Apparently this is Teacher Appreciation Week, but check out what SAUSD Superintendent Jane Russo told her teachers in a letter she emailed to them:
Again this year, because our educational system continues to be asked to do more with less funding this year, you will not be receiving a pen, pin or flower for Teacher Appreciation Week. What you will be receiving is the heartfelt appreciation of this Superintendent and the members of the Board of Education. Your work is truly valued!
Nice. The SAUSD gets more funding than any other school district in Orange County and they got a ton of federal stimulus money too – but every year they RFI (lay off) more teachers than anyone else.
This year has been no different – hundreds of SAUSD teachers have been laid off – and I am told that NONE of Russo’s overpaid administrators have been laid off!
And recently the younger SAUSD teachers got screwed by their own union, as their benefits were cut off at the age of 65, while the older teachers get to keep their benefits until they are 70. I am sure Russo came up with that scheme too!
Russo supposedly makes a quarter million a year – don’t you think she could have bought her teachers a little something out of her own pocket? Of course when you consider how much money the SAUSD administrators have been donating to school board members like Rob Richardson and Jose Hernandez. perhaps they don’t have any change left to appreciate their teachers with!
While teacher benefit’s(salary and insurance) are clearly the largest expenses for a district like SAUSD. You would think that the management, could find a way to aknowledge them. A nearby district awarded a few thousand dollars per school (subsidized by donations) to each school at the local level to host a luncheon or event. One school stretched and had matching donations which provided for a “Christmas Party” like event at a nice resturaunt.
Think about it, we take a lot of this for granted in the private sector, this event, which I’ll request permission to publisize cost a few grand. It built up morale and ……GOT TO GO RED SOX SCORE!
I got a teeny tiny tablet with a pencil. I will make copies from it since we’ve been out of paper for months. Happy Appreciation Day! I did receive wonderful letters from many parents and kids though. Apparently the office did notify parents that is was appreciation day.
What was even better was that it was not personally emailed from her, but instead sent as a forward through office managers. I understand the district not being able to do something, but if she was able to send an email from her own district address to our district accounts earlier in the year, she could have taken the time to send it from her own this time. FYI, I have it on good fact that at least a couple of sites took their own steps to thank the teachers. A big thank you to those administrators who did take time out to thank teachers personally!
AUHSD is short on funds but all teachers at least received an apple along with many activities at the sites.
Get ready Santa Ana voters. Jose Alfredo Hernandez will be running for Santa Ana City Council against Sal Tinajero.
Really what are we thanking Santa Ana teachers for?? or Any teacher, it is a job!!
All the schools have API scores of 2-. You all are clearly not doing your jobs and don’t blame it on the kids!! Teacher’s are there to advocate and teach and it is not being done.
So if your getting a pen be thankful,if you were a nurse you would be fired!!
And Mrs. Russo need’s to get a job stocking shelves!!
Art – where in the world did you get the information that SAUSD has ALREADY received a ton of stimulus money? The stimulus money has yet to reach any school district, County DOE officers are advising districts to not count on anything extra from the stimulus money.
Rumor has it that the state will release the stimulus money to the Districts and then cut an equal amount from the District’s regular entitlement – effectively transferring the stimulus money to the general fund to balance make up some of the huge shortfall.
Lies like the ones you continue to repeat just inflame teachers that are already reeling from the RIF process.
And, get off the soapbox about the ‘younger’ teachers getting screwed out of healthcare benefits by their own union. Maybe, just maybe, it was the overwhelming vote of their fellow teachers that approved the contract. I’m sure that few members of the Union leadership are completely satisfied with the results of the bargain, but the reality is that members of SAEA got to read, ask questions and vote. And don’t forget, teachers are public employees and there are restrictions on public employees going on strike. SAEA’s previous (2004-2007) contract specifically PROHIBITS members of SAEA from striking.
Someone else on this blog already made the case that even teachers that are entitled to this benefit may actually be better off financially by looking into a standard Medicare supplement when they retire – at the very least they’d save about $1500 a year in the annual co-pay premium for them and their spouse.
Maybe your beef should be that we need national-single payor healthcare – that would eliminate the entire debate about a two-tiered healthcare plan for older and younger teachers.
You can’t have everything you want without finding someway to pay for –
You advocate for funding, indefinitely, retirement benefits for all teachers – how do you suggest SAUSD pay for that? SAUSD gets money based on current students, not current and retired teachers. At least current teachers are paid for teaching current students, but retired teachers generate ZERO revenue. As for the two-tired – I can only guess that there would have been a major lawsuit filed if current retirees, and those ‘vested’ or with tenure, where cut off from retiree benefits. So, Art, how do you suggest the District pay the $15,000+ annual premium for retirees?
By the way, I’m not a friend or fan of Jane, but you give her way to much credit to have come up with this scheme (as you call it) for a two-tiered benefits system – I can almost guarantee it was people lower than her – benefits department, personnel department, finance department – that developed this idea. Once the District decided on it’s issues, their bargaining team went to the table and put the issues out there for discussion and negotiation.
You advocate for spending taxpayer money on appreciation gifts for everyone – but I don’t see the government sending ‘taxpayer appreciation’ gifts to everyone just because the pay their taxes. I’ve never heard of Police or Firefighters getting ‘appreciation day gifts’ at taxpayer expense. Don’t get me wrong – I think it borders on criminal that the District wasn’t able to find someway to show appreciation and I really congratulate the schools that were able to partner, with donations, to do just that, or were able to find away – with the help of parents maybe or out of the pockets of the principal, to show teacher appreciation. Will you sing the praises of the union if THEY do something to show teacher appreciation? Or will you bitch that it was a waste of money? And come on, Art, is a freakin’ pencil, plastic apple, or lapel pin from the District really a show of appreciation? I’d think, as a teacher, that it’s a waste of money. Clearly, as evidenced by that teachers here have even said, is that heartfelt thanks from THEIR principal, THEIR students and they parents of THEIR students are really what teachers want a deserve. What do YOU plan on doing for teacher appreciation day for your children or nieces and nephews teachers or neighbors that are teachers?
You advocate for teachers to not be RIF’d but you don’t suggest a way to fund these teachers, 20:1 class-size, eliminate the over-crowding in high school classes, or deal with the supply shortages, etc.
I’m as tired as you are of seeing 500+ teachers RIFd year after year – and I agree that the District needs to get it’s act together.
You claim their are ‘tons of overpaid’ administrators – but you don’t give names and numbers or justify who, in your mind is overpaid – besides, who made you the arbitror of fair pay scales? Don’t you think it should be the ‘free-market’ that sets the pay scale? I’m not sure Jane’s worth $250,000, but then I’m not sure how much you’ve have to pay the CEO of a non-profit with the size staff and operating budget of SAUSD. Maybe Jane’s a bargain. And, by the way, I do agree with you that CUTS need to start at the top. A major re-design of SAUSD’s organization maybe be long overdue. Granted, most took 4% cuts (except for Juan Lopez – promotion and a $20,000 raise!) – but it’s unfair to place all of the cuts on the backs of classified and certificated staff.
I get tired of people like you complaining that all we need to do is CUT, CUT, CUT to create an unending supply of money to meet the never ending needs of the citizens of OC and CA – You’re clearly opposed to Props 1A-F, you don’t like that Measure G was passed – by the citizens of Santa Ana and that SAUSD is making real progress on improvements. You’d prefer to dwell on the history of the District – what Nativo did, what Noji did, what Richardson did – how about focusing on here and now and the future?
#7
Wow. I’m impressed. Do you drive all over the road like you write? It can be difficult on that 3rd glass of sherry. Here’s a clue though. Never use one of your own comments you made under another name as reference material unless you can totally change your writing style.
I so love your comment, ” At least current teachers are paid for teaching current students, but retired teachers generate ZERO revenue.
So few words that say so much about you.
This is an example of what the superintendents’
make. Granted this is out of date, Al M was the superintendent, but I am certain that Russo makes and has similar freebies.
http://www.ocregister.com/news/2005/04/pay_school.html
check out the car allowance and insurance while people are losing their jobs. Greedy!
Measure G did not turn out to be as financially lucrative to the SAUSD. In fact, with all the loan defaults, property values being reassessed, and low bond ratings, Measure G is a big disappointment.
You Bozocrats who try to compare private company salaries to public employee salaries are clueless. Go out into the private sector and you will find Bozocrats aren’t worth much. Lazy, ineffective, believe their own hype while sucking the public trust dry.
I say get rid of you all teachers,admin. Right down to the janitor,s.
Start all over again with one thing in common. If you dont do a good job. BYE BYE!!
Loser parent’s if your kid do not do well in school are running wild in the street,s ( gang banging). Lets send them to jail or call ICE!!
Needtoknow!! Teaching is just a job!! No fan mail needed, no glorifaction, no pats on the back for a job not well done!!
I bet Santa Ana will become the best school system in the nation!!
What would I like for teacher appreciation day? I’ve been teaching here for 22 years, and never … ever, have been asked by any school administrator: (1) how my students are doing?; (2) what problems in the classroom I might be having; 3) my ideas on what might be done to improve education at SAHS.
That’s what I would most like for teacher appreciation day … to be asked these questions by a school or district offical, and have a professional discussion on how best to address these problems.
God gave you a brain SAHS use it!!
Advocate for your students, dont wait for these hacks to ask. TELL THEM AND DEMAND DEMAND DEMAND!!!
Anonplus (#8) Glad you liked the quote – maybe you should have not taken it out of context. Its a simple fact – Districts are paid ADA based on student attendance. Students are taught by current teachers. Therefore, current teachers ‘generate’ revenue. And retired teachers, because they are retired, don’t. The problem isn’t the retirement – it’s the medical benefit. Retirement benefits are paid PROSPECTIVELY. Each teacher and District pays into STRS now for future retirement. Unfortunately, Districts DON’T pay into a medical insurance premium fund NOW for future retirees – they must budget this fixed expense into current operating budgets. It’s like the state or the district servicing bond debt – there’s no way to generate any additional revenue, and you can’t cut the fixed expense of debt service (except by default and bankruptcy) – so how do you pay for the demands on the system?
So, let’s see, as an example, enrollment drops 50%, and the need for current teachers drops 50%, but the need to fund 100% of the current retiree benefits continues – how do you suggest that a District pay for these benefits. Remember, that as the risk pool of insured drops, the cost of premiums charged by insurance companies will go up in order to spread the risk out evenly. I don’t advocate for any retiree – current or future – to be denied medical benefits – I just want people to think about the issue of how society is supposed to fund these benefits.
Retired teachers DESERVE everything they’ve been promised. Vested and tenured teachers DESERVE everything they’ve been promised. And new teachers DESERVE everything they’ve been promised. It’s not my business to say if the teachers did or didn’t do the right thing by approving the tentative agreement – but I still want to know how we, as taxpayers, are expected to fund the never ending demands we make on our government without paying for it. Art can’t answer that one – he just makes accusations of waste, stimulus money not being used, cuts needing to be made.
How about finding a way to fund California education so that it’s world class? When I went to school in the 60’s, California was THE envy of the Country in terms of public education – progressive, comprehensive, affordable university education for it’s citizens, etc. Then legislation by initiative and tax cutting became the flavors of the month. So revenue sources dried up and everyone has been told for 40 years that they ONLY answer to our problems is to CUT, CUT, CUT or privatize – and now we stand at either #47, #48 or #49 in per student spending – and we wonder why?
As for drinking and driving – I’ll leave that to you with your obvious first-hand skill, knowledge and experience. Buckle-up!
michell (#13) – what a blow-hard
SAHS teacher (#12) DOES have a brain and, apparently, a heart too. Where’s yours? I can’t imagine what king of job you have that includes no personal appreciation, no thanks, no inquiry into how your day is going, no conversation that confirms you are human, have worth, bring valued skills to the job, show compassion, or generally just acknowledges that you exist. Your bosses and your staff just ignore you? You must be a real treat to work with.
These people decided to teach because they care. I guarantee you that SAHS teacher (#12) DOES advocate for his or her students – daily. Welfare issues, health issues, social issues, achievement issues, future goals, college, trade school, military, etc. – are constantly on this and every teacher’s mind. He or she doesn’t sit back and wait – he or she is proactive and demands everything possibly can for the students and – I bet – he or she spends more personal money on supplies than you would ever spend. How much can you do if there’s no paper in the xerox machine, no toilet paper in the restroom, not enough desks for the students, and not enough books to go around?
Michelle Quinn (#11) Good on you! Let’s trash the whole system. We’ll sell off the schools and privatize the whole damn lot. And while we’re at it, we’ll do away with all of the taxes that go to education. To hell with a free public education for all and the benefits of a educated citizenry.
You make a couple good points:
1) If you don’t want to do a good job, then don’t work in education.
2) Parents need to get involved.
However, you clearly have at least on screw-loose. Your answer to problem kids is to lock them up or call ICE?
Did you know that:
With 5% of the world’s population, our country now houses nearly 25% of the world’s reported prisoners.
We currently incarcerate 756 inmates per 100,000 residents, a rate nearly five times the average worldwide of 158 for every 100,000.
More than 5 million people who recently left jail remain under “correctional supervision,” which includes parole, probation, and other community sanctions.
About one in every 31 adults in the United States is in prison, in jail, or on supervised release. This all comes at a very high price to taxpayers: Local, state, and federal spending on corrections adds up to about $68 billion a year.
And your answer is to lock more of them up? It costs California about $45k a year to house a prisoner and yet schools get about $10k per student – sounds like the better deal is to educate.
And how many illegal alien children do you really think exist in SAUSD? Your suggestion to call ICE belies that fact that you believe the lie that every bad student in SAUSD is an illegal alien. Face the facts – every one of the kids born in the US is entitled to an education.
I totally ‘get it’ that teaching is a job – just like being a doctor, nurse, attorney, pro-athlete, pro-gambler, minister, nun, or a garbage collector is just a job – none of them need fan mail or glorification or pats on the back for jobs poorly done – BUT THEY ALL DESERVE OUR GRATITUDE AND APPRECIATION FOR JOBS WELL DONE!
SAUSD has the same potential as any other District of being the BEST – and SAUSD is fortunate to have tremendous talent in its teachers. GO SAUSD TEACHERS!
#7 is a fine example of an SAUSD teacher.
The district gets a boatload of money. Parents and citizens should demand to sit on their school site council and you will learn fast how they squander the money and violate the bylaws by which this council should be governed. Yeah, principals hand pick their puppets to sit on this council.
Title I money … a former principal used this money for after school classes to teach Spanish to non-speaking students. A clear misuse of a good sum of tax payers money.
As far as Measure G – what a joke! The SAEA put their full force behind the passage of this measure. Dawn Miller, former Villa principal recruited Villa teachers to phone bank and her reward for getting the most teachers was a job at district. At least that’s what a few Villa teachers have to say about it. Yeah, you want names. What the community needs is a young, budding journalist to uncover the corruption at district headquarters and unions collusion with district admins.
I find it utterly amazing that SAUSD teachers have so much time to blog. Do you Twitter and Face Book too? Test scores reveal teachers are doing something beside teaching.
#17, I don’t know what district you were in when you sat on a school site council but I bet it WASN’T in Santa Ana.
1. I can’t speak for all schools, but at the elementary school that my kids attended, I was usually the ONLY parent at the school site council meetings.I can tell you I wasn’t “picked” by the Principal, in fact I think it’s an elected position, although I served by default.
2. Squander money? The only money we EVER discussed was always VERY small, in fact, pathetically small amounts and it was NEVER squandered. We usually were voting on whether the part-time aide was split between the first,second and third grade teachers or was to be used solely by the kindergarten teachers. Oh, the waste.
That being said I wouldn’t defend SAUSD administration officials, EVER, but the individual schools have many hard working, dedicated employees DOING A LOT with VERY LITTLE.
anon (#17) and, FYI, I respect 99.9% of everything the LA Times publishes – but then they are paid, trained, fact-finding reporters not just someone with an ax to grind and a need to take down a struggling district and pretty remarkable teacher’s and their union.
Needtoknow:
First: I did not say put the kids in jail,i meant the parents!! And believe me with the prospect of either going to jail for neglect or Going back home to Mexico, i bet more parents would be more involved in their children education.(And please save me from the BS that Santa Ana or Anaheim parents are model perfect when it come’s to their kids education. it is a well known fact the biggest compliant is trying to get the parents to attend parents and teachers confer.)To make the schools work no more compassion crap, “The vunerable, the underserved”, That does not fly with me! They dont need a squeezy they need a teacher who can teach!! As far as getting pats on the back, their will be alot of pats on the back when the California teacher.s are not rated with a D-, but an A+
In the USA i really think teachers need a reality check “its not about you, its about the kids that you teach”,
Santa Ana is a disgrace to the teaching profession. Heartless maybe, true yes!!
Let us all take judicial notice that NeedToKnow has become our resident expert on teachers, retirement, unions, incarceration statistics, and most of all circular argument techniques using multiple names in the process.
We all captulate to your expertise as you smoke those keys from the district office in your feeble attempt to filibuster all other opinions at the OJ blog.
By the way!! most men incarcerated came from a single home. Usual the mother!!
Santa Ana fastest growing single family house whole’s. WHY?? 1. Its excepted in the Culutre, most single mothers come from single mothers 2. Entitlement’s are abundent for single mother’s. 3. Poor education
This happen’s all over the world it is like a cancer that spreads through a community. And it is encouraged by the rich with a big heart and a nice big pot to catch the golden rain from the entitlement tree!!
blow hard yep!!
The school districts I am aware of do not fund parties or give aways for faculty and staff – that is pretty much a gift of public funds in the eyes of public agency lawyers and a lot of “taxpayers” would be critical of such expenditures. Instead, supporters and benefactors such as PTO’s/PTA’s, Irvine Co., other major employers fund those things, including teacher appreciation and recognition events (right down to on-campus luncheons put on during the school day by the PTO/PTA). Is there no such community support in Santa Ana? Where is Mr. Metzler and the Chamber of Commerce on providing leadership in this area? If there is no such community support or leadership for the city’s educators, that is another black mark for the community there —
Michell, you are totally clueless about the teaching profession and teachers in Santa Ana. But I will agree that if a blowhard is somebody who has a foolish, uninformed, and utterly unfounded opinion that he is not afraid to state, that does describe you.
You also don’t know how to use apostrophes. Third person singular verbs such as “happens” and plurals such as “entitlements” don’t have apostrophes. Wow! Maybe you just learned something from a Santa Ana teacher.
P.S. The quality of your writing is generally atrocious. You need to go back to school. If you’re lucky, Santa Ana will let you in.
michell (#20) Well, at least you clarified your position that all SAUSD parents are either illegal aliens and should ‘go back to Mexico’ or they deserve to go to jail – that’ll do lots for the child welfare office and we’ll see a huge increase in the children being served by foster homes – and we all know that bouncing from foster home to foster home makes for a stable, well rounded child! GET A GRIP and try and come up with a real solution. So, I guess the non-Mexican families are OK to stay? Or do you just lump everyone into the same category to make it easier for your little mind to identify “them” – I guess we’re all grateful that you’re not one of “them” and that we can look to you for all the answers. Man, I haven’t heard such a racist load of crap in years.
I wouldn’t lie to you and tell you that Santa Ana or Anaheim parents are model perfect – and I don’t know anyone, anywhere that would say that. In my opinion, there probably isn’t a district anywhere in the State that is ‘model perfect’ (well – maybe there is one – obviously it’s either the one your children go to or went or the one you teach in?)
At least you made one great point – Education in California and across the US would improve 100% if parents took a more active role in a child’s education. At the very least, went to parent/teacher conferences and asked questions.
Cool – let’s take out compassion in education. I mean children aren’t human right? They are just machines? We enter information into them and they learn to spit it out – everyone at the same rate. I guess if there’s a problem, we just kick them out and replace them with a newer model? By the way, do you even have a clue what teachers are expected to teach in the course of a day? I learned STATS when I was in college. I know 2nd grade teachers that now introduce STATS in the first semester of 2nd grade. I don’t know about you, but it was hard enough for me in college to grasp the ideas.
And, if only education in the US were ‘about the kids’ – it’s not and hasn’t been since the introduction of vouchers and NCLB. Vouchers put the profit motive into education and NCLB turned it into an assembly line. Neither children nor education are commodity. And the results of a standardized test does not prove the fitness of a school or a teacher. Let’s see, I did 12 years of public ed – was a GATE student and graduated with a 3.5 GPA (back when GPAs stopped a 4.0) – I did years of college and then went on to law school – and guess what? None of my schools or teachers were ever graded. Schools began to fail when we, as Californians decided to pull the rug out from funding. And the only reason people like you depend on test scores to justify failure. Did you know that under NCLB by 2014 EVERY, yes EVERY school is required to hit a perfect score of 1000? What other industry have you ever heard of that requires perfection 100% of the time? And remember, that includes 100% perfection of every student in every grade, K-12 – ever heard of a perfect kindergartner? So, either every school eventually ‘tops’ out a near perfection and, as a result, fails – or people start lying to cover their asses and save their jobs – guess what happened in Texas, the birthplace of NCLB? Administrators, under pressure for perfection, lied – but if they hadn’t lied they would have been fired for not being perfect. Ever heard of Catch 22? We’ve created an impossible system and demands perfection. I don’t know what it is you do in life, but I assume that you are perfect 100% of the time.
Thats because i went to a school system like your’s
Admin’s and teacher’s took their pay and ran!!
I went to Catholic Schools, in an area that would make Santa Ana look like Beverly Hills.
We as students were the poor,underserved,vunerable (sound familar). Just in school to get through the day, no real effort to educate us. Why?? NO expectation’s,or real effort and no teacher to go up aganist the power’s to advocate for us.
I may not be Jame’s Joyce,i do admit to that, but the truth is the truth no matter how you spell it out!!
Put a child in a private school and see the difference, its not the wall’s teaching the kids.
I am sorry Santa Ana teacher to offend you, but i think i and the kids would learn better with a computer program and the money in our pockers that go to paying you and the rest of the teacher’s in Santa Ana, and of course the big wigs!
Ps James Joyce is my favourite Author!!
Yea sorry need to know i did read back about sending the parents to jail, it did read as if i wanted the kids to go.
My mistake!!
Michell, I’m glad you at least learned how to read, and enjoy quality literature at that. It would be pointless to try to convince you any further that there are quite a few teachers in Santa Ana Unified who care, are competent, and provide their students with a quality education day after day. But it is true.
I’ll throw you this bone by agreeing with you on one thing. Some teachers are awful and should be fired, and maybe it would be better for their students to be taught by a computer. Some district officials might agree with you. A program called ST Math went district-wide in the elementary schools this year. Students are taught math by a computer in that program. Many of the better teachers consider it a waste of valuable learning time, but some of the poorer teachers are glad to be relieved of the burden of actually teaching during ST Math time. The district thinks that math test scores will go up because of this program. Time will tell.
michell, you seem to think that private schools are some sort of magic panacea, I’m here to tell you that they’re not. My oldest child attended some very expensive private schools,and there were good teachers and BAD teachers, about the SAME ratio as the public schools.
My younger children attended public schools in Santa Ana (and are still there) what really struck me at first, was how NON-EXISTENT the demand for money was. Private schools are CONSTANTLY asking for money, for parties, field trips, projects, etc., on top of the enormous tuition. The MOST I was EVER asked to donate at my kids elementary school in Santa Ana was $2 or some chopped onions. Do NOT kid yourself, private schools ARE for RICH KIDS.
Yes, Santa Ana’s scores don’t match up to Irvine’s, but you are asking these kids and their teachers to compete on an uneven playing field. Just as you cite your poor educational opportunities, most of the kids in Santa Ana have poor LIFE opportunities. I recall asking a child on a field trip (the lucky one a year that our school got, as compared to the 7 or 8 a private school gets) if she had ever been to Seaworld, she said, she had not, as her father said it was too expensive. My own children, (like many Irvine kids) had been a dozen times or more, how does a child who never leaves Santa Ana, compete with kids who have such enormous life advantages? I realize that this is a small example and that there are always gifted and exceptional children but by and large most poor kids in this country are at a disadvantage and their teachers ARE NOT TO BLAME for the disparate scores on standardized tests.
I dont care what colour, or race you are, it starts in the home. If a community is infested with drugs,gangs,violence. Parents are the first violators!!
Please again dont try to spin it. Santa Ana has a large population of illegal immigrants. Third world people with a third world mentality. It is a real problem in American schools to have children going to school speaking a another language. You cannot get rid of so many illegal immigrants,but you cannot allow a free pass either. Entitlements is not the way to go, it just make a lot of Non-profits and Government hacks rich, trust me on that one!!
My solution is easy!!
Parents must be held responsible for the behaviour of their children in school. If the child is a problem child in school and continued efforts have been made to try to help the child and the child continues to be a problem. The child must be expelled from school and law enforcement and child protective services should then be informed. NO More disruptive kids in the schools!! It is a distraction for kids that want to learn and parents that try!!
Schools are not day care centers!
Make schools responsible for Reclassifying the kids from ESL. I am not going to go into it. You can look it up under 2005 Education Audit and see that district,s are not reclassifying kids because they would loss funding.
As far is funding is concerned, American schools are well funded.
Just the QEIA alone 3billion went to 480 schools apart for the 1.2 billion they got from HPSG. 40% of the state revenue goes to your schools.
No amount of money will make the schools better, making teacher’s and administration accountable for teacting and parents accountable for parenting is the only thing that will improve your schools.
Get the CTA out of your school’s any teachers union that give’s 1.2 million to fight prop’s like prop 8 whether you believe it or not smells bad.
I am not perfect by any means, just someone who see’s apart of my life experiance in Santa Ana kids and how it effected me!
SAUSD TEACHER,
I know their are good teacher’s in Santa Ana, but it matters not when their is just a few, if they were a majority the schools would not have ridiculous API score’s
The good teacher’s must demand the removable of the bad, if they stick together they have a voice.
michell (#26) WOW…it’s sooo funny you finally admitted that you went to Catholic School – I was going to say that you sounded like someone that had been educated by the Sisters. I knew it! It makes complete sense – in the Catholic school system, teachers have absolute power.
Wow, what a difference. If you gave teachers the same level of authority – including the ability to discipline – you might see a huge difference. And if public schools were funded by one of the world’s largest non-profit organizations, and backed by the one of the world’s largest charities, by teachers that are generally unpaid members of a religious order, a religious order offers ZERO retirement benefits – then maybe schools in the US might be as amazing as schools where you are from. We’d get rid of those nasty retirement benefits and salaries – such ridiculous overhead! You see, you just can’t compare Apples and Oranges.
I do agree with sausd teacher (#26) – there definitely teachers and administrators that should NOT be working in public education – PERIOD.
By the way, the system you advocate also worked during World War II in Nazi Germany and in the USSR – give teachers absolute authority and brainwash the students and create a perfect totalitarian world – no one thinks, no one questions, no one problem solves – but the spend a lot time pointing accusing fingers at their neighbors…what a wonderful world that would be…
Anonster,
The difference in a private vs. public school is accountablity!!
If a private school is bad it close’s, who the heck is going to pay for a school were their kids are not learning. Public school’s not only stay open, but are given more money to try to get them to improve like HPSG,QEIA.
Private schooling cost around 5,000 – 6,000 per student a year, public schools like Sana Ana unified spends well over 11,000 a year.
I don’t know what school your child is going to in Santa Ana, which is better than a private school.
“Do tell so that all the Hispanic parents know of this little miracle in Santa Ana”!
An was it not a SAUS teacher stating that their is no toliet paper, books, writing paper, ect.. in the publics schools.
Your right the rich do send their kids to the private school’S and they all work in the public sector. Do you think the head’s of the public schools in Santa Ana send their kids public. AHH THAT WOULD BE A BIG FAT NO!!
I was not educated by nun’s, but by paid teacher’s that could not have care less about educating us, because they had no power the Catholic Church had the Power and do you think the catholic church wanted us educated “NO WAY’, Big loss in revenue. Also a status thing loomed, we were just the working class and the educated looked very much down on us as anything but dole recepients.
Your right the teachers did get crap pay and still do, except now Northern Irish Schools are now some of the top schools in Europe. what changed??????
Better parenting,expectation, and lose of control of the Catholic Church and of course less conflict.
What is simular with Santa Ana schools.
Its not the Catholic Church its the Union, its not the kids its the quality of teaching,And the fact that teachers in this state get 4times the amount that N.Irish teachers get, what is the excuse????
Did you say your a law school grad???
Really honest to God every lawyer i talk to is a big lib, were you brain washed”;
Thank you for the banter!
michell, the biggest DIFFERENCE between public and private schools is that private schools get to PICK their students.
Imagine how public school scores would jump if they only had to report the top 10%, private schools only admit and keep the top kids. Furthermore, imagine the money public schools could save if they didn’t serve special needs kids or kids with ANY problems, just like private schools.
I never claimed that public schools were better than private, just that private schools can have bad teachers and other issues as well.
Things are not as black and white as you would like to believe.
michell (#30) I’m so impressed that Northern Ireland’s Teachers have managed to reject unions…..oh wait, what’s this…
NASUWT The Teachers Union
…..website says it’s the largest UK wide teachers union – including Northern Ireland…I guess the unions HAVE made into the teaching profession of Northern Ireland after all…
Oh and while we’re on the subject – at the time you were a student, did Northern Ireland have a national retirement program, that covered teachers, and a national healthcare program that covered teachers?
Let’s face it – everyone thinks that the good ‘old days’ were better than they are today – the reality is that they probably weren’t any better, were probably worse, and we just end up romanticizing the time and longing to ‘the way it was’. What we need are: students and parents that respect teachers and schools – and don’t treat them as babysitters; parents and students that care about education; teachers and schools that care about a students success and want to do their very best.
I don’t know where you find your lawyers, but my guess is that well over 50% of the lawyers that work and live in Orange County count themselves as proud, conservative Republicans. While there are plenty of liberal lawyers in the world, I’m sorry to say that most of them don’t find Orange County the most receptive environment for progressive politics.
Now your talking! yep that is a big problem in Santa Ana “The parents and kids having no respect for teacher’s and school’s!'(And it is not just in Santa Ana) I think what is happening is that if the schools and teachers try to do something they are afraid that they may have the terrorist group the ACLU at the door! and yes this group are nothing but a bunch of terrorist using law to scare people in to sub-mission. And yes their is union’s in Ireland, the differnece is they don’t act like the political wing of the IRA as the CTA does.
what goes around, comes around! people are begining to realise that the are getting shafted
it is all about to change!
So much for rationally trying to engage Michelle Quinn, I realize now that it can’t be done.The only words that come to mind are; cuckoo, cuckoo,cuckoo.
why is it Anonster that anyone that has a different view is either a racist or now its nuts,
your like a little kid, that wants his way and the other kids are not playing the way you want them too!
Again you laddie are just a spoiled little brat! plsin simplr!!
Being rational has taken me across the world!
Really Michelle, I think YOU need to reread your own posts and see WHO is calling names, making assumptions, making accusations, spewing bigotry.ranting, raving……..
Sorry Anonster, i don’t want to play with a brat who bullie’s people.
Go play with your lib friends then you can all play the same game! WHAAAAAAAAAA:)
Michelle Quinn (#42) Wow…are you going to take your ball and run so we can’t play?
The ACLU as a terrorist group? Then I guess, since you are a non-native citizen, that all those rights that the were granted to when you became a citizen, and that the ACLU fights hard to protect, are really no important to you. Actually, they use the law to protect those that don’t have a voice to speak for themselves.
And comparing CTA to the political wing of the IRA (Sinn Fein, I believe it’s called in Ireland)? That’s pretty interesting. I’ve read a little about the organization, and I just read through their website, and the seem to actually have some fairly reasonable goals: Self-determination, unity, independence; lasting peace based on democracy, justice, freedom and equality; a vision for the redistribution of wealth, for the well-being of the aged, for the advancement of youth, for the liberation of women and for the protection of Irish children. While somewhat grand in purpose, and leaning towards socialism, their goals don’t seem that far out of line with CTA’s mission statement:
to protect and promote the well-being of its members; to improve the conditions of teaching and learning; to advance the cause of free, universal, and quality public education; to ensure that the human dignity and civil rights of all children and youth are protected; and to secure a more just, equitable, and democratic society.
As for how unions in the UK act or don’t act, I’ll defer to you, but I can’t see why a union would exist at all if there wasn’t a need to speak up, fight for and protect it’s members – and sometimes that means flexing political muscle.
The Aclu is has a liberal agenda using the law to promote it. They are a disgrace to their country!! And the CTA is a politcal action group that is using the school system to become powerful enough were they can promote their agenda for power and money. They are the top reason your school system is crap!!
Sein Fein never did anything to help my community, except use us a poltical tool. You have no clue about politics if you did you would know that any political group has their own agenda and that does not include the regular joe soap!!
michelle (#44) A liberal agenda? You and others might interpret it that what, but actually, the ACLU protects the civil rights of ALL American’s. Unlike your skewed vision, that believes that only the rights those that believe as you believe, speak as you speak, and do as you do are worth protecting. In your vision extremist, right-wing, conservatives are the chosen ones – all others can go jump in a lake.
CTA is NOT a Political Action Group. CTA is a labour union. CTA only gets its money and power from it’s members – nothing they can do in the political world can ‘give’ them more money or more power. They don’t receive any funding from any part of the State or Federal government – so, I can’t see how you figure they are “using the school system to become powerful enough were they can promote their agenda for power and money.” Where are they supposed to be getting this money and power from?
No, CTA is NOT the top reason our ‘school system is crap’ [by the, if you love America so much, when did it become ‘your’ school system and not ‘our’ school system? – I guess you don’t consider yourself part of the problem or the solution?].
The school system isn’t crap – it’s got problems, and it needs help, but it’s not a total failure. But there you go again, looking for a new scapegoat. Earlier it was the teachers, then it was the leaders of Santa Ana, then it was the lack of parental involvement, now it’s CTA. So, you don’t think the rights of workers shouldn’t be protected?
That Sein Fein did or didn’t do anything for your community, I’ll take as fact.
And of course I understand that political groups have their own agenda – but then, so does every individual person – including you.
You’ve got an agenda – the complete dismantling of public education, the ignore civil rights, let the right-wing neo-cons take control, select [not elect] only leaders with opinions and racial backgrounds that YOU approve.
Why? I don’t have a clue. All I can figure is that you must believe that life in a capitalist police state, where big business and the bottomline rule and the government makes sure everyone ‘toes the line’, is the perfect world in which to live.
I hope now that you are a successful anglo-european, and that you fit into the mainstream of society, that you never suffer any type of discrimination or hatred. Oh and yes, I am sure you were hated and discriminated against in Ireland – for all I know you immigrated here as a political refugee – welcome. But it’s those pesky civil rights that allow you to even be here.
It’s liberals that champion immigration, for people like you. It’s liberals that champion for equal protection for all. It’s amazing just how much you’ve benefited from the liberal agenda. It’s liberals that fight to maintain the hard earned rights of Americans. Without liberals, the US would be a in a lot worse shape than it it.