April 8, 2005

LETTERS2theEDITOR

An educator’s perspective

Governor’s proposals will undercut stability, achievement of California education system

Editor,
California’s students are constantly under a microscope; their test scores are analyzed, their curriculum is challenging and they are asked to achieve to the highest level of standards.

Nationwide, California’s academic standards rank among the highest in the country; Education Week’s “Quality Counts 2005” report gave California a “B+” for its standards and accountability system. Other state-by-state comparisons by the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation list California as one of only three states in the nation to receive an “A” in both English and mathematics standards.

So if our standards are high and our performance expectations are high, why does it always seem as if all we hear is how California schools are not succeeding in educating our students to the highest standards and expectations?
In the last four years, California schools have suffered more than $9.8 billion in cuts. The same “Quality Counts 2005” report by Education Week states that California ranks 44th in the nation in per-pupil funding.

This lack of funding is resulting in statewide school closures, increases in class size, lay offs of teachers and support staff and a devastating shortage of librarians, counselors and nurses. Many schools lack basic supplies and instructional materials.

Across the board, schools are cutting art and music programs at a rapid rate, extracurricular activities are no longer affordable and after-school programs have been decimated. A recent study by the RAND Corporation corroborates these findings and notes California’s K-12 school system has fallen from a national leader 30 years ago, to its current ranking near the bottom in every objective category, including per-pupil funding, class size and teacher salaries.

The governor has proposed many changes to the education system to improve our children’s performance. His changes include school funding, how teachers are paid, the retirement system for all public employees and a move to weaken the teacher’s unions and voices in Sacramento.

Each of these proposals may sound like a good idea on the surface, but each is designed to undercut the stability and achievement of our education system.

California Deficit Prevention Act
The governor has proposed the California Deficit Prevention Act, which eliminates Proposition 98, the law approved by California voters to guarantee minimum funding to our public schools. It allows the government to take money from education and divert those funds without ever having to pay them back to the schools.

School districts will have a difficult time making fiscal plans for the year, because this proposal allows the state to make budget adjustments three times a year, across the board cuts with no hope of repayment.

This act eliminates the “Maintenance Factor,” which is the mechanism within Prop. 98 that ensures our schools are repaid when education funds are cut. Last year, public schools and students sacrificed $2 billion in ongoing cuts with the governor’s promise that our schools would receive their fair share of any additional state revenues and that more harmful cuts would be avoided in future years.

State revenues are actually higher than what was projected when this agreement was approved, yet the governor is saying that there is no money to fund our schools.

Passing this act will result in $25,000 in budget cuts from each classroom, and will take money from the students. Remember, California is already 44th in per-pupil funding in the United States.

This will make supplying a classroom and purchasing supplies throughout the school year almost impossible as the money can disappear at a moment’s notice, causing teachers to use their own money to provide supplies for the students and their classrooms.

Currently, many teachers and parents supplement the limited classroom budgets at an amount higher than is allocated for classroom supplies.

The Excellence of Teaching Act
This proposed act is touted as being designed to ensure our children get the best education possible by linking teachers’ salary to student achievement (merit pay). Standardized test scores are not the best way to measure student achievement.

Not every child learns at the same pace or in the same way, even those in the same classroom with the same teacher. Often, schools in lower economic areas tend to have the lowest test scores.

Students in the lower demographic areas and the lower performing schools, who most need a dedicated and experienced teacher, would quickly find themselves deprived of committed, qualified teachers.

Merit pay plans do not have a good track record and there is no evidence that they improve student performance. Most other states that have tried merit pay plans have abandoned them after a few years.

California is one of the most under-funded education systems in our nation. According to the RAND Corporation study, California has the second-highest ratio of students per teacher in the nation, with five more students per class than the national average.

Per-pupil funding is well below the national average while California remains the nation’s most ethnically diverse state, creating additional educational challenges with a large percent of students still learning to speak English.

When adjusted for inflation and cost of living, the average teacher salary in California is $39,000—making us 32nd nationwide and dead last among the most populous states. This in a state where the cost of living is higher than many of the other states and purchasing your own home for many is simply a dream.

Retirement Act
The Fair and Fiscally Responsible Employer Retirement Act eliminates a secure pension for teachers, nurses, firefighters, police officers and other public employees who currently don’t receive Social Security benefits.

Current public employees have the choice to contribute to a 401(k) plan. This measure makes it illegal to provide traditional pensions to all teachers hired after July 1, 2007, leaving them with only risky 401(k) plans. It may also impact current teachers who transfer to different school districts after 2007.

The average 401(k) investment lost 40 percent of its value in the recent stock market crash. California’s State Legislative Analyst discovered that this proposal has no provision for death benefits for the families of police officers and firefighters who are injured or killed in the line of duty.

The governor’s proposal will not save the state or taxpayers any money. According to California’s State Teachers Retirement System (CalSTRS) and California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS) this measure will increase state costs for retirement by $7.6 billion over the next 10 years.

It would also increase existing pension plan costs, because without new employees paying into the current system, the existing plan will have fewer assets to invest. This proposal would cause even more cuts to public school classrooms, by shifting nearly $500 million in teacher retirement costs, currently paid by the state, to local school districts.

Put the Kids First Act
Put the Kids First Act requires that teachers must teach five years before they can gain permanent status and have the right to a due process hearing if dismissed. It allows for dismissal of teachers who receive two unsatisfactory evaluations without a due process hearing.

This initiative will make it harder to recruit young people to the teaching profession and will increase teacher turnover. It is also unnecessary, as there is already a system in place that allows teachers to be dismissed in their first two years without a hearing, which is a longer probationary period than other professions.

Every local school has a system in place to work with struggling teachers. Teachers who have received permanent status are still subject to dismissal when administrators have documented, through observations and evaluations, that they are not doing a competent job. Their permanent status only gives them the right to a hearing before a competency panel, if they are dismissed.

The governor is proposing a special election in November for the voters to vote on a possible 73 initiatives. The special election is projected to cost between $50 million to $90 million.

To get these initiatives placed on a ballot, the governor is paying petition gatherers for each signature. We urge you not to sign the petitions. These and other proposals would destroy any chance to close the dramatic gap between expectations and inadequate funding. We can’t expect our students to meet high standards without giving them the resources they need to succeed.

Diana Messamer
President, Evergreen
Teachers Association

Schools are cutting the wrong programs

Editor,
As a middle school band director for the last 10 years, I have noticed that more students and their parents are asking questions about their child’s musical future. Many children started out at 5 or 6 years old with piano lessons and progressed to band instruments when they entered fourth or fifth grade. As they approach the end of their eighth grade year they wonder, “how can instrumental music benefit me?”

I began playing the piano when I was 5 years old. My next door neighbor, Nanny, and her husband Ed came to the United States from Germany and wanted to become citizens. They asked my parents to sponsor them and in exchange they would give the “two sisters” piano lessons.

Nanny was a great teacher who taught me the classics—Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, etc. The only drawback was that she would yell over the fence, “I don’t hear Rosemary practicing!” When I was in the fourth grade at Temple Elementary School in La Puente, I began taking clarinet lessons.

Don Williams, a professional trumpet player, was my band teacher and the junior high band director. He taught me how to play the clarinet, and he was my favorite teacher who exhibited warmth, a great sense of humor and a LOT of patience.

Exciting career
I went on to play in the La Puente High School Band, under the direction of Dr. Gary Iida and performed with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Minority Students Program with principal clarinet Kalman Bloch. I went to Cal State Fullerton to complete work on my bachelor’s and master’s degrees in music performance.

Along the way I had the opportunity to attend the Aspen Music Festival and to study clarinet with the late clarinet maestro of the Julliard School of Music in New York, Leon Russianoff.

I have had a number of fantastic experiences because of my involvement in music, including the opportunity to play in the marching band in high school and travel to Mexico City to perform.

I also performed in Hawaii and Canada with the Cal State Fullerton Wind Ensemble and played clarinet on a recording that was nominated for a Grammy Award. One of the highlights of my performing career was the opportunity to play clarinet for the papal visits of Pope John Paul II in Los Angeles and Denver.

All of these wonderful opportunities were possible because my parents instilled in their three children that the way to better themselves would be through music and education. I often reflect on the path that was taken by a number of my cousins and other family members –dropping out of high school, getting involved with drugs, alcohol and gangs, teenage pregnancies and ultimately poverty.

Education, a must
I truly believe the lesson I learned from my father: “People can say that they don’t like the way you comb your hair, the clothes you wear or the color of your skin, but if you have an education, nobody can say that you’re not qualified.”
His belief encouraged me, my brother Paul and my sister Lorraine to strive to do our best. It is no coincidence that we are all teachers!

When “No Child Left Behind” was instituted, I felt for the first time that music education would receive the respect that it deserves. Under NCLB, music is recognized as a “core academic subject.” What this means is that our government recognizes just how important music is.

Numerous studies have been done over the years that have proven that students who play musical instruments score on an average, 60 points more on the verbal portion of the SATs and 54 points higher on the math portion of the SATs.

A few summers ago I was fortunate to attend a lecture at Santa Clara University where the renowned educational expert, Walt Grebing, gave a talk. He began his lecture by asking the question, “Raise your hand if you’ve ever heard of a member of the high school band dropping out of high school?” Not one hand went up.

He went on to say that if it wasn’t for music, he would definitely have quit school. There was something about knowing that he was an integral part of the success of the band program, by being the only one who played trombone. He continued by saying, “I think we’re cutting back the wrong programs in our schools.”

A few years ago the state of California revamped the requirements for admission into its universities, following the trend started at many private colleges and universities that required one year of fine arts or performing arts. What this means is that if your child wants to attend UC Berkeley, UCLA, UC Davis, San Jose State, Hayward State, San Luis Obispo or any other UC or state school, they need to have one year of fine arts in their high school curriculum.

Again, I believed that music education would receive the respect it deserves, because high school band and choir would be two of the courses that could fulfill this requirement, along with art and drama, to name a few.

Use band for art credit
When I talk to my eighth graders, I stress to them that they will not be able to take AP courses (advance placement or honors classes) as a freshman. For the most part, they will not be able to make a varsity team as a freshman, and they are going to want to become a part of their new high school environment and make friends as soon as possible.

What better way to accomplish all of these goals than to join the band? They can have fun and fulfill their fine art/performing art college requirement as a freshman. That way, when they’re seniors in high school, it’s one less headache to worry about.

They can get a part-time job to save up some money for college or they can leave school early with their friends who get out of school early. My daughter Juliana graduated from Presentation High School with a 4.15 GPA.

To this day, she kicks herself because she waited until her senior year to fulfill her fine arts requirement. While her friends were out enjoying their senior year by leaving school early, Juliana had to stay until the end of the day to finish her classes and then stick around for another couple of hours until volleyball started.

Many schools require physical education (PE) during freshman and sophomore years. Some schools waive part of the PE requirement by allowing students to have “Band PE” or marching band instead. Band PE is usually accomplished during the first semester when most marching bands are preparing for parades and half-time competitions.

As a parent of three children, I want my children to spend time with others who are being brought up with values that are similar to our own. My 22-year-old son David was the third generation Fernandez to attend Bellarmine College Preparatory.

I taught him how to play drums when he was 5 years old, and he learned the trumpet when he was in fourth grade. He will be completing his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Santa Clara University in June, and I’m happy to say that music has continued to play an important role in his life.

He plays drums in a heavy metal rock band called Diamond Lane, and they just released their first CD. Playing the drums is a way for him to express himself creatively and helps keep his stress level down.

Juliana is a sophomore at University of Southern California where she is majoring in kinesiology. She also enjoys music and says listening to music helps her relax in the midst of mid-terms, finals and other exams.

My 12-year-old son Anthony attends St. Justin School in Santa Clara, where he began playing the trumpet in fourth grade. He is interested in learning the piano, drums and trombone. I am willing to pay for his music lessons at school even though I’m a band director and could teach him myself, because I feel that instrumental music provides so many opportunities for young people.

Music is healthy
As a junior high band director and former high school band director, I have seen first hand how music education enhances the lives of the students I teach. They are the happiest young people I know.

They are so enthusiastic about performing and I’m proud to say that there are more students on honor roll from the band program every year—about 80 to 90 percent—than any other combined group on campus.

As a whole, band students have the lowest incidences of alcoholism, drug abuse and gang affiliation. They have a strong work ethic that allows them to work together, and they seem to be some of the most well adjusted young people in their age group.

In my 20-plus years of teaching, I have seen six former students become band directors, four have become professional musicians, and one of my former students is now first chair trumpet in the San Jose State Marching Band. More than 80 percent of my former students also attended four year colleges and many of them continued playing in high school and college as well.

I agree wholeheartedly with Grebing—I think we’re cutting back the wrong programs in our schools. If your child expresses a desire to play a musical instrument, encourage him/her to pursue it.

Many districts have instruments that they can loan, and there are still districts in the area that have full music programs in place.

Find out what’s going on in your district and do what you can to ensure that music education is available for generations to come. Please support your local music programs by attending their performances, encouraging your child to join the school band and actively supporting their fundraisers.

If your child wants to quit playing after junior high, suggest they stick it out and fulfill their college requirement as a freshman by playing in the band. Some children may have difficulty learning to read, write or do arithmetic, but they can all understand the universal language that is MUSIC!

Rosemary Ruiz Fernandez
Quimby Oak Middle School
Band Director

Community center run by Salvation Army jeopardizes
freedom of religion, promotes intolerance

Editor,
There is no room in San Jose for bigots—even if they come bearing gifts of $50 million community centers. If the Salvation Army privately funded the entire cost of the proposed community center and church there would not be a problem.

However, they are asking the Evergreen School District, the city of San Jose and county of Santa Clara to endorse their project by becoming partners who provide land and other public resources that could be construed as an endorsement of their religious message. While San Jose has its faults, I hope we can rise above compromising our freedom of religion to overcome temporary financial problems.

The ESD should do a better job of investigating before endorsing projects that involve religious organizations. It is unfortunate that the district was so obsessed with the carrot used to entice them, consisting of a fancy community center, that they agreed to use public resources to help establish a “community center,” which would actually be a church dedicated to proselytizing religious discrimination and intolerance.

This project’s supporters failed to look at where that money was coming from. That source is the Salvation Army, which has a long history of refusing to recognize both the freedom of religion as well as equal rights for gays.

Denying freedom of religion
Previously, the social services unit of The Salvation Army had its own mission statement that was completely secular. That has changed. Now the Salvation Army requires all employees in its Social Services for Children division to fill out a form on which they identify their church affiliation and all other churches attended for the past decade.

Moreover, new job descriptions for their social services employees now require compliance with the Salvation Army’s religious mission statement, which, according to The Salvation Army is “to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ.”

The New York Civil Liberties Union recently filed a lawsuit on behalf of 18 current and former Salvation Army employees of varying religious and non-religious backgrounds in New York State, New York City and Nassau County and Suffolk because of this new discriminatory employment policy in their publicly funded social programs.

An employer interfering with publicly funded employees’ personal religious practices undermines the nation’s commitment to civil rights. Current law permits religious organizations to make employment decisions based on religious affiliation or compliance with religious teachings in their privately funded activities.

This is not about the right of the Salvation Army to practice or promote its religion. They have every right to do so, but not with our government money or endorsements. The Salvation Army cannot use taxpayer money or other public resources to practice religious discrimination.

Promoting intolerance
The national organization of the Salvation Army has refused to provide health benefits for gay partners. Will they comply with municipal ordinances in the city of San Jose and Santa Clara County that require city and county contractors provide benefits to the domestic partners of their employees? I doubt it.

You might not believe in equal rights for gays, but discrimination based on religious dogma can victimize anyone, not merely gays. What about a religion that believes women should be subservient to men? Would they allow women to be managers and supervisors in their social services? Would a church whose dogma teaches that salvation is found only through Christ hire a Muslim to operate a daycare program for homeless children?

Taxes collected from individuals of all religious beliefs must not be used to support discrimination fostered by one religion. Yet that is what allowing the Evergreen School District or any other public entity to use public property or resources to establish a Salvation Army church would do. Doing so would also give the implied government endorsement of their religious beliefs—effectively establishing a government-sponsored religion in violation of the
First Amendment.

To prevent any undue religious influence on our children by a sectarian organization, the community center should be financed only with our nonpartisan taxes or it should not be built at all.

John Messina
Central Evergreen

ESUHSD’s proposed budget cuts will affect students trying to get into college

Editor,
I am a high school senior attending Independence High School in the East Side Union High School District. I was shocked when I heard the proposal for the budget cuts because they are cutting all the necessary things that students need. They are robbing students’ education by proposing to cut class offerings, career technicians, counselors and many other necessities.

These proposals will affect students trying to get into a decent college. With the five-period day proposal, students are not going to have a chance to take higher-level classes to get into college. They will only have the option to take all the required classes to graduate high school, but not to meet certain colleges’ standards. I remember when I was a sophomore; I didn’t know anything about how to get money for college or what classes to take to get into college until I found out about college access programs.

Through these college access programs, I learned about how to get on track to college. I have gone through high school successfully with the guidance of my counselor and the support for other things that might get cut next school year.

I am concerned for my brother and other lower classmen who are going to be suffering because of the deficit. These things that the district are proposing to cut are crucial to the leaders of the future. They need to be well educated to be successful in life—that’s why the district should find other ways to make up for the deficit.

If I didn’t have all these resources available to me a few years ago, I don’t think I would have been where I am today.

Angela Young
Senior at Independence
High School

ESUHSD’s proposed budget cuts a slap in the face for college-bound kids

Editor,
As a student attending James Lick High School in the East Side Union High School District, I am just one of the thousands who will be affected by the proposed budget cuts that the district is trying to implement. The ESUHSD is planning to cut back on counselors, eliminate career technicians and reduce class offerings by creating a five-period day, just to name a few.

The school district is creating an injustice by eliminating resources that are vital to the growth and education of students. Just like myself, there are many students who dreamed of pursuing higher education. These cuts are like a slap in the face to those of us with these dreams.

How will we be able to compete with students from other districts to be admitted to an accredited university when seeing a counselor for guidance will be impossible, as there will only be one for every 2000 students? How will we know when our college applications are due or how to receive money for college if the district is doing away with the career centers?

But most importantly, how will we take the classes needed for graduation and for college admittance if we can take only five classes a day? Students are the future. We also need to support those who are in the classrooms and interact every day with students. [There are] 169 teachers and staff [who] will lose their jobs as a result of the budget crisis. The school board is not doing its job to save the education of students.

The fact is that there is nearly $17 million dollars out there as a result of the Quimby property sale. Using the money to stop the cuts would not only get the district out of the deficit, but there will also be approximately $7 million dollars left over, money which could be used for the interest of the students.

It is important that as a community we unite and fight these budget cuts. If you are interested in helping students or simply want more information on the budget cuts, come and attend a student rally to stop the cuts. The rally will be Thursday, April 14, from 5 to 6 p.m. at the ESUHSD Office, 830 N. Capitol Ave. Then speak your mind about these proposals at the district’s board meeting to follow.

Enrique Valencia
Junior at James Lick
High School

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