Statement by John Affeldt on Governor Newsom’s State of the State Education Priorities
On the occasion of Governor Gavin Newsom’s first State of the State address, Public Advocates is issuing the following statement commenting on the Governor’s remarks on public education. Quotes from the statement are to be attributed to John Affeldt, Public Advocates Managing Attorney for Education.
On funding for California’s public schools:
We are thrilled to have a governor finally willing to have the long overdue conversation about sufficient funding for our public schools. The Local Control Funding Formula has made school funding much more equitable but did not address funding adequacy. Despite being the world’s fifth largest economy, California drags along the bottom of states in per pupil expenditures and has fewer adults per student ratios than all but two other states. From Los Angeles to Oakland to Sacramento, our schools are having to choose unfairly between paying teachers living wages, or delivering core services like reasonable class sizes, nurses, counselors and librarians or paying extra attention to students with the greatest needs. These are necessities our public schools must provide to close persistent opportunity and achievement gaps, and which can be met by using the resources our wealthy state possesses. We have offered thoughts for reaching funding adequacy over the years, most recently in an October EdSource op-ed, and we look forward to being part of the urgent conversation on how to fully and fairly fund our schools.
On the appointment of Linda Darling-Hammond to the State Board of Education:
Governor Newsom could not have made a better appointment to the State Board of Education than Dr. Linda Darling-Hammond. Dr. Darling-Hammond is the foremost authority on equity and teacher quality in our public schools in the country. More than a brilliant academic she also has shown herself an astute policymaker and public administrator in her time advising the Obama Campaign, Governor Brown and serving as Chair of the state’s Commission on Teacher Credentialing for the past six years. We look forward to working with Dr. Darling-Hammond on the State Board and to seeing her influence that body to make even greater strides to improve the educational system for all California students.
On plans to increase accountability and transparency in public education, including charter schools:
We also applaud Governor Newsom’s proposal to increase accountability and transparency in public education. For starters, we need a much clearer picture of how $6 billion in supplemental and concentration dollars for high-need students are being spent by districts and schools. Murkiness in charter spending is even worse. In August 2018, Public Advocates published the first study of how well charter schools are performing in terms of being transparent and accountable for public dollars in their required Local Control Accountability Plans (LCAP). We found a shocking lack of public accountability for hundreds of millions of dollars reviewed in the sample. A third of charters failed to even present an LCAP at all. Of those that did, only $15.8 million out of $48.6 million dollars supposed to be dedicated to low-income, English learner and foster students were identified as having been expended and none of those dollars were actually properly justified as having been lawfully spent to serve high need students. We look forward to working with the Administration to further strengthen charter school accountability.
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Public Advocates Inc. is a nonprofit law firm and advocacy organization that challenges the systemic causes of poverty and racial discrimination by strengthening community voices in public policy and achieving tangible legal victories advancing education, housing, transportation equity, and climate justice. www.publicadvocates.org
Off topic–I just tried to post twice; failed twice. Anyway, I highly recommend watching Democracy Now! (can be seen online at democracynow.org) Usually takes a day or 2 to post. The last half hour of the show seen at midnight (date 2/14/19; but was airwed on radio 2/13/19) is an interview w/the authors of “None of the Above: the Atlanta Cheating Scandal, Corporate Greed & the Criminalization of Educators” by Anna Simonton & Shani Robinson (the youngest teacher convicted–pregnant throughout the 8 month trial–who is appealing her conviction {noted–34/35 educators convicted were African American; no white teachers convicted}). The show is a MUST SEE for all of us.
I hadn’t known about the book, but will surely be reading it now.
All of us should have demanded fairness for the Atlanta teachers who were convicted of filling in bubbles on a piece of paper. The testing regime represented a system designed by the wealthy to screw communities of color. The application of RICO statutes to the teachers when the prosecutors haven’t been willing to find any conspiracies in the Whitehouse, nor Republican presidential campaign and inaugural committees shows how pathologically sick the American oligarchy is.
YES; it is really becoming a recognized story of abuse…and a crucial truth comes to light.
I truly hope California is ready to tackle the inequities that that have plagued their public education system after so many years of disinvestment. Both Prop 13 and ever expanding charters have caused devastation. I hope Newsom and Darling-Hammond are a cooperative team that will develop approaches to “lift all boats, not just the DeVosian yachts.”
Neusom’s chief of staff was a CAP senior fellow for 7 years, until 2015.
CAP is funded by Bill Gates. CAP’s person leading its self-appointed role in Puerto Rican disaster capitalism was formerly a Kaplan executive. After Neusom’s chief of staff left CAP, she was at a firm that advised the Silicon Valley Community Fund.
The hope that Neusom won’t be a neoliberal hangs by a thread.
I knew he had neoliberal leanings, but I will give him the benefit of the doubt until he proves otherwise.
Will the Educational Standards for opportunity and achievement
continue to be based on the trivialisation and obfuscation, of
TESTINGand TEST SCORES?
Will the categorisation of people by ‘SCORE-DIVINATION, receive
just condemnation from the foremost authority on equity and teacher quality,
Dr. Darling-Hammond ?