Monday, April 8, 2019

ABCFT - Week in Review - April 5, 2019

ABCFT - Week in Review - April 5, 2019


In case you’ve missed previous Weeks in Review, you can find all of them here: ABCTeachernews To find previous editions, just click on “Blog Archive” which is the menu on the right and click on the specific week.

(ABC Federation of Teachers)

In Unity,
ABC Federation of Teachers
For confidential emails - use your non-work email to write us at:

ABCFT Delegates Attend the 2019 CFT Convention
Part 2 (below - ABCFT Delegates with AFT President Randi Weingarten)
As promised, here is our continuing coverage of the 2019 CFT Convention where delegates not only worked diligently into the night on policy resolutions but were also treated to a Saturday night Gala celebrating the 100th year anniversary of CFT.

At the April ABCFT Site Representative meeting this week, members of the delegation had a chance to describe their experiences at the convention and what stood out to them as a highlight of the convention. Thanks to all of those who shared! You can find some of the pictures from the three day convention in this folder. We also got a creepy story from Stowers site rep, Hector Ruiz braved some of the creepiness of the Millennium Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles in his room 666. You can find his story here.

Resolutions passed guiding CFT policy  
This year, delegates passed sixteen resolutions to guide the union in the coming year.
Delegates passed resolutions on charter school accountability, limiting standardized tests, opposing privatization, supporting part-time faculty, increasing school funding, and supporting the Green New Deal, among others.

CFT Convention celebrates the 100th Anniversary with a Gala.
Throughout the weekend we celebrated CFT’s 100th year anniversary, recognizing the incredible activism, dedication, and success of generations of educators and classified professionals who worked tirelessly over a century for our students, our schools, and our professions. ABCFT delegates not only made their presence felt on the convention floor during debates over resolutions but also on the dance floor during the Gala centennial celebration.  

The highlight of the celebration was the 100-year anniversary gala event on Saturday night, where retiring CFT President Josh Pechthalt was recognized at the gala with CFT’s highest honor, the Ben Rust Award, for his bold and successful leadership of the union. “Thanks to all of the delegates, leaders, guests, and staff who worked so hard to make sure the 2019 CFT Convention was a success,” says CFT President Josh Pechthalt. “The energy and enthusiasm on display this  weekend underscore the pride and dedication that our members continue to bring to the union and to protecting our schools, colleges, and universities.”

Look for full Convention coverage in the next issue of California Teacher, including a detailed overview of the policy positions approved at the Convention. In the meantime, please check out some great photos from the event, here and here.

ABCFT - MEET A MEMBER
The ABCFT YOUnion is made up of 1,100 great teachers and medical professionals and each one of us has a story to tell. Each week we will highlight a member of ABCFT.

Meet Michael Hartshorn an English teacher for thirteen years at Artesia High School. He spent the first three years of his career at another district. Working for that district taught Michael how lucky he is to be at ABC.
If you could give ”first-year teacher you” advice what would it be?
Don't work yourself into the ground; neither you nor your students will benefit.
How did you get involved with the union?
The most significant reason was to support my fellow teachers.  Once I got involved, the most surprising thing I discovered was how many teachers work tirelessly behind the scenes to support ABCFT members.
Describe a day in the life of being a Rep at your site.
I am Membership VP and also in charge of the ABCFT’s election campaigns for school board races.
What is your favorite movie/show, song, or book?
LOST
Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter...MySpace?
Although I do have Instant Grammar and Snapple Chatter accounts, I hardly ever log in much to the chagrin of my partner who likes to send me cute videos of animals and filters.
What do you do for fun?
I got into motorcycling a few years ago.  Most week(s) long vacations are spent riding hundreds of miles a day on desert highways and country roads.
Do you have a bucket list?
I would like to visit all seven continents, get my pilot’s license, and ride Route 66 end-to-end on my motorcycle.
If you could have a superpower what would it be?
Mind control  Wonder who’s mind Michael would want to control first??
Thank you, Michael, for sharing your story with the ABCFT community.

If you’d like to be featured in the Meet a Member

Get Connected! #ABCFTeachers PLN
by Susie Gomez
Our guest writer, Susie Gomez from Fedde and her colleague from Willow, Angela Barnett have been getting so much positive feedback about their CUE experience that they have started the hashtag #ABCFTeachers so that ABC teachers can share their innovative lesson plans, projects, activities,  and resources. Here’s Susie’s latest post for the Review:

Connecting with other teachers is one of the best forms of professional development. Angela Barnett (Willow ES) and I (Fedde MS)  are excited to build a professional learning network (PLN) among our own teachers in ABCUSD. Below you will find steps on getting started. We have also provided a link to a Google form where we will collect information to create opportunities for collaboration and help you find #ABCFTeachers in your grade level and subject area.
We look forward to sharing ideas and creating a space where we can learn from each other.
#ABCFTeachers Google Form: https://forms.gle/zQcbwRpzCgEdKLUU8


Mental Health In Education
From time to time we like to highlight important research, stories, or supports that are circulating about mental health issues. ABCFT is focused on the impact of mental health and its impact on our students and the community we serve. The seriousness of mental health issues in America is a new reality and having a common understanding of the problem is key for how we will work together to find solutions that will support the students in our classrooms. ABCFT is working in collaboration with ABC mental health professionals, teachers, school board members, administrators, and the PTA in hopes of finding supports that are meaningful for all stakeholders.


Here is an article about mental health in  Pennsylvania New study pushes Pa. to embrace trauma-informed education
Research suggests that about half of the county’s children experience at least one traumatic event before the age of 17. These adverse childhood experiences — known as ACES — include experiencing or witnessing violence; living in poverty; or having a parent go to jail. Even as school districts across the country become more aware of how these traumas can affect learning, there’s been little concrete policy on the state or federal level for how schools should prepare.

A new study from the nonprofit Research for Action highlights “promising models” nationwide and calls on state lawmakers to implement a comprehensive approach in Pennsylvania. “There are two areas where the research is extremely clear. Childhood trauma is an extremely common experience, and traumatic stress can have a wide range of negative consequences for children,” said Rachel Comly, a senior analyst at Research for Action. The study recommends that schools provide professional development that reflects the complexity and sensitivity of trauma.

The research that this article came from a research paper entitled Trauma-Informed Schools in Pennsylvania: Aligning Expansion with High-Quality Implementation


Women and the Lifetime Wage Gap: How Many Woman Years Does it Take to Equal 40 Man Years?



(From their website) Women who work full time, year-round in the U.S. are typically paid just 80 cents for every dollar paid to their male counterparts, which translates into a loss of $10,169 in median earnings every year. What does that mean over a lifetime?
A 20-year old woman just starting full time, year-round work today stands to lose $406,760 over a 40-year career compared to her male counterpart. And when her male counterpart retires at age 60 after 40 years of work, she would have to work nearly 10 additional years – until almost age 70, which is past Social Security’s full retirement age – to close this lifetime wage gap.
The situation is even worse when looking at how some women of color fare compared to white, non-Hispanic men. Over a 40-year career, Black women typically lose $946,120, Native women typically lose $977,720, and Latinas typically lose more than $1.1 million compared to white, non-Hispanic men. In order to close these lifetime wage gaps, Black women would have to work nearly 26 years longer than the white, non-Hispanic man retiring at age 60, Native women would have to work nearly 30 years longer, and Latinas would have to work more than 35 years longer. In other words, Black, Native, and Latina women must work well into their 80s or 90s to catch up to what a white, non-Hispanic man made by age 60, delaying their retirement even beyond their life expectancy.
And depending on the state in which she lives, some women of color must work past age 100 in order to catch up to white, non-Hispanic men.5 Women and their families cannot afford to lose hundreds of thousands of dollars to the wage gap, and no woman should have to work until she dies in order to close it. It’s well past time to close the wage gap.



School of Choice Update by Ray Gaer
The next School of Choice Committee meeting is on April 11th. The previous three updates can be found here when you click this link. You can expect to see a new report the following week. If you have any questions please write to me at abcft@abcusd.us.




APRIL ABCFT ACADEMIC SERVICES UPDATE
Each month Connie Nam and Rich Saldana work with Beth Bray and Carol Castro to provide teacher input about professional development, curriculum changes and testing changes. ABCFT believes that the biggest working condition impacting teachers are the key curriculum and the professional development being churned out of academic services. Many times the district is implementing changes that are coming from the State of California but rarely do unions get involved in those changes. ABCFT believes that teacher's voice helps to provide the district office with classroom advice and input that helps to deliver better comprehensive changes.  Each month at the ABCFT Representative Council Rich and Connie give reports and take questions on all things related to academic services. Here is the report for the month of April.

____________________________________________


PRESIDENT’S REPORT - Ray Gaer
Each week I work with unit members in representations, contract resolutions, email/text/phone call questions, site concerns, site visits, presentations,  state/national representations and mediations. Here are some of the highlights of interest.


I’ll be honest, at this point of the year as we crawl to Spring Break I’m treading water and counting the days in April. This year has been a long wait for Spring Break but we are almost there. It was a similar calendar year fifteen years ago when I was a fill-in negotiator for the calendar and I moved the Spring Break to the third quarter. It was the biggest negotiating mistake ever and it is where I learned that I needed to listen to ninety-nine percent of the time before I do anything. That year was a growth experience and I took heat from every employee in ABC including Superintendent Gary Smuts who began calling me “the bunny killer” every time we presented together.  Those of you that were around for that debacle remember that the following year we were back to following the lunar calendar for Spring Break, but I never forgot the lesson of when to listen.

I’m bringing this experience up because many of you filled out the calendar survey this year and I want to tell you thanks for your input. The ABCFT calendar survey actually gets more responses than a ratification vote for a pay raise. That’s just testament of how important time is to all of us. Without your guidance on the calendar or on any surveys, we are lost to what your needs and concerns are on any situation. A survey is your voice and in ABC your voice is meaningful. I know sometimes it feels like we do nothing but fill out surveys for the district and the union but I want to reassure you that any survey you complete is purposeful and it provides a guiding voice to every decision that impacts your classrooms and nurses offices.

I was at the district office a couple of weeks ago and whenever I’m there I try to see what trainings are being held in the back conference area. At this particular meeting, it was a science adoption textbook committee where elementary teachers and secondary science teachers from across the district were analyzing and exploring the textbooks that were up for consideration. In ABC, being a part of a book adoption is just “what we do”, but you should know that in most districts the decisions on what books are going to be used happen in a small room with a couple of district administrators. Being a part of a textbook adoption is about having a voice. Being a part of developing the pacing guide creation for social studies is about having a voice. It’s what we do in ABC.

My point is that your voice and your opinions matter. You are the experts in the classroom and in most cases, you know what is best for your students. The next time you are in a meeting at the district, at your school site, in your department, or with your grade level team remember, you are exercising your voice and it matters. Stay vigilant to make sure you maintain your voice and keep filling out those surveys and giving people the feedback they need to improve. Your voice makes a difference.

In closing, just know that 80% of all teachers, nurses and SLPs like Spring Break the way it is so you have nothing to fear from the “bunny killer.” He heard you loud and clear.

In Unity,

Ray Gaer
President, ABCFT

CALIFORNIA FEDERATION OF TEACHERS

Jeff Freitas and Luukia Smith elected as CFT’s next leaders

At the Convention, delegates elected new CFT officers, division council leaders, and vice presidents. CFT Secretary Treasurer Jeff Freitas was elected as CFT’s new President, and Council of Classified Employees President Luukia Smith was elected CFT’s new Secretary Treasurer.
“Our top priority must be investing in California’s public education — drawing on the strength of our world-class economy to rescue our state from its current embarrassing place among the lowest in per-pupil spending in all of the United States,” says Freitas “We will continue to fight boldly for increased education funding — not only because California should lead the nation in per-pupil funding, but because it is the right thing to do for the children of this state and the society they will shape.”
Making history, Luukia Smith becomes the first classified member of CFT to assume a top leadership position in the organization. Together, she and Jeff are also the first LGBTQ leaders elected to each of the top two positions in the union.
“I am honored to earn the support and trust of my fellow members and am proud to become the first classified professional elected to a top leadership position in the CFT,” says Smith. “Classified professionals are the backbone of our schools and colleges, and I will work hard to ensure that all CFT members receive the respect, pay, and voice at work they deserve.”
CFT delegates also elected the following leaders as presidents of the union’s division councils:
  • Council of Classified Employees – Carl Williams
  • EC/TK-12 Council – Rico Tamayo
  • Community College Council – Jim Mahler
  • Council of Retired Members – John Perez
All elected officers and leaders will assume their new positions on May 24, 2019.
The latest CFT articles and news stories can be found here on the PreK12 news feed on the CFT.org website.

AMERICAN FEDERATION OF TEACHERS

AFT Stands with Congressional Efforts to Protect Americans’ Healthcare
WASHINGTON—AFT President Randi Weingarten issued the following statement in response to the introduction of H. Res. 271, a resolution condemning the Trump administration’s campaign to take away Americans’ healthcare.
“President Trump’s first decision after Robert Mueller issued his report was to try to end-run Congress and use the courts to strip healthcare from 133 million people with pre-existing conditions. Why would a president put the lives of the very people who voted for him—the very people he promised to protect—in clear and immediate danger?
“This attempt to strip people of healthcare would be a craven act at any time, but done now, as soon as the president believed he had averted criminal prosecution, smacks of vengeance.
“The facts are grim: Most Americans say they couldn’t afford a health emergency that costs more than $400. While most First-World countries have managed to offer people basic healthcare as a human right, in the U.S.—the wealthiest country in the world—many educators, nurses, public employees and graduate assistants live one illness or one pre-existing condition away from bankruptcy.
“That’s why this move to make healthcare more expensive—or completely inaccessible—is so cruel and callous. This does not reflect our values, it won’t help Americans to have a better life, and it certainly won’t make America great.
“Thankfully, Democrats in Congress are fighting back, first by condemning the president’s assault on the healthcare law, and second by working to strengthen and improve the way people access care for their families. Americans expect their elected officials to help solve these problems, not make them worse. That’s why they elected so many Democrats last November, and that’s what they’re focusing on now as they look ahead to 2020.”


Follow AFT President Randi Weingarten: http://twitter.com/rweingarten


----- NEWS STORY HIGHLIGHT-----

Elk Grove teacher elected CTA President
Elk Grove teacher Terry Boyd, an educator for 23 years, has been elected as President of the California Teachers Association (CTA). He will lead the 325,000-strong CTA for the next two years.

CTA Elects Toby Boyd as President, David Goldberg as Vice President and Leslie Littman as Secretary-Treasurer

New slate of officers to take new positions in June

Contact:
LOS ANGELES –Toby Boyd, a member of the 24-leader Board of Directors, was elected to a two-year term as president of the 325,000-member California Teachers Association during the quarterly meeting of the State Council of Education in Los Angeles. CTA Secretary-Treasurer David Goldberg was elected Vice President.  Leslie Littman, also a member of the CTA Board of Directors, was elected Secretary-Treasurer. Their terms begin at the end of June.

----- NATIONAL NEWS -----

Legality of school's dress code challenged
Charter Day School in Leland, in North Carolina has been ordered to cease enforcing its rule for female students to wear skirts. While no student has been expelled for any such violations at the school, which opened in 2000, U.S. District Judge Malcolm Howard last week said that the conservative dress code violated constitutional protections for equal treatment and the skirts-only rule treated female students differently than male students.
Calls for DeVos to resign over discipline research
Rep. Katherine Clark (D-MA) has called for the resignation of Betsy DeVos, alleging that the Secretary of Education used "racist research" as justification for rescinding school discipline guidance. While Liz Hill, press secretary for the Department of Education, dismissed the criticism as "political opportunism at its worst," Rep. Clark said: "What she did was roll back Obama-era protections for children of color who we know are disciplined at far greater rates than their white peers," adding: "And she backed it up with research that says this isn't because of institutional racism but because of who these children are. They come to school with behavioral problems and they import them into the classrooms." The research was published in the Journal of Criminal Justice by John Paul Wright, a professor at the School of Criminal Justice at the University of Cincinnati, and others, who were not aware that DeVos used his research to bolster the decision to rescind the discipline guidance.

Most applicants for student loan forgiveness program rejected
Fewer than 300 from among tens of thousands of public servants who applied to have their federal student loans forgiven through a temporary relief program run by the U.S. Department of Education have been accepted. It has been about a year since the Department launched a temporary expansion of the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, the goal of which was to give public servants enrolled in the wrong repayment plan another shot at having the balance of their debt erased after 10 years of on-time payments, but Democrats say a litany of rules is stopping access. Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) complained: “We authorized $700m to help ensure public servants, including firefighters, teachers, and nurses, receive the loan forgiveness they have earned, and it’s maddening that the Trump Administration is letting it go to waste.”
Lawmakers reappraise sexual assault responses
Congress' work to reauthorize the Higher Education Act could derail Betsy DeVos' attempts to finalize rules regarding Title IX and campus sexual assault. At issue are rules proposed by the Secretary of Education that largely re-establish policies that existed prior to 2011, when, in response to reports of widespread campus assault, the Obama administration issued a non-binding "dear colleague" letter reminding schools of their obligation to investigate reports of sexual assault and outlining how they should do so. Sen. Lamar Alexander, the Republican who chairs the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, bemoaning a "conflicting and overlapping" raft of federal, state and institution-specific policies on campus sexual assault, said ahead of Tuesday's meeting: "The purpose of today's hearing is to hear how we can create more certainty in how colleges and universities should appropriately and fairly respond to allegations of sexual assault."

Most applicants for student loan forgiveness program rejected
Fewer than 300 from among tens of thousands of public servants who applied to have their federal student loans forgiven through a temporary relief program run by the U.S. Department of Education have been accepted. It has been about a year since the Department launched a temporary expansion of the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, the goal of which was to give public servants enrolled in the wrong repayment plan another shot at having the balance of their debt erased after 10 years of on-time payments, but Democrats say a litany of rules is stopping access. Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) complained: “We authorized $700m to help ensure public servants, including firefighters, teachers, and nurses, receive the loan forgiveness they have earned, and it’s maddening that the Trump Administration is letting it go to waste.”

----- STATE NEWS -----


Gov. Newsom appoints high school student to State Board of Education
A 16-year-old Eastlake High School student has been named to the State Board of Education, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office reported on Friday. Once confirmed, Brenna Pangelinan will take over the board’s lone sitting student representative, replacing Oakland high school student Gema Cardenas when her year-long term ends on July 31st. Last year, Ms Pangelinan was a student member on the Sweetwater Union High School District school board and also served as the athletics commissioner on the Eastlake High School Associated Student Body. She is also the founder of Eastlake High School’s Mental Health Task Force.





----- DISTRICTS -----
Sac City teacher union announces one-day strike
The Sacramento City Teachers Association has scheduled a one-day strike for April 11th, in response to failed mediation attempts last Thursday with Sacramento City USD. The union said it had identified 30 violations to a collective bargaining agreement, including using money earmarked for lowering class sizes and improving student services to instead pay for administrative salaries. SCTA President David Fisher said “We want them to honor the promises they made to students by honoring our contract, meet with us and the fiscal adviser, and obey the law.” In response, the district called the action “unnecessary,” adding that it “will only hurt students, families and employees by putting the district on the fast track to a state takeover.” The strike will affect more than 40,000 students in the school district, the 13th largest in the state.

Sacramento schools seek emergency replacement teachers ahead of a potential strike
Sacramento City USD is briefing emergency replacement teachers as a potential teacher strike looms. Three employee orientation and onboarding sessions were held Friday for potential replacement teachers. Those in attendance Friday received $200 for the two-hour session and would receive up to $500 per day as a replacement teacher. The Sacramento City Teachers Association (SCTA) voted earlier this month to authorize a strike. No strike date has been set. SCTA President David Fisher said his union has called for an emergency meeting Tuesday to discuss what steps they might take next.

Sacramento City teachers prepare to strike
Teachers across Sacramento City USD are set to go on strike for one day on April 11, with the district calling on emergency substitute teachers to help at SCUSD's 75 schools in preparation. The strike centers on a dispute regarding staff health plan savings, with the teachers' union and district each blaming eachother for the failure of an agreement to make staff health plan changes to fund student spending last year. SCUSD faces a state takeover if it does not tackle its $35m budget deficit by the end of June.

Pajaro Valley drops drug detection dog program
Pajaro Valley USD is bringing an end to a drug-detection dog program, amid concerns about a low accuracy rate, privacy, and potential embarrassment, disruption and bias. The 20,000 student-strong district has used drug-detecting dogs to search school campuses 21 times since August 2018; however, evidence of narcotics was found just 20 of the 70 times the dogs alerted their handlers during the searches, an accuracy rate of around 29%.


----- HEALTH & WELLBEING -----
California public health officials issue measles warning
Public health officials in California are worried about a rise in reported measles cases in the state, amid a growing anti-vaccination movement. Dr. James Watt, who heads the California Department of Public Health’s division of communicable disease control, said: “There are specific communities that have lower coverage. We see that in our school data. There are some schools that have lower percentage of children who’ve received all their immunization. Those are the places we’re really most concerned about.” There have been 16 confirmed cases of measles reported in California so far this year, according to the CDPH.

Pajaro Valley drops drug detection dog program
Pajaro Valley USD is bringing an end to a drug-detection dog program, amid concerns about a low accuracy rate, privacy, and potential embarrassment, disruption and bias. The 20,000 student-strong district has used drug-detecting dogs to search school campuses 21 times since August 2018; however, evidence of narcotics was found just 20 of the 70 times the dogs alerted their handlers during the searches, an accuracy rate of around 29%.

How the Nipsey Hussle shooting has affected students at local schools
The Los Angeles Times looks at how the fatal shooting of Nipsey Hussle last Sunday has affected students in Crenshaw High School, less than a mile away from where he was murdered, at his Marathon Clothing Store. It notes how firmly Mr Hussle was embedded in the community, donating resources and speaking alongside high school students on panels about growing up in the area and the influence of gang culture. One Crenshaw student said: “Everyone was just talking about, 'I have you, I got you, my love is here for you'...It was just so refreshing to see that in the wake of tragedy that we can have that bond with each other.” Nevertheless, attendance on Tuesday was down about three percentage points on the prior week, while Los Angeles USD officials took the precaution of deploying mental health teams to campuses to provide support and counseling for students.

-----LEGAL -----

Alhambra settles student journalism lawsuit
Jennifer Kim, a student media adviser and former Alhambra USD publicist, has settled a lawsuit in which she alleged she was retaliated against for the work of her journalism students. For three months in 2015, Kim’s journalism students, motivated by the dismissal of a popular teacher, produced work highly critical of the AUSD, covering such topics as censorship, threats, bullying, abuse of power and transparency, according to the lawsuit. Ms Kim says she began experiencing a difficult work environment because of her support for her students, before seeing the students’ news website closed and its archives deleted.

-----CHARTER SCHOOLS -----

Charter school enrollment on the rise
Enrollment in charter schools is on the rise while overall enrollment in schools across the state has decreased in the last 4 years, according to statistics published by the Department for Education. The data indicate that enrollment in charter schools increased from 9.2% in 2014-15 to 10.6% in 2018-19. Whilst the population of Latinx students enrolled in charter schools has also increased, the data shows that a smaller proportion of English learner students and other disadvantaged subgroups are represented in the charter school population than in public schools.

Catskill campus-sharing arrangement inflames tensions
Almost 100 parents, teachers, students and community members gathered last week to protest Los Angeles USD’s plans to offer a portion of Catskill Avenue Elementary School to the newly-formed Ganas Academy Charter School in the fall. “Co-locating will just deplete resources from the existing campus,” said Albert Ramirez of L.A. Alliance for a New Economy and Reclaim Our Schools L.A, who also said that sharing sites creates “segregated schools with different bell schedules. It’s just very problematic.” The co-location arrangement is allowed under California’s Proposition 39, which voters passed in 2000. It requires school districts to offer equitable and adequate unused public space to area charter schools. While co-sharing has been implemented at other LAUSD campuses, it is relatively new in the Harbor Area and southern part of the district territory.
This the narrative public schools are facing.
Coachella Valley charter schools outperform localities on test scores
A trio of Coachella Valley charter schools are reported to have outperformed other schools on state tests. In 2018, 58% of students at Palm Desert Charter Middle School met or exceeded standards based on the English language arts test results for the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress, ahead of the 48% recorded for Desert Sands USD overall. At Washington Charter, 75% met or exceeded standards, while at Cielo Vista Charter, 65% of students met or exceeded English language arts standards, compared with about 40% overall at Palm Springs USD.

----- SOCIAL & COMMUNITY -----

Santa Cruz County addresses youth homelessness
The Community Action Board of Santa Cruz County is to see its funding for a Youth Homeless Response Team more than triple, from $150,000 to over $570,000, thanks to additional backing from the state Homeless Emergency Aid Program. A youth and young adult host-housing program, run by the Santa Clara-based Bill Wilson Center, will increase from $200,000 to a total of $258,300. The program, offering six months of independent living with case management, support and referrals, prioritizes pregnant/parenting youth, LGBTQ youth and youth from communities of color.

----- HIGHER EDUCATION -----

Report Slams Online For-Profit Colleges
Online for-profit colleges are creating unsustainable student debt burdens, according to a new report by the Brookings Institution, which has warned that for-profits are now "eating into the pocketbooks of taxpayers" since the programs are largely funded by Title IV and GI Bill student aid. “For-profits enrolled 22% of all online undergraduate students and 27% of all online graduate students, despite enrolling only 5.4% of all undergraduates and 8.9% of all graduates,” say the authors, who also faulted the Department of Education and state regulators for failing to ensure students are protected.

Higher Ed Committee hears community college homeless student bill
On Tuesday, the State Assembly Committee on Higher Education heard AB 302, a measure which aims to reduce the burdens of homelessness among California community college students. The bill would require community colleges to grant overnight parking facilities access to any homeless student who is “enrolled in coursework, has paid enrollment fees if not waived, and is in good standing with the community college,” without requiring them to enroll in additional courses on or before July 1st 2020. Assemblymember Marc Berman, who introduced the bill, said “The reality is that students are sleeping in their vehicles right now, and when we don’t provide a safe place for them to sleep, we force them into the shadows – into dark alleys and industrial parks – where they are most vulnerable.” Survey results indicate that almost 400,000 community college students, out of a state total of 2.1m, have experienced homelessness in the previous year.

NTA Life Insurance - An ABCFT Sponsor
About three years ago ABCFT stated a working relationship with National Teachers Associates Life Insurance Company. Throughout our partnership, NTA has been supportive of ABCFT activities by sponsorship and prizes for our various events. This organization specializes in providing insurance for educators across the nation. We have been provided both data and member testimonials about how pleased they have been with the NTA products and the opportunity to look at alternatives to the district insurance choice.

                    


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