But like many of the other districts, Los Angeles Unified struggled to implement the new requirement. Officials said they miscalculated the large number of students who would have trouble with the college-prep coursework. The loss in state funding caused by the recession hampered other districts’ efforts to add intervention programs, making them reluctant to punish students who could not meet the tougher targets.
There are many other unworthy contenders, but Senate Bill 858 may be the most pointlessly cynical legislative act of this still-young century.
Enticed by the fat fees generated by foreign and out-of-state students, who pay supplemental tuition ($24,700 for the 2015-16 school year), the UC system has begun to prioritize cash flow over local connections. More and more parents feel like Cal and others have slammed the door in the face of their children. Just look at the statistics for entering freshman: 45 percent of offers at UC Berkeley went to out-of-state and foreign students; the number was 42 percent at UCLA, 39 percent at UC San Diego and 35 percent at UC Davis.
Without writing its formal obituary, Brown and other politicians, plus the state’s education establishment, have strangled the test-based accountability system that California adopted in the late 1990s.
The implication is the federal government is fueling a vicious cycle of higher prices and government aid that ultimately could cost taxpayers and price some Americans out of higher education, similar to what some economists contend happened with the housing bubble.
According to WalletHub’s analysis, California has the 9th worst school system in the nation, thanks in part to low reading and math test results, a high dropout rate and an abysmal score (worst in the nation) for the high number of pupils per teachers in our classrooms.
“There’s a sense that Prop. 30 solved all school budget woes when, in fact, it only stopped the bleeding,” said Alvarez. “Even if Prop. 30 was extended, that’s not going to give us more money – that’s going to keep us where we are now, and we are appreciative of that but we need to go further.”
Most studies suggest these agreements hike constructions costs by as much as 25 percent because they reduce the number of contractors — and especially lower-cost nonunion contractors — who bid for these projects. As a result, trade unions have had a tough road in convincing districts to embrace them given the impact on costs, even though they tout them as a way to assure labor peace (i.e., no strikes).
Under California’s new local control funding formula, schools get additional money for low-income, non-English speaking and foster youth. In a letter State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson has told districts they can spend that money for across-the-board teacher raises if they can link the increases to better student services. Torlakson was not available for an interview.
About 60% of the 103,117 California applicants were offered a spot on at least one of UC’s nine undergraduate campuses, according to university figures released Thursday. That appears to be a record low acceptance rate, down from about 63% of the 99,955 applicants last year, and about 79% in 1999, the oldest available systemwide figures.
Such one-size-fits-all decrees send the message that anyone who doesn’t have, or even seek, a college degree is somehow a lesser person. And it shortchanges those kids who could be well-paid auto mechanics, machine tool operators or computer technicians – or could do countless other jobs that modern society needs done.
States and state-equivalents spending the most per pupil in 2013 were New York ($19,818), Alaska ($18,175), the District of Columbia ($17,953), New Jersey ($17,572) and Connecticut ($16,631). States spending the least per pupil included Utah ($6,555), Idaho ($6,791), Arizona ($7,208), Oklahoma ($7,672) and Mississippi ($8,130).
The Los Angeles Board of Education on Tuesday retreated from new, more rigorous graduation standards out of concern that huge numbers of students would fail to earn diplomas.
The California Commission on Teacher Credentialing issued 11,497 new credentials in 2013-14, down 30 percent from four years earlier, and enrollments in collegiate teacher-preparation programs have declined by 75 percent in the last decade.
The bachelor’s degree is often promoted as a one-way ticket to a good career and high wages, but recent research shows that an associate degree for two years of study or a certificate of specialized training can also yield middle-class earnings. In fact, salary statistics indicate that workers with these short-term-education credentials can make as much as—or even out-earn—those with a traditional four-year degree.