Tuesday, October 26, 2004

CALIFORNIA STIFFS CHARTER SCHOOLS

Charters get penalized for being good with special ed students

According to a recent survey from the Los Angeles-based Reason Foundation, California's charter schools are reducing the number of students labeled as "special education" by using aggressive early intervention strategies such as "neverstreaming" to keep students performing at grade level. In addition, the charter schools are providing disabled students with a quality education in the "least restrictive environment" by including special education students in regular classrooms.

Remarkably, Reason notes, the charter schools achieve those outcomes despite being shortchanged of their share of special education funding by their sponsoring school districts, which decide how the funds are allocated. Up to 37 percent of the money can be withheld, according to the July 2004 study, "Special Education Accountability: Structural Reform to Help Charter Schools Make the Grade," by Reason Foundation Education Director Lisa Snell.

"There's really no excuse for such huge percentages of money being pilfered from charter schools," said Snell. "Charter and public schools face enough challenges in educating our kids, they shouldn't have to fight for resources obviously intended for their special education students." For example, Yvonne Chan, principal at Vaughn Next Century Learning Center in Pacoima, California, reports the Los Angeles Unified School District not only takes as much as 37 percent from her school, but provides "zero services in return."....

"Charter schools are taking innovative steps and using early intervention techniques to ensure children never leave the general education classroom," said Snell, pointing to a growing body of evidence that the percentage of students assigned to special education is artificially inflated by school officials who count students who simply haven't been taught to read. "Ironically, public schools and charter schools that offer services early on and actually reduce their special education population through neverstreaming or other early intervention strategies may be criticized as not properly serving special education students," she noted.

More here




AN INTERESTING TURNAROUND

The state Department of Education dismissed complaints of segregation and state Sunshine Law violations made by a Palatka man against the Putnam County School District. After thanking David Wade of Palatka for his correspondence of Sept. 20, the letter, dated Oct. 8, addressed Wade's concerns that racial imbalances in the district's schools indicate segregation by the school board.

Wade had said in March that because the racial makeup of River Breeze Elementary School was 68 percent minority students, his children felt uncomfortable in classrooms in which the majority of students are not white. Of Putnam's nearly 70,000 residents, 17 percent are black.

School Board Attorney Joe Pickens said the ethnic makeup of Palatka area schools, most of which have predominantly black school populations, reflects the local population and resulted from migration of residents. The Department of Education's letter said, "The constitutional requirement to desegregate schools does not mean that every school in a district must reflect the racial composition of the district as a whole." It continued that an imbalance in student populations can be because of independent demographic forces and therefore doesn't violate the Constitution.

More here

So having few blacks in predominantly white schools is a sign of "bias" or "discrimination" which must be fixed and equalized by busing or whatever it takes but having few whites in predominantly black schools is just "demographics" and can be ignored! Some minorities are obviously important and must be helped while others can be ignored

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For greatest efficiency, lowest cost and maximum choice, ALL schools should be privately owned and run -- with government-paid vouchers for the poor and minimal regulation.

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