Schools: March 2008 Archives

- CSUN professor Aida Metzenberg has cherished more than a decade of teaching genetic counseling, a graduate-degree program available on only 30 campuses in North America. Conniei Llanos in the Daily News.

But amid continuing budget squeezes, California State University, Northridge, is cutting the program that melds the study of genetics and medical counseling.

"I was shocked," Metzenberg said, adding that she is hopeful a donor might come forward to save the program. "I never thought this would end."

The program's elimination is the latest casualty at colleges across the Southland that have been struggling with years of financial trimming - and bracing for more if Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's $386 million proposed cut to the CSU system is approved.

Nearly three years after the Los Angeles Unified School District launched efforts to implement tougher graduation requirements, the program has been plagued by disorganization and confusion with little accountability or oversight, according to an audit obtained by the Daily News. Naush Boghossian in the Daily News.

While the "A-G Resolution" requires all students to take college-prep courses in order to graduate, a scathing internal district analysis has found that so far the voluntary rollout has been ineffective and implementation has been spotty.

And the audit warns that without significant improvements, LAUSD students are not only at risk of failing to meet college eligibility requirements but also of failing to graduate from high school.

Anne Leyden has been home schooling her three sons - now 8, 12 and 15 - since they were old enough to start learning. Barbara Correa in the Daily News.

Leyden chose home schooling not because she thinks the public schools are terrible - in fact, her husband, Bill, teaches at Pacoima Middle School - but simply because she can.

But under a recent California court ruling requiring home-schoolers to have teaching credentials, that right could become more complicated.

The computerized payroll fiasco that already cost $40million to fix massive glitches will keep on haunting the Los Angeles Unified School District for years to come. Naush Boghossian in the Daily News.

Officials say they cannot continue to maintain the network without pouring additional millions of dollars into it over at least 15 more years.

LAUSD officials would not provide a specific amount last week, but one described it as a "large number" to be covered by loans. Details are scheduled to be revealed at a school board meeting next month.

Despite all the problems caused by underpaying and overpaying teachers for more than a year, officials continue to defend the system, saying high costs are common in early years of using such a complicated network.

Julie Davine, a mother of two in West Hills, has never considered herself politically active.

But she is hopping mad and drafting a letter to Arnold Schwarzenegger - her first letter to a California governor - over proposed state budget cuts that she considers theft from resources and funding for her kids' schools. Barbara Corea in the Daily News.

"When I first heard this, I thought, `It's like robbing from the poor.' We already pay for the music teacher. We pay for a P.E. teacher.

"We have to buy pencils, markers, Kleenex, copy paper. Now the school is going to ask for more. It boggles my mind."

Complaints from parents of special-education students at Los Angeles Unified have soared by about 25percent over the past seven years as families in wealthier areas of the district have filed the lion's share of thousands of claims, the Daily News has learned. Naush Boghossian in the Daily News.

As the number of annual complaints rose to 2,302 last year, attorney fees paid to parents also have surged 146 percent, to $2.2 million, over the past several years, according to the most recent data available.

And parents on the Westside and in the San Fernando Valley account for nearly 70 percent of the complaints and payouts.

Late this week, notices will go out to thousands of teachers across California informing them that they may be out of a job in a few months - the first and clearest indication to many families of the kind of pain that California's massive budget deficit could inflict. Mike Zappler and Harrison Sheppard in the Daily News.

The layoff letters, which by law must go out by Saturday, could number in the tens of thousands, school officials warn.

Although it's possible, if not likely, that many of the warnings won't result in actual pink slips, the notices could be a flash point in the debate about how to close an $8 billion budget deficit - and what the fallout might be for California residents.

United Teachers Los Angeles announced Wednesday that it has resolved a lawsuit over Los Angeles Unified's payroll system and said the school district has agreed to pay interest to 6,700 teachers who were underpaid for six months. Naush Boghossian in the Daily News.

UTLA also said in a statement that it will call off its faculty-meeting boycotts and the district has agreed there will be no reprisals against members who boycotted faculty meetings.

"UTLA is pleased to achieve justice for our members on this issue," UTLA President A.J. Duffy said. "We look forward to putting an end to disruptions caused by the payroll debacle. We are committed to moving forward with the district to improve the payroll system and fix any backlog of problems."