Rowland Unified fights Districts of Choice legislation
"As public school district board members, we would like to share additional information that was not included in your "Choice for Public Schools" editorial (Our View, May 26).
"Educators also believe in choices for parents and students. That is why there are already numerous options for parental choice that exist including interdistrict permit programs, charter schools, choice among district of residence schools, and federal No Child Left Behind and related state laws. The District of Choice legislation that is due to sunset in July is an outdated policy that is no longer relevant.
"The California Department of Education conducted an evaluation of the Districts of Choice Program and concluded that given that only 3.9 percent of the 100 surveyed districts indicated an active participation in the District of Choice program, "it seems to be a small program with very limited impact. The CDE sees no significant negative consequences to the program's lapse as scheduled for July 1, 2009."
"In fact, the District of Choice provisions offer little state oversight, no financial relief for districts impacted by the program, lack of access for all families and would have unintentional consequences to schools across the state. Although the provisions in the law are designed to ensure that special education, bilingual, or other students with special needs are not discriminated against because of the costs associated with educating these students, there is not oversight to ensure that students are selected through a random and unbiased process as specified in the law. Record-keeping obligations for the district of choice are surprisingly minimal and entirely discretionary.
"The District of Choice statutes were scheduled to sunset in July. It is time to allow this poorly monitored legislation to come off the books."
Robert F. Hidalgo
President
Rowland Unified School District
Tom Selinske
President
Pasadena Unified School District
DOC offers a valuable option to parents stuck in districts whose schools are under performing or just down right bad. If it weren't for DOC my child would be stuck going to Nogales where as now he is exceling at Walnut. Maybe you should spend more time improving your schools rather than trying to dictate to parents what you believe are best for their own children. It is time to put districts on notice, we control our children's destiny...not you. I hope its renewed so more parents have that choice.
To Better-schools-4-Kids:
I enjoyed your comment. You can check out more about this on my blog, www.insidesocal.com/scauzillo. The bill passed the Assembly Education Committee and now goes to the Assembly Appropriations Committee.
What happened to the some of people dealing with these issues professionally in all the 17 years this program has been in place? What if you are told you can no longer go to work in the same office, see your best friend/co-workers, and work on your current project in 5 weeks. The not passing of this bill will devastate thousands of children and thousands of family. I don't believe that you do not care.
It seems some of your issues for Rowland are financial related. How about some more constructive suggestions that 1) Take care of the reasons why students are not staying in your school district 2) Children who are already in this program and has a life established in another school NOT in your school district. People are attracted to quality education and perhaps families and students will want to go to your SD instead when it earns some more awards and credentials.
Don't just oppose. Come up with good solutions that deal with the quality issue.