For decades, one way to self-improvement has been through adult education, the program that school districts maintain to enable older students to return and get their diplomas or get training in new subjects. But now strapped local school districts, looking to save money, are measuring adult education for the the ax.
From the Bay Citizen's Jennifer Gollan: "Facing staggering cuts tied to the state budget deficit,
a growing number local school districts and community colleges are focusing
precious resources on K-12 and undergraduate education at the expense of
adult-education classes, eviscerating a key economic springboard for low-income
Californians."
"The cuts for the coming school year will likely affect
everyone from seniors hoping to learn new computer skills in the San Jose
Unified School District to English learners in the Oakland Unified School
District and at City College of San Francisco."
"School administrators say the state’s $15.4 billion
budget deficit and uncertainties tied to the highly politicized parrying over
tax extensions have left them no choice. But adult educators say the cuts will
only exacerbate California’s dismal literacy rate, overcrowded prisons and
other intractable problems. As it is, 23 percent of adults lack basic literacy
skills in California, according the National Center for Educational Statistics."
Meanwhile, what if they built a school and nobody got to go? That's exactly the situation in Riverside. Phil Willon in the LA Times has the story.
"When it's completed this
fall, Riverside's Hillcrest High School will be a high-tech academic hub with
wireless Internet, a robotics lab, digital smart boards in every classroom and
a first-rate performance hall worthy of any "Glee" hopeful."
"But no students."
"Sapped by state budget cuts,
the Alvord Unified School District doesn't have the money to turn on the lights
or hire staff for the $105-million campus."
"There's no guarantee it will open in 2012-13,
despite being built specifically to relieve the packed classrooms in the
district's other high schools."
Meanwhile, a new survey shows that only one out of every three public-school students participates in P.E. Those old days of going to the gym and suiting up at 6th period are becoming a thing of the past.
From Jim Steinberg in the San Bernardino Sun: "More than one third of all adolescents enrolled in
California public schools do not participate in any school-based physical
education classes, according to a new policy study by UCLA Center for Health
Policy Research."
"Cuts to physical education programs, as well as
exemptions that allow high school students to skip up to two years of PE, have
contributed to declining participation in these school-based programs, the
brief's authors noted. The study, which was released today,found that the
number of teens participating in PE drops precipitously with age, from 95
percent at age 12 to just 23 percent at age 17."
"Using data from the 2007 California Health Interview
Survey, the authors found that only 42 percent of California teens report
participating in PE on a daily basis. And more than 80 percent of all teens
fail to meet the current federal recommendations for physical activity."
"Federal public health officials recommend adolescents get
60 minutes of exercise daily."
Schools, by the way, aren't the only ones having troubles. Cities, too, are pinched. Take Stockton, for example.
From the Bee's Dan Walters: "Vallejo filed for bankruptcy a few years ago under
circumstances that are remarkably similar to those now facing Stockton. Both cities experienced rapid population growth as developers threw up subdivisions during the
late and unlamented easy mortgage money bubble and house-hungry Bay Area
commuters staged a feeding frenzy."
"Both cities had seen their industrial employment bases
erode and seized on the housing boom as an economic renaissance. Development fees,
property taxes and sales taxes from new shopping centers poured into city treasuries. Officials
responded with lavish contracts for city employees, especially police and
firefighters, when unions applied pressure."
"Stockton also sensed an opportunity to resuscitate its
somewhat dilapidated downtown and borrowed to build a new baseball park, a new
sports arena and a new marina, none of which came close to breaking even."
In Los Angeles, the investigation into the Building and Safety Department is expanding, with the FBI looking not only at inspectors but at their bosses, as well. The Times' David Zahniser tells the tale.
"In a confidential May 10
memo to Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, General Manager Robert
"Bud" Ovrom said FBI agents want to take their bribery investigation
"as wide and as high as they can." Because supervisors are included
in the probe, city officials expect to determine if "illegal collaboration
or poor supervisory skills" contributed to the misconduct, he wrote."
"Two field inspectors have
pleaded guilty to charges that they accepted bribes in exchange for building
approvals. The city's failure to detect those activities may have been, at
least in part, the product of staffing cuts at his agency, Ovrom said in his
memo, a copy of which was obtained by The Times."
"With high-level managers leaving as part of the
city's early retirement program, the department was "not always providing
adequate training" to their replacements, he wrote. "It is bad enough
that these incidents happened," Ovrom said. "It is perhaps even worse
that our supervisors never caught this blatant illegal activity."
And from our "Bad News for Foodies" file, we learn that the global cost of food is going to soar over the next two decades, which means that people who already spend 80 percent of their income on food are going to be in a tight spot.
"Rising food prices are tightening the squeeze on
populations already struggling to buy adequate food, demanding radical reform
of the global food system, Oxfam has warned.
By 2030, the average cost of
key crops could increase by between 120% and 180%, the charity forecasts."
"It is the acceleration of a
trend which has already seen food prices double in the last 20 years."
"Half of the rise to come
will be caused by climate change, Oxfam predicts."
"It calls on world leaders to
improve regulation of food markets and invest in a global climate fund."
"The food system must
be overhauled if we are to overcome the increasingly pressing challenges of
climate change, spiralling food prices and the scarcity of land, water and
energy," said Barbara Stocking, Oxfam's chief executive."
