Welcome to a chance to change education in San Diego. Inspired by the Obama Education Plan we are a non partisan think tank of concerned educators and others developing the solutions and plans that our local leaders need to save our children's future.
"Our educational games will give your brain a workout!" Or how about, "Give your students the cognitive muscles they need to build brain fitness." And then there's the program that "builds, enhances, and restores natural neural pathways to assist natural learning."
No one doubts that the brain is central to education, so the myriad products out there claiming to be based on research in neuroscience can look tempting.
With the great popularity of so-called brain-based learning, however, comes great risk. "So much of what is published and said is useless," says Kurt Fischer, founding president of the International Mind, Brain, and Education (MBE) Society and director of the MBE graduate program at Harvard University. "Much of it is wrong, a lot is empty or vapid, and some is not based in neuroscience at all."
Still, there are some powerful insights emerging from brain science that speak directly to how we teach in the classroom: learning experiencesdo help the brain grow, emotional safetydoes influence learning, and making lessons relevantcan help information stick. The trick is separating the meat from the marketing.
A prosecutor in Detroit recently proposed locking up parents who skipped conferences with teachers. Research overwhelmingly shows that parental involvement in a child's education improves academic performance. But there are a lot of reasons why parents keep their distance — including cultural and class divisions. Guest host Jennifer Ludden speaks to Wayne County, Michigan prosecutor Kym Worthy about her proposal to punish parents, and National PTA president Chuck Saylors talks about what parents and teachers can do to work together more effectively. Also, Tracy McDaniel, who founded a KIPP school in Oklahoma, will share that program's radical approach to get parents more involved in their kids' schooling.
When I was in high-school, in Texas, I was depressed, often overslept, and failed to get to my first-period class several times per month. In Texas, the school roll was taken in 1st period, and in missing that class, I was costing the school $3500/semester.
They dragged my parents in for conferences, and threatened them with legal action, if I didn't go to school, my parents would be criminally charged and, after an expensive legal battle, potentially convicted.
Eventually, I was forced to go to 'alternative school' a kind of 'Juvenile Hall' for delinquents and truants. We were to sit behind glass eight hours per day, in isolation booths, and do our school work. I think it was the only time in three years that I was actually ahead on my class work.
As soon as I got out of that place, I dropped out of school. Disgusted with a school system that didn't respect the student, and didn't ask for our participation, and instead threatened us and our parents with jail, to extort our cooperation. I choose to leave rather than suffer. I'm an anomaly, at seventeen I was more competent than the school administrators, and smarter than my teachers and parents. That high-school was a toxic place for anyone with an independent mind and the intellect to question authority. They failed to 'educate' me, but I still achieved my education, the problem is that I never got the credit for what I achieved, and they never got the blame.
When we seek to teach, the first step must be a willing student. Schools exist, not for the school administrators to make quarter-million dollar salarys, but for the students. When we fail to acknowledge that underlying premise of education, we fail to teach.
A prosecutor in Detroit recently proposed locking up parents who skipped conferences with teachers. Research overwhelmingly shows that parental involvement in a child's education improves academic performance. But there are a lot of reasons why parents keep their distance — including cultural and class divisions. Guest host Jennifer Ludden speaks to Wayne County, Michigan prosecutor Kym Worthy about her proposal to punish parents, and National PTA president Chuck Saylors talks about what parents and teachers can do to work together more effectively. Also, Tracy McDaniel, who founded a KIPP school in Oklahoma, will share that program's radical approach to get parents more involved in their kids' schooling.
When I was in high-school, in Texas, I was depressed, often overslept, and failed to get to my first-period class several times per month. In Texas, the school roll was taken in 1st period, and in missing that class, I was costing the school $3500/semester.
They dragged my parents in for conferences, and threatened them with legal action, if I didn't go to school, my parents would be criminally charged and, after an expensive legal battle, potentially convicted.
Eventually, I was forced to go to 'alternative school' a kind of 'Juvenile Hall' for delinquents and truants. We were to sit behind glass eight hours per day, in isolation booths, and do our school work. I think it was the only time in three years that I was actually ahead on my class work.
As soon as I got out of that place, I dropped out of school. Disgusted with a school system that didn't respect the student, and didn't ask for our participation, and instead threatened us and our parents with jail, to extort our cooperation. I choose to leave rather than suffer. I'm an anomaly, at seventeen I was more competent than the school administrators, and smarter than my teachers and parents. That high-school was a toxic place for anyone with an independent mind and the intellect to question authority. They failed to 'educate' me, but I still achieved my education, the problem is that I never got the credit for what I achieved, and they never got the blame.
When we seek to teach, the first step must be a willing student. Schools exists, not for the school administrators to make quarter-million dollar salarys, but for the students. When we fail to acknowledge that underlying premise of education, we fail to teach.
A prosecutor in Detroit recently proposed locking up parents who skipped conferences with teachers. Research overwhelmingly shows that parental involvement in a child's education improves academic performance. But there are a lot of reasons why parents keep their distance — including cultural and class divisions. Guest host Jennifer Ludden speaks to Wayne County, Michigan prosecutor Kym Worthy about her proposal to punish parents, and National PTA president Chuck Saylors talks about what parents and teachers can do to work together more effectively. Also, Tracy McDaniel, who founded a KIPP school in Oklahoma, will share that program's radical approach to get parents more involved in their kids' schooling.
When I was in high-school, in Texas, I was depressed, often overslept, and failed to get to my first-period class several times per month. In Texas, the school roll was taken in 1st period, and in missing that class, I was costing the school $3500/semester.
They dragged my parents in for conferences, and threatened them with legal action, if I didn't go to school, my parents would be criminally charged and, after an expensive legal battle, potentially convicted.
Eventually, I was force to go to 'alternative school' a kind of 'Juvenile Hall' for delinquents and truants. We were forced to sit behind glass eight hours per day, in isolation booths, and do our school work. I think it was the only time in 3 years that I was actually ahead on my class work.
As soon as I got out of that place, I dropped out of school. Disgusted with a school system that didn't respect the student, and didn't ask for their buy-in, and failed to teach, I choose to leave rather than suffer. I was more competent than the school administrators, and smarter than my teachers and parents. That high-school was a toxic place for anyone with an independent mind and the intellect to question authority. They failed to 'educate' me, but I still achieved my education, the problem is that I never got the credit for what I achieved, and they never got the blame.
When we seek to teach, the first step must be a willing student. School exists, not for the school administrator to make his quarter-million dollar salary, but for the student. When we fail to acknowledge that underlying premise of education, we fail to teach.
Principal Bustani even videotapes classes with especially good results to show other teachers how they taught a lesson. This gentler take on data seems to be working. Scores at Edison have soared.
"They hold themselves accountable. They'll say, 'Wow, your kids did so well on this — what did you do?'" Bustani said. She rarely steps in. "I don't think it's helpful to say, 'Your class scored low.'"
Every class-room should be video-recorded and all parents and educators should have access to the live-video-feed. Student's wouldn't be disruptive or cheat (as much) because they would be caught. Teachers would be supervised by parents in the public. Administrators could be held accountable for failing to train and educate their teachers. It's an easy, cheap, technology fix. Students could even watch lessons over again to re-enforce learning.
The Khan Academy is a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) with the mission of providing a world-class education to anyone, anywhere.
"Working from the comfort of his home, Salman Khan has made available more than 1,800 mini-lectures to educate the world. Subjects range from math and physics to finance, biology, and current economics. Kahn Academy amounts to little more than a YouTube channel and one very devoted man. He is trying to provide education in the way he wished he had been taught. With more than 100,000 video views a day, the man is making a difference for many students. In his FAQ he explains how he knows he is being effective. What will probably ensure his popularity (and provide a legacy surpassing that of most highly paid educators) is that everything is licensed under Creative Commons 3.0. He only needs his time, a $200 Camtasia Recorder, an $80 Wacom Bamboo Tablet, and a free copy of SmoothDraw3. While the lecturing may not be quite up to the Feynman level, it's a great augmenter for advanced learners, and a lifeline for those without much access to learning resources."
Dean Kamen is an inventor, entrepreneur, and tireless advocate for science and technology. His passion and determination to help young people discover the excitement and rewards of science and technology are the cornerstones of FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology).
FIRST was founded in 1989 to inspire young people's interest and participation in science and technology. Based in Manchester, NH, the 501 (c) (3) not-for-profit public charity designs accessible, innovative programs that motivate young people to pursue education and career opportunities in science, technology, engineering, and math, while building self-confidence, knowledge, and life skills.
Vision
"To transform our culture by creating a world where science and technology are celebrated and where young people dream of becoming science and technology leaders." - Dean Kamen, Founder
Mission
Our mission is to inspire young people to be science and technology leaders, by engaging them in exciting mentor-based programs that build science, engineering and technology skills, that inspire innovation, and that foster well-rounded life capabilities including self-confidence, communication, and leadership.
FIRST Values
Gracious ProfessionalismTM
Dr. Woodie Flowers, FIRST National Advisor and Pappalardo Professor Emeritus of Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, coined the term "Gracious ProfessionalismTM."
Gracious Professionalism is part of the ethos of FIRST. It's a way of doing things that encourages high-quality work, emphasizes the value of others, and respects individuals and the community.
With Gracious Professionalism, fierce competition and mutual gain are not separate notions. Gracious professionals learn and compete like crazy, but treat one another with respect and kindness in the process. They avoid treating anyone like losers. No chest thumping tough talk, but no sticky-sweet platitudes either. Knowledge, competition, and empathy are comfortably blended.
In the long run, Gracious Professionalism is part of pursuing a meaningful life. One can add to society and enjoy the satisfaction of knowing one has acted with integrity and sensitivity.
CoopertitionTM
CoopertitionTM produces innovation. At FIRST, Coopertition is displaying unqualified kindness and respect in the face of fierce competition. Coopertition is founded on the concept and a philosophy that teams can and should help and cooperate with each other even as they compete.
Coopertition involves learning from teammates. It is teaching teammates. It is learning from mentors. And it is managing and being managed. Coopertition means competing always, but assisting and enabling others when you can.
Why is it that America doesn't have a Next Einstein Initiative? - As a boy, I was considered a bit of a math prodigy, they gave me all these logical reasoning tests and put me in special schools. As I finished my formal education, I returned to the concept of "intelligence quotient" and tried to reason out why there were not more people like me, good at math?
I found that the mathematical talents of the brain must be carefully cultivated in youth or else like an unattended garden they will become overgrown with unweeded thoughts, atrophy, and fade. In addition, there is no known gene for Math Genius, there is a spectrum of various math skills, and some savants are born, but in general, the math ability is produced at random among the 8,388,608 possible offspring any two human beings can produce. In short, there is no way to predict who will be the next Einstein.
So, it makes sense to test and cultivate all children, in the hope of discovering unique abilities, and then encouraging them. But in the USA we have failing public schools, and we have horrible math literacy. In our misguided battles over Teacher Union Pensions and Prayer in Schools, we are failing to protect and nurture our garden. That's just brilliant.
A new report from the Schott Foundation shows a bleak picture of black males and education. Fewer than half are graduating from high school nationwide. Things are not so troubling among white males or black females, so why is the system failing this segment of society? It's not so terrible in every state, like the Abbott program in New Jersey, which could be an example of how to fix the education system. Then there's Detroit, cited in a recent BET documentary for its "dropout factories."
First, understand the problem, the Kids in San Diego were dropping out and failing to meet basic test score requirements. The district couldn't even institute state wide exit exams because more thatn 50% of kids were failing them. Not because our kids are dumb or less capable than the rest of the state or nation, but because we have a large Mexican immigrant community, due to our proximity to the US/Mexico Border.
This community chooses not to learn English, because they can get everything they need using Spanish: TV, Radio, Jobs, Shopping, etc. The only thing they don't have in Spanish is Education. Thus, San Diego, like other major border cities is cursed with low test scores in Reading and Written Communications, and this lack of ability affects student success in other areas and subjects, too. We were effectively creating an under-class of people illiterate in two languages.
Alan Bersin, not an educator, was called in to clean up the mess. He is a person with friends in high places (the Clintons, Kennedys, Governor Arnold), and keeps moving from one government reform job to another. He's a good Sherif not a politician, but he's an authoritarian, he gets the job done even if it doesn't make him popular. When he came to SDUSD he fired thousands of "Teachers Aids", mostly un-certified and under-qualified teachers helpers, who had provide translation services for non-bilingual Teachers in San Diego classrooms with mostly Spanish speaking parents.
Bersin then used the money saved to hire bi-lingual reading teachers, and lower classroom sizes. He instituted his plan for school reform, dubed “Blueprint for Student Success,” which included a one year intensive English Only introduction for non-english speakers, that sacrificed a year of academics to teach the child to learn in English.
“Change must be driven systematically and systemically for more satisfactory results in teacher practice and student gateway skills,” Mr. Bersin wrote in an e-mail. “We need to be open to new ideas and judge them based on results, not on ideology, or whether they threaten entrenched interests.”
The San Diego Education Association (SDEA) Teachers Union and others didn't like being told that they were failures, or the top down, outsider approach that Bersin imposed. They fought, kicking and screaming with all the "Teachers Assistants" and elected a new School Board, that ousted Bersin. It was tragic to watch, and I'm not even involved. The Kids suffered, but they learned.
Some claim that the reform didn't work at the High School level and above, but this data is a reflection that such language arts reform must take place in the lower grades, because once a student is in High School they are too old to save. The other major critique of the "Blueprint for Student Success" is that it failed to get teacher buy-in.
Some district officials say that a few of the blueprint reforms survive in “bits and pieces” in schools.
“It’s not that one [approach] was better that the other; this is an evolution based on some foundational work that was done,” said Nellie Meyer, San Diego’s deputy superintendent for academics.
“It really has been five years since the Bersin superintendency, and we are still working constantly to build trust,” she said. “We’ve definitely recognized that trust is a component that triggers academic success.”
In other words, the teachers union is more powerful than the Superintendent. As the front line educators, not only do they have the Kids and Parents in the palm of their hand, they have more voters and more money than any school board member. I've seen the power of the Teachers Unions first hand. They have infiltrated the State Democratic Party and control the state assembly. I've no doubt that they are in control, and have been for generations. Which begs the question, "why ain't our kids being educated?" (sic)
Since the Bersin "Blueprint for Student Success" (which I believed in), I've talked to former teachers, principals, and students who say that the plan was hard on them, that it didn't work. They claim that it takes 7-10 years for a person to learn a new language. I don't doubt that to master a new language, like a native, you need a long period of time. I only know English, and I still struggle after 40 years, but I also have no doubt that a pre-pubescent child has a unique chance to learn language quickly, and that by MAINSTREAMING children in all ENGLISH courses they will eventually master English. The ONE-YEAR intensive reading and writing English programs, give immigrants a chance to compete.
"The Los Angeles Times is taking a groundbreaking step as part of a series on teacher effectiveness. It is planning to publish the names of more than 6,000 teachers, along with ratings indicating how effective they have been in raising their students' standardized test scores. The series explores one of the most controversial issues in public education today: how teachers should be measured. NPR's Robert Siegel talks to one of the series' co-authors, Los Angeles Times investigative reporter Jason Felch."
This speaks to Teacher Accountability and Merit Pay, it is a necessary reform, to bring poor teachers the resources to educate themselves and reach their potential. Now, if we can get the same kind of accountability for the Administrators and Superintendents that will mean something.
Well, there are two ways to pick a college. One is to go to a prestigious college, and when you graduate the world will know you went to Princeton or Stanford. It doesn't matter what happened in the classroom as long as you have that brand behind you. Claudia and I were up at Harvard talking to students, and they said they get nothing from their classes, but that doesn't matter. They're smart already—they can breeze through college. The point is that they're going to be Harvard people when they come out.
The problem is that there are just too many publications and too many people publishing. This is true even in the hard sciences. If there's a research project on genetics in a lab, they will take certain findings and break them into eight different articles just so each researcher can get more stuff on his or her resume.
Here's what happens. Academics typically don't get tenured until the age of 40. This means that from their years as graduate students and then assistant professors, from age 25 through 38 or 39, they have to toe the line. They have to do things in the accepted way that their elders and superiors require. They can't be controversial and all the rest. So tenure is, in fact, the enemy of spontaneity, the enemy of intellectual freedom. We've seen this again and again. And even people who get tenure really don't change. They keep on following the disciplinary mode they've been trained to follow. What bothers us, too, is that over 300,000 professors have it. That's a tremendous number. What that means is these people never leave.
"Good teaching can't be quantified at the college level." OR CAN THEY?
Using Student Evaluations, AFTER graduation, simply ask all students for anonymous feedback before they can get their diploma. "Which of your teachers actually taught? or did you teach yourself?"
I'm not your traditional student, but when I did get to the University, thinking I was paying all that money for access to the best minds and quality education, I found the teaching worse than the Community Colleges, and that access was denied to the quality professors unless you proved yourself worthy of their audience. The only real difference was the higher intelligence of the students (because they had been screened) and we ended up teaching ourselves. Thus it has always been, thus it will always be. More ...
Bianca Penuelas and her friends used to joke about being in "the stupid class" at Correia Middle School. The gifted kids took one set of tougher classes for English and history; she and her friends took another, easier set of classes. So Bianca didn't bother to work hard at school.
"I didn't think I had to try because I was below average anyway," the eighth grader said.
"How do you detrack and do it effectively?" said Tom Loveless, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution who is skeptical of the effort. "We don't know.
"It's a tall order to work with kids who can barely write and gifted kids," said Katie Anderson, a parent who sits on a district committee on gifted students. "I'm not crazy about the idea in general. I think it asks too much of teachers. But what they've done at Correia is really good."
"We wanted to debunk the whole thing and try something new," said Principal Patricia Ladd. Her hope was that doing so could raise the bar for all kids at Correia. "So we detracked."
Most students at the Point Loma middle school now take the same English and history classes. All kids are exposed to the strategies normally used solely with gifted students, such as probing ethical issues in debates between Abraham Lincoln and his opponent.
Correia hopes it has cracked the code.
It has so many gifted students that it was able split them up among all of its classes and dub them all as gifted classes, which require a minimum share of gifted students. Most of its teachers are now trained to work with top students, pushing them with deeper questions. They still use special strategies for gifted children, but now use them with everyone.
To teach all kids at once, teachers let students show their knowledge through more flexible and open-ended assignments that allow children to make them as tough as they want, instead of asking all kids to do the same fixed task.
Kids are inspired to aim higher and work harder by their peers. "I've never had a class like this," said Lisa Young, who was used to teaching struggling students in a separate class. "The kids see someone else having success and they think, 'I want that.'"
Bianca Penuelas is one of them. Slackers won't make it in her classes this year, she says, so she's trying harder, thinking bigger, proud to be working and chatting with the "smart kids" she once saw from afar.
"I feel smarter," she said, her braces glinting in a smile. "I felt like I made it up to their level."
This isn't the first time Texas has tried to re-write history.
The board is to vote on a sweeping purge of alleged liberal bias in Texas school textbooks in favor of what Dunbar says really matters: a belief in America as a nation chosen by God as a beacon to the world, and free enterprise as the cornerstone of liberty and democracy.
"We are fighting for our children's education and our nation's future," Dunbar said. "In Texas we have certain statutory obligations to promote patriotism and to promote the free enterprise system. There seems to have been a move away from a patriotic ideology. There seems to be a denial that this was a nation founded under God. We had to go back and make some corrections."
Texas school board and their quest to remake US education in a pro-American, Christian, free enterprise mode. We've been keeping an eye on this story for some time, as it will have an impact far beyond Texas. From the Guardian: "The board is to vote on a sweeping purge of alleged liberal bias in Texas school textbooks in favor of what Dunbar says really matters: a belief in America as a nation chosen by God as a beacon to the world, and free enterprise as the cornerstone of liberty and democracy. ... Those corrections have prompted a blizzard of accusations of rewriting history and indoctrinating children by promoting right-wing views on religion, economics, and guns while diminishing the science of evolution, the civil rights movement, and the horrors of slavery. ... Several changes include sidelining Thomas Jefferson, who favored separation of church and state, while introducing a new focus on the 'significant contributions' of pro-slavery Confederate leaders during the Civil War. ... Study of Sir Isaac Newton is dropped in favor of examining scientific advances through military technology."
Boston Teacher Residency (BTR) recruits talented college graduates, career changers and community members of all ages and gives them the tools to make an immediate impact in the classrooms of the Boston Public Schools(BPS). Combining a yearlong classroom apprenticeship with targeted master’s-level coursework, the program offers much more than just an affordable route into teaching. BTR provides every Teacher Resident with the practical learning, hands-on experience and ongoing support essential to any successful career in teaching.
The Residency Year
After an intensive two-month summer institute, Residents spend the entire academic year in a BPS classroom. They work under the close guidance of an experienced mentor teacher four days a week, devoting one evening and all day Friday to rigorous coursework and seminars. This combination helps Residents link classroom experience to the latest in education theory and research, all within the context of the local education environment and the district-specific goals of the BPS.
Yearlong classroom apprenticeship
Rigorous, aligned coursework
Focus on BPS/Boston context
Collaborative learning environment
The program’s unique blend of theory and practice, combined with an emphasis on collaborative learning and peer support, gives Residents a field-tested foundation for success in the urban classroom. By the time BTR graduates become teachers of record in a BPS classroom, they already have a year of experience in their schools, an understanding of the challenges that lie ahead and an ever-expanding support network of fellow educators. Learn more about the residency year.
The method flies in the face of traditional school discipline. Child psychologists typically fall into two camps: Behaviorists believe in using punishments and rewards to train kids to follow directions from adults. Humanists deride them as bribes; they argue for building relationships with children to respect others' needs. David Strahan, a Western Carolina University education professor who has studied discipline, said most educators have only experienced a traditional classroom in which adults have control. It's more familiar -- and it can be much easier for a nervous teacher to handle.
Humanists have an uphill battle to convince others that their methods will work, said R.T. Tauber, professor emeritus of education at Pennsylvania State University. "To the uninformed, it sounds like you're turning over the institution to the inmates."
As schools across California try to curb detentions and referrals, "positive discipline" is the zeitgeist. But educators don't even agree on what that means or what it entails. Few are trying anything as bold as Innovations, where discipline falls at the far end of the humanist spectrum. Experimenting is easy because it's a charter school, free from school district and many state rules.
The court has ruled that the FCC has no jurisdiction over the internet!
Federal Communications Commission chairman Julius Genachowski can simply change the FCC regulatory rules to give the Federal Communications Commission jurisdiction over the internet.
People have to remember, all media—television, radio, phone service—every type of media other than the printed page, will soon be delivered by a broadband or internet connection. That means these wonky sort of arcane rules that are being played out at the Federal Communications Commission and in the court ruling yesterday, these will shape the media for generations, what it looks like, whether independent voices like Democracy Now! can get into the suite of options that people have across the country when they turn on a television. It will determine whether we can bridge the digital divide that currently has the United States slipping from fourth in the year 2000 to twenty-second in broadband adoption and speed and affordability. It will really determine whether or not we will have a twenty-first century internet economy or whether we’ll continue to lag behind the rest of the world.
Call him [(202) 418-1000, and 888-CALL-FCC (888-225-5322)], email him [ Julius.Genachowski@fcc.gov ], and tell Federal Communications Commission chairman Julius Genachowski you want Network Neutrality, all information on the internet must be equal, or we loose free speech and we loose our democracy!
Listen to former Bush Secretary of Education, Diane Ravitch, as she trashes No Child Left Behind (NCLB = George W. Bush's attempt to privatize education by punishing public schools and lead to wide spread cheating by public school administrators).
Diane Ravitch claims that Charter Schools lack transparency and pull kids out of the public school system, and increase competition among schools and children.
"There should not be an education marketplace, there should not be competition," Ravitch says. "Schools operate fundamentally — or should operate — like families. The fundamental principle by which education proceeds is collaboration. Teachers are supposed to share what works; schools are supposed to get together and talk about what's [been successful] for them. They're not supposed to hide their trade secrets and have a survival of the fittest competition with the school down the block." - Ravitch
“Diane Ravitch is the rarest of scholars—one who reports her findings and conclusions, even when they go against conventional wisdom and even when they counter her earlier, publicly espoused positions. A ‘must’ read for all who truly care about American education.” - Howard Gardner, Hobbs Professor of Cognition and Education, Harvard Graduate School of Education
Ask any first year economists and you will learn that the current price for rents and leases are set by the supply and demand curve. If you increase property tax revenue by closing the Prop.13 loophole for commercial property, the merchants will not pass on that cost to their tenants, they can't, because the demand for their "product" doesn't change. Which means the wealthy holding corporation that owns the property, and produces no value, will have to eat the tax cost that they have been avoiding via this loophole.
According to KPBS more than 8% of commercial property in the state of CA, has not "changed hands" since Prop.13 in 1978. That means the property owners, holding corporations, are paying property tax based upon the 1976 property values. Ending this deceitful practice will force corporations to pay their fair share of the 1% property tax. That modest fee will have to come out of their profits.
Now this is tricky because the business community set up the system this way to confuse and deceive and manipulate the common voter. You see, when an investment property owned by a holding company makes money from rent, the owner disguises any profits by paying for "business expenses" like his own salary, bonuses, benefits, or other personal expenses, like the company car, travel, etc.
Thus, the owner of the corporation avoids the appearance of profit, and the subsequent tax burden. When the owners salaries get too high, and their personal income tax burden begins to be cumbersome, they hire family and friends, and write off their salary and benefits as "business expenses", too. When all else fails, they "invest" company profits in new properties, via subsidiary holding corporations, and the process repeats itself.
This is the pattern of wealth in California, a series of slum-lords become "Developers" and use their wealth to corrupt our government. Wake up California!
This is not a complicated issue, there is not going to be any change in the TAX PROTECTION afforded home owners by Prop.13. It is not possible politically, homeowners vote.
However, Prop.13 affects ALL property, including second homes, investment property, and commercial property, and our state government is facing bankruptcy from underfunding. SHELL CORPORATIONS created as holding companies for commercial real-estate are responsible.
Homeowners sell their homes on average ever 5-7 years, even elderly homeowners die every 30-50 years, but CORPORATIONS NEVER DIE!
Under Prop.13, I can form a corporation, buy a property, live in that property, write off all costs of that property as "business expenses", and never have that property re-assessed for tax purposes.
When I'm tired of that property, or the property value has increased enough that I want to sell it and enjoy the equity, then I can simply sell the HOLDING CORPORATION. The property never technically changes hands, and is thus never re-assessed for tax purposes. The new owners simply keep the tax protection of Prop.13.
If I die, the corporation is passed to my heirs, without any loss of tax protection. And CORPORATIONS LIVE FOREVER.
Paying 1% on the value of Capital Investments is not extreme, it is the cost of government, the cost of schools, hospitals, libraries, roads, and other vital government services.
If your business can't afford to pay 1% property taxes, then it isn't a very good business, sell the property, and let someone else have the chance to make it work for them.
Split the Roll, stop the Property Tax Loophole for Corporations. CORPORATIONS LIVE FOREVER AND SO THEY NEVER PAY TAXES.
As I watched the first episode of Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution, I saw this British Chef taking on American ignorance single handed. I was shocked and disgusted by my fellow Americans and they way they treated Oliver. Obviously Jamie is a TV star who wants to make dramatic impact and stir up controversy for ratings, but I also see that, for some reason beyond my comprehension, he actually cares about these horrible people. Jamie is on a crusade to help people who don't want his help. He is martyring himself for the sake of our kids.
It was shocking to see the state of public school nutrition, and worse to see the average home and the state of America's kids. I know these people, they are my family and friends throughout America, so I know that Jamie Oliver's reporting on their eating habits and sate of arrogant, willful, stubborn ignorance is factual. These lazy, fat, ignorant Americans live short, unhealthy, and ultimately miserable lives of their own making. I have no sympathy, and little compassion for them, except for their kids.
That said, I think the entire lunch staff and the Principal at the elementary school in Huntington, West Virgina, need to be fired, especially ALICE! They are completely incompetent people, not professional educators like they should be. They obviously care nothing about the children or the public they serve, they did nothing but complain about how hard it would be to actually feed kids good food and cover their ass at every turn. They are malevolent and they need to find other professions. In my opinion the entire population of the town are miserable bastards and they need to be left to live and die by their own choices.
Watching those kids throw away fresh fruit, and good baked chicken, choose to eat crap over well cooked nutrition ... the level of waste, the lack of standards, makes me sick. How can these "TEACHERS" not correct these elementary students about their behavior? These people are weak and stupid, completely anemic about their own health and nutrition information. The fact that the local radio station has to define what 'ANEMIC' means over-the-air proves they are stupid (they weren't being ironical).
The press was right when they portrayed these American Southerners as stupid and ignorant. Jamie Oliver may like these miserable bastards even if they are lazy, stupid, and willfully ignorant. but I believe they get what they deserve. I know I am right because during the second episode (below) I got to watch Trilipix Cholesterol commercials.
If this doesn't terrify you about the state of public education in America, nothing will.
If you really want to understand the depth of the Prop.13 problem, you must educate yourself, but most Californian residents seem unable to think critically or understand complex systems. That and the math of compound interest leads them to general misunderstanding and misinformation about Prop.13. Lucky for us we have Public Media like KPBS to explain.
The drive to improve the quality of the nation's teachers is as important as raising test scores and ensuring that more students graduate from high school. But what makes a good teacher? Some say smaller classes, good discipline and engaged students. Doug Lemov is managing director of True North Public Schools in New York. He describes what he's learned through his extensive work looking at teachers who succeed.
Behind every artist is an artisan, this is the story of game changing teachers. Great teachers deliver instruction without belittling students.
Some teachers are naturals, they use non-verbal gestures to communicate while they lecture, they create a learning environment. They engage their students with specific, understandable directions with observable result. Teachers must have profound knowledge of their subject in-order to gain respect. Kids smell phony a mile away. You must have genuine enthusiasm.
Mr. LEMOV: Managing Director of Uncommon Schools in New York. There are a couple of things that Maryanne is saying that I think are really compelling, and that I see when I watch great teachers in the classroom. And one thing, you know, Maryanne said, I don't discipline. And one thing that we see about great teachers is that they manage to make the discipline they do invisible by catching it early. One of the things we tell teachers in training is if you're mad, you waited too long. That a gentle correction and a reminder to a student before it gets serious is the best and most - you know, is the best and most constructive thing to do.
The second thing is that, you know, my book, actually, is not just about classroom management. It's actually about great teaching techniques, because you can't have one without the other. That we actually define discipline in the book as teaching kids the right way to do something, and that the most likely reason why kids aren't doing what you ask them to, if they're not, is that you haven't taught them.
But beyond that, there has to be something for kids to say yes to. You have to engage them in a lesson with real content and real teaching. So half the book is actually about the teaching techniques that Maryanne's talking about that are, you know, questioning techniques. And one of the techniques, for example, is called stretch it. Which is, you know, when a student - many teachers, when a student gets an answer right, they say right or good. And that's the end of the conversation. And actually, I argue that the reward for getting it right should be another question, a stretch it question that pushes you to engage even more rigorously. And that sets the expectation that, you know, more learning is the reward for achievement. - Doug Lemov
Cabrillo is not the first school to try using gifted methods for all children or for younger children. An Encinitas charter school with the same philosophy was wildly popular among parents before it was shuttered for financial reasons. Different studies have shown that exposing children at all levels to methods and materials for gifted children can be fruitful, although each study tends to be highly specific, focused on a particular kind of method, said Margie Kitano, associate dean in the College of Education at San Diego State University. It ties into a building body of research that suggests that giftedness is not necessarily a fixed talent. It can be nurtured — or it can be cut short.
"It's really hard to say" whether the research backs what Cabrillo is doing, Kitano said. She added, "But one of the problems we have with so-called average learners is that we set our expectations too low."
Three years ago, the K-12 magnet school in Clairemont turned to an educational philosophy called Paideia, a relatively rare approach that emphasizes freewheeling seminars, personalized projects and critical thinking. Lectures are frowned on. Nobody has the one right answer. Muir's immediate goal was to get students more engaged in class, but the method has a broader aim -- to teach kids to think, read and write critically all their lives.
Paideia methods echo popular techniques used with gifted students, but Paideia schools for all kids are scarce, especially on the West Coast. Paideia fans complain that government emphasis on standardized tests has thwarted schools from developing deeper skills like critical thinking that Paideia promotes. The term is derived from the Greek for "upbringing a child."
But as legislators try to rewrite No Child Left Behind, President Obama is pushing for better ways to measure schools, including advanced skills like critical thinking. In San Diego, honing skills like creativity and communication is one of the few things the fractured school board agrees on.
The San Diego Radio Station, KPBS, is doing a special report on the problems that 1978's Proposition 13 have caused, and the injustice that is going on in California to this day.
From the 2/3 vote needed for all new tax measures, to the commercial investment property tax loophole, ENVISION SAN DIEGO will be covering it all.
RAND (Caller, La Jolla): Thank you for taking my call and thanks for this discussion. I would just like to put two issues on the table. The main one is something that really shocks me, never comes up in these types of discussions, which is the distinction between commercial properties and homes. Of course, nobody wants homeowners to be taxed out of their homes but Prop 13 also holds down the property taxes paid by shopping malls, office buildings, all kinds of commercial properties. And they have a loophole that homeowners don’t have, which is that they can sell the holding company that owns the property and then someone else can take ownership of that property but, theoretically, it hasn’t changed hands, just the company has changed hands. And so there’s many commercial properties in the state that have not been reassessed for many years and they’re not paying the cost of the essential services that they need to stay in business. And I think that that aspect of Proposition 13 is very unfair and needs to be changed.
CAVANAUGH: Rand, my two guests are nodding furiously to your comments, and they both want to get in. So go ahead, Isaac, first.
MARTIN: Sure. I want to thank Rand for bringing this up. It’s a very important issue and it’s one that Californians don’t know about. There’s actually a survey, research on people’s opinions of Proposition 13 that shows, of course, a vast majority of Californians like Proposition 13 very much but a small minority of those people who like Proposition 13 actually know that it also applies to commercial property. Rand’s absolutely right that it does. The other interesting thing to note is that when you ask people, okay, what parts of Proposition 13 might you be willing to reform, this is one that actually a majority of some people in polls say that they’d be willing to rethink. When they’re told about this, people are really eager to keep the protections on homes but, you know, a little less concerned about protecting the leases of longterm commercial businesses.
CAVANAUGH: And, Joanne, what have you found out about that…
FARYON: Well…
CAVANAUGH: …dichotomy?
FARYON: …our caller will be happy to know we’re looking at those numbers. In fact, in San Diego County, commercial property, it’s less than 8% in terms of how many still retain their original 1978 property tax base. And commercial property is changing hands in this county at the same rate as residential, which is actually not the norm. In the state, commercial tends to change hands less frequently. Yes, there is a loophole. If you are a corporation and you sell your corporation and there’s no majority interest, yes, you can keep that same property tax base. How often is it happening in our county? We don’t know. The assessor really doesn’t know also. It’s something they look for. It does happen in the state and there’ve been some highly publicized cases up in Northern California. Is there a move to suggest, hey, why don’t we split the tax roll and, like Isaac says, why don’t we keep Prop 13 for homeowners but maybe commercial you get reassessed or why don’t we just change the tax rate. It’s 1% for residential, maybe it’s one and a half percent for commercial. Those things are being talked about in Sacramento right now. That’s come up with the assessor here in San Diego County and you can look forward to some of our reporting, which will address this issue as well.
You learn, and they test you, and you need a high score on the test, and the teacher only likes the kids who get the high score and the kids who are quiet while they're teaching, because they're the well-behaved ones. What are we promoting in society? Well-behaved automatons that spew back what they learned in a book. That's not science. You can get a parrot to do that. Give me somebody who sees -- now this could get dangerous, right? Somebody who sees a wall outlet and wants to stick a wire into it to find out what happens. So you don't want kids dying from their experiments, so yes, there's a certain oversight as a parent you have to exercise. But any sensible parent would know what those limits are. I would claim that those limits are much higher than what are normally granted the behavior of chidren. - Neil deGrasse Tyson, on Scientific Literacy
Voice of San Diego got ahold of the data, and created a google map of the elementary schools in SDUSD. Based on their reports some schools spend as little as $4000/student, while some spend over $8000.
Informed about nature of teachers unions (CTA) in California, their power, their willingness to abuse that power to protect themselves from accountability, I've begun a quest to find honest educators, who care more about their students' education than about their own paycheck and job security.
Carol Hunter, staff for SDUSD Board Member, John Lee Evans', sent me these links to report that there is still hope for ethical leadership, at least in the National Teachers' Unions.
"When your union deals with issues affecting both teaching quality and teachers' rights, which of these should be the higher priority--working for professional teaching standards and good teaching, or defending the job rights of teachers who face disciplinary action?"
