A recent survey from the California Endowment asked parents of school-aged children and other voters in the state what school safety measures were most important to them, and they overwhelmingly chose a school counselor or psychologist in every school as opposed to an armed officer or other security personnel. The LA Times reported additionally that [...]
This one’s from EdSource, a very reliable non-profit education news outlet. EdSource: Proposition 30 | Proposition 38 Comparisons This one’s from the California Budget Project, also a very reliable non-profit state budget watchdog outlet that has excellent information on education. California Budget Project: How Do Propositions 30 & 38 Compare?
Step 1: Get informed. We’re on the verge of either saving our public schools from an annual cycle of disinvestment caused by budget cuts ($20 billion in the past 5 years) — or setting off harmful triggers if the November 2012 ballot initiatives to fund K-12 (or K-14) don’t pass. Proposition 30 and Proposition 38 [...]
These are reproduced from pdfs found on the California Secretary of State’s website and are the official titles and summaries of Propositions 30 and 38. Proposition 30: Temporary Taxes to Fund Education. Guaranteed Local Public Safety Funding. Initiative Constitutional Amendment. CA Proposition 30: TEMPORARY TAXES TO FUND EDUCATION. GUARANTEED LOCAL PUBLIC SAFETY FUNDING. INITIATIVE CO… [...]
California Budget Project‘s Senior Policy Analyst and specialist in education issues, Jonathan Kaplan, recently released Budget Briefs analyzing the potential impact of two ballot initiatives in California that propose to fund K-12 education. This November, voters will decide if they want to vote for one, both, or none, and in order to do so, they’ll [...]
While at the DNC, I was lucky enough to be invited to a small gathering of public education supporters with Governor Dean and Randi Weingarten, who heads the American Federation of Teachers (AFT). I’m a tremendous fan of Governor Dean — in fact, I was a Deaniac before there was a netroots. I still think [...]
Around the country, REAL parent heroes are putting the lie to the version of the story told in the movie Won’t Back Down. The “parent trigger”, or “parent tricker” law is in the news again, this time with a glossy film starring popular actors Viola Davis and Maggie Gyllenhaal. The heart-string-tugging movie is called Won’t [...]
To my great surprise, LAUSD has pushed back on a judge’s ruling that the district give facilities to charter schools seeking more space in existing public schools. Of the judge’s order, which would affect up to 45 charter schools, Superintendent of Los Angeles public schools John Deasy and the LAUSD school board say … that [...]
This is a must-read EdWeek article by Diane Ravitch with regard to the trickery behind the “parent trigger” law, and the recent decision by the U.S. Conference of Mayors to endorse a boilerplate bill pushed in four states by a hard-line right-wing group (ALEC). She notes that not one of the charter laws in CA, [...]
I just spoke with two impassioned and well-informed high school student leaders and a community coordinator at Californians for Justice about an emergency action to support public schools that they’re conducting in the next 18 hours, ending Friday, June 15, 2012. You can listen to the podcast here: Listen to internet radio with MOMocrats on [...]