ABCFT OFFICER ELECTION RESULTS
Thank you to all the members who put their names forward for consideration.
We know it's a busy time of year and we appreciate that you took the time to vote in the election.
The total number of votes cast were 459.
The following candidates were elected:
Ray Gaer - President with 96.73%
Tanya Golden - Executive Vice President with 98.29%
Connie Nam - Treasurer with 99.51%
Rachel Santos - Recording Secretary with 99.53%
Patty Alcantar - VP Child Development with 100%
Megan Mitchell - VP Elementary School with 57.76%
Daniel Ramirez - VP Middle School with 50.86%
Megan Harding - VP High School with 99.51%
Diane Jhun - VP Adult School with 100%
Brittney Parker-Goodin - VP Special Education with 98.53%
Michael Hartshorn - VP Membership with 100%
Ruben Mancillas - VP At-Large with 96.68%
Catherine Pascual - VP At-Large with 98.81%
Congratulations to the incoming ABCFT Executive Board!
KEEPING YOU INFORMED - Negotiations Update By Ruben Mancillas
This morning the ABCFT negotiating team is attending a zoom meeting presentation by School Services of California regarding the education budget for the 2023-2024 school year. We will provide a summary of the presentation in next week’s update.
The update this week offers a personal reflection on one of my repeated themes: the nobility of educators and the often underappreciated role they play in our community. My son, Ethan, is a sophomore history major at the University of Pittsburgh. He is home for the summer and applied with ABCUSD to be a substitute paraeducator. His first day of work was Wednesday. His comments have been lightly edited and paraphrased as they originally came out in quite a rush.
“First off, Ms. Parker is such a great teacher. I admire her so much. She is supposed to do everything. Be a teacher. A social worker. A behavior specialist. It’s ridiculous how much is asked of her.
I had no idea. I’m blown away at how many things there are to deal with. Is this what your classroom is like? How do teachers do it? I will work the next sixteen days but I don’t know how teachers do all of this over a full year.
Everyone is so good at their job. My colleagues, the paras, all knew how to reach out and help each kid and taught me to do the same. It would have been helpful to receive more training beforehand from the district though. I walked in the first day wanting to do my best and help the most that I could but really had to learn on the fly.
How much does Ms. Parker make? She should earn a million dollars! It gets me so angry when people say that teachers don’t need to be paid more. Do they have any idea of what actually goes on in a classroom?”
Besides getting emotional about how proud his grandmother would have been of his working in ABC; it was a reminder of how “in the bubble” we can be at times and how useful it is to get a perspective from those outside of the day to day experience of being a teacher or nurse. Ethan was clearly raised in a union family but his insights gave me hope that Gen Z really gets it regarding the importance of public education. After one day on the job he became an empathetic advocate for teachers, nurses, and his new classified brothers and sisters! The attacks on teachers and students in other states are cruel and unsettling. The economic threats and limitations to our funding give unwanted anxiety to educators who are already stretched thin. Our ABCFT union provides a bulwark against these challenges but we are only as strong as our collective members. I appreciate working with colleagues who give so much to our students and community. I also thank the many of you who make the experiences of their paraeducators a positive one. We truly are in this together.
In Unity,
SCHOOL BOARD REPORT - TRUSTEE RESIGNS
The ABCUSD School Board meeting this week was an event brimming with emotions and events. On the one hand, the ABC educational community celebrated and welcomed the newly appointed ABCUSD Superintendent, Dr. Gina Zietlow. On the other hand, a trusted and valued school board member Dr. Chris Apodaca announced his resignation due to family reasons. Both are significant events because they will, directly and indirectly, impact ABCFT members, ABC employees, students, parents, and the community at large.
Dr. Apodaca has held a special place in the history of ABC by becoming the first ABCUSD Trustee 7 representative from the southern part of the district serving mostly Hawaiian Gardens and Long Beach residents who are in the ABC attendance area. ABCFT was instrumental in getting Dr. Apodaca elected after a rigorous endorsement process where he stood out as being a leader who understood the value of teachers and their impact on the lives of the students they serve. His personal story, which he has shared numerous times in public, describes a life where his hard work ethic has prevailed as his guiding light to personal and professional success. There have been countless instances during board meetings where Dr. Apodace has stood strong in supporting ideas and district policies that would make positive changes for students, parents, and the employees of ABC. His voice will be missed, and for those interested, you can read his parting statement here. ABCFT will be monitoring and reporting on how the ABCUSD School Board will fill his vacant position. Good luck, Chris! ABCFT wishes you the very best going forward. Thank you for your service to the ABC Educational Community.
In contrast, the ABC Community welcomed the newly appointed Superintendent Gina Zietlow with a traditional inaugural ceremony celebration. In attendance were local city council members and many past ABC educators and administrators. You can watch Dr. Zietlow’s thank you speech here, and you can hear her first Superintendent School Board report here. On behalf of the Teachers and Nurses of ABCFT, Ray Gaer was able to present Dr. Zietlow with a gift and some welcoming words during the ABCFT Employee Report.
ACADEMIC SERVICES UPDATE
This month’s academic service update is vital for all teachers. We hope you will take a moment to look at this monthly report which discusses changes in academic services. This document provides the union with a means of giving the District feedback on the many programs or changes they are proposing at any time. Without your feedback or questions on these changes, it is harder for ABCFT to slow down and modify the district’s neverending rollout of new projects. Please submit your comments and questions to the appropriate ABCFT liaison.
For Elementary curricular issues, please email Kelley at Kelley.Forsythe@abcusd.us if you have any questions or concerns.
For Secondary curricular issues, please email Catherine at Catherine.Pascual@abcusd.us if you have any questions or concerns.
Click Here For This Month’s Full Report
ABCFT PRESIDENT’S REPORT - Ray Gaer
Consistent and regular communication is a union’s most important tool for advocating for its members at the bargaining table. Every conversation with members is focused on the end result of negotiating for the future prosperity and well-being of ALL ABCFT members. This weekly report informs members about issues impacting their working/learning conditions and mental well-being. Our work as a Union is a larger conversation, and together we make the YOUnion.
“What makes her smart will one day make her smart.” My Mom, during a conversation about my seventeen-year-old, gave me a whole new way of thinking about my daughter's high school year.
The above quote struck a chord with me in more ways than one. Over the past three years, and especially last year, I heard from many teachers about their perception of the health of the ABC school district. In dozens of conversations, I had members describe their grief and disillusionment with how things were going last year. Teachers and nurses wondered aloud that they didn’t feel like “ABC was a cutting edge district” and that “we used to be a leader in education.” These are harsh words of criticism for the ABC District but in my conversations, I could hear a willingness and desire to change the trajectory of our school district and our internal perceptions of who we are as a district and education institution.
Around this time last school year, the school board appointed Deputy Superintendent Mr. Toan Nguyen, and in short order, they hired Assistant Superintendent of Academic Services, Dr. Carol Castro. In my first meetings with both of them last Spring, I reported the concerns of ABC employees from all sectors about their perception that we had lost our way and, in turn, our sense of purpose. Regaining the confidence of ABC employees was, in my eyes, a primary concern. ABC needed as a district to take stock of what we were doing to address our student’s needs, how principals' and their staff's voices could be heard, what direct supports and supplies teachers needed to be successful, what tools could be used to help administrators to support teachers, students, and parents effectively. ABC needed to find our baseline condition. Understanding our current situation, practices, and beliefs have been key to getting us through this school year, but this is only the beginning of a process of self-reflection and improvement.
Earlier in the year, I reported when district administrators accompanied me as I visited school sites.. In the past, there have been rare occasions where the union and administration would visit school sites together. Mr. Nguyen and I visited a number of schools and spoke directly with staff about their conditions and what they felt was important. I was also able to accompany Dr. Castro as we spoke directly to 5th-grade teachers about their math curriculum experiences and what they saw as the obstacles to student success. These face-to-face meetings were powerful, and Dr. Castro has made classroom and site visits a recommendation for all district administrators to learn about the conditions of our schools and classrooms. This is a seismic shift from past district administrative practice.
A traditional one-way communications structure from the district office has begun to evolve and provide site resources and personnel that began to create a positive climate change in our schools. Was everything fixed and made perfect? No, but these were progressive and supportive moves that employees have needed for a while. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not throwing shade or disparaging what happened before the pandemic, but we now live in a post-pandemic world, and the challenges we are facing now are dramatically more complex and challenging. As Superintendent Dr. Zietlow said in her opening board meeting, she is the leader for ABC during a post-pandemic era which has conditions that are unique and multifaceted.
Last week, site reps and alternates were invited to attend the PAL Advance at the Cerritos Performing Arts Center to get a presentation of our LCAP and discuss goals for next year. This meeting is not typical, and in all of the years of LCAP, the ABCFT site representatives and leadership have never been presented with a document that reflects the status of our district. Typically a district has a one-page summary document for the district's achievements and the LCAP financials. In contrast, Dr. Castro and I presented the ABCUSD eighteen-page LCAP document that is a reflection of years worth of dialogue and study. Is it perfect or complete? No, but it does provide a valuable baseline and shows the value of input the employees, students, and parents have given since last August. You cannot fully chart a course unless you have a map of where you are and where you need to be. Click here for this LCAP document.
Communication has always been our strength as a school district. It is the primary reason we are a “smart” district. What made us smart in the first place, we just needed to revisit. I hope that in a couple of years, teachers and nurses will once again be able to say ABC is the best district around. I hope that day comes sooner than we can imagine.
In YOUnity,
Ray Gaer
President, ABCFT
CALIFORNIA FEDERATION OF TEACHERS
CFT Responds to Governor Newsom’s Updated Budget Proposal
SACRAMENTO – CFT–A Union of Educators and Classified Professionals released the following statement from President Jeff Freitas on Governor Gavin Newsom’s updated budget proposal for the 2023-2024 fiscal year:
“In his budget proposal released today, Governor Newsom once again proved his firm commitment to protecting public education by fully funding the statutory 8.22% COLA for both our TK-12 and community college systems, and increasing the base funding for U.C. by 5%, despite the state’s projected $31.5 billion deficit. These funds are critical to addressing the pressing needs of our public schools, including the staffing crisis in our TK-12 schools, and the two-tier system for faculty in higher education.
“However, the Governor’s proposal also includes billions of dollars in cuts to critical programs, including the Arts, Music, and Instructional Materials Block Grant, the K-12 Learning Recovery Emergency Block Grant, and the Community College COVID-19 Recovery Block Grant. We look forward to working with the Governor and the Legislature to fund these and other important programs that our students rely on.
“Despite the short-term budget shortfall, our elected leaders must work to grow our investment in students and support bold increases in our public education funding levels, such as AB 938 (Muratsuchi), which supports funding increases to raise educator and school worker wages by 50% in the near future and allows districts to hire the sorely needed staff to educate and support our students.
“And we can and must do more. We are committed to working with our allies in our communities, the labor movement, and Sacramento to raise revenue for public education through progressive taxation to ultimately deliver the quality public education that every California student deserves.”
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
Follow AFT President Randi Weingarten: http://twitter.com/rweingarten
----- NEWS STORY HIGHLIGHT-----
Gov. Newsom revises funding downward for TK-12, community colleges in 2023-24 amid uncertainty
Reflecting a further erosion in state revenues, Gov. Gavin Newsom is budgeting $2 billion less for TK-12 and community colleges for the coming fiscal year than he proposed five months ago.
In his May budget revision for 2023-24, which Newsom presented Friday, school districts and community colleges would receive $106.8 billion through Proposition 98, the formula that determines the portion of the state’s General Fund that goes to education. That’s nearly $4 billion less than the record $110.4 billion the Legislature approved 2 years ago.
Despite an overall $31 billion shortfall in the General Fund, Newsom also committed that the state’s four-year universities would still receive promised funding increases. Both systems, the University of California and California State University, would get 5% bumps to their base funding. That equates to about $215 million for UC and $227 million for CSU for next year.
Responding to a top priority of school districts and community colleges, Newsom said he would fund the full 8.2% cost of living adjustment, fulfilling a promise he made in January. But the tradeoff to TK-12 for balancing the budget with less revenue would be to claw back billions of dollars from multi-year one-time funding that the Legislature approved last June.
More information and charts here
----- OAKLAND TEACHER STRIKE ENDS - DETAILS-----
Oakland teachers end seven-day strike
The Oakland Education Association and Oakland USD officials have reached a tentative agreement on a new contract, ending a seven-day long strike by teachers and staff in time for the final eight days of the school year. The agreement includes a 15.5% raise for most teachers, and a larger raise for teachers toward the bottom of the pay scale, according to an announcement by the union. With the new agreement, first-year teachers will make a minimum of $62,696 a year, a jump from $52,905 prior. Other agreements include retroactive pay during the strike, stipends for teachers with dual language aptitudes, and with a boost in the number of librarians, counselors and nurses in the years ahead. Class sizes for special education will be capped at 13, and at 11 by 2025. The new agreement runs through the end of the 2024-2025 school year. Superintendent Kyla Johnson-Trammell called it a “historic deal,” and the first big step in providing educators what they deserve. “We have moved the needle significantly today."
According to the union statement, the 2.5-year tentative agreement with the school district includes a 15.5 percent salary increase for most teachers, retroactive pay, and bilingual stipends for teachers who can speak multiple languages. The agreement will also add school counselors to elementary schools for the first time and additional support staff, including school librarians, guidance counselors, and school nurses, according to the union.
Oakland teachers reach agreements as strike continues
More than a week after public school educators in Oakland hit the picket lines, the teachers' union announced it has reached an agreement with the school district on four “common good” demands over the weekend. The first “common good” agreement, “Housing and Transportation,” stipulates that the union and the district will collaborate on support for unhoused and housing insecure students and expand access to free bus passes for qualifying students. The second agreement, “Community Schools Grant,” regulates shared governance for “community schools” that receive funding from the California Community Schools Partnership Program. The third agreement, “Black Thriving Community Schools,” provides support for “Historically Black Schools” in which 40% or more of the student population is Black. The fourth agreement, “School Closures,” specifies a process the district must follow before closing a school. The union said that no deal has been signed to end the strike as they are still actively negotiating an agreement on teacher salaries, special education programs, and class sizes. Teachers went on strike on May 4 after contract negotiations with Oakland Unified, in which they were seeking higher pay and more efforts to address social concerns, failed to yield a deal.
----- NATIONAL NEWS -----
Housing 'increasingly unaffordable' for teachers in metropolitan areas
In 15 out of 69 metropolitan areas analyzed by the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ), the cost of renting a one-bedroom apartment surpasses 30% of a beginning teacher’s salary. When it comes to homeownership in the largest U.S. metropolitan areas, NCTQ said it would take 13.6 years for a teacher on a single income to save 10% a year in order to make a 20% down payment on a median-priced house in their locality. For 53 of the districts studied, rising rental costs outpaced raises to teacher salaries, NCTQ found. Rent remains unaffordable, which is defined as over 30% of teachers’ salaries, even when districts like California’s San Francisco Unified have provided teachers with cost-of-living increases higher than rising rental costs over the last five years. In San Francisco, for example, renting a one-bedroom apartment costs 47% of a teacher’s salary, compared to just 17% for a similar space in Kansas’ Wichita Public Schools. San Francisco Unified also leads as the most expensive school system for teachers to buy a home, as it would take an estimated 30 years for an educator to save enough to make a 20% down payment.
Title IX athletics rule comment period ends
The U.S. Department of Education’s controversial proposed Title IX athletics rule garnered more than 154,000 comments before the one-month comment period ended Monday. The rule, which was proposed separately from the Biden administration’s broader Title IX proposed rule, would allow schools to exclude transgender students from playing on sports teams aligning with their gender identities under some circumstances. However, the rule would prohibit blanket bans of transgender students in athletics. While more conservative leaders and organizations criticize the proposals for potentially including any transgender students at all, groups such as GLSEN, which advocates for LGBTQ+ inclusivity in K-12, hope any final rules are inclusive of all transgender, nonbinary and intersex students. The department will now review the comments on its athletics proposal and release the final rule, which is expected to be finalized alongside the broader Title IX final rule sometime this month. Both rules are expected to face heavy scrutiny and litigation by those opposed to the administration’s interpretation of how Title IX applies to LGBTQ+ youth. “By trying to straddle both of these — and I think legitimate — concerns, they’ve made no one happy, I think,” says Nina Gupta, a partner at law firm Parker Poe who routinely counsels school districts on Title IX matters. “So they will get sued by everybody, rather than [if they had gone] hard one way or the other.”
College-going gap between Black and white Americans 'getting worse'
As states push back against diversity programs at public universities, and the Supreme Court considers whether to eliminate affirmative action in admissions, Black college and university enrollment is steadily declining. Already down by 22% between 2010 and 2020, or by more than 650,000 students, according to the National Center for Education Statistics, it has fallen by another 7% since then, more recent figures from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center show. Even though the number of white students has also declined since 2010, the difference between the proportions of white students and Black students graduating with degrees has gotten bigger. Thirty-four percent of Black adults have associate degrees or higher, compared with 50% of white adults, according to the Lumina Foundation. “In a way, we’re in the worst of all possible worlds for civil rights, because people think a lot of problems have been solved,” laments Gary Orfield, co-director of the Civil Rights Project at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Senators probe Education Dept. spending
At a Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing at the end of last week, U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona fielded questions about a wealth of his department's education-related spending plans. At the hearing, Cardona promoted the department’s FY 2024 budget proposal, which calls for a 13.6% increase over the current year budget for a total of $90bn for K-12 and higher education programs. The plan’s highest spending categories for K-12 include funding for schools in low-income communities and for special education services. Other topics lawmakers questioned Cardona about included the department’s support for school facility upgrades, student academic progress and mental health wellbeing, the fentanyl crisis, education for Native Hawaiians, school safety and student loan forgiveness. Cardona was also asked about his thoughts on the increasing number of book bans.
----- STATE NEWS -----
Proposed state budget could make becoming a teacher easier
State would train more teachers of English learners, pay teaching residents and allow military spouses with out-of-state credentials to teach
California’s proposed state budget revision could make a dent in the state’s ongoing teacher shortage by reducing obstacles to earning teaching credentials, such as making it easier for members of the military and their spouses to earn teaching credentials, requiring that teacher residents are paid and preparing more bilingual teachers.
Despite a $2 billion cut to TK-12 and community colleges from the budget proposed in January, the budget revision adds funding for state programs that train teachers for hard-to-fill positions. The budget trailer bill also alters former legislation to remove impediments to becoming a teacher.
“In California, we are rising to the challenge and removing financial barriers to the profession in ways that are proven to not only recruit but retain quality educators,” said Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond in a statement. “It is estimated that California needs to recruit 27,000 teachers, including thousands of universal transitional kindergarten teachers, and we are stepping in to fill this gap and find solutions.” Read the full article here:
https://edsource.org/2023/proposed-state-budget-could-make-becoming-a-teacher-easier/690789
----- DISTRICTS -----
Schools brace for potential U.S. debt ceiling breach
If Congress doesn’t raise the federal government’s debt ceiling and the nation defaults on its debt obligations, which is on the cards at present, Mark Lieberman asserts that a worldwide economic crisis would almost immediately impact K-12 schools. “The results will be so catastrophic,” says Sarah Abernathy, executive director of the Committee for Education Funding, a nonprofit that advocates for federal investments in education. “There’s a ton of uncertainty, and none of the outcomes are good.” If such a default happens before July 1, Lieberman suggests, the federal government might be unable to distribute billions of dollars for high-need students, special education services, and English-language instruction. Because school districts, many of which have already set their budgets for the coming year, count on those funds, teacher layoffs, academic program cuts, and administrative chaos could ensue. Longer term, the economic turmoil that could result from a default, including a possible recession, would lead to fewer resources and greater fiscal challenges for schools, such as diminished state tax revenue for education, difficulty borrowing money for construction projects, and depressed returns on pension funds for school employees.
----- WORKFORCE ----
Apprenticeships increasingly helping to expand and diversify teaching
Moriah Balingit explores how apprenticeship models nationwide are increasingly allowing teaching trainees to earn money while they learn their craft and earn their credentials. Apprenticeships have long been championed as a way to alleviate workforce challenges, and they give promising educators who can’t afford to return to college a path to a higher-paying career. Programs have been around for years, but they have often been small in scale and had inconsistent sources of funding. Facing teacher shortages during the pandemic, many states expanded this type of training using pandemic relief funds. Now, teaching apprenticeships are getting a major boost from the Labor Department, which last year began offering them federal certification, a distinction that gives them access to millions in job-training funds. Over the last 17 months, programs in 16 states have been certified.
Teacher morale on the up
Morale in the education community appears to be on the rebound. According to the second annual Merrimack College Teacher Survey commissioned by the Winston School of Education and Social Policy at Merrimack College and conducted by the EdWeek Research Center, the share of teachers who are very satisfied with their jobs has nearly doubled in the past year to 20%. At the same time, the percentage of teachers who say they are "very" or "fairly likely" to leave the profession in the next two years declined from 44% to 35%. In addition, more teachers now say the general public respects them and treats them as professionals, even as schools continue to be caught in the crosshairs of culture wars. Notably, while educators indicated that their mental health and well-being would be improved if administrators got more training on listening to them and valuing their input, the majority also said that they needed pay raises and smaller class sizes in order to feel that districts and schools truly supported their well-being.
Housing 'increasingly unaffordable' for teachers in metropolitan areas
In 15 out of 69 metropolitan areas analyzed by the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ), the cost of renting a one-bedroom apartment surpasses 30% of a beginning teacher’s salary. When it comes to homeownership in the largest U.S. metropolitan areas, NCTQ said it would take 13.6 years for a teacher on a single income to save 10% a year in order to make a 20% down payment on a median-priced house in their locality. For 53 of the districts studied, rising rental costs outpaced raises to teacher salaries, NCTQ found. Rent remains unaffordable, which is defined as over 30% of teachers’ salaries, even when districts like California’s San Francisco Unified have provided teachers with cost-of-living increases higher than rising rental costs over the last five years. In San Francisco, for example, renting a one-bedroom apartment costs 47% of a teacher’s salary, compared to just 17% for a similar space in Kansas’ Wichita Public Schools. San Francisco Unified also leads as the most expensive school system for teachers to buy a home, as it would take an estimated 30 years for an educator to save enough to make a 20% down payment.
Proposed state budget could make becoming a teacher easier
California’s proposed state budget revision could make a dent in the state’s ongoing teacher shortage by reducing obstacles to earning teaching credentials, such as making it easier for members of the military and their spouses to earn teaching credentials, requiring that teacher residents are paid and preparing more bilingual teachers. A budget trailer bill adds funding for state programs that train teachers for hard-to-fill positions, and also alters former legislation to remove impediments to becoming a teacher. The budget, if passed this summer as revised, would clear the way for U.S. military service members and their spouses, who hold a valid teaching credential in another state, to earn a California credential. It would also give concessions to those who were unable to earn their teaching credential during the pandemic because they could not complete the required Teaching Performance Assessment. It would allow them to meet the requirement through a state-approved induction program or two years of satisfactory teacher evaluations.
----- CLASSROOM -----
Fewer English learners at dual immersion schools
The number of English learners is shrinking at many dual-language immersion schools, according to a new analysis released by The Century Foundation and Children’s Equity Project, while the number of English-dominant and white students is increasing. The organizations analyzed 1,600 dual language immersion programs in 13 states and the District of Columbia and found that, over five years, the trends played out in most dual language immersion schools in several large cities, including Los Angeles, San Francisco, Oakland, San José and New York City. When comparing student enrollment by ethnicity, the number of white students increased at many dual language immersion schools in Los Angeles and other cities, including New York City, Dallas, Albuquerque, Portland and Washington, D.C. “The potential shifts suggested in these data—from the goal of advancing linguistic equity and expanding educational opportunity for ELs and toward language enrichment for English-dominant children—should trigger alarm bells,” wrote the report’s authors.
----- LEGAL -----
School librarians facing harsh new penalties amid book bans
Librarians in some states now face tens of thousands of dollars in fines and even imprisonment for providing sexually explicit, obscene or “harmful” books to children under laws that permit criminal prosecution of school and library personnel. At least seven states have passed such laws in the last two years, according to a Washington Post analysis, six of them in the past two months alone. Another dozen states considered more than 20 similar bills this year, many of which are likely to come up again next year. Indiana, Missouri, North Dakota and Oklahoma have enacted laws mandating fines or imprisonment, or both, for school employees and librarians. Tennessee has passed two measures, one that targets schools and another that targets book publishers or vendors selling to schools. In Arkansas, a measure taking effect in August says school and public librarians, as well as teachers, can be imprisoned for up to six years or fined $10,000 if they distribute obscene or harmful texts. “It will make sure the only literature students are exposed to fits into a narrow scope of what some people want the world to look like,” said Keith Gambill, president of the teachers union in Indiana, one of the states that adopted obscenity laws. “This is my 37th year in education. I’ve never seen anything like this. … We are entering a very frightening period.”
Florida school district sued over book bans
Book publisher Penguin Random House and advocacy group PEN America sued the Escambia County School District in Florida on Wednesday, alleging restrictions on library books about LGBT identity and issues of race and racism violate the constitution. The lawsuit alleges that district leaders set out to exclude such topics from school libraries by removing or restricting several books from their shelves. PEN America and Penguin Random House, along with authors and parents, allege these actions constitute viewpoint discrimination and violate the right to receive information under the First Amendment. The lawsuit also claims the district and the school board are violating the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause by singling out books written by LGBT and nonwhite authors and those that address race or gender identity. Some of the books under scrutiny in Escambia include “Uncle Bobby’s Wedding” by Sarah Brannen, “All Boys Aren’t Blue” by George M. Johnson, “Two Boys Kissing,” by David Levithan, “When Aidan Became a Brother,” and “Too Bright to See” by Kyle Lukoff, and “Out of Darkness” by Ashley Hope Pérez.
----- CHILD DEVELOPMENT ----
Americans still supportive of childhood vaccines
The COVID-19 pandemic has not affected the public's support for childhood vaccines for measles, mumps and rubella, but it has seen an increase in Americans who don't want vaccination requirements for kids in public schools. According to a new survey from Pew Research Center, about nine in 10 Americans said that the benefits of childhood vaccines for measles, mumps and rubella outweigh the risks, which is identical to numbers from 2019 and 2016 – prior to the coronavirus outbreak. Support is lower for COVID-19 vaccines however, with just 64% of adults saying the benefits of the shots outweigh the risks. Notably, the survey found that Americans have divided into three groups when it comes to COVID-19 vaccination: About a third of adults are up-to-date on their shots and enthusiastic about the vaccines, another third is vaccinated but not boosted within the past six months, then a smaller group “who have said no to the vaccines altogether, a group that harbors deep doubts about the vaccines as well as societal efforts to encourage – or require – them.”
----- HEALTH & WELLBEING -----
Teens want more mental health supports in school
Teens aged 13-18 feel that their mental health, motivation, relationships with friends and overall happiness have improved since the early months of the pandemic. According to a survey conducted by Morning Consult, a business intelligence company, and EdChoice, a nonprofit that advocates for school choice, Black teens, Hispanic teens, teens from urban areas and adolescent boys were somewhat more likely to report feeling better than other groups. LGBTQ students, adolescent girls, and those living in rural areas were least likely to say they were thriving. Fewer students (28%) than parents (52%) said they were worried about a violent intruder entering their school. Notably, around half of teens reported they feel supported by their schools when it comes to academics and their future, but only one-third of survey respondents said they feel supported by their schools in terms of mental health.
Teens’ mental health 'improving,' CDC says
New data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) suggest mental health emergencies among adolescents have fallen since 2021. CDC researchers track the weekly emergency room visits among those 12 to 17 for suicidal behaviors and drug overdoses, among other mental health problems, and they found that by fall 2022, overall mental health emergencies had dropped 11% to a mean of nearly 6,500 a week. Attempted suicides and similar behaviors fell 12%, to a mean of just over 4,200 a week compared to fall 2021. Similarly, teenagers had fewer hospital visits related to anxiety, depression, or attention disorders in 2022 than in 2021. While teens have broadly rebounded since the height of school disruptions, the CDC found girls still show higher rates of mental health emergencies than they had before the pandemic, while boys’ emergency rates are about the same. The CDC credited improvements in mental health in part to schools’ wide scale increases in mental health supports, from providing more access to therapists and social workers, to teacher training to support students with anxiety - even, in some cases, school building redesign.
----- HIGHER EDUCATION -----
Despite decades of calls to action, California community college students face roadblocks to transfer
UC and CSU leaders, faculty groups must join to fix a broken system, advocates say
Many students enroll in community college planning to transfer to the University of California or California State University.But very few actually make it, data show.
Despite decades of legislation and calls to action to improve the transfer process, the transition from the state’s community colleges to its universities continues to be a difficult and complicated task for many students. Researchers have long identified many of the roadblocks preventing California community college students from completing a bachelor’s degree within the UC and CSU systems. Little has changed. “I’ve never heard anyone say, ‘I don’t want to improve transfer,’” said Eloy Oritiz Oakley, president of the College Futures Foundation and the former chancellor of the state’s 116 community colleges. “But yet, here we are.”
He’s not the only one to recognize the continuing challenges. “I’ve been working on these issues for more than 15 years,” said Jessie Ryan, executive vice president of the Campaign for College Opportunity. “And it’s astonishing to me how challenging the transfer process continues to be for students across the state.” A research study by Ryan’s organization found that among the students who enrolled in the community colleges in 2012, completed at least 12 credits within six years, and attempted transfer-level English or math, only 3% did. Fewer than 25% transfer after four years.
So why do so few students complete transfers after years of pledges to improve?
Read more here:
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NTA Life Insurance - An ABCFT Sponsor
Years ago ABCFT started 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.
To All Members of the ABC Federation of Teachers,
National Teacher Associates (NTA) is committed in our efforts to helping educators through tough times. It’s what we do. After all…in our eyes, you are the heart and soul of our communities.
Protecting you and your families has been our goal for over 45 years. Despite the current global pandemic, we are not about to slow down now. We know that many of you have had our programs for years and sometimes forget the intricacies of how they work. NTA wants to help facilitate any possible claims for now and in the future. Fortunately, all claims and reviews can be done by phone and online. I personally want to offer my services to guide you in the right direction with your NTA benefits.
We also apologize for not being able to finish the open enrollment for those of you who wanted to get our protection. We are still able to help by extending our enrollment window for the near future. Again, this can be done over the phone, email, or online.
Please contact Leann Blaisdell at any time either by phone or email.
562-822-5004
Leann.Blaisdell@horacemann.com
Click here to schedule an appointment
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