Free Republic

Illegal Immigration: As California issues IOUs to its citizens, another ballot proposition may be brewing to cut off benefits that are draining the state budget. From education to welfare to crime, the cupboard is bare.California is a leader in both government debt and the sanctuary city movement. But as its citizens seek shelter from the economic storm, the question has arisen anew whether its non-citizens and the better life they want takes precedence over its citizens and the better life they are entitled to. In this mother of all recessions, it's getting harder to argue that illegal aliens are here...

California voters said no, but Democratic lawmakers are pushing to do it anyhow. The issue involves billions of dollars and a ballot measure so important to schools that the California Teachers Association spent more than $7 million in a failed attempt to pass Proposition 1B. One month after the initiative died, Democrats are proposing to pay schools the same $7.9 billion that was the heart of the measure and to begin payments the same year, 2011-2012. snip- The dispute over $7.9 billion stems from complex provisions of Proposition 98, approved by voters more than two decades ago to ensure a...

Berkeley is so left-wing……that when 7th- and 8th-graders at an expensive prestigious private school are asked to design their own tiles for a permanently displayed mosaic, they draw a big hammer-and-sickle and declare as their message to the world, “Capitalism will fail.” The communist message is part of a school mosiac for the Class of 2007 at Black Pine Circle School, which has a reputation as one of the best private K-8 schools in the city. (Most of the other tiles in the mosaic are what you typically might expect from 13- and 14-year-olds: declarations of friendship and personal messages...

After listening to the debate at last week's Los Angeles school board meeting, business leader Carol Schatz said she was appalled. She had attended to support a resolution to speed the firing of teachers accused of serious crimes. But even this proposal -- tiptoeing on the margins of improving teacher quality -- generated heated objections from the teachers union and its supporters. With some last-minute amendments and sniping among board members, the resolution passed by a single vote. "I came away depressed," said Schatz, who heads the 500-member Central City Assn. of Los Angeles. "If they can barely pass something...

Lawmakers are considering new proposals from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to allow community college districts flexibility to use more part-time instructors as part of the state's massive budget-cutting efforts. The options, if adopted by districts, are meant to help campuses maintain a quality education program with less money, said H.D. Palmer, spokesman for Schwarzenegger's Finance Department. "(We want to) give community college districts greater flexibility to manage with fewer resources and try to weather this fiscal crisis as best they can," Palmer said. Schwarzenegger has targeted community colleges for about $800 million in budget cuts as the state wrestles with a...

A California school district has approved a mandatory homosexual curriculum for children as young as 5 – and parents will not be allowed to remove their children from the lessons. The mandatory program, officially titled "LGBT Lesson #9," was approved May 26 by the Alameda County Board of Education by a vote of 3-2. Students from kindergarten through fifth grade will learn about "tolerance" for the homosexual lifestyle beginning next year. The curriculum is in addition to the school's current anti-bullying program and is estimated to cost $8,000 for curriculum and training. Parents will not be given an opportunity to...

School districts across the state are slashing summer school to deal with the state financial cuts. Los Angeles Unified School District officials announced today that all summer school classes are being canceled at elementary and middle schools, and only credit recovery courses will be offered at high schools. The reductions were prompted by the district's budget deficit, which calls for $131 million in new cuts by June 30 and up to $273 million next year after voters overwhelmingly rejected a package of state ballot measures earlier this month. Once the measures failed, state legislators were left grappling with a $21.3...

SANTA CRUZ -- More than 100 students and staff from UC Santa Cruz gathered at the foot of campus Tuesday to launch a hunger strike aimed at urging administrators to reverse course on budget cuts that opponents say disproportionately affect students of color. About two dozen people, some attending the noon rally organized by the nascent Students of Color Collective, pledged not to take nourishment until a long list of demands is met. The demands include blocking cuts to the Community Studies and Latin American and Latino Studies departments, as well as hiring full-time directors for the American Indian Resource...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will direct his administration to send 5,000 layoff notices to state workers Friday, according to a source familiar with the governor's budget plan. The Republican governor plans to eliminate 5,000 workers by the end of June, ..

Students from 19 states yesterday filed a class-action lawsuit seeking hundreds of millions of dollars from California officials for charging them significantly more than illegal aliens pay to attend state-run colleges. The 42 plaintiffs say California state lawmakers and the University of California board of regents knowingly violated a federal law enacted in 1996 that says any state that offers discounted in-state tuition to its illegal aliens must provide the same lower rates to all U.S. citizens. California has a "unique" statute barring discrimination on the basis of geographic origin, said lead attorney Michael J. Brady. Some students in the...

César Chávez Elementary School 825 Shotwell Street San Francisco, CA. 94110 Voice/TTY (415) 695-5765 Fax (415) 695-5843 Email: sch603@muse.sfusd.edu Silent Language of the Soul (©1990), mural by Juana Alicia & Susan Cervantes, welcomes diversity in our school. Full image (500 K) Si Se Puede (©1996) mural by Susan Cervantes, keeps César Chávez' s struggle for justice and dignity alive. Full image (340K) Our Mission Statement César Chávez School is a community of life-long learners, achievers and activists who support self determination. We incorporate and integrate academic skills, leadership development, and cultural awareness that is relative to the reality of our...

A middle school in Southern California is spending $10,000 a year to teach Advanced Placement Spanish to 35 of its 650 students -- and all but one of them are already fluent in Spanish. Thirty-four of the kids in the AP class are from Mexico or are the children of Mexican immigrants. They all grew up speaking Spanish at home. The program -- the only one of its kind in California -- has outraged some critics who say they are concerned that the AP course wastes public resources – including taxpayer dollars – to teach native Spanish speakers how to...

Hard hit by budget cuts, the California State University system is planning to cut its enrollment by 10,000 students for the 2009-10 academic year, unless state lawmakers provide more money. “We can’t continue to admit more and more students without receiving adequate funding,” Chancellor Charles B. Reed said Monday. It would be the first time in its history that the university system turned away students who met admissions standards, and the announcement was greeted with disappointment and anger. “We have put the education system on a starvation diet, and each and every year it becomes weaker,” said Lt. Gov. John...

The president of the Pacific Justice Institute says a large percentage of California public school teachers are outraged over the California Teachers Association's support for homosexual marriage. According to Pacific Justice Institute president Brad Dacus, the CTA has funneled more than $1.2 million into the fight against California's Proposition 8. That proposition, if passed on November 4, would define marriage as between one man and one woman and amend the state constitution accordingly. Dacus also stated CTA's opposition to Prop. 8 has angered many public school teachers whose CTA membership fees have been used to fund the opposition campaign. In...

HAYWARD, Calif. -- A Quaker math instructor who was fired by Cal State East Bay after she refused on religious grounds to sign a state loyalty oath has been reinstated, university officials said Friday. Marianne Kearney-Brown, a pacifist, was concerned that signing the oath to "support and defend" the California and U.S. constitutions "against all enemies, foreign and domestic" could commit her to take up arms. She was fired Feb. 28 after she inserted the word "nonviolently" before "support and defend" and signed that version.

LOS ANGELES, March 5, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Thousands of homeschoolers in California are left in legal limbo by an appeals court ruling that homeschooling is not a legal option in the state and that a family who has homeschooled all their children for years must enrol their two youngest in state or private schools. Justice H. Walter Croskey in a written opinion said, "California courts have held that under provisions in the Education Code, parents do not have a constitutional right to homeschool their children."The sweeping February 29th ruling says that California law requires "persons between the ages of...

Measure would cut fees, guarantee funding level for community colleges. The community college measure on the Feb. 5 ballot is shaping up to be a battle royale between California's biggest teachers' unions.On one side is the California Federation of Teachers, the state's second-largest teachers' union. It has been the biggest financial backer of the campaign for Proposition 92, which would lower community college fees and set aside a percentage of the state budget for the two-year schools.On the other is the California Teachers Association, the largest teachers' group in the state, which so far has been the sole funder of...

Despite heightened attention to children's health and education issues, a greater investment needs to be made in California's 9.7 million youngsters so they're prepared to compete as adults, a study released Tuesday says. The annual California Report Card, released by Children Now, says the state has made progress in reducing drug and alcohol use, decreasing teen pregnancies and lowering mortality rates. However, the percentage of children covered by their parents' work-based health insurance is declining; while the rates of smoking, obesity, asthma and autism are on the rise, the report said. "Despite some progress, when you measure that against the...

SACRAMENTO - Voters in the eastern San Francisco Bay area suburb of Discovery Bay approved a contentious school bond in June to refurbish the city's middle school. In November, they'll face another ballot measure seeking to build a new high school. And that's not all. They also will be asked to vote on a $10.4 billion statewide education bond - part of a record public works package supported by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and legislative leaders. Altogether, the November election will mark the 19th time in four years a local or state school bond has appeared on a Contra Costa County...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vowed Wednesday to pursue some of the "good ideas" rejected by voters in last year's special election but promised that he will not revive controversial efforts to control union dues or change the state's voter-approved education funding formula. In a wide-ranging interview with The Chronicle's editorial board Wednesday, Schwarzenegger also said he did not regret stumping for President Bush in 2004, and he denied assertions that he has been inconsistent as governor and veered from a conservative agenda in 2005 to a Democratic one this year. When asked how he would describe himself, he said he was...

Money may not grow on trees, but a bumper crop of paperwork will soon be flourishing in California's newly expanded school garden program. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger last week signed a bill that will set aside $15 million for grants to schools that want to establish gardens for their students to tend. Instructional gardens can be a perfect place for young students to learn everything from biology and nutrition to elementary math and research skills. Hundreds of California schools already have them. But this well intended legislative gesture makes a colorful illustration of how Sacramento decides what's best for local schools...

ov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a bill Thursday to end the so-called dance of the lemons in which unsuccessful teachers move from one low-performing school to another and principals are powerless to stop it. ...Those bills were two of more than 100 pieces of legislation that Schwarzenegger acted on Thursday. The governor still has 503 bills that he needs to sign or veto before the Saturday midnight deadline. SB1655 authored by Sen. Jack Scott, D-Altadena, will give school principals the flexibility to reject a voluntary transfer of a teacher and change hiring deadlines so that promising new teachers can be hired...

Schwarzenegger will have final say on bill greenlighting state aid for illegal immigrants. Legislation that would make illegal immigrants eligible for financial aid at California public colleges is waiting a decision by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. The bill — named the California D.R.E.A.M. Act — extends more rights to undocumented students, which legislators estimate numbered almost 600 across the UC system last year. Currently, those students are allowed to obtain in-state residency status if they meet certain criteria, including attendance at a California high school for at least three years. However, undocumented students are not currently allowed to compete for state...

Imagine a company president being ordered by the board of directors to hire any misfit who knocks on the door. It's a crazy scenario -- but it's exactly the way many California school districts operate when an unsuccessful teacher is quietly edged out of a school. As long as the teacher agrees to leave voluntarily, union rules require the principal of any other school in the district with an opening to hire that teacher. The practice, common in large and mid-size urban districts, is so reviled by principals that they've given it a derogatory name. "It's called the Dance of...

FRESNO - The founder of a California charter school was sentenced today to 14 years in state prison for siphoning off taxpayer and private funds she was supposed to be using to educate disadvantaged children from the San Joaquin Valley to Sunnyvale. Fresno County Superior Court Judge R. L. Putnam said former Gateway Academy Superintendent Khadijah Ghafur had shown sophistication, planning and leadership and an ``absolute complete lack of remorse in the face of overwhelming evidence of guilt'' for her embezzlement schemes. Today's sentencing of Ghafur and another Gateway administrator, who received probation, close the cooked books on the Fresno-based...

When California voters approved Proposition 39 six years ago, it was mainly known for lowering the threshold for passing school bond measures. These days, though, the law is in the legal spotlight for pitting two camps of public education against each other in a high-stakes fight over school buildings. Proposition 39 also requires districts to share their campuses “fairly” with charter schools, alternative public schools that are self-governed. How to share fairly is at the center of the dispute. The rationale behind the law is that charters serve students who otherwise would attend district-run schools. Therefore, they should be entitled...

More than half of California's K-12 public education students enrolled in free or reduced-price meal programs last year, the first time that the majority of youngsters were approved for assistance, according to state and federal officials. California was one of a dozen states where the majority of students were certified for such programs, said Jean Daniel, a U.S. Department of Agriculture spokeswoman. In Contra Costa, almost a third of all students signed up for the federally subsidized lunch and breakfast programs, the third school year in a row the county has seen an increase in the percentage of students. Nearly...

SAN FRANCISCO California State University secretly paid millions of dollars to outgoing campus presidents and top executives, in some cases keeping them on the payroll up to five years after leaving office. Neither the chancellor nor trustees at the nation's largest public university system publicly disclosed the "transition pay," lucrative consulting contracts and tenured teaching positions, the San Francisco Chronicle reported Monday. Chancellor Charles B. Reed said his office spent as much as $4 million over the past decade for "special assignments" and paid leave for former campus presidents and vice chancellors. Reed said in a June 23 e-mail to...

A high-decibel debate among education officials, politicians and advocates of bilingual schooling that led to the recent yanking of funds from the state Board of Education boils down to one difficult question: How should California teach roughly a quarter of the state's public school population -- students who are not native English speakers -- how to read and write? The persistent issue moved into the spotlight last week when former governors Gray Davis and Pete Wilson urged Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to resist bilingual activists and stick with California's current approach to teaching English learners how to read and write. There...

SACRAMENTO – Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Tuesday appointed the president of a San Jose Hispanic university to the state Board of Education. David Lopez, 53, replaces the former board president, who resigned unexpectedly June 30. Lopez has been president of National Hispanic University since 2003. The school's goal is to increase college attendance of Hispanics and other typically underserved students. Schwarzenegger has been trying to shore up support among Hispanic voters as he seeks re-election. Also Tuesday, his campaign announced the formation of “Hispanic Families for Arnold,” a group of more than 60 Hispanic community leaders who support his re-election....

In a rare show of bipartisanship, former Govs. Pete Wilson and Gray Davis asked state legislators and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to stand behind curriculum standards and testing they credit with improving performance in the state's public schools. "Standards provide a measure of excellence regardless of one's skin color, family income or ZIP code. We believe that if we set expectations high, students will respond," Republican Wilson and Democrat Davis wrote in an open letter Friday. The governors' letter came a week after Democratic lawmakers stripped funding for the Board of Education from the state budget. Lawmakers had warned the board...

SACRAMENTO-– A California legislative committee passed a bill yesterday that would force all public schools to promote transsexuality, bisexuality, and homosexuality on campus. The California Senate Education Committee approved AB 606 on a 7-to-2 party-line vote, Democrats for, Republicans against. The author is Assemblyman Lloyd Levine, a Los Angeles Democrat. AB 606 would authorize the California Superintendent of Public Instruction to arbitrarily withhold state funds (around 2/3rds of a school district’s budget) from any district that does not adequately promote transsexuality, bisexuality, or homosexuality in its school policies. AB 606 repeals the current state law prohibiting transsexual, bisexual, and homosexual...

My Note: The following was posted on the Tom McClintock's website on June 19, 2006. SB 349 was blocked by Democrats the same day as the quoted speech (April 2005), never making it out of the Senate Education Committee (there were only 3 Republicans on the Committee, out of 12). Senator McClintock authored SB 349, which would rescind the in-state tuition subsidy for illegal immigrants attending state universities and community colleges that was granted by AB 540 in 2001. However, a bill by Senator Gil Cedillo, SB 160, would allow illegal immigrant students to receive state sponsored financial aid in...

FREEP this Survey by the governor's office... Please take the time to do this... It took me about 30 seconds! And is so critical! Debbie To my California friends: This is so simple...all you do is listen to the menu, press 4 buttons and never have to talk to a soul...and it has the potential to help defeat this bill if we all stick together...Some of you, may well, have already done this...but just in case not, I wanted to alert you to the opportunity... Hey friends- Regarding SB 1437 Homosexual Curriculum Ed. Bill This horrendous Bill passed the Senate....

The California legislature is voting on this bill June 6th. It will likely pass, and then it goes to Governor Schwarzenegger's desk to be signed into law. By simply taking a few seconds to call this number and automatically registering your opposition to this bill, you can help influence the governor to veto this extremely damaging legislation. Remember, when you call the governor's office (916-445-2841), you'll want to press the numbers in the following order: "1" - for English, then "2" - for legislation, then "1" - for SB 1437, then "2" - for "no"! (Again, that's: "1, 2, 1,...

This past week, a judge in Oakland, California said he thought the state’s high school exit exam is flawed, because it failed to account for English language learners’ inability to read the test. That is, since the test requires that those with limited English skills take and pass the test in English, it discriminates against those students. Never mind that, no matter where you go in this country, English language skills are an important part of success. Never mind that a student should be able to read the high school diploma they are receiving when they graduate. Insuring competence in...

A growing number of schools and community colleges in California are refinancing voter-approved bonds to raise extra cash, a practice many financial experts say puts an additional burden on taxpayers and may violate state law. The process, known as cash-out refunding, is similar to refinancing a home mortgage to lower monthly payments and take out equity in cash. It's popular because the school districts get extra money - frequently millions of dollars - without going back to the voters. Most use the money to cover construction cost overruns, but critics say California law limits the use of refunded bonds for...

SACRAMENTO – The reappointment of state Education Secretary Alan Bersin to the state Board of Education was confirmed by a Senate committee yesterday, despite union opposition stemming from his years as head of San Diego schools. The California Teachers Association and the California School Employees Association, which represents non-teachers, urged the Democratic-controlled committee to reject Bersin because of his legacy in San Diego. “During his reign in San Diego his leadership style was extremely divisive,” Lyssa Sassman of the CTA told the committee. “It divided the community. It hurt teacher morale, and it did not significantly improve student achievement.” The...

SACRAMENTO – The settlement of a landmark lawsuit two years ago created a $200 million state fund for emergency repairs in low-performing schools throughout California, but little of the money has been spent. Leaky roofs, broken toilets and other problems requiring urgent repair were cited in the suit. Only $247,000 has been spent from the fund – far less than the $30 million paid to attorneys in the suit. Some lawmakers think the fund, which is scheduled to grow by $200 million a year and reach $800 million by 2008, is not being used because school districts with tight budgets...

LOS ANGELES – Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Wednesday embraced Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's school takeover plan, giving the mayor a highly visible ally in his drive to gain control of the Los Angeles Unified School District. “Mayor Villaraigosa has shown bold leadership,” the Republican governor told reporters in Sacramento. “This is exactly the kind of thing that ought to be done. “I am 100 percent behind him on this and if there's a bill that comes down here, I will sign that,” Schwarzenegger said. “We want to help him in that move, because we all know that it is inexcusable that...

HIS other attributes and liabilities notwithstanding, Arnold Schwarzenegger deserves much credit for becoming the only recent California governor to value and promote vocational education — and his timing could not be any better. For years, a college-oriented educational and political elite — pandering to parents who universally consider their progeny to be budding doctors, lawyers, accountants and engineers — has been consciously dismantling the state's once-exemplary system of job-oriented education. Heaven only knows how many tens of thousands of California youngsters have been pushed out of high school without diplomas because adults sent the message that anyone without a college...

There is new evidence that the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) has misled voters as to the actual need for its gargantuan and highly expensive building program. The district's latest estimates show that enrollment in the nation's second largest school district is declining much more rapidly than previously revealed. The precipitous decline could result in some of the schools now being built with bond money sitting as empty and useless as Saddam Hussein's former palaces. The reaction of most citizens of Los Angeles to the mere mention of LAUSD is intense disgust. After all, this district has built a...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's re-appointment of a political rival to the state Board of Education didn't buy him much love in the enemy camp. On Wednesday, the governor gave another term on the board to Joe Nunez, a longtime teachers' union activist and chair of the organization that battled Schwarzenegger in last year's special election. On Thursday, Nunez, in his role as the Alliance for a Better California board chair, filed a five-page complaint with the Fair Political Practices Commission against Schwarzenegger and the governor's old campaign vehicle, the California Recovery Team. It demanded that the FPPC investigate and file a...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has reappointed to the state Board of Education a top political officer of the California Teachers Association, a union which continues to call for the governor's head. Schwarzenegger's office said the reappointment of Joe Nunez, 53, of Stockton was neither an election-year olive branch to the union nor politically motivated in any other way. "Mr. Nunez has more than three decades of experience in education," Schwarzenegger spokeswoman Sabrina Demayo Lockhart said. "The governor is always looking for the most qualified folks... We highly regard each appointment that we make, we look for people who are highly qualified...

SAN MARCOS – Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger touted his education budget Friday in a town hall event at San Elijo School, saying the spending plan will lead to smaller class sizes and improvements to charter schools. Speaking to parents, students and teachers at the San Marcos campus for kindergarten through eighth-grade pupils, Schwarzenegger said his record $54 billion school budget translates to $11,000 per student. “I believe our children should have first call on our treasury,” Schwarzenegger said. “Teachers should have the resources they need to do their jobs well and schools deserve the funds they require to expand, update and...

CARMEL VALLEY ---- The state Department of Education is working to place an initiative for a $50 parcel tax on the November ballot as a way to pump an additional $500 million a year into public school education, State Superintendent of Schools Jack O'Connell said Monday. The tax, an annual assessment of $50 on every property in California, could generate an additional $500 million that would be earmarked specifically for California schools. EdVoice, described by its leaders as an organization of reform-minded philanthropists who support greater student achievement through investment, is backing the measure, said EdVoice president Christopher Cabaldon. The...

Revelations of secrecy and possible self-dealing in the compensation of some of the University of California's top administrators expose a problem deeper than the need for more transparent "communication" of the rationale behind them. The more significant issue is the rationale itself: the goal of privatizing higher education in California, which was made explicit in the recent "compact" between University of California President Robert Dynes, California State University Chancellor Charles Reed and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. The compact substantially cut base public funding for higher education, required both UC and Cal State to impose large and rapid tuition increases as a...

After seven years as the innovative and sometimes abrasive leader of California's second largest school district, Alan Bersin was run out of San Diego by the teachers' union. But you might say he landed on his feet. Bersin is now the education secretary for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. (snip) Bersin is a lifelong Democrat, a graduate of Harvard College, a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford. He is a Yale-trained lawyer who worked as the border enforcement chief for the U.S. Department of Justice before serving as U.S. attorney in San Diego, and he was one of several non-educators to be hired to...

State schools superintendent Jack O'Connell this week called for massive tax increases for the public school bureaucracy while issuing a blunt warning to Gov. Schwarzenegger: "Stop starving our schools." Here's how the governor is "starving our schools." According to the Legislative Analyst's Office, the governor's proposed budget provides $9,508 for every pupil in the California public schools. That's $206 per pupil more than last year. That means every classroom of 30 students will receive $6,180 more next year than it did this year - or a total of $285,240 per classroom. In fact, over the past ten years, total funding...