More on public education

Earlier, I posted,

I really believe that a lot of parents make the choice to keep their kids out of the public school system because they have been told, over and over again, that it won't serve them, and the only solution is home-schooling or vouchers.

Over at Salon today, a conversation with Sandra Tsing Loh caught my eye.

Loh's kids are in a school district about 2 over from mine, LAUSD. LAUSD is a behemoth, and it is legendarily hard to find a good neighborhood school within its confines. As a mom without the resources to fund the recommended $25k per year private schools in her area, she did something unheard of: she went to her neighborhood school to see what they could offer.

When I was at public radio looking at kindergartens for [my older daughter] Madeline, for months I did not meet anybody who had their kids in public school in Los Angeles, which is really shocking. I'm a journalist so my friends are journalists: magazines, newspapers, even public radio. Nobody had their kids in public school. That's why I would never think of just going to the corner school and poking my head in. Because that's like going to the DMV.

[snip]

I started doing these questionnaires. I'd say, "OK, before we get started: On a scale of 1-10, how terrified are you of your local kindergarten?" 11! "Have you ever set foot inside that kindergarten?" No! "Do you know any living soul who has ever set foot inside that school?" No! "How do you know the school is so bad?" Uh, neighbor ...? Nobody had any direct experience of that school, but they were so terrified.

So what happens when you take the chance and look inside?

At our school, they're learning to read like gangbusters, the teachers are great, the solids are definitely there. But they didn't have instrumental music. So I found out that VH1 gives grants of new musical instruments to schools, and I did a lot of fancy footwork to get these instruments to our school. Sometimes with these school grants, it's like the Mafia truck drives up and stereos fall off. And it's like, get the stereos! I don't know where we'll put them, but get them! It was like that with these instruments. We got them, and then I had to find a music teacher and then pay the music teacher. It was a bit of a thing to unravel. Yet for me it was sort of fun.

We needed an after-school program. We didn't have one. And our PTA, we were able to start an after-school program with arts and crafts -- and even piano. Piano lessons, they're $55 for half an hour to teach a 6-year-old. We can't afford that either. And if we don't have affordable piano lessons, no one will play the piano. So we got these affordable lessons. I'm in a pocket of bohemian parents who have a little extra time and can teach an art or craft class. Five dollars a lesson, maybe $6, pretty cheap. We scholarship people for free and we still have money left to pay our violin teacher. It's an economy of scale. We know how to rub quarters together and make something.

The public schools need our personal, community, and political support, not the hand wringing. Not the dropping out, by way of home school or private academies. Tsing Loh makes this point,

And I think that goes back to the public school thing, where on one affluent block, in Los Angeles, every morning about 7 a.m. you see the four Lexuses and Range Rovers bolting out of the driveways and going to four different private schools in four different remote parts of the city. If they each just went to the corner public school and took one year of tuition -- $25,000 a year -- and put it into that school for one year, that would be $100,000. That school could buy a new gym, and everyone would save so much money -- you'd save gas, you'd save the planet -- if people just looked around and started thinking a little more communally rather than competitively.

Where I live, in the land of really decent public schools, the hand-wringing and opting out contribute almost as much to the district's difficulties as the budget shortfalls do. I read comment in the local paper a few weeks ago (paraphrasing):

Both of my kids went to private school, so I don't know very much about the local public schools. But I've seen the results: not pretty.

Really? Because I work with teens, and over the past 8 or 9 years I've watched my public-schooled teens go off to prestigious colleges. I've watched them work really hard through high school, in band, in sports, in internship programs with scientific labs. I've seen the way they work in community, heard them express their ideas, their values, and their bemusement over what on earth the adults are so freaked out about.

I've seen the same things from private and home-schooled kids. And I've seen adolescent angst turn into late teen torpor and worried about how best to guide them back in progress and growth. Whether their schooling has been public, private, or at home, the kids are, essentially, kids.

Unfortunately, the tide in this town seems to be turning toward elite selfishness, with parents demanding special charter schools for their special kids, threatening to drop out of the district if they don't get their way, and a school board election coming up which, I fear, will elect a board weighted with cultural extremists who've told the parents that they should have everything they want, and left out the facts that they will also push for prayer in schools and probably the teaching of ID.

We'll see.

But a word of advice to new parents of 4 year olds here in California: read Tsing Loh's article, and then go down to your local school and get to know it.

Mike Dunn needs to share, too

In comments, bookslinger recommends Dunn's recent letter to the TO Acorn. I had read the letter and wanted to write about it, thanks to bookslinger for prompting me to just do it. As bookslinger notes:

It is telling that not once does he mention the students which he serves, in his letter about "what makes (him) tick."

Indeed. What he does say is this:

Here's what makes me tick:

I grew up in the 1950s eating graham crackers dipped in milk while watching television on a 1956 Packard Bell with wooden knobs. Superman, Roy Rogers, Billy Graham Crusades, Ozzie and Harriet, Mighty Mouse, Disneyland, Lawrence Welk, Lassie and the Untouchables with Elliott Ness were favorites.

The 1950s instilled in me a sense of optimism, faith, justice, morality and patriotism. I still have the 1956 Packard Bell TV, and it works.

Our congressman was a Democrat, James Charles Corman. Corman was born in Galena, Cherokee County, Kansas, on Oct. 20, 1920. He moved with his family to Los Angeles in 1933. Corman served as a lieutenant in the U.S. Marine Corps with the 3rd Marine Division from 1942 to 1946. He was in the Bougainville, Guam and Iwo Jima actions. He was my congressman from 1961 to 1981.

Congressman Corman did something I never forgot: he conducted polls before he voted. Our family would get a letter about every three months asking our opinion of about three different issues. Corman would tabulate the results and then vote, representing the wishes of voters in his district.

I loved Corman. He was a war hero. He conducted polls. He listened to the people. He was honest, uncorruptable. He represented the people when he voted.

He listened to the people.

When I got elected to the Conejo Valley Unified School District School Board, Corman became my mentor and the example that I've followed as a trustee.

Following Corman's example, I polled teachers asking when they wanted Christmas vacation to start. The result: Union bosses Arliegh Kidd and Susan Falk issued a complaint that I violated the labor code. I polled PTA presidents seeking opinions on school closures. The result: Trustees Dolores Didio and Dorothy Beaubien gave me a "Stalin style" no witness, show trial and censured me. Didio and Beaubien should retire.

James Charles Corman, congressman, war hero, family man, my mentor, my example to follow, died in 2001 at 80 and is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

Corman and Ronald Reagan are my heroes.
Michael Dunn
Newbury Park

Oh god, where to start.

There's this romantic movie called "The 1950s". Fans of this movie become so engrossed in the beautifully written plot that they cannot, will not, netflix something new for a change. It's "The 1950s" or nothing, because this movie is the height of human achievement, the nexus of imagination and moral fortitude.

But all they're really talking about is a movie. And it's not like it's a documentary. It's just a movie.

I grew up in the 1970s, and while fans of "The 1950s" really only see the drug scenes and permissive sex scenes, my movie has its own optimism. I grew up optimistic about the equality of women and racial minorities being, you know, normal. SOP. I also got to watch the moon landing on TV- the culmination of a decade of a governmental and societal drive toward progress and science.

Growing up in Southern California in the 1970s, you could believe that racism was a thing almost of the past, and that sexism soon would be. When my grandmother told me that Martin Luther King was a trouble maker and the KKK were upright citizens, I could chalk that up to the outdated memories of an old southern woman. And when Phylis Schafly and friends put out their hysterical tripe about the ERA and how it would be the ruin of American women, you could hope that their craziness was a soon to be vanished backlash against necessary and just change.

And I never, no never, thought of or heard anything about a war on Christianity, of all things. Saying Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays hadn't yet become a political statement.

So my own personal movie is optimistic and hopeful, but also cautious and not a little bit disappointed in the way a certain sector of society and opinion seems to have taken on the identity of the victim, howling about the low returns they're getting on their goddamn movie, "The 1950s".
(Hey: remember that the top tax rates in the '50s jumped around in the 80% range most of the time? Which meant that a lot of the optimism of that decade was given solid grounding in the building of vital infrastructure and the funding of priorities deemed important by the American people.)

Mr. Dunn: there was nothing "Stalin style" about your censure on the school board (Also note that in future, for stylistic purposes, you may want to use stalinesque).

There are rules in any governing body, you chose not to learn them. You said that taking training would be agreeing to brainwashing. You were given the opportunity to apoligize and stop acting like a spoiled ass, you chose to chew your gum and cross your arms and continue acting like a spoiled ass.

Of course, you weren't censured for being an ass; that would in itself be against the rules. You were censured for breaking the rules.

So, this open society you fear so deeply- the one where there is no right or wrong, only what feels good, the one that you're pretty sure George Soros is forcing us into- is this in evidence when you flout governmental rules and standards of decent behavior in your work on the school board?

Ignoring the rules of the governing body you've been elected to serve on: would that be right, because its in some way respectful of the rules? Or wrong, because you are just doing what feels good to you, based on your love of a fictionalized plot that you developed all on your own?

PS: I don't serve on the board and I haven't asked any of the members, but I'm betting that if you really wanted the teachers' opinions on anything, there's probably a means to legally ask for said opinions. That might mean asking someone who knows the ropes to advise you as to the how.

Saturday local focus: CVUSD and Mike Dunn

Here in the Conejo Valley, we're blessed with good schools. Parents in LA Unified and elsewhere through the state have to weigh scores and hope that they can get their kid into a reasonably good public school somewhere in their district; here there really isn't a bad option.

The schools are different from one another, certainly. One thing that has changed a great deal since I was a CVUSD student is the level of parent involvement. Back in the day, parents weren't involved with schools so much as required to pay attention now and again. Yes, there was the PTA, but kids, for the most part, got up and walked or biked to school and developed their relationships with teachers and brought home report cards. Parents showed up for plays and the occasional conference, and complained to the principle when something got in their craw.

Now parents are everywhere in the school experience. Parents raise money to offset budget cuts. They volunteer in classrooms. We know our kid's teachers- what music they like and maybe where they went to school and how many pets they have, in addition to their teaching style. Parent involvement has a lot to do with the character of your neighborhood school. If you live in a neighborhood with a high concentration of artists, musicians, people who work in entertainment, your school probably has a very strong arts focus. Likewise science, sports, and multi-cultural events.

But the schools also have dedicated, talented, loving staff. I have been thrilled each year with my kid's teachers- all of them different in style and focus, all of them offering inspiration and support, all of them providing life lessons and academic skill to a diverse student population. We also have a really amazing child care program in CVUSD. It costs very little, and surprises me every year with the professionalism of the staff.

When I moved back to TO after years away, I was a mom expecting that the school district would never be able to meet the demands I have for my kid's education. I had been convinced that schools were in such decline, that educational standards were so low, that our family would have to resort to private schools.

I was so wrong. And the school board is primarily responsible for strength of our district.

Standards are, in general, much lower here in the US than I think they should be. Our kids are not required to do enough in depth science, history, geography, etc. The "Three Rs" advocates that I recall from my youth have largely succeeded in shrinking education down to reading, writing, and 'rithmatic. But here in the Conejo Valley, I have seen teachers and staff (and parents) who strive to broaden the curriculum and each child's academic exposure, against painful and repeated budget cuts and increasing testing demands (which focus solely on the "Three Rs").

The biggest fights around here used to be over which math curriculum to teach (and no, I really have no problem with "everyday math"). Used to be. Until Mike Dunn was elected to the school board, giving voice and power to a weird subset of people who seem to have made it their life's work to denegrate and demonize the school board.

Dunn has been a frustrating and very expensive presence on the board since his tenure began. Styling himself as the "voice of the parents" he has sowed division and controversy at every opportunity, slandered the service of the other board members repeatedly, and cost the district thousands and thousands of dollars in legal expenses every time he pulls some bone-headed illegal maneuver. He hates the teachers union, and that has been an ongoing issue, because he won't play by the rules when dealing with them, resulting in more legal costs. He won't even learn the rules, since he considers the training that's been offered him brainwashing.

Two years ago, when elections came around, Dunn had recruited a raft of candidates that would give his views an easy majority. They had a sizable evangelical contingent behind them, not to mention the Stricklands. It was pretty worrisome, for me and families like mine, and the teachers I had come to know and respect so deeply, and the volunteers who work closely with the district and the PTA. In the end, all three incumbents running were reelected, including Dunn. Which said, to me, that residents really didn't know the board, just voting the incumbents because everything seemed to be going ok. There is no other reason that anyone would cast a ballot for both Dunn and Tim Stephens.

There will be another election this fall, and the climate has changed here, dramatically. Due to declining enrollment and repeated state budget cuts, the district made the painful decision to close two elementary schools. It created a panel to review objective data and determine which schools should be closed. The panel worked for several months, as I recall, and then made its recommendations.

Then followed the great school closure fight, which got ugly and classist and racist very quickly (and when one parent group threatens to call the INS on another parent group, I don't know what to call it other than racism). I know that not all parents involved in the fight were into the ugly parts, but still: it was everyone out for themselves, with no regard for what their "win" would mean for other families, or the rest of the district.

My kid came home one day and asked if he could paint "Save " on his clothes. We said no. He could paint "Save ALL of our schools" if he wanted to, but his school staying open meant that another kid's school would close, and we care about that kid, too.

There's still fighting in the works, as one of the schools scheduled for closure is applying for magnet status. For the most part, the biggest hubbub has died down. But hundreds and hundreds of families were following this issue closely and actively- school board meetings had to be held in high school auditoriums. And of those hundreds of parents, I will bet that most of them were getting their first look at trustee Mike Dunn, the "voice of the parents".

Dunn, off course, convinced all of them that their schools could remain open, if only the other board members weren't so stubborn, refusing to look at other options. And his affected persona, his outsider status, his renegade "voice of the parents" act, has been enhanced to a great degree for people who know little else about him, or the other board members, or the work that any of them have done during their tenures.

I have exchanged email with Dunn on several occasions: once, when he was first elected, because I was a bit disturbed by his website (which became another legal issue for him a couple of years ago). Later, we had a few exchanges over the Glencoe high school biology curriculum, which he used in his culture war against all the liberal monsters he imagines under the bed.

I have thought a good deal about whether to publish his words, whether that's really fair game, as when he wrote them, he was writing to a parent, not a reporter. But I decided that he was writing as a public servant, and the public who will choose whether to vote for him and his new recruits this fall should probably know who the man really is, and then decide if they want him having a majority on the board when it makes decisions that affect our kids and their teachers.

So, email 1. I wrote:

Hello Mr. Dunn:

I am a parent, my child has registered in a CVUSD school for the first time this year. I am also a member of my church's Faith in Action group, and we're interested in school board activities, among other things.

I have been researching current members of CVUSD board, as you're new, I have questions regarding some statements you make on your website. I would appreciate your clarification. I specifically would like clarification on the following:

1) Please explain "freedom of all religions".
2) Please explain "support for other traditional family values".

Thank you,

And yes, I put in the part about church intentionally, because I wanted him to be honest. It wasn't a lie, though.

He responded:

Evidence supports my conclusion that groups like the ACLU are trying to purge from this country all public expression of religion. I can also present evidence that suffering in our society is increasing as the influence of religion and moral absolutes is declining. The worst example is the rise in the number of unwed mothers.
I contend that if religion had more influence in the public schools that we would have fewer drug problems, unwed births and disciplinary problems.
To reduce suffering and to promote stable families, I will support freedom of all religions in the public schools. Judism, Christianity and Islam all desent from Abraham and Moses.
All three monotheistic religions promote moral absolutes.
My support for traditional family values is in response to attacks from some secular groups against groups like the Boy Scouts. People like George Soros are aggresively using judicial dictators to promote a Godless humanistic society. They want kaos and no limits on morality.
No right or wrong. Sounds tempting until you look at the rates of unwed mothers, drug abuse and crime in the parts of this country where they dominate.
My primary motive is to make our world a better place to live in. Serving on this school board is one step of many to accomplish this objective. I remember a happier, healthier, country when I grew up in the 1950's.
Thank you for writing me. I would be glad exchange ideas with you.
Sincerely,

This post is long, so I won't comment further. But there will be more.

Flunking the budget rally

Story in the local paper here.

My son and I were there for 30 minutes. I must say that it seemed like a good turn-out, and lots and lots of postcards were filled out for delivery to McClintock, Governator, et al. I liked seeing soccer moms hit the street with passion. More actions are planned for the upcoming weeks.

Armchair activism

Doing a bit of research before heading out to McClintock's office for the 'Flunk The Budget' rally. There's quite a few tools and links at the CA PTA website, for your use and interest.
Of particualr interest to me is the California Budget Project website. Our state budget isn't in the red because times are tough, our state budget is in the red because of structural problems that just get worse every cycle. Corporations don't pay their fair share, personal income tax rates are regressive, and one of the unintended (I think) by-products of prop 13 is that Sacramento controls quite a bit of what used to be local money. And I don't think Sacramento's been doing it very efficiently.

Anyway. Go write a letter.

Still more local: Rally on Friday at McClintock's office

The state's budget problems not having been TERMINATED, the governator has threatened extensive budget cuts in the public school system.

Contrary to wing-nut paranoid allegations, California actually isn't a huge spender on administration, according to recent census numbers. Not saying there is absolutely no waste ever, but the problem here is not with "fat-cat school administrators". I know many people who work in local education: teachers, librarians, superintendents, PTA leaders. Not a one of them is looking at next year without a high level of panic.

Friday eve you're invited to gather in front of Tom McClintock's office, 223 East Thousand Oaks Blvd. Flunk The Budget Rally from 4:00 to 5:00 pm.

Make a sign, make a stand. There needs to be a lot of organizing on this issue.