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Voters Poised to Reject Private School Vouchers in Three States
The results were part of a wave of ballot measure outcomes that teachers’ unions had sought. Nevertheless, private-school choice is growing nationwide.
www.nytimes.com/2024/11/07/us/private-school-funding-election-rejection.html
People sit in rows and hold up signs that say “Yes on 2.”
In Kentucky, supporters rallied in favor of a proposal to fund private and charter schools with public money. It did not pass.Credit…Grace Ramey Mcdowell/Daily News, via Associated Press
Dana Goldstein.pngTroy Closson.png
By Dana Goldstein and Troy Closson
Nov. 7, 2024
On a bright Election Day for Republicans, one of their signature education policies — private school choice — was poised to be rejected by voters in three states: Colorado, Nebraska and Kentucky.
In Kentucky, nearly two-thirds of voters defeated a proposal to allow state tax dollars to fund private and charter schools.
In Nebraska, 57 percent of voters approved a ballot initiative that repealed a small program intended to give low-income families tax dollars to pay for private-school tuition.
In Colorado, votes are still being counted. But it looks likely that voters have narrowly rejected a broadly worded ballot measure that would have established a “right to school choice,” including in private schools and home-school settings.
The results slow a private-school choice movement that had greatly accelerated since the Covid-19 pandemic.
More on U.S. Schools
Book Bans in Democrat-Run Schools: Democrats swept a school board election in Bucks County after Republicans instituted book bans and other changes. But the right-wing “parental rights” movement has left an indelible mark.
A Surge in Book Bans: States and local governments are banning books at rates far higher than before the pandemic, according to preliminary data released by two advocacy groups.
Restricting Phones in Schools: Gov. Gavin Newsom signed legislation giving California schools two years to begin banning or restricting cellphone use during school hours, an initiative that is intended to address concerns over social media and children’s mental health.
Replacing Textbooks With the Internet: A survey of social studies teachers found that many find primary sources online for lesson plans. But a notable minority also rely on left-leaning materials, and a handful have turned to conservative options.
About 1 million American children use some form of a private school voucher, a number that has more than doubled since 2019. The issue is one that Republicans hoped would be popular with parents across lines of race and class this year — especially those who were dissatisfied with how public schools served their children during the pandemic.
But private-school choice policies can lead to reduced funding for public schools, and the benefits sometimes go to families who would be able to manage the tuition without government help. Historically, rural Republicans have been skeptical of vouchers, since there are few private school options in sparsely populated regions.
Kentucky, Nebraska and Colorado all contain big rural swaths.
Michael McShane, director of national research at EdChoice, a group that supports vouchers, said he did not see the results in the three states as a major setback. He pointed to big electoral victories for Republican school-choice supporters in Texas — a much larger state that may establish a universal voucher program in the coming months.
“The path forward is the slow and steady one through the legislatures,” Dr. McShane said.
Teachers’ unions and their allies organized against vouchers, while business groups and some right-leaning education philanthropists supported them.
The unions logged some additional wins across the country.
In Florida, a ballot measure to add partisan labels to school board races for the first time in more than two decades failed. The effort to add them was backed by Gov. Ron DeSantis and approved by the state’s Republican Legislature. But opponents argued that it would only worsen polarization and discord in local education.
And in Massachusetts, high school students will no longer be required to pass standardized tests to receive a diploma, beginning with the 2025 graduating class.
The Massachusetts governor, Maura Healey, a Democrat, and the state’s business sector opposed the effort, calling the exam requirement a crucial part of the rigorous standards that makes the state’s public school system one of the nation’s best.
But about 59 percent of voters ultimately approved a proposal to end the mandate, siding with the state’s teachers’ union, which cast the exam as an unnecessary roadblock for disadvantaged students like teenagers with disabilities.
In a written statement, Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, the nation’s second-largest teachers’ union, said the ballot initiative results showed that even as voters chose a Republican president, they remained broadly aligned with many Democratic values.
“While voters want public schools strengthened, they did not want their public schools defunded,” she said. “Democrats must fight for the means and agency to help working people get ahead, with public education and unions at the center of that vision.”
Dana Goldstein covers education and families for The Times. More about Dana Goldstein
Troy Closson is a Times education reporter focusing on K-12 schools. More about Troy Closson
Voters Poised to Reject Private School Vouchers in Three States
www.nytimes.com
The results were part of a wave of ballot measure outcomes that teachers’ unions had sought. Nevertheless, private-school choice is growing nationwide.denvergazette.com/news/students-at-denver-center-for-international-studies-walk-out-to-protest-sc…
Students at Denver Center For International Studies walk out to protest school closure
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Zionists On UC Regents & Police Do Damage Control For Criminal Attack on Peaceful UCLA Encampment
UCLA slammed for ‘chaotic’ response to protest melee in UC independent review
www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-11-14/ucla-slammed-for-chaotic-response-to-violent-protest-…
A pro-Palestinian protester, right, is punched by a counterprotester at a UCLA encampment.
A pro-Palestinian protester is punched by a counterprotester during a violent melee at UCLA in April. (Michael Blackshire / Los Angeles Times)
By Teresa Watanabe and Jaweed Kaleem
Nov. 14, 2024 Updated 9:31 PM PT
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UCLA failed to protect students from protest fallout in spring because of “chaotic” decision making and other shortcomings, an independent review found.
UCLA should develop a detailed incident response plan, designate a commander, improve police coordination.
UCLA failed to protect students from a protest melee this spring because a “highly chaotic” decision-making process, lack of communication among campus leaders and police, and other shortfalls led to institutional paralysis, according to a University of California independent review released Thursday.
The highly anticipated review, conducted by a national law enforcement consulting agency, found myriad failures and breakdowns by UCLA administrators and police after pro-Palestinian students set up a late April encampment, which drew complaints of antisemitic behavior. The encampment came under a violent attack by counterprotesters in early May, fomenting widespread outrage and attention.
The review found that UCLA had no detailed plan for handling major protests, even as problems were “reasonably foreseeable” as encampments springing up at other campuses were drawing at times violent conflict. UCLA leaders had not identified who should control decision-making and at times shut out campus police from meetings.
For their part, campus police had no effective plan to work with external law enforcement and failed to take command on the night of the melee — leading the LAPD and the California Highway Patrol to devise an ad-hoc response, the review said.
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – May 1: A pro-Israeli supporter throws a bottle of water at the Pro-Palestinian encampment at UCLA early Wednesday morning. (Wally Skalij/Los Angeles Times)
dified plans existed, UCLA administrators engaged in a chaotic process in which they needed to make difficult decisions … in the midst of ongoing disruption, without clarity on who maintained final decision-making authority, lacking a commonly understood process for reaching decisions, and largely lacking the ability to react quickly to fast-changing events and dynamic circumstances on campus,” the report by 21st Century Policing Solutions concluded.
UCLA, in a response late Thursday, said it was committed to campus safety and would learn from the events of this spring.
“We appreciate the work that went into producing the report, and will continue to implement the recommended reforms — many of which are already underway,” the university statement said.
A call for reforms
The review recommended that UCLA take key actions:
Develop a detailed response plan
Provide better training of civilian staff and police
Increase real-time communications about campus disruptions
Hire more civilians to help mediate conflicts before law enforcement is called in
The report was based on tens of thousands of documents and interviews with current and former UCLA administrators, faculty, staff, students and law enforcement over five months. It comes after two other major reports criticized UCLA for its protest response.
A report to the Los Angeles Police Commission found a confusing breakdown in coordinating actions among UCLA, the LAPD, California Highway Patrol and smaller municipal police agencies that were hastily called to campus in the spring. The Republican-led U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce also criticized UCLA and other elite universities, including Harvard and Columbia, for “dramatic failures in confronting antisemitism.”
UC President Michael V. Drake said in a statement Thursday that the goal of the UCLA review was to learn what reforms were needed to prevent a recurrence of the shortcomings, while safeguarding campus health and safety, equal access to educational facilities and 1st Amendment rights to free speech.
“Last spring, as conflict spread at universities across the country, we saw the limits of our traditional approach,” Drake said. “We are taking a close, detailed look at where we fell short and how we can do better moving forward. This comprehensive review and these recommendations will help ensure that we have actionable plans and policies in place to prevent similar events from happening again.”
Los Angeles, CA – April 25: Pro-Palestine protesters gather at an encampment on the campus of UCLA at UCLA Thursday, April 25, 2024 in Los Angeles, CA. (Ringo Chiu / For The Times)
CALIFORNIA
UC regents: Protests yes, encampments no. Campus rules must be consistently enforced
July 15, 2024
Drake noted that UCLA has started making changes, including launching some of the actions recommended by the consulting group. They include setting up an Office of Campus Safety, with oversight over the UCLA police department and Office of Emergency Management, and hiring an associate vice chancellor to lead it. UCLA hired Rick Braziel, a former Sacramento police chief and expert in law enforcement response reviews, for that role earlier this year on a temporary contract; he has begun to overhaul safety and security operations.
In the long term, the review said, UCLA should convene a campuswide conversation to reach agreement on the proper role of police. Some faculty and students, for instance, want to eliminate police from campus entirely and use trained civilian mediators instead to address problems — using outside law enforcement to handle serious crimes.
“This central tension — whether and how police provide public safety, and for whom — is part of a national conversation about the role of police and the meaning of public safety,” the review said. “UCLA has thus far responded to this tension ineffectively, by functionally excluding police from planning and engagement but then asking law enforcement to engage once tensions have escalated to violence.”
UCLA shortcomings revealed
The review provided a detailed look at UCLA’s failures and recommended how to fix future responses to campus unrest or emergencies.
Two groups of UCLA campus leaders mobilized to meet about the encampment and protests but were ineffective. One group of senior administrators excluded UCLA police and sowed frustration by the ”free-flowing debate, internecine conflict, and a notable lack of decision-making.”
Going forward, UCLA should appoint an “incident commander” with overall management responsibility and follow a well-known national model for emergency response.
Administrators and campus police should coordinate response plans and engage in joint training exercises. The UC systemwide community safety plan calls for “tiered responses” to protests, with law enforcement brought in as a last resort, but police were “almost entirely uninvolved” in decision-making.
Campus police, for instance, were not consulted when UCLA approved a permit for a pro-Israel rally to be set up next to the encampment two days before the melee. Police might have been able to warn about the potential danger of dueling protest groups next to each other; physical skirmishes did break out between them.
UCLA should update its agreements for mutual aid with other law enforcement agencies and specifically develop one with the LAPD to clarify what assistance can be provided.
UCLA should improve communications to both the campus and the public, which were “disjointed” during the spring protests.
The campus should hire a cadre of full-time, unarmed public safety officers empowered to intervene when people are flouting campus rules. That would fill the gap between part-time civilian staff, who mainly observe and report suspicious activity to police, and law enforcement, the review said.
‘Deeply troubling’ reports of antisemitism
The independent review came out after the UC Board of Regents met in San Francisco to discuss UCLA’s “campus climate” and three task force reports released this year that criticized the university response to allegations of antisemitism and anti-Arab, anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian racism.
In a 93-page report released last month, a UCLA task force on antisemitism described “broad-based perceptions of antisemitic and anti-Israeli bias on campus” among students, lecturers, faculty, staff and administrators.
The report, which surveyed hundreds of individuals contacted through Jewish organizations, found that 84% believed that antisemitism had “worsened or significantly worsened” since Oct. 7, 2023, and that roughly 70% said the spring encampment was “a source of antisemitism.” Another 40% said they experienced antisemitic discrimination in their time at UCLA.
Los Angeles, CA – April 25: Pro-Israeli protesters with their flags gather near an encampment set up by pro-Palestine protesters on the campus of UCLA at UCLA Thursday, April 25, 2024 in Los Angeles, CA. (Ringo Chiu / For The Times)
CALIFORNIA
UCLA students and faculty raise alarm on antisemitic and anti-Palestinian hate amid ongoing protests
Two reports from the UCLA Task Force on Anti-Palestinian, Anti-Muslim, and Anti-Arab Racism, released in April and June, also decried campus being “less safe than ever” for those groups and said there was “increased harassment, violence, and targeting” of them but did not provide survey data.
Regents spent about 40 minutes discussing the reports, with all but a few minutes focused on antisemitism.
“I am just shocked that in 2024 we have a report which alleges extensive antisemitism affecting Jewish students, faculty and staff at really one of the most prestigious universities in the world,” said Regent Rich Leib.
“We have lost our way,” he later added. “This is not a simple problem of enforcing our rules. We need to take stock and do everything in our power to restore our campuses to safe and sane places.”
Leib also criticized faculty leaders in the Academic Senate.
“This report clearly delineates numerous and frequent instances of faculty who violated the rules and joined the encampments or made comments in their classrooms that were not consistent with rules … yet the report indicates that not one faculty member was disciplined by the Academic Senate. That seems intolerable to me and has to change,” he said.
In response, Academic Senate Chair Steven W. Cheung told regents that faculty disciplinary processes were meant to “protect our due diligence rights, our rights to a hearing, and to make sure we are deliberative in our decision-making.” He said the Senate was not interested in “fossilized” processes and would welcome reviewing them with the regents.
Regent Jay Sures grilled UCLA Interim Chancellor Darnell Hunt on the campus administration’s progress in investigating allegations of antisemitic, anti-Arab, anti-Palestinian and anti-Muslim incidents since Oct. 7, 2023, which Hunt said were in the “hundreds” on “both sides.”
Hunt said the investigations were ongoing and that “some of these cases can take up to a year to resolve.”
Drake called the antisemitism report “deeply troubling” and touted the university’s new systemwide office of civil rights that is dealing with discrimination across campuses.
“We can and we must do better,” Drake said.
UCLA slammed for 'chaotic' response to protest melee in UC independent review
www.latimes.com
UCLA failed to stem a violent protest melee last spring, as a “highly chaotic” decision-making process, lack of communication between administrators and police and a shortage of campus safety personne…
Fourth work death in week spurs Hong Kong labour rights groups to call for change
They say four fatal work-related accidents a consequence of issues such as substandard safety measures and lenient punishments for offenders, among others
www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/law-and-crime/article/3286289/fourth-work-death-week-spurs-hong-kong-…
Fourth work death in week spurs Hong Kong labour rights groups to call for change
They say four fatal work-related accidents a consequence of issues such as substandard safety measures and lenient punishments for offenders, among others
A workers’ rights advocate says Hong Kong’s multilayered subcontracting system is also to blame for poor site safety. Photo: Edmond So.jpeg
Emily Hung
Published: 10:54pm, 12 Nov 2024
A fourth fatal work accident in a week has prompted Hong Kong labour rights advocates to call for employers and authorities to fix systemic problems, including substandard safety measures, unreasonably low tender prices, lenient punishments for offenders and a flawed subcontracting system.
At a press conference on Tuesday, four workers’ rights groups and the family of a victim of a fatal industrial accident expressed their grievances and concerns, hours after a 77-year-old male cleaner fell into the sea at the Stonecutters Island public cargo working area and drowned.
Colleagues found the man’s body floating in the sea at 8.45am. He was later certified dead at Princess Margaret Hospital in Kwai Chung. A postmortem examination will be carried out to ascertain the cause of death.
It marked the fourth fatal work accident since last Tuesday. Two victims, aged 44 and 37, died after falling from scaffolding at a factory building and an airport terminal respectively, while a 41-year-old worker was crushed by a falling cage lift at a construction site.
Fay Siu Sin-man, chief executive of the Association for the Rights of Industrial Accident Victims, called the situation “alarming” and the industry had long been plagued by systemic problems, including the process for awarding tenders and lenient punishments for offenders.
“The tender is always awarded to the one offering the lowest price, how much attention and resources are being given to safety?” she said. “Aren’t we prioritising money over safety?”
She also criticised tight work schedules and the practice of conducting multiple operations on the same site, as well as the use of substandard safety devices, which were entrenched in the industry’s culture.
The multilayered subcontracting system was also to blame, she said, as safety messages were severely diluted when projects were outsourced.
“Currently, [the number of] subcontracting tiers could reach four or five. Reducing it to only two or three would be easier for the delivery of safety messages and more effective monitoring,” she said.
Ken Chan, who lost his younger brother to an industrial accident in May 2022, was also present at the briefing. He said the authorities should review lenient punishments for offenders who neglected industrial safety.
Chan said his brother had fallen from height when putting up scaffolding, but it took 1½ years after his death for his employer to be arrested.
The employer was found guilty of three charges under the Occupational Safety and Health Ordinance only last week and fined a meagre HK$90,000 (US$11,600), Chan added.
The employer had told the court he was struggling financially and was allowed to pay the fine in 90 instalments over 7½ years, or HK$1,000 per tranche.
“This is a very generous sentence,” Chan said. “It’s hardly a punishment, it’s meaningless.”
Chan said his father, who was seeking compensation for his son, had died recently and the family was still awaiting justice.
More than 100 people have lost their lives at work this year, including 11 from the construction industry, according to Siu’s association, which organised the briefing.
Representatives from the Federation of Hong Kong and Kowloon Labour Unions, Hong Kong Christian Industrial Committee and Hong Kong Dumper Truck Drivers Association also spoke about the urgency of improving workplace safety.
Ho Wing-yip, a veteran electrical and building services engineer, said it was alarming that the city’s fatality rate among construction workers had surged from 0.093 per 1,000 in 2016 to 0.178 last year.
Last Tuesday, a 44-year-old male worker fell from the top of an 11-story factory building at To Kwa Wan while dismantling scaffolding.
Two days later, a 37-year-old male worker fell to his death from the sixth floor of the Terminal 2 concourse of Hong Kong International Airport. He reportedly lost his footing and fell to the fourth floor.
On Saturday, another male worker, 41, died after being crushed by a falling cage lift suspected to have been caused by a machine malfunction at a residential project site in Tai Wai.
The Post has approached the Labour and Welfare Bureau for its response to the groups’ demands.
Fourth work death in week spurs Hong Kong labour groups to call for change
www.scmp.com
They say four fatal work-related accidents a consequence of issues such as substandard safety measures and lenient punishments for offenders, among others.
Union Busting And Privatizing Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges Pushing For Downsizing At CCSF
Leading SF City College vote-getter a fresh face
www.sfexaminer.com/news/politics/2024-sf-election-results-city-college-trustees-almost-set/articl…
By Allyson Aleksey | Examiner staff writer | Nov 12, 2024 Updated
Ohlone College history professor Heather McCarty was the top vote-getter, ahead of three incumbent City College of San Francisco Board of Trustees.
Courtesy of Heather McCarty for City College Board 2024
The leading vote-getter in the race to fill four seats on the City College of San Francisco Board of Trustees is a newcomer to the body, according to the latest set of results.
Ohlone College professor Heather McCarty garnered 19.8% of the counted votes as of Monday afternoon’s tally, ensuring that at least one new trustee will join the board as the community college contends with declining enrollment and what educators characterize as the loss of voter-approved funds that support its free-tuition program.
Incumbents Aliya Chisti (18.3%), Board President Alan Wong (17.1%) and recently appointed trustee Luis Zamora (14.4%) rounded out the remaining spots with 18,200 ballots still outstanding Tuesday afternoon. Public policy analyst Ruth Ferguson (13.9%) trailed Zamora for the fourth and final spot.
Business owner Leanna Louie, college professor and economist Ben Kaplan and former CCSF trustee Julio Ramos were sixth, seventh and eighth, respectively.
The four winners will need to provide steady hands during a critical juncture for the community college, facing threats to its accreditation and reception of sorely needed public financing.
The Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges’ refused to renew CCSF’s accreditation in January and gave college officials until March 2025 to produce a report showing how it will become fiscally solvent.
Meanwhile, CCSF educators say the school is receiving less money from a voter-approved 2016 tax on The City’s wealthiest homeowners which funds Free City College, a program providing free tuition to San Francisco residents. The City has contended that the program has accrued millions of dollars in unspent funds since 2016. According to last year’s annual report by the Free City College Oversight Committee, roughly 17,000 San Franciscans take credit courses for free each year.
All CCSF Board of Trustee candidates ran on similar platforms to lead the college toward financial stability, address its structural budget deficit and more effectively plan the school’s long-term finances. CCSF Chancellor Mitchell Bailey announced last month that the college would host a series of budget workshops through December to “provide a forum for informing, understanding and pursuing clarity.”
Newcomer McCarty, who served the Ohlone College Budget Committee, stated on her campaign website that she ran “to help stabilize CCSF because it plays such an important role in our community,” adding that her priorities include ensuring fiscal health and increasing enrollment.
“My goal is to ensure that every dollar is used effectively to support student success,” McCarty said.
She did not respond to a request for comment by press time.
McCarty was endorsed by TogetherSF Action, Grow SF and the Alice B Toklas Democratic Club, as well as San Francisco Supervisors Joel Engardio, Hillary Ronen, Myrna Melgar, Catherine Stefani and Rafael Mandelman.
The board will also contend with faculty members’ grievances over losing what they say are essential courses due to budget constraints.
Spencer Jackson, Lead Organizer for AFT Local 2121, the union that represents CCSF’s professors, said the situation is dire. The college’s English as Second Language program, which Jackson called “a cornerstone of San Francisco’s immigrant communities and workforce training,” has turned away 2,000 students this semester.
Chemistry 32, a prerequisite for CCSF’s Nursing and Radiology programs, turned away 200 students this semester and English 1A, a prerequisite for many degree programs, turned away 270 students, according to the union. AFT 2121 endorsed only Wong for one of four open seats.
Leading CCSF vote-getter a fresh face
www.sfexaminer.com
Community college faces potential loss of accreditation.
Oakland plans to merge 10 schools as it stares down $174 million deficit
www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/ousd-school-closure-proposal-released-19897468.php
By Jill Tucker,
Education Reporter
Nov 8, 2024
Students from International Community Elementary and Think College Now Elementary play during recess in Oakland.
Students from International Community Elementary and Think College Now Elementary play during recess in Oakland.
Laure Andrillon for CalMatters
Oakland education officials will vote in December to merge 10 schools, the first step in reducing the number of campuses across the city and filling half-empty classrooms.
The 10 schools to be merged — which have a combined 3,300 students — already share campuses, a set-up that was created during a national trend to create smaller schools to offer students more support, but one that often failed to produce results despite the increased funding required to support it.
Superintendent Kyla Johnson-Trammell is expected to introduce the plan at Wednesday’s school board meeting, along with a proposal to overhaul how funding is allocated to all school sites. Doing nothing is not an option, the superintendent has said.
The district has a $174 million two-year budget deficit fueled by overspending and years of declining enrollment and now faces the prospect of insolvency, though the school mergers will only save a few million dollars.
The plan, however, falls short of what county fiscal advisers had hoped the district would do to address the district’s spending problems.
County Superintendent Alysse Castro scolded district officials for not pursuing a more aggressive redesign of the district, including greatly reducing the number of schools. Johnson-Trammell had planned to present a plan to the board next week with many more sites but it was clear the school board was split on the proposal, with not enough votes to push it through, according to sources close to the process.
“We are once again in the familiar position where the District is deferring hard decisions that are already long overdue,” Castro said. “We believe this Board and this community are on a path to restructuring, but because redesign decisions have been deferred many times, the path is narrow, and stepping too far off of it is the equivalent of wandering off a fiscal cliff.”
If the district fails to address the budget problems, Castro could step in and assert greater control of the district’s spending.
Oakland isn’t alone in its need to address a budget crisis and the loss of students amid declining birthrates and other factors. San Francisco attempted to close schools, but called it off after intense pushback. Other Bay Area districts are looking to right-size despite opposition from families as well as community and labor groups.
A previous push to close and merge 11 schools in Oakland in 2022 was intensely divisive with protests, an occupation of a school, vandalism, petitions and a hunger strike by two teachers. The school board ultimately rescinded all but two closures and one merger, leaving the district in its current state.
Currently, 34,000 students attend one of the district’s 77 schools, twice the number of sites as in Fremont Unified, which has about the same enrollment. Oakland could lose another 6,000 to 7,000 students by 2032.
Those realities mean the district must make cuts, likely leading to layoffs next year, while also looking at how to “reduce the footprint.”
“It’s going to have to be a blend of both,” Johnson-Trammell told the Chronicle Friday. She said if the district fails to close or merge enough schools, it will need to find more of those savings through staff cuts and cuts to services at school sites. The proposed mergers include combining the following schools:
Elementary school sites:
International Community School and Think College Now
Manzanita Community School and Manzanita SEED
Acorn Woodland and Encompass
Esperanza and Korematsu Discovery Academy
Middle school sites:
United for Success Academy and LIFE Academy
The goal, district officials said, is to be more efficient, reducing administrative and operational needs. The total annual savings is expected to be about $3 million if the 10 schools are merged into five.
In addition, the superintendent plans to outline a new funding formula that would allocate money based on uniform staffing plans rather than giving schools the discretionary cash to decide which positions they want.
This will allow the district to cut costs while meeting minimum staffing requirements at each school while also putting the district closer to backfilling next year’s $95 million deficit.
After the debacle of trying to close schools in 2022, district officials are hoping to ease their way into the process this time. They’re starting with mergers that don’t require any students to transfer to another site, an easier sell to families.
In 2019, the district merged Elmhurst Community Prep and Alliance Academy, located on the same campus in East Oakland. The new school was renamed Elmhurst United Middle School.
The former principal of the merged school, Kilian Betlach, said that at the time he wouldn’t have chosen to make one middle school out of the two, feeling each one was serving its students well.
“What I learned is that it's really hard in the moment, and that absolutely no one likes change,” he said. “It's uncertainty — as human beings we're all conditioned to prefer that which we know compared to that which we don't.”
But then, Betlach said, he realized the merger brought economies of scale, allowing him to create more sections for English learners and special needs students, which meant providing instruction more specific to students’ needs.
And, with 700 students combined, he was able to increase the number of electives, offering art, music, computer science, Spanish and an “insane number of academic electives,” including many classes for students behind in literacy.
Finally, he was able to add more support staff, reducing the caseload for counselors.
“You can just do more,” he said of the larger school. “Quality of instruction and quality of experience was better.”
After the merger, there was less student turnover, Betlach said, which felt counterintuitive until families saw the impact of those economies of scale.
“It really looked good on the other side of it,” he said. “It was the right thing to do.”
The 10 mergers are likely just the start. Johnson-Trammell said she will go back to the board in early 2025 to get an idea of next steps to determine how — or if — to proceed with additional closures and mergers.
“It’s based on the direction we get from the board,” she said.
Board member Mike Hutchinson is scheduling town hall meetings to get feedback on the best way to move forward.
“We have this window to have these community conversations so we can have consensus,” he said, adding he sees any reduction in the number of schools coming in phases.
He was a vocal opponent of closures the last time around and was instrumental in getting the board to reverse the decision to close or merge several sites in 2023. But he said now he believes the district needs to address the issue, working with families to fill up fewer schools.
In the meantime, Betlach could be on the other side of a merger, this time as a parent. His own kids attend one of the co-located schools on the list.
“As a parent, I have a gut feeling I'm going to navigate this with my children,” he said.
“We have a choice about how we talk about this with our children,” he said. “We can decide how our kids experience this.”
“We can make it traumatic if we want,” he added. “I'm going to choose not to make this a traumatic experience for my children.”
Reach Jill Tucker: jtucker@sfchronicle.com
Oakland plans to merge 10 schools as it stares down $174 million deficit
www.sfchronicle.com
Oakland plans to merge 10 schools as it stares down $174 million deficit and pressure to close moreTo maintain a majority on the LAUSD School Board, public school supporters had to win every race on Tuesday. If the results released so far hold, they will be successful. Read the article for more information: changethelausd.medium.com/good-news-for-los-angeles-public-schools-21a11ea3fd21?sk=8283fb9f283c89…
Last Night's Election From NYC AFT PSC CUNY Pres
Dear PSC Members,
Thank you to everyone who worked on behalf of the PSC’s endorsed candidates. There were a number of important successes in the legislature. When it comes to the race for President, however, the outcome is devastating and dangerous. Trump’s election is a threat to democracy. Republicans won a majority in the Senate and are threatening to win a majority in the House. Please check on your loved ones and take a deep breath. Show solidarity to the people in your life who are more at risk today than yesterday, and try to be present for your students and colleagues. Then prepare for the struggles ahead.
We should be clear: Trump’s election is a victory for fascism in the United States. His anti-worker, misogynist, racist, xenophobic agenda will make many lives more miserable and painful here and around the world if left unchecked. That is where we come in. The Trump movement has us in their crosshairs as educators and unionists. Educators need to redouble our efforts to build our power and reassert the role of knowledge and critical thinking to a functioning democracy. Unionists understand the power of solidarity and will need to exercise collective action. An autocrat like Trump can only have gained the support of so many Americans by playing to our fears and anxieties, because his policies and the Project 2025 blueprint cannot help us and will in fact harm us – some more than others.
It is hard to say what is most broken when a convicted felon, someone who announced in advance his intention to rule like a dictator, is elected U.S. President. But what’s troubled me the most is the right-wing assault on truth and the very idea of verifiability. That assault has been swift and effective. Those of us who work in higher education engage our students in the production of knowledge and the search for truth. Whatever our discipline or field, our work is about cultivating an informed citizenry. The movement that Trump leads is fundamentally about undermining that project. As we’ve seen in Florida, Texas and elsewhere, he and his acolytes aim not only to discredit and defund educational institutions but also to undermine the values and principles on which the public education system is built.
It is a wake-up call for organized labor that Trump’s movement has effectively harnessed such broad support of working people and the poor. The conservative elite in this country believed they could use Trump to move their agenda, cloaked in populist rhetoric. But Trump’s movement has also used them. We in the labor movement and in higher education must rise collectively to this moment to contain and defeat autocracy.
We can mourn what this election reveals about our country, and today we should take a moment to breathe, but then we must organize.
The PSC is part of a quickly forming coalition of grassroots organizations and labor unions mounting a “Protect our Futures” rally and march in Manhattan this Saturday November 9th at 12 noon. The event will begin with a rally at Columbus Circle. Fill out the PSC webform linked below to let us know you will come.
Click this link and complete the webform to tell us you will be at the Protect our Futures rally this Saturday, November 9th, 12:00 PM at Columbus Circle.
We'll take stock and talk about next steps at an online election debrief open to all PSC members on Monday, November 11th at 12PM. Here is the registration. I hope you will attend.
Click this link and complete the Zoom registration for a link to join the online PSC Election 2024 Debrief Monday, November 11 at 12:00 PM.
James Davis
PSC President
Silicon Valley schools superintendent to resign following spending on energy healer and other questionable expenses
www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/mountainview-19886203.php
A Silicon Valley schools superintendent is resigning amid scrutiny over the district’s finances, including money spent on an East Coast public relations firm and $1,200 per session for an energy healer to provide guided meditation for administrators.
Ayindé Rudolph — one of the highest paid superintendents in the state — announced Friday he would leave the Mountain View Whisman School District, a tiny elementary school district that struggles with a persistent achievement gap despite being in one of the region’s wealthiest areas. He resigned the same day Santa Clara County education officials were finalizing a contract to bring in a state fiscal oversight agency to perform an “extraordinary audit,” specifically a review to determine whether any illegal practices have occurred, including fraud or misappropriation of funds.
Rudoph is expected to leave following a Thursday vote by the school board on a separation agreement, which would include payment of three months of salary, or just over $98,000, with both sides giving up any present or future legal claims.
Some families questioned the severance package, which also gave him an extension on repaying a low-interest home loan for up to a $1.6 million loan
“Don’t the taxpayers deserve to know why the school board feels it necessary to give him $100K of our children’s educational money, when we are not obligated to give him anything?” said one parent, who the Chronicle agreed not to name under its confidential sources policy. “Can you think of any other job where an employee resigns amidst a pending audit for fraud, and his employers give him a gift of $100K and a release from all future claims and liabilities?”
The parent, who feared retaliation added, “Why is the school board trying to protect Dr. Rudolph instead of protecting our children’s interests?”
School board President Devon Conley told the Chronicle Monday that, if approved, “the three months severance is less than what is typical for such an agreement,” she told the Chronicle Monday.
The superintendent, who was hired in 2015, cited a need to focus on his health and family.
“After much reflection, following a health scare, I have come to realize that the demands of the job continue to have an adverse impact on my health,” he said Friday in a statement posted on social media. “As the scripture says in Micah 4:4, ‘Everyone will sit under their own vine and under their own fig tree, and no one will make them afraid.’
“I look forward to sitting under my own fig tree and starting the next chapter of my family’s life.”
Rudolph did not immediately return requests for comment.
Rudolph previously went on temporary leave after county education officials recommended the audit and following a closed-door school board meeting over the disciplining or firing of an employee, presumably the superintendent. No action was taken.
The Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team, or FCMAT, is expected to conduct the extraordinary audit, sampling transactions from 2022 to the present. FCMAT is often called in by state or county education officials to evaluate or help districts in financial distress.
The upheaval in Mountain View Whisman followed a Chronicle story in late August that outlined the district’s questionable spending on training executives, polishing the elementary school district’s image and administrator wellness, despite a significant achievement gap among the district’s 4,500 students.
Parents raised the alarm about spending after questioning budget cuts, which included reducing classes in middle schools.
Among the expenses was just over $315,000 in contracts for district leadership to receive $1,200 meditation sessions with a Sacramento woman who identifies as an energy healer and who uses sacred geometry and chakra clearing in her practice.
The district defended the spending as “research proven,” that could help lead to better productivity and performance.
The district’s $110 million budget also included $600,000 annually for leadership coaching from various companies across the country and a $180,000 contract with a Washington, D.C. public relations firm.
“I think down the road it’s going to pay off exponentially,” Conley, the school board president, said of the PR firm at the time of the Chronicle’s original reporting.
Rudolph also hired Peter Gorman, the former superintendent at the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools district in North Carolina, where Rudolph was a principal, to be his coach. Gorman’s contract was renewed annually starting in Rudolph’s first year in 2015, costing taxpayers a total of $370,000.
Yet parents, during public meetings, pointed to a growing achievement gap in the district, saying none of that money was helping students. More than 80% of white and Asian American students were proficient or above in math and English last spring, compared with 31% of Hispanic students measuring at grade level in English and 22% in math.
“Our district spends a considerable amount of money for both our teachers and our administrators to make sure they can perform at their highest rate to make sure they can close the achievement gap,” Rudolph said at a board meeting in late August after the Chronicle story.
Rudolph’s most recent salary is nearly $370,000.
In addition, the school board gave him the fringe benefit of a loan to buy a home, with the amount not to exceed $1.6 million. The loan agreement required Rudolph to pay off the loan within 180 days of leaving the job, with the district getting 40% of any appreciation on the property.
The separation agreement extends the timeframe and would require Rudolph to pay the loan back by June 30, 2025.
Reach Jill Tucker: jtucker@sfchronicle.com
www.sfchronicle.com
Silicon Valley schools superintendent set to resign after hiring energy healer to guide meditationrichmond.com/opinion/column/private-school-vouchers-youngkin-trump-school-segregation/article_af2…
Commentary: How privatization efforts are resurrecting school segregation
richmond.com
Conservative efforts to restrict whether and how students wrestle with racism in classrooms today fail to negate the racist origins of publicly funded private school vouchers.