Vera-Thank you for the summary of the slow-motion train wreck that is our school district run by progressive ideologs. Our twins somehow made it through K-12 and graduate college in two weeks. Our family all agree that if they were enrolling in kindergarten next fall it would be in private or home school--not SB Unified.
Vera Témoin - translated means Truth Witness - is a perfect name for the writer of this. Whoever you are, really, please run for office here. We need your Truth.
Cultural Marxism on full throttle in the SBUSD. Their long march through the institutions started decades ago and it's now paying dividends as they now control the public education system. Their foot soldiers are intimidating their detractors and traditionalists with the primary goal of upending our nation as we know it. Look no further than the Culture Revolution in China. It's the same playbook...the Maoist playbook. This "warfare" is playing out all over the country and it will not stop until it is forced to stop.
Yes a good synopsis of SBUSD policies and procedures. One point to realize is for every woke teacher, admin, or school counselor there 60 parents. And hundreds of grandparents, uncles, aunts and so those people are all voters. We cannot change these dyed in the wool woke government school workers, but changing parents by making them aware is a better prospect.
If parents knew their kids were being hunted by gender twisted teachers, coaches and staff, would parents just do nothing?
Or, would they react protectively and stand up for their kids, and demand a normal school environment.
Then comes the voting out of these outrageous school leaders, principals and board members. That is a way to create change. And of course voting for vouchers is also a good plan, because then parents would have a choice. Do they want their kids hunted and coerced, or do they want a decent education without all the woke drama nonsense. See more at our new education website. Coalition4liberty.com where we plan to help student and young people with financial education and literacy.
It is not clear how vouchers could possible ruin the finances of any school district. Sure, schools may find parents don’t choose the government school over a more serious academic institution. But that is not the parent’s fault. Government schools have nearly endless resources from property tax incomes, spend lavishly on administration while short changing teachers and students for instance.
Vouchers give parents a choice of schools. The district sends a check to the parent reflecting the per student cost for local education. The parent then chooses a school that best reflects that parent’s ideal choice for educating their kid. Maybe no DEI, maybe no CRT, and maybe a high reliance on core pedagogical topics like reading, writing, science, history, the arts, athletics, without all the modern nonsense. The school that offers the most popular combination of topics, wins the voucher lotto.
Public schools think they have an iron clad monopoly on education money. And thus fight any voucher encroachment into their endless piggy bank. But the school monopoly and teachers unions have created huge pension debt, massive waste and abuse of the public trust and public funds and bad educational outcomes. When there is no choice for parents, all choice goes to government bureaucrats whose first duty apparently is to ensure higher admin salaries and pension protection.
In these monopoly schools there is no over-site and no parental input. They are big, dumb and inept. And with these government inured administrators, all highly trained in government schools, comes all the DEI and CRT proselytizing that is driving so many of our youth into nihilistic despondency. So choice is the answer, and vouchers are the method.
Parents already have school choice. What happens with vouchers is that a family might get $5000 to attend a private school, which THEN raises the tuition by $5000— AND, the same govt strings such as ESSA (every student succeeds act) and WIOA (workforce innovation and opportunity act) STILL APPLY TO THE CURRICULUM. It will be a financial disaster. No one in Texas wanted the vouchers except for BUSINESS AND CORPORATE interests.
“I am a former private school teacher, a sixth-generation Texan, a graduate of K-12 public education here in Texas, and the mother of three amazing public-school children, and I oppose Senate Bill 2, legislation currently under consideration that would create publicly funded savings accounts for private schools. Though my husband makes a great living, well above the median income in Texas, we cannot afford private schools, which here in Austin would cost us around $90,000 per year. Were we to receive $10,000 per child, as proposed in SB 2, we would only be a third of the way to funding a private school tuition. Considering that 62 percent of public school students in Texas are economically disadvantaged, I am forced to wonder, Who is the real intended beneficiary of this bill?
I do not pretend to know the motivation of Jeff Yass, the billionaire libertarian who has contributed funds and pushed to get vouchers passed nationwide, including giving $12 million to our own governor in 2023 and 2024 alone. But I do know that Mr. Yass is not a Texan, and I also know that Texas is not for sale. Libertarians believe that education should be privatized. If that is the goal, can we have a bill doing that, rather than pretending the private school vouchers are about school choice or about serving students? The bill proposes a $10,000 payment per child, which I find interesting, considering that represents a 62 percent increase over the basic allotment that is currently given to each Texas student. If it costs $10,000 to educate a child, why have our schools been underfunded for years?
We know the answer to that question. We know who has refused to allow an increase in school funding, and it is our governor. Is the Texas governor’s plan to underfund education, then complain when it fails and demand privatization? We all know the system is not perfect, but that does not mean we need to slowly burn it to the ground in the guise of a voucher program.
According to Joshua Cowen, an author and a professor of education policy, for every dollar that voucher backers invest, they get about $100 in public money. That is an incredible return on their political investments. Perhaps that is the motivation: the desire to turn the second-largest public school system into a private one, where the return on those investments would be absolutely enormous.”
It costs Arizona $332M to pay for vouchers subsidizing private school tuition, homeschooling… and it EXPANDS government into these areas of education because THERE ARE STRINGS ATTACHED. Want property taxes to BALLOON? Support ESAs and vouchers. Want property taxes to be reduced? Advocate for a return to a classical, academic model of education.
“new report from the Grand Canyon Institute, a nonpartisan think tank, shows that the estimated net cost of the universal portion of Arizona’s school voucher program is $332 million in the current fiscal year — a figure that will grow to around $429 million next year.
The Grand Canyon Institute found that the net cost of the recently-expanded universal part of the ESA program is equal to about one-half of the state’s budget deficit in the 2024 fiscal year and about two-thirds of the projected deficit in 2025.
The state is facing an estimated $1.3 billion budget deficit in both those years combined, with pressure on Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs and Republican leaders in the state legislature to work together to balance them before June 30, when the 2024 fiscal year ends. “
“The voucher scheme was created in 2012 to allow special education students to attend private or parochial schools using state funding. After the Arizona Supreme Court determined that the program did not violate Arizona’s constitutional ban on directing tax dollars to religious entities, the ESA system was later expanded to include other groups like foster kids and those attending failing public schools. “
The Republicans are doing this on steroids in Texas and Trump is calling for “Universal School Choice” on a national level, which would cost billions and not fix any problems…
The Republicans are doing this on steroids in Texas and Trump is calling for “Universal School Choice” on a national level, which would cost billions and not fix any problems…
Vouchers are a complete disaster. Look at what’s happened to Arizona: Arizona's school voucher program, officially called the Empowerment Scholarship Account (ESA) program, has seen a significant increase in cost since its expansion. Initial projections estimated the cost to be around $65 million in 2024 and $125 million in 2025, but these estimates were far too low, according to the National Coalition for Public Education. The actual cost has ballooned, with projections for FY2024 reaching over $700 million, and an estimate for FY2025 of $822 million.
Vouchers are the biggest waste of taxpayer dollars imaginable
Thank you Vera, for attending and reporting on the shameful events of last nights SBUSD meeting. Clearly, it takes courage, especially for children, to stand before unhinged and hostile adults on our School Board. But wait, aren’t they our elected officials and sworn by law to represent ALL our children? No, it is clear that the agenda of the SBUSD continues to bang the drum of radicalism in support and emphasis in ESL failure, LGBTQ favoritism and continued COVID hysteria.
It should be obvious to all taxpayers and parents of students that the ESL experience is an unmitigated failure. Assimilation, English immersion and proficiency are the only solutions in providing ESL students with the best chance of success, in the classroom and job market. The disastrous consequences of our schools can be laid squarely on the open border insanity, perpetuated by the liberal establishment. The reality is, large portions of SB are becoming “Little Jalisco,” with thousands of migrants performing labor intensive jobs and serving as a “Serf” class for the rich and privileged. Mexico as our neighbor to the south, needs to no longer be viewed as a friendly neighbor, but as a hostile adversary, exporting their poor, and causing havoc in our school district, not to mention exporting criminality and massive environmental pollution in the form of the Tijuana river, flowing into San Diego. Mexico continues to be a failed, narco terrorist state.
As for continued LGBTQ activism in our schools, enough is enough. Two genders and one policy of treating ALL students fairly and equally. NO special flags, holidays or preferential treatment based on sexual preference, gender or race should be tolerated. Just today, “Newsfakers” is featuring an article, cheerleading the male Trans athlete who is unfairly competing against girls in the state track and field championship, held in Fresno this weekend. The response of the Trump administration is rightly, to keep males out of girls sports! When will the SBUSD stop violating the civil rights of our children by promoting discrimination and harassment of heterosexual children? The remedy shy of voting out the existing school board? Court injunctions and lawsuits against the SBUSD. The problem is it could bankrupt SBUSD, similar to where Carpinteria USD may find itself.
As for the continuation of COVID hysteria in our schools, follow the science, stop the fear mongering and take responsibility for disastrous outcomes related to the closure of our schools, perpetrated by a radical, lazy and selfish Teachers Union.
What do ALL these issues have in common? Follow the money folks, that should answer in part, motivation.
This country is a melting pot, where cultures are supposed to come together and celebrate bring here verse their homeland.
Great point raised that CA has been a part of America for 175 years.
And very interesting that they admitted, requested education for new arrivals in their home country’s language, and culture. That is not melting into the pot.
That’s like oil sitting on top of the water not mixing in.
So sad to see our youth being misdirected, misguided & pulled from the fabric of society. We can attribute this to the color revolution, which is still underway, but losing momentum.
It appears that they are using some of the same plays from old play books. In this case of our youth, it looks like Munchhausen by proxy. Same as create and used by Lin Biao during the Chinese Cultural Revolution of the 1960s.
Biao, a key figure in the Cultural Revolution and Mao Zedong’s designated successor, weaponized psychological warfare techniques after developing & honing those techniques vs US prisoners of war in North Korea in the 1950s. The concept of a "mind virus" (based on Munchausen by Proxy) was developed to manipulate vulnerable groups. During the 1960s Cultural Revolution, the whole of society was targeted with the goal to create a class of victims, including the youth with "homosexual inclination”. Affected individuals, along with Red Guard members were then sent to destabilize traditional Chinese culture by attacking the “Four Olds” — old ideas, culture, customs, and habits. It is estimated that Mao’s power was extended by about 10 years via the planned cultural revolution.
Fortunately for Our United States of America, the Red/White/Blue counter revolution promoted by Team Trump has taken hold and the public is awakening to the devious plans of the Globalist Cult.
It’s insane to even talk about sexuality with children, those under 18. It’s also insane to have them work for free for tech companies, which is what’s happening.
When did tolerance become endorsement? The Santa Barbara Unified School District has gone insane. You are not helping children by retarding their language skills.
NB: Administrators typically work a 12 month year; teachers typically work a 9 month year when comparing compensation packages. Teachers may also teach additional summer sessions by choice - other pay.
Automatic Prop 98 revenues in California fund both K-12 and community colleges. Collective bargaining with education unions and the locally elected school boards determines how much of our education funding gets allocated.
SBUDS -approx 3000 employees, 21 campuses, approx 13,000 students
SBCC - approx 2000 employees, 1 main campus, 2 satellite campus, approx 13,000 full time equivalent students (part time, full time, adult ed)
The author is correct. Not only in facts but the description of use of "feelings" or "I think" as justification of failure.
Mike Caston - stated English immersion was and is the path to success. Fought the good fight and won. Within 2 years Hispanic, and other groups that had academic issues rose to the top. The numbers continued to succeed and the issue of "them thar ignorant kids" was proven to be wrong. How about those apples!!!
D. Flores - continued the same policies. Guess what? The academic achievements continued and the previous gains were built upon!
Both Caston and Flores went to other School Districts. Districts of under achieving Hispanics (one next to the San Diego Mexican Border & the other in field farms valley of central Calif.) Once again proved solid values of education and not confusing students was and is the proper way.
Division based upon political power appears to be the only way for the intentionally prejudiced minorities.
We'll lose our identity? Uh teaching of language in the home, and the often specialized schools of Chinese / Japanese communities states clearly that works.
Anyone wonder why so many Asian ethnic kids succeed? Simple attention to detail and often enrollment in math / chemical basics teaching in excess what the public schools offer. Programs the Caston's and the Flores' of the world have fixed.
The issues of sexual minority and holidays is truly prejudiced indoctrination.
You have a group that emphasizes such things that are obviously not anything close to the general population. Fine, but don't pretend your personal "axe" to grind should be demanded to make the rest of us feel guilty.
The author Vera Témoin is right. Too many vote because of name recognition, or to be politically correct without understanding the long range outcomes.
Home used to be the place to learn family values, and to support kids as they managed the ever-changing challenges of life.
Unfortunately, for many kids, home has become the challenge. For not and more kids, it’s become an unsafe place that teaches destructive values (addiction, anger, immaturity, and abuse) at a time when kids need an emotional, spiritual, and relational anchor.
Somewhere along the line — maybe out of desperation to help these kids — schools replaced the role of these broken homes. Teachers, who sincerely cared about these struggling students, took on the role they were ill-equipped to take.
Maybe they should stick to teaching academics. If there is a need, be a wise caring adult and simply listen to kids. If one needs psychological support, then refer them to counseling. If there are disciplinary problems, send them to the principal’s office.
When did it become a teacher’s job to push woke ideology? Just because a segment of culture seized on this crack in the door is no reason to promote their opinions or values.
Vera-Thank you for the summary of the slow-motion train wreck that is our school district run by progressive ideologs. Our twins somehow made it through K-12 and graduate college in two weeks. Our family all agree that if they were enrolling in kindergarten next fall it would be in private or home school--not SB Unified.
Vera Témoin - translated means Truth Witness - is a perfect name for the writer of this. Whoever you are, really, please run for office here. We need your Truth.
Excellent, EXCELLENT Article!! It can be applied to many things and situations in our society now. Thanks!
Shame on the LGTQ people for belittling that woman sharing her personal emotion so story calling her a liar.
It does seem like there is very little tolerance from that group.
Cultural Marxism on full throttle in the SBUSD. Their long march through the institutions started decades ago and it's now paying dividends as they now control the public education system. Their foot soldiers are intimidating their detractors and traditionalists with the primary goal of upending our nation as we know it. Look no further than the Culture Revolution in China. It's the same playbook...the Maoist playbook. This "warfare" is playing out all over the country and it will not stop until it is forced to stop.
🎯🎯🎯🎯🎯🎯
And you are a "traditionalist"? In what way?
Yes a good synopsis of SBUSD policies and procedures. One point to realize is for every woke teacher, admin, or school counselor there 60 parents. And hundreds of grandparents, uncles, aunts and so those people are all voters. We cannot change these dyed in the wool woke government school workers, but changing parents by making them aware is a better prospect.
If parents knew their kids were being hunted by gender twisted teachers, coaches and staff, would parents just do nothing?
Or, would they react protectively and stand up for their kids, and demand a normal school environment.
Then comes the voting out of these outrageous school leaders, principals and board members. That is a way to create change. And of course voting for vouchers is also a good plan, because then parents would have a choice. Do they want their kids hunted and coerced, or do they want a decent education without all the woke drama nonsense. See more at our new education website. Coalition4liberty.com where we plan to help student and young people with financial education and literacy.
It is not clear how vouchers could possible ruin the finances of any school district. Sure, schools may find parents don’t choose the government school over a more serious academic institution. But that is not the parent’s fault. Government schools have nearly endless resources from property tax incomes, spend lavishly on administration while short changing teachers and students for instance.
Vouchers give parents a choice of schools. The district sends a check to the parent reflecting the per student cost for local education. The parent then chooses a school that best reflects that parent’s ideal choice for educating their kid. Maybe no DEI, maybe no CRT, and maybe a high reliance on core pedagogical topics like reading, writing, science, history, the arts, athletics, without all the modern nonsense. The school that offers the most popular combination of topics, wins the voucher lotto.
Public schools think they have an iron clad monopoly on education money. And thus fight any voucher encroachment into their endless piggy bank. But the school monopoly and teachers unions have created huge pension debt, massive waste and abuse of the public trust and public funds and bad educational outcomes. When there is no choice for parents, all choice goes to government bureaucrats whose first duty apparently is to ensure higher admin salaries and pension protection.
In these monopoly schools there is no over-site and no parental input. They are big, dumb and inept. And with these government inured administrators, all highly trained in government schools, comes all the DEI and CRT proselytizing that is driving so many of our youth into nihilistic despondency. So choice is the answer, and vouchers are the method.
Parents already have school choice. What happens with vouchers is that a family might get $5000 to attend a private school, which THEN raises the tuition by $5000— AND, the same govt strings such as ESSA (every student succeeds act) and WIOA (workforce innovation and opportunity act) STILL APPLY TO THE CURRICULUM. It will be a financial disaster. No one in Texas wanted the vouchers except for BUSINESS AND CORPORATE interests.
“I am a former private school teacher, a sixth-generation Texan, a graduate of K-12 public education here in Texas, and the mother of three amazing public-school children, and I oppose Senate Bill 2, legislation currently under consideration that would create publicly funded savings accounts for private schools. Though my husband makes a great living, well above the median income in Texas, we cannot afford private schools, which here in Austin would cost us around $90,000 per year. Were we to receive $10,000 per child, as proposed in SB 2, we would only be a third of the way to funding a private school tuition. Considering that 62 percent of public school students in Texas are economically disadvantaged, I am forced to wonder, Who is the real intended beneficiary of this bill?
I do not pretend to know the motivation of Jeff Yass, the billionaire libertarian who has contributed funds and pushed to get vouchers passed nationwide, including giving $12 million to our own governor in 2023 and 2024 alone. But I do know that Mr. Yass is not a Texan, and I also know that Texas is not for sale. Libertarians believe that education should be privatized. If that is the goal, can we have a bill doing that, rather than pretending the private school vouchers are about school choice or about serving students? The bill proposes a $10,000 payment per child, which I find interesting, considering that represents a 62 percent increase over the basic allotment that is currently given to each Texas student. If it costs $10,000 to educate a child, why have our schools been underfunded for years?
We know the answer to that question. We know who has refused to allow an increase in school funding, and it is our governor. Is the Texas governor’s plan to underfund education, then complain when it fails and demand privatization? We all know the system is not perfect, but that does not mean we need to slowly burn it to the ground in the guise of a voucher program.
According to Joshua Cowen, an author and a professor of education policy, for every dollar that voucher backers invest, they get about $100 in public money. That is an incredible return on their political investments. Perhaps that is the motivation: the desire to turn the second-largest public school system into a private one, where the return on those investments would be absolutely enormous.”
https://www.texasobserver.org/texas-legislature-private-schools-vouchers/
It costs Arizona $332M to pay for vouchers subsidizing private school tuition, homeschooling… and it EXPANDS government into these areas of education because THERE ARE STRINGS ATTACHED. Want property taxes to BALLOON? Support ESAs and vouchers. Want property taxes to be reduced? Advocate for a return to a classical, academic model of education.
“new report from the Grand Canyon Institute, a nonpartisan think tank, shows that the estimated net cost of the universal portion of Arizona’s school voucher program is $332 million in the current fiscal year — a figure that will grow to around $429 million next year.
The Grand Canyon Institute found that the net cost of the recently-expanded universal part of the ESA program is equal to about one-half of the state’s budget deficit in the 2024 fiscal year and about two-thirds of the projected deficit in 2025.
The state is facing an estimated $1.3 billion budget deficit in both those years combined, with pressure on Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs and Republican leaders in the state legislature to work together to balance them before June 30, when the 2024 fiscal year ends. “
“The voucher scheme was created in 2012 to allow special education students to attend private or parochial schools using state funding. After the Arizona Supreme Court determined that the program did not violate Arizona’s constitutional ban on directing tax dollars to religious entities, the ESA system was later expanded to include other groups like foster kids and those attending failing public schools. “
https://azmirror.com/2024/06/06/it-costs-arizona-332m-to-pay-for-vouchers-subsidizing-private-school-tuition-homeschooling/
Oh, and did i mention that the LGBTQ agenda will expand into private schools and any schools that take ESAs/vouchers?
Ya, billions in deficits. Thank you Democrat government for destroying my once pristine, humane California. More government is Not The Answer.
The Republicans are doing this on steroids in Texas and Trump is calling for “Universal School Choice” on a national level, which would cost billions and not fix any problems…
The Republicans are doing this on steroids in Texas and Trump is calling for “Universal School Choice” on a national level, which would cost billions and not fix any problems…
Vouchers are a complete disaster. Look at what’s happened to Arizona: Arizona's school voucher program, officially called the Empowerment Scholarship Account (ESA) program, has seen a significant increase in cost since its expansion. Initial projections estimated the cost to be around $65 million in 2024 and $125 million in 2025, but these estimates were far too low, according to the National Coalition for Public Education. The actual cost has ballooned, with projections for FY2024 reaching over $700 million, and an estimate for FY2025 of $822 million.
Vouchers are the biggest waste of taxpayer dollars imaginable
Thank you Vera, for attending and reporting on the shameful events of last nights SBUSD meeting. Clearly, it takes courage, especially for children, to stand before unhinged and hostile adults on our School Board. But wait, aren’t they our elected officials and sworn by law to represent ALL our children? No, it is clear that the agenda of the SBUSD continues to bang the drum of radicalism in support and emphasis in ESL failure, LGBTQ favoritism and continued COVID hysteria.
It should be obvious to all taxpayers and parents of students that the ESL experience is an unmitigated failure. Assimilation, English immersion and proficiency are the only solutions in providing ESL students with the best chance of success, in the classroom and job market. The disastrous consequences of our schools can be laid squarely on the open border insanity, perpetuated by the liberal establishment. The reality is, large portions of SB are becoming “Little Jalisco,” with thousands of migrants performing labor intensive jobs and serving as a “Serf” class for the rich and privileged. Mexico as our neighbor to the south, needs to no longer be viewed as a friendly neighbor, but as a hostile adversary, exporting their poor, and causing havoc in our school district, not to mention exporting criminality and massive environmental pollution in the form of the Tijuana river, flowing into San Diego. Mexico continues to be a failed, narco terrorist state.
As for continued LGBTQ activism in our schools, enough is enough. Two genders and one policy of treating ALL students fairly and equally. NO special flags, holidays or preferential treatment based on sexual preference, gender or race should be tolerated. Just today, “Newsfakers” is featuring an article, cheerleading the male Trans athlete who is unfairly competing against girls in the state track and field championship, held in Fresno this weekend. The response of the Trump administration is rightly, to keep males out of girls sports! When will the SBUSD stop violating the civil rights of our children by promoting discrimination and harassment of heterosexual children? The remedy shy of voting out the existing school board? Court injunctions and lawsuits against the SBUSD. The problem is it could bankrupt SBUSD, similar to where Carpinteria USD may find itself.
As for the continuation of COVID hysteria in our schools, follow the science, stop the fear mongering and take responsibility for disastrous outcomes related to the closure of our schools, perpetrated by a radical, lazy and selfish Teachers Union.
What do ALL these issues have in common? Follow the money folks, that should answer in part, motivation.
Vera outstanding perspective.
I found this very interesting.
This country is a melting pot, where cultures are supposed to come together and celebrate bring here verse their homeland.
Great point raised that CA has been a part of America for 175 years.
And very interesting that they admitted, requested education for new arrivals in their home country’s language, and culture. That is not melting into the pot.
That’s like oil sitting on top of the water not mixing in.
You parents of school age ones, Yank them the hell out of this sicko school district.
With a little hunting I know you can find Real parents who said long ago, "My kids are Otta
here".
There are Christian schools, private schools, neighborhood parents teaching, Hebrew schools,.
Go do it. Don't put up with this S--T They are YOUR children, stand up for truth.
So sad to see our youth being misdirected, misguided & pulled from the fabric of society. We can attribute this to the color revolution, which is still underway, but losing momentum.
It appears that they are using some of the same plays from old play books. In this case of our youth, it looks like Munchhausen by proxy. Same as create and used by Lin Biao during the Chinese Cultural Revolution of the 1960s.
Biao, a key figure in the Cultural Revolution and Mao Zedong’s designated successor, weaponized psychological warfare techniques after developing & honing those techniques vs US prisoners of war in North Korea in the 1950s. The concept of a "mind virus" (based on Munchausen by Proxy) was developed to manipulate vulnerable groups. During the 1960s Cultural Revolution, the whole of society was targeted with the goal to create a class of victims, including the youth with "homosexual inclination”. Affected individuals, along with Red Guard members were then sent to destabilize traditional Chinese culture by attacking the “Four Olds” — old ideas, culture, customs, and habits. It is estimated that Mao’s power was extended by about 10 years via the planned cultural revolution.
Fortunately for Our United States of America, the Red/White/Blue counter revolution promoted by Team Trump has taken hold and the public is awakening to the devious plans of the Globalist Cult.
It’s insane to even talk about sexuality with children, those under 18. It’s also insane to have them work for free for tech companies, which is what’s happening.
When did tolerance become endorsement? The Santa Barbara Unified School District has gone insane. You are not helping children by retarding their language skills.
Worst district, poor teacher morale, poor wages, poor student performance.
SBUSD Transparent California - full compensation packages for all district personnel:
https://transparentcalifornia.com/salaries/2023/school-districts/santa-barbara/santa-barbara-unified/#google_vignette
NB: Administrators typically work a 12 month year; teachers typically work a 9 month year when comparing compensation packages. Teachers may also teach additional summer sessions by choice - other pay.
Unbelievable, Superintendent makes over 350K a year.
Automatic Prop 98 revenues in California fund both K-12 and community colleges. Collective bargaining with education unions and the locally elected school boards determines how much of our education funding gets allocated.
SBUDS -approx 3000 employees, 21 campuses, approx 13,000 students
SBCC - approx 2000 employees, 1 main campus, 2 satellite campus, approx 13,000 full time equivalent students (part time, full time, adult ed)
Transparent California for SBCC: https://transparentcalifornia.com/salaries/2023/santa-barbara-city-college/
The author is correct. Not only in facts but the description of use of "feelings" or "I think" as justification of failure.
Mike Caston - stated English immersion was and is the path to success. Fought the good fight and won. Within 2 years Hispanic, and other groups that had academic issues rose to the top. The numbers continued to succeed and the issue of "them thar ignorant kids" was proven to be wrong. How about those apples!!!
D. Flores - continued the same policies. Guess what? The academic achievements continued and the previous gains were built upon!
Both Caston and Flores went to other School Districts. Districts of under achieving Hispanics (one next to the San Diego Mexican Border & the other in field farms valley of central Calif.) Once again proved solid values of education and not confusing students was and is the proper way.
Division based upon political power appears to be the only way for the intentionally prejudiced minorities.
We'll lose our identity? Uh teaching of language in the home, and the often specialized schools of Chinese / Japanese communities states clearly that works.
Anyone wonder why so many Asian ethnic kids succeed? Simple attention to detail and often enrollment in math / chemical basics teaching in excess what the public schools offer. Programs the Caston's and the Flores' of the world have fixed.
The issues of sexual minority and holidays is truly prejudiced indoctrination.
You have a group that emphasizes such things that are obviously not anything close to the general population. Fine, but don't pretend your personal "axe" to grind should be demanded to make the rest of us feel guilty.
The author Vera Témoin is right. Too many vote because of name recognition, or to be politically correct without understanding the long range outcomes.
Good article and to the point.
Home used to be the place to learn family values, and to support kids as they managed the ever-changing challenges of life.
Unfortunately, for many kids, home has become the challenge. For not and more kids, it’s become an unsafe place that teaches destructive values (addiction, anger, immaturity, and abuse) at a time when kids need an emotional, spiritual, and relational anchor.
Somewhere along the line — maybe out of desperation to help these kids — schools replaced the role of these broken homes. Teachers, who sincerely cared about these struggling students, took on the role they were ill-equipped to take.
Maybe they should stick to teaching academics. If there is a need, be a wise caring adult and simply listen to kids. If one needs psychological support, then refer them to counseling. If there are disciplinary problems, send them to the principal’s office.
When did it become a teacher’s job to push woke ideology? Just because a segment of culture seized on this crack in the door is no reason to promote their opinions or values.
It’s simply not their role.