Free Republic

Illegal Immigration: As California issues IOUs to its citizens, another ballot proposition may be brewing to cut off benefits that are draining the state budget. From education to welfare to crime, the cupboard is bare.California is a leader in both government debt and the sanctuary city movement. But as its citizens seek shelter from the economic storm, the question has arisen anew whether its non-citizens and the better life they want takes precedence over its citizens and the better life they are entitled to. In this mother of all recessions, it's getting harder to argue that illegal aliens are here...

California voters said no, but Democratic lawmakers are pushing to do it anyhow. The issue involves billions of dollars and a ballot measure so important to schools that the California Teachers Association spent more than $7 million in a failed attempt to pass Proposition 1B. One month after the initiative died, Democrats are proposing to pay schools the same $7.9 billion that was the heart of the measure and to begin payments the same year, 2011-2012. snip- The dispute over $7.9 billion stems from complex provisions of Proposition 98, approved by voters more than two decades ago to ensure a...

Berkeley is so left-wing……that when 7th- and 8th-graders at an expensive prestigious private school are asked to design their own tiles for a permanently displayed mosaic, they draw a big hammer-and-sickle and declare as their message to the world, “Capitalism will fail.” The communist message is part of a school mosiac for the Class of 2007 at Black Pine Circle School, which has a reputation as one of the best private K-8 schools in the city. (Most of the other tiles in the mosaic are what you typically might expect from 13- and 14-year-olds: declarations of friendship and personal messages...

After listening to the debate at last week's Los Angeles school board meeting, business leader Carol Schatz said she was appalled. She had attended to support a resolution to speed the firing of teachers accused of serious crimes. But even this proposal -- tiptoeing on the margins of improving teacher quality -- generated heated objections from the teachers union and its supporters. With some last-minute amendments and sniping among board members, the resolution passed by a single vote. "I came away depressed," said Schatz, who heads the 500-member Central City Assn. of Los Angeles. "If they can barely pass something...

Lawmakers are considering new proposals from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to allow community college districts flexibility to use more part-time instructors as part of the state's massive budget-cutting efforts. The options, if adopted by districts, are meant to help campuses maintain a quality education program with less money, said H.D. Palmer, spokesman for Schwarzenegger's Finance Department. "(We want to) give community college districts greater flexibility to manage with fewer resources and try to weather this fiscal crisis as best they can," Palmer said. Schwarzenegger has targeted community colleges for about $800 million in budget cuts as the state wrestles with a...

A California school district has approved a mandatory homosexual curriculum for children as young as 5 – and parents will not be allowed to remove their children from the lessons. The mandatory program, officially titled "LGBT Lesson #9," was approved May 26 by the Alameda County Board of Education by a vote of 3-2. Students from kindergarten through fifth grade will learn about "tolerance" for the homosexual lifestyle beginning next year. The curriculum is in addition to the school's current anti-bullying program and is estimated to cost $8,000 for curriculum and training. Parents will not be given an opportunity to...

School districts across the state are slashing summer school to deal with the state financial cuts. Los Angeles Unified School District officials announced today that all summer school classes are being canceled at elementary and middle schools, and only credit recovery courses will be offered at high schools. The reductions were prompted by the district's budget deficit, which calls for $131 million in new cuts by June 30 and up to $273 million next year after voters overwhelmingly rejected a package of state ballot measures earlier this month. Once the measures failed, state legislators were left grappling with a $21.3...

SANTA CRUZ -- More than 100 students and staff from UC Santa Cruz gathered at the foot of campus Tuesday to launch a hunger strike aimed at urging administrators to reverse course on budget cuts that opponents say disproportionately affect students of color. About two dozen people, some attending the noon rally organized by the nascent Students of Color Collective, pledged not to take nourishment until a long list of demands is met. The demands include blocking cuts to the Community Studies and Latin American and Latino Studies departments, as well as hiring full-time directors for the American Indian Resource...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will direct his administration to send 5,000 layoff notices to state workers Friday, according to a source familiar with the governor's budget plan. The Republican governor plans to eliminate 5,000 workers by the end of June, ..

Students from 19 states yesterday filed a class-action lawsuit seeking hundreds of millions of dollars from California officials for charging them significantly more than illegal aliens pay to attend state-run colleges. The 42 plaintiffs say California state lawmakers and the University of California board of regents knowingly violated a federal law enacted in 1996 that says any state that offers discounted in-state tuition to its illegal aliens must provide the same lower rates to all U.S. citizens. California has a "unique" statute barring discrimination on the basis of geographic origin, said lead attorney Michael J. Brady. Some students in the...

César Chávez Elementary School 825 Shotwell Street San Francisco, CA. 94110 Voice/TTY (415) 695-5765 Fax (415) 695-5843 Email: sch603@muse.sfusd.edu Silent Language of the Soul (©1990), mural by Juana Alicia & Susan Cervantes, welcomes diversity in our school. Full image (500 K) Si Se Puede (©1996) mural by Susan Cervantes, keeps César Chávez' s struggle for justice and dignity alive. Full image (340K) Our Mission Statement César Chávez School is a community of life-long learners, achievers and activists who support self determination. We incorporate and integrate academic skills, leadership development, and cultural awareness that is relative to the reality of our...

A middle school in Southern California is spending $10,000 a year to teach Advanced Placement Spanish to 35 of its 650 students -- and all but one of them are already fluent in Spanish. Thirty-four of the kids in the AP class are from Mexico or are the children of Mexican immigrants. They all grew up speaking Spanish at home. The program -- the only one of its kind in California -- has outraged some critics who say they are concerned that the AP course wastes public resources – including taxpayer dollars – to teach native Spanish speakers how to...

Hard hit by budget cuts, the California State University system is planning to cut its enrollment by 10,000 students for the 2009-10 academic year, unless state lawmakers provide more money. “We can’t continue to admit more and more students without receiving adequate funding,” Chancellor Charles B. Reed said Monday. It would be the first time in its history that the university system turned away students who met admissions standards, and the announcement was greeted with disappointment and anger. “We have put the education system on a starvation diet, and each and every year it becomes weaker,” said Lt. Gov. John...

The president of the Pacific Justice Institute says a large percentage of California public school teachers are outraged over the California Teachers Association's support for homosexual marriage. According to Pacific Justice Institute president Brad Dacus, the CTA has funneled more than $1.2 million into the fight against California's Proposition 8. That proposition, if passed on November 4, would define marriage as between one man and one woman and amend the state constitution accordingly. Dacus also stated CTA's opposition to Prop. 8 has angered many public school teachers whose CTA membership fees have been used to fund the opposition campaign. In...

HAYWARD, Calif. -- A Quaker math instructor who was fired by Cal State East Bay after she refused on religious grounds to sign a state loyalty oath has been reinstated, university officials said Friday. Marianne Kearney-Brown, a pacifist, was concerned that signing the oath to "support and defend" the California and U.S. constitutions "against all enemies, foreign and domestic" could commit her to take up arms. She was fired Feb. 28 after she inserted the word "nonviolently" before "support and defend" and signed that version.

LOS ANGELES, March 5, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Thousands of homeschoolers in California are left in legal limbo by an appeals court ruling that homeschooling is not a legal option in the state and that a family who has homeschooled all their children for years must enrol their two youngest in state or private schools. Justice H. Walter Croskey in a written opinion said, "California courts have held that under provisions in the Education Code, parents do not have a constitutional right to homeschool their children."The sweeping February 29th ruling says that California law requires "persons between the ages of...

Measure would cut fees, guarantee funding level for community colleges. The community college measure on the Feb. 5 ballot is shaping up to be a battle royale between California's biggest teachers' unions.On one side is the California Federation of Teachers, the state's second-largest teachers' union. It has been the biggest financial backer of the campaign for Proposition 92, which would lower community college fees and set aside a percentage of the state budget for the two-year schools.On the other is the California Teachers Association, the largest teachers' group in the state, which so far has been the sole funder of...

Despite heightened attention to children's health and education issues, a greater investment needs to be made in California's 9.7 million youngsters so they're prepared to compete as adults, a study released Tuesday says. The annual California Report Card, released by Children Now, says the state has made progress in reducing drug and alcohol use, decreasing teen pregnancies and lowering mortality rates. However, the percentage of children covered by their parents' work-based health insurance is declining; while the rates of smoking, obesity, asthma and autism are on the rise, the report said. "Despite some progress, when you measure that against the...

SACRAMENTO - Voters in the eastern San Francisco Bay area suburb of Discovery Bay approved a contentious school bond in June to refurbish the city's middle school. In November, they'll face another ballot measure seeking to build a new high school. And that's not all. They also will be asked to vote on a $10.4 billion statewide education bond - part of a record public works package supported by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and legislative leaders. Altogether, the November election will mark the 19th time in four years a local or state school bond has appeared on a Contra Costa County...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vowed Wednesday to pursue some of the "good ideas" rejected by voters in last year's special election but promised that he will not revive controversial efforts to control union dues or change the state's voter-approved education funding formula. In a wide-ranging interview with The Chronicle's editorial board Wednesday, Schwarzenegger also said he did not regret stumping for President Bush in 2004, and he denied assertions that he has been inconsistent as governor and veered from a conservative agenda in 2005 to a Democratic one this year. When asked how he would describe himself, he said he was...