Beyond Chron has a good piece on school financing with this chart from Ed-Source, also a good resource for education wonk-a-bees. (Like me.)
Good to look at all of this as schools are asked to put together budgets for next year and some site committees are asking questions – like do we need some administrators and do we need expensive consultants. Check on the school near you.
Earlier Today
Check Rachel’s postings if you’re looking for something fun this week.
If not, keep reading.
When Cards are Too Smart
Or not smart enough. Translink will soon be changed to Clipper although EZRider may or may not link to whatever it’s called. Too bad they don’t have a card that can figure out a way to finance public transportation without raising fees, cutting service and degrading the lives and proficiency of operators. In the meantime, let’s hope the smart card does not meet the same fate as Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper and Jack Nicholson in the original Easy Rider.
A Murder With No Apparent Motive.
This from Bay City News Service by way of SF Appeal on the arraignment of Maximo Hong Fajardo Jr., 32, who plead not guilty in the murder–by pillow–of Barbara McIver at the Convalescent Center at 5767 Mission St.
Unemployment Statistics that Look Better than Life
So, here from SF Weekly we have the good news on the unemployment statistics, but the bad news from those who gather every morning at Shotwell at 18th looking for work.
I agree that SFUSD needs to keep cuts away from the classroom, and should work hard to redirect all possible resources from administration to classes. One glaring example this school year has been an allocation of $3.2 million for “professional development” to a New York organization called the National Urban Alliance. Not that “professional development” is a bad thing, but it is not a higher priority than keeping our schools from losing teachers.
That said, the BeyondChron article on school finance gives misinformation, including a badly misleading chart purporting to compare SFUSD to two other districts, oblivious to some major confounding factors that make the comparison invalid. (Two examples. One: SFUSD is both a city and a county school district. The other districts cited are not — many expenses that are entirely separate in those region’s county school budgets are included in SFUSD’s. Two: The two districts cited have significantly higher class sizes than SFUSD, which completely changes the budget picture.)
I find it very troubling that the claims in the BeyondChron article imply that all SFUSD needs to do is eliminate what the supporters of Prop. 13, back in 1978, called “waste, fraud and mismanagement” in the central office, and then voila — all would be well. That gives fuel to the forces who believe that schools don’t need more funding.
A hint — any time anyone tells you “it’s simple,” at least about anything in education, your BS detectors should be going off full blast.