Press Mention: Steve Lopez Column

Wed, 22 Jul 2009 08:13:58 -0700

Thank you to Steve Lopez for the shout out in today’s LA Times column. We’re big fans of Steve’s so this is really an honor.

Check out Steve’s Column:
Can parent’s screams jolt LAUSD into action?

We’re hoping the answer is YES!

Summertime Blues

Wed, 22 Jul 2009 06:59:16 -0700

For those of you following us on Facebook and Twitter, you know that I’ve spent the past few weeks on CA budget watch. It was painful to watch as our state legislators spoke about protecting our safety net and then proceeded to cut that net into pieces.

As the meetings continued their was an eerie silence on the issue of education, which we knew couldn’t be a good sign. And we were right. Here’s a wrap up of education cuts from the California Budget Project.

K-12 Education, Community Colleges, and Higher Education
The proposed budget agreement reduces 2008-09 funding for programs covered by the Proposition 98 guarantee by$1.6 billion. As proposed, the 2009-10 Proposition 98 minimum funding guarantee would be $1.6 billion lower than the Governor proposed in his July 1 letter if the Legislature approves the proposed 2008-09 Proposition 98 funding level. The budget deal would also defer $1.7 billion in school district revenue limit payments from 2009-10 to 2010-11. The amount of this deferral would be based on the Governor’s May Revision proposal, which was adopted by the Budget Conference Committee. The agreement would also statutorily authorize $9.8 billion in future payments to schools to compensate for reductions made to programs covered by the Proposition 98 guarantee in 2008-09. These payments would be made after the economy recovers and are in addition to maintenance factor payments not yet made to schools. To compensate for the reductions, school districts would be allowed to reduce the school year by up to five days, according to media reports.

The budget agreement also cuts funding for higher education by $3 billion, according to media reports. However, it appears some media reports may have counted reductions in funding for community colleges as part of the reductions to higher education, in effect double counting reductions to community colleges as part of both K-14 and higher education.

No matter how you slice it, it doesn’t look good. But again we wait. While this budget was ironed out by the Big 5 (Governor Schwarzenegger, Assembly Spekaer Bass, Senate President Steinberg, Senate Minority Leader Hollingsworth and Assembly Minority Leader Blakeslee), it still has to pass in the CA Senate and Assembly where it will be broken down into smaller bills with some needing simple majority to pass and others the dreaded 2/3’s vote.

I would think that no matter which side you are on, voting to pass this budget would result in some sort of political backlash.

If and when it passes, we will then be awaiting word from LAUSD CFO Megan Reilly on the real numbers for LAUSD cuts and how these will be taken. We’re wondering if this pushes LAUSD to the magic number that leads us to bankruptcy. That of course is a good news bad news situation. With only 47 days left until school starts we hope all this information comes quickly.

In the meantime, the Lemonade Initiative will be meeting next week with leaders from major parent organizations around the city as we come together and work on a plan of concerted action. Stay posted.

This year, there certainly is no cure for the summertime blues.

Where To Find Us This Summer

Tue, 21 Jul 2009 18:02:46 -0700

We won’t be posting as often on the website this summer as we are all in and out of town on vacation and of course taking care of the kiddies.

However we are posting DAILY UPDATES and thoughts on Facebook and Twitter (Our page on twitter is called LemonadeLAUSD in case you can’t find it).

Don’t have an account? Both platforms are free and easy to set up. All you need is an email address.

Hope to see you there. TWEET!

RALLY TOMORROW 7/1 - Join Us!

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 08:18:50 -0700

Join us at the Parent Revolution rally outside Beaudry tomorrow, July 1st from 9-11am.

Tomorrow is the LAUSD Board Annual Meeting which will see the swearing in of new board members Steve Zimmer, Nury Martinez and returning board president Monica Martinez.

As usual we parents will not be standing by silently. Hell no! We’ll be making our voice heard loud and clear as we call for education reform for LAUSD.

For a preview of tomorrow’s board agenda, CLICK HERE.

Interesting enough LAUSD is now proposing that all new school open take a look at the possibility of becoming charter/idesign/magnet etc. A change of position at LAUSD? What about existing school? More to come...

LAUSD HQ
333 South Beaudry Ave.
Los Angeles, CA

Tweet!

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 18:39:37 -0700

Click on the link below to follow the Lemonade Initiative on Twitter. This way you’ll be up to date with what we are working on.
Tweet!

http://twitter.com/LemonadeLAUSD