Leftists SUING California Schools: 96 Percent of Kids Can’t Read
Need more proof that the Leftist-controlled education system in America sucks?
The foxes are in charge of the hen house. Because Leftist Democrat bureaucrats and teachers’ unions now hold our education system hostage.
Things have gotten so bad, some teachers and student want justice.
Several lawyers representing teachers and students are suing California schools for their inability to teach students how to read.
“The advocacy law firm, Public Counsel, filed the lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court to demand the California Department of Education address its “literacy crisis.” The state has not followed suggestions from its own report on the problem five years ago, the lawsuit said.
“When it comes to literacy and the delivery of basic education, California is dragging down the nation,” said Public Counsel lawyer Mark Rosenbaum, who sued along with the law firm Morrison & Foerster.
Assessments found less than half of California students from third grade to fifth grade have met statewide literacy standards since 2015. Both traditional and charter schools are failing, Rosenbaum said.”
This assessment shocks most people. They believe our children are being educated.
Moreover, teachers clamor for more money, and they get it. Believe it or not, California has received more federal money for education than any other state in the U.S.
According to LAO:
California Receives More Federal Money Than Any Other State. In FFY 2012-13, California received $343 billion in federal spending.
That amount was more than any other state received and about $100 billion more than the next largest recipient of federal funds, Texas. In absolute terms, California receives the largest quantity of federal funding because it has the nation’s largest population.
So exactly where do the billions of dollars being poured into California schools go? One might think to the poorest districts.
In fact, the school districts that suffered the most in this lawsuit were those that catered to low-income families. Take a look at some of the assessments of students in California.
Last year, the schoolwide proficiency rate in reading at La Salle Elementary was 4 percent, and as many as 171 students out of the 179 tested were not proficient by state standards, the lawsuit says. One was an 11-year-old boy who tested at an early third-grade reading level when he was finishing fifth grade.
The schoolwide reading-proficiency rate was 6 percent at Van Buren, which is in the Stockton Unified School District, the third-lowest performing large district in the nation. One student there, who is now 14, read at a second-grade level when he was in seventh grade, the lawsuit says.
At Children of Promise, the reading-proficiency rate was 11 percent in the 2016-17 school year. In one classroom, teachers used an audio version of a social studies paper because students were unable to read it.
With results like these it make sense why some teachers cheat.
Recall back in 2011 when several teachers in an L.A based Charter schools used actual test questions to prep their students on their tests.
The performance of Crescendo charter schools was nothing short of remarkable — annual gains on state tests that were sometimes 10 times what other schools would consider strong progress.
Too good, perhaps, to be true.
Last year, administrators and teachers at the six schools south of downtown Los Angeles were caught cheating: using the actual test questions to prepare students for the state exams by which schools are measured.
And what of the many scandals of teachers and school faculty stealing money from the schools they work for?
In 2011 the co-founders of Ivy Academia in the west San Fernando Valley were indicted on charges of stealing $200,000. They have denied wrongdoing.
In December, the founding principal of NEW Academy Canoga Park pleaded guilty to embezzling at least $1.3 million and was sentenced to five years in state prison. Both schools remain open because of their apparent academic success and popularity.”
Still, the Department of Education spokesman Bill Ainsworth defended California schools and insisted that:
“California has one of the most ambitious programs in the nation to serve low-income students.”
Ainsworth pointed to more than $10 billion annually in extra funds for English language learners, foster children and students from low-income families. Some 228 districts will get additional support next year to help struggling schools, including the three named in the lawsuit.
Still, Of the 26 lowest-performing districts in the nation, 11 are in California, according to the lawsuit. Texas, the largest state after California, has only one district among the 26.”
Despite receiving billions, the left claim that our educational system needs more money. Well, California has the money and it hasn’t helped one bit.
Teaching is supposed to be a labor of love, but it’s far from it. Whether teachers are forging grades of students so the teachers can get their bonuses, or they are simply passing students to not have to deal with them, the sad thing is teaching today is very different than it was a few decades ago.
