Carlsbad school officials worry that if voters don’t agree to a tax increase on November 6, a midyear budget reduction could lead to cutting the school year by up to three weeks. But a greater threat to local schools in the long run hangs on the outcome of the Presidential election.
Mitt Romney has announced a plan to “restore the promise of American education” by promoting choice and innovation. Titled, “A Chance for Every Child,” it signals a retreat from the goal of No Child Left Behind. A chance is not a promise. Romney’s vow to use federal funds to support school choice, rather than school improvement, will produce winners and losers. That’s a far cry from the role of public education as a springboard of equal opportunity for upward mobility.
Romney also believes school reform can be done on the cheap, evidenced by his claim class size doesn’t matter. He’s fond of quoting a 2007 McKinsey report, “How the World’s best performing school systems come out on top.” The consultants claim studies show good teachers are more important than smaller classes. To that earth-shattering discovery my response can only be, “well…duh!” [click to continue…]
Beginning in October Carlsbadians will get only Papa Doug Manchester’s (right) slant on the daily news.
Who’s Papa Doug (his preferred first name) and why should we care? The hotelier-turned-media mogul bought the North County Times [for $11.95 million]. Added to his acquisition and name change to the San Diego Union Tribune two years ago, he’s hellbent on creating a Hearst-like media empire in San Diego County.
And why should we care? He’s declared an editorial war on government employees, unions, President Obama, writers who don’t help promote the community, and anyone who walks, talks or acts like a Democrat. My last North County Times column critical of the empty boosterism of Carlsbad’s latest State of the City video would not see the light of day in a Manchester newspaper. [click to continue…]
Carlsbadians who couldn’t afford the $85-a-plate Chamber of Commerce State of the City report luncheon at the Sheraton last month were invited to a free showing of a ten-minute video at the Dove Library a few days later. Former Mayor Bud Lewis didn’t like to give or listen to long speeches, so he turned to videos to serve as the annual report to city residents. Mayor Matt Hall continued the tradition, sacrificing information for feel-good entertainment.
Sinclair Lewis would have smiled at the unbridled boosterism of Carlsbad city officials featured in this year’s State of the City video. He’d be reminded of the self-satisfied city fathers of Zenith, Babbit’s fictional Midwestern hometown. But Carlsbad residents were shortchanged if they expected to get more than a virtual pep rally from their city’s annual report. [click to continue…]
About 11,000 students are expected to head back to Carlsbad schools Wednesday, the same number as two years ago. But this year they’ll be greeted by nearly 60 fewer teachers and a school year shortened by three days. High schoolers will find their classrooms bulging with an average of 39 classmates (NCT, June 28, School Trustees adopt $77M budget).
The school district was forced to cut spending by $7 million over the last two years. It will only get worse if Gov. Jerry Brown’s tax initiative fails to pass. If that happens, school officials say, the school year may shrink by as much as three weeks.
It’s a lose/lose proposition for students: larger classes and less learning time. The ones hurt most will be those who need more individual attention. The test score achievement gap shows they’ll be from low income families, the ones already being left behind. [click to continue…]
Mark Twain once said of life’s injustices, “No good deed goes unpunished.” That came to mind when I learned of Carlsbad’s plan to outsource jobs of city workers who sacrificed pay and benefits over the last several years to help the city survive the Great Recession. Carlsbad not only survived, it prospered on the backs of those worker bees.
The city council voted Tuesday night to seek bids from contractors to outsource all parks maintenance services. A consulting firm was paid $102,000 for a report claiming contractors could save the city $1.7 to $3.68 million each year.
What’s wrong with this picture? Ninety-six percent of city residents rate parks maintenance “good” or “excellent.” But city officials are now ready to risk that level of citizen satisfaction by replacing those responsible for it with lower-paid workers hired to enhance the profitability of a private contractor.
The consultants compared Carlsbad’s yearly parks maintenance cost per-acre, half of which is currently contracted out, with that of three regional cities that outsource all landscaping services. Only one, at $5,464 per acre, was lower than Carlsbad’s $6,572. The other two spent $10,353 and $10,104. [click to continue…]
A year ago we learned Carlsbad is considering outsourcing city services, but to this date we haven’t been told why.
At a July 2011 workshop, city council members heard a presentation by Carrollton, Texas’ Director of Competition, Tom Guilfoy (“City to explore some outsourcing of government work,” NCT, 2011). He told the council his city saved at least $25 million over nine years under its Managed Competition plan.
Liking what they heard, the council directed City Manager Lisa Hildabrand to conduct an internal review to see if outsourcing could make city government more business-like.
City park landscaping work has been suggested for potential outsourcing, which added irony to Councilman Mark Packard’s warning that council members should not “let the grass grow under our feet” waiting for Carlsbad to “handle its operations the way private businesses do.” Packard is apparently not as worried about the weeds growing under his feet while he’s strolling through Aviara Park if a private contractor is maintaining it with lower paid employees.
Carrollton’s Guilfoy proudly pointed out how much money was saved by outsourcing solid waste management collection and laying off 50 city employees. Carlsbad outsourced waste collection long ago. Carrollton’s Parks and Recreation department escaped outsourcing by reducing costs of equipment replacements. [click to continue…]
No Child Left Behind and the rise of charter schools have been the primary drivers of school reform in the last decade. But while NCLB promised school accountability, it got it by labeling students and schools successes or failures based on test scores alone. It failed the promise implied by its title, to close the learning gap separating students by income and ethnicity.
California’s charter schools, on the other hand, freed of state bureaucracy and teachers unions, were meant to help left-behind students bloom by using innovative methods traditional schools could adopt. But with a few exceptions, North County charters have served mostly as havens for families not quite wealthy enough to afford private schools. Home schooling is a feature of the largest of them, a popular choice for those who’ve lost faith in traditional schools. Low income and single-parent families are left behind when parents are required to take the place of trained professionals.
Americans have loved the underdog ever since a ragtag bunch of patriots whipped a king’s army. But a darker side of our history reveals how often we label individuals who don’t fit the norm; creating the very obstacles to success we praise them for overcoming.
Newspaper opinionators can do a lot to expose the damage done by stereotyping. That’s why it was disappointing to read local columnist Thomas Arnold’s take on Carlsbad Village Academy students, (“Decision jeopardizes student safety,” May 2).
Budget cuts have forced the closure of the CVA campus next year, requiring its students to move to Carlsbad High. That spurred Arnold to suggest CHS student safety will be at risk from those who “couldn’t cut it in regular school because they got pregnant, were expelled, or have behavioral problems.”
After quoting a Carlsbad High student who’s afraid his new classmates might establish a “turf” and “start fights,” Arnold concludes, “I’d be every bit as alarmed as this 10th grader is.”
You can tell from his most recent mailer that Assemblyman Martin Garrick, R-Carlsbad, hates his job. He complains about having to work year-round in Sacramento, with little time to ask local voters what they want him to do there. Forced to accept an overblown salary while working full-time on issues that “are not priorities for the hard-working people of this state,” he can’t take a second job in the real world.
So what’s an unhappy State Assembly member to do? Survey his constituents, of course, to see if they agree he and his colleagues are overpaid, out of touch and underemployed.
Mindful of how busy we all are, Garrick boils his survey down to four simple, yes, or no questions and one “positive” or “negative” opinion. If you answer yes to the first question, lawmakers should have full-time careers and be part-time politicians, the next three are easy. Yes, you want a part-time legislature, yes, the legislature passes too many bills, and yes your representative is grossly overpaid. If you think “no” answers are acceptable, check out the answer sheet included or just Google “Congress: job ratings.” [click to continue…]
Last week Carlsbad’s city council approved an amended employment agreement with City Manager Lisa Hildabrand, effective January 1, 2012, listing her new salary at $230,000.
Communications Director Kristina Ray told me Hildabrand’s $13,000 pay hike, which became effective November 28, was based on her 2008 contract.
You could hear the buzzing of angry city worker bees in Carlsbad and Escondido when they learned their bosses were getting huge salary increases while their own pay remained frozen. Adding insult to injury, some of Carlsbad’s lowest paid workers are facing cuts in take-home pay because of an increase in what they’re required to pay into the state’s retirement system.
The salary of Carlsbad’s city manager is linked to the second highest paid city manager in the county, excluding the city of San Diego. Annual increases are limited to the rise in California’s Consumer Price Index. But additional “salary adjustments” are allowed if the price of city managers is driven up by pay increases in other cities. [click to continue…]
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Beginning in October Carlsbadians will get only Papa Doug Manchester’s (right) slant on the daily news. 
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Get Riehl: Election Day Threats to Local Schools
by Richard J. Riehl on October 1, 2012
Mitt Romney has announced a plan to “restore the promise of American education” by promoting choice and innovation. Titled, “A Chance for Every Child,” it signals a retreat from the goal of No Child Left Behind. A chance is not a promise. Romney’s vow to use federal funds to support school choice, rather than school improvement, will produce winners and losers. That’s a far cry from the role of public education as a springboard of equal opportunity for upward mobility.
Romney also believes school reform can be done on the cheap, evidenced by his claim class size doesn’t matter. He’s fond of quoting a 2007 McKinsey report, “How the World’s best performing school systems come out on top.” The consultants claim studies show good teachers are more important than smaller classes. To that earth-shattering discovery my response can only be, “well…duh!” [click to continue…]
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