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Saturday, March 2, 2013

4LAKids - some of the news that doesn't fit 3-2-13





4LAKids - some of the news that doesn't fit:

4LAKIDS - SOME OF THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T FIT

AB 1575: SCHOOL DISTRICTS CAN’T CHARGE PARENTS FOR BASIC EDUCATION, MUST CREATE COMPLAINT PROCESS. Deadline is March 1 (Today)

Vanessa Romo - Pass / Fail | 89.3 KPCC | http://bit.ly/XMEo6E Erika Aguilar/KPCC February 27th, 2013, 12:32pm  ::  Out of necessity, cash strapped schools have for years been asking parents to cover some of the most basic classroom needs:  craft supplies, a copy of To Kill a Mockingbird, an Algebra book. But it turns out that is illegal and California school districts have until Friday to

THE WEEK THAT (ALMOST) WAS: Dispatches from the frontline +smf’s 2¢

NO REST FOR THE WEARY From Anonymous Secondary Principal to the AALA Update, week of March 4, 2013 | http://bit.ly/VU2bUM Just wanted to share/vent. The number of successive meetings makes it impossible to supervise instruction at the schoolhouse. This week: Tuesday --1/2 [day] meeting (including travel to and from ESC office) on Algebra SPA results; Wednesday -- day long principals’

WHY ARE WALMART BILLIONAIRES BANKROLLING PHONY SCHOOL “REFORM” IN L.A.?

Peter Dreier, E.P. Clapp Distinguished Professor of Politics, Occidental College IN THE hUFFINGTON pOST | http://huff.to/13uY4Tz 2/28/2013 9:46 am   ::  For years, Los Angeles has been ground zero in an intense debate about how to improve our nation's education system. What's less known is who is shaping that debate. Many of the biggest contributors to the so-called "school choice" movement --

A poem: SEQUESTER’S HERE

Posted by Matt Miller, Washington Post Opinion Writer/Host of KCRW 89.9 Left, Right+Center | http://wapo.st/VkiVW4 March 1, 2013 at 9:00 am The planes have crashed Al-Qaeda’s near The schools are shut The parks are clear They’ve strung up every budgeteer      You’re on your own      Sequester’s here The jobs are gone Yet stocks still soar The White

LOS ANGELES PARENTS POWERLESS AS CANDIDATES IGNORE ABUSE + smf’s 2¢

By James Nash & Edvard Pettersson, Bloomberg News - http://bloom.bg/XMaX4v Feb 28, 2013 1:57 PM PT   ::  Seven Los Angeles public school teachers and aides have been charged with molesting more than 50 children in just over a year, though you’d hardly know it from the campaigns for next week’s municipal election. None of the 11 candidates for the board that oversees the second-largest U.S.

SEQUESTERDAY- all my troubles seemed so far away….

"...float a final layer of dark rum, clouding the glass with its oppressive weight until you can’t see any hope at all."   Five Cocktails for Your Sequester-Watching Party Posted by Caitlin Kelly in The New Yorker Shouts & Murmurs Daily Blog  http://nyr.kr/YHeany March 1, 2013  ::  Throwing a sequester shindig this weekend? Of course you are! But if you want to be the host or hostess

Replay/Podcast: AIRTALK DEBATE ANDERSON vs. ZIMMER – Listen Now http://bit.ly/ViRqfI

from KPCC Airtalk with Larry Mantle  89.3 28 February 2013 | http://bit.ly/XsUGnl [LISTEN NOW] United Way of Greater Los Angeles - LAUSD District 4 School Board candidates Steve Zimmer, left, and Kate Anderson take part in a forum on January 24 at the Venice Boys & Girls Club. The L.A. Unified School District has been under scrutiny this year as it has faced some major public battles.

NO SHAME: Until this moment, Mónica García, I think I never really gauged your cruelty or your recklessness. You have done enough. Have you no sense of decency?

partisan political outrage from smf Perspective (from the History of the U.S. Senate/www.senate.gov: In the spring of 1954, [demagogue/sociopath Senator “Tailgun Joe” Joseph] McCarthy picked a fight with the U.S. Army, charging lax security at a top-secret army facility. The army responded that the senator had sought preferential treatment for a recently drafted subcommittee aide. Amidst

NINE CA DISTRICTS SUBMIT WAIVERS FOR RELIEF FROM NCLB + smf’s 2¢

By Kathryn Baron and John Fensterwald | EdSource Today http://bit.ly/WksDJE February 28th, 2013   ::  A collaborative of nine California school districts is submitting today a first-of-its-kind waiver seeking relief from the harshest sanctions of the No Child Left Behind law. The proposal would commit the participating districts to a new accountability system, focusing on student achievement

Prop 30: VOTERS WEREN’T TOLD ABOUT PLAN TO REDISTRIBUTE MONEY + smf’s 2¢

Gov. Jerry Brown wants to use Prop. 30 tax revenues to help poorer students. It's a laudable goal but shouldn't come at the expense of more prosperous school districts.     By George Skelton  LA Times Capitol Journal | http://lat.ms/YCS6YR February 27, 2013, 6:14 p.m.  ::  SACRAMENTO — A revenue redistribution scheme probably was not what Californians had in mind when they passed Gov. Jerry

THE LAST PATRIARCH: C. Everett Koop, MD (1917-2013)

By smf for 4LAKids “The Teachable Moment” has become an educational cliché. If ever there was a person who seized a number of teachable moments and wrestled them to the ground, it was Surgeon General C. Everett Koop, When Dr. Koop was named as surgeon general by President Reagan his appointment was opposed by liberals and progressives because of his public reservations about abortion. When he

LAUSD WRITE-IN CANDIDATE JANEEN ROBINSON ENDS CAMPAIGN, ENDORSES STEVE ZIMMER FOR DISTRICT 4

Daily News | http://bit.ly/ZKy5GD 2/27/2013 07:19:08 PM PST  ::  Write-in candidate Jeneen Robinson has ended her campaign for the District 4 seat on the Los Angeles Unified School District board, and is endorsing incumbent Steve Zimmer in Tuesday's election. In an email to her supporters, the 40-year-old minister and mother said the flood of outside expenditures - which topped $1.7 million on

LAUSD TO HIRE NEW SEX ABUSE INVESTIGATORS + smf’s 2¢

By Barbara Jones, Staff Writer, LA Daily News- Press-Telegram http://bit.ly/ZAIS2q 2/26/2013 10:11:00 PM PST  ::  With awareness of child molestation heightened since the Miramonte Elementary case broke a year ago, Los Angeles Unified is creating a special team to investigate sex-abuse allegations. Superintendent John Deasy said he plans to hire two investigators who have backgrounds in law

OSCAR NOMINATED SHORT FILM “FRESH GUACAMOLE”

Be a Hollywood Insider with your screener: Talk about mixing the visual metaphors – and then smashing them in the old molcajete!

LEGISLATIVE ANALYST HAS ‘SERIOUS CONCERNS’ WITH LEGALITY OF GOVERNOR’S PROP 98 CALCULATION

Kathryn Baron - Ed Source Today | http://bit.ly/W4NGzT February 21st, 2013  ::   The State Legislative Analyst’s Office is calling into question the legality of Gov. Brown’s proposal to count new revenue from Proposition 39 toward funding for education. In a report released Thursday, the LAO warns that the governor’s plan for the initiative, the California Clean Energy Jobs Act, violates the

Common Core Testing: BILL TO SUSPEND STAR NEXT YEAR COMES AS CA SCHOOLS PILOT NEW TESTING. Rival bill postpones new testing rollout

By Tom Chorneau - SI&A Cabinet Report – http://bit.ly/YpZYPF Thursday, February 21, 2013  ::  The first large-scale pilot testing of new assessments based on common core curriculum standards got underway Wednesday, a key milestone in which a handful of California schools participated. The Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium opened a three-month window for pilot testing aligned to common

The proposal formerly known as weighted student formula: STUDY COMPLIMENTS AND QUESTIONS BROWN’S FUNDING FORMULA + STATE RELEASES DISTRICT BREAKDOWNS UNDER SCHOOL FUNDING FORMULA

Study compliments and questions Brown’s funding formula By John Fensterwald| EdSource Today http://bit.ly/X7c4xM This graph shows the strong relationship between results on California Standards Tests and poverty, with highest API scores in the upper left going to children not in poverty. Source: CA Dept. of Education. (Click to enlarge) February 22nd, 2013 | An analysis by the Public Policy

The ‘Academic Pro­ficiency Cliff’: COUNCIL OF GREAT CITY SCHOOLS ON THE EDUCATIONAL IMPACT OF SEQUESTRATION

From Urban Educator | http://bit.ly/Zq8L4Y Jan/Feb 2013  ::  The Council of the Great City Schools recently released a research brief called the Impact of Sequestration on the Nation’s Urban Public Schools, providing a snapshot of the major effects of the potential across-the-board federal budget cuts, or sequestration, on education programs and services for tens of thousands of urban

THOUSANDS OF CHILDREN COULD LOSE HEAD START SERVICES UNDER SEQUESTRATION

Deepa Fernandes | Pass / Fail :  89.3 KPCC http://bit.ly/WagM0G Mae Ryan/KPCC - Harvesha Knight plays with her children Darniyah Davis and Darryl Jr. Davis. Harvesha is pursuing her nursing degree, but in August last year had to put off school because her local Head Start preschool didn't open its doors at the start of the school year. Might her son's program be affected again if Sequestration

BROWN’S PROPOSED SCHOOL FUNDING FORMULA WOULD AID POORER DISTRICTS

Beau Yarbrough, Staff Writer -  Inland Valley Daily Bulletin  from LA Daily News | http://bit.ly/Ym645k 2/22/2013 09:23:51 PM PST  ::  It doesn't necessarily rob from the rich, but Gov. Jerry Brown's proposed school funding formula would definitely give more to the poor. And that has officials from some well-to-do districts crying foul. "I don't think it's fair," Upland Unified School

Election 2013: THE BEST DEMOCRACY MONEY CAN BUY?

Could a single school board race determine LAUSD's future? Vanessa Romo | Take Two | 89.3 KPCC | http://bit.ly/ZyKQE2 Adolfo Guzman-Lopez/KPCC - L.A. Unified School District board member Steve Zimmer outside the home of a high school dropout. He and other educators formed one of 10 teams out to "recover" students who'd stopped showing up to school. Zimmer and his team recovered 15 students

Updated: LAUSD CONSIDERS CARPENTER E.S. FOR PILOT PROGRAM TO COMBAT ENROLLMENT FRAUD + smf’’s 2¢

See some of the emotional, heated and pointed discussions at the long afternoon meeting Thursday in the attached video. By Mike Szymanski, Sherman Oaks Patch |http://bit.ly/XRnkeR Attorney Georgianna Kelman challenges the district representatives to do something. Credit Mike Szymanski Photos  Videos

THE KEEP CALM & CARRY ON CAMPAIGN 2013

     “A little patience, and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their spells dissolve, and the people, recovering their true sight, restore their government to its true principles. It is true that in the meantime we are suffering deeply in spirit, and incurring the horrors of a war and long oppressions of enormous public debt… And if we feel their power just sufficiently to hoop

The California Office to ®eform Education: LAUSD SUPERINTENDENT SEEKS NCLB WAIVER FOR HIS DISTRICT AND NINE OTHERS + smf’s 2¢

- LA Daily News http://bit.ly/WcHCjf 02/20/2013 03:03:26 PM PST - LOS ANGELES -- With California unable to get a waiver from the No Child Left Behind law, LAUSD and nine other districts have launched an effort to create their own data-based accountability systems -- and have more freedom in how to spend tens of millions in federal dollars. No Child requires that students pass English and math

The best Bd of Ed $ can buy?: FORMER DC SCHOOLS CHANCELLOR MICHELLE RHEE JOINS LIST OF DONORS TO LAUSD SCHOOL BOARD RACE

Mary Plummer | Pass / Fail : | 89.3 KPCC http://bit.ly/YdxN6q AP Photo - D.C. Chancellor Michelle Rhee, shown here in 2008, donated $250,000 to a PAC supporting charter-friendly L.A. school board candidates. February 20th, 2013, 6:23pm  ::  Add former Washington, D.C. schools chancellor Michelle Rhee to the list of out of towners weighing in on the LAUSD school board race--financially