Swimming in the Pensieve

Elementary school enrollment here decreased 1,731 students this year in kindergarten through fifth grade. Middle schools lost 618 students in sixth through eighth grades. High schools lost 59 students.

As a result of lower total enrollment here, the Long Beach Unified School District has alleviated overcrowding in elementary schools, which have been able to offer reduced class sizes in fourth and fifth grades, and all-day kindergarten at many schools.

The largest one-year decreases in Long Beach schools this fall occurred in kindergarten and fourth grades, both of which declined by about 6 percent. By comparison, overall enrollment declined about 2.7 percent from last year’s 95,483 students. Until elementary enrollment bottoms out, districtwide enrollment may continue to decrease. Contributing to the school enrollment change is the fact that young families with children are being priced out of the Southern California housing market. Some are buying more affordable homes elsewhere.

Article Published: Friday, November 04, 2005

It was a bold statement by parents who didn’t finish high school themselves. They never went to college, but they understood the value of a good education. My father worked two, sometimes three jobs at a time to make ends meet. But he and mom always took the time to tell us they wanted a better life for us, and that education was the key to our dreams.

With their strong encouragement I attended Cal State Long Beach. I was the first in my family to graduate from college. Now I serve as superintendent of the same public school system that gave me so much.

As educators, we must never underestimate parents’ power. When it comes to public schools, parents should be in the driver’s seat. That’s why in the Long Beach Unified School District we look to parents to assess our performance. Recently, among 17,000 local parents surveyed in our school district, more than 93 percent expressed overall satisfaction with their child’s school. Parents approved of their school leaders at an even more impressive rate of 95 percent. That’s a huge accomplishment for any school system and especially a large urban district in California, where education funding has fallen far behind the growing price tag of educating children.

[Must have been an ELB thing. We never received a survey. — Allan]

Our parents’ strong support has sustained us during these difficult financial times, inspiring us to make our schools even better. That’s why last school year our students took nearly 4,800 Advanced Placement (AP) exams, an increase of about 1,300 over the previous year. This fall, our students will fill an estimated 6,000 seats in AP courses, an increase of more than 3,000 during the past two years. These valuable courses help students earn college credit, giving them a competitive edge and saving their parents thousands of dollars on college tuition. The Class of 2005 at our high schools amassed more than $20.7 million in scholarships to reduce their college costs this fall, the highest amount in more than a decade–all this in one of the most diverse cities on the planet, where students speak 46 different languages.

We attribute our success during lean times to the fact that our Board of Education has protected classroom instruction. Unfortunately our board also has been forced by the state’s budget crisis to make difficult cuts elsewhere and to rely upon our rainy-day budget reserves.

Our reserves have dipped from $75.4 million to $33 million in five years, and we are now struggling to maintain the state-required minimum. Part of the problem is that basic per-pupil funding in our school district ranks 38th among 46 school districts in Los Angeles County, based on a state-established allocation formula that dates back to the passage of Proposition 13 in 1978.

We receive about $89 less per student than the average school district in Los Angeles County, which shortchanges our students by millions of dollars each year. The good news is that we have much to show for the limited resources we’ve received. Student achievement is growing.

Our schools continue to earn national recognition. Property values near our schools have skyrocketed. We’ve protected teachers’ job security, avoiding painful classroom layoffs. Our employees continue to pay no monthly health-care premiums.

For years we’ve invested in additional training for new and experienced teachers, which has contributed to an excellent teacher retention rate. Instead of cutting from the classroom, we’ve eliminated 66 full-time management positions since 2002, mostly through attrition.

In January, our board approved $20.9 million in cuts. Now, because of the continuing state budget crisis, we face $20 million to $30 million more in difficult cuts. The state’s delayed payment of funds guaranteed under Prop. 98, and a November ballot initiative that would give the governor broad powers to slash education spending further, threaten to undermine the excellent quality of our schools.

We’ve shown that we can get the job done. Now we need the resources to keep doing it. We must take California’s school funding crisis seriously. Plenty of parents now find themselves in the same situation that my parents faced. They’re working hard to give their children a better life. We must not deny today’s parents the same sense of hope that my parents had–the hope that drives their dreams.

Article Published: Saturday, July 16, 2005 - 7:14:56 AM PST