Budget Cut Season Again…Are We Outraged or Immune?

Posted on February 5, 2012 by gomama

Full disclosure: I struggled to write an article for this month’s newsletter because despite the difficulties inherent in public schools, I like to think anyway, that I inspire parents to be part of the solution.

But when I looked at the latest edu-news feeds, I’ve got to be honest with you, even I found it hard to stay upbeat. Or write anything. And deeply question what I’m doing going out there talking up the public school options. (Not one but three teachers fired this week for sexual misconduct, more ongoing budget woes, another shortened school year, more layoffs, class size increases, and more taxes on the horizon.) Please. Where’s the good news for chrissakes!

Regardless of what you believe about magnets or charters or neighborhood schools, they’re all facing difficulties in this financial-politico landscape. (Is that a word?) Our schools have sustained an onslaught of consecutive cuts for the past 5-6 years. Now we’re at risk for another round of cuts.

But just as I was sinking lower into despondency, it occurred to me, hey, it’s February. We’ve seen this cycle before:

The District presents the worst-case scenario, blames the State, urges us to write the Governor and our members of Congress.

Then the union blasts back with outrage, proposes a rally and/or walk-out, accuses the District of mishandling funds and urges parents to write/call/fax the Superintendent and our school board members.

The Congress is in a budgetary stalemate between the Democrats wanting to increase taxes and the Republicans wanting to cut spending.

We the parents, after writing the Governor, our Congress members, the Superintendent, and our School Board (or some electronic version thereof) and driving across town in rush hour traffic to attend some “very important” meeting about “school reform” only to find no meaningful answers whatsoever, watch our principal break down in front of us at the thought of more devastating cuts, so we scurry to make lemonade out of lemons and we do the best we can.

Didn’t we go through this last year? And the year before? And the year before that? Did any of those letters, or phone calls, or meetings, or lobbying trips up to Sacramento have any impact?

Excuse me if I sound less than outraged and more like meh. Tired of it.

Our kids are already in the system. This year. Not beginning next year, or the year after, or next decade when things could turn around. We have to make the most of it.

Strapping on our hard hats we pack their lunches and their backpacks, oversee homework, get them out the door every day and deposit them at school hoping for the best. Hoping the sky won’t fall in on them, at least not this year.

Journeying down this path is like living with an alcoholic who inevitably comes home from a bender, broke, raging at the top of his lungs, waking up the kids, slinging punches having spent all the rent and grocery money. It’s total dysfunction. Why do we continually put up with this?

When will we say, “enough!”

So for those who don’t know, the District scenario goes like this:

With one hand they present the worst-case scenario – no, not the magnets, not the arts, not 50 kids in a classroom! – get everybody all up in arms, then with the other hand slip in some slimy compromise that by comparison somehow seems more palatable, like some shady wheeler-dealer with a thick accent, “For you my friend, I give good price.”

Oh look, a parcel tax.

More furlough days.

Less instructional days.

Excuse me if I sound cynical, it’s just that I’ve been a few rounds on this carousel. I’m not a psychic but I’m going to go out on a limb here and predict the May outcome in advance:

Threatened: Class size increase 30:1 in K-3, +3 in 4th and 5th (currently 24:1 K-3, 32-36:1 4-5th)
Actual: 26:1 in K-3, +1 in 4th-5th

Threatened: 5400 Certificated/2600 Classified RIFs
Actual: 1800 total RIFs

Threatened: all transpo buses including magnets and special needs in 2013
Actual: bus routes consolidated, must live minimum 6 miles from school campus (currently 3 mi)

Threatened: 100% of Elementary Arts Funding
Actual: 50% of Elementary Arts Funding – resulting in shorter arts cycles

Threatened: LA parcel tax
Actual: Parcel tax will fail. More cuts will be inevitable.

The bigger question is how do we stop this insanity. Where does it end??!! These are OUR schools, OUR children, OUR future. They deserve better and we must demand it from all parties.

As I sit and write this on Superbowl Sunday, where millions are being spent on advertising moments, and millions are watching the game with their snacks and beer, it occurs to me that we – as a city, state, nation – are not broke. We just spend our dollars on other priorities. So when is the priority going to be our collective children? And more importantly, what are we going to do about it!

I know things have to fall apart before they can be rebuilt. I know you get what you focus on, so if all we focus on is the doom and gloom, then surprise, we get doom and gloom and feel powerless to come up with creative solutions. I also know that as long as we give our power away to those in charge, they will continue to take advantage and be self-serving.

I also know that within each one of us, no matter what our age or socio-economic status, lives a spark of something unique and powerful. We each come here with our little (or not so little) light, with our unique gifts to bear. And as we gather together, united, we are mighty, full of potential, and yes, unstoppable.

I can’t help but believe that in the big picture, the old byzantine structures are crumbling in order to make way for something new to rise up through the ashes. And although I can’t quite see it, and it’s challenging from this vantage point, I know in my bones that it’s coming.

Parents, keep your kids close. Gather ’round your classrooms, your schools, your communities and together we will weather this storm. This is the time for critical thinking and creative problem-solving. It’s the time for teamwork and collaboration…the very same attributes many schools aspire to cultivate in their mission statements.

Now is the time to put those attributes to use.

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Want to use this article? You can as long as long as you include this complete blurb with it:

Tanya Anton is the creator of GoMamaGuide.com helping parents demystify and navigate their public school options in Los Angeles. To read more articles by Tanya or to learn about her Guidebooks, House Chats, Consultations, and Seminars, visit GoMamaGuide.com or email us at GoMama@mac.com.

© 2012 by Tanya Anton, GoMamaGuide.com All Rights Reserved.

Why Public School? (The Backstory)

Posted on March 17, 2007 by gomama

by Tanya Anton | GoMamaGuide.com

written March, 2007

Many people have asked me why I have become so active helping parents navigate the challenging, not so top-of-its-class public monolith that is LAUSD. It’s a good question, one I wrestle with constantly.

I suppose I never would have even considered public school education reform a serious issue to focus my energies on prior to becoming a parent. As a matter of fact, collaborating, building community, gathering info and sharing answers with others was only done if it involved musicians, a gig, and some cashola…for me.

Nine years ago, when we bought into this sleepy little Westside neighborhood, a mostly retired blue collar, post-war community, the last thing on our minds was school districts. In fact, I distinctly recall our housewarming announcement. It stated matter-of-factly: “No rings, no kids, no nonsense. (To answer your next question.) But please bring a bottle of your favorite wine.”

Er herm. Yes, well.

Now that I’m married, with child, specifically child about to enter Kindergarten, it seems that there’s a whole mess of nonsense around here to wade through.

Cue favorite wine, please.

The only reason we landed over here to begin with is because the lots were bigger (I wanted a patch of green), slightly more affordable, and we needed a detached garage to house the new recording studio we were going to build. We didn’t want a postage stamp-sized lot with neighbors breathing down our backs as musicians came and went day and night pushing their Anvil cases up and down the driveway. Little did we imagine that with the advent of computer technology, sampling, flying tracks and vocals over the ‘net, the need to actually SEE musicians anymore is a rarity indeed, but that’s beside the point.

By a stroke of good fortune and incredible timing on my husband’s part, we ended up in our little fixer-upper neighborhood almost a decade ago. Who knew it would eventually become a desirable family destination?

However, it is quite simply unacceptable to me that the average price these days for a 1-story, 1200 sq ft tear-down over here has risen to just shy of a million dollars, and yet our local schools are in such a sorry state parents seem to be abandoning them left and right for anywhere better. Now if you can afford the additional $18-25K (choke, wheez) per child per year for private elementary school on up, bravo to you. But some of us just can’t. We need other options. We need public options. You know, for the people. The just folks. Not the let’s-hemorrhage-money-just-because-we-can type folks.

And furthermore, if the real estate values are where they are, I damn well think my kid ought to be able to go to her neighborhood school and get a decent education. Right?

There are many problems, but a big one is size. LAUSD services almost 750,000 children and is the 2nd largest school district in the country. That means that the tax dollars we throw into the kitty over here in our hot little neighborhood get dispersed with everyone else’s, and wind up all across this urban sprawl, not just in our own back yard.

Another issue we’re facing is this very real post 9/11 baby boom. I see it on the ballooning mom boards and on the ever-growing preschool wait lists. There is a swell of kids just about to enter the school system. I have heard many parents tell of even being willing to pay the 20-some-thousand-dollars per year for private school, applied to 5 or 6 of them, and then didn’t get in. Any of them. Too many children, not enough slots. That’s just the reality of the situation. And each year as this boom (and their siblings) enter Kindergarten on up, the available slots per applicant will get even slimmer. Those children will have to go somewhere…perhaps back to their neighborhood schools.

I’ve heard it said that if the state of California were a nation–what with the output of Silicon Valley, Napa Valley and the entertainment industry–it would be ranked the 7th or 8th wealthiest country in the world! Yet we are ranked near the bottom of the country for public education. Our schools just don’t line up with what Californians are capable of. With all our resources, intelligence, ingenuity, creativity, wealth…couldn’t we do better educating our next generation?

So, what’s a concerned parent to do?

Luckily, there ARE public school options. If you know about them. If you apply correctly and on time. There are magnets, independent charters and converted charters, inter and intra-district permits, each with their own application rules, procedures, timeline and lotteries. Additionally, many neighborhood schools are really improving as parents roll up their sleeves and get involved.

In an attempt to sort through and understand all this, I began coordinating parent ed nights at our preschool a few years ago to discuss the options and the process, bringing in alumnae parents who’d already been through it for one event, and both a magnet and charter elementary school principal for another event. I went on countless school tours, and sat in on local PTA and booster club meetings at neighborhood schools, keeping tabs on their initiatives and progress.

Branching out to an even wider community, I agreed to join humorist Sandra Tsing Loh and author Christie Mellor, along with The LA Times, a vodka sponsor, generously donated Gourmandise chocolate desserts, and co-hosted a wildly successful “Martinis, Magnets & More,” public school survival seminar on my own Westside turf.

With the flood of emails following these events, I realized the scope of questions parents had, even fundamental ones, which weren’t readily answered by the District. That’s when I sat down and put it all together in one easy-to-understand Guidebook.

At the heart of all this work is to be able to offer nuts and bolts info on school options, how to navigate the often confusing (and disparate) application lotteries, but also to connect parents to each other and encourage them to get involved locally instead of flee.

In addition to writing my guidebook, I have spoken to many preschool parents in an attempt to calm fears and identify their public school options.

On the horizon:

Public speaking to prospective parents, preschools, booster club leaders, community leaders.

More Westside public school community events.

Considering ways to unite core parents from different schools to share successful strategies, resources, and support, working together to grow our neighborhood schools.

Perhaps I will give up this noble idea of community activism and become instead a private, self-serving, mind-my-own business capitalist as so many have done before me. But then an idea strikes me, and I envision an intuitive way to proceed.

Though at times I resist it, I feel called to do this work. Can’t explain why. I just know things, and am not afraid to try them. I actually feel I can make a difference, and am encouraged when others seem to respond when I speak out.

It’s time to revitalize our neighborhood schools. It is already happening in little pockets of dedicated, core parent groups at many neighborhood schools. We’re building awareness and momentum. With a little twist. I hope you’ll join me.

Cheers.