Home › Blogs › No Issues Left Behind
« March 2006 | Main | May 2006 »
April 28, 2006
Come on home
Has anyone wondered why so many parents are home schooling their kids. Seems it's in such demand, that even school districts themselves are getting in on it.
What is your opinion?
Tim
Posted by Tim Keaney at 03:40 PM
Come on home
Has anyone wondered why so many parents are home schooling their kids. Seems it's in such demand, that even school districts themselves are getting in on it.
What is your opinion?
Tim
Posted by Tim Keaney at 03:40 PM
April 27, 2006
From the Sac Bee
Great comments today from Dan Weintraub...
PPIC Poll (careful - PDF format)
PPIC has a new poll out today that focuses on education, and shows that voters are still down on the schools and the governor's handling of the issue. Overall, his approval rating is a respectable 46-44 among likely voters. But only 33 percent approve of the way he has handled the education issue. No doubt still a residue of his "broken promise," even though his current budget proposal would bring the schools' ongoing funding base back to the level it would have been if he had funded them the way the education lobby thought he should have.
Voters say they would be happy to raise taxes for schools -- as long as somebody else pays them. Upper income? Sure. Sales or property taxes, not so much.
The poll also checks in on the Democratic primary and finds Westly ahead of Angelides, 26-20, and by an even greater margin (29-20) among voters most concerned about the public schools. In other words, Democrats say they would love to raise taxes on the rich to increase funding for schools, but they prefer the candidate who says he doesn't want to do that over the one who does. Go figure.
Posted by Tim Keaney at 02:28 PM
Teachers, what's in your wallet? II
From Eduwonk:
Here is an eduissue to keep an eye on: While the rest of the economy is shifting -- for better or worse -- from defined-benefit retirement plans to defined-contribution ones, education stays mostly wed to traditional pensions. It's not good for teachers because it lessens their mobility and financial control and as some forthcoming research will show, some cities have pension arrangements that are fiscally untenable over time.*
What's worse though is that just as retirement financing is shifting more toward individuals rather than taking the lead and empowering their members some teachers' unions are demonstrably ill-serving them! So reports The Los Angeles Times (via Intercepts) in a must-read story you won't be seeing in NEA Today anytime soon! Apparently, some of the nation's teachers' unions are doing little to protect their members from hucksters offering them shoddy investment advice and in fact even abetting the problem.
The shady dealings will obscure a larger issue. In education, shifting from defined-benefit to defined-contribution plans offers several benefits for teachers. First, it is more empowering for teachers because they have more control over their professional mobility. Traditional pension plans do create disincentives for older teachers to move, in effect reducing the leverage of good teachers if they're seeking to change jobs. There are workarounds here (portability, buy-ins, etc...) but it's not a straightforward matter if a teacher wants or must move out of state. And for younger teachers, particularly those who do not plan to make a 30 year career of teaching, traditional pensions offer them less financially than if they invested their money on their own in tax-deferred accounts. And, in some cases such arrangements would allow them more flexibility with things like IRAs as well than they have now. Finally, 401k style arrangements would also offer another way to offer incentives for teachers who took on special assignments, had scarce skills, or were otherwise exceptional or high performers.
However, today's teachers, especially older teachers, came into education with one understanding of what retirement would entail financially if they upheld their end of the bargain. Consequently, any shift toward more of a 401k approach rather than today's defined benefit plans would have to address substantial transitional issues to ensure that current teachers were treated fairly. And, in some states issues like Social Security eligibility would further complicate any transition. Nonetheless, those are issues that can be addressed equitably in public policy. In the end, a system that empowered teachers more would be for the good and it's a conversation worth having. In the meantime, don't take the salesman at face value!
*Politically, this could provoke a backlash at some point...seems better for the teachers to strike a good bargain now ensuring a fair transition and then move on to a more contemporaneous retirement arrangement. Public sympathy will wane when no one else has a guaranteed retirement with full health etc...
Posted by Tim Keaney at 07:52 AM
April 26, 2006
Can you hear me now?
The California Republican Party phone bank called me yesterday and asked me to donate $75 to $100 (whatever I was comfortable with) to help the republicans win this November in California.
I asked - Well, what are the republican's plans to help California?
Answer: To register 1.5 million republicans.
Me: Oh, well what are the plans after that, I mean how does that help the state?
Answer: Well... uh.... Well, I am sure you can agree that we share similar values like smaller government...
Me: Well, I agree with that, but I am not sure Sacramento republicans do - I mean, state revenues just went up, but so did the budget to match it, and these bonds to pay it off, well...
Answer: Click...dial tone...
Yep - I asked, I guess, One too many questions for my money.
I guess they thought I was just a lackey and that I would send them money based on our common goals. Once they can tell me what those might be, I'll consider it.
In the meantime, I encourage you to ask questions.
Tim
Posted by Tim Keaney at 11:08 AM
April 24, 2006
DEEP impact
What impact will this trend have on schools? Here is the Star Editorial and the Story that spawned it
--Star Editorial---
Editorial: Americans on the move again
The 'exurbs' are the destination
April 24, 2006
Over the decades, Americans moved from farms and small towns to the big cities, then from the cities to the suburbs and now, in a continuing trend reaffirmed by the latest Census, to the "exurbs."
From 2000 to 2004, 18 of the 25 largest metropolitan areas had more people move out than move in. There were some discrete factors — the high-tech bust contributed to the exodus from San Francisco and Boston — but the common denominator was people seeking jobs and, especially, more affordable housing.
Residents leaving high-priced Los Angeles region helped neighboring Riverside metastasize into the nation's 15th-largest metropolitan area and the biggest winner in the 2000-2004 migration sweepstakes.
Riverside added 23 new residents per 1,000 of its population. The biggest loser was the San Francisco area, with 14.7 of every 1,000 departing.
In contrast to the urban white flight of earlier years, this move out of the big cities cuts across racial, ethnic and economic lines. People are moving to distant suburbs and small cities on the periphery, the exurbs.
Increasingly, that's where the jobs are, and if traffic planners don't have enough problems, they must contend with growing suburb-to-suburb and exurb-to-exurb commuting.
The long-term migration from the Northeast and Midwest to the Sun Belt continues. Florida, Arizona, Nevada, Georgia and North Carolina were the big gainers; Ohio, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Illinois, California — a victim of its own success — and New York the big losers.
Americans have always been willing to pack up and move in search of a better life. They still are, and that's why sprawl — suburban and exurban — is becoming a way of life.
Population's flight fueled by high cost of housing
New U.S. Census figures show county's losing its middle class
By Charles Levin, clevin@VenturaCountyStar.com
April 22, 2006
With two kids and another on the way, Yesenia Rodriguez and her husband needed a bigger house but couldn't afford one in Ventura County.
So in August, they sold their three-bedroom home in El Rio for $505,000 and bought a six-bedroom house with a swimming pool in Bakersfield for $415,000.
They aren't alone. Newly released numbers from the U.S. Census Bureau show that more people continue to leave Ventura County than arrive here from other counties, a trend that could bode ill for businesses and schools. The numbers, however, don't include people coming here from other nations or residents moving abroad.
Census data released this week estimated that 10,642 more people left Ventura County than arrived from other counties from July 1, 2004, to June 30, 2005 — more than double its estimate of 4,700 for the previous fiscal year.
Five years ago, the numbers were on the plus side, with 1,212 more people migrating to Ventura County than leaving.
Not all the details are clear
The latest census report doesn't provide figures on exactly where people here are flocking to, or the origins of those moving here. And when immigration from other nations is taken into account, the county's population dropped by only 59 people last fiscal year, from 796,165 to 796,106, according to the Census Bureau.
The state has a different formula for measuring population and "net domestic migration," and its figures are not as severe. The state's net migration figure for 2004-05 in Ventura County was 4,270, but, it said, overall population rose by 7,103, to 815,528.
Still, it's the mostly young, educated, middle-income families like the Rodriguezes who are fleeing, driven away by housing costs, experts say. Most leave for Bakersfield or the Inland Empire counties of Riverside and San Bernardino, previous population reports have shown.
This week's figures didn't surprise several experts, but one said the numbers show the trend is accelerating.
"This certainly is a dramatic change in the pattern," Bill Fulton, a planning expert and Ventura councilman, said this week. "It suggests to me that if we want to keep young, middle-class families, we have to have houses for them to live in and jobs for them to work at."
Fulton attended a regional growth conference this week called "Where Will the Children Live?"
"The trend suggests somewhere else," he said.
Housing costs continue to rise partly because retirees and aging baby boomers from Santa Barbara and Los Angeles counties have enough money to outbid local residents seeking to buy here, said economist Bill Watkins, director of the University of California, Santa Barbara, Economic Forecast Project.
Median housing cost $610,000
In March, the median price for new and existing homes and condominiums in Ventura County was $610,000. The median is the point at which half the homes cost more and half cost less.
Meanwhile, Ventura County retirees and families are leaving, selling their homes and taking their equity to communities where real estate is cheap, Watkins said.
Left unchecked, the trend will leave Ventura County with a two-tiered economy of haves and have-nots: affluent empty-nesters with disposable income and working-class families who perform service jobs and live in overcrowded conditions, Fulton said.
Businesses will suffer as the county continues to lose its "brain trust" of young, educated workers, said Zoe Taylor, president and CEO of the Ventura Chamber of Commerce.
School officials have watched the trend for years, and the latest numbers only reinforce their observations, said Chuck Weis, Ventura County Superintendent of Schools.
"Last year we lost 331 students countywide," Weis said this week. "This year, we think we're down about 1,500 students — maybe higher."
As enrollments decline, schools lose state funding, which threatens programs like art, sports and music, and school jobs from custodians to teachers. School closures are inevitable, Weis said.
Schools losing students
For several years, Ojai and Oak Park schools had suffered the biggest attendance losses. But enrollments in 15 of the county's 20 districts are now declining, Weis said.
When Rodriguez moved to Bakersfield, local schools lost both a student — one of her children — and a teacher. Rodriguez was teaching at McKinna School in Oxnard and didn't want to leave her job, colleagues or seven brothers and sisters.
But the couple dreamed of nice vacations and a second home for rental income. Husband Marco, who sold cars for a local dealership, hoped to open his own business.
That wasn't likely to happen with a $2,100-a-month mortgage in El Rio, said Yesenia Rodriguez, 29. "We were making it, but we were living on a budget," she said.
In Bakersfield, Marco, also 29, recently opened a cellular phone store. Some months are slow, but the couple's mortgage payments are now only $1,200 a month, so they can make it on Yesenia's teacher salary.
"We wouldn't ever be able to do that in Oxnard or purchase a home like what we have now in Oxnard," she said.
The Ventura Chamber of Commerce will soon convene a focus group, including city officials, business leaders, seniors, environmentalists and neighborhood activists, to brainstorm the housing problem, Taylor said.
Home prices, however, will continue climbing as retiring baby boomers want to live in coastal California, Watkins said.
Housing prices could flatten or even fall like in the 1980s and 1990s, but that's hard to predict, Fulton said.
"We're hostage to certain economic and social forces," Fulton said. "You can do as much as you can to make a marginal difference — provide more housing for the middle class — but it's definitely an uphill battle."
Posted by Tim Keaney at 01:02 PM
April 19, 2006
Are two Dunns better than one?
Conejo Valley is in an uproar according to the Star over an e-mail sent by Mike Dunn's wife about his performance as a Trustee - Read the article.
Was Mike's wife right or wrong to send this e-mail?
Are the e-mail address public or district property (or is that one in the same?)
Are the e-mail addresses in the public domain?
What will be the effect on Mike's career as a trustee?
Is sending this e-mail, with a link to Mike's campaign web site a violation of campaign law?
I welcome your comments - click below for the text of the e-mail.
Tim
This is the e-mail sent by Laura Dunn according to the Star (all edits and exclusions are the responsibility of the paper):
Text of Laura Dunn's email
April 18, 2006
-----Original Message-----
From: Laura Dunn
Sent: Sat 4/8/2006 12:51 PM
To: laura dunn; Bonn, Kathleen; Brabant, Diane; Bradley, Richard; Branham, Janet; Brazell, Kyle; Brock, Keith; Brown, Rhoda; Bullock, Meredith; Burke, Rick; Buttner, Benjamin; Carr, Darrin; Caulfield, Lorena; Childs, Kendall; Christian, Timothy; Cohen, Sylvia; Colangelo, Nick; Colell, Kristi; Conner, Janet; Cooper, Ryan; Coull, Tiffani; Crawford, Janice; Detmer, Barbara; DiCato,
Cheri; Diffenderfer, Leigh; Dixon, Betsy; Dogancay, Deborah; Dreiling, Sue; Duben, Marcy; Ellis, Elwyn; Eveler, Susan; Fabricius, Gerald; Farrell, Jack; Fasulo, Cameo; Flaherty, Sean; Freed, Richard; Garcia, Bill; Gastaldo, Evann;
Geher, Seth; Graham, Casey; Griffith, Jessica; Hauser, Nella
Subject: letter to the teachers from Laura Dunn, wife of Trustee Mike Dunn13
TO ALL TEACHERS FROM A TEACHER.......
My name is Laura Dunn. I teach special education, severely handicapped,
for the Oxnard School District. Six members of our family and relatives are or
were public school teachers. My husband is Mike Dunn, school board trustee, Conejo Valley
Unified School District.
Recently UACT unfairly criticized my husband. Mike and I have been
married for 18 years. We have two children in Conejo schools. Mike has been
elected to public office four times in Thousand Oaks.
Here are some things your union did not tell you about my husband:
Mike voted against his 5% pay raise. Why should he get a 5% raise when you got a 2% raise. The vote was 4-1.
On December 19th....Mike asked about 400 teachers in an email when they
wanted Christmas vacation to start (December 16, 20, or 23). He thought UACT
would love the idea and want to know the results. Instead, UACT filed criminal
charges against him. Imagine how you would feel if the union filed criminal charges against your husband.
A poll is an excellent way to find out what the people (including the
teachers) want before he votes than to represent them. The community results
showed that 81% wanted the vacation to start either December 16th or 20th.
Is the vacation schedule what you wanted? I doubt it. Teachers got nothing from the deal. You still have to be in school on Friday, December 22.
It would have been nice to travel, decorate, entertain or just relax in preparation for Christmas.
Let's talk about your 2% pay raise. On July 12th, at 8:22 pm, my husband "leaked" to the union that the district intented to spend some unexpected new money on new staff instead of salary increases. My husband was
the only board member who thought the money should go to salary increases. Your 1% pay raise became 2%.
Here is a followup email my husband sent to the board, superintendent and the unions in July.
"Good morning Bob,
I favor spending the additional revenues on pay bonuses for district employees. I promised the unions when I was interviewed that I would not be satisfied until salaries increased by the cost of living.
Regarding my conversation with Susan on June 28, I spoke with Susan Falk
regarding the reinstatement of $285,000 by the state and how to spend it. She
did not indicate to me that she was "on board" with spending the money on rehires and additional staff.
We only discussed public information that I was told in closed session the
unions were "on board with". I did not indicate to her how much money we anticipate from the state.
A bonus is better than a pay raise. A pay raise could force future pay cuts if revenues from the state decline in the future.
Mike"
Some people think the school board is responsible for our high quality
schools. We know better. It is the students, teachers and parents that make
this district one of the best in the state. The board may set the course.......but it is the teachers who make dreams come true by giving our children a great education.
We agree with UACT on fiscal issues. We do not agree on social issues.
We have two children in this district. We want them taught that marriage is a
union between a man and a woman (UACT disagrees). We want them to have more
time off before Christmas so that we can travel to see relatives in Texas (UACT
disagrees). The union is liberal. We are traditional.
Thanks for listening. I think my husband has done a good job for the teachers. I hope you agree. We have a website www.mike4schoolboard.com if you
seek more information.
You can call him anytime at XXX-XXXX.
Please show this to other teachers. About 40% of my husband's emails to
teachers were returned undeliverable.
Laura Jane Dunn
Wife, Mother, Special Education Teacher
Posted by Tim Keaney at 10:14 AM
April 18, 2006
Not "proficient"... or smart either...
Seems like this school principal wouldn't qualify as "proficient" in reading...
From the AP...
Buckets used as bathrooms during school lockdown
INGLEWOOD, California (AP) -- A principal trying to prevent walkouts during immigration rallies inadvertently introduced a lockdown so strict that children weren't allowed to go to the bathroom, and instead had to use buckets in the classroom, an official said.
Worthington Elementary School Principal Angie Marquez imposed the lockdown March 27 as nearly 40,000 students across Southern California left classes to attend immigrants' rights demonstrations.
Marquez apparently misread the district handbook and ordered a lockdown designed for nuclear attacks.
Tim Brown, the district's director of operations, confirmed some students used buckets but said the principal's order to impose the most severe type of lockdown was an "honest mistake."
"When there's a nuclear attack, that's when buckets are used," Brown told the Los Angeles Times. The principal "followed procedure. She made a decision to follow the handbook. She just misread it."
A message left by The Associated Press for the principal at the school before business hours Monday was not immediately returned, and Marquez did not return telephone calls from the Times.
Appalled parents have complained to the school board. Brown said the school district planned to update its emergency preparedness instructions to give more explicit directions.
Parents and community activists asked the school board at its April 5 meeting to explain the principal's decision. They also sought promises that the lockdown wouldn't be repeated.
"There was no violence at the protests, so this was based on what?" activist Diane Sambrano asked. "It was unsanitary, unnecessary and absolutely unacceptable."
Posted by Tim Keaney at 07:31 AM
Now THAT's what I am talking about...
I want to congratulate the SVUSD on their proactive approach towards energizing middle school kids to graduate.
I've said many times that middle school is the place many kids fall through the cracks - without the extra curricular activities of high school, and the parental oversight of elementary, middle school students are many times left to their own devices - with unfortunate results.
Read the Daily News article here...
Middle schools giving kids push
Angie Valencia-Martinez, Staff writer
LA Daily News
SIMI VALLEY Middle schools aren't what they used to be at least that's the message Simi Valley teachers want students to understand.
Before 2004, eighth-graders were allowed to move on to high school despite failing classes if they passed state standardized tests.
Today, they are required to pass 75 percent of their classes, and educators continue to find ways to push students to achieve at the city's three middle schools Hillside, Sinaloa and Valley View.
"We have the beginning of a great program," said Dayle Gillick, president of the Simi Educators Association, which represents 1,000 teachers in the Simi Valley Unified School District. "It's not completed. It's ongoing. We've really worked hard on this."
The plan, which has accelerated during this school year, is to rigorously monitor students' progress and reach out to at-risk children with intervention programs. It also emphasizes parental involvement, including quarterly meetings, and student one-on-ones.
"We're trying to put in steps that will lead to our ability to intervene with students and assist them in their academic progress," said Bill Waxman, the district's director of secondary education. "We're making an effort this year to try to put things in place so if they need assistance, they'll have it."
While the district couldn't provide numbers on exactly how many students are falling behind, Waxman put the figure in the "hundreds."
A task force composed mostly of teachers began restructuring the promotion policy nearly two years ago with recommendations to the district.
Gillick said one of the biggest outcomes has been improved communication among parents, students and elementary and secondary education teachers to identify struggling students.
California Department of Education rules allow districts to develop their own promotion and retention policies under minimum state requirements.
The district is also looking into hiring three at-risk coordinators at each school site and adding a seven-period day.
"Up until this year, you just didn't have to pass seventh and eighth grade," school board member Greg Stratton said. "It's a work in progress. The idea is to get them all to pass. The kids knew they didn't have to do anything, so they did nothing."
---end article---
Post your thoughts!
Tim
Posted by Tim Keaney at 07:23 AM
April 06, 2006
For your consideration
From the Florida Times-Union Newspaper. Do you agree or disagree with this assesment:
---editorial---
Paying teachers competitively is key for struggling schools
by William L. Bainbridge
It has been 23 years since the publication of "A Nation At Risk, " the unprecedented report of the National Commission on Excellence in Education that launched the modern school reform movement.
Evidence, however, indicates little has been done to provide effective schools for our nations disadvantaged students.
Regrettably, our school systems are focused on traditional ways of doing business rather than providing students with the teachers they need to turn the situation around.
Dedicated, highly educated and valued teachers, recognized as such through differentiated compensation, are central to effective schools.
The Association of Employment in Education (AAEE) has documented critical shortages of qualified teachers in fields such as mathematics, physical sciences, technology education and special education.
Many students in inner city and rural schools are in classrooms with ineffective, unqualified or under-qualified teachers.
In case after case, schools our research auditing teams have visited which have large numbers of students with low test scores are proliferated with teachers who lack college training and preparation to teach subjects such as chemistry and calculus.
This grim picture is further complicated by the fact that teaching professionals are employed on the same salary schedule regardless of the market for their specialty.
Unfortunately, teacher compensation is based upon seniority and education level alone, not upon marketplace demand. Few or no opportunities for advancement are provided teachers unless they leave the classroom for administrative positions, and few or no incentives are provided for teaching excellence.
The current pay formula in most public school systems is a lock step grid through which all teachers receive the same starting salary. As additional experience and education are gained, their salaries advance through pre-set increases in uniform increments.
Although teacher unions are frequently blamed for this socialistic "salary schedule" system, in the first half of the 20th century it was school administrators and boards who adopted such schedules.
Unfortunately, all college graduates going into the teaching field are treated as if they have the same marketplace value. This practice was present before collective bargaining even entered the school workplace.
Today only a few forward-thinking teacher union leaders will even consider alternative forms of compensation for teachers such as pay for marketplace demand or performance. Most, however, hold fast to the traditional salary schedule rather than risk any qualitative criteria for salary adjustment
The idea of marketplace pay for teachers is based upon a well-known and common sense business practice that rewards individuals whose skills are in the greatest demand.
Most people understant that specialists in more demanding college majors are usually more highly compensated than generalists. People in technical fields such as chemistry, engineering and mathematics typically are paid more than history, sociology or physical education majors.
College admissions directors are keenly aware that entry-level students majoring in physical science fields, for example, have higher entry-level SAT and ACT scores than those majoring in social sciences and humanities.
Public education should be no different in terms of compensation than the modern workplace. In fact, most universities already employ a differentiated marketplace-driven salary model.
We need to pay teachers what they are worth in the marketplace to encourage dedicated people to enter and remain in our schools.
The time is right to implement "marketplace pay" for teachers.
With critical teacher shortages in most schools, we may no longer be able to afford NOT to pay teachers more for working in those fields where they are needed most.
_______
William L. Bainbridge is Distinguished Research Professor for the University of Dayton and President & Chief Executive Officer of SchoolMatch, a national educational auditing, research, and data organization.
bainbridge@schoolmatch.com
Posted by Tim Keaney at 09:32 AM
April 04, 2006
Broken Schools?
It looks like the Westly and Angelides camp have been reading my blog. My question is this - Arnold has only been the governor two years - how did the schools get like this?
---From the Sac Bee---
"We have tied their (students') hands with funding cuts, crowded classrooms and broken schools," he said. "If we want a high school degree to stand for something, we have to stand by our kids."
Angelides, noting that California has the largest number of low-income students and English learners of any state, complained that the state ranks near the bottom in education spending, declaring: "We are never going to have first-rate schools with second-rate levels of investment."
Posted by Tim Keaney at 01:59 PM
April 03, 2006
Prop 98
Is Proposition 98 hurting California Schools? With it's guarantee of a minimum level of funding, and the assumption that 40% of the California Budget should go to schools because of 98, is it possible that 98 is having the opposite effect of what was intended?
In other words, is it possible that because a minimum of dollars are required by 98, is the legislature ignoring schools, ignoring the challenges they are facing and quite possibly just looking the other way?
I welcome your thoughts.
Tim
Posted by Tim Keaney at 01:03 PM
