Educators Tell Lawmakers That Funding Shortfalls are Causing Shortages of Classes

(Photo above) CTA, its Higher Education partners, and labor organizations gathered at an early morning strategy meeting on Tuesday in the state capital as part of efforts to amend or defeat SB 520. That CTA-opposed bill by Sen. Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento) would mandate that colleges and universities contract out to private companies faculty responsibilities related to online courses. The coalition is battling the privatization efforts and urging lawmakers to address the real problem: providing adequate funding to the state’s colleges and universities.

(Photo at left) CTA Board Member Theresa Mantaño (at right) reviews some of the materials that she and other higher education representatives will be discussing with legislators and their staff members. Coalition packets included informational handouts to be left with members of the Senate Education Committee. That committee is set to hear SB 520 on Wednesday morning.

Later Tuesday morning, CTA Board Member Mantaño was part of a team that met with Sen. Marty Block (D-San Diego). The team urged the pro-education lawmaker to vote no on SB 520 (Steinberg) and to advocate for more funding so that the state’s colleges and universities can meet the needs of their students.

Teacher-Opposed “Evaluation” Measure Would Undermine Educational Excellence Efforts

Educators are getting in touch with members of The Senate Education Committee to urge them to defeat a poorly conceived teacher evaluation bill on Wednesday, April 24.

Unlike a teacher-backed comprehensive approach that is needed to support teachers and improve student learning, SB 441 by Sen. Ron Calderon (D-Montebello) undermines the usefulness of an evaluation system by focusing on just four unproven measures of performance that the bill’s backers “assume” will boost teacher effectiveness.

By focusing on student test scores, the bill fails to  provide a comprehensive look at curriculum or student achievement and ignores the professional performance of teachers. The bill requires student test scores to be included in teacher evaluations—even if the data is unreliable or faulty.

SB 441 also eliminates collective bargaining from the teacher evaluation process. The bill aims to silence the voices of teachers in this important method of improving teaching. Teacher input into the local evaluation process is vitally important to improving the practice of teaching.

The measure is supported by Michelle Rhee—the disgraced former Chancellor of Washington, D.C. schools, who is involved in a scandal over allegedly rigged student test scores—and her StudentsFirst organization.  She and StudentsFirst are also seeking to undermine other important elements of due process and collective bargaining.

A quality evaluation system should serve to seek out, document and support good teaching in order to improve instruction and student learning. SB 441 will do nothing to improve the current evaluation process or provide useful feedback to educators, who are dedicated to improving their practice.

Readers interested in contacting Senate Education Committee members can do so by calling them.

Members of the Senate Education Committee are:

Senator Carol Liu (Chair): (916) 651-4025 and (818) 409-0400
Senator Mark Wyland (Vice Chair): (916) 651-4038 and (949) 489-9838
Senator Marty Block: (916) 651-4039 and (619) 645-3133
Senator Lou Correa: (916) 651-4034 and (714) 558-4400
Senator Loni Hancock: (916) 651-4009 and (510) 286-1333
Senator Ben Hueso: (916) 651-4040 and (619) 409-7690
Senator Bob Huff: (916) 651-4029 and (714) 671-9474
Senator Hannah-Beth Jackson: (916) 651-4019 and (805) 965-0862
Senator Bill Monning: (916) 651-4017and (831) 425-0401

Readers can also learn more about the issue by reviewing SB 441 Legislative Information and CTA’s SB 441 Talking Points.

Microsoft’s Gates Recants His Support for Tying Student Test Scores to Teacher Evaluations

The California Democratic Party during its state convention this past weekend approved a resolution reaffirming its support for public education and hitting Michelle Rhee’s StudentsFirst and other “corporate reformers,” whose ostensible efforts to help public education are being funded by wealthy corporate interests with anti-public school agendas.

The Democratic Party’s resolution – passed unanimously – followed the release of a confidential memo that shows StudentsFirst founder Michelle Rhee was aware of and took no action on the widespread cheating scandal that rocked Washington, D.C., public schools while she served as chancellor.

That memo was uncovered by veteran education reporter John Merrow and has generated a lot of media attention. News stories have focused on the scandal and on the failure of Rhee’s “reform” package, including her unproven assertions that student test scores are an effective measure of teaching quality.

Meanwhile, Microsoft founder Bill Gates reversed course earlier this month after a study he funded found that tying test scores to teacher evaluation does not improve teacher effectiveness. His letter in the Washington Post is worth the read, as is a Los Angeles Times editorial piece, LA Times: Gates’ warning on test scores.

Read the latest from John Merrow: Who Created Michelle Rhee?

The Senate Education Committee and its Assembly counterpart on Wednesday each gave only two votes to a pair of CTA-opposed measures that would expand the universe of parental trigger schools.

Both SB 452, by Senate Republican Leader Bob Huff (R-Diamond Bar), and AB 815, by Assembly Republican Chair Connie Conway (R-Tulare), would have allowed private charter school operators to persuade local parents to turn a public school over to these operators.

CTA and other pro-public school groups made the case that parental triggers have proven to be divisive, pitting groups of parents against each other and distracting the students.

While the voting rolls were kept open until the end of the day – and while the committee chairs allowed each author to bring the bills up at some future time for a “reconsideration” vote – for all intents and purposes, the bills are dead for this legislative year.

The Assembly Education Committee on Wednesday listened to CTA and its allies, who told them that arming teachers under the guise of making schools safer is a bad idea.

The panel gave only a single vote to CTA-opposed AB 202, by Assembly Member Tim Donnelly (R-Twin Peaks), a measure described by the author as putting a “marshal” plan into schools. Specifically, the measure would have provided for armed and trained teachers protecting schools.

CTA representatives and other bill opponents made it clear that bringing more guns into a school environment would not make schools safer.  Instead, CTA has been pressing for a wide ranging response that would include expanded counseling services on campus.

Technically, the “voting roll” was held open as this post was filed, but the measure is unlikely to garner more than the one vote showing in the “unofficial tally.” In fact, the bill received consideration only because a member of the panel provided a “courtesy” second so that the author could talk about the bill and panelists could vote on it.

Educators  have been working in the Capitol for the defeat of two “so-called” reform bills that  would allow profit-making companies to take over public schools.

Members of the Assembly Education Committee had on their April 17 agenda a hearing on AB 815, a CTA-opposed measure by Assembly Republican Leader Connie Conway (R-Tulare) that would expand the universe of schools that could pull a “parental trigger” and convert a public school to a charter school run by a for-profit private entity.

On the same day, members of the Senate Education Committee are set to take up SB 452, a second CTA-opposed measure on the subject by Sen. Bob Huff (R-Diamond Bar). The bill is virtually identical to the Conway measure, and both bills are being backed by the Republican caucuses in each house.

Parental triggers aim at improving schools, but they create division in communities and undermine the education process. Ultimately, privatization backers benefit because they seek to introduce for-profit schools into the former public school property.

CTA President Dean Vogel welcomes renowned education historian Diane Ravitch to San Diego.

National education expert Diane Ravitch gave high praise to the San Diego Education Association, the San Diego Unified School District and the California Teachers Association at a forum on public education jointly sponsored by the groups Tuesday evening, April 15, 2013 in San Diego.

“I travel throughout the country, and I can tell you that progressive groups in California are leaders in the fight to protect public education and ensure that children in the Golden State have the opportunity for a well-rounded, authentic education,” said Ravitch.

The noted critic of  education “reform” groups – including Michelle Rhee’s StudentsFirst and the Wall Street hedge fund manager-funded group called Democrats for Education Reform – also gave kudos to the California Democratic party for passing a resolution at its recent state convention criticizing these and other so-called reform movements. “They are fronts for Republican and corporate interests,” said Ravitch, who had spoken earlier in the day at a National School Boards Association convention also taking place in San Diego.

At its annual convention this past weekend in Sacramento, the California Democratic Party passed a resolution opposing corporate education reform, specifically naming Michelle Rhee’s StudentsFirst organization and “Democrats for Education Reform”.

Resolution 13-04.47, sponsored by CTA, CFT and CFA, is being lauded by those interested in real solutions to problems in public education. Read the complete resolution:

From Education Votes:

The release of a confidential memo showing that Michelle Rhee, StudentsFirst founder and CEO and former Chancellor of DC Public Schools, was made aware of widespread cheating on standardized tests as early as 2009 but made no attempt to discipline the cheaters, is prompting parents and educators to take a second look at public schools’ overreliance on standardized testing. While only a single teacher was let go for cheating, Rhee fired more than 600 teachers for low test scores, sending a strong message that her priority was higher test scores at any cost.

Read John Merrow’s detailed coverage of the cheating scandal.

(Photo above) Backed by more than 100 students, State Controller John Chiang, and Assembly Member Roger Dickinson (D-Sacramento), Assembly Member Bob Wieckowski (D-Fremont) seeks support for his four measures aimed at helping students deal with a debt load of more than one trillion dollars.

Lawmakers and students joined Assembly Member Bob Wieckowski as he outlined four measures—dubbed the “Student Bill of Rights”—that aim to reduce student debt load and improve financial literacy education.

Wieckowski said college should be the road to prosperity, not a pathway to poverty, and he cited the heavy weight of student higher education loans—believed to total more than one trillion dollars—combined with a lack of understanding of finances, as a major factor in students facing economic challenges as they graduate.

Assembly member Wieckowski says the measures in the four-bill package each address a different part of the problem.

AJR 11, the “Financial Fresh Start Resolution,” calls on congress to pass measures that will allow students to discharge their loans during a bankruptcy.  Current law prohibits bankruptcy courts from discharging government-issued or guaranteed student loans.

AB 233 would prohibit private creditors from garnishing the wages of former students to collect funds owed as a result of college loans. Under current law, credits can secure up to 25% of a former student’s earnings, financially crippling her or him.  This bill would give creditors more incentives to work with graduates on repayment plans.

AB 391—the CTA-watched “the Common Cents Curriculum” Bill—would require the Department of Education to develop K-12 curriculum standards to help students understand fiscal matters, including saving, credit, loans, and post-secondary financing options.  The measure is designed to help students avoid the financial difficulties that result in bankruptcy.

Another measure to prevent fiscal difficulties, CTA/Community College Association-supported AB 534—the “Know Before You Owe” measure—would require entrance and exit loan counseling for all college students receiving private loans at California education institutions.