Two Bills Propose to Repeal GATE
If you have a child in the GATE program, you might be interested in the following:
from an Urgent Action bulletin being circulated around LAUSD:
Assembly Democratic staff have unveiled a proposal for the consolidation of various major categorical education programs, including gifted and talented education (GATE), the school improvement program, instructional materials, the art and music block grant, and beginning teacher support and assessment (BTSA), among others. Assembly Democrats and Republicans have both now introduced major proposals for categorical consolidation. The Republican proposal has been amended into AB 2890 (Duvall). The Democratic proposal is included in AB 2933 (Committee on Education).
Both bills were amended earlier this week and are scheduled for consideration by the Assembly Education Committee on Wednesday, April 16. Although it is not unusual for Republican legislators to propose block grants, the proposal sponsored by the Democratic members of the Assembly Education Committee is serious cause for alarm. Given the Democratic majority in the Legislature, AB 2933 must be considered a very real threat to the continued existence of the GATE program.
Among other provisions, AB 2933 would create a “Pupil support block grant” that would include funding previously allocated under the following major programs: instructional materials, school libraries, the School Improvement Program (SIP), the arts and music block grant, and GATE. The funds could then be used by a school district to “provide pupil support services to pupils in kindergarten through grades 12, inclusive, to increase academic achievement and enrich their overall education.” In other words, the funds could be used for virtually anything the school district wants. The bill then REPEALS the programs that are included in the block grant, including the Gifted and Talented Education program.
The Republican bill, AB 2890, calls its block grant the “Supplemental Academic Support Block Grant” and includes more programs (notably the new school counseling program), but has the same effect of repealing GATE and making the funds available for virtually any use.
IMMEDIATE ACTION REQUIRED
Call the members of the Assembly Education Committee between now and next Tuesday to strongly oppose these two bills. In particular, CAG (California Association for the Gifted) members need to strongly oppose AB 2933, because that bill is the Democratic proposal and thus has the best chance of becoming law.
Key arguments are:
1. Districts already have the flexibility to define the program they want to offer under GATE. The only reason to include these funds in the block grant is to allow those funds to be moved away from services to gifted and talented students.
2. Contrary to common myth, there are many GATE children from poor and limited-English families whose parents cannot protect their interests in school. Given the almost total focus of school accountability on helping low-performing students, the proposed block grant does NOT provide a fair local debate—it puts all the emphasis on low-performing students and the needs of gifted and talented students will be overlooked in many districts.
A list of the members of the Assembly Education Committee is attached. CAG members are urged to call ALL members of the Committee. First priority should be calling those legislators who represent your community or a community near you.
Everyone needs to contact their legislators, but if your assembly person happens to be listed below as a member of the Assembly Education Committee, it is imperative that you contact them immediately and encourage all those around you to do the same. We need everyone to join together to save our gifted programs.
Party, Member
Capitol Office
Phone #
Communities Represented
D - Mullin, Gene - (Chair)
State Capitol, Room 2163
Sacramento, CA 95814
916-319-2019
South San Francisco, Brulingame, San Mateo, Half Moon Bay
D - Brownley, Julia
State Capitol, Room 6011
916-319-2041
Oxnard to Santa Monica, along coast
D - Eng, Mike
State Capitol, Room 6025
916-319-2049
San Gabriel, Alhambra, El Monte, Monterey Park
D - Coto, Joe
State Capitol, Room 2013
916-319-2023
San Jose, Alum Rock
D - Hancock, Loni
State Capitol, Room 4126
916-319-2014
Richmond, Berkeley, Orinda, Lafayette
D - Karnette, Betty
State Capitol, Room 2136
916-319-2054 Palos Verdes, Long Beach
D - Solorio, Jose
State Capitol, Room 2196
916-319-2069
Santa Ana, Anaheim, Garden Grove
R - Huff, Bob
State Capitol, Room 4098
916-319-2060
Diamond Bar, Walnut
R - Nakanishi, Alan
State Capitol, Room 5175
916-319-2010
Lodi, Stockton, Elk Grove
R - Garrick,
Martin State Capitol, Room 2016
916-319-2074
Carlsbad, Oceanside
To find contact information for your local Assembly Member, visit http://www.assembly.ca.gov/.
from an Urgent Action bulletin being circulated around LAUSD:
Assembly Democratic staff have unveiled a proposal for the consolidation of various major categorical education programs, including gifted and talented education (GATE), the school improvement program, instructional materials, the art and music block grant, and beginning teacher support and assessment (BTSA), among others. Assembly Democrats and Republicans have both now introduced major proposals for categorical consolidation. The Republican proposal has been amended into AB 2890 (Duvall). The Democratic proposal is included in AB 2933 (Committee on Education).
Both bills were amended earlier this week and are scheduled for consideration by the Assembly Education Committee on Wednesday, April 16. Although it is not unusual for Republican legislators to propose block grants, the proposal sponsored by the Democratic members of the Assembly Education Committee is serious cause for alarm. Given the Democratic majority in the Legislature, AB 2933 must be considered a very real threat to the continued existence of the GATE program.
Among other provisions, AB 2933 would create a “Pupil support block grant” that would include funding previously allocated under the following major programs: instructional materials, school libraries, the School Improvement Program (SIP), the arts and music block grant, and GATE. The funds could then be used by a school district to “provide pupil support services to pupils in kindergarten through grades 12, inclusive, to increase academic achievement and enrich their overall education.” In other words, the funds could be used for virtually anything the school district wants. The bill then REPEALS the programs that are included in the block grant, including the Gifted and Talented Education program.
The Republican bill, AB 2890, calls its block grant the “Supplemental Academic Support Block Grant” and includes more programs (notably the new school counseling program), but has the same effect of repealing GATE and making the funds available for virtually any use.
IMMEDIATE ACTION REQUIRED
Call the members of the Assembly Education Committee between now and next Tuesday to strongly oppose these two bills. In particular, CAG (California Association for the Gifted) members need to strongly oppose AB 2933, because that bill is the Democratic proposal and thus has the best chance of becoming law.
Key arguments are:
1. Districts already have the flexibility to define the program they want to offer under GATE. The only reason to include these funds in the block grant is to allow those funds to be moved away from services to gifted and talented students.
2. Contrary to common myth, there are many GATE children from poor and limited-English families whose parents cannot protect their interests in school. Given the almost total focus of school accountability on helping low-performing students, the proposed block grant does NOT provide a fair local debate—it puts all the emphasis on low-performing students and the needs of gifted and talented students will be overlooked in many districts.
A list of the members of the Assembly Education Committee is attached. CAG members are urged to call ALL members of the Committee. First priority should be calling those legislators who represent your community or a community near you.
Everyone needs to contact their legislators, but if your assembly person happens to be listed below as a member of the Assembly Education Committee, it is imperative that you contact them immediately and encourage all those around you to do the same. We need everyone to join together to save our gifted programs.
Party, Member
Capitol Office
Phone #
Communities Represented
D - Mullin, Gene - (Chair)
State Capitol, Room 2163
Sacramento, CA 95814
916-319-2019
South San Francisco, Brulingame, San Mateo, Half Moon Bay
D - Brownley, Julia
State Capitol, Room 6011
916-319-2041
Oxnard to Santa Monica, along coast
D - Eng, Mike
State Capitol, Room 6025
916-319-2049
San Gabriel, Alhambra, El Monte, Monterey Park
D - Coto, Joe
State Capitol, Room 2013
916-319-2023
San Jose, Alum Rock
D - Hancock, Loni
State Capitol, Room 4126
916-319-2014
Richmond, Berkeley, Orinda, Lafayette
D - Karnette, Betty
State Capitol, Room 2136
916-319-2054 Palos Verdes, Long Beach
D - Solorio, Jose
State Capitol, Room 2196
916-319-2069
Santa Ana, Anaheim, Garden Grove
R - Huff, Bob
State Capitol, Room 4098
916-319-2060
Diamond Bar, Walnut
R - Nakanishi, Alan
State Capitol, Room 5175
916-319-2010
Lodi, Stockton, Elk Grove
R - Garrick,
Martin State Capitol, Room 2016
916-319-2074
Carlsbad, Oceanside
To find contact information for your local Assembly Member, visit http://www.assembly.ca.gov/.
Labels: AB 2890, AB 2933, CAG, GATE program, lausd
Posted by Debbie @ 4/11/2008 03:28:00 PM
7 Comments:
GATE - The most exploited, outrageous, parental demanded program in LAUSD. Absolutely EVERYBODY has a gifted kid. (wink,wink) The parents all think and wish they were. The truth is that kids just know more than we did as with the generation before and this is a SCAM. I wouldn't allow my child to be tested and that just pissed off my newly named "distinguished" school in the valley. They wanted the money. However, there was no program for those "gifted" kids. They got nothing extra for it. Nothing. They took the money and used it for field trips, but nothing was ever what is was for. It goes into the equivalent of the city's general fund.
Get rid of GATE. I can't say it enough. Forget about those parents. Hey - your kids are smarter than you were. Get used to it. Hey - your kid isn't really beauty pageant material either, but shh.. I'll let you believe it.
All kids are gifted. Some just haven't opened their packages yet.
School unions ruin everything because they are dealing with molding the lives of little humans. Refusing to do any extra work because it's "not your job", such as walking across a playground to unlock a gate every day for safety reasons or taking a turn caring for a class garden. Those things are important things and fat-ass teachers too lazy to walk across the playground or bend over to weed a garden, but hiding behind their union sucks.
Who needs magnets? If you want to end 25% of our traffic problem, force all kids to go to their community schools. You want a good community? Involve your school. Most things center around schools. You want a good school? Involve your community. Magnet programs are stupid. No kids know whether or not they want to be a doctor or an architect or anything else. That's what trade school and college is for. In high school, they should all go to their neighborhood schools and not bused (call a spade a spade) around the city under the guise of a stupid "magnet" program.
Go look up some of those "gifted" kids from your class and see where they all are now.
Ah yes, another Democratic PC motion: based on the false premise that "if your kid is smart, he/she is lucky and will turn out fine no matter what, it's the other end of the spectrum that needs the extra help."
This is such a lie: many problem kids are understimulated gifted ones who pick up the material, then have to sit there and waste time. And put up with the distraction of time- wasting kids who act up, which is upto half the class even in a good area.
I heard that so much from teachers and other parents who resented GATE as though it were just snobby. The fact is all kids have a right to be stimulated, not just the lowest performing.
Which is the problem with the Mayor's plan and why it's yielded no results and never will: instead of putting equal attention on kids wanting and ready to learn but lacking the attention, he ignores these kids as usual. It's the success of these kids who could inspire the whole district, and put their teachers out into the lower- performing communities.
This is like the Democrats diluting the President's tax rebate plan to where the rebate is so much less, and isn't a reward for those who've worked hard and an incentive to spend and stimulate spending: it became a charitable handout to the unemployed and the poor.
Good luck, hope this works, but I long ago gave up on the socialists who run LAUSD and our city. (The few exceptions are too few.)
A Democratic PC motion? No way. You must be the parent of a "gifted child".
I guess you didn't read my post or I didn't explain it all the way.
My child is gifted. It doesn't matter if you sign for the testing, the district will deem you gifted if you test high for 3 years in a row. So like it or not, my son got the label.
He is not, in any way a problem child. He has never been in trouble and he's in 7th grade. I refused to test him in 2nd grade and by 3rd or 4th grade - he was in the gifted (non) program.
He might be bored and not stimulated enough but he does not cause trouble. And all of the gifted kids aren't the trouble makers either.
Kids with ADD may be trouble because at the same time that the teachers should be letting the kid run around the playground - they're benching them instead for some small infraction. So stop punishing by making them sit on their recess. You just give Jan Perry and Lloyd Levine more obesity ammunition. You are in fact, contributing to the problem.
I'm not PC at all. I'm just one who sees the big picture, isn't flattered by the proclamation of my gifted son and don't see any benefit at all. Except that the school gets money. That's it.
The district can and does separate the kids into classes by their test scores. So if there are 4 classes of 5th graders and a total of 76 students, then they should be tested at the beginning of the year and the 19 highest scorers would go to teacher A, the next group of 19 top scorers would go to teacher B, then next group of 19 would go to teacher C, and then the last 19 kids who are the lowest scorers would go to teacher D.
It's not different from your idea about stimulation or not being stimulated since they're in there with a lot of other kids.
I'm not PC Democrat and neither are others who have gifted AND well-behaved children who just think it's a scam for the extra money.
The kids who misbehave should be disciplined by their parents. If they aren't, we should mandate a parenting class.
Isn't Neil Bush involved in this somehow? The pilfering of school coffers that is. Kids today can't read or write, so I'm suspicious of labeling anyone "gifted". It seems you're gifted if you can form a sentence. Let's get back to basics, and fund some electives (remember those? art, symphonic band etc.) AND physical ed because these kids are little fatties waiting to be diagnosed with diabetes. That's when the REAL drain on resources begins.
12:43: You're making no sense, and your ramblings now fall into the category of "Who Cares?" With your cookies and tea parties posts. You want people to right with indignaton to all these electeds, but can't atriculate why, except that somehow he's been labeled "gifted" against your will, yet he's not a "problem child," yada yada.
No clue what you're talking about. There ARE genuinely gifted kids who need the programs, and have high IQ's -- bigotry against them is rampant from those who think it's just a status label, no different than claiming that Yale is differrent from community college. Then these kids are stereotyped as "nerdy" by the pinheads who only can see either/or categories, like "jock" or cheerleader ("Beauty and teh Beast") or gifted, etc. That's the battle parents of genuinely gifted kids have fought.
This is different from the kinds of stupid magnets LAUSD has for performning arts types of "gifted."
In your case, I'd agree you couldn't have a truly gift5:01are usually articulate and smart, too: it comes from a combo of nature and nurture.
No one else seems to know what you're talking about either except maybe 5:01, who 's ranging off about the perf arts/ trade schools, not being smart/ gifted. Whatever.
Anonymous at 5:01PM is absolutely right. Nothing could have said it better. You really understand the problem. Too bad most people don't. It is all a waste of money. That is the way LAUSD works.
Even most special ed money is a waste. Kids put in there just so the district gets more money. I am glad someone understands the problem. Problem is most people even board members don't get it.
Thank YOU for getting it along with me. I am 5:01 PM and I'm also 12:43 AM and I know EXACTLY what I'm talking about.
Now I'm off to feed the gifted children that came from my loins.
I know you, 11:14 AM, don't think I'm bright enough to have a gifted child. I'm not going to argue with you. You're anonymous so I don't care what you think.
But when it comes to what's wrong with LAUSD, I know I'm right. I have a 7th grader and a 12th grader. I've been an elected member of the School Leadership Council and I went to every PTA meeting. I'm right on the money.
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