Jan
|
Feb
|
Mar
|
Apr
|
May
|
Jun
|
Jul
|
Aug
|
Sep
|
Oct
|
Nov
|
Dec
June 2008
 | CSBA officers (left to right) President Paul H. Chatman, Immediate Past President Kathy Kinley and President-elect Paula Campbell lead hundreds of chanting, sign-carrying school board members to the state Capitol to deliver stacks of resolutions, petitions and letters protesting Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s budget proposal. |
Web Only Articles
27 June 2008 - New regulations would likely worsen the impact of the federal government’s intrusion on state education policy, CSBA warns.
27 June 2008 - The State Board of Education is accepting comments on a new draft standards-based framework for physical education.
20 June 2008 - Once again, the June 15 constitutional deadline for the Legislature to pass a state budget has come, and once again— as it has for the past 20 years—it’s gone unmet. Still, the Budget Conference Committee, and legislative leadership and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, have had multiple meetings.
19 June 2008 - A joint board meeting in Burlingame last week brought the leadership of CSBA, the League of California Cities and the California State Association of Counties together for “a historic two-day event” focused on the combined power and potential of the state’s local governments.
6 June 2008 - The Senate Subcommittee on Education Finance approved $59.8 billion for Proposition 98 education funding Wednesday, compared with $59.05 billion that was previously approved in the Assembly Budget Subcommittee on Education and $56.8 billion in Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s May Revision of his January budget proposal. As in the Assembly, the Senate panel’s anticipated increase in funding over the May Revision is based on an increase in revenues to the state general fund from unspecified sources.
In California School News
CSBA’s annual Legislative Action Conference drew school board members and administrators from all over the state to Sacramento May 18-19 for a first-hand, expert analysis of the state budget crisis, to learn strategies for engaging their local communities in support of public schools and—most important—to lobby their legislators on behalf of education funding.
CSBA’s Delegate Assembly endorsed new revenue principles to guide the association’s response to the current state budget crisis and considered revisions to the CSBA policy platform during an issue-packed meeting in Sacramento May 17-18.
With a focus on “Educating the Whole Child—Collaborating to Move Beyond Reading and Math,” this year’s CSBA Curriculum Institute, in Monterey July 10-12, will feature keynote addresses by Stanford University’s Denise Clark Pope and Fresno and Long Beach superintendents Mike Hansen and Christopher Steinhauser.
Early bird conference registration opens at 8 a.m. Monday, June 16, for CSBA’s 2008 Annual Education Conference and Trade Show, which will run Dec. 4-6 at the San Diego Convention Center.
The May budget revision has not revised our opposition to the governor’s proposed 2008-09 budget. Under the latest proposal, school districts and county offices of education would be forced to open the new school year receiving nearly $700 less per student in average daily attendance than in the previous year. They would have larger class sizes and larger student-counselor ratios, and before- and after-school programs that were designed to assist students with the greatest need would be eliminated.
Editor’s note: California governors draw up budget proposals in January and then revise them in May to reflect updated revenue projections and other conditions. The state constitution requires the Assembly and Senate to pass a balanced budget by June 15 each year, and the governor then has until June 30—the day before the start of the new fiscal year—to sign the budget. There is no constitutional penalty for missing the deadlines, however.
Echoing concerns voiced by CSBA analysts and other state education policy experts, Legislative Analyst Elizabeth Hill warns that “securitizing” the state lottery—a key component of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s May budget revision, one promoted to stabilize that funding stream for public education—could instead cost schools billions of dollars.
Welcoming nearly 300 participants to the annual Celebrating Educational Opportunities for Hispanic Students conference, held this year in San Jose April 25-57, CSBA President Paul H. Chatman kicked off a lively forum that explored the successes and challenges of educating the diverse student cultures of California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas.
The California Association of Latino Superintendents and Administrators will host its eighth annual Summer Institute July 23-25 at the Hilton Hotel at Torrey Pines in La Jolla.
Extensive new research on how best to close California’s pervasive and troubling academic achievement gap underscores the importance of the task—and the difficulties that educators face when tackling this important work.