Currently browsing Weighted Student Funding (Local Control Funding Formula)
Hold districts accountable for restoring funding for the arts
A well-rounded education that includes the arts is essential to prepare California students for college and careers. A year of fine arts is required for admission to the CSU or UC campuses. Further, the skills students gain in the arts – imagination, creativity and innovation – are essential for success in the California economy, no matter the industry or sector. While the California Education Code has long established the place of the arts in the required … Read entire article »
Filed under: Arts, Commentary, Featured, Weighted Student Funding (Local Control Funding Formula)
Assembly committee rejects moving adult ed to community colleges
In a clear message to Gov. Jerry Brown, an Assembly subcommittee voted unanimously Tuesday to reject his proposal to shift responsibility for adult education programs from K-12 districts to community colleges. The bipartisan 4-0 vote, with one subcommittee member absent, followed a flurry of pink slips issued by school districts to adult educators last week. The vote was also meant as a message to school districts considering abandoning their adult ed schools that the Assembly supports current … Read entire article »
Filed under: Adult education, College and Career Preparation, Funding and Taxation, Jerry Brown, Legislature, Bills, Reporting & Analysis, Weighted Student Funding (Local Control Funding Formula)
Sweetwater gives pink slips to all its career-tech teachers
Despite a plea from one trustee that the move was premature, the Sweetwater Union High School District has issued pink slips to all teachers in the district’s Regional Occupational Program, which offers career-tech training, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported. Trustees voted 2-2, with one trustee abstaining, to give pink slips to 36.8 full-time equivalent positions. The newspaper did not say how many employees received the notices. According to board rules, an abstention counts as a positive vote. “The district said it needed to eliminate the positions because funding from the state is so uncertain,” the newspaper reported. “No longer offering the program would save the district $3 million.” Gov. Jerry Brown’s Local Control Funding Formula would eliminate dedicated funding for career-technical programs. It would be up to school districts whether to continue funding them or use … Read entire article »
Filed under: Career Technical Education, College and Career Preparation, Funding and Taxation, Jerry Brown, Multiple pathways, Quick Hits, Weighted Student Funding (Local Control Funding Formula), Workforce preparation
Brown’s school funding formula lauded, then picked apart at hearing
To a person, every Assemblymember at a committee hearing Tuesday and the six superintendents who testified at it praised the principles behind Gov. Jerry Brown’s proposed school finance reforms: simplicity, clarity and equity – more money for the state’s neediest children. But there were also sharp disagreements over the components of Brown’s Local Control Funding Formula that would determine how much money districts would get were the new finance system phased in over the next seven … Read entire article »
Filed under: Featured, Funding and Taxation, Reporting & Analysis, Weighted Student Funding (Local Control Funding Formula)
Districts struggle with governor’s adult education proposal
Gov. Jerry Brown’s budget proposal to give the state’s community colleges $300 million to run adult education is leaving K-12 districts in a quandary. Should they assume Brown’s idea will become law, plan to close their adult schools and hope that their local community college will be able to pick up those programs? Should they plan to keep their adult school open for one more year to help make a smooth transition? Or should they … Read entire article »
Filed under: Adult education, Community Colleges, Featured, Reporting & Analysis, State Budget, Weighted Student Funding (Local Control Funding Formula)
Keep Foster Youth Services out of governor’s funding formula
Governor Jerry Brown’s new funding formula for education threatens to leave more than 40,000 school-age foster children in California without the essential support they need to succeed in school. The governor’s proposed budget eliminates 47 of 62 “categorical” education programs, including California’s Foster Youth Services program. Local Foster Youth Services programs operate primarily through county offices of education to better coordinate with the other county agencies serving foster children. These programs work with current and former … Read entire article »
Filed under: Commentary, Featured, Foster care, Weighted Student Funding (Local Control Funding Formula)
State’s first career-tech center faces potential demise
The superintendent of the state’s oldest regional occupational program is warning that an unintended consequence of the governor’s Local Control Funding Formula could lead to its demise. An official from the Department of Finance says his department will look into the problem. Christine Hoffman, superintendent of the Southern California Regional Occupational Center (SoCal ROC) in Torrance, is sending preliminary layoff notices to all 125 of her employees by the March 15 deadline for notifying those who … Read entire article »
Filed under: Career Technical Education, Featured, Internships, Service Learning, Partnership Academies, Reporting & Analysis, Weighted Student Funding (Local Control Funding Formula), Workforce preparation
Brown’s former adviser: Aim for balance behind shift to local control
Sue Burr has seen and done a lot in 40-plus years of playing key roles in California education – advising legislators and governors, administering the finances of a large school district, running the state county superintendents’ organization and, for the past two years, serving as executive director of the State Board of Education. Burr retired at the end of last year, only to be nominated two weeks later by Gov. Jerry Brown to return to the … Read entire article »
Filed under: Achievement Gap, Categorical Funding, Charter Schools, College Remediation, Featured, Jerry Brown, Q&A, Reporting & Analysis, State Board of Education, State Budget, Student spending, Taxes, Weighted Student Funding (Local Control Funding Formula)
LAO would cut money from basic aid districts, other programs Brown would protect
The Legislative Analyst’s Office has added its endorsement of Gov. Jerry Brown’s proposal for sweeping school finance reform, praising the simplicity and clarity of Brown’s funding formula and the “reasonable” amounts of extra money he’d direct to high-needs students. At the same time, in an analysis released last week, the LAO is suggesting a half-dozen changes to the plan, including two that would stir up controversies that Brown woud just as soon avoid. Both changes would … Read entire article »
Filed under: English learners, Featured, Funding and Taxation, Jerry Brown, Poverty, Reporting & Analysis, Revenue and taxes, Weighted Student Funding (Local Control Funding Formula)
State still has a role in supporting and holding districts accountable
March 31st, 2013 | 3 Comments | By Erin Gabel / commentary
With the passage of Proposition 30 and almost nine out of 10 local ballot measures last November, the voters of California gave our schools an almost unprecedented chance to begin rebuilding after years of budget cuts. With his budget proposal, Governor Brown kept the promises we made to voters and made education funding his top priority. But his proposal does more than fund schools — it stands to change the way we fund them. And while the State Superintendent … Read entire article »
Filed under: Commentary, Featured, Governance, Weighted Student Funding (Local Control Funding Formula)