Public Education
Governor's race: How the education platforms compare
October 05, 2010
Fermin Leal, The Orange County Register
Both Meg Whitman and Jerry
Brown have proposed significant reforms they said would improve the
quality of California's public schools. The gubernatorial
candidates' education platforms call for simplification of school
funding formulas, an increased focus on science, math and
technology education and easing rules to create more quality
charter schools. The candidates also disagree on key issues,
including how to improve low-achieving campuses, how to measure
teacher quality, and whether to reward good teachers and principals
with bonuses...
Watch: Waiting for Supermen" -- Work Hard to Elect Meg
September 28, 2010
Lance Izumi, The Flash Report It’s ironic that it takes a trip to the
movies to shine the light on an ugly truth that has been lurking
for years, but so far has failed to spark the necessary revolution
to fix our schools. The new movie, “Waiting for ‘Superman’”, might
just be that spark. It is a tough lesson for anyone who cares about
the future of our country and our state. We can no longer afford to
complain about our schools and then do so little to make changes.
It’s a national disgrace. In California, a state that considers
itself the world’s innovation factory, it’s a travesty. The big
screen treatment by Academy Award winner Davis Guggenheim exposes
the brutal facts: We are neglecting our children’s welfare for the
benefit of adults. Our schools are failing our children all over,
not just in less affluent neighborhoods, and many parents don’t
even know it. Our education system is strangled by an inflexible
bureaucracy that effectively smothers innovation and new
thinking…
Student immigration bill goes to U.S. Senate today
September 21, 2010
Cindy Carcamo, The Orange County Register
Activists ratcheted up
their lobbying Monday, generating thousands of calls and faxes to
members of Congress in a last-minute push over an immigration
reform act due to hit the Senate floor Tuesday. Democratic Senate
leaders plan to introduce the DREAM Act – Development, Relief and
Education for Minor Aliens – to be included as an amendment to the
Defense Authorization bill. The act would give students and
military hopefuls who are in the country illegally a pathway to
U.S. citizenship…
Illegal immigrant students' act on way to Senate
September 14, 2010
Cindy Carcamo, The Orange County Register
Activists on both sides of
the immigration debate in Orange County are abuzz, planning their
next move after learning that a slice of immigration reform is
expected to get a Senate vote next week. In a last-ditch effort to
pass some sort of immigration overhaul before the November
elections, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announced he would
introduce a proposal to grant students who are in the country
illegally a pathway to residency. The DREAM Act – for Development,
Relief and Education for Minor Aliens – will be included as an
amendment to the Defense Authorization bill…
New K-8 charter school approved for South County
September 14, 2010
Scott Martindale, The Orange County Register
Two former administrators
of a shuttered Jewish elementary school won approval Tuesday to
open a K-8 public charter school in southern Orange County that
encourages kids to work in small groups on long-term projects and
problems. Community Roots Academy, which will open next fall in the
Capistrano Unified School District, will emphasize "project-based
learning," an educational approach intended to boost student
motivation and mastery of a subject…
ACLU suit: 6 O.C. school districts charge illegal fees
September 10, 2010
Fermin Leal, The Orange County Register
The American Civil
Liberties Union on Friday sued the state and Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger for allowing public school districts – including six
in Orange County – to charge fees for books and other essential
educational supplies. The class-action suit says the districts are
charging students for text books, Advanced Placement exams, science
lab supplies, P.E. uniforms, cheerleading outfits and dozens of
other school-related costs. The suit claims these fees violate the
state Constitution’s provision for a free public education. The
suit lists 32 districts, including Capistrano Unified, Orange
Unified, Los Alamitos Unified, Anaheim Union, Irvine Unified and
Tustin Unified...
Teacher: Putting faces on schools' 'failure'
May 27, 2010
Column: Christian Cushing-Murray, The Orange County
Register Public
schools are failing. Say it a few times; it rolls off the tongue
easily enough. In fact, it's been said often enough that whatever
bitterness may have once flavored it has faded, like the wads of
gum stuck on the undersides my students' desks. The condemnation
comes easy, but is it true? I teach English at Century High School
in Santa Ana, one of several Orange County schools newly labeled
"persistently low-achieving" by the state Department of Education.
Brought on in part by relatively stagnant language-arts test
scores, I suppose I'm something of an expert on the notion of
failing public schools. What, then, is the truth?
Lawsuit moves school duel to new level
May 25, 2010
Dan Walters, The Sacramento Bee California's perpetual
public debate over the sad condition of its K-12 schools entered a
new and potentially climactic phase last week when a coalition of
education groups filed a lawsuit alleging that the entire 6
million-student system is unconstitutional. The suit, filed in
Alameda County, declares that the state "has failed its
constitutional obligation to support its public schools in a way
that ensures that all students are provided an opportunity to meet
the state's academic goals."
State Faces Multiple Suits of Failure to Adequately Fund Schools
May 21, 2010
David Greenwald, The People's Vanguard of
Davis Given the
state of California's economy and cutbacks to education, perhaps it
is not surprising that several different groups are threatening to
sue. On Thursday a lawsuit was filed in Alameda County by the
California School Boards Association, the Association of California
School Administrators, and the California State PTA. The suit calls
for the courts to get rid of the current financing system and to
direct the governor and Legislature to create one that is sound,
stable and sufficient. They argued it prevents six million
students from receiving the education that they are entitled to
under the state's constitution. The suit contends that the state
has failed to prioritize school funding as the constitution and
Prop 98 requires. California has set some of the highest
standards in the county, but ranks nearly last among all states in
per-pupil funding and in the ratio of students to teachers,
counselors, and nurses. The result is that California
students perform poorly compared with those in other states…
Historic Lawsuit Challenges California’s Unconstitutional Education Finance System
May 21, 2010
California School Finance, YubaNet.com
May 20, 2010 - A historic
lawsuit was filed today against the State of California requesting
that the current education finance system be declared
unconstitutional and that the state be required to establish a
school finance system that provides all students an equal
opportunity to meet the academic goals set by the State. The case,
Robles-Wong, et al. v. State of California, was filed in the
Superior Court of California in Alameda County. Specifically, the
suit asks the court to compel the State to align its school finance
system-its funding policies and mechanisms-with the educational
program that the State has put in place. To do this, plaintiffs
allege, the State must scrap its existing finance system; do the
work to determine how much it actually costs to fund public
education to meet the state's own program requirements and the
needs of California's school children; and develop and implement a
new finance system consistent with Constitutional
requirements…
In America, education is a right – not a privilege
April 13, 2010
Column: Carol Veravanich, The Orange County
Register Q. I
wanted to hear your answer to the question I heard from
Glenn
Beck, "Do you
think education is a right or a privilege?" A. I think every child
in America has a right to an education. All children get to come to
school here...
Education Achievement Has Declined Radically Since World War II
April 01, 2009
Evelyn B. Stacey, The Heartland Institute
John Taylor Gatto’s Weapons
of Mass Instruction is an articulate, compelling description of the
state of U.S. education, in which the author details the
unnecessary and in fact harmful aspects of public education that
have developed since the end of World War II. Gatto notes our
nation’s literacy rate dropped from 96 percent in 1945 to 44
percent in 2003. At the same time, the number of children being
educated by “government compulsory schooling” has increased each
decade since 1945. Student enrollment peaked at 51 million in the
1970s, decreased until 1984, and now stands at 55 million children
and rising. How is it possible for more of the population to be
schooled and yet have a greater percentage of people lack basic
literacy and computing skills by adulthood than in previous
generations? That question is the premise of Gatto’s book. As
schooling became mandatory, he observes, it began stripping
children away from real-world learning experiences…
Same frustrations, new school year
September 03, 2008
Column: Nicholas Wishek, The Orange County
Register Confidence in public education erodes
over decades of teaching - I don't see things getting better. Also,
I know I will be asked to do things that make no logical sense.
Things that don't help. Things that the ivory-tower types in
Sacramento and Washington, D.C., would know were pretty useless, if
they had actually ever taught in schools similar to mine. Fact.
Despite all the hype about the successes of the No Child Left
Behind program, I do not see any real growth in the academic
performances of my students. Yes, our test scores have gone up,
but, as Mark Twain wrote, "There are three kinds of lies: lies,
damned lies and statistics"…