Proposition Funded Schools And Protecting Neighborhoods

Pedro Noguera, a phenomenal urban sociologist and a professor at New York University confronts the problems which exist in our nation’s education system in his book, City Schools and the American Dream: Reclaiming the Promise of Public Education. Noguera describes what he views to be the main problems facing urban education and suggests strategies for improvement. From years of experience as a teacher and school board member, he reflects on what he believes to be the real problems. Noguera blames the school’s failures on students, parents, and teachers which leads to blame local government officials or policymakers. Noguera states in City Schools and the American Dream, “The central argument of this book is that until there is a genuine commitment to address the social context of schooling — to confront the urban condition — it will be impossible to bring about significant and sustainable improvements in urban public schools” (pg.6). Noguera believes that we must address the central problem to make any type of solutions for improvement.

The proposition known as The Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Act, helps in saving almost $200 million in prison costs every year to fund programs that rehabilitate drug addicts, treat mental health requirements, keep kids in school and support crime victims to pay for their medical bills.

Our political leaders struggle to understand the impact they have on the policies they put into place to improve public education. We see mandates that are unfunded and have a significant impact on a school district’s budget. Special education continues to be an area rich with policy and yet additional dollars are not included in the decisions made for implementation. Title one funding is an area that falls into a blurry area of policy for school districts. In our district, we have policies for fiscal responsibility in our spending procedures and yearly audits to be sure we are spending our money in a proper way.

The School-to-Prison Pipeline presents the intersection of a K-12 educational system and a juvenile system, which too often fails to serve our nations at risk youth. For most students, the pipeline begins with inadequate resources in public schools. Overcrowded classrooms, a lack of qualified teachers, and insufficient funding for "extras" such as counselors, special education services, even textbooks, lock students into second-rate educational environments. This failure to meet educational needs increases disengagement and dropouts, increasing the risk of later court involvement (Bennett-Haron, Fasching-Varner, Martin, & Mitchell 2014). Even worse, schools may actually encourage dropouts in response to pressures from test-based accountability regimes such as the No Child Left Behind Act, which create incentives to push out low-performing students to boost overall test scores (Cramer, Gonzales, & Lafont-Pellegrini 2014). Lacking resources, facing incentives to push out low-performing students, and responding to a handful of highly-publicized school shootings, schools have embraced zero-tolerance policies that automatically impose severe punishment regardless of circumstances. Under these policies, students have been expelled for bringing nail clippers or scissors to school (Christle, Jolivette, & Nelson 2005). Rates of suspension have increased dramatically in recent years from 1.7 million in 1998 to 3.1 million in 2010

The article, “Who benefits from failing urban school districts?” written by Martin Haberman, the authors influential piece expresses the concern for the current direction of public education. When the concept of who is benefiting from failing urban school districts is mentioned; one would believe that no one can possibly benefit from schools failing. The children aren’t benefiting, their parents aren’t benefiting, the community isn’t benefiting. The public institution is becoming a big business instead of an institution that helps children in their development. It is obvious that there are challenges in the schooling system. In this manuscript, I will discuss the issues with the bureaucracy in education. There will also be mentioning of how standardized testing and the lack of resources in urban schools are affecting children’s education in the urban community. Lastly, there will be a discussion about how parents and teachers have an effect on children’s education.

The School-to-Prison Pipeline is a “national trend wherein children are funneled out of public schools and into the juvenile and criminal justice systems” (“School-to-Prison Pipeline”). This phenomenon brings children into the juvenile justice system at a very young age. An article published in the journal Urban Education explains that, “The school-to-prison pipeline contributes to the atmosphere of increased surveillance of schools including police presence in schools, zero-tolerance policies, physical restraint tactics, and automatic consequence policies, resulting in suspensions from school” (Martin, Beese 2015). By increasing police presence in schools, children are more likely to be searched, questioned, or targeted by police than they would be without police present. And as a result, “children are far more likely to be subject to school-based arrests—the majority of which are for nonviolent offenses, such as disruptive behavior—than they were a generation ago” (“School-to-Prison Pipeline”). For example, if a child was misbehaving in class in a school that had a police presence, they could possibly get arrested and sent to prison. But if a child was acting the same way in a school that did not have any police presence, they would not be arrested. Police would most likely be present in a school in an urban environment or poor neighborhood because more crime occurs in urban and poor places, so in theory, by placing police in schools, they would be preventing any crimes

According to California law, legislators, law enforcement personnel and school officials are required to make a safe environment for all children and the community-at-large. The California Street Terrorism Enforcement and Prevention Act is the specific provision in the Penal Code that requires action by schools because “the right of every person, regardless of race, color, creed, religion, national origin, gender, age, sexual orientation, or handicap, to be secure and protected from fear, intimidation, and physical harm caused by the activities of violent groups and individuals.” Obviously, this is an ambiguous law and as problematic as it is to find out what the law stipulates, it is just as difficult to

As detailed by the American Civil Liberties Union (2013), the circumstances and policies contributing to the school-to-prison pipeline include: 1) failing public schools, in which inadequate resources in public schools create second-rate educational environments, thus decreasing engagement and increase dropout, 2) zero tolerance and other school ‘discipline’ policies impose unnecessarily harsh punishments, which leave students unsupervised and more likely to fall behind in school work, and which most dramatically impact children of color, 3) high-stakes testing creates a less engaging student environment and creates incentives for schools to push out low preforming students, 4) disciplinary alternative education programs for suspended or expelled students lack accountability, quality services, and leave students struggling to return to their regular schools, and 5) despite decreased resources, there has been an increased reliance on police who increase school-based arrests.

During the 1970’s, the tough on crime movement contributed to a drastic increase in punishment for lesser crimes and led a massive increase in imprisonment, even though the crime rates stayed the same (Gascon 2014). It is disputed that even though the movement was attractive to voters, it is doing more harm than good. Ever since the 1960’s, the amount of individuals detained has increased roughly about ten times than normal (Gascon 2014). Expanding a prison population requires more places, such as prisons and jails, to detain prisoners and California had built “22 new prisons in just 30 years” (Gascon 2014). Building new prisons and detaining more prisoner’s costs money and this money will come out of taxpayers. Newt Gingrich and B. Wayne Hughes Jr. said in an editorial that “prison is for people that we are afraid of, but we have been filling them with many folks we are just mad at.” They also state if the proposition is passed it will bring some light on the face that over $60,000 is spent on one inmate alone per year, while less than $10,000 is spent on each student in schools (Gingrich and Hughes 2014). The American Civil Liberties Union, the Sentencing Project, and the Crime Survivors for Safety and Justice are also in favor of the proposition. Some of these groups agree with Gingrich and Hughes statements, the money

While all these possibilities from providing increased educational funding to inner city schools seem to provide a solution to the educational difficulties, the underclass is a multifaceted problem with several contributing factors. For example, the issue of students dropping out of school is not only affected by simply the quality of their education and resources. The appealing allure of drug dealing and belonging to a gang, both behaviors that involve criminal actions that could lead to incarceration, severely entice students from finishing their education. Furthermore, many children lack familial support to complete school. Their families tend to consist of numerous high school dropouts, and, therefore, lack the knowledge that comes from past experience leaving the student at a severe disadvantage. Plus, some family members will even remove the students out of school themselves, because they view the school as a waste of time. Even more detrimental to the underclass are the longstanding problems of unplanned pregnancies, single parent families, racial discrimination, and welfare dependency. With all these contributing obstacles that build upon one another in mind, it may seem pointless to fix the educational issues, so why should society and the government still pursue this option?

Aside from school funding and protecting Children’s Healthcare, Proposition 55 will also maintain low taxes for families whose income is low. Proposition 55 will only keep higher taxes on the rich because as many say, they are able to afford it. According to Protecting California, these high taxes will only “apply to singles that make $250,00 and couples who make $500,000 or more a year.” (Protecting California) This shows that it really does only tax higher to those who really are able to afford it. Voter’s Guide is also stating how it will, “Only affect the wealthiest Californians who can most afford it, ensuring they continue to pay their share of taxes.” (Voters Guide) Ergo meaning that, the high taxes being taxed will indeed be paid because

EDUC 512 Issue 1.5 Should Public Schooling be Redefined? Issue 2.6 Are Local School Boards Obsolete?

Most of my information found is from the source “Proposition 47, Criminal Sentences Misdemeanors Penalties, and Initiative Statute”. This website informs the details of the issue like how the taxes are being charged and sent to prison to hold in many intimates (Proposition 47, Criminal Sentences Misdemeanors Penalties, and Initiative Statute) . Also, that the money being spent in the intimate is very pricey .The purpose of proposition 47 is to recreate certain felonies into misdemeanors (Proposition 47, Criminal Sentences Misdemeanors Penalties, and Initiative Statute). “The proposition also advises that it will also release many intimates to the public if passed.”(Proposition 47, Criminal Sentences Misdemeanors Penalties, and Initiative Statute)

In the 1980 's , there were "tough on crime" laws and "zero tolerance" programs that were enforced to for help foster a healthy education environment for children and adolescents; especially targeted to repeat offenders such as at-risk juveniles. As a result, we have learned that instilling laws such as No Child Left Behind and enforcing zero tolerance programs in school was too rigid and caused more issues than benefits for children, caretakers, and the school systems. If we analyzed this issue from parts of Bronfenbrenner 's ecological approach we can understand some problems in the relationships between the student, the caregiver, the educators and the law enforcers. In the micro system we can see how the direct connections between the student and the teacher are cold and strict. In many cases students were being forced to pass standardized testing and be well mannered at all times or they were punished. Punishments that were sometimes cruel and unnecessary: detention, and in/out of school suspensions. These types of connections between them can cause issues with trust, respect, and desire to learn from their caregivers. In many cases students, especially from low socioeconomic statuses, were being forced to pass standardized testing and be well mannered at all times or they were punished, enforcers never took into consideration other emotional, biological or

The strengths in my district policy are that it covers our mission, the definitions, the complaint process, consequences, false reporting, retaliation, the investigation process, and preventative activities. The weaknesses of my district policy are that it is a combined policy for staff, students, and volunteers, it does not address community members and parents, and that it does not distinguish between bullying, and sexual harassment laws. My district policy is strong in that it has a mission statement, and it promises commitment to a respectful, safe and civil environment on school property and school-sponsored events. Harassment of students, staff and volunteers is addressed as being against the law and intolerable, and it promises prompt