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Cal State Bakersfield has already cut millions from its budget, and must make another $8.3 million for the coming year.

On Thursday the Modern Languages Department met with about 150 people to discuss the possibility that Spanish Bachelors and Masters degree programs could disappear.

CSUB would be the only campus in the CSU system that would not have a modern language program if a program cut happened, said Professor Joanne Schmidt.

It would be a big blow to lose the Heritage program, which offers education to Latino / Spanish speakers born and raised with the language, Schmidt said.

A new community action group will organize actions to publicize the situation, Schmidt said.

To date, no tenured faculty have been laid off (they voted to take a 10 percent pay cut in the form of furloughs instead of layoffs; to be clear, many lecturers have been laid off.)

CSUB President Horace Mitchell will announce budget reductions by December 1.

Recent updates: 

CSUB weighing program cuts, Oct 13

CSUB faculty question administrator numbers, Oct 12

 

Can't afford the cost of a ticket? 

Take a virtual educational theme park tour on the Wonderrotunda site. 

From the press release: Kids (ages 7-12)* can do everything from zip line through
a tropical rainforest, steer a submarine through the human digestive system,
dive the Great Barrier Reef or operate a smoothie stand!

It's not all fluffy entertainment: Information used to build different virtual tours came from the NASA website, U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the Zoological Society of London, among many sources. 

*Warning: Adults may like the tour, too.

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Damon Smothers, a local child pyschologist, filed an application to open a new charter school in the Greenfield Union School District this month. The district can vote to accept or deny the charter based on the application -- but not based on the cost to the district. Schools that are "chartered" in a school district receive state funding per student.

The New York Times published a story on Sunday about Ginn Academy, a charter school in its third year that's turning around dropout numbers in Ohio.

There's a fair degree of similarity between Smothers' plan and Ginn Academy, as you'll read...

This fall the Paramount Bard Acamemy charter school opened in Delano.

Smothers' Preparatory School for Arts and Sciences charter school would open with 160 kids in grades three to six. It would expand to K-12, and accept students from across Kern County. The school would focus on closing the achievement gap among black and Hispanic students will open in fall 2010.

Smothers currently coaches a youth football team and cheer squad.

Recent charter news: Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed Senate Bill (SB) 592 which will let between 30 to 35 charter schools “hold title,” potentially allowing them to own and control roughly $500 million in charter school facilities.

This is step toward further legislation that would give charter schools more control over their buildings, as opposed to the "chartering" district maintaining ownership of the facilities.

“The bill removes the most significant barrier to construction of charter schools by creating more options for who can hold title to charter facilities -- a city, county, county office of education, or a charter school," said said Senator Gloria Romero, Chair of the Senate Education Committee, and a candidate for State Superintendent of Schools.

There are about 800 charter schools in California. Less than 10 charters operate in Kern County.

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Latinos and Education: Explaining the Attainment Gap

It isn't because they don't try hard in school.

The biggest reason Latinos decide not to go to college is the pressure they feel to support their families financially.

9 out of 10 Hispanic students say college is important, but only about 50 percent say they'll probably go on to get a college degree, according to a new report from the Pew Hispanic Center.

A much smaller percentage (38%) of the 2,000 national survey respondents said there is an achievement gap between Latino students and whites because they don't work as hard.

Why does this matter? 

In Kern County 76,000, or 58% of all students, are Hispanic/Latino — if only half of them  consider going to college, it's not hard to image how little progress the county will make without an educated workforce in the future.

The Hispanic College Fund (HCF) runs summer seminars — one in Fresno — for Hispanic high school students to help them with gain skills to go to college.

Now the Hispanic College Fund is running a year-round effort with the online  Hispanic Youth Institute.

The organization's goal is to empower more students to go to college, enter a professional career, and give back to their communities — and a good way to do that is to push for change from from the bottom-up – starting with the students themselves.

The new online program will provide student groups with targeted PowerPoint presentations, peer-authored blog entries, expert-written articles, and helpful links to support students’ learning of each month’s theme.

Closing the achievement gap

The state Department of Education unveiled an online Resource Kit chock-full of links to resources to help families, communities, and organizations to develop partnerships with schools to narrow the academic achievement gap.

There's a lot of links to a lot of good information and studies, including Data: An Essential Tool, that includes links to reports about test data, enrollment, graduates, dropouts, course enrollments, and staffing.

The Parent/Family section is also loaded with information about parent rights, handbooks for subjects, and real-life success stories highlighting how change can happen.

“The success of our students is directly connected to the success of our state and national economy," said State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell on Wednesday with the release of the site.

"That’s why I urge businesses, faith-based organizations, parents, community groups, and others to get involved in their local schools." 

As meetings go, Monday's (Oct. 5) Kern High School District board meeting didn't raise the hair on anyone's neck. One attendee charitably described it as "mundane." 

Guess what? Sometimes the business of running schools isn't explosive, or frustrating, or even all that exciting. There was no shortage of data and specifics about education code, test scores, and data analysis, the stuff that makes the learning gears turn.

Here's last night's wrap up story: 
Sharing data on student scores among topics at KHSD meeting

About 50 Ridgeview seniors showed up for the meeting. Several noted the emphasis the district has put on graduation rates (they were there to fulfill Government class requirement)

"The grad rate is going up," said Jesse Garcia.

"The grad rate is a big deal, it didn't use to be. But they care now, and are making you do it," said Angelica Barragan.

"It helps you concentrate more," said Gabby Vasquez.

A House vote on a bill that would cut out private lenders out of the federal government college loan business. The government could save $87 billion over 10 years by not paying the lenders (think Sallie May) to handle the loans.

It was a party-line vote.

If the bill passes into law, the upshot? 

".... anticipated savings to increase grants for low-income students and boost funding for minority students." 

LA Times article: Student loans might soon get overhauled. Here's how.

 Wall Street Journal article: Bill Upends System for College Loans

Liberty High students get an unexpected early-out Thursday morning at 11:30 a.m. due to a PG&E power outage.

We knew the reduced education budget would affect classroom sizes. It was one of the biggest concerns about school budget cuts.

Panama Buena Vista recently hired classroom aides for about 50 of its primary grades (K-3) that have over 29 kids per class.

Some KHSD literacy classrooms are rumored to hover around 50 students. The district classroom size average is 37.

What are you hearing about budget cuts affecting classrooms in your district? 

-Education reporter Jeff Nachtigal, 395-7377