Hundreds expected to speak their 1-minute piece to State Board
A packed house is expected at the Country Board of Education coming together on Thursday for a vote on regulations for the Local Control Funding Formula for schools. Credit: iStockphoto.com
In an advocacy artillery race, groups representing school boards and district administrators on ane side and advocates for low-income children and English learners on the other are lining up hundreds of speakers for a State Board of Educational activity hearing Th on proposed Local Control Funding Formula regulations.
The import of the subject will lucifer what the State Board expects volition be a very long day, with a record audition expected to quickly reach thecapacity of the boardroom and 2 overflow rooms at the land Department of Education'southward offices on fourteenth Street in Sacramento. From in that location, information technology's the park across the street, where advocacy groups and the Association of California School Administrators and the California Schoolhouse Boards Clan have permits to set up tents.
Land Board staff are anticipating between 400 and 600 attendees, with many signing up to speak. Doors will open at half-dozen a.one thousand. for people to stand up in line and sign up to speak for the meeting, which will start at 8:30 and continue without a lunch break (lath members volition at least get sandwiches delivered to their seats).
For many parents, school lath members and community organizers – some driving all nighttime from Southern California – it will be a long distance to travel to speak for a maximum of 1 minute. To discourage repetition (good luck!), the Board is offering groups with five speakers to designate one speaker for three minutes; groups with ten speakers tin can have i speaker for 5 minutes.
Fortunately for other Californians, the hearing will be webcast.
The hearing and vote past the State Board will end vi months of intense discussions and lobbying over regulations governing how school districts must spend supplemental dollars for three groups of students entitled to them under the Local Control Funding formula: low-income children, students learning English and foster youth, who together comprise about 60 per centum of students in the state. The Lath volition also vote on a template that districts will apply in writing a three-twelvemonth spending plan, the Local Command and Accountability Plan or LCAP. It requires districts to detail how spending volition respond to eight state priorities encompassing student achievement and engagement, parent interest, career and higher readiness and implementation of the Common Core standards.
2 months ago, the school districts and administrators and advocacy groups similar Public Advocates, Education Trust-West and Children Now diverged sharply over initial drafts of the regs and the template. Just staff of the Land Lath have succeeded in narrowing differences with the release 10 days ago of the final draft. And now both sides have acknowledged improvements.
"Our coalition is pleased with what nosotros are seeing. The State Board struck a balance," said Steve Ward, the legislative annotator in charge of authorities relations for Clovis Unified and spokesman for the California School Finance Reform Coalition, whose 54 member districts have been critical of the proposed regulations and parts of the funding constabulary.
"We believe (the emergency regulations and template) take come a long mode since the November 2022 coming together in balancing flexibility with equity," said the introduction to a January. 10 letter from a coalition of xxx community and parent organizations.
At that place are remaining substantive disagreements – particularly over how much flexibility districts should accept in spending money targeted to high-needs students – that won't be settled later hours of testimony. The Lath on Thursday volition pass only emergency regulations to comply with a Legislature-imposed deadline. The Board will then begin a half dozen- to nine-month process of adopting final regulations.
Thursday's debate will serve as the prelude to the side by side round.
John Fensterwald covers country didactics policy. Contact him and follow him on Twitter @jfenster. For EdSource Today's full coverage of th eastward Local Control Funding Formula, get here.
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Source: https://edsource.org/2014/hundreds-expected-to-speak-their-1-minute-piece-to-state-board/56312
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