Good Morning:

I think there has been a lot of unfair attacks on prop 13 in the press, by big spender politicians, and fake local control advocates. Prop 13 does very little to surrender local control to the state government. The courts and state propositions such as 98 do that through minimum funding formulas.

Please take a look at equal protection cases such as Serrano v. Priest, the recent Williams case, and prop 98. Serrano v. Priest and the recent Williams case have basically litigated the state into ensuring equal protection funding under the law while prop 98 guarantees a certain minimum level of state funding. Proposition 13 has nothing to do with surrendering local control. Through the courts and prop 98, we surrendered local control.

I guarantee if there were no state minimum funding requirements that are mandated either by jurisprudence, bureaucratic rule-making or proposition, that school financing would be more defined by local school boards. Of course, this begs the question… SHOULD ALL SCHOOLS BE GIVEN EQUAL FINANCING? SHOULD ALL CHILDREN BE GIVEN AN EQUAL START?

I think we need to leave prop 13 off the table for a few reasons. Prior to the imposition of prop 13, property taxes were being raised so fast that individuals on fixed incomes such as senior citizens were entering into tax sales and losing their homes. Everyone was suffering from “locally controlled” property tax increases. Now, with the new condemnation power that local jurisdictions have been granted by the Supreme Court, I'm sure a repeal of proposition 13 is a non-starter.

Land and private property used to be an extension of liberty in our society and now through abusive property tax systems and non-existent private property protections, the local, state, and federal government is growing more centralized and powerful. Private property rights are becoming less absolute and we as a culture are legislating common sense and morals more and more.

I think we need to take a hard long look at what we the individual get when we allow the government to be chiefly responsible for our morals, property, and common sense.

Scott Blough

Tim,
If you believe in local control why are you not speaking out against the Vista Real scam? The County took local control away from Simi and other Districts and violated Ed. Code and you said nothing. Your not afraid to rile the Stricklands are you since Tony is on the Vista Real Board? Arleigh

Tim,

It looks like Arleigh answered your question. Do you agree with him? Is he right? I don't know enough about school finances but it looks right.

Now, fair is fair. How do you feel about the charter school Arleigh speaks of? I don't know much about it except what he has said. Where do you guys agree/disagree?

Brian

Tim,

I was thinking about it and I think you were a bit overboard on Arleigh. You asked him to prove it and he did. Do you think we have become a bit uncivil for a small town?

Brian

Hello:

Hope everyone is doing well sharpening their teeth these past few days. I’ve actually missed the dialogue a bit.

Arleigh: I’ve been looking at this Rio Vista charter school a bit and whether it violated the Education code and usurped local control. Basically, I had to become familiar with the role of the County Board of Education in our schools, which I hadn’t done before so I visited the website.

On a personal note, I am not quick to jump with the Governor, President Bush and President Clinton and Hillary Clinton who argued and advocated charter schools are the silver bullet to fix the schools.

I have seen studies that have shown public schools and charter schools have improved as a result of the competition. This proves teachers in the public sector can take on any challenge from the private sector and win. I have way more confidence in our current teachers’ ability than some of the educational leaders who are afraid of a little competition.

I have also seen studies that have shown charter schools failing to meet basic testing requirements and cost cutting that have hurt students. This should not be tolerated in any district in this country.

Arleigh: I am interested in how you reconcile these two pieces of evidence on the argument you are making. First, you say that it takes away local control and second you argue that it is a violation of the Education Code.

At the County Board of Education Website located at www.vcss.k12.ca.us/admin/board.htm it states one of the functions of the county board is to “fulfill statutory responsibilities in connection to Charter Schools.”

I always thought the word “statutory” meant legal responsibilities in fulfilling the statutes of the Education code, so I’m not sure your “illegality argument” passes the smell test.

But for arguments sake, I checked with the Ed Code and low and behold there are actually statutes for the county board to follow to fulfill their duties in regards to charter schools. Please take a look at Ed code Sec. 47605.6 where it states:

“47605.6. (a) (1) In addition to the authority provided by Section
47605.5, a county board of education may also approve a petition for the operation of a charter school that operates at one or more sites within the geographic boundaries of the county and that provides instructional services that are not generally provided by a county office of education. A county board of education may only approve a countywide charter if it finds, in addition to the other requirements of this section, that the educational services to be provided by the charter school will offer services to a pupil population that will benefit from those services and that cannot be served as well by a charter school that operates in only one school district in the county. A petition for the establishment of a countywide charter school pursuant to this subdivision may be circulated throughout the county by any one or more persons seeking to establish the charter school. The petition may be submitted to the county board of education for review after either of the following conditions are met:”

There are numerous conditions listed in this section, but I don’t want to copy/paste the whole thing as it’s pretty long and I’ve already blogged way too long. Since the burden is on you to prove your allegations true and not me to disprove them, please outline specifically, which conditions the county board of education violated.

If they are violating the law as it is written in this section. I would support an open letter to the county to get them back in line as they are violating the law and should be held accountable. Preemption is also part of our system, so if state law says to do it this way it preempts your local control argument.

Scott

Brian,

Arleigh is a big boy and I'm sure he can handle the tough questions, just like I handle the accusations and statements hurled my way.

Remember, this blog is about the issues - not Arleigh vs. Keaney or anything like that. No talking points allowed - just solutions. When someone quotes talking points anyone) I am going to call them on it.

Tim

Scott,
Call the County Office of Education and request a copy of the report that Dr. Weiss and his staff wrote on the Vista Real Charter School. You will see that the School did not meet even half of the Ed. Code requirements. We are going to ask that local districts file a Writ of Mandate with the Superior Court to stop Vista Real until it complies with Ed. Code. There are many good Charter Schools out there, I agree! Vista Real is not one of them, they found a loophole to make some money at the expense of our kids and the County Board went along, I believe, because Tony Strickland is on the Vista Real Board. My only goal on this blog is to make sure people who read it (even though I only think about 6 people, including me, read this blog) get both sides. Besides, if you look back on this blog you will see that when I don't comment, neither does anyone else. That's why Tim should show me a little gratitude and loosen up a bit, I don't take this personally and neither should he. Arleigh

Arleigh:

If the law is truly being violated this is a different matter entirely. When will the Writ of Mandate from the school districts be available?

As far as this blog's readership, I think it's actually higher than six. I've had comments from people I know that read this blog and don't really say anything. Many people just don't want to debate and put their name out there for fear that they may offend someone.

I figure this is a place to sharpen/strengthen how I feel about education policy. I think the problem is that we aren't debating issues enough and that's why we get half-baked policies that lack consensus.

I figured you'd be getting people from SEA and others to be putting in their two cents. Blogs don't really work if everyone agrees all the time.

Scott

Scott,

Brian Dennert here. You don't actually need to put your name on an entry to leave a comment.

Notice, the name and e-mail address I left?

Mr. Fake

Brian:

I stand corrected as I thought you couldn't use a fake name. Have a good one.

Scott

Scott,

You can even use other people's names.

I'd like to just say that all the unpopular or strange arguments that used my name was from Brian Dennert... Also all mispelled words and grammer errors are Dennert's fault as well. :)

I have a quick question on ADA funding. A great web site for local info is..
http://www.ed-data.k12.ca.us/ and it shows financial statements for all districts in CA up through 03-04.

I looked up Moorpark, Conejo, and Simi Unified for ADA amounts and here is the 03-04 ADA amount.

Simi: $6,451
Moorpark: $6,386
Conejo:$6,366

Statewide Average for all Unified School Districts: $6,983.

Statewide All Districts: $6,919.

Can I ask why these districts are below the statewide ADA average?

I honestly don't know and am curious with why our our school districts are below average for 2003-04.

I would be interested in hearing more about Vista Real. Do they exist? I haven't been able to find a website for them in the High valley where they hail from, so I haven't a clue what the backstory is with them.

Scott - as for ada - it's two-fold. Parents do not have any idea that ADA is how their schools get funded. Too many take kids out of school to see Grandma, Mickey Mouse or to go to Cancun, with no regard for ADA or how it effects their kids schoolwork. The teachers are supposed to just accomodate it, which isn't fair.

Now - the bigger question is why ADA is the primary mechanism for funding our schools. Again, in disadvantaged areas where kids are missing school for myriad reasons, the ADA basically works against them because if kids aren't in school, school doesn't get paid.

So where the schools might need beter funding to bring kids in, innovate, keep them engaged and keep them from dropping out, they don't have the funds to do any of it.

Parents have the primary responsibility of getting kids to school. But in many cases, kids don't even come to school FED, let alone ready for school.

Schools have the responsibility of keeping them engaged while they are there.

The state needs to come up with a more inovative way of getting funds into schools.

Tim

Tim,
Vista Real is called Desert Sands under their original charter. They will become Vista Real here. We do know that Tony Strickland is on their Board of Directors. We do not know if he and his wife are also investors, the investors are promised 10% returns the first year. If they are investors does this raise a conflict of interest since Audra will vote on Charter School funding? Rumor has it they are going to lose their charter in the Desert becuase of their low API of 400 and also they are taking ADA from Antelope Valley after promising they would not take ADA. I still say if people in Simi Valley want a charter then is should be of real quality and a community decision. This decision was made by the county board, the same board that appointed Audra Strickland to their board, even though she was least qualified and had missed the application deadline, and yes, I was at that meeting and the meeting when they approved Vista Real. Arleigh