtle Rock Elementary10094
Fifth Grade Math
Rank District School % Tested % At Or Above Proficient
1Garden Grove UnifiedAllen Elementary99.297
2Irvine UnifiedTurtle Rock Elementary10097
3Los Alamitos UnifiedWeaver Elementary10096
4Brea-Olinda UnifiedOlinda Elementary9694
5H.B. CityHuntington Seacliffe Elementary96.594
Sixth Grade English
Rank District School % Tested % At Or Above Proficient
1Irvine UnifiedAlderwood Basics Plus10097
2Garden Grove UnifiedAllen Elementary99.296
3Irvine UnifiedTurtle Rock Elementary99.396
4Westminster ElementarySequoia Elementary91.896
5Fullerton ElementaryLaguna Road Elementary10094
Sixth Grade Math
Rank District School % Tested % At Or Above Proficient
1Irvine UnifiedTurtle Rock Elementary99.398
2Garden Grove UnifiedAllen Elementary10093
3Westminster ElementarySequoia Elementary95.993
4Irvine UnifiedUniversity Park Elementary9192
5Irvine UnifiedCanyon View Elementary9592
Seventh Grade English
Rank District School % Tested % At Or Above Proficient
1Anaheim UnionOxford Academy100100
2Fullerton ElementaryBeechwood Elementary10094
3Irvine UnifiedPlaza Vista9992
4Los Alamitos UnifiedMcAuliffe Middle97.191
5Irvine UnifiedSierra Vista Middle96.889
Seventh Grade Math
Rank District School % Tested % At Or Above Proficient
1Anaheim UnionOxford Academy77.399
2Irvine UnifiedPlaza Vista94.990
3Irvine UnifiedSierra Vista Middle82.486
4Fullerton ElementaryFisler Elementary82.683
5Irvine UnifiedLakeside Middle89.183
Eighth Grade English
Rank District School % Tested % At Or Above Proficient
1Anaheim UnionOxford Academy10099
2Irvine UnifiedVista Verde10092
3Irvine UnifiedSan Joaquin High10089
4Orange UnifiedMcPherson Magnet98.989
5Irvine UnifiedPlaza Vista10088
Eighth Grade Algebra 1
Rank District School % Tested % At Or Above Proficient
1Orange UnifiedCerro Villa Middle20.9101
2Capistrano UnifiedAvila Middle25.3100
3Fullerton ElementaryBeechwood Elementary35.4100
4Fullerton ElementaryLadera Vista Juinior High20.6100
5Fullerton ElementaryParks Junior High45.7100
Ninth grade English
Rank District School % Tested % At Or Above Proficient
1Anaheim UnionOxford Academy100100
2Santa Ana UnifiedHigh Scool of the Arts99.693
3Fullerton Joint UnionTroy High9689
4Irvine UnifiedNorthwood High9886
5Los Alamitos UnifiedLos Alamitos High99.586
10th grade English
Rank District School % Tested % At Or Above Proficient
1Anaheim UnionOxford Academy100100
2Fullerton Joint UnionTroy High97.785
3Santa Ana UnifiedHigh School of the Arts99.284
4Newport-Mesa UnifiedEarly College High10082
5Irvine UnifiedNorthwood High97.580
11th grade English
Rank District School % Tested % At Or Above Proficient
1Anaheim UnionOxford Academy100100
2Santa Ana UnifiedMiddle College High10085
3Fullerton Joint UnionTroy High9781
4Newport-Mesa UnifiedOrange Coast 10081
5Santa Ana UnifiedHigh School of the Arts98.881
Santa Ana Unified School District
Abraham Lincoln Elementary
Adams Elementary
Andrew Jackson Elementary
Carl Harvey Elementary
Century High
Cesar E. Chavez High
Community Day Intermediate and High
Diamond Elementary
Douglas MacArthur Fundamental Intermedia
Edward B. Cole Academy
El Sol Santa Ana Science and Arts Academ
Franklin Elementary
Frederick Remington Elementary
Fremont Elementary
Garfield Elementary
George Washington Carver Elementary
Gerald P. Carr Intermediate
Gonzalo Felicitas Mendez Fundamental Int
Greenville Fundamental Elementary
Hector G. Godinez
Hoover Elementary
Jefferson Elementary
Jim Thorpe Fundamental
John F. Kennedy Elementary
John Muir Fundamental Elementary
Jose Sepulveda Elementary
Julia C. Lathrop Intermediate
Lorin Griset Academy
Lowell Elementary
Lydia Romero-Cruz Elementary
Madison Elementary
Manuel Esqueda Elementary
Martin Elementary
Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary
Martin R. Heninger Elementary
McFadden Intermediate
Middle College High
Monroe Elementary
Monte Vista Elementary
Nova Academy Early College High
Orange County Educational Arts Academy
Orange County High School of the Arts
Pio Pico Elementary
Raymond A. Villa Fundamental Intermediat
Saddleback High
Santa Ana High
Santiago Elementary
Segerstrom High
Sierra Intermediate
Spurgeon Intermediate
Taft Elementary
Theodore Roosevelt Elementary
Thomas A. Edison Elementary
Valley High
Walker Elementary
Wallace R. Davis Elementary
Washington Elementary
Willard Intermediate
Wilson Elementary
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Publication:Freedom – Orange County Register; Date:Aug. 19, 2009; Section:Front Page; Page Number:News 2
STAR results and what they mean
By FERMIN LEAL THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Q: What is the STAR program?
A: The Standardized Testing and Reporting program is a series of tests administered to public school students in grades 2-11 each spring.
The purpose of the STAR Program is to help measure how well students are learning required academic skills in math, English and other core subjects.
Q: What tests make up STAR?
A: The STAR Program has four components:
California Standards Tests. About 400,000 of the county’s 500,000 students take these exams, testing math, English, science and social sciences.
Standards-based Tests in Spanish. For Spanishspeaking English learners who either received instruction in Spanish or were enrolled in a school in the United States for less than 12 months.
California Alternate Performance Assessment or the California Modified Assessment. For students with moderate to severe learning disabilities who were unable to take the CSTs.
Q: How are the STAR test results used?
A: Teachers, parents, and students use individual STAR results to help monitor each student’s academic progress.
Individual student results are merged to prepare grade-level reports by subject for each school, district, county and the state.
The results are used with other information about student achievement to help make decisions about ways to improve student learning.
STAR results are also components of the Academic Performance Index, a compilation of scores used by the state to judge school performance. These scores also help determine whether schools make “adequate yearly progress” as required under the federal No Child Left Behind law.
API and No Child Left Behind scores will be released Sept. 2.
Q: Where can parents go if they have questions about their child’s performance on the California STAR tests?
A. Parents should begin with their child’s teachers. Additional information may be available through the school office.
Parents can also visit the state’s Adequate Yearly Progress Web site at ayp.cde.ca.gov, or the Standardized Testing and Reporting Program Web site at star.cde.ca.gov/.
California School Board Association
CTC OKs Communication Development authorization for special education teachers
A new Communication Development authorization for teachers will reportedly make California the first state to address the need for teachers who are prepared to help students develop essential communication, language and literacy skills in a classroom setting. The California Commission on Teacher Credentialing approved regulations for the authorization Aug. 6 and will develop standards to guide development of appropriate teacher preparation programs following an Office of Administrative Law review. The result of more than 2½ years of outreach and study, the regulations are based on a 2007 CTC “Report on the Study of Special Education Certification,” which is posted here.
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Monday, August 17, 2009
Sheriff lays off 2 assistants, 5 captains
Department looking at trimming $28 million over next 2 years.
By KIMBERLY EDDS
The Orange County Register
SANTA ANA – Two assistant sheriffs and five captains were told Monday that they are being laid off as part of a dramatic department restructuring to help weather tough economic times.
A sixth captain volunteered to retire after 30 years of service.
In a department memo, Sheriff Sandra Hutchens laid out the changes to her staff as part of a plan to trim $28 million from the department’s budget. Department officials refused to say who had been laid off, but organizational charts provided to the Register made the cuts clear.
Among the layoff casualties were Assistant Sheriff Jack Anderson, who served as acting sheriff for five months before being appointed to oversee department administration, and J.B. Davis, who headed investigations. The department is also looking at cutting an additional $60 million from its budget for the next fiscal year, Hutchens said.
The layoffs will be effective within 45 days, Sheriff’s Department spokesman Jim Amormino said.
“For me, this has been one of the most difficult and gut-wrenching of tasks,” Hutchens wrote.
Several sections within the department were consolidated.
Assistant Sheriff Mike Hillman, who came to the Sheriff’s Department from the Los Angeles Police Department, will oversee field operations and investigative services.
Assistant Sheriff Michael James, who has been charged with overhauling the county’s jail system, will now also be in charge of court operations.
Executive Director Rick Dostal will take over for Anderson, overseeing administration.
Of the remaining nine captains, two will serve as area commanders, helping the two remaining assistant sheriffs with their expanded responsibilities, Hutchens said.
In a department memo titled “Thank you,” Anderson announced he would leave the department in September after 23 years of service.
Anderson took over at the beleaguered Sheriff’s Department in January 2008. Sheriff Mike Carona named Anderson, a Carona supporter and part of the local GOP’s central committee, to take his place after he resigned to fight his federal corruption case.
Anderson took over promising continued public safety, denying any dark clouds and looking ahead to a run for office in 2010. But his reign was soon overshadowed by revelations that he ordered his staff to delete e-mails sent to hundreds of deputies inviting them to a fundraiser for his political rival.
Anderson applied to the county Board of Supervisors to be named a permanent replacement for Carona, but lost out to Hutchens, a retired division chief for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.
“While my career has had many professional highpoints, it will be the time I was honored to lead our great department for five months as the acting sheriff that I will hold most fondly,” Anderson wrote. “With the support of the department’s members, county leadership and the community, I was privileged to successfully lead the department toward ensuring that the delivery of quality public safety services was uninterrupted. Exercising authentic leadership, I tried my best to lead using a moral compass and applying the principles of integrity, accountability and transparency.”
The “layoffs were not based on performance,” Hutchens wrote. “They were based on the elimination or consolidation of functions and were made solely of our current financial situation.”
Departments across the county were forced to cut back when supervisors adopted this year’s budget in June, but the Sheriff’s Department took the biggest hit.
In all, the sheriff plans to lay off up to 30 more employees and eliminate 51 vacant positions. Nearly 200 positions would be affected, either through layoffs, shifted roles to reduce overtime or to fill necessary roles, or demotions. Laying off the assistant sheriffs and captains will save an estimated $2.2 million, according to the department.
The county’s Probation Department laid off 93 employees last month and will close Los Pinos, a minimum-security youth camp for offenders that has been plagued by escapes.
The district attorney laid off seven welfare-fraud investigators last month and one supervisor for that division, spokeswoman Susan Schroeder said.
County budget director Frank Kim’s budget briefing says the district attorney is meeting with labor unions to discuss a department-wide furlough plan to coincide with court closures. Schroeder said Friday that the department is negotiating and all options remain on the table, including furloughs and more layoffs.
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latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-felner18-2009aug18,0,7578038.story
latimes.com
Opinion
Opening California cell doors can free up needed budget money
Rather than playing to fears that dangerous criminals will be released, state officials should be explaining that a court order to reduce the prison population dovetails with the need to cut costs.
By Jamie Fellner
August 18, 2009
On Aug. 4, a panel of three federal judges ordered California to reduce its prison population to address grossly deficient medical and mental healthcare systems behind bars. The ruling makes for harrowing reading.
Because of massive overcrowding, the court noted, California’s prisons have become perilous places where inmates and staff are at risk of disease, mental illness and death. Inmates face “incompetence, indifference, cruelty and neglect.” Preventable deaths occur weekly. Psychotic inmates are left untended. And serving a term under these conditions makes prisoners more likely to commit new crimes when they are released.
This was not the first time California was ordered to change. But after almost two decades of litigation, remedial plans, goals and measurements, receivers and special masters, the state’s prison medical and mental healthcare systems have scarcely improved. Any gains have been quickly swept away by the ongoing tsunami of a growing prison population.
Conditions are so horrific that four former and current heads of prison systems in California and other states — including two who have never before testified on behalf of prison plaintiffs and most likely never will again — testified against the state and agreed that drastic action was necessary.
No one in California ever intended the prison system to operate at almost double its intended capacity. But no one took care of the problem either.
Numerous private and public commissions chronicled the conflict between an ever-expanding prison population and constrained resources. They put forward eminently sensible solutions to staunch the inflow of prisoners without compromising public safety — reducing returns to prison for minor parole violations, reducing recidivism by providing programs to prisoners that would equip them to succeed on the outside, and reforming senselessly harsh mandatory sentencing.
But their carefully marshaled evidence and arguments have been ignored. Whether from a lack of will, clout or guts, California officials failed to avert this long-foreseeable crisis.
Nearly three years ago, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger finally recognized the “conditions of extreme peril” in his state’s prisons and declared a state of emergency. Since then, though, he has done little more to address the problem than to blame the Legislature. The Legislature, a remarkably fractious, undisciplined and unprincipled body by any measure, in turn has proved effective at blocking good ideas to reduce the prison population — and ineffective at approving any.
So it has been up to the courts. The genius of the country’s founders was to create a system that authorizes federal courts to act when the executive and legislative branches acquiesce — through sins of omission or commission — to blatant constitutional violations.
The court’s decision that the state must cut its prison population by 40,000 over two years comes at a propitious moment. Because of the unprecedented budget crisis, the state must reduce its expenditures — among which prison costs figure greatly.
The fiscal imperative of cutting corrections expenditures thus dovetails with the constitutional imperative of reducing overcrowding. Reducing the prison population will also free up resources needed to improve medical and mental healthcare and for expanding cost-effective, community-based rehabilitation programs that will in turn help reduce the prison population even further.
Unfortunately, Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown, eyeing a possible run for governor, talks of appealing the federal judges’ decision. That would be foolish. He should sit down with corrections officials, legislators and other stakeholders to help map out sensible ways to meet the court’s order — the court left it up to the state to determine how best to cut the population; for example, by keeping more low-level nonviolent offenders out of prison and by releasing the elderly and disabled.
Instead of pandering to the public’s fears, Brown and other state officials should explain that the court order does not mean that dangerous murderers and rapists will be released. Instead, a smaller prison population will enhance community safety, as well as meet the dictates of the U.S. Constitution, common sense and fiscal responsibility.
No other state faces a prison crisis as acute as California’s. But most face the pressure of relentless prison population growth, and all of them face strained budgets. Many already have woefully deficient prison medical and mental healthcare services.
Absent a miraculous and massive infusion of cash, states face a choice. They can reduce prison populations by instituting sensible criminal-justice policies, reserving prison for dangerous offenders and using alternative strategies for low-level, nonviolent offenders and parole violators. Or they can go the California route and let the crisis get steadily worse until the courts intervene.
One can only hope that economic necessity and the court order will finally lead California to do the right thing. It remains to be seen whether and when other states will follow suit.
Jamie Fellner is senior counsel for the U.S. program of Human Rights Watch.
Copyright © 2009, The Los Angeles Times
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Court Rules Santa Ana Illegally Issued Tickets From Red-Light Cameras
By Matt Coker in A Clockwork Orange, Crime & Sex
Tuesday, Aug. 18 2009 @ 7:34AM
To read the ruling of Orange County Superior Court Commissioner Kenneth Schwartz, the city of Santa Ana has been issuing tickets off red-light cameras illegally since their 2003 debut, but according to the court’s website police officers continued writing citations after Schwartz’s ruling was filed on Aug. 5.
Schwartz found David Murray and Lori Ann Alecnavicius not guilty of violating Vehicle Code section 21453(a)–failing to stop at a red signal light–at the intersections of Bristol Street and Edinger Avenue and Dyer Road and Pullman Avenue respectively. Both defendants had been issued tickets by the city of Santa Ana through the automated enforcement system–commonly referred to as red-light cameras–at those intersections.
The city complied with the state vehicle code in 2003 when the first red-light cameras were introduced with public notification and 30-day warning periods for drivers who were photographed running red lights. The city subsequently installed red-light cameras at other intersections without notifying the public or imposing the same 30-day warning periods as required under the vehicle code, Schwartz ruled.
Huntington Beach attorney Allen Baylis, who represented both defendants, argued in Alecnavicius’ case that a police officer should have been precluded from testifying because the compensation clause in the contract the city entered in December 2002 with red-light camera company Redflex Traffic Systems Inc. also violates the vehicle code. Writing that he “generally agrees” with that contention, Schwartz stated his ruling was more strongly based on the lack of warning periods and public notifications for cameras installed at new intersections.
It’s unclear what the city makes of all this–other than ignoring Schwartz’s ruling, apparently. No one was available at the city attorney’s office when the Weekly called. Baylis says the city attorney did file a letter brief the morning Schwartz made his ruling, but by then it was too late.
“The city is standing by their interpretation of the law even though courts a number of times have ruled there must be notification,” Baylis said. “I’d suggest the city attorney is giving bad legal advice to the city and the police department. . . . It’s their way of doing business, I guess.”
In his ruling, Schwartz mentioned that several other red-light cases from Santa Ana were pending. According to Baylis, they are being dismissed as well, and Schwartz indicated to him that anyone who has received such a citation over at least the past six months can get their tickets dismissed also.
“I’d say going to the clerk’s window and paying is a bad idea,” Baylis said.
And yet, while speaking with the Weekly, Baylis did a quick check of the court website and discovered tickets based on photograph shot by the same red-light cameras were still being issued on Aug. 7–two days after Schwartz’s ruling.
“Again, this goes to their level of arrogance, I think, in continuing to file these cases,” said Baylis, who should be familiar to Weekly readers as the same attorney who defended nude sunbathers at San Onofre State Beach. “I know at least one judge has told them what they have been doing is wrong.”
The Santa Ana Police Department cannot feign ignorance, according to the attorney, because police officers were present in the court when Schwartz ruled against the city. “It’s not like they’re unaware of it,” Baylis said.
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Sheriff’s deputies neglected cases, vandalized boats and interfered in investigations, report says
August 18th, 2009, 6:00 am · 15 Comments · posted by Tony Saavedra, Register investigative reporter
Orange County Register
The 11-month-old Office of Independent Review, created to monitor the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, has given The Watchdog an unprecedented peek into the inner workings of internal affairs cases. In the past, the department had maintained a public persona of “we never do anything wrong.”
In his occasional reports to the Board of Supervisors, Executive Director Stephen Connolly (above left) paints a different picture, giving Sheriff Sandra Hutchens’ administration much credit for the new transparency. The information, however, is still limited by state laws against disclosing police disciplinary records.
Here’s is a sample of some of the cases that Connolly is monitoring:
An investigator allegedly neglected more than 100 cases and misrepresented her efforts to cover up her lack of work. The cases included several serious felonies, Connolly said. Because of state laws protecting police officers, Connolly could not identify the detective or the kind of cases she covered. Connolly recommended she be fired. A decision is pending.
A man released from Orange County Jail complained that he was missing several hundred dollars. A department investigation concluded that, in fact, the man had the money when he was booked into jail. But the probe fell short of determining that the money had been stolen. The official determination was that the money was “lost.” Connolly recommended suspension of the involved deputy, while the department initially offered a more lenient punishment. Connolly’s recommendation was accepted.
A deputy resigned from the department after allegedly interfering with the probe by another agency into three other deputies. The investigation revolves around poaching allegations during an off-duty boating trip. The first deputy, who was not involved with the poaching incident, allegedly gave misleading statements to investigators, the report says. The other three received “substantial” discipline, said the report.
An off-duty supervisor vandalized a docked boat by throwing food from the patio of a nearby restaurant, causing several hundred dollars in damages. The employee was admittedly intoxicated and avoided criminal charges by paying restitution. Connolly’s office has recommended suspension. A final decision from the department is pending.
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District Attorney investigators lose legal bid to block ‘temporary layoffs’
August 18th, 2009, 12:37 pm · 5 Comments · posted by Tony Saavedra, Register investigative reporter
Orange County Register
A federal judge refused Monday to prohibit District Attorney Tony Rackauckas from temporarily laying off investigators in his office to help revolve an $8 million budget shortfall.
Judge Cormac J. Carney ruled that the union representing D.A. investigators failed to show that workers would suffer irreparable harm or that the request would win after a full hearing. The Association of Orange County Sheriff’s Deputies was seeking an emergency restraining order.
“The court simply has no basis to second-guess the District Attorney’s judgment that a temporary layoff of all deputy investigators is the most prudent course to minimize the impact to public safety, while achieving the necessary budget savings and preserving the jobs of of deputy investigators,” Carney wrote.
Court documents submitted by the union said the temporary layoffs would disrupt the investigators’ home schedules, interfere with child care and create stress.
Rackauckas’ plan calls for all investigators to be layed off for two periods for a total of nine days. They would retain their seniority and full benefits after being hired back.
As part of his budget-cutting plan, Rackauckas has deleted 49 positions, laid off eight welfare fraud investigators and cut executive management compensation by 5 percent. Other personnel are being required to take 13 furlough days.
Because of contract restraints, Rackauckas is unable to force investigators to take furloughs, but the judge confirmed that he can lay them off.
JUSTICE IN EDUCATION
Thursday, September 3, 2009
6:00 P.M. to 8:00 P.M.
SCHOOL YEAR 2009-2010:
JUMP START YOUR SPECIAL EDUCATION ADVOCACY
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“THE 90 DAY PLAN”
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Ø “Relational Meeting”- Your best tool
Ø Care and maintenance of Team of Allies
Ø Your questions, suggestions, ideas: an inter-active exchange among evening’s presenters and participants.
Session is free, reservations required – call 714 542-1707
2201 N. Tustin Ave. – Santa Ana, CA (park in rear)
JIE WORKSHOP GRACIOUSLY SPONSORED BY LEGAL AID SOCIETY OF OC
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Monday, August 17, 2009
Obama funding, reforms will aid Hispanic students, official says
White House education leader Juan Sepúlveda speaks optimistically of changes coming to public education.
By SCOTT MARTINDALE
The Orange County Register
SANTA ANA – Praising the majority-Latino schools here as models of progress, a leading White House education official said Monday that the Obama administration was committed to sweeping reforms that will help close the achievement gap for minority students.
U.S. education officials are working to simplify the application process for college financial aid and to forgive student loans for promising, newly minted teachers, among other reforms, said Juan Sepúlveda, director of the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanic Americans.
“We are going to turn around schools – the 5,000 worst schools,” Sepúlveda told an audience of about 100 parents, local education officials and community leaders at Santa Ana College. “A lot of these are in our communities. We want to be able to show them we can do it, that our kids want to learn and can learn.”
Sepúlveda met with the Orange County group as part of a national, 35-city tour that is seeking to engage the Hispanic community in the educational process through dialogue and collaboration. The tour includes 12 stops in California.
Sepúlveda said public education was “at the top” of President Obama’s agenda and that the president wanted to have “hard conversations” about controversial reform issues, including using test scores in teacher evaluations and getting rid of “bad” teachers.
“It’s all about the kids,” Sepúlveda said. “We’ve got to get past our fighting with each other.”
The U.S. Department of Education will dole out $4.35 billion alone for a one-time competitive grant called Race to the Top, which will reward schools nationwide that use test data and teacher evaluations to drive success, Sepúlveda said.
To encourage the best and the brightest college graduates to the enter the teaching profession, White House officials are working on a federal program that will waive student loans for promising new teachers, especially those who go to work in inner-city schools, Sepúlveda said.
Additionally, the application process to apply for federal financial aid for college will be reduced from 30-something pages to just five or six, and new online features will be added that will allow students to easily retrieve their parents’ financial information from the IRS’s Web site, Sepúlveda said.
“We feel that we’re poised in a very special place for us to do some incredible things for our kids in the Latino community,” Sepulveda said.
Rosa Harrizon, the lead organizer for a Santa Ana-based parent mentoring group called Padres Promotores de la Educación, applauded the reform efforts, but said real change in the Latino community would come from one-on-one dialogue aimed at educating Latino students and their parents about college.
“We need more parent training so they know how to help the kids succeed in high school and college,” said Harrizon, whose group offer home visits to help Latino parents understand that college is within their child’s reach. “Our goal is to have more parents so we can cover all of Santa Ana.”
Sepúlveda, who grew up in Topeka, Kan., and has worked on Latino education initiatives for much of his career, said Santa Ana is a model for other communities with a majority Latino population in what can be accomplished through grassroots collaboration.
“Until you spend time down there, you think, ‘Oh, my gosh, there are gangs; I’m going to get jumped,’” said Sepulveda, who worked in Santa Ana in the mid-1990s through a privately funded education leadership initiative. “But when you look the data, you see steady progress has taken place.”
Santa Ana College is a shining example of this steady progress, officials say. Over the past decade, the transfer rate from Santa Ana College to four-year colleges has nearly tripled, from 606 transfers in 1997-98 to 1,791 in 2008-09, said Santa Ana College President Erlinda Martinez.
“There is no quick fix; it takes long-term commitment,” she said.
John Palacio, a Santa Ana Unified School District trustee, said he was concerned that even the White House might not understand the magnitude of the problem facing educators in communities like Santa Ana.
Perhaps 50 percent or more students might be dropping out, Palacio said, a reality not reflected by official dropout rates.
“You have to accept that as a problem before you can work to find solutions,” he said.
Contact the writer: 949-454-7394 or smartindale@ocregister.com
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Are charters schools a price of entry to reform?
By DONNA GORDON BLANKINSHIP (AP) – 1 day ago
SEATTLE — Eleven states have said no to charter schools, one of the education reforms President Barack Obama backs. They may soon be paying a penalty for that choice.
As states compete for more than $4 billion in federal education grants, Education Secretary Arne Duncan has made it clear that those willing to embrace charter schools and other favored innovations will get preference. Those who refuse may end up shut out of the money.
The strong-arm tactics put politicians in a tough spot. Many teachers’ union members strongly oppose charter schools, most of which use non-union teachers. And school districts themselves don’t like giving up resources to the schools, which get government dollars but operate independently from the local school board.
But boosters, the president and Duncan among them, think they are key to turning around failing schools in part because charter operators have a big motivation for boosting student achievement. If kids don’t do well, the schools can be shut down.
Charter schools can also keep kids in school longer, offer more one-on-one attention and try different ways of teaching and learning.
Duncan recently wrote in an opinion piece that states with charter school limits will decrease their odds of getting the grants — dubbed the Race to the Top competition by the administration. He has proposed a rating system to separate the winners from the losers; not every state will get a share of the money.
At the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools Conference this summer, Duncan called the charter movement “one of the most profound changes in American education — bringing new options to underserved communities and introducing competition and innovation into the education system.”
Starting at a competitive disadvantage will be 10 states that have never allowed charter schools — Alabama, Kentucky, Maine, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont, Washington and West Virginia. An eleventh, Mississippi, which recently let its charter schools law expire, is expected to adopt a new law when its Legislature convenes in 2010.
Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire says her state has a shot at some of the education reform money, but not as much as if it had a charter law.
Washington state has rejected charter schools three times in eight years. In 2004, voters repealed a charter school law after a hard-fought campaign financed largely by the statewide teacher’s union, which argued that charters would siphon money from other public schools.
Unions and their members do not oppose all charter schools, but they do want more say in how teachers are chosen. The American Federation of Teachers is actively seeking a bigger role in charter schools and has helped to unionize several.
Gregoire, who recently talked with Duncan about the grants, is hoping to convince the education secretary that her state has other creative programs and is willing to change.
“The secretary was clear, that’s what they’re looking for — nontraditional schools that allow students to excel,” Gregoire said. “I would like to show him some of our alternative schools and get his feedback.”
Charter school groups and education experts say creativity may not be enough and Duncan may decide to use states like Washington as an example of what happens when you don’t give the president what he wants.
Todd Ziebarth, vice president for policy for the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, thinks Duncan will want to reward states that are strong in all the elements, forcing states like Washington back to the table on charters.
“I think they’re in for a rude awakening,” Ziebarth said.
Duncan has been putting states on notice for months that he wants them to embrace charter schools, and that their failure to do so could mean they lose out on federal money. Still, he has not outright said that charter bans will disqualify states from the grants.
One of the administration’s highest priorities is teacher accountability, and Duncan has publicly identified only one area that will bar states from getting a share of the money: a ban on using student achievement data to evaluate teachers.
He says the separation of teachers from test data is a major obstacle to the administration’s goal of financially rewarding the best teachers.
Even so, Duncan has been a champion of charter schools, noting that the best are known for creativity, flexibility and making a measurable difference for kids in large urban school districts. Advocates say they offer an alternative to parents who want options beyond their neighborhood schools.
Some states already have gotten the message.
Tennessee lawmakers passed a bill expanding charter schools in the state after hearing Tennessee could lose out on the money if they kept blocking an expansion of charter schools. Illinois lawmakers decided in July to allow 60 more charter schools to answer President Obama’s challenge after a campaign in that state by the state network of charter schools.
Commissioner Susan A. Gendron of the Maine Department of Education, where attempts to pass a charter schools law have failed, also is listening.
Gendron believes the department is waiting to award some of the money to give states without charter laws, like Washington or Maine, time to get charters on the books.
Both the schools chief and the governor of Maine supported a bill that didn’t make it through the 2009 Legislature, and Gendron expects another attempt in 2010.
“While he hasn’t come right out and said we won’t get funding, the latest language is it will absolutely negatively impact our rating in the race to the top,” Gendron said.
Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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Publication:Freedom – Orange County Register; Date:Aug. 18, 2009; Section:Nation & World; Page Number:News 6
Lawmakers boost staff pay
The extra compensation is meant to make up for longer hours, aides say.
By JULIET WILLIAMS THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
SACRAMENTO Several state lawmakers rewarded their employees with pay hikes during the first half of the year, an Associated Press review of legislative pay records showed.
At least 87 Assembly staff members received raises totaling more than $430,000 on an annualized basis, even as the state faced a budget deficit that led to furloughs and pay cuts for many other government workers and steep reductions in core services.
The review of records obtained under the state Legislative
Open Records Act found that salary bumps went to three employees in the office of Assembly Speaker Karen Bass, D-Los Angeles, who leads the 80-member chamber, and three to staff members of the Democratic caucus she oversees.
In the 40-member Senate, nine staffers had pay boosts, leading to an annualized increase of $152,000.
Aides to several members of the Assembly and Senate said some of the increases were not raises in the traditional sense. Rather, they described the higher pay as extra compensation for employees who were working more hours.
No Orange County legislators were involved.
The Assembly trimmed about 13 percent from its overall payroll in the current fiscal year, while the Senate has instituted oneday-a-month furloughs for most staffers, spokeswomen for both houses said.
Even so, the pay increases to dozens of legislative staffers between January and the end of June came as tens of thousands of state workers were seeing pay cuts of nearly 10 percent.
In the Assembly, 39 employees received pay increases of 10 percent or more. Of those, 15 saw increases of 20 percent or more. Seven of the nine Senate staffers who received increases saw their pay rise by 10 percent or more as they began working more hours, according to staff.
Five Assembly staffers and two Senate staffers who already made $100,000 a year or more saw their pay rise.
In the Assembly, 10 increases went to Republican staffers and 12 went to security staff employed by the Assembly Rules Committee. Most of the rest went to employees of Democratic lawmakers or their committees.
The Assembly had 1,206 employees on its payroll as of June, said Shannon Murphy, a Bass spokeswoman. Of those, about 7 percent had received pay increases, the AP review found.
Murphy said the Assembly’s annual payroll had decreased by $1.3 million in June from a year earlier, with 15 fewer employees.
The pay of 10 employees also decreased in the Assembly during the first six months of 2009 by a total annualized amount of $102,000, either because those workers were putting in fewer hours or changed jobs within the Legislature.
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This story is taken from Sacbee / Our Region / Top Stories
Governor wants to revamp battered public-worker pension programs
dkasler@sacbee.com
Published Monday, Aug. 17, 2009
Weeks after wrapping up a deal to close a $26 billion budget deficit, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is taking aim at what he calls California’s next great fiscal problem: the state’s battered pension system.
Reviving an idea he floated during budget negotiations in June, Schwarzenegger wants legislation creating a two-tier system that would deliver lower benefits to newly hired public employees – not only state workers but firefighters, police officers, teachers, and other local-government employees.
Along with proposed cutbacks in retiree health benefits, Schwarzenegger says, the plan would save $90 billion over the next 30 years.
The Republican governor says the state’s pension system faces tens of billions of dollars in unfunded obligations and is increasingly unaffordable.
“We cannot continue promising people things that we cannot deliver,” Schwarzenegger said at a July press conference.
Public-employee pensions have long been politically untouchable in California, and Schwarzenegger’s previous attempt to overhaul the system flopped.
Things might be different now.
The state and local governments that support California’s two big pension funds are struggling financially – and are being told they’ll need to pump more money into the retirement system to offset the funds’ huge investment losses. Taxpayers, struggling to cope with declines in their private 401(k) plans, might not want to spend more on the two funds, the California Public Employees’ Retirement System and the California State Teachers’ Retirement System.
“From a financial standpoint, I would argue they’re unsustainable,” said Dwight Stenbakken, deputy executive director at the League of California Cities. “Politically, they’re unsustainable. I just don’t think the benefit levels that are in the public sector can be defended in a public debate.”
Although current workers and retirees wouldn’t be affected, Schwarzenegger’s plan has enormous long-term implications for the Sacramento area, where state employees make up 10 percent of the work force. State workers, already smarting from their 14 percent salary cut caused by furloughs, consider their pensions something of a birthright – a reward for paychecks that lag behind those of the private sector.
“When workers decide to become state employees, they often trade off higher wages in the private sector for the promise of (more secure) pension benefits in the public sector,” said Jim Zamora, spokesman for Local 1000 of the Service Employees International Union. The local represents 95,000 state workers.
Yet at least 10 states have cut benefits for newly hired workers in the past five years.
And Orange County just created an optional two-tier system, though it needs to be approved by the state Legislature.
The SEIU and some other unions say they’re willing to discuss Schwarzenegger’s plan or other cost-saving proposals – but through contract negotiations, not legislation.
“We’re open to talking about it,” said Chris Voight, staff director at the California Association of Professional Scientists. The union represents 3,000 state scientists.
Legislative Democrats also say the proposal should be negotiated with the unions first. Schwarzenegger “needs to bring the issue to the table with the unions,” said Alicia Trost, a spokeswoman for Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento.
In any event, Schwarzenegger’s advisers believe lawmakers will ultimately prove receptive to the governor’s proposal because pension obligations are crowding out other state spending priorities.
“I think the appetite (for change) is really there,” said David Crane, the governor’s special adviser for jobs and economic growth. “Billions in cuts have had to take place because money is needed to meet past pension promises.”
CalPERS is declining to take sides, but is offering itself up as a neutral provider of data. CalSTRS gave the governor’s proposal a lukewarm reception.
In a statement, CalSTRS Chief Executive Jack Ehnes said the current system “provides a modest income equal to about 62 percent of our members’ final salaries. As our members do not pay into Social Security, CalSTRS remains the sole source of guaranteed retirement income for many.”
Declines in the stock market and other investments have hammered the two giant pension funds, making it more difficult for them to meet their pension obligations.
The two funds, which lost a combined $100 billion in the just-finished fiscal year, say they need more money from taxpayers. CalPERS can impose higher rates at will and plans to do so beginning next summer for the state and in mid-2011 for local governments. CalSTRS needs legislative approval to raise rates and has begun initial talks with lawmakers.
In 2005, Schwarzenegger pushed a ballot initiative to convert CalPERS and CalSTRS into 401(k)-style plans designed to stabilize the state’s costs while forcing workers to shoulder the market risk. That plan, like his current proposal, would have affected new workers only.
The governor, under assault from the unions, scrapped the proposal because of a snafu in how the initiative was worded.
In his new plan, Schwarzenegger is trying to turn back the clock – to 1999, when his predecessor, Gray Davis, signed a bill sweetening pension benefits.
The move remains controversial, particularly with fiscal conservatives. The state’s annual contribution to CalPERS has tripled since the mid-1990s, to more than $3 billion, although CalPERS attributes much of that to increases in the state payroll.
Under Schwarzenegger’s proposal, newly hired workers would get the same pensions that were in place in 1999.
Keith Richman, a former Republican assemblyman and longtime advocate for pension change, is pushing a November 2010 ballot initiative to scale benefits back further.
“There’s no question that the unions are going to fight this type of initiative tooth and nail,” Richman said. “But the public has become much more aware of the problem.”
CalPERS acknowledges that last year’s market meltdown, which cost the fund approximately $56 billion, put the pension fund in a hole. Its “funding ratio,” which compares assets against liabilities, fell below 70 percent in July. Pension funds generally aim for 80 percent.
Although CalPERS’ staff considers last year’s losses a unique event, the fund doesn’t think a return to normal market conditions will cover its long-term obligations.
While final calculations haven’t been made, contributions from the state and local governments that use CalPERS, likely will rise 0.4 percent to 2.2 percent, according to a CalPERS staff report. The increases would be considerably higher if not for a “smoothing” system that will stretch last year’s losses out over 30 years.
“No one knows what the future returns are going to be like,” said CalPERS spokeswoman Pat Macht. “At least in the short term, we can’t invest our way out of this.”
Call The Bee’s Dale Kasler, (916) 321-1066. Read his blog on the economy, Home Front, at http://www.sacbee.com/blogs.
From John Palacio’s email blast:
latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-gabler23-2009aug23,0,4834705.story
latimes.com
Opinion
Healthcare: ‘Truth’ vs. ‘facts’ from America’s media
Americans need the media to give us the truth in the healthcare debate.
By Neal Gabler
August 23, 2009
T.S. Eliot was wrong. August is the cruelest month. As we head toward next month’s congressional face-off on a national healthcare bill, the news media are infatuated with town hall meetings. Over and over, we see angry citizens screaming about a Big Government takeover of the healthcare system, shouting that they will lose their insurance or be forced to give up their doctors and denouncing “death panels” that will euthanize old people.
Of course, none of this is even remotely true. These are all canards peddled by insurance companies terrified of losing their power and profits, by right-wing militants terrified of a victory for the president they hate and by the Republican Party, which has been commandeered by the insurance industry and the militants. But the lies have obviously had their effect. Recent polls show that support for healthcare reform — reform that would insure more Americans, would force insurance companies to cover preexisting conditions and prevent them from capriciously terminating coverage, and would provide competition to drive down costs — is rapidly eroding.
Maybe Americans should know better. Maybe they shouldn’t fall for the latest imbecilic propaganda and scare tactics. Maybe. But a citizenry is only as well-informed as the quality of information it receives. One can’t expect Rush Limbaugh or Glenn Beck or Sarah Palin or the Republican Party or even the Democrats to provide serious, truthful assessments of a complex health plan. Truth has to come from somewhere else — from a reliable, objective, trustworthy source.
That source should be the media, and there has been, in fact, some excellent coverage of healthcare, especially by our better newspapers and especially lately when the untruths have become a torrent, rousing reporters to provide a corrective. But overall, the coverage has not been exactly edifying. According to the Pew Research Center, 16% of the stories in its media sample last week were devoted to healthcare, but three-quarters of that coverage was either about legislative politics or the town halls. Tom Rosenstiel, who heads Pew’s Center for Excellence in Journalism, said that if the healthcare debate is a potential teaching moment, that “moment is passing us by.”
Television particularly has been remiss, even without mentioning cable news, which may be the greatest source of disinformation. ABC took some heat from Republicans for giving President Obama a prime-time forum to answer questions about healthcare in June. But as far as I can tell, it is the only prime-time special that any broadcast network has devoted to the healthcare debate. Even so, rather than merely host the president, ABC should have had a variety of experts and qualified reporters assessing exactly what the proposed bills will and will not do and who is and is not telling the truth — a difficult but not impossible task.
To look at this in a larger context, journalists would no doubt say that it isn’t really their job to ferret out the “truth.” It is their job to report “facts.” If Palin says that Obama intends to euthanize her child, they report it. If Limbaugh says that Obama’s healthcare plan smacks of Nazism, they report it. And if riled citizens begin shouting down their representatives, they report it, and report it, and report it. The more noise and the bigger the controversy, the greater the coverage. This creates a situation in which not only is the truth subordinate to lies, but one in which shameless lies are actually privileged over reasoned debate.
Don’t think the militants don’t know this and take full advantage of it. They know that the media, especially the so-called liberal mainstream media — which are hardly liberal if assessed honestly — refrain from attempting to referee arguments for fear that they will be accused by the right of taking sides. So rather than be battered, the media — and I am talking about the respectable media, not the carnival barkers on cable — increasingly strive for the simplest sort of balance rather than real objectivity. They marshal facts, but they don’t seek truth. They behave as if every argument must be heard and has equal merit, when some are simply specious. That is how global warming, WMD and “end of life” counseling have become part of silly reportorial ping-pong at best and badly misleading information at worst.
All of this is even more relevant given the death of media oracle Walter Cronkite several weeks ago. He achieved his legendary status, as many have observed, not because he was the reassuring avuncular voice of America, blandly reading the news, but because he was often its truth teller, upsetting our complacency. It was Cronkite who visited Vietnam and declared it a stalemate when nearly everyone else in the news media was gung-ho. And it was Cronkite who decided to take the Washington Post’s reporting on Watergate and devote 14 minutes of his broadcast to it, thus dragging it from the sidelines into the national conversation. The truth is also relevant in light of a recent online poll that showed Jon Stewart as the nation’s most trusted newsman. Stewart is, of course, a comedian, and the news media’s incapacity to tell the truth, along with the idiocies and hypocrisies of our political leadership, are his running joke. What he does to politicians and to the media is exactly what the media should be doing to politicians and to one another.
It was because we didn’t have a committed, truth-telling media that the country marched happily into Iraq, with tragic consequences that should have been foreseen. As media analyst Michael Massing discovered in his study of the prewar coverage, virtually the entire media, except for the McClatchy papers, reported the administration’s rationale without devoting more than a few sentences or minutes to dissenting voices, much less doing their own analysis. It was because we didn’t have a committed, truth-telling media that the country plunged off the economic cliff with so little warning. And it may very well be because we don’t have a committed, truth-telling media that we will fail to get the healthcare reform we so desperately need.
Why don’t we get the truth? Part of it, as I’ve said, is fear — fear that if journalists dispel the rumors they will be bashed by the right, which is implacably against the president’s reforms no matter how much sense they make. Part of it is a lack of expertise. Most reporters are not equipped to quickly and authoritatively tell truth from spin on an issue such as healthcare. And part of it, frankly, is sheer laziness.
Telling the truth requires shoe leather. It requires digging up facts that aren’t being handed to you, talking to experts, thinking hard about what you find. This isn’t easy. It takes time and energy as well as guts, especially when there are conflicting studies, as there are on healthcare. But finally, we may not have a journalism of truth because we haven’t demanded one. Many of us are invested in one side of the story; we are for Obama or against him, for healthcare reform or against it. These are a priori positions. Truth won’t change them.
Yet the danger of not insisting on the truth in a brave new world of constant lies is that it subjects our policies to whichever side shouts the loudest or has the most money to spend to mislead us. That is likely to lead to disastrous governance: a needless war, a great recession, a continuation of a failing healthcare system.
What it comes down to is that sometimes the media have to tell the truth not because anyone really wants them to but because it is the right thing to do — the essential thing to do — for the sake of our democracy.
Neal Gabler is the author, most recently, of “Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination.”
Copyright © 2009, The Los Angeles Times
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latimes.com/news/local/la-me-prisons23-2009aug23,0,7630901.story
latimes.com
THE CALIFORNIA FIX
Decisive action on prison cuts is hard to come by
Legislators agreed last month to cut $1.2 billion from the prison budget, but details of how to do that remain in question. Federal orders to reduce the inmate population add pressure to the debate.
By Michael Rothfeld
August 23, 2009
Reporting from Sacramento
California lawmakers signed off last month on deep cuts to education, healthcare and welfare that many said they could scarcely have imagined in years past. But when it came time last week to address the state’s overcrowded prison system — an area where the Democrats who control the Legislature have long pushed for change — they froze.
State prisons, criticized as unwieldy and inefficient by experts in California and across the country, have in recent years become the most sacred area of state government, seemingly impervious to transformation because of politics, fear and mistrust.
“You have an absolute hysteria,” Assembly Speaker Karen Bass (D-Los Angeles) said last week. Crime and corrections, she said, are “a visceral issue.”
With federal courts this month ordering the state to reduce the prison population by 40,000 inmates, a budget crisis that makes it crucial for the state to do so and a major riot recently at a crowded Chino lockup, the likelihood of relieving pressure and saving money at California’s correctional institutions has appeared higher than ever.
When state leaders reached a budget deal last month, prisons were the only area of government on which they could not agree how to make the necessary cuts — $1.2 billion. On Thursday, the state Senate, without a vote to spare, approved a controversial package to fill in the details.
Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and other supporters say the plan would refocus resources on California’s most violent criminals, as other states have done, and reduce the number of low-level offenders churning in and out of expensive prison cells, cutting the inmate population by 37,000 over two years. It would also create a commission to reexamine state sentencing laws.
But in the Assembly, Bass could not round up enough votes from wary Democrats, at least 16 of whom are waging bids for higher office — including three for attorney general — that could be hampered if they were seen as soft on crime. With letters, phone calls and personal entreaties at the Capitol, local law enforcement representatives were lobbying lawmakers against the bill, hoping to defeat it.
Legislators listened to attack lines from Republicans: “Mayhem on the streets,” Sen. Jeff Denham (R-Atwater) predicted. And Senate GOP leader Dennis Hollingsworth of Murrieta said the changes would let “bad people” take away Californians’ life, liberty and property.
One senator invoked the name of Lily Burk, the Los Angeles teenager slain last month, even though corrections officials say the suspected killer, a parolee, would have received more scrutiny under the plan because he had a record of violence.
So Bass said she would try again Monday with a slimmed-down package.
Assemblyman Ted Lieu (D-Torrance), who is running for attorney general against fellow Assemblymen Alberto Torrico (D-Newark) and Pedro Nava (D-Santa Barbara), opposed the measures. He described as “early release” a provision that would allow some inmates to serve the last year of their term on home detention with electronic monitoring. In an interview, Lieu said his bid to become the state’s chief law enforcer had nothing to do with his stance on the plan.
“Forget about healthcare, environment or education policy,” Lieu said. “If people are not safe or don’t feel safe, then government has failed.”
Assemblyman Warren Furutani (D-Gardena) said that problems in prisons are important “institutional issues” but that they pale beside the public safety implications of releasing criminals into neighborhoods, “where the rubber meets the road.”
The number of inmates in California’s prison system has skyrocketed, from 76,000 in 1988 to nearly 170,000 today, with the advent of tough-on-crime measures such as the three-strikes law and increasingly harsh sentences imposed by lawmakers. Over the last decade, spending has more than doubled, from $4.7 billion in 2000 to $10.8 billion in the fiscal year that ended in June.
Over the years, the main impetus for change in prisons has been pressure from inmates’ lawyers backed by the federal courts, which took control of a prison healthcare system they judged to be unconstitutionally deficient. Many experts have recommended ways to improve the prisons without significantly impairing public safety, but those suggestions have been swallowed by Sacramento’s political vortex.
Schwarzenegger made fixing the prison system a priority in his first term, reorganizing the California Department of Corrections and adding the word “Rehabilitation” to its name. But critics said too little money followed to rehabilitate prisoners, and some of that funding is being cut now.
The governor several times proposed scaling back the state parole system, one of the nation’s most stringent. But he has been unable to win support from legislators and law enforcement groups and in the past has backed away. Now, however, he has staunchly advocated the plan approved by the Senate.
He called on Democrats last week to exercise political courage on an issue he said was “politically risky.” And he criticized Republicans who asked for more time on the issue: “We are losing total control over the system and people say, ‘What is the rush?’ ”
Many experts say less serious offenders belong in county jails or on probation, where they may have family support systems nearby and a better chance to turn their lives around. County and city law enforcement officials have expressed willingness to take those prisoners, but they don’t believe the state would provide funding for the added burden.
“The lack of trust about money is really interfering with great criminal justice policy in the state,” said Jeanne Woodford, a former San Quentin State Prison warden and a corrections secretary under Schwarzenegger.
At least one local law enforcement group, the California State Sheriffs’ Assn., does not oppose putting some state prisoners on home detention, an “alternative custody” approach that counties use with their own inmates. But in a letter Thursday, the association asked that state leaders reconsider proposals that would reduce penalties for some crimes and send those offenders to county jails instead of prison.
County lockups “are facing their own overcrowding crisis,” the letter said.
Nick Warner, legislative director for the sheriffs’ association, said they understand that if the state doesn’t take action soon, the federal courts will. The judges in the prison case could order the state to implement parts of the package that is now before lawmakers or to release prisoners and limit admissions. They have said they would delay such plans pending an appeal of their ruling, however, which would probably keep the budgetary pressure on state officials.
Warner, citing the tough decisions to be made, said: “We’d like to help the legislators and the governor make reasoned choices in a way that is workable and manageable — even if they are not good choices.”
michael.rothfeld@latimes.com
Copyright © 2009, The Los Angeles Times
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latimes.com/news/local/la-me-prison20-2009aug20,0,3077824.story
latimes.com
California prison system ‘collapsing under its own weight,’ Schwarzenegger says
In a visit to the Chino facility where inmates rioted Aug. 8, the governor complains that politicians have ‘swept the problem under the rug for so long.’
By Michael Rothfeld
August 20, 2009
Reporting from Sacramento
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, after touring the site where a major prison riot occurred 12 days ago, said Wednesday that the state’s prison system is “collapsing under its own weight” and called on lawmakers to make changes that could reduce overcrowding and spending on inmates.
The governor and his corrections chief, Matt Cate, walked through the destruction at a housing unit for prisoners at the California Institution for Men in Chino, where 1,300 inmates rioted on the evening of Aug. 8.
The prison housed nearly 6,000 prisoners, twice the number for which it was designed. About 1,200 beds were lost due to the damage, forcing the state to transfer inmates to other facilities.
Schwarzenegger, who used to visit prisons to work out with inmates as a bodybuilder in the 1970s, said the system has vastly changed since then, with California now spending almost $49,000 a year — far more than other states — to incarcerate a single inmate in a system that is “very, very dangerous.”
“It is hard to argue that the money is spent wisely and efficiently,” he said. “We have one of the highest rates of recidivism in the nation. . . . The politicians in Sacramento have swept the problem under the rug for so long. California is quite literally losing control of our prisons.”
Schwarzenegger has failed to bring the prison system under control since his election almost six years ago, despite pledging to do so.
A federal judge seized control of inmate medical care on his watch.
The governor reorganized the corrections agency to emphasize rehabilitation, but recently suggested gutting rehab programs to save money.
He also has proposed scaling back parole supervision and releasing low-level inmates, but he has backed away from some of those plans under pressure from law enforcement groups. Other plans have died in the Legislature.
The state is under pressure to reduce costs at its lockups due to its budget crunch. Schwarzenegger and lawmakers agreed to cut $1.2 billion from prisons in last month’s budget deal, and lawmakers have said that they will vote on details of the reductions today.
A plan backed by Schwarzenegger and Democratic leaders would reduce the prison population by 37,000 over two years through a variety of measures, such as offering house arrest during the last year of an inmate’s sentence and letting inmates earn their way off parole earlier. Republicans say the proposal would endanger public safety.
The state also is under pressure from the federal courts to reduce overcrowding.
A three-judge panel presiding over a pair of inmate lawsuits said this month that it would order the state to reduce its prison population by more than 40,000 unless officials devise a plan to do so first. California now has nearly 170,000 prisoners in custody.
michael.rothfeld@latimes.com
Copyright © 2009, The Los Angeles Times
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latimes.com/news/local/la-me-prisons21-2009aug21,0,6058033.story
latimes.com
California Senate OKs plan to reduce prison population
The proposal, opposed by the GOP, would cut the time lesser offenders spend behind bars and on parole. The bill stalls in the Assembly, where a watered-down version may be considered.
By Michael Rothfeld
August 21, 2009
Reporting from Sacramento
After an impassioned debate over the cost and benefit of California’s massive prison system, the state Senate on Thursday narrowly approved a controversial bill to cut hundreds of millions of dollars in spending on state lockups by reducing the time lower-level inmates would spend behind bars and on parole.
But the proposal remained stalled in the Assembly, where a host of lawmakers vying for higher office refused to take a vote that could portray them as soft on crime. Speaker Karen Bass kept her members late into the night in an effort to push through a watered-down version, to no avail. The Assembly adjourned just before midnight without taking action, planning to reconvene Monday.
“The caucus was exhausted,” said Bass, a Los Angeles Democrat. “There still are several members who have issues with various parts of the bill.”
The discord came as the state faces a looming deadline from three federal judges to produce a plan to reduce overcrowding by taking about 40,000 inmates out of a system that now holds nearly 170,000.
Democratic leaders and Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger have been pushing a proposal that could help satisfy the judges and save money to shore up California’s shaky budget.
They would cut the prison population by 37,000 by the middle of 2011 with measures that would shift resources toward higher-risk inmates and parolees. They would reduce the time lower-level offenders and those who show evidence of rehabilitation would serve behind bars and scale back their parole supervision. Officials hope that would cut down on the 70% rate at which California inmates return to prison, one of the highest in the nation.
Republicans and some law enforcement groups, who characterize the plan as “early release” and “get out of jail free,” warned that it would reverse the significant drops in crime of recent years.
“We will see mayhem on the streets of California,” Sen. Jeff Denham (R-Atwater) told colleagues on the Senate floor Thursday.
The legislation was needed to implement nearly half of the $1.2 billion in cuts that the governor and legislative leaders included in last month’s budget deal without specifying how they would be made. Administration officials say they can make the rest of the reductions by cutting administrative expenses and transferring illegal immigrant prisoners to federal custody.
In a long and contentious Senate session, the prisons plan was described as historic by both advocates and opponents. Democrats said it represented a long-needed change to a relentlessly punitive criminal justice system that has spun out of control, to the point that the state pays more for incarceration than for higher education. They chastised Republicans for fear-mongering.
Republicans, who accused Democrats of using the state’s fiscal crisis to advance a liberal political agenda, said the bill would undo decades of legislation intended to protect Californians — what they called government’s prime responsibility.
“This is not about abdicating responsibility; it is about finally assuming responsibility,” responded Sen. Gloria Romero (D-Los Angeles). She went on to recount her own experience surviving a violent 1995 robbery, after which her 9-year-old daughter, who witnessed the crime, suffered nightmares and needed therapy.
“There are some things you never forget,” Romero said, her voice rising. “Don’t tell me, when I stand up and call for reforms in our prison system, that I am soft on crime.”
The bill, ABX3 14, if approved by the Assembly and signed by Schwarzenegger, would allow certain elderly and infirm inmates and those with a year or less left to serve to finish their sentences on home detention with an ankle bracelet, subject to approval by state prison administrators. Republicans said that would not be effective.
“I suggest to you that you don’t forget to turn on your porch light,” Sen. Dave Cox (R-Fair Oaks) said. “And I certainly recommend that you lock the front and back doors.”
Some crimes, such as petty theft with a prior conviction and check kiting, would no longer be prosecuted as felonies, meaning offenders would go to county jail rather than prison. Property crime sentences would be reduced. Parolees who committed lower-level crimes would no longer be sent back to prison for parole violations.
The legislation would also create a commission to review sentencing for all crimes, with recommendations to be submitted by 2012 and to take effect by 2013 unless the Legislature and governor rejected them.
The Senate passed the bill 21 to 19, with four Democrats joining all 15 Republicans in opposing it.
In the Assembly, where many Democrats are running for office and three are campaigning for attorney general, Bass was unable to secure the 41 votes needed for approval, legislative sources said. So lawyers were drafting an alternative that would eliminate provisions for home detention and the changing of some crimes to misdemeanors.
The loss of those measures would open a $220-million hole in the budget, however. It was not clear whether the governor would sign the weaker version. He met Thursday evening with Bass and Senate leader Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento) to discuss the situation.
After they made deep cuts in education and social services last month, lawmakers’ difficulty in reducing the prisons budget highlighted the explosiveness of an issue that has long paralyzed Sacramento, to the frustration of the federal courts that are threatening to act within a month if the state does not.
“It’s so hyped, so emotional, and can be so twisted for political advantage,” said Sen. Mark Leno (D-San Francisco), “that we’re not able to do our job.”
michael.rothfeld@latimes.com
Times staff writer Eric Bailey contributed to this report.
Copyright © 2009, The Los Angeles Times
Arizona State University adding autism track for students
All courses will be available online
4 commentsby Lesley Wright – Aug. 22, 2009 11:36 PM
The Arizona Republic
When Suzanne Painter mentions that Arizona State University is launching a master’s program this fall to train educators and service providers to teach students with autism, the response is almost always the same: “I have a relative or friend with autism.”
Painter, department chairwoman in ASU’s College of Teacher Education and Leadership, can relate. She also knows someone with autism – her nephew. That experience helped persuade her and other academics building the program that the courses should be taught entirely online and open to anyone: teachers, nurses, social workers, occupational therapists, parents.
“Here’s where I think of my sister-in-law,” Painter said. “She looks for training and goes to conferences, and she’s in Oklahoma.”
It will be the first special-education master’s program in Arizona that focuses on autism.
Autism numbers increase
First identified in 1943, autism, which has no cure, is a group of neurobiological-developmental disorders known as autism-spectrum disorders.
The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke describes people with autism as having some common conditions: a problem with spoken and/or non-verbal communication, an impaired ability to socialize with others and “unusual, repetitive or limited interests and activities.” A child with autism often insists on rigid routines and displays repetitive behaviors such as obsessively arranging objects or focusing intently on one object.
The disorder has become rampant, with one out of every 150 children under 8 years old now diagnosed with autism. Ten years ago, that ratio was estimated to be closer to one in 10,000.
Advocacy group Autism Speaks predicted that more children will be diagnosed with autism this year than with AIDS, diabetes and cancer combined, making the disorder the fastest-growing developmental disability in the country.
The disorder usually lasts a lifetime, and federal disability law requires school districts to determine needs when children are as young as 3 years old.
Because the number of children with autism has increased, schools will need many teachers who understand the disorders.
More educators needed
A lack of special-education teachers with expertise with autism is causing problems in schools across the country.
In a case that drew national outrage, a Florida teacher became fed up with an autistic boy’s disruptions and had the class vote on kicking him out of the room. The boy’s parents withdrew him from the school. A Gilbert couple discovered last year that school staff members were physically restraining their 7-year-old autistic child. The school board is weighing new policies.
Other parents note a lack of understanding in the classroom for children with autism, who are prone to violent outbursts.
“If you are a special-education teacher, you will have kids with autism,” said Professor Kathleen McCoy, coordinator of the ASU autism-focused master’s degree.
Interest sparked program
McCoy has had no trouble finding students.
She has taught classes in autism for several years and found an “overwhelming need” for coursework in the field. More than 250 students have gone through her autism courses, displaying enough interest for the school to expand the courses into a full-degree program.
“We have a huge, huge need now because these children are growing up,” McCoy said. “There is a bulge in the population (of people with autism), and it is not a one-time bulge. It is constant.”
Adding to the problem is the complexity of the disorder, which can range from mild to severe. Autism usually is linked with other disorders such as attention-deficit disorder, learning disabilities, epilepsy or mental retardation.
“Autism is not a condition that stands alone,” McCoy said.
As a result, the master’s program will be tailored to the interests of each student. After learning the basics, each student will be trained in specific types of the disorder.
Officials set online venture
The nature of online education means students can move quickly through the program and amass all 33 credits in as little as a year.
Students will take 10 courses and a practicum, which involves an intervention and a blog. The classes run for 10 weeks.
Students will learn that helping children with autism is difficult because of communication issues. People with autism have trouble processing auditory information.
McCoy said public-school teachers need to be alert for triggers that can set off certain behavior: “You have to enter as much as possible into that child’s communication system.
Some teachers have had success using pictures or videos to communicate, since they do not depend on sound. Others have made breakthroughs with computers or other means.
McCoy said that working with autistic children is challenging but rewards are large.
“There is such a glorious sense of accomplishment to see a child that no one before has been able to reach that you are able to reach,” she said. “There is also the issue of just seeing these children and feeling for them when no one is there for them – I think that’s the biggest reason people want to learn about it.”
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Friday, August 21, 2009
Santa Ana Documents reveal internal strife over streetcar choice
Memos and emails show deep divisions as city awarded $4.85 million contract to well-connected company.
By DOUG IRVING
The Orange County Register
SANTA ANA – A politically well-connected company won a streetcar contract worth nearly $5 million this month despite repeated objections by the city executive in charge of the project, records show.
City Council members intervened in the selection process after another company emerged as the clear front-runner, according to interviews and internal memos and e-mails obtained by The Orange County Register.
“This will be perceived as extremely unusual by the consultant community,” James Ross, then the director of Public Works, wrote in a memo to the city manager as council members pushed for a more active role. It will, he added, “hurt our ability to attract quality firms to these major transit projects in the future.”
The project in question is a centerpiece of the city’s long-range plan for the future of downtown. City officials envision a streetcar whisking commuters, residents and shoppers from the Santa Ana train station into downtown – and with them plenty of dollars and development.
The engineering and management firm they hired to design and plan that streetcar line, Cordoba Corp., has a long history of cultivating friends in high places. The Harvard Business School used Cordoba as a case study in the 1990s – a growing company taking on big projects – and noted that its “network of ties with business and political leaders” had not hurt.
In Santa Ana, the company was an early supporter of Mayor Miguel Pulido’s political campaigns. It also contributed several thousand dollars to Councilman Carlos Bustamante’s failed campaign for a seat on the county Board of Supervisors, and $249 to help elect Councilman David Benavides. Its president, George Pla, serves with Bustamante on the board of the Santa Ana Business Bank.
Pulido and Bustamante abstained from the council vote on the streetcar contract.
Companies that “expect to be selected on the merits of their proposal really don’t understand the business,” the Harvard case study quoted Pla as saying. “Companies and government clients need to want to work with you.”
Cordoba won Santa Ana’s $4.85 million streetcar contract even though the city’s own panel of experts ranked it last among the three companies that bid for the job. The memos and e-mails obtained by the Register under California’s public-records law shed some light on what happened to push Cordoba to the top.
The Register also obtained the initial price estimates that each company submitted, which were not part of the expert panel’s review. Those show that the top-rated company, Parsons Brinckerhoff, also had the most-expensive overall proposal, followed by Cordoba and then by the third company, David Evans and Associates.
The city’s experts – city managers, a planner, an engineer and a transportation official – found that all three companies were qualified to work on the city’s streetcar project. But it gave Parsons the highest ranking, 93.7 percent. David Evans came in second with 77 percent; Cordoba received a score of 72.9 percent.
Shortly afterward, Pulido and Benavides approached City Manager David Ream and suggested that a committee of council members should do its own review of the three teams, Ream said in an interview. He could not remember the city taking such a step before but said: “I would assume we have.”
Neither Pulido nor Benavides returned calls seeking comment. In the past, Pulido has said that he was disappointed in the work Parsons did on an earlier phase of the streetcar project, and that Cordoba in particular stepped up to help.
But altering the selection process to include that additional review by council members would “effectively discount” the findings of the expert panel, Ross, the public-works director who would have overseen the project, warned in a memo. He added that it would also “put our staff in the uncomfortable position of trying to credibly rationalize the purpose of this.”
“Please try to discourage this additional interview and allow us to proceed to the full Council with our recommendation,” Ross, who has since retired, wrote in his memo to the city manager.
Nonetheless, the city called back the three teams for another round of interviews in front of the council’s transportation committee, on which both Pulido and Benavides sit. The committee recommended a “hybrid team,” which would borrow from the best of the three companies.
Ross drew up a new staffing chart that kept managers from the top-rated company, Parsons, in the lead but made room for a handful of Cordoba officials to help, according to a memo he wrote. He explained that he wanted to “avoid an outcome that would be very difficult for the staff to administer and run the risk of jeopardizing the success of the City’s Transit Vision.”
He wrote that memo on the last day of March. On April 20, the City Council voted to begin negotiating a contract with Cordoba, but to also include Parsons and David Evans and Associates.
Ream said he had trouble tying down the hybrid team, in part because members of the different companies weren’t always available.
Parsons walked away soon afterward. “We cannot, in good conscience, participate on a project team created by a flawed selection process,” its vice president, Robert Close, wrote in a letter to the city. “We believe that the integrity of our company is at risk to do so.”
The final $4.85 million contract reached the City Council on Aug. 3. It put Cordoba firmly in the lead, and assured Cordoba and its partners 80 percent of the work. It gave David Evans and its partners the remaining 20 percent.
The Council voted 4-0 with little discussion – and with Pulido and Bustamante abstaining — to approve the contract.
“We were selected because we have a highly qualified team that reflects the vision of the mayor, the City Council and the City of Santa Ana,” Pla said. “It’s an opportunity to make history here.”
Contact the writer: 714-704-3777 or dirving@ocregister.com
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Publication:Freedom – Orange County Register; Date:Aug. 23, 2009; Section:Front Page; Page Number:News 3
UCI Law School to State Its Case
After much strife, the law school will open Monday.
By GARY ROBBINS THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
UC Irvine on Monday realizes a dream that goes back almost 50 years: opening a law school.
Sixty-two students will take their first classes in a program that some people opposed, arguing that California already has too many lawyers and that the situation has worsened during the recession. Many lawyers have been laid off.
UCI and the University of California system pushed back, saying that a quality UC law school is needed south of Los Angeles and that it can thrive with a focus on public interest law.
Irvine got its wish and then got embarrassed, nationally and locally.
Chancellor Michael Drake pulled constitutional law expert Erwin Chemerinsky from Duke University in September 2007 to be the dean.
About a week later, Chemerinsky, who has argued before the U.S. Supreme Court, was fired in a flap over his political views. An uproar followed, leading Drake to rehire Chemerinsky, a gregarious scholar who emphasizes the word “you” when asking people, “Who are you doing today?”
“(Drake) received intense pressure over a short period of time from some very influential conservatives that convinced him that I would not succeed as dean and if he went forth with me … he would not succeed in some things he had worked hard to achieve,” said Chemerinsky, 56.
“In light of that, I understood why he did what he did.”
There were some tense moments during the battle. But Chemerinsky said: “I adore (Drake). I would not have accepted this job if I didn’t respect and admire him so much.”
The controversy has faded and given way to some positive publicity: UCI pledged to pay the entire tuition of its first class, which will cost about $6 million. UCI has raised $4.5 million and says it can raise the rest, likely by the end of this year.
The free tuition helped UCI attract applicants such as Tracey Steele of Missouri, who said the financial offer “absolutely” influenced his decision to seek a spot at UCI.
In an April news release, UCI said the school “has chosen its inaugural class by accepting only 4 percent of its applicants, making it the most selective of any law school in the nation.”
The release emphasized that UCI is even more selective than Yale Law School, one of the nation’s most respected law schools.
But the claim was out of context. Although Yale provides varying levels of financial aid to students, it doesn’t give free tuition to everyone. Yale also has more than 12,000 alumni, including three U.S. Supreme Court justices and two U.S. presidents.
UCI fared well in recruiting founding faculty. Brian Leiter, author of a widely read legal blog, says the faculty ranks among the Top 10 nationally in scholarly productivity.
UCI’s law school also was the recent subject of a positive profile in the American Bar Association Journal, which said Chemerinsky was determined to produce lawyers who have as many practical skills as intellectual might.
The dean emphasized that goal in an interview with The Orange County Register, saying UCI’s curriculum differs greatly from Duke’s, which heavily emphasizes topics such as contracts, criminal law and legal writing.
“We have a yearlong course on lawyering skills. … All lawyers need to negotiate. Doesn’t matter if they’re litigators or transactional lawyers. … All lawyers have to interview, whether it is prospective clients or witnesses. So let’s teach interviewing the first year.
“We now have an agreement with the Legal Aid Society of Orange County, the Public Law Center and the Orange County Public Defender that they’ll allow our first-year students to do intake interviews in their second semester with real clients. I don’t know of any other law school that has first-year students doing intake interviews.”
Chemerinsky makes one promise about where the school’s emphasis on innovation and traditional law education will lead it.
“I sincerely believe that from the moment that we first get ranked (by U.S. News & World Report) we will be ranked in the Top 20. Top 25, of course.”
CONTACT THE WRITER: 7 1 4-796-7970 or grobbins@ocregister.com
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latimes.com/business/la-fi-caljobs22-2009aug22,0,6343107.story
latimes.com
THE ECONOMY
Unemployment in California hits post-World War II high
The state’s rate jumps to 11.9% in July as the U.S. rate declines to 9.4%. Job losses have an outsize effect on Latinos in the state as work in the construction and hospitality sectors vanishes.
By Alana Semuels
August 22, 2009
California’s jobless rate reached a fresh post-World War II high in July, climbing to 11.9%, a sobering reminder that though the nation’s deep downturn may be nearing its end, the state’s employment woes are far from over.
Golden State employers cut their payrolls by 35,800 jobs in July, according to figures released Friday by the state Employment Development Department. That’s a significant improvement over monthly losses that averaged 76,000 over the first half of the year.
Still, July’s numbers were worse than some analysts had expected, rising from 11.6% in June and led by declines in trade, construction and manufacturing. Even with the rise in unemployment here, however, a consensus is growing that the worst of the recession may be over.
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke on Friday declared the economy to be “leveling out,” and the National Assn. of Realtors reported a sharp rise in July home sales. Wall Street responded by pushing the Dow index to its highest point since November.
Still, a robust recovery appears unlikely, and some regions of the country are expected to suffer fallout from the bursting of the housing bubble for years to come. That includes California, which is now tied with Oregon for the fourth-highest unemployment rate in the nation, behind Michigan, Rhode Island and Nevada. The U.S. unemployment rate is 9.4%, down from 9.5% in June.
California’s battered construction and housing industries, long pillars of the state economy, remain troubling sources of weakness. Over the last year, the state has lost 760,200 jobs, nearly 1 in 5 of them in construction. White-collar workers have likewise suffered from the housing crash as thousands of jobs in banking, mortgage processing and real estate sales have vanished.
The number of new-home permits issued in July fell 47.4% from a year earlier, according to the Construction Industry Research Board.
“We’ve disproportionately benefited from two sectors, construction and financial services,” said Esmael Adibi, an economist at Chapman University.
“The demise of these two sectors has hurt us disproportionately.”
That’s had an outsize effect on California’s 13.5 million Latinos, who are heavily concentrated in the building trades. In 2007, Latinos made up 47% of the construction workforce in the state, according to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
In July, California’s Latino unemployment rate hit 12.7%, dwarfing the white jobless rate of 9.5%, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Black unemployment remains the highest in the state at 14.2%. But Latino joblessness has grown much faster. In July 2007 the Latino unemployment rate stood at just 5.9%, compared with 9.2% for blacks and 4.8% for whites.
Last month, 805,000 California Latinos were jobless. That’s up 127% over the last two years. The number of unemployed whites in the state grew 103% over the same period, while the number of out-of-work African Americans rose 66%.
“You really begin to see desperate times for lots of Latino families throughout California,” said Vince Vasquez, a senior policy analyst with the National University System Institute for Policy Research.
East Los Angeles resident Robert Gonzales said he was struggling to support his three children after his job as an industrial painter disappeared a year ago when his employer moved to Ohio.
When he first lost his job, he was able to find odd carpentry and plumbing work, but his phone has stopped ringing. Now, he can barely pay the taxes on the home he owns, and he struggles to put food on the table.
“I come to the EDD every day, and nothing happens,” he said, standing outside the workforce development office in East L.A., where the computers had malfunctioned. “They say, ‘Don’t call us, we’ll call you.’ ”
A large proportion of Latinos also are in hospitality, nondurable-goods manufacturing and warehousing, said Jerry Nickelsburg, senior economist for the UCLA Anderson Forecast. As consumer demand for products worldwide shrinks, companies responsible for making and shipping goods are jettisoning employees.
That leaves people like Juan Cortez, a 33-year-old from Monterey Park, scrounging for work. He was laid off from his job as a shipping clerk nine months ago, moved back in with his parents, sold his Chevy Tahoe and now is hoping to get a callback about a job as a forklift operator.
He and a few friends have been talking about moving back to Mexico, he said, where it’s cheaper to live and the job prospects seem better.
“There’s jobs there,” he said. “There’s no jobs in L.A.”
The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in Los Angeles County also reached 11.9% in July, up from a revised 11.2% in June. The government sector was especially hard hit as state budget cuts took their toll, with the number of jobs dropping 4.6% from June. Education and health services was the only sector in the county to employ more people this month than it did in July of last year.
The Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario area felt the most pain in the Southland, with the unemployment rate rising to 14.3% in July, up from a revised 13.9% in June. A major center for warehousing and distribution, the area has shed 20,100 jobs since July 2008 in the trade, transportation and utilities sector. The area’s construction sector lost 20,700 jobs over the same period.
The recession has been particularly hard on less-educated Californians. People without a high school diploma had a 16.8% unemployment rate in June compared with a 10.8% unemployment rate in June 2008.
That’s plagued the region’s Latinos, many of whom have less schooling, fewer linguistic skills and spottier community connections than people who have lived in the country for generations, policy analyst Vasquez said.
“It’s about where you went to school, it’s about having relationships, and those are the things that really affect Latinos in a situation like this,” he said.
About 44.5% of Latino adults in the state do not have a high school diploma, compared with 20% of the state overall, and 6.8% have a bachelor’s degree, compared with 18.7% of the state overall, according to U.S. Census estimates.
After being laid off from her job as a receptionist at an oncology office in June, 22-year-old Denise Muralles decided it was time to hit the books. She’s taking classes at Los Angeles Community College in the fall, she said, and hopes to eventually study physiology.
Her mother, a secretary, has been adamant that Muralles not follow in her footsteps.
“She really wants me to get an education,” she said. “She doesn’t want me to be a secretary.”
Economists predict that the unemployment rate in the state will continue to climb. Job growth doesn’t usually begin until about six months after the end of a recession, economist Adibi said. He expects the unemployment rate to keep rising into early 2010.
Still, there is some reason to be optimistic, economists said. The rate of job losses in the state is slowing.
Two categories, professional and business services and leisure and hospitality, added jobs last month. Employment in other sectors, including financial activities and natural resources and mining, were stable, which economists say is a good sign.
“There is a ray of hope,” Adibi said.
alana.semuels@latimes.com
Copyright © 2009, The Los Angeles Times
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Millions face shrinking Social Security payments
By STEPHEN OHLEMACHER, Associated Press Writer Stephen Ohlemacher, Associated Press Writer 9 mins ago
WASHINGTON – Millions of older people face shrinking Social Security checks next year, the first time in a generation that payments would not rise. The trustees who oversee Social Security are projecting there won’t be a cost of living adjustment (COLA) for the next two years. That hasn’t happened since automatic increases were adopted in 1975.
By law, Social Security benefits cannot go down. Nevertheless, monthly payments would drop for millions of people in the Medicare prescription drug program because the premiums, which often are deducted from Social Security payments, are scheduled to go up slightly.
“I will promise you, they count on that COLA,” said Barbara Kennelly, a former Democratic congresswoman from Connecticut who now heads the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare. “To some people, it might not be a big deal. But to seniors, especially with their health care costs, it is a big deal.”
Cost of living adjustments are pegged to inflation, which has been negative this year, largely because energy prices are below 2008 levels.
Advocates say older people still face higher prices because they spend a disproportionate amount of their income on health care, where costs rise faster than inflation. Many also have suffered from declining home values and shrinking stock portfolios just as they are relying on those assets for income.
“For many elderly, they don’t feel that inflation is low because their expenses are still going up,” said David Certner, legislative policy director for AARP. “Anyone who has savings and investments has seen some serious losses.”
About 50 million retired and disabled Americans receive Social Security benefits. The average monthly benefit for retirees is $1,153 this year. All beneficiaries received a 5.8 percent increase in January, the largest since 1982.
More than 32 million people are in the Medicare prescription drug program. Average monthly premiums are set to go from $28 this year to $30 next year, though they vary by plan. About 6 million people in the program have premiums deducted from their monthly Social Security payments, according to the Social Security Administration.
Millions of people with Medicare Part B coverage for doctors’ visits also have their premiums deducted from Social Security payments. Part B premiums are expected to rise as well. But under the law, the increase cannot be larger than the increase in Social Security benefits for most recipients.
There is no such hold-harmless provision for drug premiums.
Kennelly’s group wants Congress to increase Social Security benefits next year, even though the formula doesn’t call for it. She would like to see either a 1 percent increase in monthly payments or a one-time payment of $150.
The cost of a one-time payment, a little less than $8 billion, could be covered by increasing the amount of income subjected to Social Security taxes, Kennelly said. Workers only pay Social Security taxes on the first $106,800 of income, a limit that rises each year with the average national wage.
But the limit only increases if monthly benefits increase.
Critics argue that Social Security recipients shouldn’t get an increase when inflation is negative. They note that recipients got a big increase in January — after energy prices had started to fall. They also note that Social Security recipients received one-time $250 payments in the spring as part of the government’s economic stimulus package.
Consumer prices are down from 2008 levels, giving Social Security recipients more purchasing power, even if their benefits stay the same, said Andrew G. Biggs, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, a Washington think tank.
“Seniors may perceive that they are being hurt because there is no COLA, but they are in fact not getting hurt,” Biggs said. “Congress has to be able to tell people they are not getting everything they want.”
Social Security is also facing long-term financial problems. The retirement program is projected to start paying out more money than it receives in 2016. Without changes, the retirement fund will be depleted in 2037, according to the Social Security trustees’ annual report this year.
President Barack Obama has said he would like tackle Social Security next year, after Congress finishes work on health care, climate change and new financial regulations.
Lawmakers are preoccupied by health care, making it difficult to address other tough issues. Advocates for older people hope their efforts will get a boost in October, when the Social Security Administration officially announces that there will not be an increase in benefits next year.
“I think a lot of seniors do not know what’s coming down the pike, and I believe that when they hear that, they’re going to be upset,” said Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont who is working on a proposal for one-time payments for Social Security recipients.
“It is my view that seniors are going to need help this year, and it would not be acceptable for Congress to simply turn its back,” he said.
On the Net:
Social Security Administration: http://www.ssa.gov/
National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare: http://www.ncpssm.org
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latimes.com/news/opinion/la-ed-convention23-2009aug23,0,1028014.story
latimes.com
The California Fix
A California constitutional convention for all
Reformers pushing for a state constitutional convention will have to converse with conservatives if they hope to advance their cause.
August 23, 2009
It was a town hall, certainly, but without the sense of chaos, the hint of danger, that we’ve come to associate with the words “town hall” in recent weeks. No gun-toting patriots, no dark portents of tyranny. No energy, in fact, at least not at the start of things. It was a blazing July morning, a Saturday, and several hundred people were clustered around tables in a subterranean conference room at USC. They were talking about overthrowing the government, and trying to stay awake. It was taking awhile for the coffee to kick in.
But then everyone forgot about the coffee. At the podium, a speaker began throwing this group of wonkish would-be revolutionaries a few choice bits of rhetorical red meat.
“A small group of extremists can hold the government hostage,” he said. Wild applause. “I’ve always believed that term limits are a function of demagoguery.” Cheers. “Proposition 13 has been a sacred cow. But you know, it’s time to look at Proposition 13.” It brought the house down, in a gentle sort of way.
The speaker was Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, but it could have been almost any featured guest at any of the town halls conducted across the state by Repair California, the coalition of groups building support for a citizens’ convention to scrap and replace the state’s Constitution. In this forum, and one the previous night in Santa Monica and at earlier meetings in the Bay Area, most in the crowd were on the same page about what ails California and what has to go: the two-thirds supermajority to adopt a budget, the same supermajority to pass a tax, term limits, rampant special-interest ballot initiatives, Proposition 13, Proposition 8 — and if you haven’t guessed the rest, simply pore over several years’ worth of Los Angeles Times editorials. This page has long espoused the reform agenda championed by good-government groups and just-left-of-center editorialists and reformers.
But that spotlights an important, although repairable, flaw in the movement for a convention. People who get excited enough about the minutiae of government to come to meetings and swap ideas are, or so far have been, somewhat self-selecting. They know what’s wrong: California’s entire anti-government voter revolt of the last 30 years. No matter how vociferously they agree with one another, though, they haven’t been able to change the minds of the majority of high-propensity voters who, polling shows, are quite happy with ballot-measure decisions that have enshrined profound skepticism of state government and structural impediments to taxes. If individual challenges to voter-revolt initiatives keep failing, the true believers are hoping that a constitutional convention could wipe them away with one fell swoop.
To use a Proposition 13-era analogy, it’s as if liberal Californians see three decades of their conservative neighbors’ ballot measures as the Death Star, impervious to attack in traditional political battle. But get the right Jedi apprentice to fly the right craft to the right place at the right time with the right weapon — or rather, the right improved California Constitution — and freedom will again reign.
Forget it. Political reform is not “Star Wars.” Defenders of the supermajority requirement, term limits and the like are not novices; they see a challenge coming to the California they have built, and they are ready for it. California conservatives are hoping for a big year at the ballot box in 2010 and will not be outflanked by a convention. They must be able to identify something in it for them — a spending cap, perhaps, or an end to “fees” that are actually taxes — or they will defeat it.
Besides which, the whole point of a convention is to get away from the good-versus-evil mind-set that has the state in gridlock. Reformers may “know” what needs to be done, but progress demands that they be prepared to discuss not only what they want out of a convention but what they would be prepared to give up. The goal must be a constitution that works rather than political conquest.
This page still wants to end the two-thirds supermajority, term limits, robo-budgeting and all the rest. The combination of those restrictions has, in our view, contributed to paralysis in Sacramento, bottled up too much of our state’s revenue and left California lurching from one crisis to the next. But we recognize that the purpose of a constitutional convention is not to create a forum for the fulfillment of our agenda. Instead, it offers the rare opportunity for meaningful compromise that could benefit conservatives and liberals alike.
Out of an exchange of ideas may come politically viable proposals to create a more responsible and responsive government — with or without the items on this page’s wish list. Likewise, we commit to taking seriously proposals such as a part-time Legislature that, on first blush, sound to us like a counterproductive continuation of the anti-government revolt.
There have been positive signs. Passionate and thoughtful conservatives have participated in forums and salons on fixing the state and have offered terms of engagement. You won’t hear Proposition 13′s most ardent defenders agree that it is on the table or, for now, entertain even the idea of a “split roll” in which taxes on commercial property rise with the market. But how about fixing the rules that allow businesses to use stock swaps to hide property transfers without triggering reassessment? Some Proposition 13 supporters have gotten on board with that idea, just as some liberals and government-reform groups are willing to countenance the supermajority required to approve tax hikes.
Repair California has taken its town halls to the Central Valley and to the Sierra. On Sept. 2, it will host an event in Irvine featuring former Gov. Pete Wilson and co-sponsored by the influential conservative blog Flashreport and organizations such as the Lincoln Club of Orange County. Many conservatives remain skeptical — but they too are increasingly open to the possibility that a thoughtful convention could benefit this troubled state. Liberals and good-government groups must show them that they embrace the idea of a convention as a conversation and a chance for compromise — and not as a stalking horse for their long-standing agenda.
Copyright © 2009, The Los Angeles Times
Friday, August 21, 2009
Schools to open with leaner staffs, larger classes
Budget cuts, job losses very real this year for O.C. schools.
By SCOTT MARTINDALE and FERMIN LEAL
The Orange County Register
Smaller class sizes are gone, counseling staffs have been obliterated, school library hours drastically scaled back.
Arts, music, sports and other extracurricular activities – all have been pared to the bone, eliminated or expected to become self-supporting.
This is the new reality facing schools across Orange County and the state in the wake of a devastating budget year for public education.
“It’s overwhelming,” said Orange County schools Superintendent Bill Habermehl. “You can only go so far and spread teachers so thin. We are at the tipping point. Those extra students you add in the classroom are just going to be an overload for teachers and their effectiveness. You’re going to see less specialized attention, an increase in the dropout rate.”
More than 500,000 K-12 students across Orange County will return to their desks over the next few weeks, ready to learn from a dwindling number of teachers, counselors, administrators and aides.
Officials say campuses might not be as clean, students’ opportunities for academic and personal support will be diminished, a favorite teacher could have been laid off.
Orange County schools lost $550 million in state funding this year alone and were forced to shed more than 2,300 jobs.
And with California’s financial stability still in doubt, there’s little hope of restoring any of those cuts soon, officials say.
Even so, O.C. students continued to post modest gains on recently released standardized test results and beat their peers statewide, a reflection of the commitment of educators here to work harder with fewer resources, officials say.
Openings and closings
Four elementary schools across Orange County have closed for good, and one high school is opening this fall.
Yorba Linda High School in northern Yorba Linda will throw open its doors Sept. 8 to about 950 freshmen and sophomores. The state-of-the-art campus will help relieve crowding at other high schools in the Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District, officials say.
Rural Silverado Elementary School in eastern Orange County has been shuttered, the victim of the Orange Unified School District’s budget woes and a paltry enrollment of just 75. The children will be bused to an elementary campus in Orange about 8.5 miles away.
“It was a hard decision to make,” said former Silverado parent Melissa Bowman, who considered sending her first-grader to private school. “The Silverado community is very close-knit. We’re all going to miss this school tremendously.”
Vessels Elementary School in Buena Park also has closed temporarily. Vessels children are being sent to nearby Dickerson Elementary School while Vessels is renovated, and then all of the children will be permanently transferred to Vessels.
Saddleback Valley Unified School District officials, meanwhile, have shuttered two western Mission Viejo campuses – La Tierra Elementary School and O’Neill Elementary School – in response to budget woes and declining student enrollment districtwide. The combined 630 children affected by the closures are being relocated to other, nearby campuses.
But a group of O’Neill parents – unhappy with the closure of a beloved community fixture and the oldest elementary campus in Mission Viejo – have been working to reopen O’Neill as a charter school in either January 2010 or fall 2010. The Saddleback school board is opposed to the plan; Mission Viejo city leaders have expressed tentative support.
“The community support has been amazing,” said parent Bert Bennett of Mission Viejo, a leader of the O’Neill charter school movement. “We still have the opportunity to open in January 2010, but it might be more disruptive than to wait for a fall date.”
Class-size changes
Larger class sizes will be perhaps the most noticeable change this fall for the most number of students across Orange County.
Several school districts have gone from the popular 20-to-1 pupil-teacher ratio in the primary grades to 24 or 25 per class, and some districts to as many as 30 or 31 per class, mirroring class sizes in the upper grades.
The class-size reduction program for freshmen English classes also has been eliminated at some high schools.
The 54,800-student Santa Ana Unified School District was among the hardest-hit by larger class sizes, though some of those changes are being rolled back. First-grade classes will rise to 23 from 20, and staff was directed on Aug. 19 to reduce 30-student class sizes in grade two down to 24. Grade three classes appear to still be at 30 students.
Santa Ana Unified also eliminated class-size reduction in its ninth-grade English classes.
Most of the district’s 240 teaching jobs lost were a result of increasing class sizes in those grades.
“It’s definitely going to be a tough thing to adjust to,” said Monica Cervantes, a parent of a second-grader at Santa Ana’s Wilson Elementary. “The purpose of the (class-size reduction program) was to give kids at that formative age a better opportunity to succeed. Now that’s gone.”
Cervantes said many young students often need the added attention to keep from falling behind.
“The real impact might be felt in the long term,” she said.
Music/arts programs
Always among the first programs to be dismantled during budget cutting, music and arts programs fared dismally this year.
Music classes in many elementary schools have been reduced or discontinued entirely; high school band directors have been laid off at many campuses.
At Aliso Viejo’s Aliso Niguel High School, both the band director and a music teacher who was to replace him resigned within weeks of one other.
Band director Duane Otani, who was notified in March he could be laid off at the end of the school year, resigned in June after he got a job at another school district, said parent Sandy Zimmer, vice president of Aliso Niguel’s instrumental music boosters.
His selected successor, Michael Corrigan, who had been working closely with the band and also was pink-slipped, resigned about two months later, after he was offered his job back without tenure, Zimmer said. The resignation came just before the start of Aliso Niguel’s summer band camp.
“The kids are going to have to work way harder,” said Zimmer, who has a junior in marching band. “We have band camp going right now with substitutes. We don’t even know who our band director will be until possibly the first day of school.”
Even with all of the reductions to music and arts programs, parents are finding a way to soften the blow of the cuts.
The Tustin Public Schools Foundation is hiring three to five music teachers this fall for a pilot program aimed at replacing all elementary music education in the Tustin Unified School District that was eliminated by budget cuts.
The program will provide after-school band and orchestra classes for fourth- and fifth-grade students on a weekly basis.
“Because of the budget cuts, much of the music for students was lost,” said Carol Burby Garrett, the foundation’s executive director. “We wanted to keep something available for kids.”
The foundation, which hopes to enroll about 250 students this fall, will provide instruments for students without them and give scholarships to those with a financial need, Burby Garrett said.
From sports to counselors
From guidance counseling to libraries to sports, almost every facet of student life has been impacted by budget cutting.
At some campuses, the counseling staff has been cut in half, leaving just one or two counselors to serve hundreds – if not thousands – of students.
Funding for intervention programs that target at-risk students and accelerated programs for gifted students likewise has been yanked.
In Saddleback Valley Unified elementary schools, libraries will be staffed just one day a week; if a school wants a library/media clerk on campus for more hours, parents are expected to raise the money themselves.
Sports programs also were hit hard. At Tesoro High School in Las Flores, head football coach Brian Barnes – who turned his powerhouse team into CIF Pac-5 Division contenders last year – was one of hundreds of Capistrano Unified teachers who were laid off in June.
The P.E. teacher had filed for unemployment before being rehired full time last month.
“I’ve never been in this situation,” Barnes told the Register in July. “The education system is hurting right now everywhere. There are just no jobs anywhere.”
Other schools are struggling to cope with the loss of instructional aides. Santa Ana Unified is eliminating more than 100 bilingual aides who work alongside regular teachers, helping students with very limited English speaking ability. Some parents say the loss of the aides means many English learners will struggle more to learn their new language, which will translate to lower test scores.
“The loss of these aides is going to be a big deal for us,” said Santa Ana Unified trustee Audrey Yamagata-Noji. “We have a lot of students who need the extra support. These aides worked really hard to help these students become English proficient.”
Swine flu concerns
When children return to school, the cases of swine flu in Orange County are expected to rise sharply, say many health experts.
Earlier this month, federal health and education officials released new guidelines for schools that officials say will help slow the spread of the virus among students, while at the same time, limit the panic and confusion new cases can often bring to school communities.
The federal government now recommends that schools only close if they have “high numbers” of suspected cases of students or staff infected with the H1N1 virus.
The guidelines allow school districts themselves to decide how many cases would constitute a high number.
At a recent news conference, officials said schools should balance the risk of flu in their communities with the disruption, potential safety risks and other consequences that school dismissals could cause in education and the wider community.
Officials also recommend that students or staff members with flu-like illness stay home at least 24 hours after fever symptoms have ended.
In April, a student from University High School in Irvine was among the first two first victims in Orange County of the swine flu. The school did not close because officials believed the student became ill during spring break and did not return to school until he had recovered.
In May, Moiola Elementary in Fountain Valley was closed for three days after a student became ill. Click here to learn more about the guidelines.
Staff cuts, from teachers to the rest
Orange County school districts were forced to eliminate more than 2,200 jobs this year, more than 1,500 of them teaching positions.
Rounding out the mass layoffs were instructional aides, secretaries, food workers, administrators, groundskeepers, bus drivers and maintenance workers.
The job losses are in stark contrast with past years, when budget-wary districts notified thousands of teachers and staff of possible layoffs, only to rehire most of them before school began. This year, some 3,000 employees were warned of job losses, and the majority won’t return.
And with the state’s financial health still in jeopardy, some experts are predicting California might need to fill another $6 billion to $8 billion budget gap by early next year. Public education, representing about half of the state’s budget, is likely to be hit again.
In other words, more layoffs are coming and few districts will be able to replace the positions they’ve cut, experts say.
“The forecast for the future isn’t good, and our superintendents (in Orange County) are being cautious, conservative,” Habermehl said. “That’s why we gave out a massive number of layoff notices and weren’t able to bring back those teachers.”
School districts are trying to save money on personnel wherever they can.
The 52,000-student Capistrano Unified School District, which notified more than 470 teachers they might be out of a job at the end of the year, rehired 165 tenured educators this summer as temporary teachers, meaning they will work on a one-year contract for 2009-10 and won’t be eligible for a hearing if their jobs fall into jeopardy again next spring. The goal is to save money, said district spokeswoman Julie Hatchel.
“If we had to look at cutting those programs again, which were the last to be reinstated, we would avoid having to go through a RIF (reduction in force) process again, which is very costly,” Hatchel said.
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Publication:Freedom – Orange County Register; Date:Aug. 23, 2009; Section:Front Page; Page Number:News 1
SCHOOLS LOSE ELBOW ROOM
The harsh reality of budget cuts will be felt on Orange County campuses this school year as classes grow and programs shrink.
When Orange County students return to school this fall, they’ll be greeted by larger class sizes, fewer teachers and abridged offerings in areas including sports, music and counseling.
It’s a worst-case scenario that education leaders have long predicted, the result of losing millions of dollars in state funding. And with California’s financial future still unstable, there’s little hope for schools to recoup the losses, officials say.
Even so, Orange County educators find themselves working harder with fewer resources, a reflection of their commitment in and out of the classroom.
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latimes.com/news/local/la-me-gov-schools21-2009aug21,0,3649380.story
latimes.com
Schwarzenegger’s plan would reshape education in California
The state’s powerful teachers unions criticize the governor’s sweeping proposals, including merit pay for teachers. The plan would help qualify the state for Obama administration funds.
By Jason Song and Jason Felch
August 21, 2009
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger called on legislators Thursday to adopt sweeping education reforms that would dramatically reshape California’s public education system and qualify the state for competitive federal school funding.
The governor’s proposed legislation, to be considered during a special session that ends by Oct. 5, was met almost immediately by criticism from the powerful state teacher unions, which called Schwarzenegger’s plans rushed and unnecessary.
While Schwarzenegger’s goal is to boost California’s chances to qualify for $4.35 billion in federal grants, known as “Race to the Top,” many of his proposals go far beyond those needed for eligibility, and embrace the Obama administration’s key education reform proposals.
Schwarzenegger’s reforms include:
* Adopting a merit pay system that would reward effective teachers and give them incentives to work at low-performing campuses;
* Abolishing the current cap on the number of charter schools that can open every year;
* Forcing school districts to shut down or reconstitute the lowest-performing schools or turn them over to charter schools’ independent management;
* Allowing students at low-performing campuses to transfer to a school of their choosing;
* Requiring school districts to consider student test data when evaluating teachers, something the federal government believes is prohibited under state law.
In recent months, the Obama administration has repeatedly criticized California for failing to take the lead on reform efforts, and has singled out for scorn the state’s ban on linking test scores to teachers’ performance. Federal officials have said that California would be ineligible for funding if that law wasn’t changed.
But in an interview Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan praised Schwarzenegger’s moves as “courageous” and said they could transform the state into a national model for reform.
“This is a very significant step that absolutely has national implications,” Duncan said. “The eyes of the country are going to be on California.”
Several other states, including Illinois and Indiana, have changed their laws or policies to comply with federal guidelines, but Schwarzenegger’s proposal “goes way beyond what other states are doing,” said Baron Rodriguez of the Data Quality Center, which tracks national educational data.
The regular legislative session is scheduled to end Sept. 11, and Schwarzenegger said he wanted lawmakers to finish their work on education by early October to comply with the deadline for the first round of Race to the Top funding this winter.
But lawmakers probably will face heavy resistance from the state’s teacher unions, which criticized Schwarzenegger’s proposal for caving to federal demands.
At the heart of the proposal is an effort to require districts that want a piece of the federal funding to begin evaluating California teachers and schools not just by their students’ achievement of a specific goal, but by their individual improvement year to year. That approach, referred to as “value-added” analysis, measures students against themselves to evaluate the effect a teacher or school has on growth.
“It’s not a hammer or a gotcha,” said Jim Lanich, director of the California State University’s Center to Close the Achievement Gap, who cautioned that other factors besides scores should also be used in evaluation. “It tells us what is working and how we can replicate that.”
But teacher unions have resisted the use of student performance for evaluation, and successfully asked for it to be banned at the state level in 2006 legislation. They are expected to fight Schwarzenegger’s efforts to undo that ban, a key demand of the Obama administration.
‘Intense debate’
The state, said Marty Hittelman, president of the 100,000-member California Federation of Teachers, should not mandate how local districts use student data.
And Dean Vogel, vice president of the 340,000-member California Teachers Assn., the state’s largest, said the proposals weren’t well thought out.
“If you’re really serious about reform, it demands intense debate among the stakeholders,” he said. “The way it’s unfolding is rushed.”
Some of the proposals would have little more than symbolic effect, educators and others said. State officials said local districts always have had the authority to evaluate teachers based on student performance, although few do.
And although the state puts a cap on new charter campuses each year under current law, it is unlikely that charters would reach that limit, which is now at 1,350.
Hittelman called the proposals a “knee-jerk reaction” and cited a recent study that showed, as a whole, charter schools do not perform better than regular campuses. Charter schools are independently run but publicly funded.
Schwarzenegger is “relying on ideas that haven’t been proven to work and force them on everyone,” Hittelman said.
Controversy
Other proposals will force the state’s Democratic lawmakers to confront the unions, among their most ardent supporters.
Historically, the state has blocked important education reform efforts, said Joe Williams of Democrats for Education Reform, a New York-based political action committee. But there have never been so many federal dollars at stake.
“Saying no to this proposal means saying no to a big chunk of money,” Williams said. “California is going to be the grand-daddy of fights.”
jason.song@latimes.com
jason.felch@latimes.com
Copyright © 2009, The Los Angeles Times
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latimes.com/news/local/la-me-swine-flu22-2009aug22,0,5829247.story
latimes.com
Health and education officials gird for flu season
They urge parents to practice such precautionary measures with their children as hand-washing and the ‘Dracula sneeze.’ They also say healthy kids should not be kept home once flu breaks out at schools.
By Seema Mehta
8:09 PM PDT, August 21, 2009
The start of the school year will undoubtedly bring a rise in H1N1 infections, health and education officials said Friday as they urged parents to practice such precautionary measures with their children as hand-washing and the “Dracula sneeze.”
Officials also said parents should not panic and keep healthy children home once flu breaks out on campuses.
“I want to make sure parents are not afraid to send their children to school if they are well,” said Dr. Jonathan Fielding, Los Angeles County’s health officer. He and other educators and health officials spoke at a morning news conference at Lafayette Park Primary Center in Los Angeles.
H1N1, or swine flu, was first detected in this country in April. More than 700 schools across the nation, including 37 in California, were closed last spring because of suspected outbreaks. Overnight camps were hard-hit with flu cases this summer, prompting some to send children home.
The virus is highly contagious and children are particularly susceptible, but symptoms tend to be mild in healthy people. Federal officials announced earlier this month that schools with outbreaks should be closed only if they serve vulnerable populations, such as pregnant teenagers or students with conditions such as muscular dystrophy, or if there are too few staff or students to allow the campus to function.
Dr. Kimberly Uyeda, director of student medical services for the Los Angeles Unified School District, said letters about flu prevention are being sent to parents, and school workers, including nearly 600 nurses, have been briefed. Classrooms are being stocked with soap, tissues and paper towels, she said.
Children and adults should wash their hands frequently with soap and water for 20 seconds (about the time it takes to sing “Happy Birthday” twice, Fielding said). People should avoid touching their eyes, noses and mouths. Coughs and sneezes should be covered, said state Supt. of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell, demonstrating the “Dracula sneeze,” in which the sneeze is directed into the inside of the elbow.
“Every possible precaution must be taken to keep our students and professional educators safe and healthy,” he said.
Officials urged parents to get their children vaccinated for both seasonal flu and H1N1 when the vaccines are available through their physicians or pharmacies. The county will offer vaccinations for the uninsured, Fielding said.
Students who have a stuffy nose, fever, cough or fatigue should see their doctor immediately, O’Connell said.
Ill children must stay home until 24 hours after a fever. Districts will provide homework. Parents must develop contingency plans for child care and make sure sick children are completing schoolwork so they won’t be behind when they return, Fielding said.
seema.mehta@latimes.com
Copyright © 2009, The Los Angeles Times
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University of California chief warns unions not to fight furloughs
By Laurel Rosenhall
lrosenhall@sacbee.com
Published: Friday, Aug. 21, 2009 – 12:00 am | Page 3A
When University of California President Mark Yudof announced a massive furlough plan last month, the idea was that almost all UC employees would have their salaries reduced this year by taking some days off without pay.
But a third of UC’s 180,000 employees haven’t faced the furloughs yet. They’re represented by about a dozen labor unions that are fighting Yudof’s plan.
Speaking Thursday to the Sacramento Press Club, Yudof said UC’s unionized workers received 4 percent raises this year, while non-union employees are taking pay cuts ranging from 4 to 10 percent.
He said the university would lay off some workers if the labor unions don’t agree to the furlough.
“A lot more people will be losing their houses if they’re laid off, and that’s what I’m trying to avoid,” Yudof told a maintenance worker at the Press Club gathering who said his colleagues will lose their homes if they’re furloughed.
The union representing janitors, hospital technicians and lab workers says UC should solve its budget problem by borrowing, restructuring debt and cutting executive pay – rather than furloughing employees.
“We’re trying to keep what little we got,” said Arnold Meza, a UC Berkeley custodian, adding that the pay raise this year makes up for a pay cut in the past.
Yudof said the furlough is cutting the pay of UC’s top earners by 10 percent. Some of them are leaving the university, he said, because they are the “Tom Cruises of the academic world” and have no trouble finding more lucrative jobs.
Yudof criticized the news media for paying too much attention to the salaries of UC’s leaders.
He gave the example of Linda Katehi, who started this week as chancellor of UC Davis. Katehi is one of the nation’s leading electrical engineers, Yudof said, and has 16 patents. He chided reports comparing her $400,000 salary with the $315,000 her predecessor earned.
He also talked about the negative impact the state’s budget crisis is having on all of its public colleges and universities.
Funding cuts to higher education amount to an “anti-stimulus package,” Yudof said, and UC must figure out how to manage long-term reductions from the state.
Some options he said are under consideration: larger classes, increasing the number of community college transfer students at the expense of students who attend UC for all four years, raising student fees and creating an online university.
Monday, August 24, 2009
High-tech cameras target parking-ticket violators
Cal State Fullerton is using infrared cameras to light up scofflaws.
By BARBARA GIASONE
The Orange County Register
FULLERTON – Cal State Fullerton students, who stack up unpaid parking tickets like fast-food coupons, are the targets of new infrared camera technology that catches offenders in the click of a digital eye.
Mobile Plate Hunter 900, a progressive illuminated camera that resembles the Pixar movie character, WALL-E, is mounted on a parking control vehicle, which circles the campus lots.
The device can read 1,100 license plates per minute, and if the plate numbers correspond with offenders’ names previously entered into a computer, an alert puts the vehicle on the “hot list” within milliseconds.
“If a student has five or more delinquent parking violations, the name is put into the computer,” CSF Parking and Transportation Director Joe Ferrer said. “The California Vehicle Code allows for agencies to immobilize or impound vehicles for these violations.”
In its first year of operation, the camera system identified 85 violations totaling $36,610, a portion of the $71,000 in parking ticket fines collected in the same period. The money is used for financial subsidies for student, faculty and staff alternative transportation programs including the University Pass Program with OCTA and discounted Metrorail passes.
“I think this system trespasses on people’s rights,” said incoming freshman Gabby Yates of Chino Hills, who was waiting to purchase a parking permit.
Graduate student Omead Moinee of Yorba Linda agreed. “That is not a good system.”
Nate Maloney, spokesman for manufacturer ELSAG of North America, said the company’s systems cost between $10,000 and $18,000, depending on the accessories. More than 550 police agencies in 50 states are using the high-tech tool.
“The technology was developed to sort mail,” Maloney said. “It was then adapted to track numbers for license plates.”
This is the same technology that law enforcement agencies across the country use to fight crime, to combat terrorism and to monitor drug trafficking on the U.S.-Mexico border, ELSAG representative Lisa Quirindongo said.
Maloney said none of the law-enforcement actions has been challenged in court.
“In fact, we’ve heard from the ACLU that they’re comfortable with the technology,” Maloney said.
He added the focus is on the license plates, not on the drivers. When motorists register a car, permission is given to the state licensing agency to put their name on record.
The Fullerton campus and Cal State Northridge are the only two universities in California to use the MPH-900, Quirindongo said.
Contact the writer: 714-704-3762 or bgiasone@ocregister.com
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Santa Ana plans $600 million in transportation projects
City envisions streetcars zipping from new train station to entirely new road … all of it running within 10 years.
By DOUG IRVING
The Orange County Register
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
SANTA ANA – City officials want to make Santa Ana the transit gateway to Orange County – a vision of streetcars, stations and one entirely new road that would cost upwards of $600 million to achieve.
And that’s only for the next 10 years. Take it a little further out, and city officials imagine light-rail trains whistling from Santa Ana to Los Angeles and beyond.
The City Council met today – with minimal public notice – to talk transportation with the consultants it has hired to translate those ideas into plans and analysis. The council took no votes during the meeting, and didn’t get too deep into the nitty-gritty details of its vision – such as how exactly to pay for it.
“Fifty, sixty years from now, people will be talking about what we did in this room, and how we moved forward,” Councilman Carlos Bustamante said.
The city has already started the wheels turning on three big-ticket transit projects that officials hope will make Santa Ana the crossroads of Orange County. Those projects are:
•A streetcar system. The city hired a team of consultants earlier this month to study an initial streetcar line through the downtown Civic Center.
•An overhaul of the Santa Ana train station. City officials expect to bring in consultants by the end of the year to plan the station’s future, which may include better bus access, new public areas and a streetcar maintenance yard.
•A new thoroughfare that would connect downtown Santa Ana directly to the 22 freeway, giving commuters a shortcut around the notorious interchange known as the “Orange Crush.” That project, which would make use of a long-abandoned strip of land once used for trolleys on the west side of town, is part of a regional transportation study.
City officials hope to have those projects up and running within the next 10 years.
Consultant Cindy Krebs, whom the city hired as its transit programs manager, estimated that those three projects will cost at least $500 million, although she cautioned that the numbers are still very preliminary.
A fourth project would tack an additional $100 million onto the bill. It would dip busy Santa Ana Boulevard 22 feet beneath the railroad tracks near the train station, allowing traffic to move freely even when trains are coming or going.
The city hopes to have that done within the next decade as well, City Engineer George Alvarez said.
Beyond that, city officials talk about tying into a light-rail line that could zip along the same abandoned strip as the new road they envision, all the way into Los Angeles. They imagine a day when someone could get from downtown Santa Ana to Los Angeles International Airport without ever getting onto a freeway.
The money to pay for those projects will come, in large part, from the federal and state government and from the Orange County Transportation Authority. But council members were reminded time and again during their study session that Santa Ana is not the only city looking for money.
Anaheim, also, wants to become the hub of Orange County – and its plans are several months further along than Santa Ana’s. It envisions a major transportation center for trains and a transit system – possibly a monorail – into its resort district. It’s also included as a stop on a proposed high-speed rail line across Southern California.
But Santa Ana has been the “public transportation hub” of Orange County for decades and intends to stay that way, City Manager David Ream said. “Here we have an opportunity to set a 40-year-and-beyond vision,” he said.
The Tuesday afternoon study session to discuss that vision drew city staffers and outside consultants but only a handful of residents, many of whom had learned about it from blogs and emails. The city called it a “special meeting” and posted the agenda on Monday morning, just meeting the state requirement for 24-hours notice by a few hours.
Contact the writer: 714-704-3777 or dirving@ocregister.com
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latimes.com/news/local/la-me-taxes27-2009aug27,0,1796963.story
latimes.com
Even higher taxes coming for Californians
Lower brackets and reduced deductions mean yet higher payments to Sacramento for 2009.
By Shane Goldmacher
August 27, 2009
Reporting from Sacramento
While Californians are still feeling the sting of income and sales tax hikes signed into law earlier this year, now comes news that state tax authorities plan to take a little more from their pockets.
For only the second time in 30 years, the tax board is lowering the point where each tax bracket begins, bumping many people into a higher category. At the same time, officials are cutting back some deductions. Everyone will pay more, even people whose bracket or income doesn’t change.
The extra sums will total as much as $140 per family, on top of the increases previously enacted.
Officials said the latest adjustments have been triggered by inflation, or rather the lack of it. This year, the state’s inflation index was a negative numberfor the first time since 1983. When the economy takes a deep plunge, so do tax brackets.
The new changes apply to the 2009 tax year. Residents are already paying hundreds — even thousands — of additional income tax dollars under the quarter-point rate increase and other tax hikes approved in February as part of a budget deal.
“Everything is going up, up, up,” said Othman Rabie, owner of a sandwich shop in downtown Sacramento. “And business is going down.”
Back in February, state lawmakers and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger approved a slate of temporary tax increases in an effort to balance California’s perennially out-of-whack books.
In addition to the income tax rate rising 0.25%, the dependent credit was slashed by more than two-thirds. The vehicle license fee nearly doubled to 1.15% of a car’s value. The state sales tax climbed 1%.
This summer, lawmakers and Schwarzenegger decided to withhold 10% more from workers’ paychecks starting Nov. 1 — an accounting scheme to collect taxes faster. Under another bookkeeping maneuver, individuals and businesses that make estimated tax payments will pony up more of that money sooner starting in the first half of next year.
And some local taxes are on the way up. In Los Angeles County, a half-cent-higher sales tax approved by voters took effect in July to fund transportation projects.
Under the latest changes, for a married couple filing jointly, the top tax rate of 9.55% now begins at $92,698, down from $94,110. Combined with the earlier increases, such a couple with two children, earning $100,000, will see their California income tax bill rise by 22.3%, or $716, according to the state Franchise Tax Board. Their tax would go from $3,208 to $3,924, factoring in a $110 drop in the standard deduction for joint returns.
For singles, the top tax threshold has dropped from $47,055 to $46,349. This year, a single filer without children who earned $30,000 in 2008 and 2009 would pay 13.8% more: $617 instead of $542. The standard deduction for sole filers will fall by $55.
The state automatically adjusts its tax brackets. They have moved in taxpayers’ favor for the last 25 years, with the amount of earnings required to kick people up a notch continually increasing. But that doesn’t salve the pain of the latest changes, said Assemblyman Chuck DeVore, the Republican vice chairman of the Assembly Revenue and Taxation Committee.
“It takes more money out of the taxpaying productive sectors and scoops it into the government coffers at a time when taxpayers are already reeling,” DeVore said.
It is unclear how much additional revenue the new brackets will yield for beleaguered state coffers; the state has not computed that yet, said Denise Azimi, spokeswoman for the tax board.
Meanwhile, experts such as Ted Gibson, who was chief state economist under both a Republican and a Democratic governor, remind policymakers even modest tax increases affect the state’s financial health because they prompt people to further pinch pennies.
“It will hamper the recovery a little bit,” Gibson said.
Some taxpayers say they are worried about their very livelihoods.
Martha Franco, 56, has struggled to keep open her family-run restaurant, Pepe’s Tacos in Azusa.
“I average about $6 an hour [in receipts] and I’m open 12 hours a day,” she said, sitting in the empty establishment as her son mopped the floor around her. “It already feels like I’m just working to pay my taxes,” she said.
Not everyone minds paying more to protect such services as education, healthcare and parks, though.
An extra $100 or so, said Sharon Sugerman, a 59-year-old Sacramento resident who declined to give details about her job, “seems pretty reasonable to me.”
shane.goldmacher@latimes.com
Times staff writer Corina Knoll in Los Angeles contributed to this report.
Copyright © 2009, The Los Angeles Times
Monday, August 24, 2009
High-tech cameras target parking-ticket violators
Cal State Fullerton is using infrared cameras to light up scofflaws.
By BARBARA GIASONE
The Orange County Register
FULLERTON – Cal State Fullerton students, who stack up unpaid parking tickets like fast-food coupons, are the targets of new infrared camera technology that catches offenders in the click of a digital eye.
Mobile Plate Hunter 900, a progressive illuminated camera that resembles the Pixar movie character, WALL-E, is mounted on a parking control vehicle, which circles the campus lots.
The device can read 1,100 license plates per minute, and if the plate numbers correspond with offenders’ names previously entered into a computer, an alert puts the vehicle on the “hot list” within milliseconds.
“If a student has five or more delinquent parking violations, the name is put into the computer,” CSF Parking and Transportation Director Joe Ferrer said. “The California Vehicle Code allows for agencies to immobilize or impound vehicles for these violations.”
In its first year of operation, the camera system identified 85 violations totaling $36,610, a portion of the $71,000 in parking ticket fines collected in the same period. The money is used for financial subsidies for student, faculty and staff alternative transportation programs including the University Pass Program with OCTA and discounted Metrorail passes.
“I think this system trespasses on people’s rights,” said incoming freshman Gabby Yates of Chino Hills, who was waiting to purchase a parking permit.
Graduate student Omead Moinee of Yorba Linda agreed. “That is not a good system.”
Nate Maloney, spokesman for manufacturer ELSAG of North America, said the company’s systems cost between $10,000 and $18,000, depending on the accessories. More than 550 police agencies in 50 states are using the high-tech tool.
“The technology was developed to sort mail,” Maloney said. “It was then adapted to track numbers for license plates.”
This is the same technology that law enforcement agencies across the country use to fight crime, to combat terrorism and to monitor drug trafficking on the U.S.-Mexico border, ELSAG representative Lisa Quirindongo said.
Maloney said none of the law-enforcement actions has been challenged in court.
“In fact, we’ve heard from the ACLU that they’re comfortable with the technology,” Maloney said.
He added the focus is on the license plates, not on the drivers. When motorists register a car, permission is given to the state licensing agency to put their name on record.
The Fullerton campus and Cal State Northridge are the only two universities in California to use the MPH-900, Quirindongo said.
Contact the writer: 714-704-3762 or bgiasone@ocregister.com
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Santa Ana plans $600 million in transportation projects
City envisions streetcars zipping from new train station to entirely new road … all of it running within 10 years.
By DOUG IRVING
The Orange County Register
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
SANTA ANA – City officials want to make Santa Ana the transit gateway to Orange County – a vision of streetcars, stations and one entirely new road that would cost upwards of $600 million to achieve.
And that’s only for the next 10 years. Take it a little further out, and city officials imagine light-rail trains whistling from Santa Ana to Los Angeles and beyond.
The City Council met today – with minimal public notice – to talk transportation with the consultants it has hired to translate those ideas into plans and analysis. The council took no votes during the meeting, and didn’t get too deep into the nitty-gritty details of its vision – such as how exactly to pay for it.
“Fifty, sixty years from now, people will be talking about what we did in this room, and how we moved forward,” Councilman Carlos Bustamante said.
The city has already started the wheels turning on three big-ticket transit projects that officials hope will make Santa Ana the crossroads of Orange County. Those projects are:
•A streetcar system. The city hired a team of consultants earlier this month to study an initial streetcar line through the downtown Civic Center.
•An overhaul of the Santa Ana train station. City officials expect to bring in consultants by the end of the year to plan the station’s future, which may include better bus access, new public areas and a streetcar maintenance yard.
•A new thoroughfare that would connect downtown Santa Ana directly to the 22 freeway, giving commuters a shortcut around the notorious interchange known as the “Orange Crush.” That project, which would make use of a long-abandoned strip of land once used for trolleys on the west side of town, is part of a regional transportation study.
City officials hope to have those projects up and running within the next 10 years.
Consultant Cindy Krebs, whom the city hired as its transit programs manager, estimated that those three projects will cost at least $500 million, although she cautioned that the numbers are still very preliminary.
A fourth project would tack an additional $100 million onto the bill. It would dip busy Santa Ana Boulevard 22 feet beneath the railroad tracks near the train station, allowing traffic to move freely even when trains are coming or going.
The city hopes to have that done within the next decade as well, City Engineer George Alvarez said.
Beyond that, city officials talk about tying into a light-rail line that could zip along the same abandoned strip as the new road they envision, all the way into Los Angeles. They imagine a day when someone could get from downtown Santa Ana to Los Angeles International Airport without ever getting onto a freeway.
The money to pay for those projects will come, in large part, from the federal and state government and from the Orange County Transportation Authority. But council members were reminded time and again during their study session that Santa Ana is not the only city looking for money.
Anaheim, also, wants to become the hub of Orange County – and its plans are several months further along than Santa Ana’s. It envisions a major transportation center for trains and a transit system – possibly a monorail – into its resort district. It’s also included as a stop on a proposed high-speed rail line across Southern California.
But Santa Ana has been the “public transportation hub” of Orange County for decades and intends to stay that way, City Manager David Ream said. “Here we have an opportunity to set a 40-year-and-beyond vision,” he said.
The Tuesday afternoon study session to discuss that vision drew city staffers and outside consultants but only a handful of residents, many of whom had learned about it from blogs and emails. The city called it a “special meeting” and posted the agenda on Monday morning, just meeting the state requirement for 24-hours notice by a few hours.
Contact the writer: 714-704-3777 or dirving@ocregister.com
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latimes.com/news/local/la-me-taxes27-2009aug27,0,1796963.story
latimes.com
Even higher taxes coming for Californians
Lower brackets and reduced deductions mean yet higher payments to Sacramento for 2009.
By Shane Goldmacher
August 27, 2009
Reporting from Sacramento
While Californians are still feeling the sting of income and sales tax hikes signed into law earlier this year, now comes news that state tax authorities plan to take a little more from their pockets.
For only the second time in 30 years, the tax board is lowering the point where each tax bracket begins, bumping many people into a higher category. At the same time, officials are cutting back some deductions. Everyone will pay more, even people whose bracket or income doesn’t change.
The extra sums will total as much as $140 per family, on top of the increases previously enacted.
Officials said the latest adjustments have been triggered by inflation, or rather the lack of it. This year, the state’s inflation index was a negative numberfor the first time since 1983. When the economy takes a deep plunge, so do tax brackets.
The new changes apply to the 2009 tax year. Residents are already paying hundreds — even thousands — of additional income tax dollars under the quarter-point rate increase and other tax hikes approved in February as part of a budget deal.
“Everything is going up, up, up,” said Othman Rabie, owner of a sandwich shop in downtown Sacramento. “And business is going down.”
Back in February, state lawmakers and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger approved a slate of temporary tax increases in an effort to balance California’s perennially out-of-whack books.
In addition to the income tax rate rising 0.25%, the dependent credit was slashed by more than two-thirds. The vehicle license fee nearly doubled to 1.15% of a car’s value. The state sales tax climbed 1%.
This summer, lawmakers and Schwarzenegger decided to withhold 10% more from workers’ paychecks starting Nov. 1 — an accounting scheme to collect taxes faster. Under another bookkeeping maneuver, individuals and businesses that make estimated tax payments will pony up more of that money sooner starting in the first half of next year.
And some local taxes are on the way up. In Los Angeles County, a half-cent-higher sales tax approved by voters took effect in July to fund transportation projects.
Under the latest changes, for a married couple filing jointly, the top tax rate of 9.55% now begins at $92,698, down from $94,110. Combined with the earlier increases, such a couple with two children, earning $100,000, will see their California income tax bill rise by 22.3%, or $716, according to the state Franchise Tax Board. Their tax would go from $3,208 to $3,924, factoring in a $110 drop in the standard deduction for joint returns.
For singles, the top tax threshold has dropped from $47,055 to $46,349. This year, a single filer without children who earned $30,000 in 2008 and 2009 would pay 13.8% more: $617 instead of $542. The standard deduction for sole filers will fall by $55.
The state automatically adjusts its tax brackets. They have moved in taxpayers’ favor for the last 25 years, with the amount of earnings required to kick people up a notch continually increasing. But that doesn’t salve the pain of the latest changes, said Assemblyman Chuck DeVore, the Republican vice chairman of the Assembly Revenue and Taxation Committee.
“It takes more money out of the taxpaying productive sectors and scoops it into the government coffers at a time when taxpayers are already reeling,” DeVore said.
It is unclear how much additional revenue the new brackets will yield for beleaguered state coffers; the state has not computed that yet, said Denise Azimi, spokeswoman for the tax board.
Meanwhile, experts such as Ted Gibson, who was chief state economist under both a Republican and a Democratic governor, remind policymakers even modest tax increases affect the state’s financial health because they prompt people to further pinch pennies.
“It will hamper the recovery a little bit,” Gibson said.
Some taxpayers say they are worried about their very livelihoods.
Martha Franco, 56, has struggled to keep open her family-run restaurant, Pepe’s Tacos in Azusa.
“I average about $6 an hour [in receipts] and I’m open 12 hours a day,” she said, sitting in the empty establishment as her son mopped the floor around her. “It already feels like I’m just working to pay my taxes,” she said.
Not everyone minds paying more to protect such services as education, healthcare and parks, though.
An extra $100 or so, said Sharon Sugerman, a 59-year-old Sacramento resident who declined to give details about her job, “seems pretty reasonable to me.”
shane.goldmacher@latimes.com
Golden parachutes for public retirees will sink us all, experts say
August 25th, 2009, 6:00 am · 44 Comments · posted by Teri Sforza, Register staff writer
Orange County Register
Will California’s public employees see their generous retirement benefits deflated in coming years?
If we were the betting type, we’d say the smart money is on ”yes” – but a hesitant, highly-qualified yes.
Is it already too little, too late?
RETIREMENT PAY TOO HIGH?
In Orange County, it can be a bit hard to tell. The Register is currently battling with the Orange County Employees Retirement System for local pension data – which the Register (and at least one court!) say is public information, but OCERS says is none of our beeswax. We’ll keep you posted on how that goes.
But even without the details from OCERS, we know a good bit about local pensions. A great deal of outrage – and at least one call for bona fide revolution – have greeted our recent stories about public retirees:
On Monday, our fellow watchdogs catalogued the retirement pay for Assistant Sheriff Jack Anderson ($116,225 a year),
and for Assistant Sheriff J.B. Davis ($141,600 a year
and for Captain Christine Murray ($90,459 a year).
There was last week’s story about the comfy retirement that awaits Bryan Speegle, former embattled director of the county’s Public Works department (who also headed up the county’s doomed El Toro Airport project), who will earn $115,000 a year.
We also pointed out the retirements enjoyed by former Sheriff Mike Carona( $207,979 a year),
former assistant sheriff Charles Walters ($223,218 a year)
and former treasurer-tax collector Bob Citron ($92,900 a year).
Of course, all that’s nothing compared to Bruce Malkenhorst Sr., who collects the highest municipal pension in California – $499,674 a year – after serving as the city of Vernon’s city manager, finance director, redevelopment director, city clerk, city treasurer and head of the municipal light and power operation– all at the same time. (He’s under indictment in Los Angeles County, and the case is pending).
Unsustainable? Sheesh, even former Anaheim city manager Jim Ruth (one of California’s highest-paid retirees at $219,045 a year) says it’s unsustainable.
WRITING ON THE WALL
Recently, the chief egghead for the gargantuan California Public Employees Retirement System said the same.
“I don’t want to sugarcoat anything,” said Ron Seeling, the CalPERS chief actuary, according to a story in the Capitol Weekly. “We are facing decades without significant turnarounds in assets, decades of – what I, my personal words, nobody else’s – unsustainable pension costs of between 25 percent of pay for a miscellaneous plan and 40 to 50 percent of pay for a safety plan (police and firefighters) … unsustainable pension costs. We’ve got to find some other solutions.”
Seeling made the comments at a seminar in Sacramento sponsored by the Public Retirement Journal. His entire job is to ”calculate financial values associated with uncertain events subject to risk.”
Dwight Stenbakken of the League of California Citiessaid that pension benefits in their current form and difficult to defend politically. “I think it’s incumbent upon labor and management to get together and solve this problem before it gets on the ballot,” Stenbakken said.
Seeing the writing on the wall, Anne Stausboll, CalPERS CEO, said the CalPERS board has decided that the system should take a “proactive role” on the issue,” and will bring the players together – employers, labor, legislators – to start hashing this out.
Says the Capitol Journal: “Public pension advocates worry about a drive to replace the ‘defined benefit’ plan, a guaranteed monthly check for life, with the ‘defined contribution’ 401(k)-style individual investment plan increasingly common in the private sector.”
How did we get into this mess? Well, Cal-PERS helped dig its own hole. It pushed for SB 400, legislation that enacted a major benefit increase for public employees back in 1999. The galloping stock market would pay for most of it, you see. (Stifle your laughter, please.)
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has backed an initiative that would have switched all new state and local government hires to a 401(k)-style plan, but it was declared “politically unfeasible” and died a swift death. Schwarzenegger has since proposed that pensions for new state hires be rolled back to pre-1999 formulas, but that died, too. Pension reform is on his ‘to-do’ list for this year, though.
CAN ANTHING BE DONE?
A retirement actuary, John Bartel, told the seminar that two-tier plans don’t save much money, even after decades. Why? Because costs from that high-benefit first tier continue to grow. “Unless that vested right issue changes, and I’m not expecting it will, that second tier is not going to save money,” he said.
The two-tier plan is mostly political, making it look like politicians are doing something, he said.
UNIONS SAY: IT IS TOO SUSTAINABLE!
Terry Brennand of the Service Employees International Union took exception to the overwhelming gloom. The basic problem is investment losses, not high benefit levels, he said. “I actually think it is sustainable.”
Lou Paulson of the California Professional Firefighters said proposals to extend the retirement age for firefighters from 50 to 55 would result in more injuries and drive up workers’ comp costs. “What is sustainable?” he asked.
Many folks are asking the same thing. Hopefully, one of them will figure it out. Meantime, cities in San Diego County are experimenting with having workers kick in more of their own money for their retirements. Read more about that here. (And keep your fingers crossed.)
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Orange County Employees Retirement System withholds pension data from taxpayers
August 24th, 2009, 6:12 am · 107 Comments · posted by Tony Saavedra, Register investigative reporter
Orange County Register
The Watchdog is putting on the boxing gloves. It’s not a fight we take lightly.
Taxpayers throughout California are on the hook for millions of dollars in public pensions.
But Orange County’s retirement system doesn’t want you to know who is getting the hefty pensions. Or how much. Other agencies throughout California – including the giant Public Employees’ Retirement System — are releasing the data without a fight.
The most recent court battle over pension information, in Contra Costa County, resulted in a judge ruling that taxpayers have the right to the data.
The Orange County Employees Retirement System is similar to the one in Contra Costa and covered by the exact same laws.
In fact, while the Contra Costa case was being argued, a lawyer for OCERS told a lawyer for The Register that OCERS would look closely at the court’s decision.
But OCERS changed its tune after Judge Barry Baskin ruled that the information was public, calling transparency the cornerstone of democracy.
“We cannot disclose the information without a specific court order from a court that has jurisdiction over OCERS,” wrote David Lantzer, an attorney for the retirement system.
Lawyers and administrators for the Orange County system say the Contra Costa judge has no jurisdiction here—true enough although the legal arguments are the same.
The dispute revolves around the interpretation of California Government Code 31532, which says that “sworn statements and individual records” of county retirees shall not be released to the public. The Contra Costa judge ruled that the names of retirees and pension amounts are not protected information.
The protected information is stuff like social security numbers, health records — data that the retiree provides the retirement system, not data that is generated by the retirement system.
OCERS disagrees with Baskin’s finding, arguing that the California Public Records Act specifically names retirement records as being exempt from disclosure.
OCERS makes one other argument, that preserving the privacy of retirees outweighs the public interest served by disclosure. That argument found little weight with Judge Baskin.
“A transparent government is the cornerstone of our democracy,” Baskin wrote in his decision. “Whether public funds are spent on salaries or pensions, responsible decisions must be made by our elected officials and the people who elect them.”
Even some members of OCERS’ Board of Directors agree with Baskin, and privately support giving the retirement information to the Register.
“I think it’s appropriate that we know how much we are paying these folks,” said Reed Royalty, a board member and president of the Orange County Taxpayers Association.
Speaking only as a tax watchdog, Royalty said, “There’s no reason to have benefits three or four times what the private sector gets.”
Orange County Treasurer Chriss Street, who sits on the retirement board, added, “This isn’t private (information). Government should be transparent, except for home address, social security and telephone number.”
Royalty and Street, however, said that as retirement board members, they must follow the advice of the agency’s lawyer.
County Supervisor John Moorlach, who served on the retirement board when he was treasurer, said members are free to vote against the lawyer’s advice.
“Obviously, it didn’t hold up in Contra Costa County,” Moorlach said.
Records released recently by the state public pension system (CalPERS) showed 4,817 instances where retired government administrators, police or firefighters collected more than $100,000 yearly in retirement, while the money to fund those pensions is drying up.
In contrast, the average pensioner collected just $15,948.
Additionally, the Los Angeles city pension system recently released data showing that nearly 600 people received city pensions of more than $100,000 a year, according to the Los Angeles Times.
The Watchdog suspects the same is happening in Orange County.
The OCERS board met behind closed doors Monday to discuss the Register’s request under state public records’ law. After conferring with its lawyers for an extended period, the board let stand a staff decision denying the release of records.
We’re calling on the OCERS board to reconsider, do the right thing and release the records.
Or the boxing gloves will stay on.
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latimes.com/news/local/la-me-lausd-schools26-2009aug26,0,4203620.story
latimes.com
Vote could open 250 L.A. schools to outside operators
Backers of the Board of Education decision tout choice and competition. Foes call the move illegal, illogical and improper.
By Howard Blume and Jason Song
11:16 PM PDT, August 25, 2009
In a startling acknowledgment that the Los Angeles school system cannot improve enough schools on its own, the city Board of Education approved a plan Tuesday that could turn over 250 campuses — including 50 new multimillion-dollar facilities — to charter groups and other outside operators.
The plan, approved on a 6-1 vote, gives Supt. Ramon C. Cortines the power to recommend the best option to run some of the worst-performing schools in the city as well as the newest campuses. Board member Marguerite Poindexter LaMotte dissented.
The vote occurred after a tense, nearly four-hour debate during which supporters characterized the resolution as a moral imperative. Foes called it illegal, illogical and improper.
The action signals a historic turning point for the Los Angeles Unified School District, which has struggled for decades to boost student achievement. District officials and others have said their ability to achieve more than incremental progress is hindered by the powerful teachers union, whose contract makes it nearly impossible to fire ineffective tenured teachers. Union leaders blame a district bureaucracy that they say fails to include teachers in “top-down reforms.”
“The premise of the resolution is first and foremost to create choice and competition,” said board member Yolie Flores Aguilar, who brought the resolution, “and to really force and pressure the district to put forth a better educational plan.”
She and other backers said they expected the district to improve its own performance and to also compete to turn around schools. Bidders could apply to manage schools by mid-January.
For the charter school operators, the biggest prize is 50 new schools scheduled to open over the next four years.
“It’s absolutely indispensable, of critical importance to us,” said Jed Wallace, chief executive of the California Charter Schools Assn. “It’s a once-in-a-generation opportunity: 50 new school buildings coming online at the exact same time that a cadre of charter operators has demonstrated that it can generate unprecedented levels of student learning.”
Charters are publicly funded but independently operated and free from some regulations governing the traditional administration of schools. They also are not required to be unionized.
Some of them have failed to outperform regular schools, according to some recent research. But backers of the new plan say that only the top-notch charter companies have a realistic shot at operating any of the 250 campuses that could be included, about a fourth of all district schools.
Finding locations for schools has been a paramount problem for charter groups. Synergy Academy in South Los Angeles, for example, occupies rented space in a church 500 feet from where a new L.A. Unified school is being built.
Among those who could take advantage of the board action is Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who could use it to enlarge the 11-school effort run by a nonprofit that he controls. Villaraigosa, who helped elect a majority of the seven-member board, was an active participant Tuesday, speaking before more than 2,000 parents, teachers and others before the vote.
For several board members, particularly those with strong union ties, the debate was heated and often agonizing. Steve Zimmer, for one, sought to require that teachers, other union members and parents approve any school’s reform plan through separate majority votes. At high schools students would also vote.
Lacking support from his colleagues, he settled for a watered-down process that includes only advisory ballots.
The final version included a provision that outside groups would likely contract with the school system for such services as cafeteria, custodial, maintenance, security and transportation. Some charter operators regarded this as a huge concession because they typically outsource these services to save money and say they get better attention from contractors than from the district.
But the language protecting these union jobs offers no long-term guarantee. And no union endorsed the resolution.
The protections didn’t go far enough, said Bill Lloyd, executive director of Local 99 of Service Employees International. The local represents thousands of the district’s lowest-wage workers, many of whom are district parents. “Historically we don’t get a square deal because we’re not teachers and we’re branded as second-class citizens,” he said.
Leaders of United Teachers Los Angeles were once again frustrated that their own version of reform — democratically run school sites with substantial and mandatory teacher input — played second fiddle. Union President A.J. Duffy threatened legal action to thwart the Flores Aguilar plan.
Duffy chastised board members, especially those most closely allied with the mayor.
“When all is said and done you will have sold this district down the road for political gain for some of you,” he said at the meeting, “and for a mayor whose own program has been a dismal failure. And if you end up . . . giving the mayor more schools, then shame on you.”
Other critics have joined Duffy in questioning whether schools built with bond funds to relieve crowding, can be turned over to entities not under direct district control.
For their part, charter schools may have to operate differently in district-owned sites. They could be required to enroll more disabled students and higher numbers of lower-income students than at some current charter schools.
Both sides gathered coalitions of supporters. The charter-backed group Families That Can organized a massive rally outside district headquarters before the vote.
And the critics were not exclusively union members. Some called the plan an abdication of district responsibility or a failure to acknowledge district progress.
David Crippens, who chairs the committee overseeing school-construction spending, cautioned against “change for the sake of change.”
But school board President Monica Garcia, a Villaraigosa ally, asserted that “kids can’t wait. . . . My support for this resolution is in the hope that the district can move faster.”
Shortly after the vote, Villaraigosa savored a political and policy victory at district headquarters in downtown L.A.
“We’re not going to be held hostage by a small group of people,” Villaraigosa said, referring to the teachers union and other opponents. “I’ll let you infer who I’m talking about.”
howard.blume@latimes.com
jason.song@latimes.com
Copyright © 2009, The Los Angeles Times
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latimes.com/news/local/la-me-sat26-2009aug26,0,1318575.story
latimes.com
California seniors’ SAT scores dip slightly for ‘09
Math and reading scores for high school seniors were down slightly, but writing scores were higher than the U.S. average.
By Larry Gordon
August 26, 2009
California’s college-bound high school seniors scored somewhat better than the national average this year on the SAT exam’s writing section but slightly worse on critical reading and math, according to results released Tuesday.
With 800 a perfect score on each part of the arduous college entrance test, California’s 2009 high school graduating class averaged 500 in critical reading, 513 in math and 498 in writing. The national averages were 501 in critical reading, 515 in math and 493 in writing.
Combining all three sections, both the state and national averages on the SAT showed small dips. In California, that score was 1511, down one point from last year; nationally, it was 1509, two points lower than before.
Officials with the College Board, the nonprofit that owns the SAT, described scores as basically unchanged, even as a larger, more diverse group of students took the three-hour-and-45-minute exam.
“The fact that the scores are staying stable while you are doing that is a good sign,” Laurence Bunin, senior vice president of the SAT program, said in a telephone news conference.
However, the exam’s long-running gender, ethnic and income gaps persisted and in some instances, widened. Critics point to the gaps as evidence that many students are unfairly penalized by the nation’s emphasis on standardized tests. Although an increasing number of colleges have made the tests optional, the SAT and its rival ACT exam remain an important part of applications to most schools, along with high school grades and extracurricular activities.
Nationally, men continued to score significantly higher than women on the SAT’s math section, scoring 534 on average compared with 499, and slightly better in critical reading, 503 to 498. Women performed better in writing, averaging 499 compared with men’s 486 points.
Asians and Pacific Islanders had the highest combined national average, 1623, boosted by strong math results. White students recorded an average score of 1581, Mexican and Mexican Americans had 1362 and African Americans 1276.
College Board leaders often seek to refute claims of test preparation firms that coaching can significantly boost SAT scores.
The most important preparation, SAT backers say, is a rigorous high school curriculum, including honors and Advanced Placement courses. Asian Americans tend to complete more and higher levels of math, such as calculus, according to Bunin.
The number of students taking the exam rose slightly this year, as did the proportion of ethnic minorities. Of the 1.53 million test-takers across the country, about 40% were non-white, up from 38% last year and from 29% a decade ago. “I’m tremendously encouraged by this progress,” College Board President Gaston Caperton said.
A larger share of those who took the SAT in California were from minority groups than the national average. For example, Asians, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders comprised 21% of the California pool, about double the national share. Latinos were about 28% of test-takers in California, compared with 13% nationally.
California State Supt. of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell said he was pleased that larger numbers of the state’s minority students were taking the SAT, but wished the scores were higher. “Even with test scores generally improving, we still have a long way to go,” O’Connell said in a statement.
Nationally, SAT scores tumbled from the mid-1970s to the early 1990s, but have risen somewhat since then.
Math averages are now six points higher than they were in 1972, and critical reading is 29 points lower. (The writing section is only in its fourth year.)
Scores for the ACT exam, which is popular in the Midwest and South and gaining ground in California, also stalled this year. A report released last week showed that students averaged 21.1 points on that test, the same as last year and just 0.2 points higher than in 2005.
The ACT’s highest possible score is 36 points.
The largely flat scores show that the federal No Child Left Behind reform program, with its focus on testing, has not improved public education, said Bob Schaeffer of the National Center for Fair & Open Testing, a longtime critic of college entrance exams.
“If the claims of success for No Child were coming true, we’d expect to be seeing these great improvements and narrowing in achievement gaps. Yet the data of the SAT and ACT show no progress,” he said.
larry.gordon@latimes.com
Copyright © 2009, The Los Angeles Times
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latimes.com/news/la-me-southla-taggers24-2009aug24,0,858909.story
latimes.com
PROMISE AND PERIL IN SOUTH L.A.
‘Tagging’ or just hanging out — busted either way?
L.A.’s city attorney wants to give police the ability to arrest graffiti ‘taggers’ simply for hanging out together, without having to catch them in the act. The proposal raises constitutional issues.
By Scott Gold
August 24, 2009
Los Angeles City Atty. Carmen Trutanich wants to give police the ability to arrest “taggers” simply for hanging out together, without having to catch them in the act — raising thorny constitutional issues as he lays the groundwork for a campaign to tackle the city’s vexing graffiti problem.
In an interview, Trutanich said his staff has begun amassing street-level intelligence and reviewing legal strategies that would pave the way for a series of injunctions targeting graffiti and “tagging” crews. The measures would be lawsuits of sorts, brought on behalf of the public, treating much of the graffiti that mars buildings and overpasses as a criminal enterprise and arguing that it has become such a nuisance that it requires an extraordinary police response.
Los Angeles is the national leader in the use of civil injunctions to combat criminal gang behavior — the model for Trutanich’s proposal. The city has 43 injunctions targeting 71 gangs, including one rolled out earlier this year over a 13.7-square-mile area of South L.A., the largest in California. The tagging injunctions would focus on neighborhoods where graffiti is a particularly acute problem, such as the Harbor Gateway area, the San Fernando Valley and, especially, South L.A.
“I’m going to put together an end-of-days scenario for these guys,” Trutanich said. “If you want to tag, be prepared to go to jail. And I don’t have to catch you tagging. I can just catch you . . . with your homeboys.”
It’s tough talk, but Trutanich has some work ahead of him. Peter Bibring, staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, called the proposal “unquestionably unconstitutional,” and some law enforcement officials said they were skeptical or ambivalent.
Injunctions prohibit behavior that would otherwise be legal: wearing certain clothes, making certain hand signs, going to certain parks. Their most potent provisions make it illegal for two alleged gang members to associate in public — an arrestable offense even if no other crime is being committed.
Critics say injunctions go too far, criminalizing entire communities and pushing kids on the edge into the criminal justice system, not helping them stay out of it. Injunctions, critics argue, don’t distinguish between hard-core gangbangers and hangers-on and fail to recognize that in some neighborhoods, an association with a gang is the only way to stay safe.
Blurring the line?
In South Los Angeles, Police Capt. Mark Olvera said he feared that injunctions against taggers would be untenable. He also said it could blur the line that police use when confronting graffiti — between hardened criminals who use graffiti to mark territory and challenge rivals, and aimless punks who try to enhance their street credibility by scribbling designs on lampposts, vans and buildings.
Olvera is commander of the LAPD’s Newton station on South Central Avenue, in the heart of a neighborhood where graffiti is ubiquitous. He said an injunction could be very helpful in policing hard-core gangsters. But he feared that targeting low-level taggers could undermine the city’s efforts to combine traditional police suppression tactics with social-service programs that can steer at-risk youths onto a better path.
“I think the concept could be useful,” Olvera said. “But I’d have to see where this is going to go. What are we doing? Let’s say we pick up a kid for this. Who is going to work with that kid? Is there another organization that is going to do counseling or work with him in [developing] a new art form? Or are we just going to keep arresting them?”
Some civil libertarians had hoped that Trutanich, who in May won a rancorous election to succeed Rocky Delgadillo, might curtail the city’s use of injunctions.
Instead, though Trutanich said he is sensitive to the criticism and is seeking a balance between public safety and civil liberties, he is proposing to adopt the same tactics police use on the city’s toughest criminals against people who are typically viewed as more of an annoyance.
“At the end of the day,” he said, “they are no less of a gang.”
To support that contention, he pointed to several incidents in which people have been shot and killed after confronting graffiti vandals in residential areas — a Valinda man in 2006, for instance, and a Pico Rivera woman a year later.
Though his proposal is still in its infancy, Trutanich said it would treat many graffiti vandals and taggers as like-minded members of a criminal enterprise and make it a crime for documented taggers to associate in public.
Almost all of them, he argued, work in teams — with lookouts who can help them access difficult-to-reach areas. The injunction would enjoin the members of a team from associating with one another in public — making the association a crime, without any direct evidence of vandalism. Anyone targeted by the injunction would have been accused of tagging in the past, and Trutanich’s office stressed that each individual injunction would be tailored to a specific problem in a specific neighborhood. Each injunction also would require a judge’s approval.
The city received more than 600,000 reports of graffiti last year — and many other incidents went unreported.
Trutanich said his proposal would not operate in a vacuum but be one of several new tools the city could use to combat graffiti.
City and county officials recently approved measures allowing authorities to hold taggers and their parents liable for civil damages. A similar measure was passed this spring by the state Assembly and awaits approval by the Senate.
City officials are also considering further restricting the sale of aerosol spray paint and other materials to people under 21.
Trutanich has time to drum up support, but so far his proposal has brought harsh criticism from the ACLU.
‘Nobody likes tagging’
Bibring, a frequent critic of gang injunctions, said courts have allowed provisions enjoining people from associating only because authorities have successfully argued that gathering in public is a central part of a gang’s criminal activity — “a way to intimidate the neighborhood and advance the criminal activities of the gang.”
“That is just not true for taggers,” he said. “So there is no basis to enjoin association.
“Nobody likes tagging. Nobody likes vandalism,” Bibring added. “That doesn’t mean you can strip away all the protections of the criminal justice system for people suspected of being taggers.”
Greg Estevane, program director of the School of Justice at Westwood College, was equally skeptical.
On the one hand, he said, city authorities have often conflated — unfairly — hard-core gangbangers with small-time taggers. Perhaps, he said, a proposal like this could help draw a distinction.
But he said it was a stretch to draw any parallel between the aims and goals of gangs with those of tagging crews. Using the same legal strategies against taggers, he added, “will turn them into gang members.”
“Tagging crews are a hassle. They are definitely something that costs money,” Estevane said. “But it’s vandalism. Vandalism is not the same thing as gang activity — something that is done to further murder, rape, drug dealing. It’s an identity crisis. They are trying to make it analogous. It’s not . . . It’s like using a Howitzer to kill a fly.”
But Ruben Guerra, chairman and chief executive of the Los Angeles-based Latin Business Assn., said it is time for some unorthodox approaches to a maddening problem. Guerra owns a design and construction firm; eight months ago, he founded another company that coats walls and signs with a clear material that can be wiped clean of graffiti. He said most of the graffiti in places like South L.A. is on the walls of small, locally owned shops and restaurants.
“Look, these are struggling times for all businesses. There are businesses that are closing down, letting employees go,” he said.
“If you have graffiti on top of that, guess what? It just makes it a little bit harder.”
He applauded Trutanich for trying something new.
“If you let graffiti go, it takes away the pride of the community,” he said. “There have to be some laws put in place that are really going to scare these guys into stopping graffiti. And right now there aren’t any.”
scott.gold@latimes.com
Copyright © 2009, The Los Angeles Times
Golden parachutes for public retirees will sink us all, experts say
August 25th, 2009, 6:00 am · 44 Comments · posted by Teri Sforza, Register staff writer
Orange County Register
Will California’s public employees see their generous retirement benefits deflated in coming years?
If we were the betting type, we’d say the smart money is on ”yes” – but a hesitant, highly-qualified yes.
Is it already too little, too late?
RETIREMENT PAY TOO HIGH?
In Orange County, it can be a bit hard to tell. The Register is currently battling with the Orange County Employees Retirement System for local pension data – which the Register (and at least one court!) say is public information, but OCERS says is none of our beeswax. We’ll keep you posted on how that goes.
But even without the details from OCERS, we know a good bit about local pensions. A great deal of outrage – and at least one call for bona fide revolution – have greeted our recent stories about public retirees:
On Monday, our fellow watchdogs catalogued the retirement pay for Assistant Sheriff Jack Anderson ($116,225 a year),
and for Assistant Sheriff J.B. Davis ($141,600 a year
and for Captain Christine Murray ($90,459 a year).
There was last week’s story about the comfy retirement that awaits Bryan Speegle, former embattled director of the county’s Public Works department (who also headed up the county’s doomed El Toro Airport project), who will earn $115,000 a year.
We also pointed out the retirements enjoyed by former Sheriff Mike Carona( $207,979 a year),
former assistant sheriff Charles Walters ($223,218 a year)
and former treasurer-tax collector Bob Citron ($92,900 a year).
Of course, all that’s nothing compared to Bruce Malkenhorst Sr., who collects the highest municipal pension in California – $499,674 a year – after serving as the city of Vernon’s city manager, finance director, redevelopment director, city clerk, city treasurer and head of the municipal light and power operation– all at the same time. (He’s under indictment in Los Angeles County, and the case is pending).
Unsustainable? Sheesh, even former Anaheim city manager Jim Ruth (one of California’s highest-paid retirees at $219,045 a year) says it’s unsustainable.
WRITING ON THE WALL
Recently, the chief egghead for the gargantuan California Public Employees Retirement System said the same.
“I don’t want to sugarcoat anything,” said Ron Seeling, the CalPERS chief actuary, according to a story in the Capitol Weekly. “We are facing decades without significant turnarounds in assets, decades of – what I, my personal words, nobody else’s – unsustainable pension costs of between 25 percent of pay for a miscellaneous plan and 40 to 50 percent of pay for a safety plan (police and firefighters) … unsustainable pension costs. We’ve got to find some other solutions.”
Seeling made the comments at a seminar in Sacramento sponsored by the Public Retirement Journal. His entire job is to ”calculate financial values associated with uncertain events subject to risk.”
Dwight Stenbakken of the League of California Citiessaid that pension benefits in their current form and difficult to defend politically. “I think it’s incumbent upon labor and management to get together and solve this problem before it gets on the ballot,” Stenbakken said.
Seeing the writing on the wall, Anne Stausboll, CalPERS CEO, said the CalPERS board has decided that the system should take a “proactive role” on the issue,” and will bring the players together – employers, labor, legislators – to start hashing this out.
Says the Capitol Journal: “Public pension advocates worry about a drive to replace the ‘defined benefit’ plan, a guaranteed monthly check for life, with the ‘defined contribution’ 401(k)-style individual investment plan increasingly common in the private sector.”
How did we get into this mess? Well, Cal-PERS helped dig its own hole. It pushed for SB 400, legislation that enacted a major benefit increase for public employees back in 1999. The galloping stock market would pay for most of it, you see. (Stifle your laughter, please.)
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has backed an initiative that would have switched all new state and local government hires to a 401(k)-style plan, but it was declared “politically unfeasible” and died a swift death. Schwarzenegger has since proposed that pensions for new state hires be rolled back to pre-1999 formulas, but that died, too. Pension reform is on his ‘to-do’ list for this year, though.
CAN ANTHING BE DONE?
A retirement actuary, John Bartel, told the seminar that two-tier plans don’t save much money, even after decades. Why? Because costs from that high-benefit first tier continue to grow. “Unless that vested right issue changes, and I’m not expecting it will, that second tier is not going to save money,” he said.
The two-tier plan is mostly political, making it look like politicians are doing something, he said.
UNIONS SAY: IT IS TOO SUSTAINABLE!
Terry Brennand of the Service Employees International Union took exception to the overwhelming gloom. The basic problem is investment losses, not high benefit levels, he said. “I actually think it is sustainable.”
Lou Paulson of the California Professional Firefighters said proposals to extend the retirement age for firefighters from 50 to 55 would result in more injuries and drive up workers’ comp costs. “What is sustainable?” he asked.
Many folks are asking the same thing. Hopefully, one of them will figure it out. Meantime, cities in San Diego County are experimenting with having workers kick in more of their own money for their retirements. Read more about that here. (And keep your fingers crossed.)
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Orange County Employees Retirement System withholds pension data from taxpayers
August 24th, 2009, 6:12 am · 107 Comments · posted by Tony Saavedra, Register investigative reporter
Orange County Register
The Watchdog is putting on the boxing gloves. It’s not a fight we take lightly.
Taxpayers throughout California are on the hook for millions of dollars in public pensions.
But Orange County’s retirement system doesn’t want you to know who is getting the hefty pensions. Or how much. Other agencies throughout California – including the giant Public Employees’ Retirement System — are releasing the data without a fight.
The most recent court battle over pension information, in Contra Costa County, resulted in a judge ruling that taxpayers have the right to the data.
The Orange County Employees Retirement System is similar to the one in Contra Costa and covered by the exact same laws.
In fact, while the Contra Costa case was being argued, a lawyer for OCERS told a lawyer for The Register that OCERS would look closely at the court’s decision.
But OCERS changed its tune after Judge Barry Baskin ruled that the information was public, calling transparency the cornerstone of democracy.
“We cannot disclose the information without a specific court order from a court that has jurisdiction over OCERS,” wrote David Lantzer, an attorney for the retirement system.
Lawyers and administrators for the Orange County system say the Contra Costa judge has no jurisdiction here—true enough although the legal arguments are the same.
The dispute revolves around the interpretation of California Government Code 31532, which says that “sworn statements and individual records” of county retirees shall not be released to the public. The Contra Costa judge ruled that the names of retirees and pension amounts are not protected information.
The protected information is stuff like social security numbers, health records — data that the retiree provides the retirement system, not data that is generated by the retirement system.
OCERS disagrees with Baskin’s finding, arguing that the California Public Records Act specifically names retirement records as being exempt from disclosure.
OCERS makes one other argument, that preserving the privacy of retirees outweighs the public interest served by disclosure. That argument found little weight with Judge Baskin.
“A transparent government is the cornerstone of our democracy,” Baskin wrote in his decision. “Whether public funds are spent on salaries or pensions, responsible decisions must be made by our elected officials and the people who elect them.”
Even some members of OCERS’ Board of Directors agree with Baskin, and privately support giving the retirement information to the Register.
“I think it’s appropriate that we know how much we are paying these folks,” said Reed Royalty, a board member and president of the Orange County Taxpayers Association.
Speaking only as a tax watchdog, Royalty said, “There’s no reason to have benefits three or four times what the private sector gets.”
Orange County Treasurer Chriss Street, who sits on the retirement board, added, “This isn’t private (information). Government should be transparent, except for home address, social security and telephone number.”
Royalty and Street, however, said that as retirement board members, they must follow the advice of the agency’s lawyer.
County Supervisor John Moorlach, who served on the retirement board when he was treasurer, said members are free to vote against the lawyer’s advice.
“Obviously, it didn’t hold up in Contra Costa County,” Moorlach said.
Records released recently by the state public pension system (CalPERS) showed 4,817 instances where retired government administrators, police or firefighters collected more than $100,000 yearly in retirement, while the money to fund those pensions is drying up.
In contrast, the average pensioner collected just $15,948.
Additionally, the Los Angeles city pension system recently released data showing that nearly 600 people received city pensions of more than $100,000 a year, according to the Los Angeles Times.
The Watchdog suspects the same is happening in Orange County.
The OCERS board met behind closed doors Monday to discuss the Register’s request under state public records’ law. After conferring with its lawyers for an extended period, the board let stand a staff decision denying the release of records.
We’re calling on the OCERS board to reconsider, do the right thing and release the records.
Or the boxing gloves will stay on.
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latimes.com/news/local/la-me-lausd-schools26-2009aug26,0,4203620.story
latimes.com
Vote could open 250 L.A. schools to outside operators
Backers of the Board of Education decision tout choice and competition. Foes call the move illegal, illogical and improper.
By Howard Blume and Jason Song
11:16 PM PDT, August 25, 2009
In a startling acknowledgment that the Los Angeles school system cannot improve enough schools on its own, the city Board of Education approved a plan Tuesday that could turn over 250 campuses — including 50 new multimillion-dollar facilities — to charter groups and other outside operators.
The plan, approved on a 6-1 vote, gives Supt. Ramon C. Cortines the power to recommend the best option to run some of the worst-performing schools in the city as well as the newest campuses. Board member Marguerite Poindexter LaMotte dissented.
The vote occurred after a tense, nearly four-hour debate during which supporters characterized the resolution as a moral imperative. Foes called it illegal, illogical and improper.
The action signals a historic turning point for the Los Angeles Unified School District, which has struggled for decades to boost student achievement. District officials and others have said their ability to achieve more than incremental progress is hindered by the powerful teachers union, whose contract makes it nearly impossible to fire ineffective tenured teachers. Union leaders blame a district bureaucracy that they say fails to include teachers in “top-down reforms.”
“The premise of the resolution is first and foremost to create choice and competition,” said board member Yolie Flores Aguilar, who brought the resolution, “and to really force and pressure the district to put forth a better educational plan.”
She and other backers said they expected the district to improve its own performance and to also compete to turn around schools. Bidders could apply to manage schools by mid-January.
For the charter school operators, the biggest prize is 50 new schools scheduled to open over the next four years.
“It’s absolutely indispensable, of critical importance to us,” said Jed Wallace, chief executive of the California Charter Schools Assn. “It’s a once-in-a-generation opportunity: 50 new school buildings coming online at the exact same time that a cadre of charter operators has demonstrated that it can generate unprecedented levels of student learning.”
Charters are publicly funded but independently operated and free from some regulations governing the traditional administration of schools. They also are not required to be unionized.
Some of them have failed to outperform regular schools, according to some recent research. But backers of the new plan say that only the top-notch charter companies have a realistic shot at operating any of the 250 campuses that could be included, about a fourth of all district schools.
Finding locations for schools has been a paramount problem for charter groups. Synergy Academy in South Los Angeles, for example, occupies rented space in a church 500 feet from where a new L.A. Unified school is being built.
Among those who could take advantage of the board action is Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who could use it to enlarge the 11-school effort run by a nonprofit that he controls. Villaraigosa, who helped elect a majority of the seven-member board, was an active participant Tuesday, speaking before more than 2,000 parents, teachers and others before the vote.
For several board members, particularly those with strong union ties, the debate was heated and often agonizing. Steve Zimmer, for one, sought to require that teachers, other union members and parents approve any school’s reform plan through separate majority votes. At high schools students would also vote.
Lacking support from his colleagues, he settled for a watered-down process that includes only advisory ballots.
The final version included a provision that outside groups would likely contract with the school system for such services as cafeteria, custodial, maintenance, security and transportation. Some charter operators regarded this as a huge concession because they typically outsource these services to save money and say they get better attention from contractors than from the district.
But the language protecting these union jobs offers no long-term guarantee. And no union endorsed the resolution.
The protections didn’t go far enough, said Bill Lloyd, executive director of Local 99 of Service Employees International. The local represents thousands of the district’s lowest-wage workers, many of whom are district parents. “Historically we don’t get a square deal because we’re not teachers and we’re branded as second-class citizens,” he said.
Leaders of United Teachers Los Angeles were once again frustrated that their own version of reform — democratically run school sites with substantial and mandatory teacher input — played second fiddle. Union President A.J. Duffy threatened legal action to thwart the Flores Aguilar plan.
Duffy chastised board members, especially those most closely allied with the mayor.
“When all is said and done you will have sold this district down the road for political gain for some of you,” he said at the meeting, “and for a mayor whose own program has been a dismal failure. And if you end up . . . giving the mayor more schools, then shame on you.”
Other critics have joined Duffy in questioning whether schools built with bond funds to relieve crowding, can be turned over to entities not under direct district control.
For their part, charter schools may have to operate differently in district-owned sites. They could be required to enroll more disabled students and higher numbers of lower-income students than at some current charter schools.
Both sides gathered coalitions of supporters. The charter-backed group Families That Can organized a massive rally outside district headquarters before the vote.
And the critics were not exclusively union members. Some called the plan an abdication of district responsibility or a failure to acknowledge district progress.
David Crippens, who chairs the committee overseeing school-construction spending, cautioned against “change for the sake of change.”
But school board President Monica Garcia, a Villaraigosa ally, asserted that “kids can’t wait. . . . My support for this resolution is in the hope that the district can move faster.”
Shortly after the vote, Villaraigosa savored a political and policy victory at district headquarters in downtown L.A.
“We’re not going to be held hostage by a small group of people,” Villaraigosa said, referring to the teachers union and other opponents. “I’ll let you infer who I’m talking about.”
howard.blume@latimes.com
jason.song@latimes.com
Copyright © 2009, The Los Angeles Times
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latimes.com/news/local/la-me-sat26-2009aug26,0,1318575.story
latimes.com
California seniors’ SAT scores dip slightly for ’09
Math and reading scores for high school seniors were down slightly, but writing scores were higher than the U.S. average.
By Larry Gordon
August 26, 2009
California’s college-bound high school seniors scored somewhat better than the national average this year on the SAT exam’s writing section but slightly worse on critical reading and math, according to results released Tuesday.
With 800 a perfect score on each part of the arduous college entrance test, California’s 2009 high school graduating class averaged 500 in critical reading, 513 in math and 498 in writing. The national averages were 501 in critical reading, 515 in math and 493 in writing.
Combining all three sections, both the state and national averages on the SAT showed small dips. In California, that score was 1511, down one point from last year; nationally, it was 1509, two points lower than before.
Officials with the College Board, the nonprofit that owns the SAT, described scores as basically unchanged, even as a larger, more diverse group of students took the three-hour-and-45-minute exam.
“The fact that the scores are staying stable while you are doing that is a good sign,” Laurence Bunin, senior vice president of the SAT program, said in a telephone news conference.
However, the exam’s long-running gender, ethnic and income gaps persisted and in some instances, widened. Critics point to the gaps as evidence that many students are unfairly penalized by the nation’s emphasis on standardized tests. Although an increasing number of colleges have made the tests optional, the SAT and its rival ACT exam remain an important part of applications to most schools, along with high school grades and extracurricular activities.
Nationally, men continued to score significantly higher than women on the SAT’s math section, scoring 534 on average compared with 499, and slightly better in critical reading, 503 to 498. Women performed better in writing, averaging 499 compared with men’s 486 points.
Asians and Pacific Islanders had the highest combined national average, 1623, boosted by strong math results. White students recorded an average score of 1581, Mexican and Mexican Americans had 1362 and African Americans 1276.
College Board leaders often seek to refute claims of test preparation firms that coaching can significantly boost SAT scores.
The most important preparation, SAT backers say, is a rigorous high school curriculum, including honors and Advanced Placement courses. Asian Americans tend to complete more and higher levels of math, such as calculus, according to Bunin.
The number of students taking the exam rose slightly this year, as did the proportion of ethnic minorities. Of the 1.53 million test-takers across the country, about 40% were non-white, up from 38% last year and from 29% a decade ago. “I’m tremendously encouraged by this progress,” College Board President Gaston Caperton said.
A larger share of those who took the SAT in California were from minority groups than the national average. For example, Asians, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders comprised 21% of the California pool, about double the national share. Latinos were about 28% of test-takers in California, compared with 13% nationally.
California State Supt. of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell said he was pleased that larger numbers of the state’s minority students were taking the SAT, but wished the scores were higher. “Even with test scores generally improving, we still have a long way to go,” O’Connell said in a statement.
Nationally, SAT scores tumbled from the mid-1970s to the early 1990s, but have risen somewhat since then.
Math averages are now six points higher than they were in 1972, and critical reading is 29 points lower. (The writing section is only in its fourth year.)
Scores for the ACT exam, which is popular in the Midwest and South and gaining ground in California, also stalled this year. A report released last week showed that students averaged 21.1 points on that test, the same as last year and just 0.2 points higher than in 2005.
The ACT’s highest possible score is 36 points.
The largely flat scores show that the federal No Child Left Behind reform program, with its focus on testing, has not improved public education, said Bob Schaeffer of the National Center for Fair & Open Testing, a longtime critic of college entrance exams.
“If the claims of success for No Child were coming true, we’d expect to be seeing these great improvements and narrowing in achievement gaps. Yet the data of the SAT and ACT show no progress,” he said.
larry.gordon@latimes.com
Copyright © 2009, The Los Angeles Times
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latimes.com/news/la-me-southla-taggers24-2009aug24,0,858909.story
latimes.com
PROMISE AND PERIL IN SOUTH L.A.
‘Tagging’ or just hanging out — busted either way?
L.A.’s city attorney wants to give police the ability to arrest graffiti ‘taggers’ simply for hanging out together, without having to catch them in the act. The proposal raises constitutional issues.
By Scott Gold
August 24, 2009
Los Angeles City Atty. Carmen Trutanich wants to give police the ability to arrest “taggers” simply for hanging out together, without having to catch them in the act — raising thorny constitutional issues as he lays the groundwork for a campaign to tackle the city’s vexing graffiti problem.
In an interview, Trutanich said his staff has begun amassing street-level intelligence and reviewing legal strategies that would pave the way for a series of injunctions targeting graffiti and “tagging” crews. The measures would be lawsuits of sorts, brought on behalf of the public, treating much of the graffiti that mars buildings and overpasses as a criminal enterprise and arguing that it has become such a nuisance that it requires an extraordinary police response.
Los Angeles is the national leader in the use of civil injunctions to combat criminal gang behavior — the model for Trutanich’s proposal. The city has 43 injunctions targeting 71 gangs, including one rolled out earlier this year over a 13.7-square-mile area of South L.A., the largest in California. The tagging injunctions would focus on neighborhoods where graffiti is a particularly acute problem, such as the Harbor Gateway area, the San Fernando Valley and, especially, South L.A.
“I’m going to put together an end-of-days scenario for these guys,” Trutanich said. “If you want to tag, be prepared to go to jail. And I don’t have to catch you tagging. I can just catch you . . . with your homeboys.”
It’s tough talk, but Trutanich has some work ahead of him. Peter Bibring, staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, called the proposal “unquestionably unconstitutional,” and some law enforcement officials said they were skeptical or ambivalent.
Injunctions prohibit behavior that would otherwise be legal: wearing certain clothes, making certain hand signs, going to certain parks. Their most potent provisions make it illegal for two alleged gang members to associate in public — an arrestable offense even if no other crime is being committed.
Critics say injunctions go too far, criminalizing entire communities and pushing kids on the edge into the criminal justice system, not helping them stay out of it. Injunctions, critics argue, don’t distinguish between hard-core gangbangers and hangers-on and fail to recognize that in some neighborhoods, an association with a gang is the only way to stay safe.
Blurring the line?
In South Los Angeles, Police Capt. Mark Olvera said he feared that injunctions against taggers would be untenable. He also said it could blur the line that police use when confronting graffiti — between hardened criminals who use graffiti to mark territory and challenge rivals, and aimless punks who try to enhance their street credibility by scribbling designs on lampposts, vans and buildings.
Olvera is commander of the LAPD’s Newton station on South Central Avenue, in the heart of a neighborhood where graffiti is ubiquitous. He said an injunction could be very helpful in policing hard-core gangsters. But he feared that targeting low-level taggers could undermine the city’s efforts to combine traditional police suppression tactics with social-service programs that can steer at-risk youths onto a better path.
“I think the concept could be useful,” Olvera said. “But I’d have to see where this is going to go. What are we doing? Let’s say we pick up a kid for this. Who is going to work with that kid? Is there another organization that is going to do counseling or work with him in [developing] a new art form? Or are we just going to keep arresting them?”
Some civil libertarians had hoped that Trutanich, who in May won a rancorous election to succeed Rocky Delgadillo, might curtail the city’s use of injunctions.
Instead, though Trutanich said he is sensitive to the criticism and is seeking a balance between public safety and civil liberties, he is proposing to adopt the same tactics police use on the city’s toughest criminals against people who are typically viewed as more of an annoyance.
“At the end of the day,” he said, “they are no less of a gang.”
To support that contention, he pointed to several incidents in which people have been shot and killed after confronting graffiti vandals in residential areas — a Valinda man in 2006, for instance, and a Pico Rivera woman a year later.
Though his proposal is still in its infancy, Trutanich said it would treat many graffiti vandals and taggers as like-minded members of a criminal enterprise and make it a crime for documented taggers to associate in public.
Almost all of them, he argued, work in teams — with lookouts who can help them access difficult-to-reach areas. The injunction would enjoin the members of a team from associating with one another in public — making the association a crime, without any direct evidence of vandalism. Anyone targeted by the injunction would have been accused of tagging in the past, and Trutanich’s office stressed that each individual injunction would be tailored to a specific problem in a specific neighborhood. Each injunction also would require a judge’s approval.
The city received more than 600,000 reports of graffiti last year — and many other incidents went unreported.
Trutanich said his proposal would not operate in a vacuum but be one of several new tools the city could use to combat graffiti.
City and county officials recently approved measures allowing authorities to hold taggers and their parents liable for civil damages. A similar measure was passed this spring by the state Assembly and awaits approval by the Senate.
City officials are also considering further restricting the sale of aerosol spray paint and other materials to people under 21.
Trutanich has time to drum up support, but so far his proposal has brought harsh criticism from the ACLU.
‘Nobody likes tagging’
Bibring, a frequent critic of gang injunctions, said courts have allowed provisions enjoining people from associating only because authorities have successfully argued that gathering in public is a central part of a gang’s criminal activity — “a way to intimidate the neighborhood and advance the criminal activities of the gang.”
“That is just not true for taggers,” he said. “So there is no basis to enjoin association.
“Nobody likes tagging. Nobody likes vandalism,” Bibring added. “That doesn’t mean you can strip away all the protections of the criminal justice system for people suspected of being taggers.”
Greg Estevane, program director of the School of Justice at Westwood College, was equally skeptical.
On the one hand, he said, city authorities have often conflated — unfairly — hard-core gangbangers with small-time taggers. Perhaps, he said, a proposal like this could help draw a distinction.
But he said it was a stretch to draw any parallel between the aims and goals of gangs with those of tagging crews. Using the same legal strategies against taggers, he added, “will turn them into gang members.”
“Tagging crews are a hassle. They are definitely something that costs money,” Estevane said. “But it’s vandalism. Vandalism is not the same thing as gang activity — something that is done to further murder, rape, drug dealing. It’s an identity crisis. They are trying to make it analogous. It’s not . . . It’s like using a Howitzer to kill a fly.”
But Ruben Guerra, chairman and chief executive of the Los Angeles-based Latin Business Assn., said it is time for some unorthodox approaches to a maddening problem. Guerra owns a design and construction firm; eight months ago, he founded another company that coats walls and signs with a clear material that can be wiped clean of graffiti. He said most of the graffiti in places like South L.A. is on the walls of small, locally owned shops and restaurants.
“Look, these are struggling times for all businesses. There are businesses that are closing down, letting employees go,” he said.
“If you have graffiti on top of that, guess what? It just makes it a little bit harder.”
He applauded Trutanich for trying something new.
“If you let graffiti go, it takes away the pride of the community,” he said. “There have to be some laws put in place that are really going to scare these guys into stopping graffiti. And right now there aren’t any.”
scott.gold@latimes.com
One in four Californians could be affected by swine flu, state health chief says
August 27, 2009 | 9:27 am
Los Angeles Times
California’s state health officer said today that one in four Californians might be affected by swine flu this fall.
Dr. Mark Horton made the prediction in a letter to Californians released today by the California Department of Public Health. “All of us must prepare for the disruptions the novel H1N1 influenza virus may have on our daily lives,” Horton said in the letter.
Horton’s letter is the latest warning to be issued by public health officials about H1N1, commonly known as swine flu.
Last week, top national and local health officials warned that employers should brace for worker absences and cautioned the public that as many as three shots this season may be needed to protect against the H1N1 strain and seasonal flu.
California health officials said the combination of H1N1 and the regular flu season could strain the state’s healthcare system. Emergency rooms are often filled to capacity during bad flu seasons, but the addition of H1N1 could make the situation even worse. Hospitals are already looking at creating alternate care sites to handle flu patients and plan a public education campaign imploring those with mild flu symptoms to avoid ERs.
“One thing we know is that this will be a rapidly changing situation…. We’re really not going to understand the extent or nature of the pandemic until we’re in the middle of it,” said Dr. Jim Leo, associate chief medical officer at Long Beach Memorial Medical Center.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is recommending that the most at-risk populations receive the H1N1 vaccine first. Those populations include pregnant women, healthcare workers, parents and caregivers for children under 6 months old, people ages 6 months to 24 years, and those ages 25 through 64 with chronic health disorders or compromised immune systems.
Those groups constitute 159 million people in the United States — more than half of the population.
Once those groups have been vaccinated, U.S. health officials will recommend that people ages 25 through 64 receive H1N1 shots.
–Rong-Gong Lin II
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August 24, 2009
Letter From Washington
A $5 Billion Bet on Better Education
By ALBERT R. HUNT
New York Times
WASHINGTON — Over these next few weeks, 56 million American kids will start kindergarten through 12th grade. Even before an assignment or test is handed out, Education Secretary Arne Duncan has a grade for the system: B.
“We’ve stagnated,” Mr. Duncan says of the U.S. educational system. “Other countries have passed us by.”
Few dispute that. An evaluation by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development ranked the United States 18th among 36 countries in secondary education. Almost 25 percent of U.S. students fail to graduate from high school on time; in South Korea, it’s 7 percent.
Mr. Duncan says the long-simmering debate between liberals and conservatives is a false choice; both are right. American schools need more money and more resources, yet without changing the performance-based system and more accountability, they won’t make much difference.
The former head of the Chicago school system and onetime Harvard basketball star — an oxymoron he acknowledges — the 44-year-old Mr. Duncan wants to change that. He is perhaps the most ambitious and energetic U.S. education chief since the department was started about 30 years ago. He is spending a record amount of money and making sweeping demands on the educational system.
“With unprecedented resources and unprecedented reform, I think we have a chance to make a fundamental and historic breakthrough,” he said in an interview.
Many in the American school-reform movement, from leading business figures to involved social entrepreneurs, agree. “The president and Arne have made more progress in education policy in the first 200 days of the Obama administration than in the first seven months of any new president in American history,” says Jon Schnur, head of New Leaders for New Schools, which trains principals to take over troubled schools. Mr. Schnur took a leave at the beginning of the year to help Mr. Duncan get started.
The Obama economic-stimulus package contained $100 billion for education. Much of that was to stave off cutbacks at the state and local levels.
Still, a considerable piece of change is geared toward initiating new programs largely predicated upon school systems’ meeting four conditions: upgrading teacher quality; adopting more rigorous academic standards; overhauling the lowest-performing schools; and creating systems to better track student progress. Congress gave Mr. Duncan wide latitude in implementing these conditions — a size and scope other education secretaries could only dream about.
A policy centerpiece for Mr. Duncan is almost $5 billion for the “Race to the Top” initiative, federal money that will be distributed to states that make the most measurable progress in improving educational outcomes and school districts that devise innovations that can be replicated elsewhere.
In suggesting how to win Race to the Top funds, Mr. Duncan is emphasizing charter schools, which, while a part of the public system, are operated independently and often permit more innovation. The lure of this money and the prestige of winning it have already led seven states, including Mr. Duncan’s home turf of Illinois, to remove limits on the growth of charter schools.
He would also tie teacher evaluations and pay more closely to how much student performance improves. Mr. Duncan has been the driving force among 47 states and the District of Columbia collaborating to devise a common set of internationally competitive reading and math standards. (The holdouts are South Carolina, Alaska and Texas.)
In many states, he notes, the “standards are so low that the child who is meeting them is barely able to graduate from high school and is totally underprepared to go to college.” Mr. Duncan, a favorite of President Barack Obama, his Chicago pal and sometime basketball-court mate, has a lot of leverage. He also faces resistance.
A recent study by Stanford University found mixed results on charter schools, which began in the 1990s and now number 4,600. In 17 percent of cases, especially in high-poverty areas, charters provided clearly superior education to the traditional public schools. But more than a third of the schools were actually inferior to the public schools, Stanford researchers found.
Teachers and their unions are skeptical about linking instructor evaluations and rewards to student test scores, arguing that it only would encourage teaching to tests, not creating richer learning experiences for children.
The largest teachers’ organization, the National Education Association, finds particular resistance in a number of its state affiliates.
Even Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, which has an urban focus and a history of working with school reformers, says: “By doing this through regulation and not legislation, I worry that Arne will get some short-term results, but he’s not creating long-term educational reform,” she said.
Mr. Duncan takes these criticisms in stride. He agrees there are lousy charter schools and says there needs to be pressure to close them, noting he shut down three in Chicago.
“We’re going to continue to use the bully pulpit,” he said, “to replicate success and shoot down failure.”
Thus he wants more accountability while contending that, when charter schools work, they are run by “education entrepreneurs, innovators. You have to free them from bureaucracy.”
Mr. Duncan insists that test performances will only be a part of evaluating school systems and teachers, and vows that these “performance-based plans” will be devised “with teachers, not to teachers.”
“Somehow in education we’ve been scared to talk about excellence,” he says. “That has to change.”
Ms. Weingarten appreciates both the openness and the drive that Mr. Duncan brings to this task. “Arne is very affable and very tough at the same time,” she says. “He listens, but he’s a guy on a mission.”
Albert R. Hunt is a columnist for Bloomberg News.
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Anaheim Union district sports in jeopardy?
Two high-profile resignations raise concerns about future of program.
By SCOTT MARTINDALE
The Orange County Register
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
ANAHEIM – They embodied the city’s afterschool sports programs for a generation, keeping kids off the street, aggressively seeking out hundreds of thousands of dollars in local donations, convincing the community to believe in their mission.
Now the two visionary founders of the Anaheim After School Fund are gone, resigning suddenly last month amid an apparent power struggle with the Anaheim Union High School District.
In their wake, they’ve left parents worried about the future of programs that have served thousands of Anaheim youths for more than a decade.
“I doubt it will be at the level it’s been at in the past several years,” said Kevin Castleman, 54, of Anaheim, who continues to serve as a school athletic volunteer even though both his children have graduated. “With the absence of two of the biggest advocates for the program, it’s going to seriously affect how the program is going to be run.”
Tom Danley, Anaheim Union’s athletic director and Anaheim After School Fund executive director, and Bryan Crow, chairman of the fund, resigned a day apart in July, shortly after the district rejected a $50,000 donation from the fund that would have helped save three jobs in the athletics department.
District officials said the donation was inappropriately earmarked to preserve specific jobs – and they didn’t want an independent foundation to dictate hiring decisions. Anaheim Union has eliminated 257 jobs over two years because of budget cutting.
Bill Taormina, a long-time After School Fund board member, has been appointed as interim chairman of the foundation; no one has been named yet to replace Danley.
Danley, who worked for the school district for 48 years, said he knew his days were numbered when the donation was rejected.
“The handwriting was on the wall,” said Danley, 72, of Orange. “I knew I couldn’t be successful without the support of the school board and the foundation. It was in the best interest of the district to bow out.”
Crow, a retired Anaheim pastor, declined to comment for this story.
The Anaheim After School Fund, formerly known as the Anaheim Prep Sports/Activities Foundation, was founded 12 years ago to help fund sports and other extracurricular programs at the Anaheim Union’s 17 traditional junior high and high schools.
Its operating budget grew to about $60,000 annually, and it now funds about 20 percent of all district junior high sports programs, foundation officials said. Money is raised primarily though donation drives targeting local business owners and individuals.
Danley and Crow were instrumental in building and shaping the after-school programs. They solicited donations, networked tirelessly and garnered backing from key Anaheim officials, earning recognition across the state.
“Coach Danley has always been a man of integrity and a mentor to many, many students in our school district and has overseen a program that is known statewide as one of the finest,” said Anaheim Union trustee Thomas “Hoagy” Holguin, who sits on the After School Fund board. “To lose a man with that much experience and integrity is devastating to me.”
With school set to begin next week, parents and volunteers for Anaheim’s sports programs are wondering what the school district intends to do.
The secretary who helped run Danley’s programs will only work half time this year. Two other athletic consulting positions the After School Fund had sought to preserve will be gone. And Danley’s responsibilities will be largely assumed by a newly created, full-time curriculum specialist for athletics.
“We’ll be looking to conserve funds wherever possible,” Superintendent Joseph Farley said. “We’re going to meet with our athletic directors to ask them where we could reduce spending, but we’re not going to retreat from our long-standing history of supporting students. The foundation and the board are not interested in cutting back those programs and reducing their effectiveness.”
Not everyone is convinced the programs can – or will – stay intact.
“It’s a very sad situation,” said Jim Oregel, 56, football booster club president at Anaheim High School. “Tom Danley was the life of the program. I don’t know if they’re going to continue or what the situation is going to be. I’m concerned.”
Foundation officials say they’re committed to moving forward and assisting where they can, but acknowledge they can’t make up for the school district’s gaping losses. Anaheim Union High has cut $67 million from its budget over the past two years.
“Our goal is to keep the programs going without losing any of the momentum we have built over the past decade,” said Taormina, the foundation’s interim chairman. “We will find common ground and do things together to amplify our dollars and really change some lives.”
Contact the writer: 949-454-7394 or smartindale@ocregister.com
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New Mexico education chief keeps Pledge of Allegiance rule
August 22, 2009 by The Associated Press / DEBORAH BAKER (Associated Press Writer)
SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — New Mexico’s education secretary announced Friday that the state rule requiring the Pledge of Allegiance to be recited daily in public schools won’t be altered to allow students to opt out.
Secretary Veronica Garcia had been considering amending the rule to say students who didn’t want to participate would be exempted and not face retaliation.
But she said in a statement that adopting the change could create the mistaken impression that the pledge is not important in New Mexico’s classrooms.
She said most school districts already have policies in place addressing the issue.
“The department believes that the existing rule and practice in schools respects the rights of all students,” her statement said. “Any issues related to rights of students will be handled at the local school district level.”
School districts without pledge-related policies will be encouraged to adopt them, according to department spokeswoman Beverly Friedman.
The amendment to the Pledge of Allegiance rule had been proposed by the department’s lawyer as part of a broader rules update, in order to bring the rule in line with a U.S. Supreme Court ruling.
The proposed change was supported by the American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico, and Executive Director Peter Simonson said Friday he was disappointed in Garcia’s decision.
“I think it’s a cop-out not to affirmatively state that students have a First Amendment right not to participate in the pledge,” Simonson said.
Simonson said he knew of past controversies in at least three of the state’s 89 school districts.
He contends the current rule creates confusion, because it’s construed by some school districts to mean that individual students are required to recite the pledge each day.
The U.S. Supreme Court has made clear that students may not be forced to say the pledge or to obtain parental authorization to opt out, nor may they be stigmatized, Simonson said.
“This is exactly the niche that the secretary should fill, in providing proper guidance to schools around the state,” Simonson said.
The proposed rule change drew no public comment during a sparsely attended hearing in June. Garcia reopened the comment period for a month on the pledge rule and got more than 600 comments, with most of them opposed to amending the rule, according to the department.
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35 more jobs cut at University of California, Irvine
August 27th, 2009, 8:30 am · 10 Comments · posted by Mary Ann Milbourn
Orange County Register
UC-Irvine has cut an additional 35 jobs affecting custodial employees who worked at the university under a contract with ABM Industries, the university confirms.
In an email sent to “colleagues,” James W. Hay, assistant vice chancellor of facilities management, said the custodial and groundsworker layoffs were due to a 20% cut in the department’s operating expenses. He said it is part of the university’s overall effort to close a $77 million funding gap created by state budget cuts.
“These service reductions will be especially noticeable in the area of facilities, where the priority needs to be maintenance of the infrastructure that supports the essential research mission of the campus and the health and safety of our students, faculty and staff,” wrote Hay. “Therefore, the appearance of our grounds and buildings will necessarily take second priority to infrastructure and building systems maintenance, which may not be as apparent.”
Hay listed a variety of services that will be affected as a result of the layoffs including a reduction in the number of days that classrooms, laboratories, offices and other building areas are cleaned. Lawns will be mowed once a month instead of twice a month and the school no longer will replace dead, diseased or damaged trees.
The contract worker layoffs brings to 61 the total number of employees who have lost their jobs in the first major round of cuts made at UCI over the last week.
Another 21 facilities workers who were university employees were told after the school’s annual Staff Appreciation Day picnic last week that their jobs had been eliminated.
In addition, UCI’s Division of Undergraduate Education said it will end the Student Academic Advancement Services programs that help first-generation, low-income students make the transition to college. Five employees working in that program will lose their jobs.
See the Orange County Register’s 2009 layoff list for other job cuts in the county this year.
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This story is taken from Sacbee / Capitol and California
The State Worker: More layoff notices? No big deal
jortiz@sacbee.com
Published Thursday, Aug. 27, 2009
When Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said in May that he was going to ax 5,000 positions from the state’s payroll, you could feel the breeze faintly shift as a few hundred thousand veteran state workers let out a collective yawn.
Ditto last month when the governor said he’d whack another 2,000 jobs.
Same thing with this week’s word that 1,300 layoff notices went out, nearly all of them to juvenile justice staff.
When private industry cuts jobs, it cuts people.
Bodies in the streets. Longer unemployment lines. Here today, gone in an hour.
But when state government cuts jobs, it cuts budgeted positions first.
The bodies move from targeted posts to slots outside the bull’s-eye. State rules require at least 120 days from warning to termination. The unions must be consulted. Here today, gone four months from now – maybe.
Soledad correctional officer Raul Ruano said he wasn’t too concerned, even though he received a May 15 layoff notice. In theory, his job could be cut next month.
“Most of the people here have a lot of time in,” he said in June. “They’re all saying, ‘Don’t worry. They’ve tried this before. Nothing happened.’ ”
During the 2003-04 fiscal year, for example, the state eliminated 9,300 positions. State records show that 291 employees lost their jobs. Another 309 were demoted, and 620 transferred or retired to avoid termination.
Longtime state workers still talk about former Gov. Pete Wilson’s stab at thinning government’s ranks in the early ’90s. Then, as now, the state followed its rules and let employees in danger of losing a job have the first shot at others. It also set up a program that gave extra time off in lieu of pay. Ultimately, just 160 employees lost work.
“That’s what is happening again,” says Diego Martin, a state work force expert in the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office. “It doesn’t seem that many people will lose their jobs,” although, he says, that could change if the economy continues to slide.
Schwarzenegger’s authority to lay off workers, unlike his furlough power, is unchallenged. Yet layoffs are harder to apply. A lot can change in four months, the payroll savings take longer to realize – and cutting positions doesn’t mean departments can’t create others.
It’s unlikely, though, that the governor will move to add a furlough day to the three each month already in place. It would cripple some departments, stir up the unions, spark more lawsuits and galvanize opponents.
So layoffs it is, as we saw again this week. Excuse the yawn.
Call The Bee’s Jon Ortiz, (916)321-1043. Read his blog, The State Worker, at sacbee.com/blogs.
One in four Californians could be affected by swine flu, state health chief says
August 27, 2009 | 9:27 am
Los Angeles Times
California’s state health officer said today that one in four Californians might be affected by swine flu this fall.
Dr. Mark Horton made the prediction in a letter to Californians released today by the California Department of Public Health. “All of us must prepare for the disruptions the novel H1N1 influenza virus may have on our daily lives,” Horton said in the letter.
Horton’s letter is the latest warning to be issued by public health officials about H1N1, commonly known as swine flu.
Last week, top national and local health officials warned that employers should brace for worker absences and cautioned the public that as many as three shots this season may be needed to protect against the H1N1 strain and seasonal flu.
California health officials said the combination of H1N1 and the regular flu season could strain the state’s healthcare system. Emergency rooms are often filled to capacity during bad flu seasons, but the addition of H1N1 could make the situation even worse. Hospitals are already looking at creating alternate care sites to handle flu patients and plan a public education campaign imploring those with mild flu symptoms to avoid ERs.
“One thing we know is that this will be a rapidly changing situation…. We’re really not going to understand the extent or nature of the pandemic until we’re in the middle of it,” said Dr. Jim Leo, associate chief medical officer at Long Beach Memorial Medical Center.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is recommending that the most at-risk populations receive the H1N1 vaccine first. Those populations include pregnant women, healthcare workers, parents and caregivers for children under 6 months old, people ages 6 months to 24 years, and those ages 25 through 64 with chronic health disorders or compromised immune systems.
Those groups constitute 159 million people in the United States — more than half of the population.
Once those groups have been vaccinated, U.S. health officials will recommend that people ages 25 through 64 receive H1N1 shots.
–Rong-Gong Lin II
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August 24, 2009
Letter From Washington
A $5 Billion Bet on Better Education
By ALBERT R. HUNT
New York Times
WASHINGTON — Over these next few weeks, 56 million American kids will start kindergarten through 12th grade. Even before an assignment or test is handed out, Education Secretary Arne Duncan has a grade for the system: B.
“We’ve stagnated,” Mr. Duncan says of the U.S. educational system. “Other countries have passed us by.”
Few dispute that. An evaluation by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development ranked the United States 18th among 36 countries in secondary education. Almost 25 percent of U.S. students fail to graduate from high school on time; in South Korea, it’s 7 percent.
Mr. Duncan says the long-simmering debate between liberals and conservatives is a false choice; both are right. American schools need more money and more resources, yet without changing the performance-based system and more accountability, they won’t make much difference.
The former head of the Chicago school system and onetime Harvard basketball star — an oxymoron he acknowledges — the 44-year-old Mr. Duncan wants to change that. He is perhaps the most ambitious and energetic U.S. education chief since the department was started about 30 years ago. He is spending a record amount of money and making sweeping demands on the educational system.
“With unprecedented resources and unprecedented reform, I think we have a chance to make a fundamental and historic breakthrough,” he said in an interview.
Many in the American school-reform movement, from leading business figures to involved social entrepreneurs, agree. “The president and Arne have made more progress in education policy in the first 200 days of the Obama administration than in the first seven months of any new president in American history,” says Jon Schnur, head of New Leaders for New Schools, which trains principals to take over troubled schools. Mr. Schnur took a leave at the beginning of the year to help Mr. Duncan get started.
The Obama economic-stimulus package contained $100 billion for education. Much of that was to stave off cutbacks at the state and local levels.
Still, a considerable piece of change is geared toward initiating new programs largely predicated upon school systems’ meeting four conditions: upgrading teacher quality; adopting more rigorous academic standards; overhauling the lowest-performing schools; and creating systems to better track student progress. Congress gave Mr. Duncan wide latitude in implementing these conditions — a size and scope other education secretaries could only dream about.
A policy centerpiece for Mr. Duncan is almost $5 billion for the “Race to the Top” initiative, federal money that will be distributed to states that make the most measurable progress in improving educational outcomes and school districts that devise innovations that can be replicated elsewhere.
In suggesting how to win Race to the Top funds, Mr. Duncan is emphasizing charter schools, which, while a part of the public system, are operated independently and often permit more innovation. The lure of this money and the prestige of winning it have already led seven states, including Mr. Duncan’s home turf of Illinois, to remove limits on the growth of charter schools.
He would also tie teacher evaluations and pay more closely to how much student performance improves. Mr. Duncan has been the driving force among 47 states and the District of Columbia collaborating to devise a common set of internationally competitive reading and math standards. (The holdouts are South Carolina, Alaska and Texas.)
In many states, he notes, the “standards are so low that the child who is meeting them is barely able to graduate from high school and is totally underprepared to go to college.” Mr. Duncan, a favorite of President Barack Obama, his Chicago pal and sometime basketball-court mate, has a lot of leverage. He also faces resistance.
A recent study by Stanford University found mixed results on charter schools, which began in the 1990s and now number 4,600. In 17 percent of cases, especially in high-poverty areas, charters provided clearly superior education to the traditional public schools. But more than a third of the schools were actually inferior to the public schools, Stanford researchers found.
Teachers and their unions are skeptical about linking instructor evaluations and rewards to student test scores, arguing that it only would encourage teaching to tests, not creating richer learning experiences for children.
The largest teachers’ organization, the National Education Association, finds particular resistance in a number of its state affiliates.
Even Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, which has an urban focus and a history of working with school reformers, says: “By doing this through regulation and not legislation, I worry that Arne will get some short-term results, but he’s not creating long-term educational reform,” she said.
Mr. Duncan takes these criticisms in stride. He agrees there are lousy charter schools and says there needs to be pressure to close them, noting he shut down three in Chicago.
“We’re going to continue to use the bully pulpit,” he said, “to replicate success and shoot down failure.”
Thus he wants more accountability while contending that, when charter schools work, they are run by “education entrepreneurs, innovators. You have to free them from bureaucracy.”
Mr. Duncan insists that test performances will only be a part of evaluating school systems and teachers, and vows that these “performance-based plans” will be devised “with teachers, not to teachers.”
“Somehow in education we’ve been scared to talk about excellence,” he says. “That has to change.”
Ms. Weingarten appreciates both the openness and the drive that Mr. Duncan brings to this task. “Arne is very affable and very tough at the same time,” she says. “He listens, but he’s a guy on a mission.”
Albert R. Hunt is a columnist for Bloomberg News.
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