Cities' homeless crackdown: Could it be compassion fatigue?

A growing number of cities across the United States are making it harder to be homeless. Philadelphia recently banned outdoor feeding of people in city parks. Denver has begun enforcing a ban on eating and sleeping on property without permission. And this month, lawmakers in Ashland, Ore., will consider strengthening the town's ban on camping and making noise in public.

And the list goes on: Atlanta, Phoenix, San Diego, Los Angeles, Miami, Oklahoma City and more than 50 other cities have previously adopted some kind of anti-camping or anti-food-sharing laws, according to the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty.

The ordinances are pitting city officials against homeless advocates. City leaders say they want to improve the lives of homeless people and ensure public safety, while supporters of the homeless argue that such regulations criminalize homelessness and make it harder to live on the nation's streets.

"We're seeing these types of laws being proposed and passed all over the country," said Heather Johnson, a civil rights attorney at the homeless and poverty law center, which opposes many of the measures. "We think that criminalization measures such as these are counterproductive. Rather than address the root cause of homelessness, they perpetuate homelessness."

A number of organizations including the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania filed a lawsuit against the city of Philadelphia this month in response to its feeding ban.

Mark McDonald, press secretary for the city's mayor,Michael Nutter, said the measures are about expanding the services offered to the homeless, adding dignity to their lives and about ensuring good public hygiene and safety.

"This is about an activity on city park land that the mayor thinks is better suited elsewhere," he said. "We think it's a much more dignified place to be in an indoor sit-down restaurant. … The overarching policy goal of the mayor is based on a belief that hungry people deserve something more than getting a ham sandwich out on the side of the street."

If people come inside for feeding programs, they can be connected with other social service programs and possibly speak with officials such as substance abuse counselors and mental health professionals, McDonald said.

Critics argue that bans on feeding and camping often leave people with no where to eat or sleep because many cities lack emergency food services and shelters. Meanwhile, citing people who violate such ordinances costs cities money when officials try to follow up on such cases and hurts people's ability to get jobs and housing, because many develop criminal records.

In 2007, the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty filed a lawsuit against Dallas contesting its ordinance that restricted locations where groups could share food and prohibited many groups from providing food in locations where they had served homeless people for years. A trial is scheduled to begin this month.

"It is a good thing when you see municipal governments paying attention to the homeless population and trying to find a number of solutions to the crisis," said James Brooks, theNational League of Cities' program director for community development and infrastructure. "Cities have an obligation not only to the people in the parks but to people in the wider community to prevent a public health problem."

Brooks' group supports the ordinances and said they are holistic approaches to solving a problem that will not simply end by giving people shelter. The key to helping homeless people is to get them indoors where social service workers can help them, Brooks said.

An opponent of the measures, Neil Donovan, executive director of the National Coalitionfor the Homeless, sees the ordinances as possible signs of "compassion fatigue."

"People are getting frustrated and getting angry at the issue," he said. "The person who is asking for money outside a coffee shop, the person who is camping just outside the ballpark, the chronically homeless are getting the brunt of this anger."

L.A. Unified Can Apply for Federal Race to the Top Funds

Los Angeles Unified School District Supt. John Deasy. (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)

For the first time, L.A. Unified and other individual school districts can apply for federal Race to the Top grants, bypassing California officials, including the governor, who had objected to the rules for receiving the education-reform incentives.

The draft rules, announced Tuesday by the U.S. Department of Education, will allow school systems to vie for funds that had been unavailable to any state that was unable or unwilling to compete for the grants.

"We're wide open to new strategies, new approaches," said U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan in a conference call. "Every district in America can apply."

Race to the Top was launched by the U.S. Department of Education under President Obama in 2009. It was intended to spur states into adopting education policies favored by the administration, including revamping teacher evaluations to include student test score data. Three times California applied and lost.

Most recently, in 2011, senior state officials took California out of the running: They declined to endorse an application submitted by a consortium of districts, including those in L.A., Long Beach, San Francisco and Sacramento.

The money was too little to pay for what was required, a particular burden during the current budget crisis, according to state Supt. of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson, Gov. Jerry Brown and other officials. But there also were philosophical objections to using student test scores as one measure to evaluate teachers.

The largest state teachers unions also have opposed using this data in performance reviews, unless teachers approve it as part of a collective bargaining agreement.

In 2010, the state's first application was weakened by the unwillingness of some teachers unions and school districts to sign on.

The new guidelines for the $400-million pool include the requirement that districts remake teachers evaluations. In Los Angeles Unified, schools Supt. John Deasy is moving in that direction.

"We intend to apply," Deasy said. "We've been waiting for this. We're ready for this. Everything we've done has laid the groundwork for a strong application."

If successful, L.A. could receive $25 million, much less than the $100 million the district could have obtained in an earlier funding round.

Still, the money would prove valuable for advancing such district initiatives as an evaluation system now being tested by volunteers in some schools.

Deasy is planning to expand the program districtwide, but faces a legal challenge by United Teachers Los Angeles, the teachers union.

UTLA could play a role in the Race to the Top bid.

"Local buy-in," including from teachers unions, "and commitment to reform is very important," Duncan said.

Stanford education professor Linda Darling-Hammond believes the emphasis is misplaced.

"Evaluation is actually a tiny aspect of the entire puzzle," Darling-Hammond said at a talk Monday to teachers and union activists at the Robert F. Kennedy Community Schools in Koreatown. "The big issue for the U.S. is inequality." The nation has "continually disinvested in schools that serve children who live in poverty."

A contrasting view appeared in a report released Tuesday by Communities for Teaching Excellence, a locally based organization funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

The report called for linking improved evaluations — including the use of student data — to decisions on whether teachers should receive and retain tenure protections.

The group saluted recent changes to tenure laws in other states. In Tennessee, teachers now must work five years to earn tenure; California teachers earn tenure after two years. Tennessee teachers also must rank in the top two of five categories for overall performance in the two years before achieving tenure. And teachers can lose tenure if they are rated ineffective for two consecutive years.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-0523-teachers-evals-20120523,0,3011182.story

Governor wants to cut funding in school science

Science and technology may stimulate the state's economy, but the governor wants to cut funding for a second science requirement in high school.

The California finalists for Intel's Science Competition have developed truly amazing things; they began their projects in high school. The genetic test James Thomas of San Jose generated will be helpful.

"I created a model that actually has 92 percent accuracy in predicting the on-set of alcoholism in individuals," said Thomas.

The technology Jessica Richeri of Riverside developed will change the way we drive.

"My research finds a way to avoid traffic jams in the future with an autonomous robotic vehicle," said Richeri.

Supporters believe this illustrates how innovation can stimulate California's economy, that these kids are tomorrow's 

job creators, and it all begins with STEM: science, technology, education and math.

But because of California's continued budget crisis, the governor proposes to cut the second year science 

requirement in high schools to save $245 million.

For decades, schools have always gotten reimbursed by the state for teaching a second science class, but Gov. 

Jerry Brown wants to move away from state mandates because they're too expensive. He dropped by the science fair and said the cuts mean districts will have to find the money themselves to continue the program.

"I personally went to the School Board and said this is a good requirement, but we want the locals to pick up that up. Otherwise, they charge us," said Brown.

Critics say, though, after years of decreased state funding, schools can barely keep the lights on, let alone pay 

for science curriculum.

"The problem is all of this is being done during a time when other states and other countries are boosting their 

science and technology education to make their students and their population more competitive in this global 

market," said Matt Gray from the California STEM Learning Network.

The other problem is University of California and Cal State both require two years of science for admission. So if 

you're in a school where you can't take a second class, it'll be tough to get in.

What are the options?

"I go to Carnegie Mellon University," said Richeri.

"I'm going to MIT this fall," said Thomas.

Sounds like a California brain drain.

Via: http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/politics&id=8674570

Chronic absence, suspension derail Oakland black boys

High rates of chronic absence, suspension and poor academic performance signal that more than half of African American male students in the Oakland Unified School District are at risk of dropping out, according to new research.

The Urban Strategies Council, an Oakland-based community advocacy organization, found significant disparities between African American boys and their peers: Fifty-five percent of black boys in the 2010-11 school year were falling off course from graduation or were at risk of doing so, compared with 37.5 percent of students overall in the district.

From kindergarten through 12th grade, researchers found that black boys struggled with regular attendance and suspensions and scoring proficiently on standardized tests or maintaining grades above a C average – warning signs that they might drop out.

Among African American males who were not on track to graduate, 73 percent in elementary school were chronically absent, missing 10 percent or more of school days for any reason, according to the findings released this week. In middle school, the same percentage had been suspended at least once. Nearly two-thirds of high schoolers were chronically absent and had less than a C average; 41 percent had been suspended at least once.

The council's reports on dropout indicators are part of Oakland Unified's African American Male Achievement Initiative, an effort launched in 2010 to improve academic and social equity for black boys. The findings provide "a sense of urgency" for the district, said Chris Chatmon, executive director of the district's Office of African American Male Achievement. "We need to understand what's going on if we're going to effectively intervene and improve outcomes and graduation and success of African American males," said Junious Williams, chief executive officer of the council. 

Chatmon, who plans to hold a community meeting next month to discuss the council's findings, said improving attendance among black boys requires working with other agencies and the community and presents different challenges in different age groups.

In kindergarten and first grade, African American boys in the district were more than four times as likely as their white peers to be chronically absent, the council found. 

"Five-year-olds don't miss school without an adult knowing at home," said Hedy Chang, director of Attendance Works, an initiative that seeks to improve student success by reducing chronic absence. 

Families might face hurdles, such as transportation or health problems, in getting their young children to school, or they might not understand the importance of kindergarten, said Chang, who has worked with Oakland Unified to address chronic absenteeism. 

"Once you miss a month or more of school, and you miss a month or more in kindergarten and first, you're not on track for reading in third grade," she said. "We've got to make sure kids have a chance to start on the right track."

One way the district has tried to target chronic absenteeism among young black students is by working with the Oakland Housing Authority. Forty percent of students at four West Oakland schools live in public housing; 30 percent of those students were chronically absent in 2010-11. Chatmon said the district saw an uptick in school registration by reaching out to West Oakland families living in public housing.

By the time black boys reach middle and high school, different factors begin to undermine attendance, Chatmon said.

"Street culture becomes more attractive than learning and school culture," he said. "How do we define school culture? What is it? What would get our students getting up at 5 in the morning, running to school? … You get school culture right, then you will produce African American boys that produce high academic outcomes."

Cultural clashes and misunderstandings also factor into high rates of suspension among black boys, Chatmon and Williams said. 

"We still have a teaching and administrative body that doesn't … understand the cultural context of where our students come from," Chatmon said. "We have to do a lot of work with our adults to authentically engage with our boys, with our families, to understand our community context."

African American boys made up 17 percent of Oakland Unified students in 2010-11, yet they represented 42 percent of students suspended. Disruption or defiance of authority was the most common reason for discipline, accounting for 38 percent of their suspensions.

Subjective standards for disruption and defiance – the reason behind more than 40 percent of suspensions in California and the recent target of criticism and legislative action – could be contributing to high suspension rates among black boys, Williams said.

The council recommended that Oakland Unified carefully monitor such offenses and clearly define what constitutes impermissible behavior. The district also needs strategies for prevention and intervention so students are not suspended for single incidents, Williams said.

In many ways, Chatmon said, that work already has started.

"This is a 'we' problem," he said. "We are taking this on with the frame of full-service community schools that call out everybody, humbly. We can't do it in isolation."


Via:  http://californiawatch.org/dailyreport/chronic-absence-suspension-derail-oakland-black-boys-16298

AB 2204 (Hernandez)

How High Prison Costs Slash Education and Hurt the Economy

These happy graduates have the skills Michigan needs to build its economy. Too many of Michigan’s workers don’t. Photo by Mario Bollin

Michigan, like many states, suffers an education gap that threatens its growth. According to a state turnaround plan, 62 percent of jobs will require a post-secondary education by 2018. Sadly, less than 40 percent of today's workers qualify. Without more college graduates, the best-paying jobs will move away—or they will never be created in the first place.

The Higher Education Gap Hurts Economic Growth

Why don't more Michigan residents finish college? What does this have to with jails? The answer is money: Prisons and universities compete for shrinking state budgets. Much of the state's budget is protected by statute or long-standing contracts. It can't be cut in the near term. Higher education budgets are the least protected, and they have suffered the deepest cuts.

[See a collection of political cartoons on the economy.]

"Our public universities are a major driver of Michigan's economy yet we are spending more on a prisoner in one year than we are to help a Michigan student go to college for four years. This investment strategy is upside down if we want to attract business investment and good paying jobs," says Doug Rothwell, president and CEO of Business Leaders for Michigan, a council of CEOs and other top executives from Michigan's largest companies. Business Leaders for Michigan developed Michigan's Turnaround Plan with help from McKinsey and the Lumina Foundation. 

Prison Costs Have Strong Advocates Across the United States

Powerful constituencies protect prison budgets by putting more people in jail and keeping them there longer. "Law and order" conservatives want to show toughness on crime. Corporations that run outsourced prisons want to raise revenues. Unions representing correctional workers want to protect jobs and salaries. These groups promote tough mandatory sentencing and parole restrictions. 

Michigan is a relatively high-cost jailer. It imprisons 51 percent more of its residents than its neighbors (as a percent of population). Compared to its neighbors, Michigan spends more money per prisoner per year to keep to keep its prisoners in jail.

[See the U.S. News Best Colleges.]

California and many other states also confront soaring, entrenched prison costs. Former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger summed it up this way:

Thirty years ago, 10 percent of the general fund went to higher education and only 3 percent went to prisons. Today, almost 11 percent goes to prisons and only 7.5 percent goes to higher education. Spending 45 percent more on prisons than universities is no way to proceed into the future.

Higher Prison Costs Lead to Higher Tuitions and Fewer Graduates

With state revenues under pressure and prison budgets off-limits, funds for higher education have been slashed. Colleges and universities must raise tuition, since they have no other way to bridge the funding gap. The chart below shows the dramatic change.

When college costs soar, fewer people enroll and graduate. The damage will likely spread through the economy. Michigan-based companies will move jobs elsewhere if they can't fill them locally. Out-of-state companies will hesitate to expand in Michigan. Talented and ambitious graduates will flee for better opportunities. Burdened with loans, those who stay will spend little on consumer goods and services.  

[See the top 10 cities to find a job.]

The future of Michigan's economy depends on educating its residents. "Our state cannot afford to continue its recent trend of declining investment in the talent pool of tomorrow," said J. Patrick Doyle, president and CEO of Domino's Pizza, Inc., which is based in Ann Arbor, Mich. "Businesses are struggling now to find the right talent."

North Carolina Made the Sustainable Choice

Education makes the economy productive, but prisons do not. Some states, notably North Carolina, choose to educate. North Carolina's economy is similar to Michigan's, but it spends much more on higher education. The University of North Carolina gets nearly four times as much state support per student as Michigan schools. As a result a four year degree costs in-state students $38,215 in Michigan but only $18,887 in North Carolina.  

You don't need a Ph.D. in economics to predict which state will field the most talented and productive workforce. Today, North Carolina and Michigan rank about even in economic performance. But 30 to 40 years ago, North Carolina lagged way behind, whereas Michigan led. Since then, North Carolina's investments and Michigan's disinvestments have leveled the playing field. North Carolina offers far more to support knowledge-based businesses that pay high wages and fuel the state's economy.

[Not Giving Up: Jobless Keep Searching for Work.]

Don't Eat the Seed Corn

Many states—North Dakota, Kansas, Oklahoma, and others—are planning cuts to sales or income taxes. Where will the cuts fall? Will the states find ways to make government more efficient? Or will the states eat their seed corn, dismantling the educational institutions needed for a modern economy? These consequential decisions will determine the states' economic future.


Via: http://www.usnews.com/opinion/blogs/economic-intelligence/2012/05/24/how-high-prison-costs-slash-education-and-hurt-the-economy?s_cid=rss:economic-intelligence:how-high-prison-costs-slash-education-and-hurt-the-economy

California to stop going after children for caregivers' debts

Clarence Ayers was baffled.


At 73, he was raising his great-granddaughter in rural Fresno County. He relied on $334 a month in public
assistance to help cover the teenager's expenses: new shoes when she outgrew her old ones, transportation
to the after-school activities she enjoyed.


But last summer, county officials said they were slicing his CalWorks payment by 10% and for the most
perplexing of reasons: Over the years, they had mistakenly sent $10,000 to the girl's mother and grandfather.


"Irene wasn't even born when some of that money was paid," Ayers said. "She was being punished for
something she never did."


For decades, if county officials couldn't track down a parent or guardian who owed them money, they went
after the children — even if they no longer lived together.


Now, the much-criticized practice is ending as part of an agreement to settle a lawsuit filed by Ayers and
others who accused state officials of essentially holding children responsible for their caregivers' debts.


Details and total costs of the settlement are still being hammered out, but the California Department of Social
Services said refunds will be provided for any such collections made since Jan. 6. Earlier this year, counties
were told to stop collecting on past overpayments from adults whose families benefited from the funds when
they were children.


"We're very pleased that the department has recognized that this is something they want to change," said
Patti Prunhuber, a Public Interest Law Project attorney involved in the case. "These debts do not belong to
these children. They are not responsible for them. They didn't create them, and they shouldn't follow them
into their new households or into adulthood."


Officials now will focus on recovering overpayments from the parents or caregivers who received the funds,
said department spokesman Michael Weston.


A program administered at the county level, CalWorks provides cash assistance to some of the state's
neediest families. The program has been pummeled by budget cuts in recent years, whittling down how much
families can qualify for and how long they can receive the aid.


If county officials overpay a family by $35 or more, state law requires them to try to recover it, according to
court filings. One option is to track down other household members. In some cases, officials allegedly
garnished the benefits or tax refunds of young people whose caregivers had been paid too much because of
a county mistake, legal aid attorneys said.


Another plaintiff in the lawsuit, Jamie Hartley, was just 16 in 2008 when Riverside County paid her mother
for her older brother's expenses, even though he no longer qualified for the program. County officials
threatened to seize Hartley's 2011 tax refund to help collect the $766 debt — money she was counting on to
help cover college living expenses, according to court papers.


It's not clear how many people were targets of such practices, which date back at least to 1981, Weston
said. Until 1996, federal law required that officials recover overpayments from any member of the household
possible, he said.


Now states can decide whether to pursue those who were minors when the money was provided. In Los
Angeles County alone, 4,682 children and 88 adults were having money docked from their benefits to
recoup such overpayments at the time the practice was stopped, officials said. The county stopped going
after tax refunds in 2000.


In the last two years, legal aid attorneys received a rash of complaints from people who had received
collection notices, said Antionette Dozier, an attorney for the Western Center on Law and Poverty who also
worked on the case. It appeared that changes in systems used to recover overpayments had turned up a
number of old cases, Dozier said.


In 2010, Pilar Lopez received a letter from Butte County officials saying she owed nearly $7,000. If she
didn't erase the debt, officials said they would seize her tax refund, a huge financial blow to the mother of
three who was paying her way through Chico State.


The CalWorks money had actually gone to Lopez's father during a period in the 1990s when she'd lived
mainly with other relatives in a different county. After she tracked down school and medical records that
backed up her account — a process that took months — Butte County officials relented.


"Why are you going after a minor when they didn't even know what money meant back then?" said Lopez,
32. "I literally could not sleep at night. I kept thinking, 'Where am I going to get the money?'"


The settlement came as a relief to Ayers, the 73-year-old raising his 14-year-old great-granddaughter, Irene.
He said details of how the state debt was incurred were never fully explained. Irene's mother was a child
herself when at least some of the payments were made, Ayers said, and her grandfather is no longer alive.


Retired after working in transportation on movie sets, he said he lives on Social Security income, his savings
wiped out by a series of family funerals.


The CalWorks grant he receives to support Irene is a "big help," he said. "She's growing so fast." Every
week, she asks for money for a new pair of shoes, a school trip or a science project. "She's active at school.
I don't want to stop that."


Via:  http://articles.latimes.com/2012/may/12/local/la-me-child-welfare-debts-20120512