Currently browsing 2012 election
Diane Ravitch to lead new organization into political trenches
Author Diane Ravitch, a hero of unionized teachers, is leading a new politically active national organization whose purpose is to “give voice to the millions of parents, educators, and other citizens who are fed up with corporate-style reform.” The Network for Public Education, announced Thursday, hasn’t decided whether it will contribute to candidates, but it will promote them, in the hope that its endorsements will mobilize educators and parents to defeat candidates backed by big-dollar groups like former Washington, D.C., chancellor Michelle Rhee’s StudentsFirst and wealthy donors like New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Ravitch and her supporters staunchly oppose what those donors generally back – an expanded use of standardized test scores, including using them to evaluate teachers and principals, an expansion of charter schools and closure of poor-performing neighborhood … Read entire article »
Filed under: 2012 election, Featured, Quick Hits
Victorious LAUSD incumbent vows to keep challenging Deasy
Having presented the Los Angeles School Board election races as a referendum on Superintendent John Deasy’s future, the club of six- and seven-figure donors in Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s Coalition for School Reform may have succeeded in making Deasy’s life more complicated. For the $3.6 million it spent, the Coalition did end up helping to elect one candidate it supported, Board President Monica Garcia. A second, Antonio Sanchez, is the leader heading into the runoff election later … Read entire article »
Filed under: 2012 election, Featured, Reporting & Analysis, School Boards
First sign of better times for schools under Prop 30
Deferred payments to California schools and community colleges will fall to their lowest level in five years this academic year, and repayments for previous deferrals are starting sooner than expected. Instead of waiting until January, the state will pay back $1.57 billion it borrowed from K-12 schools next week, and the $300 million owed to community colleges is all scheduled to arrive this Friday rather than half this month and half next. “It’s yet another indicator … Read entire article »
Filed under: 2012 election, Community Colleges, Featured, Funding and Taxation, Jerry Brown, Reporting & Analysis, Revenue and taxes, State Budget
Fensterwald clarifies Gov. Brown’s claims about Prop. 30 in KQED interview
Given how Gov. Brown and others promoted Prop. 30, some are are under the impression that passage of the measure is a great windfall for California schools. Not exactly, say EdSource’s John Fensterwald in an interview with KQED’s Cy Musiker. Of the $6 billion expected to be raised by Prop. 30, Fensterwald says about $3 billion will make it to schools. While that may “stop the bleeding” and help stabilize school finances, it does little to increase California’s per-pupil spending, an important measure of how well states support their schools. As Fensterwald notes, in one study California was ranked 47th in spending per pupil. It’s unlikely passage of Prop. 30 will improve that measure much. To learn more and listen to the full interview, visit With Prop. 30 Victory, Brown Paints Rosier … Read entire article »
Filed under: 2012 election, Funding and Taxation, Initiatives, Parcel Tax, Presentations/Interviews, Quick Hits
Ed advocates foresee new era with supermajority
Many education advocates were giddy when they awoke Wednesday. Not only had Proposition 30 passed, with its promise of nearly $7 billion in new funding for schools and community colleges, but in an unexpected outcome, Democrats won supermajorities, two-thirds of the seats in both the State Assembly and Senate. It was like hoping for a pony on your birthday and instead finding a horse with a giant bow around its neck. Democrats had been optimistic that … Read entire article »
Filed under: 2012 election, Finance, Funding and Taxation, Legislature, Bills, Reporting & Analysis, Revenue and taxes, State Budget, Weighted Student Funding (Local Control Funding Formula)
Campaign spending to promote Props. 30 and 38 exceeds $100 million
Proponents of Propositions 30 and 38 have now poured a combined total of $117 million to convince voters to support their respective measures, both of which are intended to raise billions of dollars for schools and other programs. Spending on behalf of Proposition 30, the tax initiative sponsored by Governor Jerry Brown that will raise an average of $6 billion for schools and other state programs, has jumped to $69.4 million, according to MapLight, a nonpartisan Berkeley-based research organization. That’s a huge increase from just two weeks ago when the campaign reported raising a total of $50.1 million. Meanwhile, spending on behalf of Prop. 38, the rival measure sponsored by civil rights attorney Molly Munger, who is also the heiress to the fortune of her father Charles T. Munger Sr., the billionaire vice chairman … Read entire article »
Filed under: 2012 election, Featured, Initiatives, Jerry Brown, Reporting & Analysis
Fensterwald interviewed on KQED about why districts seek local funds
With more than 100 bonds and parcel taxes on the California ballot this November 6th—not to mention the competing school funding measures, Props. 30 and 38—voters have a lot to of education funding issues to consider this election day. To find out what’s driving the push for local school tax measures, KQED’s Cy Musiker interviewed EdSource Today editor John Fensterwald. As Fensterwald explains, passage of Parcel taxes and school bond measures in California is not easy. Parcel taxes require a two-third majority and most school bonds require a 55 percent majority for passage. Even so, historically about 80 percent of the school construction bonds and 60 percent of the parcel taxes have passed, and those percentages are even higher so far in 2012. But Fensterwald is quick to point out that … Read entire article »
Filed under: 2012 election, Elections, Funding and Taxation, Parcel Tax, Quick Hits, Revenue and taxes
Big districts divided over cutting school year if Prop. 30 fails
California’s 30 largest school districts are about evenly divided on whether they plan to further shorten this academic year if Proposition 30 fails next week, according to a new survey by EdSource Today. A third of the districts have already negotiated with their unions to lop anywhere from a week to a month from the school calendar if the initiative is defeated. Slightly more than a third report that they do not plan any more … Read entire article »
Filed under: 2012 election, Featured, Funding and Taxation, Initiatives, Jerry Brown, Reporting & Analysis, Revenue and taxes, State Budget
Boards, teachers must be careful to toe the line on advocacy
The humanities professor from California State University, Monterey Bay who was sued by the conservative Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association this month for urging his students in an email to vote for the tax initiative Proposition 30 ran afoul of the state law (Government Code Section 8314) that bans the use of public resources for campaign activities. CSU acknowledged as much, calling Professor Ernest Stromberg’s message over the campus email system, which urged students not only to vote for … Read entire article »
Filed under: 2012 election, Featured, Funding and Taxation, Initiatives, Reporting & Analysis, Teacher Unions
School initiative’s bumpy road to the ballot box
The thicket of obstacles Governor Brown and his allies have run into in trying to convince voters to approve his initiative to raise funds for schools and the state budget underscores the extreme hazards of trying to convince California voters to raise taxes, even for a cause they’re predisposed to support. A combination of an unexpected and bitter rivalry among pro-education forces that should have been allies, greater than expected and deeper-pocketed opposition to the Brown … Read entire article »
Filed under: 2012 election, Elections, Featured, Funding and Taxation, Initiatives, Jerry Brown, Reporting & Analysis, State Budget
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