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 Education experts, teachers and parents warn that unprecedented budget cuts will make the 2010 school year one of the most difficult in the past half century for California schoolchildren. How can you help your kids prepare? Orange County’s students and parents will get a hard lesson when they return to the classroom next month: What happens when more massive budget cuts hit our public schools? The county’s 28 school districts have slashed $872 million from their budgets over the last three years, a drop of one-fifth of all revenues. This fall, that means parents will most likely find their children in a larger class for a shorter school year, taught by a teacher who is being asked to do more work for lower pay. Schools won’t be cleaned as frequently, and there will be very few newtextbooks – as well as fewer counselors, librarians and adult supervisors – toprovide a community of support. However, we do live in a time of unprecedented technology, innovation and partnership. How can schools, parents and the community band together to help alleviate the effects of this severe budget crisis? • • • There is no sugar-coating the reality: The results from the budget cuts brought by the state are going to have dire effects on the 2010-2011 school year.  “We’ve had the biggest loss of resources that we’ve ever had, and we haven’t hit bottom yet,” says William Habermehl (left), Orange County’s superintendent of schools. “The tunnel is dark.”“When families get back to school in September, they are going to see cutbacks like they’ve never seen before,” adds Jo Loss, president of the California Parent Teaching Association (PTA). Today, California ranks last among the 50 states in the number of teachers and librarians per student, and 44th in per-pupil spending, notes Loss. “It’s a sad time,” she says. “There’s never been a more important time for parents and community members to speak up.” « DISTRICT DEBT Public education in California received $17 billion less in state funding than anticipated over the last two years, state education officials say, resulting in more than 20,000 teachers statewide receiving pink slips this year. To make ends meet, districts have cut summer school, increased class sizes and made cuts to art, music and sports programs, as well as the number of libraries and school nurses.  Sixteen percent of all the state’s 1,077 school districts are now on a state Department of Education watch list for fear that they may not meet their future financial obligations, including 11 in Orange County. They are: Anaheim City, Buena Park Elementary, Capistrano Unified, Centralia Elementary, Fullerton Elementary, Garden Grove Unified, Huntington Beach City Elementary, La Habra City Elementary, Saddleback Valley Unified, Santa Ana Unified and Westminster Elementary districts.“Schools on this list are now forced to make terrible decisions to cut programs and services that students need – or face bankruptcy,” says state School Superintendent Jack O’Connell. “I have grave concerns that more and more school districts will face financial crisis unless state lawmakers find solutions to the state budget crisis and provide adequate funding for our schools.” Ask any educator what one single thing a parent can do to help their children succeed in school, and they universally answer, “Get involved in your child’s life.” And that is all the more crucial, given drastic cutbacks in school, educators say. Parents need to keep tabs on their children’s progress, especially since they will be in larger classes where they might have less individualized attention.  Frank Wells, spokesman for the California Teacher’s Association (CTA), urges parents to communicate regularly with their child’s teachers and work with them on homework and other enrichment activities.“It’s the quiet ones in the middle who will suffer,” says Wells. “They might not be getting the individualized attention they otherwise would get.” Andrea Goettinger, a Fullerton middle school teacher, says that having five or six more students per class period affects her teaching in many ways, from increasing her nighttime grading load to 180 papers instead of 150, to making it harder to personally know students, to having a classroom more physically crowded with desks. “Overall, we worry that we aren’t catching everything we need to catch,” she says. “Still, we teachers will hunker down and do the best we can. We still want to be thought of as professionals.” Her advice to parents? Touch base with your children’s teachers, take advantage of the school’s online progress reports and keep tabs on your child’s schoolwork.  “My parents stayed on me, and I couldn’t do anything fun until my homework was done,” Goettinger says. “We all had desks at home, and sharpened pencils. We had a place to study, a place to read and a mom who kept on us and regularly checked our homework.” Child literacy expert Linda Clinard (right), who works with the Children & Families Commission of Orange County (CFCOC), has some concrete suggestions for parents who want to encourage younger children and early readers. Clinard’s book, “Family Time Reading Fun,” is used in the Santa Ana Unified School District’s Early Childhood Parent Education classes. “One of the most important things for parents to know is that literacy is more than reading and writing; it’s listening, speaking and thinking,” Clinard says. « PARENT PARTNERS Mom and Dad need to engage their children in conversation and to actively read with them, asking questions about a book before they start reading and then talking about it after it is finished.  Another helpful activity is “playing secretary” for your young child, says Clinard. “When children are drawing pictures and they start telling you about it, write down what they say. That helps them see the transfer into language,” she says. “And put dates on every little drawing they do, so you can see the growth over time.” Clinard also advises parents to partner with teachers. “It helps so much to let the teacher know you’re willing to help in the class or at home,” she says. Parents who want to pitch in can offer to volunteer at the schools, whether in the classroom or through a school’s PTA. And along with time, Orange County parents are also getting more sophisticated at raising cash through PTAs and nonprofit foundations to help offset budget cuts. In Irvine, where budget cuts shaved $18.9 million last year and another $20 million this year, the Irvine Public Schools Foundation (IPSF) raised $1.5 million for the school district and its 27,000 students, and spent another $1.7 million on supplemental programs, including its summer school enrichment programs, says Neda Zaengle, the foundation’s CEO. Irvine is unique in that it was one of the first nonprofits in the nation to raffle off a new home.  “The mood among parents cuts two ways,” says Zaengle (right). “It’s disheartening that education is getting hit so hard. But the other mood is, ‘Let’s rally the community and do something about it!’ The community wants to fight, whether its advocacy, writing letters to government officials or fundraising.” Jo Loss cautions that relying on private fundraising is unfair to students in less wealthy communities and that it must be repeated year after year. “We believe that schools should be appropriately funded by the state, period,” she says. “I would ask that parents recognize the need to advocate for all children and ask legislators in Sacramento to demonstrate this priority.” « GET INVOLVED That is another strong message educators have for parents who want to make a difference about budget cuts to their children’s schools: It is time to get political. While parents have thronged to individual school board meetings regarding their district’s specific cuts, fewer have taken their advocacy to the state legislature and governor’s office, which ultimately decide how much money goes to schools.  “This is not going to stop until parents really start getting upset,” says Habermehl. “They need to call their assemblyperson and start complaining, so we can change this insane circus that goes on every year. They need to reduce regulation for businesses and schools, get the economy going and make schools a top priority.” Habermehl says parents should also tell their legislators that they want schools to have more flexibility about how they can spend the dollars they do have. Last year, he notes, schools had control of how to spend just 27 percent of their state categorical monies, with the majority, 73 percent, being dictated to them. But what about parents who simply do not want to wait out the public school funding crisis? For them, private school or home schooling might be an option to consider. That was the case for Mary Lou Martinez, a stay-at-home mother from Foothill Ranch. Martinez says this year’s latest round of budget cuts was the final straw that helped her decide to home school her fourth-grade son and enroll her daughter in a private school. The second-grader is on a waiting list at Mission Hills Christian School in Rancho Santa Margarita. “It came down to the fact that 30 kids in a class is too many kids,” says Martinez. “That is very difficult for the teachers; it’s just not a good working environment. We as families have to look out for our children’s needs. The bottom line is, there’s no money. “I’m lucky enough that I have the opportunity to be able to do this with my kids,” she says. « MORE OPTIONS  Habermehl says the number of Orange County students enrolled in private schools has stayed constant, at about 10 percent, while the number who are home schooled, while still small, is growing. About 1,800 students are enrolled in the county Department of Education’s Community Home Education Program (CHEP), whose services and state standards-based curricula are available free to participating families.Some school districts – including Capistrano, Placentia-Yorba Linda and Irvine Unified – have their own home-schooling program, which enables children to still participate in activities at their neighborhood schools. Home-schooling families can also work with charter schools, private programs and credentialed tutors. Meg Ervais, site administrator of Capistrano Home Outreach Option for Student Education (CHOOSE), says that parents who are considering home schooling should keep in mind that it takes a lot of time and planning to be successful. “It’s a huge commitment. It’s a full-time job,” says Ervais. “Our families who succeed are committed to the process. This is really planning a full week. The parents put the time and effort into planning the lessons.”  Parents who want to investigate private schools in their area can get information from groups such as the California Association of Independent Schools (caisca.org) and the National Independent Private Schools Association (nipsa.org).From there, says Gordon McNeill, head of Sage Hill School in Newport Beach, parents need to investigate and visit schools individually and think about which is the best fit for their child. They should also know that many private schools offer tuition assistance to qualified families. “Parents need to ask themselves, ‘Where is my child going to shine?’” he says. “Each school is so unique. You just have to go look and know it’s a big decision.” Private schools are finding that their lower student-to-teacher ratios are a big draw for worried parents. Grace Christian Schools in Lake Forest, for example, circulated flyers at parks in the Saddleback Valley area this summer that read, “33-to-1? Is this what you want for your child? Or do you prefer 20-to-2?”  Ray Girn (right), the CEO of LePort Schools, notes that the five campuses he oversees have definitely seen increased interest. "Even in today's economy, more and more parents are finding that they can no longer live with the public school alternative,” he says. “We continue to have more parents seeking smaller class sizes, better academics and more consistent parent communication.” “Parents are beginning to recognize that’s not necessarily the greatest learning opportunity for those students,” says Karen Levin, admissions director at the Fairmont Private Schools’ Anaheim Hills campus. “The biggest difference, why people pay us money is that there is a whole team here. It’s everything parents think school should be and do for kids today.”   WAYS TO GET INVOLVED > Did you know that Orange County has more PTA members than any other California county? Go to capta.org to see how you can get involved. > For information about how nonprofit foundations can be formed to raise money for schools, go to the California Consortium of Education Foundations at cceflink.org. > Parents can get a lot of helpful information about home schooling in O.C. by going to chep.ocde.us. Learn more about the county Department of Education’s home independent-study program. > The California Association of Independent Schools is a nonprofit organization composed of 190 private schools in the state. caisca.org > School financing is complex, but parents who want to learn more about how schools are funded can go online to edsource.org. > For a comprehensive directory for private schools in Orange County, go to ocfamily.com and click on Education. BE HEARD ONLINE Living in a democracy brings with it responsibility. Take a page from your old American Government text and use your voice to convey your opinions to your elected officials. Be concise, respectful and specific about programs you want to see reinstated or those that you are most sad to see cut. Offer viable, creative solutions. > Here is a frequently updated directory of official state and local government websites and U.S. government links to city, county and state agencies. statelocalgov.net > E-mail, call or write the president, Congress or state and local government bodies based on your zip code. congress.org > Enter a California zip code to find what legislators represent what area. The site contains links to Assembly members' home pages. leginfo.ca.gov > Project Vote Smart helps you find your representatives by last name or zip code. votesmart.org 5 THINGS YOU CAN DO TODAY 1. The school year will be shorter, so be diligent with your children’s nutrition, and help keep them healthy and well-rested to alleviate absences.2. Speak up! Ask your teachers what they need the most right now, and check in with them every month, as needs will vary as the school year progresses. 3. Take you children to museums, a mission or nature preserves. Create your own family field trips on the weekends. Ask if they might get extra credit for presenting what they’ve learned. 4. Help your children at home with reading. Give them book challenges to encourage them to read as much as they can. Donate books to their school. 5. Spread the word about nonprofit organizations such as donorschoose.org, where teachers can ask for funding for a program of their own customized design. It’s a great way to see your donation dollars go directly to a specific educational cause of your choosing. • • • GREAT RESOURCES FOR YOUR KIDS • TUTORS > The Tutoring Center uses its trademark Rotational Approach to Learning, and one-on-one instruction. tutoringcenter.com > Orange County Scholastic Academy is a tutoring service dedicated to connecting students with professional, qualified, and experienced teachers. ocscholasticacademy.com > College Nannies & Tutors offers complete customized tutoring, homework help and college prep services tailored to each student's individual needs. collegenannies.com • ACADEMICS >Champion Science programs take science education beyond the classroom to spark a child’s interest in the world of science through exploration and discovery. discoverchampions.com >Orange County Math Circle brings high school-age mathematicians together to compete, teach and build problem-solving skills. ocmathcircle.org >Yak Academy specializes in making foreign language classes fun and accessible for any child. yakacademy.com • ATHLETICS >4OCKids is a great resource that connects parents to a multitude of athletic youth programs and activities. 4ockids.com >TeamOC is a training facility that offers a positive, safe and fun learning environment for children to participate in gymnastics, cheer and dance. teamocfun.com >Athletic Republic is a state-of-the-art center that gives athletes intensive, individualized, sport-specific training, so they can take their achievement to optimal levels. arocspeed.com • THEATER & DANCE >Orange County Musical Theatre is a nonprofit organization that gives O.C. youth a chance to participate in theatrical productions with industry professionals. mtoc.org >Acting Academy for Kids offers weekly and after-school workshops and camps to train for film, theater and musical theater. actingacademyforkids.com >California Conservatory of Dance is a progressive ballet and modern dance school in South Orange County. theccofdance.com • MUSIC >Virtuoso Music provides in-home music lessons, performance opportunities, and community services in all major instruments and voice. virtuosomusic.com >Yamaha Music Centers has locations in Irvine and Aliso Viejo, and is the No. 1 music education system worldwide. irvineyamaha.com >Pacific Symphony has an array of music education programs that work with public schools and provide outreach in the community. pacificsymphony.org • ART >KidsArt offers individualized art instruction to students ages 4 to adult. Media include graphite, charcoal, pastel, watercolor, acrylic, oils and more. kidsart.com >Artiste de Forte Center for Art and Design offers programs in computer and traditional art for ages 8 to adult. artistedeforte.com >Mission Art Center is a comprehensive art school designed to deepen and broaden the creative abilities of children through thoughtful, inquiry-based projects. missionartcenter.com |
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