California's Children

Whistle-blowers: doing the right thing for the wrong reasons?

UPDATE, May 5, 2012: An attorney who worked for the Commission on Teacher Credentialing, and was the whistle-blower who called attention to the Commission's practices (leading the state auditor to call it the "worst run" state agency, and resulting in a number of investigations and internal changes), has lost her appeal before the State Personnel Board that her dismissal from her job was an act of retaliation. 

In a convincingly frank explanation of the dismissal, the Board, as reported in the Sacramento Bee, concluded:

...[the whistle-blower Kathy] Carroll's (Carroll, at left, in a Bee photo) firing was warranted... due to insubordination, willful disobedience, discourteous treatment, dishonesty, inexcusable neglect of duty and other "failure of good behavior." [Carroll]  "harmed the public service by going out of her way to tell co-workers disparaging remarks about others or tell the co-workers remarks others had made about them...Her immature conduct appears to be designed to cause rifts in the workplace and she failed to exercise self-control in her interactions with co-workers and her supervisors....[she] "breached the trust" placed in her as an attorney, and the "likelihood of recurrence" is high...

Previously reported on "worst-run agency":

May revise, Part 4: Cal Budget Proj: "We are concerned..."

May 15, 2012: Scott Graves, senior policy analyst of the California Budget Project comments on Governor Brown's May revisions of the 2012-13 budget, released yesterday, stating the CBP's concern that the increased cuts further destroy the state's safety net for vulnerable populations. A full analysis can be read here.

An excerpt:

... Without a balanced approach to addressing the budget gap – one that includes additional revenues – we face even deeper cuts to schools, colleges, and other core public structures... The tax measure the Governor plans to put before voters in November provides a reasonable, sound approach to stabilizing the state budget and creating a foundation on which to rebuild going forward.

“To the extent that cuts are made to address the budget gap, such reductions should be carefully targeted so they don’t endanger vulnerable families, children, and seniors, who have already borne the brunt of recent years’ budget cuts. ...we are concerned that the Governor’s May Revision deepens his proposed cuts to the state’s safety net, while also making significant reductions to child care and other programs and supports that help Californians prepare for and keep jobs...

 

The DQ: Torlakson on teacher accountability & federal $

“It’s time to leave behind No Child Left Behind." --  State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson, in a written statement to the US Dept. of Education Secretary Arne Duncan.

The comment was attached to California's request for specific waivers from the federal requirements of the  Elementary and Secondary Education Act (known, since the G.W.Bush Administration, as "No Child Left Behind"). “This request capitalizes on our strengths – our well-established accountability system. It also provides school districts an opportunity to get the relief they deserve now, and the flexibility they need to direct limited funds where they will do the most good," Torlakson added.

As Kathryn Baron reports in today's Educated Guess:

...the State Board approved submitting a “state-defined waiver” through the general waiver provision written into ESEA that allows the Secretary to approve waivers if states show that they will:

1. Increase the quality of instruction for students, and
2. improve the academic achievement of students. 

California proposes to achieve those goals primarily by dumping No Child Left Behind’s Adequate Yearly Progress assessment system in favor of a single system using the state’s Academic Performance Index (API), and sharpening the focus of the API to concentrate on improving instruction in schools with the absolute lowest scores and largest achievement gaps.

What works: CA's ban on school-based junk food

May 11, 2012: California high school students are consuming 160 fewer calories during the school day than students in other states -- thanks to state laws restricting junk food consumption on school campuses.

This data is included in the results of a study by researchers at the University of Illinois (UI). Anahad O'Connor reported on the findings for the New York Times. 

California has banned the sale of soda and sugary sports drinks in elementary schools and enforced nutrition standards on competitive foods (those sold in vending machines and snack bars) on school campuses since 2007; a bill AB 1746 (Williams, D-Santa Barbara), hopes to extend the ban to high schools.

Lead author of the study, Daniel Taber, Ph.D., at left, of Health Policy Center,  UI Institute of Health Research and Policy, used data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Youth Physical Activity and Nutrition Study: 680 students from California and 14 other states without state laws restricting junk food consumption on school campuses reported their food intake over a 24-hour period...

California's students had the lowest daily intake of calories, fat and, especially, added sugars... students got a lower proportion of their daily calories from school foods than students in other states: about 21.5% compared with 28.4% among students elsewhere.

While 100 calories here or there may not sound like much, many researchers say that most children and adolescents could avoid significant long-term weight gain by cutting out just 100 to 200 extra calories a day.....

...California’s students... were still eating junk food — just slightly less of it than their peers in other states. And their vitamin and mineral intake was similar to that of students in other parts of the country.

The study was financed by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and published in the May edition of the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.

Written for California's Children by Elizabeth J Carlyle.

San Diego USD board member says give up & let the state take over

May 10, 2012: San Diego Unified School District board member Scott Barnett [at left, in a photo by Sam Hodgson] will take a grim message to today's board meeting, one based on his belief that the only solution to the district's insolvency is to surrender to the state. Barnett's comments were released this morning by Will Carless on Voices of San Diego.

...[Barnett]... wants the district to declare itself insolvent, roll back the 1,600 layoffs it has announced, and pass a budget that’s nowhere near balanced.

It’s a financial kamikaze that would place the district in the direct control of a state-appointed trustee. The superintendent would be fired and the school board would be relegated to an advisory board, with the trustee making all of San Diego Unified’s budgetary decisions instead of politicians.

But Barnett thinks there are distinct benefits to declaring insolvency now. He says the district could keep schools fully staffed until next spring, and he says it’s time for a new system of running city schools, since the school board has effectively run local education into the ground.

Like last October, Barnett doesn’t really seem to believe he has much of a chance of gleaning any votes for his plan from his four colleagues on the school board.