Saving the southeast

Foreclosure wave speeds SF's black exodus while city officials focus on new condo construction

This map of all foreclosures in San Francisco shows a heavy concentration in the southern part of the city, home to many low-income communities of color.
When Mayor Gavin Newsom and Sup. Sophie Maxwell convened a task force in July 2007 to figure out why African Americans are leaving San Francisco and how to reverse this trend, the subprime loan market crisis was about to send a shock wave of home foreclosures sweeping through southeast San Francisco.
Hope SF, the promised rebuild of the city's public housing projects, is underway at a cost of $95 million. The city's certificates of preference program, giving housing priority to black residents displaced by redevelopment, has been expanded and extended. But little has been done to address the immediate problem.
Instead political leaders have focused on a plan to subsidize Lennar Corp.'s construction of thousands of new condos in the southeast section of the city — the heart of the San Francisco's remaining African American community — and have done nothing to promote a plan that could convert hundreds of foreclosed homes into affordable for-sale or rental units there, right here, right now.
African American Out Migration Task Force (AAOMTF) members recall warning that the crisis would likely hit San Francisco's already dwindling black population extra hard. And Sup. John Avalos, who was running for election in District 11, remembers seeing impacts in the Excelsior District as early as 2007.
"I was telling people in early 2007 that this was a problem in District 11, and even real estate people didn't believe me," recalled Avalos, who is exploring legislation to hold banks accountable and spoke at an ACORN protest in support of Excelsior homeowner Genaro Paed, a Filipino native who just staved off eviction orders pending the outcome of his lawsuit against Washington Mutual concerning what Paed describes as "a predatory loan" secured in 2006.
Avalos also planned to introduce legislation on May 12 that would expand protection of renters, including those in foreclosed homes who are now being evicted by banks.
This isn't the first time city leaders have studied the African American exodus or ways to prevent low-income and minority households from being preyed upon or displaced. Indeed, this task force's initial findings, (released last summer after Lennar spent millions to persuade voters to support building 10,000 condos in the city's southeast) suggests San Francisco's entire black community is at risk unless proactive and immediate steps are taken.
According to U.S. Census data, the city's African American population shrank to 6.6 percent of the city's total population by 2005 (a 40 percent decline since 1990) and will likely slip to 4.6 percent by 2050, according to the California Department of Finance. And these findings were made before the foreclosure crisis heated up.
In 2008 Maxwell and other elected officials convened a Fair Lending Working Group (FLWG) to figure out how to respond to the wave of foreclosures. By year's end, there were 667 home foreclosures in San Francisco, almost all in the city's southeast sector.
These numbers sound small compared to Contra Costa County or Oakland, where thousands of foreclosures occurred. And they aren't big enough to qualify for the first round of President Barack Obama's National Stabilization Program grants, which were released earlier this year. Based on a census-driven formula, the grants sent $8 million to Oakland and no money to San Francisco.
But with half the city's foreclosures in the Bayview, home to most of the city's remaining African Americans, the fact that little has been done to save these homes — or to follow early recommendations to do so — is a gentrification crisis in the making.
Ed Donaldson, housing counseling director at the San Francisco Housing Development Corporation in the Bayview District, served on the FLWG and remembers suggesting a two-tier track. First, take steps to protect renters in places that have been foreclosed and second, buy as many foreclosed properties as possible with the aim of reselling or leasing them as affordable units. While the FLWG liked the renter protection angle, it did not support the foreclosure acquisition program.
"The idea fell on deaf ears," recalls Donaldson, who was disappointed his foreclosure purchase plan didn't make it onto FLWG's recent recommendation list. FLWG members include financial institutions such as Wells Fargo, Washington Mutual, and Patelco Credit Union; community-based organizations such as Housing and Economic Rights Advocates, SFHDC, Mission Economic Development Agency; and city agencies. The agency also has received staff support from Assessor-Recorder Phil Ting, the Mayor's Office of Housing, Treasurer Jose Cisneros and the Office of the Legislative Analyst.
"We'd already seen the spike in foreclosure numbers, so how did these recommendations get pushed out? We need something with teeth," Donaldson said.
SFHDC executive director Regina Davis says she suggested a foreclosure purchase and resale plan as an AAOMTF member and was concerned when she noticed that her recommendation was not included on the list discussed at the April 23 meeting. Billed as a closing-out session, that meeting took place at the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency and was attended by Davis, chair Aileen Hernandez, Redevelopment director Fred Blackwell, the Rev. Amos Brown, Barbara Cohen of the African American Action Network, Tinisch Hollins of the Mayor's Office of Criminal Justice, and former supervisor and assessor Doris Ward, among others. The AAOMTF is finishing up its work this week.
"I got involved because I believed that in exchange for participation, we would see things done and/or funded. Part of what we want to see are real action items that keep African Americans in San Francisco or bring them back. So we really want this issue to move forward with substance," Davis told the Guardian.
Recognizing that San Francisco is facing massive budget constraints, SFHDC is proposing to borrow $1.5 million from Clearinghouse CDFI, a Los Angeles community development financial agency, to acquire and rehabilitate these foreclosed properties.
Davis' group would then turn it around and offer residents several options: buy (if the prospective buyer qualifies for the city's $150,000 downpayment assistance and a $50,000 loan from the California Housing Financing Agency); lease (in which SFHDC sells the home to the buyer but leases the land, making the price affordable), lease-to-own. Or, Davis adds, people could rent the units at affordable rates.
But to make the plan work, SFHDC need the banks to sell the properties AT below market rates. Noting that foreclosed properties are still selling in the Bayview for $400,000, Davis says her nonprofit intends to purchase 100 to 200 homes during a 24-month period at less than $200,000 mark.
Yet Davis remains optimistic about the plan's chances as SFHDC negotiates with major banks for a 50 percent discount, noting that there is a monthly average of 50 foreclosures in the Bayview-Hunter's Point, and SFHDC has access to 100 qualified buyers.
Blackwell said the Redevelopment Agency hasn't developed an initiative or a funding pool to respond to the foreclosures in the city's southeast sector. But, he said, the agency is looking at ways to apply for National Stabilization Program funds even though "federal guidelines mostly don't apply well in expensive markets like San Francisco.
"We are engaged in advocacy so San Francisco can take advantage of any federal stabilization funds, but we don't have an agency-specific proposal," he continued.
"Frankly, I think community-based organizations are the best to do programs like that, especially since there is so much anxiety about the Redevelopment Agency and property acquisition in the southeast," Blackwell added.
He believes that given the city's current budgetary constraints, the AAOMTF "will likely look for leadership from the Mayor and the Board of Supervisors in cases where members have made recommendations and there is an opportunity to bring in public money."
Blackwell feels the city is still getting its mind around its foreclosure problem. "We've been spared the wholesale neighborhood-by-neighborhood devastation that places like Antioch faced," Blackwell said. "So, there wasn't the same sense of urgency. And there's a need to look more closely at the data. A lot of the information is based on anecdotes."
Yet the feds seem willing to help if city officials take the initiative. Larry Bush, spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's regional office, says San Francisco and Oakland could file a joint foreclosure plan application.
"If they can identify 100 homes, they'd be eligible for $5 million," Bush said, noting one snag that could unravel the plan locally. "Foreclosed properties must be vacant for at least six months. And as you know, in San Francisco, foreclosed homes still sell."
Maxwell says the city could do more to confront predatory lenders and enforce tenant rights, as well as developing a plan to buy foreclosed properties. "But in San Francisco it's an issue because of relatively high prices," she told us.
Yet the city's high prices are the very problem pushing out low-income residents. African American home ownership actually increased after 1990, even as out-migration among black renters increased. But now, if the foreclosures stand, that exodus will likely accelerate.
Asked if she supports SFHDC's current foreclosure plan, Maxwell said, "It makes sense to me. If that could be done, it would be optimal."
Myrna Melgar of the Mayor's Office of Housing says she's not sure that a foreclosure resale plan would work in San Francisco for folks who bought a couple of years ago, when house prices hit $700,000, only to see house prices fall to around $400,000.
"San Francisco is a very different universe from Detroit," Melgar said. "Properties don't sit around empty and vacant. They are bought by speculators who are betting that in two or three years, their values will go up. So if we had money to buy these properties, which we don't, we'd be in competition with the speculators, who have lots of money with no strings attached, and who drive the prices up."
Another difference, Melgar said, is that San Francisco banks are holding onto 50 percent of their foreclosed properties, whereas Antioch banks are only holding onto 22 percent. "We'd like to keep folks in the homes," Melgar said. "But it's a policy issue related to the reality that we have such limited funds."
Wednesday May 13, 2009

Bayview class overcoming hurdles 13 years later

Carver key to bold plan for black childrenLouise Jones, who is now retired, was chosen to be principal of Carver in 1983, after the court crafted a plan to improve academics at the most segregated schools in San Francisco. (Kim Komenich / The Chronicle)

As the camera shutter clicked 13 years ago, the 28 students standing on the risers in their matching blue sweaters had just started kindergarten in San Francisco's Bayview district. Their futures were wide open, their dreams fully intact.

The 5-year-olds with their goofy grins and say-cheese smiles didn't know about the statistics that showed black students were more likely to fail in school.

Across California, at least a third of African American students drop out of high school, according to state estimates - a higher dropout rate than for any other ethnic group. That trend is one of the most vexing problems facing public education and has failed to improve despite tens of billions in tax dollars and decades of attempted reforms.

Many, particularly those attending schools in inner-city neighborhoods such as the Bayview, cope with disproportionate poverty, crime, health problems, drugs and broken families.

With only the photo as a starting point, The Chronicle set out to determine what happened to the students in Kanikah LeMon's 1995-96 kindergarten class at Dr. George Washington Carver Elementary School. The newspaper wanted to see how they fared against tremendous obstacles as they worked toward their high school diplomas with the class of 2008.

Of the 28 children in LeMon's class, The Chronicle reached all but one: 21 have graduated from high school and another is expected to receive her diploma next week and the other five have not finished high school and appear to be dropouts by the state's definition. Two of the five have completed their coursework and only need to pass the required High School Exit Exam to get their diplomas. These Carver children are the sons and daughters of postal workers and bus drivers, musicians and airport workers. Some had parents on drugs. Others grew up without knowing their fathers. At least three had parents who had been incarcerated. Many grew up to the sound of gunshots, and nearly all knew someone who died from one of those bullets.

Jeremy Beasley, fourth from the left on the bottom row in the photo, had a father in prison serving a 30-year sentence for conspiracy to distribute crack cocaine and federal tax evasion.

Tiara Mitchell, top left, saw her father go to jail, her parents divorce, and her family split up as her brother struggled - successfully - with leukemia.

Keshia Evans, top row second from right, experienced homelessness and a move to public housing after the sale of her grandmother's house, and personal tragedy when her cousin and then a close friend were killed.

They all graduated.

When they attended Carver in 1995-96, almost 80 percent were poor enough to qualify for the federal lunch program.

"Some of the children came to school very tired. They'd been awakened by gunshots. Drugs were rampant," said their principal, Louise Jones. "I'm positive it affected how they felt. But I always kept my eyes on the prize, and the prize was always the children."

Carver opened in 1974 and quickly drew the attention of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. The NAACP sued the state and school district in federal court, saying Carver was among several San Francisco schools with mostly black students that received less money and fewer experienced teachers than other schools.

A judge agreed and issued an order in 1983 to reverse the unfair treatment and desegregate the schools.

Carver's annual funding grew substantially, and change began to happen.

"Carver 'got it' in terms of what was needed: A positive environment, high standards, and high expectations," said Peter Graham Cohn, one of the NAACP lawyers. When the 28 children walked in the door of LeMon's kindergarten classroom in the fall of 1995, Carver was ready for them.

So far, 14 of LeMon's former students have enrolled in college, and several more plan to go. Two others are enrolled in a vocational training program.

Terrell Gunn, bottom right, who had watched friends turn to gangs, headed for California Baptist University in Riverside.

Latasha Allston, third row up on the right, grabbed her running shoes and left for Jackson State University in Mississippi, where she competes in track and field.

Cris Seals, top row second from the left, who had an aptitude for listening to classmates' troubles, enrolled as a psychology major at California State University Los Angeles.

LeMon (formerly LeMon-Jones) remembers all 28 - 27 African Americans and one Filipino-African American. Her goal for them was clear: teach them to read, to write and to learn, and, in 13 years, get them to graduation day.

"I just treated them like they were my children, and I wanted to get them ready for school," LeMon said.

Many inner-city schools are not equipped to confront the issues these children face. The teachers are often less prepared for a class of children with complicated problems, the facilities and materials are subpar, and parental help, the backbone of success, is sometimes absent.

While educators aren't responsible for the problems found outside the school's walls, understanding the lives of the children can help them overcome their barriers to an education.

"The expectation is that because you are in a predominantly African American school, you won't be successful," said current Carver Principal Emily Wade-Thompson. "I think we exemplify the African proverb that it takes a village."

The Carver kids' journeys to adulthood offer insight into the roles the homes, neighborhoods and schools have in overcoming academic challenges.

Several families sought out the suburbs.

Kenetta Hampton, far right in second row, moved with her family to Santa Clara when she was 12, one of several students who said their families fled the violence and negative influences that could keep them from finishing school.

"Two of my brother's friends were killed, shot in a car," said the Mountain View High School graduate. "So we knew we had to get him out of there."

Kenetta was among those who set their sights on college and took a straight path through 13 years of school and now attends California State University East Bay.

Some attended private schools, while others attended small, alternative high schools that offered more individual attention and flexible schedules.

Gerrine Washington, for example, third from left in first row, went to the alternative John Muir Charter School campus on Treasure Island. A mother at 16, she carried her daughter to class where her teachers held the baby girl while Gerrine took tests. She graduated in July.

"When you're little, you think you're going to do stuff," Gerrine said. "And things happen."

George Washington (no relation), third from left in second row, also finished late, completing his graduation requirements in a juvenile detention facility, where he had been sent for possession of a weapon, which was also a parole violation, according to his mother.

Mager Webb, second from right in second row, who graduated from San Francisco Unified's John O'Connell High, said Carver started his education off right.

"Ms. LeMon, she was like our parent outside of our parents," said Mager, who found a job handling packages in San Francisco. "She taught us respect and to have pride in our race. She taught us basic black history. We were learning that in kindergarten, and understanding it."

It appears that at least five of LeMon's former students are considered dropouts, using the state's official classification for students who did not graduate on time and did not immediately enroll in a class designed to help them earn a diploma.

Charles Gulley Jr., third from left in third row, for example, passed all his high school coursework but has failed the math portion of the High School Exit Exam more times than he can remember. He's planning to take it again and again if necessary.

"I'm determined to get my diploma," Charles said. "But I want to make money before I go to college. I can always go to school."

Sitting in a booth at Denny's recently, he stared at his kindergarten class picture, laughing and pointing at his younger self and ticking off the classmates he still sees or knows.

Charles remembered that Terrell Gunn, now a certified minister and college student, brought a Bible to school even back then.

He remembered that Ja'Bar Gibson, lower left, who graduated from Live Oak High in Antioch and plans to enroll in college soon, made his classmates laugh.

Each student had a story to tell at the time, another to tell today - stories that belie simple stereotypes and statistics.

Everybody still looks the same, Charles said smiling, looking a lot like the 5-year-old in the photo, his dreams still intact, his future - like that of his classmates - still wide open.


A look back: Principal Louise Jones led a bold plan to improve academics at Carver. A19


Chronicle staff writer Leslie Fulbright contributed to this report. E-mail the writers at metro@sfchronicle.com.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/05/31/MNNT17AQMO.DTL

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Obama wants to turn around 5,000 failing schools

By LIBBY QUAID, AP Education Writer

Monday, May 11, 2009

(05-11) 14:33 PDT WASHINGTON (AP) --

President Barack Obama intends to use $5 billion to prod local officials to close failing schools and reopen them with new teachers and principals.

The goal is to turn around 5,000 failing schools in the next five years, Education Secretary Arne Duncan said Monday, by beefing up funding for the federal school turnaround program created by the No Child Left Behind law.

Obama doesn't have authority to close and reopen schools himself. That power rests with local school districts and states. But he has an incentive in the economic stimulus law, which requires states to help failing schools improve.

Duncan said that might mean firing an entire staff and bringing in a new one, replacing a principal or turning a school over to a charter school operator. The point, he said, is to take bold action in persistently low-achieving schools.

"Our students have one chance — one chance — to get a quality education," Duncan said in a speech Monday to the Brookings Institution think tank.

"If we turn around just the bottom 1 percent, the bottom thousand schools per year for the next five years, we could really move the needle, lift the bottom and change the lives of tens of millions of underserved children," Duncan said.

In particular, the administration wants to fix middle schools and high schools, focusing on "dropout factories" where two in five kids don't make it to graduation.

Duncan, a former Chicago schools chief, has plenty of experience with school turnarounds. Chicago targeted several public schools for turnaround, eight of them last year, while Duncan was still in charge. It's too soon to know how the eight fared.

What happens to teachers when an entire staff depends on local contracts with teachers' unions. In Chicago, some lost their jobs, while some reapplied and were hired.

But in New York, many whose jobs were eliminated by school closings wound up in a reserve pool of about 1,100 teachers who have continued to receive paychecks while working mostly as substitutes.

Looming budget cuts recently prompted New York schools chief Joel Klein to tell principals they must stop hiring from outside and look within the teacher reserve pool.

The administration's focus on failing schools is part of an effort by Obama to fundamentally change the perception of what works in education. It comes as the administration prepares to rewrite the No Child Left Behind education law championed by former President George W. Bush.

Obama already has channeled an unprecedented amount of money into traditional federal funding for elementary, middle and high schools in his economic stimulus law, doubling the education budget under George W. Bush.

But Obama also plans big boosts for newer and, some argue, untested ideas, plowing more dollars into school turnarounds as well as merit pay for teachers.

"Here's a chance to do something dramatically different," Duncan told The Associated Press after his speech. "I don't want to lose that opportunity."

Combined with the budget plan released last week, Obama may have as much as $5 billion to facilitate the initiative, which could translate to $1 million for every school targeted for turnaround.

The turnaround program currently receives about $500 million a year. The stimulus legislation boosted funding to $3.5 billion. Obama's budget would add another $1.5 billion by shifting dollars away from traditionally funded programs.

Yet school districts and education groups are unhappy with the administration's plan, because it would mean less money for everyone else.

The Title I program, the biggest source of federal dollars for schools, will rise from $13.4 billion this year to $22 billion next year. But funding would drop to just under $13 billion in 2010, a reduction to help pay for the school turnaround fund.

District officials had already planned their budgets and may have to use stimulus dollars to make up the difference, said Mary Kusler, a lobbyist for the American Association of School Administrators.

"The increases that were provided to districts through the stimulus were not instead of future funds — they were supposed to be in addition to future funds," Kusler said.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/05/11/national/w081059D25.DTL

Sex Talk

Evening of Dance

CRYSTAL SPRINGS UPLAND

San Francisco lost 667 homes to foreclosure

Big O wants to overhaul education system from 'cradle to career'

When a mans in the house then ALL the (BULLSHIT) Stops

Young Scholar Program (YSP)

FOR THE FIRST TIME, WE ARE FACED WITH A GENERATION OF BLACK BOYS THAT MAY NOT SURPASS THE EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT OF THE GENERATION THAT SPAWNED IT....UNLESS WE DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!

NOW ENTERS "THE SOUL OF THE BROTHERHOOD!



Dr. George C. Wright President of Prairie View A&M Uni



President Dr. John Rudley President of TSU


What if the Prince Dared 2B King? What if the poet decided to sing? What if the student decided to teach? What if the takers decided to bringme the world on a silver platter and I wasn't busy with idle chatter because it's time to show I matter do you think it would start a revolution? Do you think we would write a new constitution? Do you think we would find a solution? And realize we are the next step in the evolution? Yeah, it's the year 2008 So I think it's time to be great I think it's time to stop being fake, I think it's time to finally make a difference and follow The Dream Laid down by Dr. Martin Luther King Because my people we are all royalty All the Prince has to do is Dare 2B King "Christian Jones, December 2008"

Destined 2 Dance Front and Back View

Remi and Rachel D2D Founders as they perform to Smokie Norfuls' "I need you now"

Independent Schools

President Obama

Founder

L.A. can use race as factor in magnet schools

Los Angeles can continue to seek racial balance in assigning tens of thousands of students to specialized magnet schools despite California's voter-approved ban on race preferences in government programs, a state appeals court has ruled.
Friday's decision by the Second District Court of Appeal in Los Angeles preserves the long-standing desegregation program in the state's largest school district in the face of a challenge by backers of Proposition 209, the 1996 ballot measure. Lawyers in the case disagreed on whether the ruling could also affect a lawsuit against the use of race in Berkeley school enrollments.

The court said a judge's order in 1981 that required the district to consider the race of students applying to magnet schools in Los Angeles - the culmination of a discrimination case that began in 1963 - remains in effect and allows the program to continue under an express exemption in Prop. 209.

Sharon Browne, a Pacific Legal Foundation attorney for an organization affiliated with Prop. 209 sponsor Ward Connerly, denounced the ruling, saying the court "has told the students of Los Angeles that your race means more in defining who you are than your individual merit."

Browne said she would consult with her clients on whether to appeal to the state Supreme Court, which is already reviewing a case over whether San Francisco's bidding preferences for minority and female contractors violate Prop. 209.

She said the ruling should have little impact on other programs, which can't claim authorization based on pre-Prop. 209 court orders. But a lawyer for parents who joined the Los Angeles district's defense of the magnet schools said the decision is a hopeful sign for Berkeley's school integration program, the target of a suit now before an appellate court in San Francisco.

The ruling "sends an important message to school districts around the state that the districts can continue with their desegregation efforts," said Catherine Lhamon, an American Civil Liberties Union attorney who, like Browne's group, is involved in the Berkeley case. She said the court made it clear that Prop. 209 "means only what its text says," including its exemption for programs required by pre-existing judicial orders.

Berkeley's program, in effect since 2004, seeks to promote racial balance at the city's 11 elementary schools and in special academic programs at Berkeley High School. Enrollments at each school are based on the diversity of the students' four-to-eight-block neighborhoods, including race and the parents' income and educational levels.

A Superior Court judge upheld the program in April 2007, saying Berkeley was not granting preferences based on individual students' race.

Prop. 209 prohibited preferences based on race and sex in employment, contracting and education. Only a handful of subsequent court rulings have addressed its application to school.

About 56,000 of Los Angeles' 700,000 students attend magnet schools or a smaller desegregation program, Permit With Transportation, also affected by the ruling. The 162 magnet schools, at all grade levels, concentrate on specific fields, like math and science or the arts, and often have long waiting lists.

Admission to highly sought schools is based on several factors, including a student's attendance at a predominantly minority school. The district's overall white enrollment is only 9 percent, but magnet schools maintain white enrollments of 30 to 40 percent, and give preference to students on the waiting list who allow them to keep that ratio.

The program is the remnant of a desegregation plan that took effect, after extended court proceedings, in 1978. A year later, California voters outlawed mandatory race-based school assignments except in cases of intentional segregation, an initiative that was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court and largely dismantled the Los Angeles plan.

In 1981, a judge ordered the city to implement a scaled-back integration program based on voluntary enrollment in racially diverse magnet schools. That order ended the original desegregation case, but the court said Friday that the judge's decree remains in effect and is exempt from Prop. 209.

"A school district is entitled to rely on the ongoing validity of a desegregation order" until it is revoked, Justice Sandy Kriegler said in the 3-0 ruling. Because Prop. 209 allowed existing court-ordered racial enrollment plans to continue, Kriegler said, the magnet schools can maintain their current practices.

L.A. can use race as factor in magnet schools

Los Angeles can continue to seek racial balance in assigning tens of thousands of students to specialized magnet schools despite California's voter-approved ban on race preferences in government programs, a state appeals court has ruled.
Friday's decision by the Second District Court of Appeal in Los Angeles preserves the long-standing desegregation program in the state's largest school district in the face of a challenge by backers of Proposition 209, the 1996 ballot measure. Lawyers in the case disagreed on whether the ruling could also affect a lawsuit against the use of race in Berkeley school enrollments.

The court said a judge's order in 1981 that required the district to consider the race of students applying to magnet schools in Los Angeles - the culmination of a discrimination case that began in 1963 - remains in effect and allows the program to continue under an express exemption in Prop. 209.

Sharon Browne, a Pacific Legal Foundation attorney for an organization affiliated with Prop. 209 sponsor Ward Connerly, denounced the ruling, saying the court "has told the students of Los Angeles that your race means more in defining who you are than your individual merit."

Browne said she would consult with her clients on whether to appeal to the state Supreme Court, which is already reviewing a case over whether San Francisco's bidding preferences for minority and female contractors violate Prop. 209.

She said the ruling should have little impact on other programs, which can't claim authorization based on pre-Prop. 209 court orders. But a lawyer for parents who joined the Los Angeles district's defense of the magnet schools said the decision is a hopeful sign for Berkeley's school integration program, the target of a suit now before an appellate court in San Francisco.

The ruling "sends an important message to school districts around the state that the districts can continue with their desegregation efforts," said Catherine Lhamon, an American Civil Liberties Union attorney who, like Browne's group, is involved in the Berkeley case. She said the court made it clear that Prop. 209 "means only what its text says," including its exemption for programs required by pre-existing judicial orders.

Berkeley's program, in effect since 2004, seeks to promote racial balance at the city's 11 elementary schools and in special academic programs at Berkeley High School. Enrollments at each school are based on the diversity of the students' four-to-eight-block neighborhoods, including race and the parents' income and educational levels.

A Superior Court judge upheld the program in April 2007, saying Berkeley was not granting preferences based on individual students' race.

Prop. 209 prohibited preferences based on race and sex in employment, contracting and education. Only a handful of subsequent court rulings have addressed its application to school.

About 56,000 of Los Angeles' 700,000 students attend magnet schools or a smaller desegregation program, Permit With Transportation, also affected by the ruling. The 162 magnet schools, at all grade levels, concentrate on specific fields, like math and science or the arts, and often have long waiting lists.

Admission to highly sought schools is based on several factors, including a student's attendance at a predominantly minority school. The district's overall white enrollment is only 9 percent, but magnet schools maintain white enrollments of 30 to 40 percent, and give preference to students on the waiting list who allow them to keep that ratio.

The program is the remnant of a desegregation plan that took effect, after extended court proceedings, in 1978. A year later, California voters outlawed mandatory race-based school assignments except in cases of intentional segregation, an initiative that was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court and largely dismantled the Los Angeles plan.

In 1981, a judge ordered the city to implement a scaled-back integration program based on voluntary enrollment in racially diverse magnet schools. That order ended the original desegregation case, but the court said Friday that the judge's decree remains in effect and is exempt from Prop. 209.

"A school district is entitled to rely on the ongoing validity of a desegregation order" until it is revoked, Justice Sandy Kriegler said in the 3-0 ruling. Because Prop. 209 allowed existing court-ordered racial enrollment plans to continue, Kriegler said, the magnet schools can maintain their current practices.

Destined 2 Dance

How to Bring Our Schools Out of the 20th Century

How to Bring Our Schools Out of the 20th Century

This is a must read story.

Should Kids Be Able to Graduate After 10th Grade?

By KATHLEEN KINGSBURY Kathleen Kingsbury – Fri Nov 7 TIME

High school sophomores should be ready for college by age 16. That's the message from New Hampshire education officials, who announced plans Oct. 30 for a new rigorous state board of exams to be given to 10th graders. Students who pass will be prepared to move on to the state's community or technical colleges, skipping the last two years of high school.

Once implemented, the new battery of tests is expected to guarantee higher competency in core school subjects, lower dropout rates and free up millions of education dollars. Students may take the exams - which are modeled on existing AP or International Baccalaureate tests - as many times as they need to pass. Or those who want to go to a prestigious university may stay and finish the final two years, taking a second, more difficult set of exams senior year. "We want students who are ready to be able to move on to their higher education," says Lyonel Tracy, New Hampshire's Commissioner for Education. "And then we can focus even more attention on those kids who need more help to get there."


But can less schooling really lead to better-prepared students at an earlier age? Outside of the U.S., it's actually a far less radical notion than it sounds. Dozens of industrialized countries expect students to be college-ready by age 16, and those teenagers consistently outperform their American peers on international standardized tests.

With its new assessment system, New Hampshire is adopting a key recommendation of a blue-ribbon panel called the New Commission on Skills of the American Workforce. In 2006, the group issued a report called Tough Choices or Tough Times , a blueprint for how it believes the U.S. must dramatically overhaul education policies in order to maintain a globally competitive economy. "Forty years ago, the United States had the best educated workforce in the world," says William Brock, one of the commission's chairs and a former U.S. Secretary of Labor. "Now we're No. 10 and falling."


As more and more jobs head overseas, Brock and others on the commission can't stress enough how dire the need is for educational reform. "The nation is running out of time," he says.


New Hampshire's announcement comes as Utah and Massachusetts declared that they, too, plan to enact some of the commission's other proposals, such as universal Pre-K and better teacher pay and training. Still more states are expected to sign on in December. And the largest teacher union in the U.S., the National Education Association, is encouraging its affiliates to support such efforts.


Some reform advocates would like to see the report's testing proposals replace current No Child Left Behind legislation. "It makes accountability much more meaningful by stressing critical thinking and true mastery," says Tracy.


No date has been set for when New Hampshire will start administering the new set of exams, which have yet to be developed. But to achieve the goal of sending kids to college at 16, Tracy and his colleagues recognize preparation will have to start early. Nearly four years ago, New Hampshire began an initiative called Follow the Child. Starting practically from birth, educators are expected to chart children's educational progress year to year. In the future, this effort will be bolstered by formalized curricula that specify exactly what kids should know by the end of each grade level.


That should help minimize the need for review year to year. It will also bring New Hampshire's education framework much closer to what occurs in many high-performing European and Asian nations. "It's about defining what lessons students should master and then teaching to those points," says Marc Tucker, co-chair of the commission and president of the National Center for Education and the Economy in Washington. "Kids at every level will be taking tough courses and working hard."


Right now, Tucker argues, most American teenagers slide through high school, viewing it as a mandatory pit stop to hang out and socialize. Of those who do go to college, half attend community college. So Tucker's thinking is why not let them get started earlier? If that happened nationwide, he estimates the cost savings would add up to $60 billion a year. "All money that can be spent either on early childhood education or elsewhere," he says.


Critics of cutting high school short, however, worry that proposals such as New Hampshire's could exacerbate existing socioeconomic gaps. One key concern is whether test results, at age 16, are really valid enough to indicate if a child should go to university or instead head to a technical school - with the latter almost certainly guaranteeing lower future earning potential. "You know that the kids sent in that direction are going to be from low-income, less-educated families while wealthy parents won't permit it," says Iris Rotberg, a George Washington University education policy professor, who notes similar results in Europe and Asia. She predicts, in turn, that disparity will mean "an even more polarized higher education structure - and ultimately society - than we already have."


It's a charge that Tracy denies. "We're simply telling students it's okay to go at their own pace," he says. Especially if that pace is a little quicker than the status quo.

You Can Vote However You Like

Unlike Bush, Obama favors charter schools

By Lyanne Melendez
SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- Most teachers' unions and educators in California expect President-elect Barack Obama to make changes to the nation's education system. He has been a critic of President Bush's No Child Left Behind Act, and unlike President Bush, he supports charter schools.

http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/education&id=6493242

President-elect Obama has spoken of changes for America's young. He has said those changes begin in the classroom. Obama is expected to push for revisions within the No Child Left Behind Act.
"It's been chronically underfunded. He wants to see some strong reforms so that it really does help struggling schools," said Susan Solomon with United Educators of San Francisco. Obama is against using public money for vouchers for private schools, but he is in favor of charter schools.
"I doubled the number of charter schools in Illinois despite some reservations from teachers' unions. I think it is important for us to foster competition inside the public schools," Obama said during his third presidential debate with Senator John McCain.
"That's providing an option to a bunch of kids in Chicago who wouldn't otherwise have that option if there weren't charter schools," said Molly Wood, principal of KIPP Bayview Academy, a San Francisco charter school.
However, teachers' unions are often against charter schools.
"Not all charter schools, for example, have to meet the same standards that public schools do. So we have a concern about the students -- what about the education they are getting?" said Solomon.
ABC7 News has obtained a report, yet to be released, which says 12 of California's 15 highest performing public schools serving children in poverty are charter schools.
The report was compiled by the California Charter Schools Association. They used the 2008 Academic Performance Index (API) which measures a student's proficiency in reading and writing.
Bay Area Congressman George Miller (D) of Concord is the chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee. He says he will help Obama promote more charter schools.
"How we do that is a matter of discussion. But I think it's very important that we continue along this line. I think it has a great deal of support on both sides of the aisle in the Congress of the United States," said Miller.
Miller is also expected to continue playing an important role in reforming No Child Left Behind.
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