As CalWatchdog reported previously, supporters of SB 277 discovered that its original wording could be interpreted as unconstitutionally depriving some children of an education.

Last month, the ACLU began raising the constitutional alarm. Kevin G. Baker, legislative director of the ACLU of California’s Center for Advocacy and Policy, wrote the bill’s sponsors to suggest some possible alternatives, according to the Los Angeles Times: 

“In his letter, Baker suggested that a 16-month-old state law, AB 2109, should be given more of a chance to work before taking such a drastic step. That legislation requires health professionals to discuss the benefits and risks of immunization with parents before they are allowed to file belief exemptions, and it has already led to an increase in vaccination rates.“

Lawmakers, however, did not respond. Rather than taking such a circuitous path, they focused on honing SB 277 to a point where the force of the constitutional objections could simply be blunted. The core provisions of SB 277 went unchanged as legislators retooled its language. Co-authored by state Sens. Richard Pan, D-Sacramento, and Ben Allen, D-Santa Monica, the bill “would eliminate personal belief and religious exemptions for vaccines, and unvaccinated children could not attend public or private school in California,” as the San Jose Mercury News noted. Students barred from school attendance would, under the bill’s requirements, be homeschooled.

Narrow changes, big consequences

To evade the possibility of selective educational discrimination, however, Pan and Allen rewrote the bill to permit broader access to educational resources for unvaccinated kids. Summarizing the changes, California Healthline reported that one new provision allowed them to “enroll in private home-schooling programs that serve multiple families, rather than programs that serve just one family,” while another enabled them to “[p]articipate in independent study projects that are overseen by school districts but do not include classroom time.”

Moreover, a small but significant carve-out was created to allay some persistent concerns about the scope of legislative authority over vaccination. Legislators tweaked the bill “to include a new provision that would limit vaccinations to only those 10 vaccines currently required by California Department of Public Health,” according to the Bee. “Parents would be allowed to obtain a personal belief exemption for any vaccine added in the future.” Under state law, the personal belief exemption has been understood to encompass the religious belief exemption.

Although the changes impacting private schooling and independent study made the more immediate difference in terms of the bill’s prospects, the vaccine-limiting provision carried much greater legal significance. Critics of the bill had argued strenuously against eliminating California’s religious and personal belief exemptions altogether, without regard to changes in medical opinion or future legislative requirements.

More hurdles

Although SB 277 in amended form has now cleared the Senate Education Committee and will find stronger support as it heads to the Senate Judiciary Committee, further changes were predicted before its final form takes shape. “Several senators said additional amendments will likely be needed as the bill moves forward to ensure that unvaccinated kids are not denied the education guaranteed to them by the California Constitution,” according to the San Francisco Chronicle. “Several lawmakers said they would like to see more school options for those who aren’t immunized, other than home school and independent study.”

Additionally, the Chronicle reported, the bill may need approval by the Senate Appropriations Committee before moving to the full Senate, and requires five affirmative votes in the Judiciary Committee to proceed. “The five Democrats on the committee,” however, “are either supporters of the bill or have previously voted in favor of it.”

On Thursday, it became clear that this vision was straight out of the California Democratic Party playbook: side with the interests of veteran, mostly white teachers over the educational needs of struggling, mostly nonwhite students.

This isn’t inspiring. It’s not even progressive. It’s reactionary, racially charged interest-group politics.

Fox News has the details:

“New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio took off the gloves in his battle with education reformers, rescinding an agreement for the city to share space with several public charter schools.

“The move undercuts educators, parents and some 700 students at four schools, including Harlem Success 4, one of the public charter school movement’s top success stories, and two set to open in the fall. While agreements at those schools were rescinded, expansion of a fourth school was also blocked. … De Blasio … is an unabashed critic of charter schools and won election with full-throated support of the United Federation of Teachers.”

Minority kids better served by charters than status quo

In California, the biggest charter success stories are usually in heavily minority areas. Why? Because they’re served so poorly by a union-enforced status quo that makes adult jobs more important than student progress at regular public schools.

The same is especially true in New York City, which has an odd and highly controversial system of funneling white and Asian students into elite schools that get more resources, a system that white New York liberals would see as outrageous if their kids didn’t benefit.

De Blasio is one of such hyprocites. His wealthy contributors’ kids can go to top schools. But the kids of the minority voters who overwhelmingly supported him?

No charter schools for you!

“Katherine Bathgate, of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, called the [mayor’s] decision ‘outrageous.’

“’This is an unjustified attack on the city’s most vulnerable youth — 93 percent of students in charter schools in New York City are minorities and 73 percent are low-income,’ Bathgate said. ‘These children and parents don’t deserve to have the rug pulled out from under their feet.’

“De Blasio’s administration previously pulled $210 million in building funds from public charter schools and diverted it to pre-K expansion at traditional schools.

“The teachers union hailed the decision.”

Of course it did.

Will Latino Dems ever object to CTA domination of schools?

I talked to a respected pollster the other day and asked him when fissures finally would open in the California Democratic establishment between the elected Dems who are subservient to the CTA and CFT and the largely-Democratic Latino community, which can’t be happy with the California public school status quo, which is dictated by the CTA and CFT.

He said when a prominent and polished Latino Republican started making the case, then the screwiness of backing Dems would start to sink in with Latinos. May that happen soon, because otherwise nothing will ever change in California’s adult-first public school system.

As for de Blasio, just wait for him to actually voice an inspiring new vision of New York City, much less America. He may look and seem different than Anthony Weiner, Charley Rangel, Mark Green, Al Sharpton and other New York “progressives.” But actions speak louder than height or family history.

SB 687 was on the agenda in the education committee. The bill would allow school districts to permit adults to volunteer time or resources for maintenance or improvement of a school, volunteer time in the classroom or help during the lunch period.

And the bill would prohibit a collective bargaining agreement from prohibiting a school district from using volunteers.

Needless to say, SB 687, authored by Sen. Joel Anderson, R-Alpine, but presented by Sen. Mark Wyland, R-Solana Beach, elicited a great deal of discussion and plenty of union pushback.

Despite the need for maintenance at so many of California’s public schools, most of the committee concern seemed to center around the displacement of union employees with volunteers and “faulty work.” The bill analysis by the committee staff said volunteers “may not have the proper qualifications and training to perform capital projects.”

Committee members cited several school volunteer projects that went awry, including a heating and air conditioning replacement and a broken drinking fountain. “It puts the safety of kids in jeopardy,” said Sen. Marty Block, D-San Diego.

Torres’ comment draws guffaws

“There nothing in the current law preventing parents from volunteering in schools,” said Sen. Norma Torres, D-Chino, who noted that parents and volunteers do community beautification projects at school campuses in her district once a year. “And they are always done side by side with the classified employees, to plant flowers, remove graffiti, to do small things that improve the quality of life of that student while they are there,” she said.

“I am concerned about infrastructure improvements,” Torres said. “I don’t know — I am very concerned that everybody is talking about a water fountain as if it was no big deal. But some of our water fountains here in the Capitol had been infected with worms.”

Her comment prompted some guffaws and giggles.

“I don’t think that’s funny,” Torres said. “Our children deserve better than that. There’s asbestosis — some child may not know until 30 years from now that they got asbestosis from some parent cracking a wall and tapping into those types of contaminates.”

Torres continued: “Lead poisoning — we tried to do a painting project that included painting fences around the school, unknowingly that there was lead. Thank goodness that the classified employees, the people in the building trades that were assigned to work with the parents that day, understood what the volunteers did not understand.”

“I think this is a slippery slope and going down the …  um … wrong tube here with this proposal, and I’m not supporting it.”

Long list of unions oppose bill

After testimony in opposition of the bill by the California Teachers Association, California School Employees Association, California Federation of Teachers, and California Labor Federation – all labor unions or groups — Committee Chairwoman Sen. Carol Liu, D–La Cañada Flintridge, said she would keep the bill in the committee to allow Anderson to make changes to it.

Bill Lucia with Ed Voice, offered support for SB 687, saying it should be a local control, district by district issue, particularly to deal with irregular maintenance in schools.

But don’t expect to see parent volunteers at schools doing anything but planting flowers.

“Matt Damon fervently supports American public schools and increased funding for American public schools. Strangely, however, he has chosen not to send any of his four children to the schools he loves so much.

“The mega-wealthy, left-wing actor divulged his decision in a weekend interview with a British newspaper, reports the Daily Mail. He was promoting a new science-fiction movie, ‘Elysium.’

“Perhaps the most delicious part of the story is Damon’s wacky rationale: he says public schools just aren’t sufficiently ‘progressive’ to suit his politics.

“Damon, 42, is moving to Los Angeles from New York. Just like millions of Americans, except in the completely opposite way, he claimed he doesn’t ‘have a choice’ when it comes to private schooling.”

That’s from the Daily Caller.

What makes it even more hypocritical is that this isn’t a situation like a president deciding to send his kids to Sidwell Friends in Washington D.C. both because D.C. schools stink and for security reasons. Damon has moved to Beverly Hills, according to reports. Beverly Hills High School is considered a very good public school. The elementary schools in Beverly Hills also get good marks. But they’re not good enough for Damon, the massive hypocrite.

By Chris Reed

The war of words between Gov. Jerry Brown and his Texas counterpart, Rick Perry, over California’s business climate has led to the usual snide comments about the Lone Star State from the media annex of the Democratic establishment. The Fresno Bee’s editorial page comments are typical:

“Poor Texas. With its high dropout rate, lack of health insurance coverage, and wide economic disparities, the Lone Star State appears to be desperate, or least its governor is.

“How else to explain Gov. Rick Perry’s radio ads attempting to lure businesses from California?

“‘Building a business is tough, but I hear building a business in California is next to impossible,’ Perry says in the ad. ‘This is Texas Gov. Rick Perry, and I have a message for California businesses: Come check out Texas.’

“Yes, come check out Texas. Check out a state that ranks last in the percentage of its population with high school diplomas. Come check out a state that is last in mental health expenditures and workers’ compensation coverage. Come check out a state that ranks first in the number of executions, first in the number of uninsured, first in the amount of carbon dioxide emitted and first in the amount of toxic chemicals released into water.”

But now, as Paul Harvey would say, the rest of the story, courtesy of California lawmaker turned Texas think tanker Chuck DeVore. He destroys the idea that schools are inferior and poverty is higher in his new state:

“While California has more bureaucrats, Texas has 17 percent more teachers, with 295 education employees per 10,000 people, compared to California’s 252.

“The two states’ educational outcomes reflect this disparity. If we compare national test scores in math, science, and reading for the fourth and eighth grades among four basic ethnic and racial categories — all students, whites, Hispanics, and African-Americans — Texas beats California in every category, and by a substantial margin. In fact, Texas schools perform consistently above the national average across categories of age, race, and subject matter, while California schools perform well below the national average. …

“While California seeks more ways to tax success, it excels at subsidizing poverty. The percentage of households receiving public assistance in California was 3.7 percent in 2009, double Texas’s rate of 1.8 percent. Almost one-third of all Americans on welfare reside in California.”

Back to you, Fresno Bee. More snark! Less filling!

By Chris Reed

Gov. Jerry Brown’s weekend call for teachers to go all out for Prop. 30 and his agenda in the remaining two weeks before the election needs to be seen in the context of all the different ways school employees have illegally used taxpayer resources to promote ballot measures in California.

FPPC regulations built off unequivocal California Supreme Court decisions have made clear that public funds should not be used to urge the public to raise its own taxes or to take a stand on ballot or legislative matters.

But with the all-powerful California Teachers Association and its junior partner, the California Federation of Teachers, seeing the Nov. 6 vote as being key to their continued stranglehold on the state, they won’t need much encouragement from the governor to flout the law.

If Proposition 30 fails, some school districts will be so strapped for cash that parents, administrators and maybe even teachers finally will have an honest discussion of the nonsensical assumptions driving the K-12 business model.

In that model, most teachers get automatic raises just for time on the job, not for their perfomance.  They can secure additional raises through collective bargaining, which is easy when times are good because teacher unions often control school boards, or by taking additional graduate courses that have no positive effect on their teaching skills. And not only do teachers have very strong job protections, nearly all the tim, they are granted tenure after minimal serious scrutiny. Even liberal newspapers realize this is nuts.

These interrelated issues drive both the school budget and the teacher accountability crises. Automatic raises without regard to teacher performance hollow out school budgets, unless the economy is booming and revenue is rolling in. These pay practices explain veteran teachers’ adamant battles on behalf of the status quo.

Prop. 32

Which brings us to the second existential threat to teachers’ hegemony over California: Proposition 32. Banning automatic political contributions from teachers every paycheck instantly would change the balance of power in Sacramento as well as in the many local districts where board majorities are elected thanks to local teacher union spending.

So with or without Gov. Jerry Brown’s encouragement, here’s what we’ll see the next 15 days: Teachers giving students political fliers to take home to their parents; teachers holding rallies on school time and school property; administrators getting on intercoms to exhort adult employees to get out and vote; and a vast use of government emails, phone banks and more to push for Prop. 30 and against Prop. 32.

The lawbreakers have nothing to fear. No one in this Democratic-but-often-undemocratic state ever enforces the laws banning public employees from using taxpayer resources to encourage taxpayers to pay higher taxes or to encourage taxpayers to protect their union oppressors.

The comfort zone that teachers unions and their elected puppets feel in flouting the law just keeps expanding. In San Diego, when reporters began asking questions of school board President John Lee Evans over his use of school district email to push for passage of Props. 30 and 38, Evans not only wasn’t contrite — he had the infinite gall to suggest his First Amendment right to free speech was under assault.

But if the California Teachers Association and the California Federation of Teachers have a lot at stake with Props. 30 and 32, so do all Californians. Education reform that focuses on teacher performance and accountability is now so mainstream in U.S. politics that President Barack Obama embraces it with little backlash.

Yet in the Golden State, even as teachers kill bills to speed the firing of classroom predators, the argument that teachers are fighting for the best interests of students is somehow accepted by many parents and far too many in the media.

If only they would listen to Woody Allen. In his 1973 comedy, “Sleeper,” Allen constructed a post-apocalypse world that contained an in-joke for New York audiences: the nuclear war that obliterated the planet occurred after “a man by the name of Albert Shanker got hold of a nuclear warhead.” That was a reference to the Manhattan teacher who turned the teachers union movement toward militancy beginning in 1959. Shanker shut down New York City schools in 1967 and 1968 with illegal strikes — one of which lasted 36 days.

And after he died, who gave him the Presidential Medal of Freedom? President Bill Clinton.

It’s about time Californians figured out what Woody Allen did 40 years ago. Teachers unions are not remotely about protecting kids. They are about protecting their own power. The students? Many individual teachers are wonderful and dedicated. But to their unions, kids are props — cute, handy props. Props used to prop up Prop. 30 — and to pull down Prop. 32.

Kids finally are figuring it out.

According to the Huffington Post, a 13-year-old girl in Rochester, N.Y. was harassed by public school officials after she wrote a paper comparing her school to “modern slavery.” She was forced to leave for another school. The girl is Jada Williams and she wrote in an essay about the great abolitionist Frederick Douglass, according to the HP, “making comparisons between a slavemaster discouraging Frederick Douglass from learning to read and modern education struggles in her district.”

She young scholar wrote:

“When I find myself sitting in a crowded classroom where no real instruction is taking place I can say history does repeat itself. I feel like not much has changed. Just different people. Different era. The same old discrimination still resides in the hearts of the white man.” 

What a brave little girl! She gives me hope for America.

The HP continues:

“Williams said she began to feel singled out by teachers after turning the essay in to her English class, earning ‘Ds’ — a change from her previous ‘As.’ She also said the school’s treatment of her changed in general, the Rochester City Newspaper reports.

“‘I love to go to school and I feel like they’re taking that away from me,’ Williams told the paper while fighting back tears.

“Her parents transfered her to School No. 19, but after witnessing several fights in the first few days of her attendance, Williams told the City Newspaper she doesn’t feel comfortable there either.”

What is going on in our schools?

Well, I guess we know: slavery, prejudice, ignorance, violence.

Shut down these prisons and end truancy laws. Give parents back their tax money, so they can have total control over their kids’ educations. Poor children would be given scholarships.

Call it the New Abolitionism: Free the children!

March 8, 2012

America spends something like $400 billion a year on K-12 public-school education. That’s $400,000,000,000.00.

Here’s the result:

Feb. 9, 2012

Here’s yet another outrage from our “public” school system: GPS systems for kids who play hooky. I thought the 13th Amendment abolished slavery. Reports the Orange County Register:

ANAHEIM – Frustrated by students habitually skipping class, police and school officials in Anaheim are turning to GPS tracking to ensure they come to class.

The Anaheim Union High School District is the first in California to test Global Positioning System technology as part of a six-week pilot program that began last week, officials said.

Seventh- and eighth-graders with four unexcused absences or more this school year are assigned to carry a handheld GPS device, about the size of a cell phone.

They aren’t strapping the Stasi-devices to the kids — yet. Explains another Register article:

Miller Sylvan, regional director of the firm helping with the GPS program, talked about tracking chronically truant students:

Q. Why don’t you just attach the GPS devices to the students?

A. We don’t want to criminalize the kids or have them wear any bracelet or something around their ankle that would stigmatize them. The students are frequently entering a code and interacting with the device, so we think it’s the best way to let them carry it….

Q. Why do the students have to enter a code when it’s a GPS device that could track them at any time?

A. We want the students to be interactive with the device and take steps to let us know where they are. That helps teach them the discipline they need to be responsible. It gets them thinking about their schedule.

Get that? Discipline means following orders.

As technology improves, you can bet they’ll implant the Stasi-devices in the kids’ bodies.

Does anybody need any more explanation about why government schools really are prisons?

And the schools always blame the kids and parents, instead of blaming the school system. Consider that Anaheim High School, with 3262 students the biggest in this district,  scored an abysmal 699 (out of 1,000) on the 2009-10 API Growth measure. Could it be the kids are skipping school because it’s boring and dumb?

Like government-run schools themselves, the GPS tyranny is a way to indoctrinate young Americans into dutifully following orders in a tyrannical system.

We don’t need to “reform” this edu-fascist system, but to abolish it. Dissolve all government-run schools and repeal truancy laws. Doing so also would solve our state budget problems. How will parents pay for schooling? They could home-school. And we’ll cut their taxes so they can afford private or parochial schools.

But even letting kids roam the streets would be better than making them carry GPS spy devices.

Free the children!

Feb. 17, 2011

I thought the 13th Amendment abolished slavery? Not for Kelley Williams-Bolar, who is being enslaved in a prison and with “community service” because she sent her kids to the wrong school in the government’s monopoly-school system (itself a form of slavery for children).

Even though this took place in Akron, Ohio, it well could happen here in California. Here’s an article on it. And here’s a video:

Jan. 26, 2011