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Dramatic dip in ‘pink slips’ given to teachers
(This story has been updated.) Districts have issued dramatically fewer preliminary layoff notices to teachers this year, signaling an end to five years of high budgetary anxiety and providing one of the first concrete examples of the immediate benefits of Proposition 30. Statewide, districts sent 3,000-plus “pink slips” to teachers and certain other certificated staff, such as counselors and librarians, according to the California Teachers Association, which tracks the numbers. The Association expects the count to rise … Read entire article »
Filed under: Featured, Funding and Taxation, Initiatives, Proposition 98, Reporting & Analysis, State Budget, Teacher Unions, Teachers
Legislators introduce a flurry of school safety bills
In the aftermath of the school shooting in Newtown, Conn., legislators in Sacramento have introduced almost two dozen bills that involve campus security, including requiring doors that lock from the inside, increasing mental health services, and providing panic alarms that link directly to law enforcement agencies, according to an article in the San Diego Union-Tribune. Representatives in Washington, D.C., are also considering school safety legislation, but some of the initiatives are costly, such as hiring more counselors, psychologists and social workers. Some of the California bills involve adding more requirements to school safety plans, such as developing tactical responses to emergencies and creating warning protocols for staff. Another bill would restrict funding to schools that don’t have adequate safety plans. Going deeper “Poll: Counselors are more important for school safety than police officers,” EdSource … Read entire article »
Filed under: Governance, Initiatives, K-12 Challenges, Interventions, Legislature, Bills, Quick Hits, School Safety
LAO has ‘serious concerns’ with governor’s Prop. 98 calculation
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 intent of the law. Proposition 39, which won with 61 percent vote last November, is projected to raise up to half a billion dollars in revenue this fiscal … Read entire article »
Filed under: Adult education, Categorical Funding, Community Colleges, Featured, Funding and Taxation, Initiatives, Jerry Brown, Proposition 98, Reporting & Analysis, Revenue and taxes, State Budget, Taxes
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
The Prop 30 windfall – not yet
When Proposition 30 won on Tuesday, it led a sweep of nearly two dozen local school parcel taxes and close to a hundred local school bonds approved by Californians that together will bring in tens of billions in new revenue for education. And some of those voters are already asking when their local schools will be rehiring laid-off teachers, reopening school libraries, and installing new technology. It will not be easy to explain that, at … Read entire article »
Filed under: Funding and Taxation, Initiatives, Parcel Tax, Reporting & Analysis, Revenue and taxes, School Boards, State Budget, Taxes
Big win for schools as Prop 30 defies polls
California schools’ rendezvous with rock bottom is over. A massive grassroots campaign, an eleventh hour surge in advertising, and strategic targeting of likely voters pulled Proposition 30 over the halfway mark yesterday, giving both Gov. Jerry Brown and California public schools and community colleges a victory. With all of the vote reported, Prop 30 led 53.9 to 46.1 percent. The initiative is expected to raise nearly $7 billion for education this year by raising income … Read entire article »
Filed under: Community Colleges, Featured, Funding and Taxation, Initiatives, Jerry Brown, Reporting & Analysis, Revenue and taxes
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
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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