US turns down No Child Left Behind waiver for California

California has become apparently only the second state — and by far the largest — to be denied a waiver of requirements of the No Child Left Behind education program, state officials said.

Thirty-four states and the District of Columbia have won waivers from provisions of the 2001 law, one of the signature achievements of the administration of former President George W. Bush, while nine other states and Puerto Rico have received conditional approval or have applications pending, according to the U.S. Education Department.


The agency doesn't publicize which states have been turned down, but Iowa is the only other state to have publicly acknowledged that it has been rejected.


California officials got the news Friday by telephone, The San Jose Mercury News reported, quoting Michael Kirst, president of the state Board of Education.

Kirst told the Mercury News that California's unwillingness to tie teacher evaluations to student test scores was what sank the state's request.

The denial wasn't a surprise — Kirst and state school Superintendent Tom Torlakson warned local administrators in an open letter Friday that federal officials had indicated that California's request would be turned down.

"It is disappointing that our state's request — which enjoyed such strong support from parents, teachers, administrators, and education advocates across California — has apparently been rejected," Torlakson said in a separate statement.

Authorization for No Child Left Behind — formal title: the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, or ESEA — expired in 2007, and Congress hasn't acted to rewrite or refresh it. Last year, the Education Department told the states that they could apply for waivers pending a new law because the current law was "forcing districts into one-size-fits-all solutions that just don't work," Education Secretary Arne Duncan said at the time.

In the meantime, the old law continues to impose student test score standards that keep rising every year, to the point that many states say they're unrealistic in 2012. Critics contend that the law locks states into inflexible standards focused solely on reading and math, neglecting subjects like social studies, the arts, health and physical education.

The old standards require a 100 percent rate of proficiency on standardized reading and math tests by 2014. The penalty for falling short is loss of federal funding for schools serving low-income children.

"On behalf of millions of parents, teachers, administrators and community members who fight for all children every day, we urge you to join us in prioritizing education by coming together to reauthorize and fix No Child Left Behind. We've waited long enough," Betsy Landers, president of the National PTA, wrote in an open letter to President Barack Obama last month.

Torlakson agreed, telling state educators: "The appropriate solution is for Congress to reauthorize the ESEA, replace its inflexible requirements with provisions that accommodate the differences in state policy approaches, and give districts adequate flexibility to improve student achievement."

But that doesn't appear likely to happen any time soon, with Congress transfixed by the looming "fiscal cliff" and immigration reform.

"At the moment, it's unclear if there is a real commitment and consensus in Congress for reauthorizing," Duncan told the Council of Chief State School Officers in a speech last month. "I wish there was a clear commitment and consensus."

via NBC News

Smoking declines in California, but smokeless tobacco use rises among youth

Though the prevalence of cigarette smoking among California high school students has declined over the past decade, smokeless tobacco use has risen among high school students, from 3.1 percent in 2004 to 3.9 percent in 2010, according a report released Thursday.

The report, by Ron Chapman, state health officer and director of the California Department of Public Health, attributed the increase in part to a rise in the promotion and availability of snuff and other smokeless tobacco products.

The study found that the prevalence of smoking was higher at schools in neighborhoods with five or more stores that sell tobacco than at schools in neighborhoods without any stores selling tobacco.

The study also documented a rise in the illegal sale of tobacco to minors. According to the survey, 8.7 percent of retailers sold tobacco to minors this year, up from 5.6 percent in 2011.

"For the first time in the last three years, tobacco retailers are selling tobacco to our youth more often," Chapman said in a conference call with reporters Thursday morning.

Sales of non-cigarette tobacco and nicotine products have risen dramatically over the last decade, from $77.1 million in 2001 to $210.9 million in 2011, according to the report.

"Tobacco use takes a tremendous toll on our state, from both a health and economic perspective," Chapman said in the report. "Smoking kills more people than alcohol, AIDS, car crashes, illegal drugs, murders and suicides combined."

While the adult smoking rate has been cut in half since 1988, from 23 percent to 12 percent of California adults, there remain about 3.6 million smokers in the state, and tobacco use kills more than 34,000 Californians every year, according to the report.

Tobacco-related health care expenses will cost the state $6.5 billion this year, or about $400 per taxpayer, according to the study.

California men continue to smoke at a higher rate, 14.9 percent, than women, 9.3 percent, according to the survey. Black and Latino men smoke at higher rates – 18.9 percent and 15.5 percent respectively – than white men, but Asian men smoke at slightly lower rates.

The report said the tobacco industry spent about $656 million on marketing in 2010.

The study comes after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported in May that California used relatively little of the billions of dollars in tobacco money it has to prevent kids from smoking or to help smokers quit.

Chapman said the state has been "very successful" using what money it has to reduce smoking rates.

via The Sacramento Bee

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/12/14/5053713/smoking-declines-in-california.html#storylink=cpy

Long Beach school board may cut another $13 million

LONG BEACH - The Long Beach Unified Board of Education today will consider closing summer school and freezing open teaching positions next year in a round of budget cuts meant to save $13 million.

While the passage of Proposition 30 prevented severe program cuts, the district is still facing a $20 million deficit in the 2012-2013 fiscal year due to years of state funding cuts, officials said.

The sales tax hike passed last month is meant to provide funding for California's schools.

The district's structural deficit would have ballooned to $55 million next year had Prop. 30 failed, officials said.

The LBUSD is projecting a $57 million deficit by the end of the 2014-2015 fiscal year if it doesn't make reductions.

The first phase of proposed reductions for a savings of $13.8 million includes: Closing grades six through seven at Burcham School, transportation reductions, eliminating summer school in 2013, eliminating the AVID college prep program, cuts to special education, and freezing open positions for teachers and other staff.

As part of this reduction plan, the board last month voted to close Monroe K-8 school in Lakewood for a savings of $2.7 million. The closing of the AVID program, which stands for Advancement Via Individual Determination, would save $1 million annually.

The board in coming months is expected to also consider other budget reductions, which could include more small school closures, reductionsto programs and services, and other measures designed to safeguard the LBUSD's fiscal health, officials said.

The Board of Education meets today at 5 p.m. at 1515 Hughes Way.

via Press Telegram

Court decision a boost for California's budget

A Thursday decision by a federal appeals court could be worth $659 million a year for California's budget.

The court's ruling allows the state to move forward with a cut to Medi-Cal reimbursement rates, meaning doctors and other healthcare providers will be paid less for providing services to poor Californians who use the program.

Gov. Jerry Brown tried to make the cut in June 2011, but lawsuits and negotiations with the federal government had placed it on hold until now. Healthcare providers who sued to block the cuts say they'll appeal Thursday's decision.

Still, administration officials are preparing to save $659 million annually. The administration's budget projections always expected that the state would win the case eventually, but the victory came sooner than expected, said H.D. Palmer, a spokesman for Brown's Department of Finance.

The court ruling is also retroactive, which allows the state to try recouping $245 million that was paid in the year and a half since the cut was supposed to start.

Palmer said the state would pursue the retroactive savings, but did not say how.

The full story, written with Maura Dolan, ran in Friday's Los Angeles Times.

via LA Times

Corporate Taxes on Table in Cliff Talks

By DAMIAN PALETTA, JANET HOOK and CAROL E. LEE—Jared A. Favole contributed to this article.
Via the Wall Street JournalThe White House has told Republicans it would include an overhaul of the corporate-tax code as part of any deal to reduce the deficit, people familiar with the talks said, a move to court business groups as budget negotiations intensify.

Corporate taxes hadn't until now been part of budget talks aimed at averting spending cuts and tax increases set for January. Much of the focus has instead been on the expiring individual income-tax rates.

The offer from the White House came amid a fresh round of proposals from both sides, as President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner exchanged counteroffers to address the so-called fiscal cliff. Big gaps remain between Democratic and Republican negotiators, and while talks are continuing, there is no guarantee a deal will be struck, with or without a corporate-tax revamp.

On Wednesday, Mr. Boehner criticized Mr. Obama's latest plan, saying it is unbalanced by focusing too much on tax increases. "His plan does not begin to solve our debt crisis; it actually increases spending," Mr. Boehner said.

The White House's corporate-tax suggestion wasn't specific, according to officials familiar with the offer, other than committing to overhaul the corporate tax code in 2013. White House officials, in making the suggestion, cited a corporate-tax plan the administration unveiled in February but said they weren't wedded to any specifics.

Left unclear is the crucial question of how any revamp would affect companies' overall tax burden. That is one reason why Republicans considered it a tactical offer only, and not one that might help seal a deal.

As part of its budget proposal, the White House also slightly lowered its target for new tax revenue to $1.4 trillion, down from Mr. Obama's initial offer of $1.6 trillion, officials said. It retained items from an earlier offer that had irked Republicans, included new stimulus spending and an increase in the U.S.'s borrowing limit.

Mr. Boehner, an Ohio Republican, responded Tuesday with a proposal that wasn't "dramatically" different from the one he made to the White House last week, according to an official familiar with the talks, who declined to elaborate.

The flurry of activity showed the talks were moving along, albeit haltingly. Messrs. Boehner and Obama discussed the negotiations by phone Tuesday evening. The White House in recent days also has been talking with Democratic leaders about the types of spending cuts that might accompany any deal, to calm increasing queasiness in the party over the direction of the talks.

In a brief update on the House floor earlier Tuesday, Mr. Boehner asked, "Where are the president's spending cuts?" He added: "We are still waiting for the White House to identify what specific cuts the president is willing to make." He accused the White House of "slow-walking" the talks. Republicans viewed the White House's latest offer as not that different from its first—heavy on new taxes and light on ideas to trim spending.

Political reaction to the corporate-tax idea split along party lines. A senior Democratic aide described the addition as a smart way of making concessions without having to touch entitlement programs.

Republicans said they didn't consider the move a concession at all, given their assumption that the corporate tax code would be tackled at some point. "It's a red herring," said Boehner spokesman Michael Steel. He said keeping individual rates low was a more immediate priority because of its impact on small businesses, many of which aren't structured as corporations, and whose owners pay taxes through the individual tax system.

The White House earlier this year proposed lowering the corporate rate to 28% from 35%, and even lower for manufacturing companies. Lower rates would be combined with eliminating some tax deductions in the White House plan, with the net effect being that the tax burden on companies would remain about the same. But it would be a simpler and clearer system, which many CEOs have sought.

Many Republicans have offered similar proposals, though their proposals call for lowering the corporate rate to 25%. Neither plan gained any traction.

An overhaul of the corporate-tax code came up repeatedly during Mr. Obama's recent meetings to discuss the fiscal cliff with chief executives at the White House. Some CEOs signaled a willingness to accept higher individual tax rates to bring in more revenue, but they said the corporate code needed to be redrawn because it hurt U.S. competitiveness. By agreeing to include an overhaul of the corporate-tax code as part of these discussions, the White House could be trying to further attract business groups to its deficit-reduction plan.Democrats and Republicans involved in the cliff talks are trying to design a two-phase timetable. If a deal is reached, it would lock in some changes to taxes and spending rules by the end of 2012 and then require a number of more significant changes next year to entitlement programs and the tax code. The White House's corporate-tax plan would fit into the second phase, giving lawmakers, White House officials and business groups time to work through the details.
The White House's February proposal to redesign the corporate tax code received a lukewarm reception from business groups. Many were supportive of the proposal to lower rates but worried about which industries might get hurt by an accompanying elimination of tax breaks. Many large businesses were also unhappy the White House didn't back a proposal to shield profits from foreign affiliates from U.S. taxation.

Still, business groups saw that early proposal as a starting point, and hoped it would lead to a comprehensive deal, a point several echoed on Tuesday during a conference call organized by the Business Roundtable trade group.

"Start at wiping out all of the deductions, figuring out where that tax rate is—whether it's 25%, 22%, 15%, whatever it is," said Douglas Oberhelman, the chief executive of construction-equipment maker Caterpillar Inc. CAT +0.71% "I think all of us are on that wavelength today to begin the process."

Corporate income taxes make up about 10% of revenue collected by the government. In the fiscal year ended Sept. 30, the government received $2.449 trillion in revenue, with $242 billion of that coming from corporate income taxes.

Big differences remain between the two sides, and in public the Republicans and Democrats continued to hammer at each others' ideas.

The administration's new proposal made no major concessions on entitlements such as Medicare, which it is withholding until Republicans give up ground on tax rates. Republicans likewise want first to see more details on spending cuts.

The Business Roundtable for the first time Tuesday backed the possibility of higher tax rates as part of a broader package of changes to reduce the deficit. The group previously called for extending all the Bush-era tax rates.

John Engler, president of the Business Roundtable, an influential trade group that represents large corporations, said he thought a proposal to overhaul the corporate tax code would be well-received by Democrats and Republicans, but wouldn't be enough to replace Republican demands for spending cuts. Still, he said it would help expand the scope of the package, which could ultimately draw more backers.

A small but growing number of Republicans have argued that the party should give up on blocking any rate increase on higher-income Americans and instead shift focus to securing spending cuts as part of the deal.

Some Democrats regard Republicans' eventual concession on taxes as a foregone conclusion, and they have begun to talk among themselves about which concessions on entitlement programs they might be asked to make.

The three leading proposals floated by Republicans include increasing the eligibility age for Medicare, requiring wealthier people to pay more for Medicare and changing the formula for calculating Consumer Price Index adjustments to slow the growth of Social Security benefits.Many Democrats are especially concerned about looming Medicare cuts if they include a GOP proposal to raise the eligibility age. "If people are working in coal mines in West Virginia, it's really inhumane to talk about raising the eligibility age," said House Assistant Democratic Leader Jim Clyburn of South Carolina, who is close to Mr. Obama. "For those of us in air-conditioned offices to talk about raising the age, that's fine for us to say."

Many Democrats acknowledge that any deficit-reduction package will include proposals they don't like. "There's no way to do this without both sides giving up something," said Senate Budget Chairman Kent Conrad (D., N.D.).

Administration officials have been engaged in conversations with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi to bring them along as Mr. Obama negotiates with Mr. Boehner. Those conversations have picked up in recent days as the White House takes soundings from Democratic leaders on what might be possible for the party to stomach in a final deal.

Republicans are frustrated that they haven't secured larger spending-cut commitments from Mr. Obama in exchange for what they see as a major and early concession from Mr. Boehner on tax revenue, said people familiar with the talks.

In his speech Tuesday, Mr. Boehner argued that Mr. Obama's proposed tax increase barely scratches the surface of the deficit problem.

"Even if we did exactly what the president wants, we would see red as far as the eye can see," Mr. Boehner told the House. Aides said Mr. Boehner decided to make the speech because he believed recent reports of tentative progress in his talks with Mr. Obama played down differences that remain on spending.

The White House rejected Mr. Boehner's complaint that Mr. Obama hadn't put forward detailed spending cuts.

"What we haven't seen from Republicans to this day is a single specific proposal on revenue," White House spokesman Jay Carney said. "And in fact, we've seen less specificity from Republicans on spending cuts than the president himself has proposed."

Education is essential to prison reform

In 1989, five 14-to 15-year-old boys, four black and one Hispanic, were convicted of a crime they did not commit. They spent between five and  11 years in juvenile delinquent centers and prisons in New York. Though the boys were victims of institutional racism and a flawed justice system that robbed them of a significant portion of their youth, none of them wasted their time behind bars. Though their imprisonment interrupted their high school careers, each one of them took and passed the General Education Development Test while incarcerated.

A documentary co-directed by Ken Burns that opened in Los Angeles last week, the Central Park Five(which the media infamously dubbed the group) tells the story of these boys’ incarceration and eventual acquittal. Though I strongly recommend seeing the film for many reasons, from its accurate portrayal of a deeply flawed American justice system, news media and society to amazing footage and interviews, the fact that all five got their GEDs in prison should remind us of the powerful role that correctional education plays in prison reform.

The prison system remains a widespread, deep problem in the United States. And though California is especially known for incarceration issues — overcrowding, abuses, inefficient prisons and more — the state is beginning to spearhead a prison reform trend. Last year, Gov. Jerry Brown signed his realignment plan into law, moving thousands of inmates from state prison to county jails with a dual goal of saving the state money and relieving overcrowding by redirecting lower-level offenders to local authorities who can better handle them. This year, in the 2012 election, Californians voted by a wide margin to reform the state’s three-strikes law, making it so not any individual convicted of his or her third felony would automatically receive a life sentence, but, instead, only if the individual committed a serious or violent crime.

Both of these historic changes indicate a shift in how Californians perceive and want criminal justice to be handled by the government. And both measures have made significant differences already — there have been drops in the number of offenders, crowding reductions and billions of dollars saved — but the struggle to reform our prisons still needs to go deeper.

According to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, 95 percent of California state prison inmates will be released to society. And the average offender in California reads at an eighth-grade level. Such a low reading level likely means that once released, offenders will be unable to secure anything but an extremely low-level, low-paying, low-reward job, which in turn makes it much more likely for them to re-offend and be sent back to prison.

There’s something wrong with this picture. It is a cyclical problem that California, as a state poised to lead a growing trend, must break with by making correctional education a bigger part of the prison reform movement.

California prisons do offer amazing education programs — 32 out of 33 CDCR institutions are fully accredited schools that offer vocational training, English as a second language courses and the option to obtain high school diplomas and GED certificates. Such programs are essential to easing individuals back into society and providing them with the tools that will prevent them from becoming repeat offenders.

Obviously, opposition for correctional education is strong. Why provide criminals with the right to education? This kind of thinking is understandable, but has no place in a state where prisons are overcrowded and suck money from the state. Correctional education is one of the best ways to get at the root of the state’s prison problem, which arguably begins and ends with education. According to a 2010 study conducted by The Foundation for Educational Choice, more than 50 percent of all U.S. inmates are high school dropouts.

Education — or lack thereof — might not be the direct reason many individuals end up in prison, but more likely than not, it played some part in it. Because of this, Brown should not only continue to support correctional education, but also make it a central focus of his efforts to reform California prisons.

Elena Kadvany is a senior majoring in Spanish and is the Daily Trojan’s Editorial Director. Her column “Beyond the Classroom” ran every other Thursday.

Via Daily Trojan

California budget spends less than U.S. average on education

Education may be the largest single segment of California's budget, but the state proportionately spends less of its money on elementary and high schools and colleges than the national average, according to a new Census Bureau report.

The statistic is gleaned from the bureau's annual report on state government finances, the latest of which covers 2011.

The report tallies California's "general expenditures" last year at just under $225 billion -- spending from both the state's own taxes and other resources as well as $64.5 billion in federal funds. Education is almost $75 billion of that, according to the report -- or exactly one-third, somewhat below the national average of 35.8 percent.

California's level of education spending in 2011 was fractionally lower than in 2010. Other states ranged from a high of 46.6 percent in Georgia to a low of 24.9 percent in Alaska.

Read more here: http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2012/12/california-budget-spends-less-than-us-average-on-education.html#storylink=cpy

Via Sacramento Bee