“A rising tide lifts all boats” said Pres. Kennedy. Will Governor-elect Jerry Brown be the leader that raises the tide for every California student from preschool to college commencement? After all, California—specifically Silicon Valley—was the economic engine that drove the nation’s economy just a few decades ago. Our declining high school graduation rate and achievement gap threaten our very economic and societal survival.
On Jan. 3, Jerry Brown becomes governor of California. He has an enormous opportunity and responsibility to develop a new strategic plan including new funding models for preschool through university education.
The obstacles for success are huge. In a recent communication to all Santa Clara County Office of Education staff, Superintendent Chuck Weis writes: “The nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office released its annual report on the state budget. This report forecasts a deficit of $6 billion in the current fiscal year, and a deficit of $19 billion in the following year. The report also projects annual shortfalls of a comparable magnitude up to the year 2016…”
Brown laments the fact that funding has been centralized in Sacramento in too many ways. He wants to move toward more local control of schools, and toward a major reduction of the 62 existing categorical programs to less than 20 based on a “simple pupil weighted formula” based on the specific needs of the students in each district. This move, if implemented, should reduce the number of professional adults who are employed simply to monitor the appropriate expenditures in each of the current 62 categorical areas and serve students more equitably.
It appears from my research that Brown wants to begin his work in education with a new master plan for higher education created by a representative collection of California’s citizenry. He has grave concern about the rising tuition costs and the declining public university research. Brown wants to strengthen the linkage between the community college, CSU and UC systems so that students will not have to take redundant course work. I think he should also pay close attention to the abysmal completion rate of students who enroll, most of whom never complete either a two year AA degree or a certificate for a career technical field.
The governor-elect believes we should revamp our state testing system. I agree that there is far too much time used within a school year for obsolete testing models. The STAR program is 10 years old and needs some rethinking. Year-end testing should be supplemented by very short assessments during the school year. These formative assessments should be used to demonstrate to student and parents where improvement is needed in specific feedback models.
I also concur with Brown’s belief that California public schools need a broader vision on what constitutes an informed and educated student. I applaud his new emphasis on theme or magnet schools to broaden the curricular offerings of middle and high schools. Charter schools have been creating new theme models with some out-of-the-box thinking. The monolithic traditional public school system must begin to move with alacrity to create new educational models to sell to students and parents. One size fits all is not the correct mantra.
One element of his plan that is lacking is his superficial focus on educational technology. I would like to see a bold vision to provide each middle and high school student an electronic tablet for textbook downloads where textbooks can become alive with the integration of video, note taking, vocabulary development etc. It would eventually save districts and the state millions of dollars in textbook purchases and provide a better learning tool for all. Isn’t it time that our students have access to 21st century technological tools?
One more thought I would like to see integrated in a new vision for California schools is an agreement on what every student should have as part of a public-funded education. By this I mean: Should we fund world languages, art, music, drama, physical education, technological skills in addition to science, math, reading, writing, history/social science for all public school students irrespective of the zip code they live within? I think yes!
Lastly, I hope Gov. Brown will use the bully pulpit more effectively than our president has. I agree with Thomas Friedman who wrote in a recent NY Times column that, “we also need better parents—parents who turn off the TV and video games, make sure homework is completed, encourage reading and elevate learning. The more we demand from teachers, the more we have to demand from students and parents. That’s the contract for America that will truly ensure our national security.” Is the tide in California beginning to rise?
Governor Moonbeam didn’t have a plan (or a clue) when he was running CA in the 70’s. He even admitted it back then in an interview, which Meg broadcast repeatedly during the campaign. What makes U think he has one now?
> Governor Moonbeam didn’t have a plan (or a clue) when he was running CA in the 70’s.
According to a political consultant I heard a few days ago, The Big Moonbeam DOES have a plan to do something about the budget deficit: he wants to “tweak” Proposition 13 to raise state property tax revenues.
“Tweaking” apparently includes a variety of sneaky tricks to increase the number occasions where the property tax basis for real estate is raised.
For example, real estate transferred from a parent or estate to a child currently retains the existing tax basis. Moonbeam wants to reset the basis to current market, thus raising the property taxes.
Ditto for business properties transferred from one business unit to another within a company.
Moonbeam has ALWAYS hated Prop 13, and only endorsed it at the last minute when it was certain to pass.
Of course, the Dems are drooling at the prospect of a big gusher of new tax revenues, but the revenue is going to come right out of the hides of struggling businesses that are already slashing jobs and leaving the state.
If you have a private sector job in California, give it a great big hug, because their is a growing chance that it is going bye bye.
I agree with everything except the textbook tablet portion. Last year was my freshman year in college, and I had a philosophy class where we read all of our texts on a Kindle. The interface was so faulty I ended up buying paperback versions of most of the things we’ve read. e-readers work well for things like novels which are read from cover to cover, but frankly I found being able to flip through a stack of pages to be much quicker and much less painstaking than having to constantly enter one location in the text then back to the other. Plus your book runs out of batteries, which is pretty silly.
So, you were one of the few who believed the tripe that was contained in Whitman’s deceptive media assault? I’ll take Brown any day over the disaster that would have been Whitman.
In this episode, “O.Really” unabashedly displays his support for the continuation of the mobbed up Democrat machine politics that have been guiding the decline of California for the past 3 decades.
Of COURSE you’ll take Brown any day, O.Really. We would expect nothing else from you.
There was a lot of tripe, but the interview I was referring to was no trumped up deal. it was an actual interview of Moonbeam admitting that he had NO PLAN when he was first elected governor.
As to your love of Moonbeam over Whitman—let’s talk in a couple of years.
Mr. DiSalvo,
Two years ago you pinned all your hopes and dreams on Obama and his superhuman (you thought) sidekick Arne Duncan. They’ve let you down bigtime.
Today your education saviour-du-jour is Jerry Brown. Don’t you ever learn?
You gotta get those stars out of your eyes Joe, and quit looking for magic solutions. There is no education fairy.
The best education system is designed from the bottom up, not from the top down. Until you figure that out you’re wasting your time… and my money.
While speaking to business leaders in Silicon Valley, California Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jerry Brown announces that he has a plan for the State’s fiscal crisis, but he won’t reveal it until after the election. At first we thought this was just a joke, but then we checked the candidate’s web site. It’s true, he doesn’t have a plan.
http://www.breitbart.tv/jerry-brown-i-have-a-plan-ill-tell-you-after-the-election/
Let the good times roll.
BTW, has Jerry Brown and Uncle Fester been seen together at the same time? Just asking questions.
That’s it? A 15-second out-of-context clip is your basis for condemning Brown? No wonder we are in trouble with a thought process like yours.
“That’s it?”
Nope. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIlzYD4tk78
Let it be said that Novice is always willing to help the mouthbreathers in our midst.
“Please understand, Mrs. Lincoln, that the unfortunate shooting or your husband was out of context”.
“Putting that aside, how did you enjoy the play?”
Please excuse “Just Wondering”. It’s only “O.Really”‘s nom de nom de nom de plume.
Anyway, good comment.
Thumbs Up, Down!
The governor-elect is the product of his party and the true believers in the big tent coalition that make up California’s ruling coalition. The party and its wishes (made up of multiple constituencies) will drive the agenda and not the figure head. Same kind of thing happened nationally and you saw legislative leaders taking the lead on setting agenda items and brokering deals. Figure head is there to talk nice and look good, real governing will be done in private backroom deals and involve rewarding key constituencies.
In terms of reality, California has a balanced budget rule and more obligations than income. Tax increases and further cuts are inevitable. In terms of how government works (poorly and expensively), expect little in the way of reform out of Sacramento.
Innovation and reinvention will come from points around the state where resource deprived and results driven local governments start thinking outside the box and challenge the status quo in terms of traditional public service delivery. It might mean contacting out, or privatizing some services, or even redefining what government does in terms of core services. The reality is the working class and middle class will pay the highest price for the mediocre government we get. We’ll pay more, get less and get nickled-and-dimed for every service we actually do need and use.
…and lastly on education…more money clearly won’t fix the problems, and I’m pretty sure less money won’t either. But at the end of the day the debate is always about the system and money rather than the children, parents and the future. I don’t expect much in the next 2 years from the ruling elites in the education realm. In fact, if present trends continue the privatization of public goods like state universities will continue where tuition and fees create virtual private schools out of public institutions where the wealthy and poor on financial aid can enjoy them and everyone else gets left out. I expect this to be repeated over and over again as user fees replace traditional taxes and parks, carpool lanes, and other public goods are “taken back” from the public domain and made into revenue vehicles. Following this logic, expect some charter schools to start charging tuition to supplement baseline state support.
I mostly agree.
But . . .
> Figure head is there to talk nice and look good, real governing will be done in private backroom deals and involve rewarding key constituencies.
Certainly true in the Obama puppet regime, but not always true.
I think presidents like Truman, LBJ, and Reagan had strong ideas of what THEY wanted to do and kicked butt to make it happen.
If one studies Obama’s calendar closely, between all the trips to the golf course, New York City for “dates”, trips to Copenhagen to pitch the Olympics, fundraising and campaign appearances, etc. etc., one has to ask: “When does the guy actually do work?”
The answer is: he doesn’t. He’s a George Soros sock puppet from central casting trained in teleprompter reading. Obama is not “governing” America. Whoever is programming his teleprompter is the real government.
“I would like to see a bold vision to provide each middle and high school student an electronic tablet for textbook downloads where textbooks can become alive with the integration of video, note taking, vocabulary development etc. It would eventually save districts and the state millions of dollars in textbook purchases and provide a better learning tool for all. Isn’t it time that our students have access to 21st century technological tools?”
No. All students need is a good teacher, an assignment involving research, critical thinking, and writing, a library, paper, and a pen. The idea that technology improves learning is a costly fantasy. We need to teach research, thought and writing – not browsing, cutting and pasting.
“I think he should also pay close attention to the abysmal completion rate of students who enroll, most of whom never complete either a two year AA degree or a certificate for a career technical field.”
Liberals seem to have an all-consuming focus on college. College is not for everyone. We have insufficient promotion and direction to vocational schools for those who aren’t academic. We need machinists, mechanics, carpenters, electricians and other skilled artisans. They don’t need college, and we should fund programs seeking to force them into it.
> The idea that technology improves learning is a costly fantasy. We need to teach research, thought and writing – not browsing, cutting and pasting.
Breathtaking heresey in Silicon Valley, Mr. Silivalleyguy.
But, didn’t Abraham Lincoln do his lessons by writing on the back of a shovel with a piece of charcoal?
And without the benefit of a CTA credentialed teacher, or “bold” educrat visions.
Pity. Abe had potential and probably could have amounted to something if only he had had the benefit of adequate education funding.
The Moonbeam Plan can be boiled down to three steps:
1) Tax.
2) Spend.
3) Goto #1.
All that will result is more of the same continued state-funded failure, egged on by an all-too-enthusiastic CTA leadership telling all of us that we need to do more For The Children… and that anybody who objects to more of the same is just mean-spirited, bigoted, homophobic, or French.
Nowhere in Mr. DiSalvo’s wish list is there any mention of paring back the obvious multi-level administrative bloat that exists in public education.
Nowhere in Mr. DiSalvo’s wish list is there any desire for accountability on the part of the local teachers, or accountability on the part of the local principals for the performance of the students in their charge.
And most notably, nowhere in Mr. DiSalvo’s wish list is there any indication of how he would go about paying for a tablet for every student, or magnet schools, or increased access to art/music/drama programs.
None of us should be surprised that an educrat would come up with such a wish list. Neither should we be surprised that he has no way to pay for his wish list.
All in the Spirit of the Season, I suppose…
Hmmmm.
I wonder of Governor Moonbeam’s plan includes the customary all-out progressive warfare on “Global Warming”?
“PRUDEN: Turn out the lights, the party’s over”
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/dec/2/pruden-turn-out-the-lights-the-party-s-over/
How many sheep, goats, and oxen will the moonbats slaughter and offer up to the drooling bloody lips of the Moloch of the “environment” before the peasants get tired of having their sheep, goats, and oxen rustled and rise up and start burning the pagan witch doctors at the stake.
“The last global warming conference ever?”
http://www.nationalpost.com/opinion/columnists/last+global+warming+conference+ever/3927517/story.html
> Even the press, whose Cancun presence is down considerably compared to Copenhagen, smells the decay of a cause.
So, what is Governor Lunar Emanation going to do with that great big smelly rotting carcass grandly named the California Global Warming Solutions Act that sappy California voters recently re-affirmed, having been told that they would be “good people” if they did so?
I agree with this article . The New Governor must look into every aspect of the budget as it relates to education .
Mr. Brown will have to make choices to fund education regardless how . The Text book dilemma is costing California and school districts billions of dollars , there needs some ‘reform’ here.
Categorical spending is always locked , and there is always an issue on how to free up money to go to the classroom . Jerry Brown must also challenge some of his union benefactors on issues as it relates to education .
Time will tell folks . Gov. Moonbeams over- all was a better choice than Meg . It’s hard to say who was ‘honest’ . A rich billionaire? or a long time ‘career politician’ ?
Let the education battle roll onward!
It gets better…
“California grossly miscalculated pollution levels in a scientific analysis used to toughen the state’s clean-air standards, and scientists have spent the past several months revising data and planning a significant weakening of the landmark regulation, The Chronicle has found.
The pollution estimate in question was too high – by 340 percent, according to the California Air Resources Board, the state agency charged with researching and adopting air quality standards. The estimate was a key part in the creation of a regulation adopted by the Air Resources Board in 2007, a rule that forces businesses to cut diesel emissions by replacing or making costly upgrades to heavy-duty, diesel-fueled off-road vehicles used in construction and other industries.
AB32, which aims to reduce carbon emissions to 1990 levels by the year 2020, has come under intense political attack this year as the state prepares to elect a new governor. Critics cast the law as a jobs killer because of the expenses to industry and businesses in conforming to new pollution regulations. Supporters say it will reinvigorate the state’s economy and create thousands of new jobs in the emerging green sector.
…
California voters, meanwhile, will vote on Proposition 23, a November initiative to suspend AB32 until the unemployment rate – now at 12.4 percent in California – falls to 5.5 percent or less for a year.”
http://articles.sfgate.com/2010-10-08/news/24117225_1_diesel-rule-air-board-diesel-emissions
The net-net is that California’s greener-than-thou moron voters defeated Prop 23 which would have stopped AB32 (which is based on completely bogus science) in it’s tracks.
AB32 comes to us courtesy of CARB.
CARB is just like all the other global warming organizations – complete frauds.
Know who’s a CARB lynchpin?
Why none other than our very own Ken Yeager.
When Ken’s not busy riding his bicycle or banning toys from Happy Meals – he’s working to destroy California’s economy via CARB environmental strangulation.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUUdWVLZuV0
Did Ken Yeager go to the UN’s last Global Warming Toga Party in Cancun?
Was he lonely?