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Tuesday, May 22, 2012
Mayor's education report praises charter schools
by Kathleen Haley, published on August 24, 2009 at 8:26 PM
Storyline: Sacramento City Hall / Politics
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Mayor Kevin Johnson issued numerous draft recommendations Monday for improvements to Sacramento’s education system. They included evaluating schools with letter grades and setting up new educational programs and schools.
The recommendations come out of the Mayor’s Education Summit, which was held in Sacramento in March and featured education figures such as New York City Schools Chancellor Joel Klein and Michelle Rhee, chancellor of public schools in Washington, D.C. The ideas expressed in the draft white paper also include input from local educators, parents and citizens.
“What we wanted to do with the white paper is to create a dialogue,” Johnson told reporters at a press conference with state and local education leaders at Valley High School in Sacramento. He said he did not have a set timeline for implementing the recommendations.
The draft white paper includes an idea to stress accountability by rating schools with A-F letter grades. The idea comes from the grading program being used at New York City schools. “These report cards provide a mechanism through which parents and community members can make decisions and determinations for their children based on consistent, clear and objective data,” the white paper notes.
The paper points out that the community would need to analyze the idea in order to figure out how a grading system could work in Sacramento schools. The recommendation would in part start a “community conversation to develop the components of a school and district report card.”
The recommendations also address charter schools, as well as other specialized programs at schools. One of the recommendations states that the city could contact “educational management organizations that have seen success across the state and nation to open schools in Sacramento or partner in turning around low-performing schools.”
Johnson also announced at the Monday press conference that U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan will make a presentation on education in Sacramento on Sept. 3. The city will hold a town hall meeting at which Duncan will speak. Also on Sept. 3, Duncan will meet with state leaders during his trip to Sacramento, Johnson said.
Read the entire white paper here.
Photos by staff reporter Jonathan Mendick.
Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.
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Wow, this is scary. Johnson and his pro-charter friends are planning on taking over Sacramento schools. Johnson's girlfriend, Michelle Rhee, is helping Johnson use DC Mayor Fenty's script for how to take over schools. Rule #1, you have to be a strong mayor. He's laid out his plan. He's vying for our schools which is an absolutely frightening prospect. I have felt Johnson's sudden interest in city politics and his very immediate push for a strong mayor were indicitive of his desire to take over schools. That's Johnson's passion and agenda. He needs the strong mayorship to achieve this. It isn't about the city and it's needs. Johnson wants to be education king. YIKES!
For continuing the pretense that central Sacramento does not need its historic, TRULY public, comprehensive high school;
For failing to provide the central city and East Sacramento with a court-ordered comprehensive high school;
For refusing to return the Sacramento High School campus to the community that it once served, under that court order;
For underutilizing the valuable and historic resource that the Sacramento High School (the real "Sac High") campus provides;
For propping up the underperforming St. HOPE squatting on the Sac High campus;
For selling out the education of public school students for a self-serving springboard to political power and private gain;
For misuse of Federal funds, for allegations and investigations, for payoffs, for intimidating and shaming the girls who complained about sexual harassment, into silence and invisibility;
For SQUANDERING the valuable, community building resource that the real, diverse, TRULY public, historic Sacramento High School once was;
For demonizing the people who pay for Sacramento High School with their tax dollars, who have a court order and still no comprehensive high school;
For accusing those who understand the value of a diverse community educational experience, of being "elitists."
For pretending that charter schools are public schools;.
For undermining the public school system with all of the above;
For planning to privatize our public school system.
The court decided that they do. Where is it?
Is that crazy? Is a historic and traditional educational (andn community building) experience (and valuable resource, funded by taxpayers who don't get to use it) supposed to disappear and that's it?
Is the "F" failure, mentioned above, PAYBACK or punitive for the many Sacramento High School public school students and families NOT choosing the Faux "Sac High," commanded and controlled by Kevin Johnson and St. HOPE? Or do Johnson and the SCUSD really not CARE where all those students, from the second oldest high school west of the Mississippi, from the core city neighborhoods, drift away to?
Sustainability? All those kids could bike or walk or bus to the historic Sacramento High School. Where are they going now? How are they getting there?
Why is the Sacramento public being treated like this elephant in the room does not exist? How does someone who has done this to the community use it as a springboard for political office, become mayor and then claim to care about education in the community? The untold story of the treachers and staff who believed in Sacramento Charter High School and tried to work with Kevin Johnson is as vital as the untold story of the girls who were sexiually harassed and intimidated into silence.
Your comment and warning above is spot on. Sacramentans had better start paying attention to this sooner rather than later. If they are lackadaisical about privatization of public schools, it will happen without anyone asking THEM about it. Is that the community Sacramento wants to become? Michelle Rhee is a steamroller. If Kevin becomes her "strong mayor," she will not be taking polls and doing meet and greets. She will push her agenda, no questions asked, like she has in Washington, D.C..
"Michelle Rhee, is helping Johnson use DC Mayor Fenty's script for how to take over schools. Rule #1, you have to be a strong mayor. He's laid out his plan. He's vying for our schools which is an absolutely frightening prospect. I have felt Johnson's sudden interest in city politics and his very immediate push for a strong mayor were indicitive of his desire to take over schools. That's Johnson's passion and agenda. He needs the strong mayorship to achieve this. It isn't about the city and it's needs. Johnson wants to be education king. YIKES! "
Thanks for your question. The Sept. 3 town hall meeting will be held in the Tsakopoulos room at the Central Library at 828 I Street. Joaquin McPeek, Johnson's spokesman, said the city hasn't yet finalized whether the event will be open to the public.
Cheers,
Kathleen
See how much more smoothly things run when language is malleable, meaning is arbitrary and accountability is code for "more unchecked power"?
Thank you,
Nancy Sternberg
starmtn@pacbell.net