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The elimination of school counselors means troubled students now have no one to turn to, says Rodeo Hills Elementary teacher Marilyn Griego, shown here helping kindergartner Zeyda Romero with a math problem |
Stories by Sherry Posnick-Goodwin
Photos by Scott Buschman
Dean Colombo's voice takes on a wistful quality as he reminisces about the way things were in the John Swett Unified School District when he was a student in the 1960s and '70s. At the time, the school district was one of the three wealthiest in California.
"Anytime you wanted a field trip, it was paid for, no questions asked," recalls Colombo, now a teacher at John Swett High School. "Supplies were plentiful. Sports were fully funded. One year the district spent $200,000 to put lights on the football field, and no one thought anything about it. At the high school, there were 600 students, four full-time counselors, a full-time nurse and four full-time shop teachers. There were auto shop, metal shop, wood shop and electronics classes.
"When the marching band needed school uniforms, the district paid for them. There was a grounds crew at each school site. We had our own district bus system, and students did not have to pay to use it.
"Teacher salaries were in the upper third among school districts in the Bay Area. My father, who was a teacher in the district, didn't make a lot of money. But it was a time of stability when you didn't have to go year in and year out wondering what programs were going to be cut and who would be laid off."
The small district, which serves the diverse blue-collar communities of Rodeo, Crockett and part of Hercules in Contra Costa County, was flush with money due to a large industrial base that included a sugar factory and an oil refinery. At that time, when communities collected property tax dollars, those dollars stayed within the community. For school districts with plentiful tax dollars, times were good.
Today, the John Swett Unified School District is fighting for its very survival. Programs, staffing and services have been gutted at the district's elementary school, middle school, high school and continuation school.
The decline of the district reflects the overall decline of the California educational system.
California's schools were once the envy of the nation. The majority of schools had enough resources to provide not only the basics, but also innovative programs for all students. Even summer school — offering a variety of enrichment classes much like an expensive day camp — was free in most districts.
Perhaps the best explanation of how the Golden State's educational system came to lose its luster was broadcast on the PBS documentary "First to Worst" by John Merrow. The production sent shockwaves throughout the education community for its depiction of how the land of sunshine and opportunity traded school excellence for mediocrity.
From the 1950s through the early '70s, the majority of California's schools had a plethora of resources and programs, much like John Swett Unified. But there were significant exceptions. Schools attended by poor and minority children were often lacking in enrichment classes — and sometimes even the basics. During those times, communities with abundant property tax revenues vastly outspent poor districts when it came to education.
As the equal rights movement gained in strength, outrage continued to mount over disparities in public schools, which were viewed as the vehicle to lift the underprivileged out of poverty. Critics charged that funding should be equalized.
A 1968 decision in the Serrano v. Priest lawsuit ordered that schools be funded equally throughout the state. It had good intentions, but unintended consequences. Under the ruling, poor school districts did not receive more money, notes the "First to Worst" documentary. Rather than raising the level of schools in poor communities to the level of schools in affluent communities, schools were "equalized down." The Serrano v. Priest decision imposed a ceiling — or revenue limits — on schools, limiting spending to a few thousand dollars per student. Wealthy schools received less general-purpose money and poor schools received more. Michael Kirst, co-director of the research group Policy Analysis for California Education (PACE) and a professor at Stanford University, believes that under this system, "we wrote off adequacy and ended up with equalized mediocrity."
"This was like having a crippled arm and a good arm and making things equitable by crippling both arms," says education consultant John Mockler, former executive director of the state Board of Education. "We defined mediocrity and then insisted on it. That was the beginning of the end for public schools."
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Carquinez Middle School math teacher Meilin Duncan says schools are caught in a vicious spiral |
Today's school funding is still based on revenue limits, which are limits on the amount provided for each student based on Average Daily Attendance (ADA). There is no basic dollar amount per student; revenue limits run from $4,700 to $6,500 per student in California. How much school districts receive is based on how much they received in the 1970s plus inflation, rather than reflecting the needs districts have today.
"In Torrance, we have been penalized for our fiscal conservatism back in the 1970s," says Gary Breese, president of the Torrance Teachers Association. "We have a low base revenue limit compared to other districts because we were financially prudent then. Our revenue limit has improved over time with cost-of-living adjustments, but we are not keeping up with other districts. Torrance Unified School District sits next to Redondo Beach Unified and Manhattan Beach Unified, each of which has a base revenue limit that is $400 to $500 higher per student than Torrance."
The state doles out "equalization funding" to low-base-revenue districts as added compensation, but in Torrance that only amounted to $28 per student for 2003-04.
Revenue limit funding is "so complex and at times illogical that ordinary citizens can't comprehend it, school experts can't defend it and even district finance officials can't quite explain it," says Sacramento Bee education reporter Deb Kollars.
"Imagine you need to teach five first-graders to read. And you have $100 to spend on books. But instead of dividing evenly and spending $20 on each, you spend $35 on one, $11.50 on another, and $13, $18 and $22.50 on the other three.
"The differences have nothing to do with the children's learning abilities or the cost of books. You've just been doing it that way for so long you can't remember all the reasons why.
"That is essentially how California goes about paying for the most basic educational needs of more than $6 million public school children."
"Things started to go bad for our district after Serrano-Priest," recalls Colombo, who serves as president of the John Swett Education Association.
At the time, the district was receiving more revenue from local property taxes than other districts. To offset the property tax revenue, the state cut its funding to the district in accordance with the revenue limit formula. As local property taxes rose, state funds fell, leading to a "two steps forward, three steps back" revenue stream.
John Swett's revenue limit today, based on the 1970s formula plus an inflation adjustment, is $4,512 per student, according to the latest figures available.
Parents in nearby communities offset revenue limits with private fund raising that nets hundreds of thousands — or even millions — of dollars. But in John Swett Unified, where more than half of the students qualify for a free or reduced-price lunch and many live in housing projects, raising money is a challenge.
"It's disheartening to hear that in a wealthy community, they have an auction and raise $500,000 in one night," says math specialist Marilyn Griego, who teaches at Rodeo Hills Elementary School. "We have a spaghetti dinner and raise $700."
"If our parents could write a check for $1,500 like the parents do in Orinda or Lafayette, we would have art teachers, music teachers and all the things they have there," says Jeremy Umland at the district's elementary school. "In poor communities children suffer because parents can't pay for these things, so our children don't receive an equal, well-rounded education."
On June 6, 1978, nearly two-thirds of California's voters passed Proposition 13, reducing property taxes by about 57 percent. Property taxes on homes and commercial properties were rolled back to 1975 levels and limited to no more than 2 percent growth a year, as long as the property was not sold. When sold, the property was reassessed at 1 percent of the new market value, with a 2 percent yearly cap afterward.
Prop. 13 also made new taxes nearly impossible to pass. State and local tax increases had to be approved not just by a simple majority, but by 66.7 percent of voters.
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John Swett High School teacher Dean Colombo reminisces about how things have changed in his Contra Costa County school district since he was a student there |
School districts cut staff, eliminated programs and increased class sizes after Prop. 13 went into effect. Campuses became run-down and overcrowded. At the same time, a surge in immigration brought huge numbers of English language learners into the classroom.
On the same day that Prop. 13 was approved by voters, CTA President Barbara E. Kerr assumed the presidency of the Riverside City Teachers Association and immediately began dealing with layoffs. "Because of Prop. 13, many teachers work under conditions today that are just appalling," she says.
If nothing else, Prop. 13 will be remembered for its devastation of a once-flourishing state school system and what some have called the "Mississippification" of California. Within a few years of passage, California went from being first in school funding to worst.
Today, California no longer has the dubious distinction of being worst in per-pupil spending — but it's close to the bottom. Based on the regional cost of living, Education Week says, "California is on the low end of per-pupil spending, ranking 44th among the 50 states and the District of Columbia. Although the state increased spending by 6.4 percent in 2002 from the previous year, California still spent only $6,659 per pupil in the 2001-02 school year, which is considerably less than the national average of $7,734. Less than 1 percent of students are in districts that spend at least the national average. ... California spends 3.5 percent of its total taxable resources on education, which is below the U.S. average of 8 percent."
According to a Rand Corp. report released in January, researchers found that declining per-pupil funding, growing enrollment, relatively flat teacher salaries — the lowest among the most populous states — and large classes have hindered the state's efforts to improve public schools. The study also reported that California has the second-highest ratio of students to teachers in the country, and, despite a number of recent successful school construction bonds, many inner-city and rural schools have inadequate facilities. California has an average ratio of one counselor to 979 students at the K-12 level — the worst in the nation. Many schools in the state have a single counselor or nurse assigned to provide services to thousands of students.
Members of the John Swett Education Association say the elimination of school counselors has had a huge impact.
"There is one child who was living with grandparents because the mother was on drugs most of her life," says Griego. "He just moved back with his mom, but she's still trying to fight addictions. This child was a star at school, but now he's falling behind. He's dirty, his clothes are not clean and he's hungry. He went from a stable environment to an unreliable environment."
Another student saw his father killed in a drive-by shooting in Rodeo last year. "Just imagine what that has done to his learning and coping skills," says Griego.
"It's so sad that kids like these have no one to talk to. Teachers try, but most are just not trained to deal with these situations. These children don't go to a psychiatrist and don't have other outlets. They react by either acting out, withdrawing or just going around in a fog."
After the high school eliminated the only full-time counseling position, English teacher Addy Lundberg stepped in as a college counselor for two periods a day. She stays after school or gives up lunch to help students as best she can. She is supposed to concentrate on helping seniors plan for college and is hard-pressed to find time to help juniors.
"Students need to be thinking about college earlier," she says. "By the time many of them are seniors, it's too late."
Prop. 13 advocates called their measure a tax revolt — a way for citizens to take control from government. It was supposed to help struggling homeowners, but it opened a tax loophole that gave businesses a windfall. In another unintended consequence, it took away local control of schools.
"State officials kept districts whole by providing more state funding for schools, but in the process they also took control of the distribution of local property taxes, effectively becoming the ones in charge of school funding," notes EdSource.
School districts lost further control with the spread of categorical funding, which reduced general fund money and increased funding for special categories, such as maintenance and home-to-school transportation. California had about 50 categorical programs totaling about $10 billion in 2004. Last fall, Assembly Bill 825 consolidated more than 20 existing categorical education programs with six categorical block grants, but the new law does not give school districts much more in the way of unrestricted funds. CTA has long advocated more unrestricted funds for schools to use as they see fit.
Years ago, every school had its own groundskeeper. Now there is not a groundskeeper in the entire district. "When we want the fields mowed for soccer, the coaches have to mow them and the kids help," says Colombo. Still, the staff feels fortunate that sports have not been eliminated. Last year custodial service was cut way back, and rooms are now swept only once a week. Parents pay for their children to ride the school bus.
Teacher salaries, once among the highest in the Bay Area, are now the lowest, says Colombo. Not surprisingly, teacher turnover is high. "The quality of education here has suffered."
Once the state assumed control of funding, it sought to impose new accountability measures. But the conundrum was that, while educators are expected to improve student performance and are held responsible for doing so, "they have to function within a funding system that was created to constrain local decision making and limit the discretion of school district officials," notes Kerr.
Michael Kirst, co-director of PACE, finds it ironic that teachers are expected to increase student achievement when they have fewer resources to do so. Funding for professional development has nearly been eliminated by the state.
"The problem in California is that the underlying financial system has never been aligned with the accountability system," says Kirst. "You can sanction schools and say they have to do better, but you have to assume that schools have the capacity and resources to do better. We have an antiquated, jury-rigged, complex and inadequate finance system that has never really been aligned with standards-based reform. We have an old-fashioned finance system with a brand-new accountability system. I think it's time to step back for a minute and look at this."
"Because of budget cutbacks, classes are bigger," says Meilin Duncan, a math teacher at Carquinez Middle School. "With bigger classes, it's harder to manage the class. When it's harder to manage the class, we have less time to teach what we're supposed to teach and it's harder to stress all the standards. And if we don't bring our test scores up, we'll get penalized even more and get less money. It doesn't make any sense at all."
"A lot of my time last year was spent doing crowd control," says Tony Matthews at the middle school. "Seventh-grade core classes were increased from 25 to 35 students. That's one reason why our scores went down."
In 1984, 58 percent of California's voters approved the California State Lottery Act. During the campaign, voters were told that lottery funds would "save" public education. With 34 percent of lottery revenues required to go to public education, the lottery was supposed to provide "supplemental funding" for additional resources; however, schools are so strapped for funding that they have come to depend upon this money, which accounts for about 1.2 percent of a district's budget.
In 1988, thanks to CTA, voters passed Prop. 98, guaranteeing that schools and community colleges receive a minimum amount (approximately 40 percent) of revenue from state taxes and local property taxes.
"Prop. 98 was supposed to be a floor, but it's rapidly become a ceiling," says Kerr. Despite Prop. 98, schools have suffered $9.8 billion in cuts over the past four years.
CTA has vigorously defended Prop. 98. In 1992 and again in 1993, the governor and Legislature decided to call portions of Prop. 98 school revenues "loans" with repayment due in future years. CTA objected and sued the state.
CTA v. Gould was the biggest school funding victory ever scored against a state government.
The battle to preserve Prop. 98 continues today. Under an agreement the Education Coalition, which includes CTA, made with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger last year, schools relinquished their claim to $2 billion in Prop. 98 funds for the current year in order to help the state deal with its budget deficit. In return, the governor and legislators agreed to restore Prop. 98 guarantees and give schools their fair share of any new revenues.
Now the governor is breaking his word. He wants to suspend Prop. 98 requirements to reimburse schools for prior year shortfalls and eliminate the prohibition against midyear cuts without legislative approval. CTA and the Education Coalition have taken up battle positions.
"Our students and public schools sacrificed this year with the promise that if the economy improved, they would get their share of any additional revenues," says Kerr. "A promise is a promise. We expect the governor and the Legislature to honor that agreement. Our students are counting on it."
Matthews at Carquinez Middle School used to teach a journalism/yearbook class called Publications. Like other electives, it's history now.
"Everything is one-size-fits-all these days," he says. "There are fewer choices for students, who don't always fit into the mold you push them into. It's a shame."
The district suffers from declining enrollment, and Matthews believes the lack of electives is causing enrollment to decline further. "This has separated kids into haves and have-nots. Several kids made no bones about leaving our district and going to private school. We're losing the cream [of the crop]."
At the high school level, electives are also dwindling. Some vocational classes exist, but they are funded by money the district won in a lawsuit against a refinery that released chemicals into the atmosphere. When that runs out in a few years, the programs may end, says Colombo.
"There have been so many cutbacks," adds Griego, a math specialist at the elementary school. "We used to have wonderful music teachers, but they have cut us back to reading, writing and math."
Bond measures 47 and 55, which voters passed in 2002 and '04, have helped alleviate the worst of the facilities problems at many schools throughout the state. The bond measures, both sponsored by CTA, set aside more than $25 million to fix up deteriorating schools and build new ones to help alleviate overcrowding. While facility problems still exist, much progress has been made — or will be soon.
New schools are under construction in Southern California's most crowded areas, including Santa Ana and San Bernardino. Construction is planned or under way for 160 new schools in Los Angeles Unified School District, which is known for overcrowded, year-round, multitrack schools. When completed, most schools there will be able to end their year-round systems.
"It's going to relieve most of the overcrowding, if not all of it," says United Teachers Los Angeles President John Perez. But he worries that the new buildings could bring new costs that LAUSD will be challenged to pay for — more teachers, more counselors, more custodians, more plant managers and more school secretaries. Since ADA is unchanged, the money will have to come from the general fund.
Finding funds to pay for the staff and materials at brand-new facilities has been an issue in other districts. The newly built $9 million Calavera Hills Middle School in Carlsbad has a state-of-the-art library but almost no books because the state has slashed money for schools to spend on books. On a recent visit to the school, State Superintendent Jack O'Connell said, "The fact is, we have money coming into the cookie jar for school facilities, but not libraries."
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Many students think the overcrowding and lack of funding mean no one cares about them, says Roosevelt High biology teacher Claire Tamayose, shown here with Richard Cruz |
"We opened with 300 books on the shelves, and the library can hold about 15,000 books," says Carlsbad Unified Teachers Association President Laura Bowen. "Teachers, students and parents have expressed frustration and confusion about the situation. It sends a confusing message to students when we tell them that reading is important, yet we don't provide them with the books they need."
"We have a brand-new elementary school and we have a brand-new, beautiful, state-of-the-art library," says Jeremy Umland in John Swett Unified. "But we have no funds for a librarian. We have aides doing some work, but it's not the same as having a certificated librarian who can really train kids in how to use the library and do literature-based lessons. We need to be able to engage kids so they have a love of reading. Maybe a love of reading isn't measured in a standardized test, but it's pretty valuable."
Declining enrollment is no longer an issue that affects primarily rural communities in California. Nearly half of all school districts in the state are experiencing declining enrollment. With funding based on the number of students in attendance (ADA), enrollment drops can be devastating since operating costs stay the same.
San Francisco and Los Angeles are expecting lower enrollment, says Mary Heim, who oversees demographics for the state Department of Finance. She notes that some people have left the state because they have lost their jobs or cannot afford to buy a home here. Also, the birthrate in California has declined, and immigration has slowed.
Caught off guard after years of growth, some districts that had planned to construct new campuses have found themselves reversing course due to declining enrollment. Fresno had planned to build six new schools but has put them on hold, despite passage of a local bond measure to help pay construction costs. Other districts have closed down schools to balance the budget.
"This year we closed two schools and laid off 44 teachers," says South Tahoe Education Association President Carol Murdock. "We had to put 30 to 32 kids in classes that used to have 20 kids. But we are still expected to deliver the rigorous state curriculum and deliver high test scores."
John Swett Unified once had more than 2,400 students; today that number has dropped to about 1,845. The shrinking enrollment, combined with dwindling state funds and increased health benefits costs, has many community members and school staff working to pass a parcel tax in November. There have also been talks about mergers with other districts.
"We've tried twice before, but we have to try again," says Colombo. "We cannot depend on Sacramento to come through with solutions. We have to pass a parcel tax because we have no other options."
California still faces a $6.7 billion deficit in the coming year and perhaps a $10 billion deficit the year after that, according to the legislative analyst, despite the fact that the state has received higher than expected tax revenue. Unfortunately, what schools will receive will depend upon what the state takes in.
"The attitude of some of our leaders seems to be that we can get by with less and, if we just build up the business economy, things will be okay," says CTA President Kerr. "But they forget that it takes an educated workforce for businesses to succeed. We really need to invest in our schools."
