2011-02-01 "Privatizers Chase Education’s Billions" by Mark Brenner
[http://www.labornotes.org/node/3188]
A little over half that spending—about $291 billion—is for classroom instruction, mainly teacher salaries and benefits, so it’s no wonder teachers have been in the crosshairs during recent budget battles.
It’s also why for-profit charter school operators are salivating at the possibility of taking over a bigger chunk of education. Making a profit is easy if you can give charter school teachers cheap salaries and skimpy pension and health benefits.
But even if they can’t get the whole enchilada, the privatizers want to capture bigger and bigger pieces of our public schools. The chart above illustrates how much money corporations stand to make by privatizing various parts of the nation’s education system.
All numbers are from the 2009 Digest of Education Statistics.
Topping the list is $86 billion spent annually on operations, including $20 billion for transportation and $18 billion for food service.
Corporate honchos are also eyeing the $63 billion spent on student support services, from librarians and multimedia specialists to school nurses and speech pathologists, as well as the $44 billion outlay for administration and back-office functions.
Construction companies are already lined up for the $63 billion school districts are spending on construction projects nationwide. And Wall Streeters are looking for their cut, first and foremost the chance to “manage” $15 billion in debt school districts are shouldering—for hefty fees, of course.
Friday, February 11, 2011
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: February 10, 2011
For Information: Jan B. Tucker 310.618.9596 or cell 818.720.3719
Peace, Freedom Party Candidate Declares for 36th C.D.
Jan B. Tucker, 55, a Torrance resident, has announced his candidacy for the 36th Congressional District seat soon to be vacated by the impending resignation of incumbent Jane Harman (D). Tucker, who says he has run for everything “from assembly to president” on the Peace and Freedom Party ticket, is a prominent activist in feminist, labor and civil rights circles. A private investigator by trade, Tucker holds the record as the longest serving Chairman of the Board of the California Association of Licensed Investigators (CALI), the world's largest organization of private detectives.
In 1974, Tucker was a litigant in a series of lawsuits that overturned California's filing fees to run for public office as unconstitutional, when he ran for State Senator against later-jailed incumbent Alan Robbins (D-Van Nuys). Currently, Tucker has a tort claim pending with the County of Los Angeles as part of a new effort to have the current filing fee system declared unconstitutional. According to Tucker, “the passage of Proposition 14 has led to so much chaos for election officials that the right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing even in the same agency.” Tucker charges that even though he and another candidate, Carl Iannalfo (17th Senate District) submitted identical paperwork under the California Tort Claims Act, the California Board of Claims summarily rejected his claim by contending that the Secretary of State's office is not a state agency, while the same board did not summarily reject Iannalfo's claim for damages.
“If the State of California insists, as it did with candidate filings in the 4th Assembly District and 17th and 28th Senate Districts, on forcing minor party candidates to get 20 times as many signatures as the law says that they should have to and in less time than is normally allowed, the State is just setting itself up for a lawsuit it can't win,” said Tucker. “Last time this issue was litigated in 1974, the State and County lost 9-0 in the United States Supreme Court. Apparently the Secretary of State's office has no recollection of the litigation history of this issue and appears to care little about the Fourteenth Amendment right to equal protection of the law for working people.”
For I.D. Only:
Formerly 7 Term Chairman of the Board of Directors – California Association of Licensed Investigators
Director at Large CALI
National Commissioner for Civil Rights, LULAC
Chief Investigator, Civil Rights Commission, CA League of United Latin American Citizens
Co-President - SFV/NELA
Chapter NOW
Board Member - Alameda Corridor Jobs Coalition
Member Los Angeles County Criminal Defense Investigators Association
J.B. TUCKER & ASSOCIATES
P.O. Box 433 Torrance CA 90508-0433 310.618.9596 Fax 1950
California Private Investigator License #PI-10143
Email: admin@janbtucker.com www.janbtucker.com
For Information: Jan B. Tucker 310.618.9596 or cell 818.720.3719
Peace, Freedom Party Candidate Declares for 36th C.D.
Jan B. Tucker, 55, a Torrance resident, has announced his candidacy for the 36th Congressional District seat soon to be vacated by the impending resignation of incumbent Jane Harman (D). Tucker, who says he has run for everything “from assembly to president” on the Peace and Freedom Party ticket, is a prominent activist in feminist, labor and civil rights circles. A private investigator by trade, Tucker holds the record as the longest serving Chairman of the Board of the California Association of Licensed Investigators (CALI), the world's largest organization of private detectives.
In 1974, Tucker was a litigant in a series of lawsuits that overturned California's filing fees to run for public office as unconstitutional, when he ran for State Senator against later-jailed incumbent Alan Robbins (D-Van Nuys). Currently, Tucker has a tort claim pending with the County of Los Angeles as part of a new effort to have the current filing fee system declared unconstitutional. According to Tucker, “the passage of Proposition 14 has led to so much chaos for election officials that the right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing even in the same agency.” Tucker charges that even though he and another candidate, Carl Iannalfo (17th Senate District) submitted identical paperwork under the California Tort Claims Act, the California Board of Claims summarily rejected his claim by contending that the Secretary of State's office is not a state agency, while the same board did not summarily reject Iannalfo's claim for damages.
“If the State of California insists, as it did with candidate filings in the 4th Assembly District and 17th and 28th Senate Districts, on forcing minor party candidates to get 20 times as many signatures as the law says that they should have to and in less time than is normally allowed, the State is just setting itself up for a lawsuit it can't win,” said Tucker. “Last time this issue was litigated in 1974, the State and County lost 9-0 in the United States Supreme Court. Apparently the Secretary of State's office has no recollection of the litigation history of this issue and appears to care little about the Fourteenth Amendment right to equal protection of the law for working people.”
For I.D. Only:
Formerly 7 Term Chairman of the Board of Directors – California Association of Licensed Investigators
Director at Large CALI
National Commissioner for Civil Rights, LULAC
Chief Investigator, Civil Rights Commission, CA League of United Latin American Citizens
Co-President - SFV/NELA
Chapter NOW
Board Member - Alameda Corridor Jobs Coalition
Member Los Angeles County Criminal Defense Investigators Association
J.B. TUCKER & ASSOCIATES
P.O. Box 433 Torrance CA 90508-0433 310.618.9596 Fax 1950
California Private Investigator License #PI-10143
Email: admin@janbtucker.com www.janbtucker.com
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
2011-02-06 "CA Governor Brown imposing Draconian budget cuts; Democrats are “Fine Tuning The Amputation” following the Obama Agenda" by Steve Zeltzer, Steering Committee of "UPWA" labor union [UPWA.info]
[http://labornet.org/cgi-bin/intbd/cgi-bin/intbd.cgi?action=read&id=429]
FACED WITH A growing budget deficit in California now at $25.4 billion and growing, the Democratic governor elect Jerry Brown has introduced a budget at his inauguration that he himself said was “draconian”. The budget would increase unit fees to $36 for the community colleges and force out 200,000 students according to Marty Hittleman, president of the California Federation of Teachers CFT. It would also devastate the lives of millions of poor Californians. There would be massive cuts in Cal-Works that provided day care for low paid workers forcing mothers out of the workforce. This budget if passed would lead to a major increase in child poverty and deprivation. It would put increased premiums and fees for millions of indigent workers healthcare meaning that they would no longer be able to afford healthcare and also a time limit for benefits whether or not you need healthcare.
Home care workers would face a cut of their pay by 20% forcing them on welfare as well and forcing their clients either to go into nursing homes or dying at their homes.
Another scheme of Governor Brown is to shift the responsibility of these public services to local and county districts. They were initially local responsibilities before Proposition 13 but then shifted to the state after it passed and prevent local and counties from raising taxes.
Brown’s New “Guru” -
One of the big supporters of this plan to shift public service responsibility to the cities and counties is Brown’s new budget guru Nicolas Berggruen. Berggruen a “new age billionaire wants to “save California”. “He also used $100m of his money to create a think-tank, the Berggruen Institute, which promotes fresh debate about politics and constitutional reform. Then, four months ago, he used $25m to launch a more specific campaign to "save" California, a place where he spends several months each year, usually living at the Peninsula Hotel in Beverly Hills.
The institute is now promoting radical fiscal measures to tackle the state's ballooning debt burden and to implement longer-term structural reforms, under the rubric of the "Think Long Committee for California". Berggruen has so much clout that his committee is now backed by a formidable array of political and business heavyweights, such as Condoleezza Rice, former US secretary of state, Eric Schmidt, chief executive of Google, and Gray Davis, former governor of California.” [www.ft.com/cms/s/2/4eca9d52-1f55-11e0-8c1c-00144feab49a.html]
At the same time Brown is attacking state workers demanding that they all continue to take pay cuts. SEIU 1000 and other units have already had 15% pay cuts through furloughs supported by their union leaderships. Many state workers have even lost their homes as a result of this major paycut.
Governor Brown along with former Assembly leader Willie Brown were in part responsible for Proposition 13 decades ago when they allowed a shift in California taxation from the corporations to homeowners. This tax shift was forcing people out of their homes and Jarvis Gann used this economic crisis for working class homeowners to successfully pass Proposition 13. During the past election in fact Brown pledged not to tinker with the 2/3 requirement to raise revenue. “"I'm not going to advocate messing with 13. That's a big fat loser." [inlandpolitics.com/blog/2010/03/04/latimes-george-skelton-the-parable-of-jerry-jarvis]
Governor Brown is also refusing to introduce an oil depletion tax despite the fact that California is one of the few states in the US that does not tax the removal of oil from state lands.
In the face of these brutal anti-working attacks, Lenny Goldberg, director of the California Tax Reform Association at a San Francisco Labor Council conference on “progressive taxation” that was held on January 15, 2011 told the audience that Governor Brown did not want to include this tax because the oil companies would spend tens of millions of dollars against any increase in their taxes.
Governor Brown budget has also been attacked by the Republicans in the legislature for having faulty estimates on the state of property assessment and they are right. According to Governor Brown and his advisors, the buget will be balanced because house price assessed values will increase thereby increasing revenue. This however is absolutely not the case in California as home prices continue to decline and therefore income to local, regional and state governments based on the assessed value will continue to decline and not increase.
This means that it is even more likely that the state will be forced into bankruptcy which is what open Republican rightwingers want in order to butcher union contracts and unilaterally re-write the pension plans of California state workers. [www.slate.com/id/2278795/]
Brown is helping to set up this scenario since he refuses to go after the wealthy directly in California
“Fine Tune The Amputation” -
Democratic East Bay Democrat Loni Hancock agreeing with Governor Brown’s cuts said that their job now was to “fine tune” the “amputation” to save programs and people in California at a Senate hearing with Governor’s Browns Department of Finance. Many of these people are the same people under former governor Schwartzenegger.
In fact, this line is being supported by Art Pulaski, the president of the California AFL-CIO who has told workers of California that “"while Gov. Brown's proposal isn't perfect, it at least strikes a much-needed balance between cuts and revenues." The same line was taken by CA SEIU State Executive Director David Kieffer who said that Brown’s budget was "far from perfect.” but made no demands to force the billionaires and wealthy to pay for the crisis and no plans for mass labor protests or mobilization. [www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/01/11/MNFM1H701B.DTL]
Labor Supported Democrats And “Draconian Cuts” -
The labor supported Democrats in California are now leading the attack on public services and public pensions and the complicity of virtually the entire California trade union officialdom in going along with these “draconian” cuts is striking. California has 1.5 million public workers yet there has been no united education and mobilization campaign against the 24 hour propaganda political blitz against public workers and their pensions and conditions.
California which is the 8th largest economy in the world and has many of the richest people in the world with 81 billionaires has a labor supported political party which is now proposing a budget that will destroy the right to education of hundreds of thousands of young people and will cause the deaths of tens of thousands of sick and disabled poor workers.
Not surprisingly the New York Times has lauded the $12.5 billion attack on California public services by Governor Brown including major regressive sales tax increases which Brown is now pusing the unions to get behind. [www.nytimes.com/2011/01/17/opinion/17mon1.html]
AFL-CIO Cowers Before Corporateer Obama -
This is not only a California phenomena but is precisely the case with the AFL-CIO leadership and their relationship with President Obama. When Obama pushed a budget deal with the Republicans that attacked social security through a cut in Social Security taxes and continued the Bush tax cuts to billionaires. Trumka reported "We had a good conversation with President Obama about the economic crisis and the importance of the labor movement in rebuilding the economy and the middle class," AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said after the meeting.”
[www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9K5UF0G0.htm]
This was also after Obama pushed the anti-labor Korea-US KORUS Free Trade Agreement and froze the wages of millions of Federal workers agreement with the agenda of the privatization program of his hand picked Social Security Commission led by privatizer Alan Simpson and Erskine “I also work for Morgan Stanley” Bowles.
This also follows the silence of the AFL-CIO tops about the same bankers like Treasury Secretary Geithner and Summers who were involved in the banking crisis. In fact the appointment of pro-NAFTA operative William Daley as his chief of staff. This of course was greeted by the US chamber of commerce as “a strong appointment”
[www.uschamber.com/press/releases/2011/january/donohue-calls-daley-“strong-appointment”-white-house-chief-staff]
The complicity of both the national AFL-CIO leadership and the California AFL-CIO leadership in refusing to fight these frontal attacks on public workers and the working class as a whole require a new fightback program and the building of a real working class political alternative to these parties of capitalist America.
The need for a political education campaign and beginning the mobilization of all 1.5 million public workers along with the millions of education students and users of public services is crucial. This is the only way that the present dynamic can be reversed and the lessons of the struggles in Tunia and Egypt is that regime change is overdue.
United Public Workers For Action www.upwa.info is an organization which has formed in 2008 to begin this education, political work and also to develop a political mobilization of the public workers.
[http://labornet.org/cgi-bin/intbd/cgi-bin/intbd.cgi?action=read&id=429]
FACED WITH A growing budget deficit in California now at $25.4 billion and growing, the Democratic governor elect Jerry Brown has introduced a budget at his inauguration that he himself said was “draconian”. The budget would increase unit fees to $36 for the community colleges and force out 200,000 students according to Marty Hittleman, president of the California Federation of Teachers CFT. It would also devastate the lives of millions of poor Californians. There would be massive cuts in Cal-Works that provided day care for low paid workers forcing mothers out of the workforce. This budget if passed would lead to a major increase in child poverty and deprivation. It would put increased premiums and fees for millions of indigent workers healthcare meaning that they would no longer be able to afford healthcare and also a time limit for benefits whether or not you need healthcare.
Home care workers would face a cut of their pay by 20% forcing them on welfare as well and forcing their clients either to go into nursing homes or dying at their homes.
Another scheme of Governor Brown is to shift the responsibility of these public services to local and county districts. They were initially local responsibilities before Proposition 13 but then shifted to the state after it passed and prevent local and counties from raising taxes.
Brown’s New “Guru” -
One of the big supporters of this plan to shift public service responsibility to the cities and counties is Brown’s new budget guru Nicolas Berggruen. Berggruen a “new age billionaire wants to “save California”. “He also used $100m of his money to create a think-tank, the Berggruen Institute, which promotes fresh debate about politics and constitutional reform. Then, four months ago, he used $25m to launch a more specific campaign to "save" California, a place where he spends several months each year, usually living at the Peninsula Hotel in Beverly Hills.
The institute is now promoting radical fiscal measures to tackle the state's ballooning debt burden and to implement longer-term structural reforms, under the rubric of the "Think Long Committee for California". Berggruen has so much clout that his committee is now backed by a formidable array of political and business heavyweights, such as Condoleezza Rice, former US secretary of state, Eric Schmidt, chief executive of Google, and Gray Davis, former governor of California.” [www.ft.com/cms/s/2/4eca9d52-1f55-11e0-8c1c-00144feab49a.html]
At the same time Brown is attacking state workers demanding that they all continue to take pay cuts. SEIU 1000 and other units have already had 15% pay cuts through furloughs supported by their union leaderships. Many state workers have even lost their homes as a result of this major paycut.
Governor Brown along with former Assembly leader Willie Brown were in part responsible for Proposition 13 decades ago when they allowed a shift in California taxation from the corporations to homeowners. This tax shift was forcing people out of their homes and Jarvis Gann used this economic crisis for working class homeowners to successfully pass Proposition 13. During the past election in fact Brown pledged not to tinker with the 2/3 requirement to raise revenue. “"I'm not going to advocate messing with 13. That's a big fat loser." [inlandpolitics.com/blog/2010/03/04/latimes-george-skelton-the-parable-of-jerry-jarvis]
Governor Brown is also refusing to introduce an oil depletion tax despite the fact that California is one of the few states in the US that does not tax the removal of oil from state lands.
In the face of these brutal anti-working attacks, Lenny Goldberg, director of the California Tax Reform Association at a San Francisco Labor Council conference on “progressive taxation” that was held on January 15, 2011 told the audience that Governor Brown did not want to include this tax because the oil companies would spend tens of millions of dollars against any increase in their taxes.
Governor Brown budget has also been attacked by the Republicans in the legislature for having faulty estimates on the state of property assessment and they are right. According to Governor Brown and his advisors, the buget will be balanced because house price assessed values will increase thereby increasing revenue. This however is absolutely not the case in California as home prices continue to decline and therefore income to local, regional and state governments based on the assessed value will continue to decline and not increase.
This means that it is even more likely that the state will be forced into bankruptcy which is what open Republican rightwingers want in order to butcher union contracts and unilaterally re-write the pension plans of California state workers. [www.slate.com/id/2278795/]
Brown is helping to set up this scenario since he refuses to go after the wealthy directly in California
“Fine Tune The Amputation” -
Democratic East Bay Democrat Loni Hancock agreeing with Governor Brown’s cuts said that their job now was to “fine tune” the “amputation” to save programs and people in California at a Senate hearing with Governor’s Browns Department of Finance. Many of these people are the same people under former governor Schwartzenegger.
In fact, this line is being supported by Art Pulaski, the president of the California AFL-CIO who has told workers of California that “"while Gov. Brown's proposal isn't perfect, it at least strikes a much-needed balance between cuts and revenues." The same line was taken by CA SEIU State Executive Director David Kieffer who said that Brown’s budget was "far from perfect.” but made no demands to force the billionaires and wealthy to pay for the crisis and no plans for mass labor protests or mobilization. [www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/01/11/MNFM1H701B.DTL]
Labor Supported Democrats And “Draconian Cuts” -
The labor supported Democrats in California are now leading the attack on public services and public pensions and the complicity of virtually the entire California trade union officialdom in going along with these “draconian” cuts is striking. California has 1.5 million public workers yet there has been no united education and mobilization campaign against the 24 hour propaganda political blitz against public workers and their pensions and conditions.
California which is the 8th largest economy in the world and has many of the richest people in the world with 81 billionaires has a labor supported political party which is now proposing a budget that will destroy the right to education of hundreds of thousands of young people and will cause the deaths of tens of thousands of sick and disabled poor workers.
Not surprisingly the New York Times has lauded the $12.5 billion attack on California public services by Governor Brown including major regressive sales tax increases which Brown is now pusing the unions to get behind. [www.nytimes.com/2011/01/17/opinion/17mon1.html]
AFL-CIO Cowers Before Corporateer Obama -
This is not only a California phenomena but is precisely the case with the AFL-CIO leadership and their relationship with President Obama. When Obama pushed a budget deal with the Republicans that attacked social security through a cut in Social Security taxes and continued the Bush tax cuts to billionaires. Trumka reported "We had a good conversation with President Obama about the economic crisis and the importance of the labor movement in rebuilding the economy and the middle class," AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said after the meeting.”
[www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9K5UF0G0.htm]
This was also after Obama pushed the anti-labor Korea-US KORUS Free Trade Agreement and froze the wages of millions of Federal workers agreement with the agenda of the privatization program of his hand picked Social Security Commission led by privatizer Alan Simpson and Erskine “I also work for Morgan Stanley” Bowles.
This also follows the silence of the AFL-CIO tops about the same bankers like Treasury Secretary Geithner and Summers who were involved in the banking crisis. In fact the appointment of pro-NAFTA operative William Daley as his chief of staff. This of course was greeted by the US chamber of commerce as “a strong appointment”
[www.uschamber.com/press/releases/2011/january/donohue-calls-daley-“strong-appointment”-white-house-chief-staff]
The complicity of both the national AFL-CIO leadership and the California AFL-CIO leadership in refusing to fight these frontal attacks on public workers and the working class as a whole require a new fightback program and the building of a real working class political alternative to these parties of capitalist America.
The need for a political education campaign and beginning the mobilization of all 1.5 million public workers along with the millions of education students and users of public services is crucial. This is the only way that the present dynamic can be reversed and the lessons of the struggles in Tunia and Egypt is that regime change is overdue.
United Public Workers For Action www.upwa.info is an organization which has formed in 2008 to begin this education, political work and also to develop a political mobilization of the public workers.
2011-02-07 "UC, CSU face deep cuts but will avoid fee hikes" by Juliet Williams from "Associated Press" newswire
SACRAMENTO -- The chancellors of the University of California and California State University systems said Monday that they don't plan to seek student fees increases this year, despite a state budget proposal that calls for more than $1.4 billion in combined cuts to higher education.
But UC Chancellor Mark Yudof and CSU Chancellor Charles Reed said their promise won't hold if Californians don't agree to tax extensions that Gov. Jerry Brown is proposing for the June ballot.
"He already told Mark and I straight up: If this doesn't pass we're going to come back and cut you some more. We can't afford to take any more cuts," Reed told reporters Monday. "You have to pay for what you get.
Brown, a Democrat, wants to ask voters in a June special election to extend increases on income, sales and vehicle taxes for five years to help close California's $25.4 billion budget shortfall through June 2012. He is trying to win Republican support in the state Legislature to get a two-thirds majority to place it on the ballot, but GOP lawmakers have steadfastly opposed it.
Brown is proposing a combined $1 billion in cuts to UC and CSU, and $400 million in cuts to community colleges. Community colleges would also raise fees by $10 per unit under Brown's proposed plan.
Reed's comments Monday were the most explicit threat to date of the further deep cuts that are possible
The chancellors of all three systems testified at a budget hearingin Sacramento on Monday, where they said they are prepared to make deep cuts to administration, teaching staff and services for students.
They warned, though, that California's renowned higher education system is being jeopardized and they are likely to continue to turn away hundreds of thousands of students.
California Community Colleges Chancellor Jack Scott said if the proposed budget is enacted, his system will have to turn away 350,000 students next year because it will not have enough classes to offer.
"We are particularly good at creating those mid-level jobs" such as firefighters, nurses and mechanics, Scott said. "We are, of course, a bargain, even with the suggested increase of $10 per unit in our tuition next year."
Spokespeople for the Republican leaders in the state Assembly and Senate did not immediately return a message from The Associated Press on Monday.
The UC Board of Regents in November approved a plan to raise undergraduate tuition by 8 percent next fall while offering more financial aid. The hike comes after the 10-campus system increased undergraduate fees by more than 30 percent over the past year to offset deep cuts in state funding that led to staff furloughs, fewer course sections and reduced student enrollment.
CSU trustees voted in November to raise tuition for undergraduate and graduate students by 5 percent for the current winter and upcoming spring terms, and by another 10 percent this fall.
SACRAMENTO -- The chancellors of the University of California and California State University systems said Monday that they don't plan to seek student fees increases this year, despite a state budget proposal that calls for more than $1.4 billion in combined cuts to higher education.
But UC Chancellor Mark Yudof and CSU Chancellor Charles Reed said their promise won't hold if Californians don't agree to tax extensions that Gov. Jerry Brown is proposing for the June ballot.
"He already told Mark and I straight up: If this doesn't pass we're going to come back and cut you some more. We can't afford to take any more cuts," Reed told reporters Monday. "You have to pay for what you get.
Brown, a Democrat, wants to ask voters in a June special election to extend increases on income, sales and vehicle taxes for five years to help close California's $25.4 billion budget shortfall through June 2012. He is trying to win Republican support in the state Legislature to get a two-thirds majority to place it on the ballot, but GOP lawmakers have steadfastly opposed it.
Brown is proposing a combined $1 billion in cuts to UC and CSU, and $400 million in cuts to community colleges. Community colleges would also raise fees by $10 per unit under Brown's proposed plan.
Reed's comments Monday were the most explicit threat to date of the further deep cuts that are possible
The chancellors of all three systems testified at a budget hearingin Sacramento on Monday, where they said they are prepared to make deep cuts to administration, teaching staff and services for students.
They warned, though, that California's renowned higher education system is being jeopardized and they are likely to continue to turn away hundreds of thousands of students.
California Community Colleges Chancellor Jack Scott said if the proposed budget is enacted, his system will have to turn away 350,000 students next year because it will not have enough classes to offer.
"We are particularly good at creating those mid-level jobs" such as firefighters, nurses and mechanics, Scott said. "We are, of course, a bargain, even with the suggested increase of $10 per unit in our tuition next year."
Spokespeople for the Republican leaders in the state Assembly and Senate did not immediately return a message from The Associated Press on Monday.
The UC Board of Regents in November approved a plan to raise undergraduate tuition by 8 percent next fall while offering more financial aid. The hike comes after the 10-campus system increased undergraduate fees by more than 30 percent over the past year to offset deep cuts in state funding that led to staff furloughs, fewer course sections and reduced student enrollment.
CSU trustees voted in November to raise tuition for undergraduate and graduate students by 5 percent for the current winter and upcoming spring terms, and by another 10 percent this fall.
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Labor unions struggle for Teachers Rights!
2011-01-16 "Dissident L.A. teachers want more from their union; NewTLA, a pro-union faction, works for reform within the organization" by Steve Lopez from "Los Angeles Times" newspaper
[http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-0116-lopezcolumn-20110116,0,1198151,full.column]
Quietly and carefully, a movement of dissident teachers has been taking shape within United Teachers Los Angeles. It began last fall, with e-mails and telephone calls among a group of disaffected and disappointed teachers. By year's end, some 50 of them had volunteered to become official members of UTLA's policy-making body, the House of Representatives.
On Jan. 8, the group held its first strategy session. At the meeting, which I attended, teachers shared their grievances with both UTLA and LAUSD and talked about their plan to lobby for dramatic changes in union leadership and focus.
They've even named their fledgling caucus: NewTLA.
"I think there is a silent majority of teachers who are very frustrated with the status quo," Mike Stryer said in opening remarks at the Jan. 8 meeting, held at Mercado La Paloma south of downtown and attended by 21 NewTLA members.
Stryer, a Fairfax High teacher and former school board candidate, helped establish NewTLA last fall with his friend Jordan Henry, a Santee Education Complex teacher.
Henry had been considering a campaign to succeed outgoing UTLA president A.J. Duffy but pulled out in November after the UTLA board of directors moved up the self-nomination deadline, making it harder for him to officially declare his candidacy.
"As the call for reform in public education has mounted locally and nationally, UTLA leadership has emphatically chosen to double down on existing positions rather than ante up to new conversations," Henry wrote to supporters on Nov. 16 in a letter mapping out a different strategy for change.
"I have conceded," he wrote, "that there is more to be gained aggressively building a base than there is steadily chipping away at a machine."
Henry and Stryer recruited like-minded reform-starved teachers to volunteer to fill vacancies in UTLA's House, and they now occupy about 20% of the House seats. Henry called the uprising "an unprecedented event in our union's history."
At the Jan. 8 meeting, Henry and Stryer told teachers that by merely attending meetings on a regular basis (last Wednesday was their first), they will be able to influence policy discussions, since there may not be another bloc of like-minded members as large as theirs.
With another 90 or so House vacancies coming up over the next several months, the group's goal is to grab as many additional seats as possible by making their agenda known.
So what's the agenda?
Let me list the grievances I heard laid out Jan. 8:
Randy Grant, a Fairfax High teacher, said that UTLA has become as unresponsive and dysfunctional as LAUSD and that the union has utterly failed to design or demand better professional development programs than the antiquated and ineffective ones now in place.
Trebor Jacquez of Santee said schools that have the biggest challenges are losing their best teachers with no intervention from the union. Several present insisted on ending the practice of using only tenure to determine layoffs and transfers.
George Crowder of White Elementary School said the union has worked hard to ensure that good teachers are treated fairly but has also protected ineffective teachers.
Natasha Morse of Los Angeles High marveled at how, as a teacher in just her third year, she gets virtually no input or oversight from administrators, colleagues or union representatives about how she's doing and how she can do better.
"I shouldn't be left alone. They should be worried about me," said Morse, who wondered, like others, why there can't be a union-fostered culture of collaboration among teachers who can help educate one another on best practices and experiences.
Jose Navarro, a Sylmar High instructor and 2009 California teacher of the year, said the union shoots down rather than supports teacher-led reform ideas.
Mark Muskrath of Santee said union leaders waste time on things like irrelevant foreign policy resolutions while "throwing younger teachers under the bus."
Kristen Weinstein of Roscomare Elementary wants to know why there can't be holistic teacher evaluations with input from students, teachers, administrators, parents and anyone else who might identify both weaknesses and strengths. A number of teachers spoke up for better evaluations of administrators as well.
James Encinas of Westminster Avenue Elementary said he doesn't know exactly how to construct a better teacher-evaluation system but wants UTLA to lead the discussion rather than avoid it.
There was little discussion and no consensus on whether student test scores ought to be considered in teacher evaluations, a national trend LAUSD has supported and UTLA has adamantly opposed. Teachers at the meeting neither embraced nor dismissed the possibility, but Stryer later said evaluations should "perhaps" include student testing.
"What's frustrating for many is that the union leadership hasn't come up with a proactive proposal of their own," Stryer said.
Can that and other entrenched UTLA policies and traditions end, just because 50 teachers want them to, or will the reformers merely motivate others to rally around the old guard?
"I'm optimistic," Henry later said, calling the enthusiasm and support encouraging. "I want to build this union up, not tear it down."
In fact, many of the teachers who attended the Jan. 8 meeting emphasized that they're not anti-union. They simply believe their union would be far more productive if it quit wasting so much time on contractual and political issues and resisting change out of hand and more time actively supporting teachers in the classroom while becoming a leading voice on reforms that benefit teachers and students.
Teachers who care "have got to keep fighting" for those changes, said Navarro, "because the kids deserve it."
(For more information, go to http://www.newtla.com).
[http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-0116-lopezcolumn-20110116,0,1198151,full.column]
Quietly and carefully, a movement of dissident teachers has been taking shape within United Teachers Los Angeles. It began last fall, with e-mails and telephone calls among a group of disaffected and disappointed teachers. By year's end, some 50 of them had volunteered to become official members of UTLA's policy-making body, the House of Representatives.
On Jan. 8, the group held its first strategy session. At the meeting, which I attended, teachers shared their grievances with both UTLA and LAUSD and talked about their plan to lobby for dramatic changes in union leadership and focus.
They've even named their fledgling caucus: NewTLA.
"I think there is a silent majority of teachers who are very frustrated with the status quo," Mike Stryer said in opening remarks at the Jan. 8 meeting, held at Mercado La Paloma south of downtown and attended by 21 NewTLA members.
Stryer, a Fairfax High teacher and former school board candidate, helped establish NewTLA last fall with his friend Jordan Henry, a Santee Education Complex teacher.
Henry had been considering a campaign to succeed outgoing UTLA president A.J. Duffy but pulled out in November after the UTLA board of directors moved up the self-nomination deadline, making it harder for him to officially declare his candidacy.
"As the call for reform in public education has mounted locally and nationally, UTLA leadership has emphatically chosen to double down on existing positions rather than ante up to new conversations," Henry wrote to supporters on Nov. 16 in a letter mapping out a different strategy for change.
"I have conceded," he wrote, "that there is more to be gained aggressively building a base than there is steadily chipping away at a machine."
Henry and Stryer recruited like-minded reform-starved teachers to volunteer to fill vacancies in UTLA's House, and they now occupy about 20% of the House seats. Henry called the uprising "an unprecedented event in our union's history."
At the Jan. 8 meeting, Henry and Stryer told teachers that by merely attending meetings on a regular basis (last Wednesday was their first), they will be able to influence policy discussions, since there may not be another bloc of like-minded members as large as theirs.
With another 90 or so House vacancies coming up over the next several months, the group's goal is to grab as many additional seats as possible by making their agenda known.
So what's the agenda?
Let me list the grievances I heard laid out Jan. 8:
Randy Grant, a Fairfax High teacher, said that UTLA has become as unresponsive and dysfunctional as LAUSD and that the union has utterly failed to design or demand better professional development programs than the antiquated and ineffective ones now in place.
Trebor Jacquez of Santee said schools that have the biggest challenges are losing their best teachers with no intervention from the union. Several present insisted on ending the practice of using only tenure to determine layoffs and transfers.
George Crowder of White Elementary School said the union has worked hard to ensure that good teachers are treated fairly but has also protected ineffective teachers.
Natasha Morse of Los Angeles High marveled at how, as a teacher in just her third year, she gets virtually no input or oversight from administrators, colleagues or union representatives about how she's doing and how she can do better.
"I shouldn't be left alone. They should be worried about me," said Morse, who wondered, like others, why there can't be a union-fostered culture of collaboration among teachers who can help educate one another on best practices and experiences.
Jose Navarro, a Sylmar High instructor and 2009 California teacher of the year, said the union shoots down rather than supports teacher-led reform ideas.
Mark Muskrath of Santee said union leaders waste time on things like irrelevant foreign policy resolutions while "throwing younger teachers under the bus."
Kristen Weinstein of Roscomare Elementary wants to know why there can't be holistic teacher evaluations with input from students, teachers, administrators, parents and anyone else who might identify both weaknesses and strengths. A number of teachers spoke up for better evaluations of administrators as well.
James Encinas of Westminster Avenue Elementary said he doesn't know exactly how to construct a better teacher-evaluation system but wants UTLA to lead the discussion rather than avoid it.
There was little discussion and no consensus on whether student test scores ought to be considered in teacher evaluations, a national trend LAUSD has supported and UTLA has adamantly opposed. Teachers at the meeting neither embraced nor dismissed the possibility, but Stryer later said evaluations should "perhaps" include student testing.
"What's frustrating for many is that the union leadership hasn't come up with a proactive proposal of their own," Stryer said.
Can that and other entrenched UTLA policies and traditions end, just because 50 teachers want them to, or will the reformers merely motivate others to rally around the old guard?
"I'm optimistic," Henry later said, calling the enthusiasm and support encouraging. "I want to build this union up, not tear it down."
In fact, many of the teachers who attended the Jan. 8 meeting emphasized that they're not anti-union. They simply believe their union would be far more productive if it quit wasting so much time on contractual and political issues and resisting change out of hand and more time actively supporting teachers in the classroom while becoming a leading voice on reforms that benefit teachers and students.
Teachers who care "have got to keep fighting" for those changes, said Navarro, "because the kids deserve it."
(For more information, go to http://www.newtla.com).
War against Labor
2011-01-13 "OPINION: John Deasy a disappointing choice for LAUSD superintendent" by David Lyell, LAUSD substitute teacher
[http://www.intersectionssouthla.org/index.php/site_new/story/opinion_john_deasy_a_disappointing_choice_for_lausd_superintendent/]
I'm disappointed by the appointment of John Deasy as the superintendent to the LAUSD School Board. The school board didn't even bother to consider any other candidates, which is very strange. The public needs to remember that the mayor, who celebrated this appointment, after recently attacking UTLA, was also handed a vote of "no confidence" by teachers at eight of the 10 schools he takes credit for operating.
The reality is that the teachers at those school sites operate those schools. The mayor, who rarely shows up, only operates them on paper, and dismally at that. We need to remember that this is the same mayor who, in 2009, spent 15 times as much as his nearest opponent on his campaign, then refused to debate him.
Deasy embraces Value-Added. Value-added testing is yet another example a punitive, ineffective, dictatorial management style. A July 2010 report by the Institute of Education Sciences concluded that, "more than 90 percent of the variation in student gain scores is due to the variation in student-level factors that are not under the control of the teacher." An August 2010 report by the Economic Policy Institute warned in a report that it would be "unwise" to give substantial weight to VAM scores in measuring teacher effectiveness. Researchers for RAND concluded that, "the research base is currently insufficient to support the use of VAM for high-stakes decisions about individual teachers."
LAUSD Board Members cry about a budget crisis, yet spend $100 million per year on non-mandated assessments — that is, testing not required by law — and $43 million on mini-districts. In December 2010, they fired clerical and custodial workers at school sites after firing teachers and instituting furloughs, and they transferred hundreds of other clerical and custodial staff. Now Cortines says we need to take more furlough days.
No.
We need to use the Federal Jobs money for its intended purpose: to save jobs. We need to spend that $143 million that is wasted on testing and mini-districts, and spend it on teachers, clerical, and custodial staff.
Aside from his employment record, serious ethical questions remain concerning Deasy's background. In addition to the LMU and University of Louisville scandals, Deasy comes from the Gates Foundation. Gates — whose company Microsoft was literally sued by the US Government for antitrust allegations and using market dominance to stifle competition — is now an advocate for, of all things, competition. Like Oprah, Gates is just wrong. Instead of asking why it's so hard to fire teachers, they need to ask why school districts can't carry out their administrative duties in a timely manner.
Gates has even recently advocated for larger class sizes, and videotaping teachers. That's how out of touch he is. Our schools are already so darn top-heavy with administrators, classrooms are under-staffed, and teachers are under-paid, over-worked, and under-appreciated. In Gates' world classrooms would host one thousand students. Teachers would have every twitch scrutinized by a panel of six-figure education "experts" who then meet with the teacher to tell them what they need to do to improve. Where I come from, that sounds like a colossal waste of tax-payer dollars. Of course, I'm exaggerating, but those are the type of policies he advocates.
LAUSD is insanely top-heavy with administrators who make well over six figures. We need less bureaucracy. A test result cannot teach a student. A teacher can. It's very strange how the very people who claim to care about children the most are the same individuals who do everything humanly possible to actually avoid having to spend time in a classroom. They love their cushy six-figure jobs.
We need real reformers who want to work with teachers instead of demonizing them. As it is, 50 percent of all teachers quit within the first five years. The numbers are even higher in charter schools. Fewer than one in seven charters produce better results, and many are simply out of control, as we saw with the Parent Trigger scandal in Compton. Charters are the new deregulation, and we all know how well that worked with the banks.
We need leaders who recognize that the way to improve education is to support the work teachers do. Teachers are responsible for student achievement, not administrators, not tests.
---
Comments -
Posted by Leonard Isenberg on 1/13/11 at 09:49 AM
David, An excellent article that I would like to republish at perdaily. That being said, I think we are both aware that whether it is Brewer, Cortines, or now Deasy, those in control at LAUSD and the politicians at the state and federal level that keep them in power have precisely the public education system they want. Rather then continue to respond to their monologue of nebulous educational platitude without any substance that never comes to fruition, we at perdaily are trying to create a national clearinghouse for ideas that show the national scope of this premeditated failure of public education, but also shows a specific viable alternative that is presently blacked out of the mainstream media that publishes no criticism of charter schools, value-added assessment, or merit pay- reminiscent of Pravda, Isvestia, and Tass state controlled media under the old Soviet Union. Even though what you and I and the others you will find listed at perdaily represent the majority view of what educators know at the school level (microcosm) and what academic know in terms of data and historical context (macrocosm), neither LAUSD nor UTLA will ever support these ideas nor will the media report it until we. I respect your intellect and would enjoy publicizing our shared concerns. Best, Lenny
-
Posted by Leonard Isenberg on 1/14/11 at 11:09 AM
[...] According to Professor Diane Ravitch and others who have looked at value-added assessment, it has a 45% margin of error, which makes an assessment of 17% and 65% are mathematically indistinguishable. Furthermore, there is a more fundamental question: Why are we assessing the effectiveness of teacher based on how well their students do, when their students for the most part are years behind grade level because of the continued practice of social promotion, which gives single-subject credentialed teachers with no remedial skills and a substantive course to teacher, students who do not have the foundational skills in Language Arts or math to be engaged. So we should make the teaching the whipping boy of failed LAUSD administrative practice or worse yet, have them give passing grades or fix assessments to save their jobs and avoid being targeted by mafia-like LAUSD administrators. And finally, value-added assessment will not get rid of the truly abysmal teachers who will find a way around this assessment of their effectiveness, because they blindly support the incompetence of LAUSD administrators who are at the root of this long failed system. Isn't it strange that public education reform reforms everything but the corrupt and dysfunctional school districts at the root of the problem. Worse than giving them a pass, it actually gives them a crucial role in all fail reform from charters, where they are the LEA oversight to pilot schools where they have an absolute veto over who will be the principal, along with their right to unilateral abrogate the UTLA/LAUSD Collective Bargaining Agreement. Check out perdaily.com to see that this fraud is going on throughout the U.S. and join us in positing a specific viable alternative model for real education reform where all- students, parents, teachers, and administrators are held responsible under a system of two-way accountability in lieu of the present top/down totalitarian model that terrorizes teachers into submission. Lenny@perdaily.com
[http://www.intersectionssouthla.org/index.php/site_new/story/opinion_john_deasy_a_disappointing_choice_for_lausd_superintendent/]
I'm disappointed by the appointment of John Deasy as the superintendent to the LAUSD School Board. The school board didn't even bother to consider any other candidates, which is very strange. The public needs to remember that the mayor, who celebrated this appointment, after recently attacking UTLA, was also handed a vote of "no confidence" by teachers at eight of the 10 schools he takes credit for operating.
The reality is that the teachers at those school sites operate those schools. The mayor, who rarely shows up, only operates them on paper, and dismally at that. We need to remember that this is the same mayor who, in 2009, spent 15 times as much as his nearest opponent on his campaign, then refused to debate him.
Deasy embraces Value-Added. Value-added testing is yet another example a punitive, ineffective, dictatorial management style. A July 2010 report by the Institute of Education Sciences concluded that, "more than 90 percent of the variation in student gain scores is due to the variation in student-level factors that are not under the control of the teacher." An August 2010 report by the Economic Policy Institute warned in a report that it would be "unwise" to give substantial weight to VAM scores in measuring teacher effectiveness. Researchers for RAND concluded that, "the research base is currently insufficient to support the use of VAM for high-stakes decisions about individual teachers."
LAUSD Board Members cry about a budget crisis, yet spend $100 million per year on non-mandated assessments — that is, testing not required by law — and $43 million on mini-districts. In December 2010, they fired clerical and custodial workers at school sites after firing teachers and instituting furloughs, and they transferred hundreds of other clerical and custodial staff. Now Cortines says we need to take more furlough days.
No.
We need to use the Federal Jobs money for its intended purpose: to save jobs. We need to spend that $143 million that is wasted on testing and mini-districts, and spend it on teachers, clerical, and custodial staff.
Aside from his employment record, serious ethical questions remain concerning Deasy's background. In addition to the LMU and University of Louisville scandals, Deasy comes from the Gates Foundation. Gates — whose company Microsoft was literally sued by the US Government for antitrust allegations and using market dominance to stifle competition — is now an advocate for, of all things, competition. Like Oprah, Gates is just wrong. Instead of asking why it's so hard to fire teachers, they need to ask why school districts can't carry out their administrative duties in a timely manner.
Gates has even recently advocated for larger class sizes, and videotaping teachers. That's how out of touch he is. Our schools are already so darn top-heavy with administrators, classrooms are under-staffed, and teachers are under-paid, over-worked, and under-appreciated. In Gates' world classrooms would host one thousand students. Teachers would have every twitch scrutinized by a panel of six-figure education "experts" who then meet with the teacher to tell them what they need to do to improve. Where I come from, that sounds like a colossal waste of tax-payer dollars. Of course, I'm exaggerating, but those are the type of policies he advocates.
LAUSD is insanely top-heavy with administrators who make well over six figures. We need less bureaucracy. A test result cannot teach a student. A teacher can. It's very strange how the very people who claim to care about children the most are the same individuals who do everything humanly possible to actually avoid having to spend time in a classroom. They love their cushy six-figure jobs.
We need real reformers who want to work with teachers instead of demonizing them. As it is, 50 percent of all teachers quit within the first five years. The numbers are even higher in charter schools. Fewer than one in seven charters produce better results, and many are simply out of control, as we saw with the Parent Trigger scandal in Compton. Charters are the new deregulation, and we all know how well that worked with the banks.
We need leaders who recognize that the way to improve education is to support the work teachers do. Teachers are responsible for student achievement, not administrators, not tests.
---
Comments -
Posted by Leonard Isenberg on 1/13/11 at 09:49 AM
David, An excellent article that I would like to republish at perdaily. That being said, I think we are both aware that whether it is Brewer, Cortines, or now Deasy, those in control at LAUSD and the politicians at the state and federal level that keep them in power have precisely the public education system they want. Rather then continue to respond to their monologue of nebulous educational platitude without any substance that never comes to fruition, we at perdaily are trying to create a national clearinghouse for ideas that show the national scope of this premeditated failure of public education, but also shows a specific viable alternative that is presently blacked out of the mainstream media that publishes no criticism of charter schools, value-added assessment, or merit pay- reminiscent of Pravda, Isvestia, and Tass state controlled media under the old Soviet Union. Even though what you and I and the others you will find listed at perdaily represent the majority view of what educators know at the school level (microcosm) and what academic know in terms of data and historical context (macrocosm), neither LAUSD nor UTLA will ever support these ideas nor will the media report it until we. I respect your intellect and would enjoy publicizing our shared concerns. Best, Lenny
-
Posted by Leonard Isenberg on 1/14/11 at 11:09 AM
[...] According to Professor Diane Ravitch and others who have looked at value-added assessment, it has a 45% margin of error, which makes an assessment of 17% and 65% are mathematically indistinguishable. Furthermore, there is a more fundamental question: Why are we assessing the effectiveness of teacher based on how well their students do, when their students for the most part are years behind grade level because of the continued practice of social promotion, which gives single-subject credentialed teachers with no remedial skills and a substantive course to teacher, students who do not have the foundational skills in Language Arts or math to be engaged. So we should make the teaching the whipping boy of failed LAUSD administrative practice or worse yet, have them give passing grades or fix assessments to save their jobs and avoid being targeted by mafia-like LAUSD administrators. And finally, value-added assessment will not get rid of the truly abysmal teachers who will find a way around this assessment of their effectiveness, because they blindly support the incompetence of LAUSD administrators who are at the root of this long failed system. Isn't it strange that public education reform reforms everything but the corrupt and dysfunctional school districts at the root of the problem. Worse than giving them a pass, it actually gives them a crucial role in all fail reform from charters, where they are the LEA oversight to pilot schools where they have an absolute veto over who will be the principal, along with their right to unilateral abrogate the UTLA/LAUSD Collective Bargaining Agreement. Check out perdaily.com to see that this fraud is going on throughout the U.S. and join us in positing a specific viable alternative model for real education reform where all- students, parents, teachers, and administrators are held responsible under a system of two-way accountability in lieu of the present top/down totalitarian model that terrorizes teachers into submission. Lenny@perdaily.com
2011-01-13 "Protests Begin as Brown Announces His ‘Draconian’ Budget for California", article by Lisa Roellig, photo-essay by Bill Hackwell ( hckwll [at] yahoo.com ), posted at "Indybay" newswire
[http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2011/01/13/18669073.php]
Hundreds came out to speak out and protest against new governor Jerry Brown’s budget proposal that targets the poorest and most vulnerable populations of the state. Brown characterized his new budget as ‘Draconian’. This helpless answer to the economic crisis facing the working and poor of California illustrates the need for a broad grass roots movement from the very people who are most affected.
Newly elected Governor Jerry Brown’s 2011-2012 budget proposal slashes $12.5 billion dollars from essential health and human services. Programs that serve the most vulnerable sectors of our communities including services for the disabled, the mentally ill and drug addicted, and child and healthcare for low-income families, all face enormous cuts or complete elimination under Brown’s proposal.
Immediately following the announcement of Brown’s new ‘draconian’ budget Oakland’s O.A.S.I.S. Clinic, along with many other service providing agencies and organizations participated in a press conference in the State House denouncing this new and devastating attack on the most disenfranchised groups in California. Speakers at the press conference included Diana Sylvestre, M.D. Executive Director of O.A.S.I.S. Clinic, who spoke in defense of the drug treatment assistance program, Drug Medi-Cal, Evan LeVang of the Independent Living Services of Northern California, Glenn Backes, Ella Baker Center for Human Rights. The Capitol press conference was part of statewide actions organized by Health and Human Services Network. HHS Network, held similar press conferences and rallies in San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego, Riverside and Fresno.
After the press conference, Single Payer Now and the California Healthcare Professional Student Alliance (CAHPSA) launched a kick off rally for the California Universal Healthcare Act, CA Senate Bill 810 (SB810). The keynote speaker of the rally was SB810’s author, Senator Mark Leno. Other speakers included healthcare providers and students, who spoke on the critical need of a single-payer healthcare system, a system that would guarantee healthcare for all Californians by elimating the multi-billion dollar parasitic insurance industry. Hundreds of healthcare students and single payer supporters held placards that read “Healthcare Yes! Insurance Companies No!”
O.A.S.I.S. Clinic along with C.O.R.E. Medical Clinic, Sacramento, joined in the demand for healthcare for all and the continuation of all funding to critical and life saving health and human service programs, including the drug treatment program, Drug Medi-Cal.
Despite proof that drug treatment is highly cost effective and studies show that for every dollar spent on treatment, up to $7 is saved in reduced criminal activity, incarceration, and spread of infectious diseases like HIV and hepatitis B and C. the Drug Medi-Cal program is in jeopardy of losing its funding. Drug Treatment also improves family stability, employment and wellness. It has been demonstrated that drug treatment reduces mortality by 30% and helps women deliver healthier babies.
OASIS, a community-based not-for-profit medical clinic located in Oakland, is a national leader in the care of underserved patients with serious medical conditions like addictions, hepatitis C, and HIV. Its patients and peer educators are recognized statewide for their education, outreach and advocacy efforts.
---
For more information about Oasis Clinic and other organizations participating in Monday’s action in Sacramento go to the links below:
- Oasis Clinic [http://www.oasiscliniconline.org]
- C.O.R.E. Medical Clinic [http://www.coremedicalclinic.com]
- California Health Professional Student Alliance [http://www.cahpsa.org/CaHPSA/Home.html]
- Health and Human Services Network of California [http://www.hhsnetworkca.org/]
- Single Payer Now [http://www.singlepayernow.net/]
- Independent Living Services of Northern California [http://www.ilsnc.org/]
---
2011-01-13 photo by Bill Hackwell showing Medical Students for Universal Healthcare
2011-01-13 photo by Bill Hackwell showing Medical Students for Universal Healthcare
[http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2011/01/13/18669073.php]
Hundreds came out to speak out and protest against new governor Jerry Brown’s budget proposal that targets the poorest and most vulnerable populations of the state. Brown characterized his new budget as ‘Draconian’. This helpless answer to the economic crisis facing the working and poor of California illustrates the need for a broad grass roots movement from the very people who are most affected.
Newly elected Governor Jerry Brown’s 2011-2012 budget proposal slashes $12.5 billion dollars from essential health and human services. Programs that serve the most vulnerable sectors of our communities including services for the disabled, the mentally ill and drug addicted, and child and healthcare for low-income families, all face enormous cuts or complete elimination under Brown’s proposal.
Immediately following the announcement of Brown’s new ‘draconian’ budget Oakland’s O.A.S.I.S. Clinic, along with many other service providing agencies and organizations participated in a press conference in the State House denouncing this new and devastating attack on the most disenfranchised groups in California. Speakers at the press conference included Diana Sylvestre, M.D. Executive Director of O.A.S.I.S. Clinic, who spoke in defense of the drug treatment assistance program, Drug Medi-Cal, Evan LeVang of the Independent Living Services of Northern California, Glenn Backes, Ella Baker Center for Human Rights. The Capitol press conference was part of statewide actions organized by Health and Human Services Network. HHS Network, held similar press conferences and rallies in San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego, Riverside and Fresno.
After the press conference, Single Payer Now and the California Healthcare Professional Student Alliance (CAHPSA) launched a kick off rally for the California Universal Healthcare Act, CA Senate Bill 810 (SB810). The keynote speaker of the rally was SB810’s author, Senator Mark Leno. Other speakers included healthcare providers and students, who spoke on the critical need of a single-payer healthcare system, a system that would guarantee healthcare for all Californians by elimating the multi-billion dollar parasitic insurance industry. Hundreds of healthcare students and single payer supporters held placards that read “Healthcare Yes! Insurance Companies No!”
O.A.S.I.S. Clinic along with C.O.R.E. Medical Clinic, Sacramento, joined in the demand for healthcare for all and the continuation of all funding to critical and life saving health and human service programs, including the drug treatment program, Drug Medi-Cal.
Despite proof that drug treatment is highly cost effective and studies show that for every dollar spent on treatment, up to $7 is saved in reduced criminal activity, incarceration, and spread of infectious diseases like HIV and hepatitis B and C. the Drug Medi-Cal program is in jeopardy of losing its funding. Drug Treatment also improves family stability, employment and wellness. It has been demonstrated that drug treatment reduces mortality by 30% and helps women deliver healthier babies.
OASIS, a community-based not-for-profit medical clinic located in Oakland, is a national leader in the care of underserved patients with serious medical conditions like addictions, hepatitis C, and HIV. Its patients and peer educators are recognized statewide for their education, outreach and advocacy efforts.
---
For more information about Oasis Clinic and other organizations participating in Monday’s action in Sacramento go to the links below:
- Oasis Clinic [http://www.oasiscliniconline.org]
- C.O.R.E. Medical Clinic [http://www.coremedicalclinic.com]
- California Health Professional Student Alliance [http://www.cahpsa.org/CaHPSA/Home.html]
- Health and Human Services Network of California [http://www.hhsnetworkca.org/]
- Single Payer Now [http://www.singlepayernow.net/]
- Independent Living Services of Northern California [http://www.ilsnc.org/]
---
2011-01-13 photo by Bill Hackwell showing Medical Students for Universal Healthcare2011-01-13 photo by Bill Hackwell showing Medical Students for Universal Healthcare
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