Op Ed: A New Community School for Santa Barbara Children

The CAASPP scores have not been "stagnant for decades", the test has not been in use for decades. I have spreadsheets that show the gradual improvement with the actual test score numbers for a variety of local individual schools and grade levels. I will not argue with you about students with learning differences but I WILL argue about the general trend. It's going up and has been going up. You can argue whether or not it's "fast enough" or not, but the trend has been improving at most schools, and that's a fact.

...which is why teachers unions spend millions of dollars lobbying against them. But hooray...Teachers unions!!!! Fighting to keep our schools closed and to limit kids educational options and opportunities!!!!

Thomas, they can be but usually they are not.

Are the teachers at Charter schools not in unions?

VOR, exactly right, and kids start learning racism from the adults around them from day one. I grew up as a white kid in Hawaii, and it looked to me like dark skin ruled in our community. Then one day a black kid from a military family showed up at our school, and I figured they would crown him king. But instead they called him the N word. Where did those hawaiian and filipino kids learn that stuff if they were never around black people and didn't have access to TV in those pre-cable days? Gotta be from their parents from day 1.

VOR - so what's your point?

Not even close Sac.

VOR - yeah, so? Are you seriously trying to tell us that teaching them about other cultures will make them racist?

Sac, kids are born to treat others the same regardless of sex, race and religion. Any deviation from that is taught to them by adults.

LETMEGO - for racists and simpletons, those ideas are very threatening. God forbid our kids learn to treat others the same regardless of sex, race, religion. How dare us leftists try to teach our kids common decency and acceptance of others?

I can't speak for all local elementary schools, but "justice, equality, diversity, and inclusion" are being taught in my kids' regular public elementary school. And it's been that way for many years.
- Justice - treating all students equitably so that they feel safe and secure
- Equality - equal access to opportunities to enable students to fully participate in the learning process
- Diversity - accepting and embracing different cultures
- Inclusion - An inclusive classroom is a general education classroom where students with and without learning differences learn together

What on earth is controversial about all of that?

sacjon, thank you for reinforcing my points. You know nothing about me, history, racial injustice; or the 1950's for that matter. My kids will not participate nor will they be affected by this ideology. I wish you and your children all the best.

GOLETAMAN - Gross. Thinking inclusion and diversity and learning about other cultures is "left wing politics" is pretty 1950s. Would you prefer we never discuss other cultures, or racial injustice? You know, just ignore everything that isn't white?

The elementary school test scores have been generally improving across the board for several years - since the implementation of the CAASPP test. Obviously, we don't have data from last year or this year, but prior to that, there was steady improvement. Washington has a much smaller percentage of students in poverty and a lot more money - hence the better scores. Franklin ALSO got a LOT of extra outside funding to implement the systems that improved their scores. Unfortunately, most of the remaining schools have neither the money from the families to do what Washington does NOR do they have the external funding to implement the Franklin interventions. Understand that all schools try to do that. They look at these successes (and the similar successes of Adams, previously), and try to use the funding they have to get the most bang for their buck.

And it was working (albeit slowly) before the pandemic with gradually improving scores in ELA and math. (I have spreadsheets).

Why is exodus from a failing institution a bad thing? While many public institutions like the our school system seemed to be getting by okay, a crisis like this pandemic hits and really shines a spotlight on inadequacies, inefficiencies, and failures of these institutions. In the case of the public schools, it laid bare that the education and wellbeing of our children is NOT their #1 priority. If the education and well being of our kids is not the #1 priority of public school districts why should they get a monopoly and control over our educational tax dollars?

The charter school would still be part of the district, so the students would not technically be taken away. But it’s bound to affect the other schools in the district, if the highly motivated families all congregate at a specific school.

Uh, a charter school will take students away from the existing schools, right? How is that not taking students away from the school district. Exodus is exodus.

VOR - that's what she said.

You're putting words in my mouth again.

10K voucher goes to the school, right? Parents don't get to keep the money as a windfall. I've never heard of a voucher system that gave away more money than the school needed- you take the voucher and give it to the school of your choice. Post some links if I am wrong.

Oh, okay. You made several posts about poverty being the issue, now it's unmotivated parents. Sorry, trying to keep up. BTW, a $10K voucher would help a single parent who works many hours to pay rent... One thing you may be missing is you're only looking at current non-public school options. Do you know how many will pop-up, ready to serve parents and place kids as their #1 priority? Some would also be geared towards parents with long hours or non 8-5 schedules.

VOR, a 10K voucher to send your kid to a private school does not fix kids with a single parent home that has to work many hours to pay rent. A parent that may not have much education themselves. Highly motivated parents of any income level can make sure their kids get a decent education. The question has always been how to motivate the parents that lack it. We really talking social work, not education here. Vouchers will not address that problem.

Pit, image then if those families in poverty had a $10K voucher to send their kid to any school? Or not even attend an actual school but use the vouchers to put together a small family/friend cohort and home school. If poverty is the problem, money should solve it.

Yes, because the schools can fix the learning problems caused by families in poverty. Not. Public schools could save money by eliminating the food programs they need to help hungry students. That would help the bottom line, right?

Or, RHS, with the "easy" kids voluntarily switching to charter/other schools the public schools system would able to better focus on and help the "difficult" students (vs. now where they so easily fall through the cracks).

Public schools could pay teachers less, do less maintenance, eliminate nurses and nutritionists and kick difficult students out of the facility which would save money for the time being. We now have (using the "charter school" model a competition for the most teachable and cooperative students and families that will leave the hard job to the public schools (as "proof" that they are incompetent. Is any advocate of "charter schools" demanding that they take in anyone who applies and promising to keep the student enrolled no matter how s/he behaves?

Pitmix - what are you talking about? Are your saying California is the only state with poverty? And as such when looking at test scores is the only state where certain scores should be taken out? Do you actually Re-read anything you write... because it’s truly nonsensical!

California student scores, for middle and upper class students, are just fine. It isn't until you include low income students that the average scores drop and make that state look bad. Poverty is the educational problem, and schools can't solve that.

"The public dime" you're talking about is worth less than a penny in the current system. That's why people are getting upset with the current public school system. #wasted money

Exactly. I've seen bad tenured faculty at the university level, where they've amounting to nothing more than dead weight---some even acquiring bad teaching habits, making it an overall negative to the institution. They were great once, but then became uninterested at some point to the detriment of their students.

It's the California way Duke, keep doing the same thing over and over hoping for a different result. But it will be different THIS time, just vote for me again and I promise it will be different....

Hey there’s Florida at #3! And this is from 2019! with an extra year of school in the books one could reasonably assume they stayed near top! Cali on the other hand... well... hey... it’s ok... at least you did your part Pitmix to champion and celebrate the school board election and the status quo all through summer and Fall... thanks again for that!