See also Ed Source

Molly Munger’s Prop. 38 Is Spoiling Jerry Brown’s Prop. 30. She’s Not Sorry.
Both proposals could fail, leaving Brown and the Legislature to grapple with huge budget cuts they’ve threatened to make to schools and other government programs. LA Weekly

L.A. Schools Chief Urges Union Cooperation on Federal Funds
The union fears the grant won’t cover all the costs of implementing the district’s proposal. LA Times

See also LA Daily News and Ama Nyamekye’s editorial in the Huffington Post

LAUSD Loses Appeal in Settlement of Teacher-Layoff Lawsuit
The California Supreme Court refused Wednesday to overturn an appellate court ruling invalidating a landmark settlement that would have exempted dozens of struggling Los Angeles Unified schools from seniority-based layoffs. Daily News

Innovation at L.A. and Long Beach School Districts May Pave Way for Others
The innovative actions by eight school districts — including LAUSD and LBUSD — who have come together to form a consortium that plans to seek federal funds to be targeted toward students is encouraging. Daily News (editorial)

Charter Schools Surpass 1,000 Campuses in California
The popularity of charter schools continued to grow this year as the movement marked its 20th anniversary, with 109 new campuses bringing the statewide total to 1,065, an industry association said Wednesday. The California Charter Schools Association reported that enrollment in charters grew by 17 percent, increasing by 70,000 students to 484,000. Daily News 

Federal Audit Finds Lax Charter School Oversight in California
In this state, they found that the people assigned to inspect charter schools were unqualified and didn’t know what was expected of them. KPCC

Report: LAUSD Misses Mandated Special Ed Targets
Los Angeles Unified schools failed to meet targets for providing speech therapy and other instructional services to special-education students as required by the settlement of a 1993 lawsuit, according to a report released Wednesday. Daily News

As you may recall, Proposition 38, sponsored by the well-to-do Molly Munger, would raise a bit more money than Prop 30, sponsored by Governor Jerry Brown, but wouldn’t avoid “trigger cuts” set up by Brown, which target public education.

Both measures are uncertain to win enough popular support (see: Proposition 30 support dips below 50%, survey finds). The “No on 30” campaign has received more than $32 million, much of it coming from Molly Munger’s libertarian brother, Charles Jr. And it recently got an extra infusion of cash from what the Sacramento Bee calls “a shadowy Phoenix-based group” called Americans for Responsible Leadership (see: Mystery Arizona group sends $11 million to fight unions, Gov. Jerry Brown).

New Lottery Forecast Adds Badly Needed Dollars to Schools
State lottery sales could reach close to $5 billion during the 2012-13 fiscal year, according to an updated forecast from the California Department of Education. As a result, the CDE is increasing its projection for what schools can expect to receive in lottery support in the coming year from $150 per unit of average daily attendance to $154 per ADA. SI&A Cabinet Report

Education and the 2012 Election: A Strategist’s Analysis
Tami Abdollah interviews Democratic strategist Darry Sragow about education’s role in the 2012 election. KPCC

Prop. 30’s Big Donors Include Big Companies
The lion’s share of campaign donations for Gov. Jerry Brown’s tax-raising Proposition 30 has come from public employee unions, but the effort also has the backing of many businesses, some of which do not appear to have a direct connection to the initiative. SF Gate (via Barbara Jones)

Prop 30 Challenge: Voters Back Money for Schools Not Sacramento
The fundamental danger for those seeking additional funding for schools lies in California voters’ deep and persistent skepticism about whether the state can be trusted to use resources well. As a recent PPIC report confirms, voters distrust politicians and believe that a large share of public spending is wasted, in education as in other sectors. Persuading them that more educational spending will lead to better outcomes for students is a huge political challenge. Ed Source

Explaining the Difference Between Props 30 and 38, Dueling Tax Initiatives
Education advocates in California say public schools will either sink or swim based on the outcome of two competing tax initiatives on the November ballot — Proposition 30 and Proposition 38. While both aim to protect students from more devastating budget cuts, they go about it in very different ways. KQED

Late yesterday afternoon, the LA Times reported that the California State Superintendent of Education was calling on Munger to ease up on her criticism of Brown’s Prop. 30 (Schools chief urges Molly Munger to drop negative ads). Since then, the San Jose Mercury News has fact-checked Molly Munger’s attack ad against Prop. 30  and found it wanting (Anti-Prop. 30 ad is misleading because it implies it won’t help schools). The SF Gate has reported a  rift between Munger and her main ally, the state PTA (Trouble brewing between Munger, PTA). Last but not least, a parent advocate writing at EdSource called on Brown and Munger to get their act together lest voters become confused and neither ballot measure passes (A parent’s plea).

Brown’s Prop. 30 is polling ahead of Munger’s initiative, and if both initiatives won voter approval the one with higher approval would prevail.  But obviously Prop. 30’s backers are worried.

The competition between the two is getting ugly.  A few days ago, Munger appeared on NBC News to call Governor Brown’s advertisements “utterly deceptive.” She’s then released an ad bashing Prop. 30, something that Democrats have been afraid of (for more, see John Fensterwald’s post at Ed Source). Prop. 30 is slightly ahead in the polls and seems the more likely of the two to pass.

TV News covered the speech as well, including CBS, ABC, and KTLA Channel 5:

Campaign Launched To Promote Arts Education In L.A. Unified
The campaign, called “Arts Matter,” consists of messages on “hundreds of billboards, bus shelters, wall postings, mall media and bulletins,” according to organizers. Those signed up to tweet encouraging messages include singer Justin Bieber and entertainer/producer Ryan Seacrest. LA Times

Rift Widens Between Backers Of Ed Initiatives 30 And 38
All pretense of goodwill is gone between backers of the two competing education tax measures on November’s ballot. Ed Source

State Board of Ed’s Kirst Calls On Munger To Ditch Ads Attacking Governor’s Tax Plan
Mike Kirst, the governor’s appointed president of the California State Board of Education warned that proponents of Proposition 38 “are leading us down a dangerous path and imperiling the education we all care about.” SI&A Cabinet Report

Layoffs Claim L.A. Band Teacher Who Turned Novices Into Champions
Ray Vizcarra resurrected Fairfax High’s band, teaching students to play instruments from scratch. They soon won all-city competitions. But L.A. Unified had to cut jobs, and he lacked seniority. LA Times

A new Los Angeles Times / USC poll shows support for Governor Jerry Brown’s Prop 30 ballot initiative – which would temporarily raise income tax on high earners – has slipped to 54%, down 10 points from March. Despite the erosion, Democratic voters still overwhelmingly favor it, 69-20%.  Meanwhile, Molly Munger’s competing tax measure, Prop 38, has the support of only 34% of voters.

This seems a good time for an update on the three initiatives that will have the biggest impact on LAUSD and public education in California: Propositions 30, 32 and 38. The expenditure data is from a nice interactive feature on the Los Angeles Times website.

Proposition 30
The initiative, being pushed by Governor Jerry Brown, would temporarily raise income taxes on those making more than $250,000 (for seven years) and increase the sales tax by a quarter of a cent (for four years). The money would allow the state to avoid automatic “trigger cuts” – which were designed by Brown himself – that would fall mostly on public education, to the tune of $6 billion. Detractors say this measure won’t result in more money for schools.

Money raised in support: $39.8 million
Money raised against: $1.1 million
Biggest donor in support: California Teachers Association, $6.1 million
Biggest donor against: Charles B. Johnson, $200,000

Brown has worked hard to raise money to support the measure, but will it be enough to get it to the finish line?

Proposition 32
Prop 32 would prohibit unions and corporations from using automatic employee paychecks deductions to fund political campaigns. This ban would have the biggest impact on unions, which rely on paycheck deductions to fund their political operations.

Money raised in support: $9.3 million
Money raised against: $44.9 million
Biggest donor in support: American Future Fund, $4 million
Biggest donor against: California Teachers Association, $18 million

The top priority for unions in California this year is to defeat Prop 32, which it sees as an attempt by business interests to shut labor out of the political process – Common Cause and campaign finance reformers agree.  A new LAT / USC poll finds that voters don’t like the measure – 44% oppose the ban while 36% support it. Labor is money pouring in to defeat it.

Proposition 38
The other tax proposal to address the states budget woes is sponsored, and almost entirely bankrolled, by civil rights attorney, Molly Munger. Prop 38 would raise personal income tax rates on a sliding scale, over a 12 year period.  With an estimated $115 billion going exclusively to schools, it garnered support from the California State PTA, but alas, not the teachers unions.

Money raised in support: $28.2 million
Money raised against: $26,000
Biggest donor in support: Molly Munger, $28 million
Biggest donor against: California Chamber of Commerce, $23,500

Prop 38 has a tough hill to climb. The latest LAT / USC poll has fifty-two percent of voters opposing it with 34 percent supporting it.

• Student attendance grows at LAUSD: A slightly higher percentage of students within LAUSD enrolled in school compared to last year. Patch

• School closures, employee cuts, selling land debated by near bankrupt Inglewood Unified: School district staff are recommending the school board cut $14 million from their budget. The board has “taken steps to declare bankruptcy in January,” although it can avoid that if it cuts enough. KPCC

• Dustup between Dems threatens tax measures: There’s something of a growing rift between rank-and-file Dems who support Governor Brown’s tax measure, Prop 30, and those who support Prop 38, Molly Munger’s measure, best exemplified by the California PTA. The two sides aren’t quite openly feuding – but they’re close. SI&A Cabinet Report

• LAUSD to ban styrofoam food trays: The ban was apparently being pushed by students at a Silver Lake middle school. CBS

ALSO

Bill to revamp teacher evaluations in California headed for final vote in state Senate KPCC

Three New Schools to Relieve Overcrowding at Crenshaw, Others LA Sentinel

Education reform in L.A. takes a hit with recent ruling Daily News

The Mars Rover Gives 826LA’s Student Writers a Tech Boost GOOD

PTA Endorses Munger, Not Brown: The California Parent Teacher Association has endorsed Proposition 38, Molly Munger’s ballot measure to raise taxes to pay for education, which it helped write. It has also decided to stay neutral on Governor Jerry Brown’s more moderate proposal, Prop 30. PTA

UTLA President Sets Record Straight: In response to an LA Times article suggesting that an agreement had been reached, Warren Fletcher reiterates that his union has not agreed to any evaluation system that includes use of students’ test scores.  UTLA

Former Columbia Ed School Dean Calls For Smarter Testing: An op-ed in the Times from Arthur Levine argues for the development of “smarter testing,” like GPS:  “Tests should gauge what students are learning in real time and continually recalculate the instruction each student needs to learn it.” LA Times

• Local blogger Paul Hatfield objects to LAUSD’s new teacher evaluation system (still in its pilot program phase), which at 30 pages is ten times longer than the old one. CIty Watch

• School starts August 14! LAUSD has posted its calendars here.