We all agree that there is a deep need for additional resources in California public schools - and that California being 46th in the nation in per pupil funding is having an extraordinarily negative impact on Oakland's students (see the bottom of this post for information about possible mid-year cuts).

For much of our brief history as an organization, GO has been working with the Oakland education community to contend with the current budget crisis. Mid-year budget cuts, teacher layoffs, decimation of classified support staff, etc. - more than $122 million less in OUSD over just the last two years!

One of GO's founding goals was to give Oaklanders a larger voice in statewide education policy. Throughout last year's budget meetings, parents and educators asked us about what can be done and what ideas are out there to bring resources to California public schools. In response, at the end of the summer, our staff met with Education Trust West, PICO California, and Children Now to "get smarter" about state finances and the potential for legislation or an initiative in 2012 to address the financial crisis. 

We learned that several statewide groups are developing frameworks and language for an education initiative for the 2012 ballot. Each has strengths, weaknesses, and politics. At this point, a few key ideas are guiding our general approach to the 2012 statewide opportunity:

1. Something needs to be done. Statewide policies and lack of funding are holding back the work to provide quality education for all Oakland students. We need resources and reform.
2. No bill or initiative will satisfy all parties. It's important that we move on some set of policies that will be better for students rather than continue to support the status quo.
3. Oaklanders want and need to participate. GO's role is to give our network opportunities to get involved.

With this in mind, I want to draw your attenton to two statewide efforts:  The 2012 Kids Plan and "Educate California."

1.  The 2012 Kids Plan:  Children Now has developed a framework for a 2012 ballot initiative -- the 2012 Kids Plan. They're hoping this framework will bring the major camps -- labor, school administrators, PTAs, business, community, reformers, etc. -- to the table around a practical initiative. GO joined Superintendent Smith as an early endorser of the framework. I am asking that you take a moment to read the materials and consider signing on as an endorser to help build support for a framework which increases funding and makes necessary changes.

• Click here to learn more, get involved, and support the 2012 Kids Plan.
• Click here for more information on the 2012 Kids Plan from John Fensterwald's Thoughts on Public Education blog.
• Click here to see the Kid's Plan in Spanish.
• Haga clic aquí para ver el Plan de niños de 2012 en español.

2. "Educate California:"  Educate Our State is launching a parent-driven "Educate California!" campaign to grow its statewide parent organization and build a signature gathering campaign for additional funding and reform, balancing the need for both with the current political realities.
 
Four representatives from the GO network - including myself - participated in "Camp Educate" with Educate Our State over the weekend of November 11-13, 2011. Our main takeaway is that the parent voice calling for action is critical to pushing legislators to change the status quo in the fall 2012.

The weekend was a mixture of organizing, advocacy, and campaign training for signature gathering effort in support of a statewide initiative. Speakers included former CA Superintendent of Public Instruction Delaine Eastin, Los Angelos Superintendent John Deasy, and Assemblywoman Julia Brownley.

Email katherine@educateourstate.org to get involved with the statewide campaign.

• Click here for the live blog from the Camp Educate weekend.
• Click here for the LA Times article about Camp Educate.

Now is the time to get involved with these critical campaigns. Please let us know if you have additional perspectives and resources to guide this piece of GO's work.

My best,

Jonathan
Co-Founder

P.S. We're having a Great Oakland Public Schools Holiday Party a week from this Friday on December 2nd at Kincaid's. We hope you can make it! We're buying the food and the drinks are just $4. Come kick off the Oakland holiday season with us.

More State Budget Background and Resources

California's public schools face another round of severe mid-year budget cuts--including the possibility of a shortened school year. According to an article in the November 17 San Francisco Chronicle, at this point the mid-year cuts appear imminent. In mid-December, state officials will make the final decision about whether the cuts need to be made or not.

This summer, the California legislature passed AB 114 as part of a last minute budget deal. It was passed at the last minute, with no public debate, and with Governor Brown's support. AB 114 requires that for the current school year, school districts must (1) assume that they will receive the same level of funding as they did last school year AND (2) keep the same level of staffing that they had last year. 

However, in passing AB114, California forecasted a $4 billion increase in tax revenue. Therefore, it also includes triggers for two tiers of automatic cuts if California does not receive all $4 billion of the projected increase. For K-12 education, schools will face up to $1.5 billion in mid-year cuts if California receives $2 billion less in taxes than it forecasted. According to Thoughts on Public Education, "The $1.5 billion in [K-12 education] cuts would include the $248 million in home and school transportation payments - more than half of funding for the program - and $1.1 billion in standard revenue limit funding for districts. The latter equals a cut of $180 per student, about 3 percent of state tuition payments."

If there is a mid-year cut, AB 114 allows school districts to shorten the school year by up to seven school days.

Oakland Unified shared a memo about the impact of AB 114 at its August 10, 2011 board meeting and drafted a letter to the governor sharing the district's concerns.

John Festerwald, at Thoughts on Public Education, has a great summary of AB 114.  Highlights include:

1. "Requiring that each school district, regardless of its individual circumstances, assume the same level of funding as last year and maintain staffing and program levels consistent with that. Legislators are dictating this even though they admit there's a good chance that revenues may not bear that out. Many districts, taking no chances, set aside in reserve $350 per student to cover a possible $2 billion revenue shortfall. Now the Legislature is saying abandon that caution and rehire teachers and staff and reinstitute programs as before, Hulsizer said. School Services observed that even with the same amount of state revenue, expenses and other factors- health care costs, depletion of federal stimulus money, step increases in salaries - require adjustments."
2. "Eliminating the option that districts would have over the next 45 days to make staff adjustments if they view this as necessary. Instead, the Legislature is suspending that capability under the law for the next year. As School Services noted, 'This provision is clearly designed to protect union positions, even if the district cannot afford to pay for the services.'" "But the new president of the California Teachers Association, Dean Vogel, doesn't see it this way. Calling from the National Education Association convention in Chicago, he said that suspending the August layoff provision will provide stability to school districts and set the right spending priorities. 'This will give districts, teachers, and students assurance that once they begin the school year, the learning environment will not be disrupted.'"
3. "Suspending key provisions for one year of AB 1200, under which school districts must self-certify that they can balance their budgets in the current year and one and two years into the future. Those that cannot must work with their county office of education to align revenues and spending. This year 13 districts were negatively certified in the latest filing, indicating they could not balance their budgets this year and next. An additional 130 districts - nearly one in seven - acknowledged trouble balancing their budgets two years out. AB 114 would require districts to assume the same revenue as this year and prevent county offices from seeking evidence of financial stability for the next two years.  Blattner likens this to 'sending riders in a dirt-bike race with blindfolds on. You have got to see what's coming around the corner.'"

Editorials

 1.  The Sacramento Bee, A case study in how not to set school policies, July 1, 2011
Trying to save 20,000 teacher jobs, preventing class sizes from going up all over the state, is a laudable goal. But cobbling together a major education bill that combines gimmickry, big financial risks to school districts and reductions in local authority to handle finances flexibly - is less than laudable.

2. The San Diego Union-Tribune, State law is stunning in its irresponsibility, July 2, 2011
The prospect of an on-time adoption of the 2011-12 state budget offered beleaguered California school districts some hope for stability. Instead, the Legislature and Gov. Jerry Brown, at the behest of the California Teachers Association, secretively enacted a school-finance law that may yield chaos in many districts - and nearly guarantees it in San Diego Unified.

3.  The Los Angeles Times, Stealth attack on California's schools, July 08, 2011
AB 114 was passed to appease the California Teachers Assn., to the detriment of school districts, which are already in serious financial straits.  Ham-fisted yet pandering, and fiscally irresponsible too, AB 114 perpetrates an abuse of state power that could wreak budgetary havoc in local school districts. But in that case, why hasn't the news been filled with details of this bad-government bill as it wended its way through the Legislature? Because it was hurriedly and secretively passed, quite literally in the dark of night, with no committee hearings and almost no public notice, and then quickly signed by Gov. Jerry Brown.

4.  San Francisco Chronicle, Democrats' political payoff to teachers, July 12, 2011
It was bad enough that Gov. Jerry Brown and Democrats in the California Legislature "balanced" the 2011-12 budget on the assumption that tax revenue from the fledgling economic recovery would exceed earlier projections by $4 billion. But that was only one of their last-minute rolls of the dice. It turns out that Brown and his fellow Democrats also locked in a promise to the teachers' union that none of its members would be laid off in 2012 - regardless of what happens with the economy.

5. Thoughts on Public Education, California's Greek tragedy: New lows in mortgaging our children's future, July 8, 2011
Like previous California budgets this one simply kicks the financial can into the future, forcing our children to pay for our current spending. But even worse, lawmakers adopted a new technique of balancing the budget based on $4 billion that might appear if the economy improves. And they added a series of mandates that force local school districts and county offices of education to adopt unsound financial practices in an apparent state-level attempt to protect local union jobs.