Capitol Alert

Charles Reed, chancellor of the California State University System for the past 14 years, announced Thursday that he's retiring as it and other state-supported higher education institutions cope with severe budget cuts.

Reed, who came to California after 13 years as chancellor of Florida's state university system, didn't cite money woes as the reason for retiring, but did allude to them in his announcement.

"Our campuses have continued to flourish even in the face of budgetary challenges and tremendous growth, he said. "Throughout my time here, the CSU has grown by more than 100,000 students, and I have been honored to sign more than a million diplomas. I take great pride in the CSU's mission to serve California's students, and I am proud to have played a role in carrying out that mission during these critical years."

As state aid has dwindled in recent years, CSU, the University of California and the state's community colleges have reduced class offerings and raised fees. CSU has been hammered in recent weeks by controversy over raising the salaries of top administrators while increasing students' costs.

Photo Credit: Charles Reed in 2009. Hector Amezcua/The Sacramento Bee

The state's fiscal analyst has explained one way lawmakers could avoid Gov. Jerry Brown's deepest cuts, but the Legislature's top education finance aide said today that solution is unconstitutional.

Rick Simpson, the Assembly's education finance guru, said he believes Brown accurately calculated how much the state owes K-12 schools and community colleges at $53.7 billion in 2012-13. The nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office contends that Brown overestimated that amount by $1.7 billion.

Simpson said he wrote the language in the 2009 budget bill spelling out the formula by which the state must pay schools in years when revenues grow faster than inflation and attendance. "The governor is following what the law says," Simpson said today.

He added that he believes the law merely confirms what voters placed in the constitution with Proposition 98 and Proposition 111.

But the Analyst's Office says that interpretation leads to "irrational outcomes" - such as when Brown announced last week that California owes schools more money despite revenues being lower than expected.

The outcome of the disagreement will likely affect how other programs are treated in the budget and how voters view Brown's push for tax increases in November.

LAO education analyst Edgar Cabral reiterated today, "We think our interpretation is the correct interpretation." Even if the 2009 bill spells out a different formula, Cabral noted that it can be reversed through new legislation and does not reflect what his office believes is in the constitution.

School districts with 2.6 million of the state's 6 million K-12 students are in "financial jeopardy," state schools Supt. Tom Torlakson declared Monday, including 12 so troubled that they are virtually insolvent.

Although the 188 districts rated either negatively - unable to meet their obligations - or "qualified" are just a fraction of the state's 1,037 districts, county offices of education and other "local educational agencies," they included some of the state's largest, including huge Los Angeles Unified, and therefore a major chunk of the student population.

"This is the kind of record no one wants to set," Torlakson said in a statement. "Across California, parents, teachers, and administrators are increasingly wondering how to keep their schools' lights on, their bills paid, and their doors open. The deep cuts this budget crisis has forced - and the uncertainties about what lies ahead - are taking an unprecedented and unacceptable toll on our schools."

The Department of Education's report was issued as the Legislature began perusing Gov. Jerry Brown's revised 2012-13 budget that calls for reconfiguring how state aid to schools is distributed and proposes major cuts in state aid should his sales and income tax package be rejected by voters in November.

Most school districts appear to be planning for a worst case scenario by keying their own 2012-13 budgets to an assumption that taxes do not pass, leading to massive layoff notices for teachers and other school employees.

The largest school district in Torlakson's negative list appears to be Vallejo Unified, but a number of large districts are on the qualified list, which denotes financial problems, including LA Unified, San Diego Unified, Oakland Unified, Elk Grove Unified, Sacramento City Unified and San Juan Unified.

University of California students disrupted a meeting of the UC regents in Sacramento this morning, protesting tuition increases in a sustained chant that forced regents to break early for a closed session meeting.

The regents were about to discuss the impact of Gov. Jerry Brown's May budget revision on the university system when about 18 students dressed in orange prison garb and complaining they were "sentenced to debt" began marching in a circle in the audience.

Regents were expected to return to open session before noon to discuss the budget. The protest died down about 30 minutes after it began.

"The UC regents are closer to Wall Street than they are to the people of California," UC Berkeley student Charlie Eaton said.

The UC system last year raised tuition by about 18 percent over the previous year, and administrators are considering further increases. Brown's May budget revision, released Monday, did not include an additional $125 million for the college system that administrators said they need to avert a potential 6 percent tuition hike.

The crowd included students from UC Davis, where last year's pepper-spraying incident still resonates.

Students in the audience hissed when Nathan Brostrom, a UC vice president, said administrators have "full, unequivocal confidence" in UC Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi.

A member of the audience yelled, "Is that a joke?"

The regents are meeting in Sacramento for the first time since 1993, as administrators lobby lawmakers at the Capitol for additional funding.

Keep the day job, Tom Torlakson.

Similar to David Letterman's "Top 10" lists, the state's superintendent of public instruction has cited 10 specific ways to celebrate National Teacher Appreciation Week through Saturday.

Here is Torlakson's list, with numbers six through 10 meant for parents, the remainder for students:

10 - Parents should hold fundraisers and donate proceeds to schools.

9 - Donate school supplies.

8 - Help in class or at sports events, field trips or on campus.

7 - Treat teachers as professionals and give them the same respect you would give a good friend or child caretaker.

6 - Send a thank-you note or e-mail.

5 - Kids should raise their hands, answer teachers' questions and participate in class.

4--Respect your teacher and fellow students.

3 - Behave in class.

2 - Do your best on homework and in-class assignments.

Number one on Torlakson's Top 10 list is - drum roll, please:

1 - Thank your teacher for all of his or her hard work.

At least one glaring omission, perhaps:

No apple?

PHOTO CREDIT: Tom Torlakson, State Superintendent of Public Instruction, shows a chart that gives the progress California schools have made in testing on Wednesday, August 31, 2011. The Sacramento Bee/Hector Amezcua

Five years after a team of researchers at Stanford University issued a massive study of California's public schools, concluding that the system needed much more money but also major reforms, a followup report from the University of California says there's been a lot of talk but not much progress.

In fact, the new study says, school spending has dropped sharply, largely due to recession and state budget deficits, while politicians and educators discuss structural reforms but haven't been very successful in making them.

"Our initial optimism was unwarranted," says the introduction by Susanna Loeb, an education professor at Stanford and a director of UC Berkeley's Policy Analysis for California Education (PACE) who was a major player in the Stanford study, which was called "Getting Down to Facts."

Loeb said that while the issues raised in the Stanford report have generated much discussion, "the past five years have seen only small improvements."

The new study was unveiled Thursday during a Sacramento conference marking the fifth anniversary of the Stanford report, which was embraced at the time by then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. The Republican governor wanted it to become the centerpiece of what he called "the year of education." However, the state's economy tanked shortly thereafter, resulting in a series of cuts in state support of schools, and changes in how schools are governed and financed have been mostly topics of debate.

The state has installed a centralized computer system to track educational performance, as the PACE report notes, and both Schwarzenegger and Gov. Jerry Brown have pushed for elimination of many of the "categorical aids" that dictate how local school districts must spend state aid. Brown is also proposing a change in aid allocation to give more money to low-performing districts and schools, but he faces stiff opposition from districts that would lose money as a result.

We reported today on University of California campuses enrolling more non-resident students in the wake of state budget cuts. Non-residents pay a nearly $23,000 premium on top of the full $12,192 tuition, and they are ineligible for state financial aid.

We follow up here with some more thoughts that we couldn't include in today's story:

After nearly 30 percent of its incoming freshman class for 2011-12 were from out-of-state - almost three times the proportion just two years earlier - Berkeley slightly reduced its non-resident admissions for Fall 2012, the lone UC to do so. The school accepted 12.6 percent fewer non-resident students for the upcoming year than for Fall 2011 - though still 110 percent more than it did for Fall 2009.

More out-of-state students agreed to come to Berkeley last year than the university anticipated, according to spokeswoman Janet Gilmore. "So, for 2012-13, we offered admission to fewer non-residents, anticipating that we can still hit the same 30 percent target without having to offer admission to as many non-residents as we did the previous year," she said in an e-mail.

The biggest non-resident admissions jump came at UC San Diego, which admitted 75 percent more non-residents for Fall 2012 than it did for last fall's freshman class. That is a significant increase for a university that already saw a huge leap in non-residents last fall.

According to UC registration data, UC San Diego went from 6.7 percent non-residents in Fall 2009 to 18.2 percent non-residents in Fall 2011. If the yield rates hold steady from last year, nonresidents will make up roughly 25 percent of the Fall 2012 freshman class at UC San Diego.

Ratings agency Moody's Investors Service applauded a new University of California, Berkeley proposal to give each UC campus more autonomy, particularly when it comes to setting tuition rates.

Because its seats are so coveted, Berkeley has wanted to charge higher tuition and admit more out-of-state students than other campuses. The school's Center for Studies in Higher Education released a report last month that suggests giving the system's 10 schools greater ability to set policies that fit the "uniqueness of individual campuses."

As we reported today, Berkeley has moved aggressively to admit more non-resident students, who pay a nearly $23,000 premium on top of full tuition, and fewer California residents than the school did prior to 2010.

It is far from clear that UC Regents would consider giving up power to set tuition or admissions policies. And student groups say the campuses have already moved too far toward privatization in the wake of state budget cuts.

But Moody's said the latest proposal "would be a credit positive for UC because the system's leading campuses could better utilize their market potential to generate new student revenues and offset continuing reductions in state support." The ratings agency said the UC system has "considerable untapped pricing power."

The plan might bolster the schools' credit ratings, but not without a cost. Moody's notes, "If the proposal is implemented, the university would be able to command much higher tuition for resident and nonresident students seeking to study at a top research school."

Gov. Jerry Brown wants K-12 districts to plan for the next school year as if voters will pass his $9 billion tax hike in November, but the vast majority of them are refusing to do so, according to a new Legislative Analyst's Office survey.

Nearly 90 percent of respondents said they will wait until after November to spend the money. In doing so, districts will likely lay off more teachers and increase class sizes beyond the level that Brown wants heading into the election.

District officials typically budget conservatively, assuming a worst-case scenario. This year, they have a huge uncertainty in not knowing how the November tax initiative will fare, yet they are required to decide how many teachers and staff to lay off before the school year starts.

According to the survey, 36 percent of districts said they would budget this year without the governor's tax hike but plan to spend the money in 2013-14. One-third of districts said they would wait until after November to figure out how to spend the money in the second half of the school year, while one-fifth said they would predetermine an automatic trigger spending plan that kicks in next spring if the taxes pass.

Only 8 percent of districts said they will pursue Brown's preferred path of installing trigger cuts for the second half of the year should the tax hike fail.

California voters are inclined to support Gov. Jerry Brown's sales and income tax increase, but by a less than overwhelming margin, a new poll by the Public Policy Institute of California has found.

The PPIC poll of likely voters found 54 percent in favor of Brown's tax measure, for which signatures are now being gathered, and 39 percent opposed. The poll also indicated that a rival measure sponsored by civil rights attorney Molly Munger and the state PTA to raise income taxes on most taxpayers for schools faces an uphill struggle.

Brown has attempted to persuade Munger to drop her initiative, but she's poured millions of dollars into signature-gathering and is likely to turn in signatures soon.

Brown has portrayed his measure as one that would save schools from massive cuts, building on an assumption -- confirmed by the PPIC poll -- that K-12 education is the most popular area of the state budget. But Munger contends that Brown's measure would actually give schools little or no new money.

Overall, the poll found, voters are more than willing to tax high-income Californians, as Brown's measure would do. The poll didn't ask about Munger's plan specifically, but showed nearly three-fifths of voters opposed to raising income taxes on most taxpayers for schools, which her measure would do. They also oppose the sales tax component of Brown's proposal, a quarter-cent increase. That opposition drags down overall support for the governor's approach.

The PPIC poll also found that Brown's approval rating among all adults is 43 percent and among likely voters 47 percent, but support for his handling of public education - -the broad subject of PPIC's polling -- drew approval at just half of those levels. In fact just 23 percent of likely voters like his education policies.

However, Brown is doing much better than the Legislature, which gained the approval of just 15 percent of likely voters in the PPIC poll.

The University of California system accepted a record number of 80,289 freshmen for this fall, including a 43 percent increase in students from outside California who would pay higher tuition rates, according to preliminary data released this morning.

The system's nine undergraduate schools saw a combined record 126,455 applicants this year despite massive tuition hikes in the wake of state budget cuts. The systemwide acceptance rate dropped from 69.7 percent to 65.8 percent compared to last year.

Gov. Jerry Brown has proposed spending 21 percent less in 2012-13 than the state did in 2007-08, while undergraduate resident tuition has increased 84 percent, according to the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office. Between 2007-08 and 2011-12, the number of nonresident students, who pay tuition above what it costs to educate them, increased by about a third.

For this fall, UC accepted 18,846 out-of-state and international students, compared to 13,144 last year, a 43 percent rise. By comparison, the number of residents admitted increased by only 3.6 percent, from 59,288 students to 61,443 students.

UC was quick to point out that out-of-state students typically decline admission offers more than California residents and that the system expects to remain below its 10 percent cap on out-of-state population.

Every campus except UC Berkeley saw a rise in out-of-state and international admissions. The biggest spike in non-California admits came at UC San Diego, which saw a 75 percent increase. Berkeley, on the other hand, saw a 12.5 percent decrease in non-California admits.

In a court battle that could shape how schools are funded, a judge tentatively ruled Tuesday that California lawmakers can reduce education funding by diverting state revenues into new pots of money.

School boards and administrators sued the state last fall alleging that Gov. Jerry Brown and lawmakers had shortchanged schools by shifting about $5 billion in sales tax revenues to counties in a new realignment fund.

Under voter-approved Proposition 98, the state is required to devote a specified share of overall general fund revenues to K-12 schools and community colleges. School officials said that by diverting $5 billion in sales taxes, the state avoided sending $2 billion it owed to education last year under the constitution.

In recent years, recalculating Proposition 98 has become a popular solution to balancing the budget in the final days -- as long as the powerful school lobby signs off. Last year, the California Teachers Association agreed to the shift after winning concessions that protected jobs. But school administrators were upset because they said the budget had tied their hands in terms of midyear layoffs or furloughs while cutting $2 billion in the process.

San Francisco Superior Court Judge Harold Kahn issued a preliminary ruling today indicating that he believes the state has the power to create new special funds, and that none of those dollars have to be devoted to schools under Proposition 98.

The Senate Education Committee Wednesday rejected legislation that would have curbed pay increases for college administrators, just a day after trustees of the California State University System gave 10 percent boosts to two university presidents.

Sen. Leland Yee (right), D-San Francisco, argued that his measure, Senate Bill 967, was needed to send a message to trustees that hefty raises are inappropriate while student fees are being increased and enrollment is being curtailed.

But just four members of the Democrat-controlled committee, two short of a majority, voted for Yee's measure and three voted against it.

The bill would prohibit trustees from increasing any monetary compensation of an university executive officer for two years if fees were rising or state appropriations for the system were being reduced. It also would cap the salary increase for any new executive at 5 percent of that paid to his or her predecessor. And it would ask University of California regents to abide by the same rules, although the UC system is constitutionally independent.

On Tuesday, CSU trustees, meeting at the system's headquarters in Long Beach, approved raises for the presidents of CSU East Bay and CSU Fullerton, despite complaints from students and faculty members and public criticism by Gov. Jerry Brown. The 10 percent increases were the maximum allowed under a board policy.

A university official conceded to the Senate committee Wednesday that the raises were "bad optics...bad juju" in light of budget cuts and enrollment restrictions. Critics of the bill said it would set a bad precedent of micromanaging university affairs.

""It is another sad day for our students," Yee said in a statement after the committee action. "Unfortunately, the Education Committee has sent the completely wrong message. Rather than stand up for students and faculty, they protected the 1 percent and condoned CSU's bad behavior. CSU students and California taxpayers deserve better than the status quo."

Frustrated by tuition increases and ongoing spending cuts, California college student leaders criticized Gov. Jerry Brown in an open letter Thursday and complained he hasn't met with them.

"When you were elected in 2010," the students wrote the Democratic governor, "many students hoped that your election would usher in a new era for public higher education in California and reverse the approach taken by your predecessor.

"Thus far, things have not improved, and in fact, in many ways they have worsened."

In their letter, presidents of the University of California Student Association, California State Student Association and Student Senate for California Community Colleges complained Brown hasn't invited them to participate in meetings with college administrators.

Read the letter below.

Press Release Open Letter to Brown 3.15

While California's Latino population is growing, and is likely to become the state's largest ethnic group within a few years, only a tiny percentage of Latinos are seeking and receiving college educations, according to a new data compilation by the Campaign for College Opportunity.

The Los Angeles-based organization says in a new report that while 57 percent of Latino students graduated from high school in 2009 - markedly lower graduation rates than those for white or Asian American students - just 16 percent graduated with the course requirements for the state's four-year colleges, and just 8 percent enrolled in one of those colleges.

The bottom line, the organization says, is that just 7 percent of California's Latinos 25 years or older have baccalaureate degrees, while 30 percent of all Californians have at least bachelor's degrees.

Latino attendance at community colleges is higher. Of Latinos who pursue college educations, two-thirds go to community colleges, but just 20 percent earn certificates or associate degrees or transfer to four-year colleges.

Michele Siqueiros, the campaign's executive director, calls the data "cause for significant alarm" because with the overall Latino population continuing to expand, low Latino college attendance could affect the larger society, especially in jobs that require post-high school education.

"California cannot succeed if its Latino students do not succeed," she said in a statement accompanying release of the report. "At present, our education system, including the community colleges, do not serve Latino students well."

Editor's note: Comments on this story were closed due to hate speech.

Tom Torlakson, the state superintendent of schools, said Thursday that while he supports Gov. Jerry Brown's tax increase ballot measure, he considers Brown is being "blatantly unfair" to schools in targeting them for spending cuts should voters reject new taxes.

Brown holds school financing level in his proposed 2012-13 budget, which assumes passage of his package of sales and income tax increases, but would whack the schools by more than $4 billion if voters reject the package via automatic "triggers."

The either-or nature of the budget is seen in political circles as a way of selling the tax package because schools, polls say, are the single most popular areas of government spending. But it still must be enacted by the Legislature, which is already balking at many of Brown's budget proposals.

Torlakson's criticism of the school spending triggers was just one of several aspects of Brown's budget that drew criticism from the schools chief in an appearance before a state Senate budget subcommittee.

He said he agrees with Brown that a first priority should be to beginning pay down the state's multi-billion-dollar debt to schools from aid deferrals. And he likes Brown's notion of recasting school finance to put more emphasis on schools and students who are performing poorly.

But Torlakson was critical of Brown's plans to move away from academic testing and flatly opposed the governor's proposals to overhaul child care, calling them "misguided" because they would neglect early childhood development while reducing state support.

Jack Scott, California's community college chancellor for the past three years, announced Tuesday that he will retire on Sept. 1.

Scott, a former communtiy college administrator and Democratic state legislator, revealed his retirement plans to the system's statewide board of trustees and said he and his wife, Lacreta, "plan to return to our home in the Pasadena-area. We will enjoy travel and visiting with family and friends."

Scott, 78, said he will do some consulting, but "mainly, retirement will be a time to take it easy after a 58-year career."

Scott, who had been president of Pasadena City College, won an Assembly seat in 1996 and moved to the Senate for two terms in 2000.

PHOTO CREDIT: Jack Scott, chancellor of California Community Colleges, talks about the effects of budget cuts on students during a higher ed advocacy day in the state Capitol on Tuesday, April 5, 2011. Hector Amezcua / Sacramento Bee

Tom Torlakson, the state superintendent of schools, took a stand Tuesday on the three-way political wrestling match over asking voters to raise taxes - sort of.

Gov. Jerry Brown has a proposal to raise income and sales taxes, and is trying to persuade sponsors of two other November ballot measures to benefit schools, a so-called "millionaires' tax" and a broader income tax hike, to drop their campaigns. He says that if all three are on the ballot, voter confusion could sink all of them.

Torlakson told an Assembly budget subcommittee that he sees "the success of governor's November revenue initiative as a vital and essential step...and I urge you to build your budget accordingly."

But under questioning from legislators, Torlakson conceded that education advocacy groups are "all over the map" on which tax plan to support and added, "I personally support all three."

While Torlakson urged lawmakers to build a budget based on Brown's tax increase, and endorsed portions of Brown's proposed overhaul of the state's school finance system, he was skeptical about the governor's plans to also change testing and other academic accountability systems. And he was sharply critical of Brown's plans to overhaul child care.

Finally, Torlakson said it would be "both unfair and harmful" to force schools to take the brunt of spending cuts should voters reject Brown's tax plan, as the governor proposes.

As California school districts cope with declines in local and state revenue, more of them are showing up on the state Department of Education lists of financial distress.

The latest of the semi-annual listings, released Thursday, reveals that a third of the state's 6 million K-12 students are attending schools in 127 districts rated as in danger of being unable to meet their financial obligations, 17 more than made the list a year earlier.

Seven districts were given "negative certification" for being in imminent fiscal danger while 120 others were given "qualified certification," including the state's largest district, Los Angeles Unified.

In the midst of a contract fight, the statewide union representing California State University professors will vote this spring on whether to impose a "rolling" strike at all 23 campuses.

The California Faculty Association, which represents 23,000 professors, counselors and other campus staff, announced that its members will decide in late April whether to impose two-day strikes if mediation fails. Spokesman Brian Ferguson said the strikes could take place toward the end of the spring semester or next fall, depending on the status of talks.

The union said it opposes moving more courses into "extension" programs and wants greater restrictions on class sizes. Faculty also want general salary increases for the past two school years and oppose the chancellor's ability to reopen contract provisions on wages and benefits in the near future.

Faculty struck for one day in November at the East Bay and Dominguez Hills campuses over a separate contract matter.

The April strike vote comes after a series of state budget cuts and tuition hikes in recent years. The system lost $750 million in state funding this past year, while it raised tuition by 23.2 percent.

The CSU Chancellor's Office had no immediate comment Wednesday.

Gov. Jerry Brown today signed legislation restoring $248 million for school buses after rural and urban districts complained that the midyear cut would sink their budgets.

Senate Bill 81 replaces the $248 million bus cut with an across-the-board reduction of roughly $42 per student that affects all K-12 districts. Under the previous plan, the isolated Death Valley Unified School District would have lost $1,734 per student, while Davis Joint Unified would have lost less than $8 per student, according to the California School Boards Association.

The state's coalition of education groups, including teachers, school boards and administrators, supported the change, as did lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. The only opponents were charter schools and some suburban districts that stand to lose more under SB 81 than they did under the bus cut.

The bus reduction was triggered in December when fiscal forecasters determined California would fall $2.2 billion short of the optimistic revenue projections that Brown and lawmakers used last June.

Brown has proposed eliminating bus funding next school year and launching a new block grant for school districts that could pay for some of those costs. But lawmakers seem intent on trying to preserve earmarked school bus money next year.

PHOTO CREDIT: Marlee Redwolf-Rave, 14, left, and another student get off a school bus at Timbisha Shoshone Tribe Reservation in Death Valley on Jan. 10, 2012, after a long drive from Death Valley High school in Shoshone. (Irfan Khan/ Los Angeles Times.)

The Legislative Analyst's Office raised concerns with Gov. Jerry Brown's higher education budget in a new report today, including his plans to tighten Cal Grant requirements and automatically increase funding if his tax plan passes.

After the state slashed its higher education spending by 21 percent during the recession, the Democratic governor has proposed 4 percent annual increases to the University of California, California State University and California Community Colleges for three fiscal years starting in 2013-14 -- but only if voters approve his plan to hike taxes on sales and wealthy earners. If voters reject the plan, the systems would lose state funding in 2012-13.

Brown made the 4 percent promise as a sweetener to his tax proposal, which he's trying to bill as a plan for funding education and public safety. The analyst's office recommended that lawmakers reject the 4 percent promise. Pledging to give automatic increases presents problems, the LAO said, because other parts of the budget could suffer, lawmakers would have little discretion if one higher education system needed more money than another, and the pledge ignores enrollment and inflation, among other reasons.

Department of Finance spokesman H.D. Palmer said the governor wants to give the education systems "a level of stability and predictability."

The analyst's office also raised questions with Brown's plan to increase grade-point average requirements to receive Cal Grant awards.

Gov. Jerry Brown built his budget on the hope of voters passing a multibillion-dollar tax hike in November, but the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office raised questions about his treatment of education funding in a new report issued today.

The governor has said that if voters reject his tax hike on upper-income taxpayers and sales, schools would face mid-year cuts equal to eliminating three weeks of instruction.

The analyst's office said that in order to cut school funding that much, the governor would have to pursue "risky" budget maneuvers that raise serious policy questions. Beyond that, the analyst warned that districts will find it difficult to absorb a roughly 5 percent mid-year program cut and may need special ability to lay off teachers after the November vote.

Brown has political motivation to put education funding on the line in the November election - polls show voters list it as their top priority. While it is true that education takes roughly 40 percent of the state budget - and any revenue loss would thus have to fall partly on schools - the governor's plan may run into problems with the constitution and education groups.

After a mid-year budget cut wiped out school bus funds, state lawmakers are pushing a bill to restore transportation money by cutting general purpose dollars in all districts.

The Senate budget committee amended its Senate Bill 81 in the Assembly yesterday, signaling lawmakers' intent not only to preserve school bus service now, but in the future as well. Gov. Jerry Brown proposed eliminating school bus funds permanently in his 2012-13 budget.

Brown has shown little willingness to reverse cuts, especially with the state facing a new $9.2 billion deficit. With that in mind, SB 81 would replace the $248 million school bus cut with an across-the-board reduction to all districts equal to about $42 per student, shifting more of the pain to suburban districts that don't offer much bus service.

The midyear bus cut hit rural and urban districts particularly hard. According to data compiled by the California School Boards Association, the isolated Death Valley Unified School District would lose $1,734 per student. Meanwhile, Davis Joint Unified would lose less than $8 per student and Rocklin Unified less than $10.

The state's coalition of education groups, which includes teachers, school boards and administrators, supports the change. Brown's Department of Finance does not yet have a position, said spokesman H.D. Palmer.

The reduction was triggered in December when fiscal forecasters determined California would fall $2.2 billion short of the optimistic revenue projections that Brown and lawmakers used last June. Since last month, rural school districts have lobbied lawmakers to reverse the bus cut, noting that it would cause uneven hardship throughout the state.

The Los Angeles Unified School District filed a lawsuit to block the bus cut last month, alleging it would violate federal busing mandates and past court decisions ensuring equal education funding across districts. LAUSD would lose $61 per student, according to the CSBA data.

Updated to clarify that the cut would apply to general purpose funding, which largely pays for classroom instruction but also goes toward administration and other costs.

PHOTO CREDIT: Pleasant Grove High School students get off their bus on Friday, Feb. 20, 2009. The Sacramento Bee/ Hector Amezcua

Gov. Jerry Brown will call for less statewide testing and expanding classroom focus beyond math and English in his annual State of the State address tomorrow, according to his top education adviser.

Sue Burr, executive director of the State Board of Education, told hundreds of school finance officials today that Brown will seek to reduce student testing and push districts to focus on a broader array of subject areas. She spoke at an annual workshop produced by School Services of California, which advises districts on how to budget for the next school year.

"We think there's way, way too much testing in our system right now," Burr said. "Just as an example, a 10th grade student takes 15 hours' worth of tests. So that sophomore is losing 15 hours of their instructional program."

Burr said that while some testing is necessary for measuring schools, Brown will ask lawmakers to "take (hours) away from testing and give it back to instruction."

California's 6 million-student public education system receives high marks for setting high academic standards but very low grades for meeting those standards and school finance in the latest national rankings by Education Week magazine.

Overall, the state receives a "C grade for its public schools with a mark of 76.1 on the 1-100 scale, slightly below the nation as a whole. For the fourth year in a row, Maryland's schools came out on top at 87.8 while South Dakota came in last with 68.1.

The magazine rates states' schools on six criteria - chances for successes, K-12 achievement, standards and assessments, teaching profession improvement, finance and preparing students for work or college. California received an "A" grade for standards and assessments, a "B" for preparing students, a "C" in chances for success, teaching profession improvement and finance, and a "D" in K-12 achievement.

School finance is the area that draws the most political attention, and in that, Education Week says California does well in equalizing support among schools, with a "B-plus," but is given an "F" for spending, reflecting the state's relatively low level of per-pupil support from state and local taxes.

The state's schools have lost billions of dollars in state aid due to chronic budget deficits and are likely to see more cuts this year, but Gov. Jerry Brown has also proposed an overhaul of how aid is allocated, eliminating many "categorical aid" programs and creating a simpler method that gives more aid to schools with poor and/or low-performing students.

California shot and finally scored in the competition for more federal education dollars, as the state was one of nine winners named Friday in the Education Department's Race to the Top-Early Learning Challenge grant program.

But don't count on the funds to relieve California of K-12 cuts. The state will receive $52.6 million, largely to build a new child-care rating system that measures learning environment, teachers and parent involvement, according to the California Department of Education.

California and the eight other states will divvy up $500 million, with the money targeting K-12 school reform plans that, in the words of the Education Department, "raise academic standards, improve teacher and principal quality, build cradle to career data systems and turn around persistently low-performing schools."

The state had previously failed to secure federal grants under the initial round of Race to the Top funding.

The White House announced the grant winners, saying that individual state grants will range from between $50 million and $100 million depending on state population and specific reform plans.

A day after the state cut $100 million to the University of California system, UC Berkeley announced a new plan this morning to cap costs for families earning less than $140,000 a year.

The UC Berkeley aid program, dubbed the Middle Class Access Plan, would limit the required contribution for total attendance costs at 15 percent for families grossing between $80,000 and $140,000 annually. That amounts to a cap between $12,000 and $21,000. The current in-state cost of attending UC Berkeley is $32,634, which includes tuition, living costs and books.

Students would still be required to contribute a share of costs beyond their family contribution, this year set at $8,000, according to spokesman Dan Mogulof.

UC Berkeley estimates the plan will cost the campus an additional $10 million to $12 million starting in 2012-13. The school plans to pay for it with existing financial aid funds, donations and higher revenues generated from out-of-state students.

Families of an estimated 6,000 students would save more than they would under current guidelines, Mogulof said. It was not immediately clear which income groups would benefit most. Those at the upper end of the plan's income range, between $120,000 and $140,000, currently receive little aid, so the plan may provide new relief for those families.

State oversight of seismic and structural safety standards on school construction projects throughout California has been ineffective and incomplete, with thousands of projects left uncertified even after they are finished, the state auditor said today.

State Auditor Elaine Howle said in a report that the Division of the State Architect "has not provided an effective, comprehensive level of oversight of school construction processes," including no evidence of site visits in some cases, and only infrequent site visits in others.

The report, which you can read in full at this link, also criticized the division's oversight of local project inspectors, who are either school district employees or contractors. The state sometimes excused those inspectors from required training and has not always ensured inspectors passed current exams, the audit said.

In violation of regulations, the audit said, California school districts often started construction before the division approved their inspectors.

Yolo County Supervisor Mike McGowan has been elected to a one-year term as president of the California State Association of Counties, moving up the ladder from first vice president.

CSAC, based in Sacramento, is the chief lobbying arm for the state's 58 counties, and has been deeply involved in the realignment of some state services to counties, particularly incarceration and parole for low-level felons who had previously been sent to state prison.

Counties are receiving several billion dollars from the state this year to pay for the realaigned functions, which also include some health and welfare programs, but they are demanding that financing be guaranteed by a constitutional amendment.

Separately, the California School Boards Association announced that Jill Wynns, a member of the San Francisco Unified School District board, has been elected president of that organization, which is based in West Sacramento and is a major component of the Education Coalition that lobbies the Capitol on school finance issues.

Schools are targeted for major cuts if the triggers in the current state budget are pulled because revenues fall short of the budget's estimates. Gov. Jerry Brown has proposed a tax increase for next November's ballot that would restore some funding to the schools.

PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of Mike McGowan, Bee file 2009.

University of California President Mark G. Yudof has appointed the members of a task force to investigate the UC Davis police department's use of pepper spray on Nov. 18.

The task force, headed by former California Supreme Court Justice Cruz Reynoso, will begin its work after the Kroll Consulting firm completes its investigation by early January, said a statement from Yudof.

"The task force will review the findings and, based on available information, assign responsibility for the events of Nov. 18," Yudof's statement says.

It also says the task force is expected to make recommendations to Yudof and UC Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi on improving police procedures, command protocols, campus policies and oversight structures.

"My intent in forming this task force is to allow the UC Davis community to take a fair and uncompromising look at what happened on Nov. 18," Yudof's statement says.

The task force members Yudof named today are:

• Patrick Blacklock, Yolo County administrator and immediate past-chair, nominated by the Cal Aggie Alumni Association
• Peter Blando, business services manager, UC Davis Office of the Vice Provost--Information and Educational Technology, and past chair, UC Davis Staff Assembly, nominated by the UC Davis Staff Assembly
• Alan Brownstein, professor, UC Davis School of Law, nominated by the Academic Senate
• Tatiana Bush, UC Davis undergraduate student and former Associated Students senator, nominated by the Associated Students of UC Davis
• Daniel M. Dooley, senior vice president of external relations, UC Office of the President and designated system-wide administrator for whistleblower complaints; alumnus, UC Davis
• Penny Herbert, manager, UC Davis Department of Clinical Operations, and staff advisor to the UC Board of Regents
• Kathryn Kolesar, chair, UC Davis Graduate Student Association, nominated by the Graduate Student Association
• William McKenna, UC Davis law student, nominated by the Law Students Association
• Carolyn Penny, director in International Law Programs and principal and mediator, Common Ground Center for Cooperative Solutions, UC Davis Extension, nominated by the UC Davis Academic Federation
• Eric Rauchway, professor, UC Davis Department of History, nominated by the Academic Senate
• Judy Sakaki, vice president, student affairs, UC Office of the President and former vice chancellor for student affairs, UC Davis
• Rebecca Sterling, UC Davis undergraduate student and former Associated Students senator, nominated by the Associated Students of UC Davis

The task force's work is one of several investigations taking place into the use of pepper spray on seated protesters. UC Davis and its academic senate are also reviewing the campus police department's response to the Nov. 18 demonstration, and Attorney General Kamala Harris is reviewing a request to look into it as well.

California State University has canceled a meeting scheduled for Monday of a committee of trustees examining compensation for campus presidents, the chancellor's office announced this morning.

The move comes a few weeks after a similar move by the University of California's governing board, which canceled a meeting earlier this month due to threats of violence and vandalism. It also comes on the heels of a turbulent CSU trustees meeting Nov. 16 where protesters shattered a glass door, several police officers were injured and four students were arrested.

"We made this decision based upon our experience at the last board meeting where a large number of protestors attended, which is difficult to manage under the best of circumstances," CSU Board Chair Herbert L. Carter said in a statement.

"Our ability to guarantee the safety of crowds that we anticipate may wish to attend has been further compromised due to the damage to the entrance of our building that is still under repair. In light of all of this, and the fact that the agenda for the special meeting included only one action item, the board made the prudent decision to cancel the meeting."

The committee was scheduled to vote on updating its policy on compensation for campus presidents, an issue that came to the fore over the summer when a new San Diego State president took the job at a salary of $400,000 -- which was $100,000 higher than his predecessor's. The compensation policy will now be considered by trustees during its Jan. 24-25 meeting.

Many demonstrators at a meeting of UC regents on Monday said they planned to go to Long Beach next week to protest at the CSU trustees meeting, and urged people to wear black on that day.

University of California regents approved raises for several high-level employees during their meeting Monday, as we reported in this morning's Bee.

Here are more details about the raises they approved. The first two batches are executives whose salaries are paid for with state funds:

• Two vice chancellors at UC Irvine and a vice chancellor at UCLA got raises of 9.9 percent. That brings salaries for Wendell C. Brase and Meredith Michaels at UC Irvine to about $247,000, and salary for Steven A. Olsen at UCLA close to $317,000.
• Joseph I. Castro was appointed interim dean of the graduate division of UC San Francisco and given a 7.5 percent raise, bringing his salary to $252,625.

The head lawyers of six UC campuses received raises ranging from 6.4 percent to 21.9 percent:

• Steven A. Drown, chief campus counsel at UC Davis, got a 21.9 percent raise, bringing his salary to $250,000.
• Diane F. Geocaris, chief campus counsel at UC Irvine, received a 14.3 percent raise, bringing her salary to $255,000.
• Carole R. Rossi, chief campus counsel at UC Santa Cruz, received a 13.9 percent raise, bringing her salary to $215,000.
• Michele Coyle, chief campus counsel at UC Riverside, received an 11.4 percent raise, bringing her salary to $215,000.
• Marcia J. Canning, chief campus counsel at UC San Francisco, received an 8.9 percent raise, bringing her salary to $255,000.
• Daniel Park, chief campus counsel at UC San Diego, received a 6.4 percent raise, bringing his salary to $250,000.

Regents also approved three compensation items for positions that are not paid for with state money:

• Lynda Rogers was appointed dean of University Extension at UC Santa Cruz, with a salary of $165,000
• A new position of chief strategy officer for the UC Davis Health System was created, to oversee the Medical Center and the School of Medicine. Salary for the position will range from $214,700 to $333,700.
• Vincent L. Johnson, chief operating officer of the UC Davis Medical Center, got a 23 percent raise, bringing his salary to $553,500. A staff report says Johnson is being recruited by another hospital offering him more than $650,000.

"We consider these retention efforts to be essential," UC President Mark Yudof said during the meeting at which regents approved a budget request asking the state for an 18 percent increase in funding. "I understand it's not a great time, but we can't really close down shop and say we're not going to make any effort to retain our best people."

More information on the compensation items approved Monday is available here.

In the wake of violence on UC campuses, Gov. Jerry Brown today asked a statewide law enforcement commission to review guidelines for crowd control and "without delay" make "whatever changes are necessary to ensure compliance with First and Fourth Amendment protections against excessive force."

Brown said the commission should consider changes to its 2003 Crowd Management and Civil Disobedience Guidelines.

"I am seriously concerned that the rules governing the use of force, in particular the use of pepper spray, are not well understood in the context of civil disobedience and various forms of public protest," Brown wrote to Paul Cappitelli, director of the state Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training. "The recent 'occupation' protests in cities throughout California and on campuses of the University of California underscore the urgency of articulating guidelines that are crystal clear and comport with constitutional requirements."

Brown, who returned to California over the weekend after a vacation out of state, had been silent about the pepper spraying of protesters by police at UC Davis and a clash between protesters and police at UC Berkeley.

The commission sets operation and training standards for about 600 law enforcement agencies in California that participate voluntarily.

The Legislature will hold a hearing next month to investigate the recent use of police force in response to protests on University of California campuses.

The joint hearing of the Assembly Higher Education Committee and Senate Education Committee will be held Wednesday, December 14, Assembly Speaker John A. Pérez announced today.

"Like most Californians, I have been absolutely appalled at some of the incidents that have taken place in recent days against peaceful protestors," Pérez said in a statement. "Students, parents and the public deserve to have answers to the myriad of troubling questions these incidents have raised."

Police at UC Berkeley jabbed protesters with batons two weeks ago, and video footage of police pepper-spraying seated protesters at UC Davis last week has been watched by millions of people worldwide. UC leaders responded yesterday by announcing they'll conduct a "thorough examination of police procedures, protocols and training," and the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California is investigating the incidents.

University of California regents have rescheduled the meeting that was canceled this week by threats of violence. They are now planning to meet on Monday, Nov. 28.

UC's governing board was never scheduled to vote on a tuition increase at the November meeting, though some groups planning protests distributed publicity material saying it was. Regents canceled the meeting scheduled for Wednesday in San Francisco, citing "credible intelligence" that planned protests could result in violence and vandalism.

The newly scheduled meeting will take place at four campuses -- in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Davis and Merced -- that will be connected by teleconference. Regents have expanded the time available for public comment, from 20 minutes to one hour. Members of the public can attend the meeting at any of the four locations.

The board is scheduled to discuss several financial matters, including its request to the state for a 2012-13 budget of $2.8 billion.

You can see the agenda and specific meeting locations on each campus here.

Most Californians are worried about decreased funding for the state's public colleges and universities -- but don't want to pay higher taxes to alleviate budget cuts and tuition increases.

Those are some findings from a new survey by the Public Policy Institute of California on state residents' views on higher education. Specifically, the survey found that:

• 62 percent of residents think public higher education in California is headed in the wrong direction
• 61 percent say affording college is a big problem for students
• 74 percent say there is not enough state funding for higher education
• 65 percent say that public colleges and universities have been affected a lot by budget cuts

But it also found that:

• 69 percent are opposed to increasing student fees to maintain current funding
• 52 percent are unwilling to pay higher taxes to maintain current funding

So how should California come up with money for colleges and universities?

The survey says that 59 percent of Californians would rather see the state spend more on public higher education "even if this means less money for other state programs."

It says 52 percent favor admitting more out-of-state students who pay higher tuition, though support for that idea drops to 20 percent if it means admitting fewer students from the Golden State.

And one idea that garners support is "a hypothetical statewide bond measure to pay for construction projects in the state's higher education system." Fifty-eight percent of those surveyed said they would vote for such a measure, which would require a simple majority vote to pass.

Read the full survey at this link.

California State University trustees today approved a 9 percent tuition increase to take effect this fall, university spokeswoman Claudia Keith said, increasing the cost of attending a state college by $498 a year.

The vote came after trustees reconvened their meeting in a different room following an outburst of protests in the normal meeting room at the CSU Chancellor's Office in Long Beach. Protesters broke a glass door, injuring three police officers, said CSU spokesman Erik Fallis. One of the officers has been transported for medical care, he said.

Four people were arrested, Fallis said. One is a Cal State Long Beach student, two are San Diego State students. Fallis did not identify the fourth person, but said he was arrested for breaking the glass door.

The California Faculty Association -- the union that represents CSU professors -- sent an email report saying:

Police pepper sprayed the front door of Chancellor Reed's HQ, where the trustees were meeting to push the students out. Faculty members are trying to leave the building now as riot police are marching toward the protest.

A group called ReFund California, which is backed by several large labor unions, had pledged to protest at today's trustees meeting. Many members of the group spoke before the chaos erupted, calling on Cal State leaders to support higher taxes on corporations and the wealthy to fund public education and other services that have been reduced as the state has struggled with ongoing budget deficits.

Check back for continued updates to this story.

PHOTO CREDIT: An injured California State University police officer stands with other police near the entrance to the California State University Board of Trustees meeting in Long Beach. A struggle erupted between demonstrators and police Wednesday as trustees of the huge CSU system met to vote for another tuition hike. Associated Press/Nick Ut

Angry about tuition increases and budget cuts in California's poor financial state, about 100 University of California students protested at the Capitol this morning and flooded elected officials' offices with phone calls.

The protest came after the University of California, fearing student protests could turn violent, canceled governing board meetings scheduled for today and Thursday in San Francisco.

"We wanted to let them know that canceling a meeting will not impede upon our efforts to protect and defend higher education," Joey Freeman, a student organizer from UC Berkeley, said at a news conference on Capitol's north steps.

The students came on buses from UC Berkeley and UC Davis. A bus that was scheduled to pick up students in Merced failed to show up at that campus, said Jonathan Stein, an organizer.

"Student activism is consistently hampered by logistical problems," he said.

Before the news conference, Stein distributed scripts to students, and they spent about 30 minutes calling the offices of Gov. Jerry Brown and legislative leaders from their cellphones.

The University of California regents canceled their meeting this week for fear of violent protests.

California State University trustees could vote on a proposal to raise tuition 9 percent starting in the fall of 2012.

The Bee's Laurel Rosenhall talked to Jeffrey Callison this morning on Capital Public Radio's program "Insight" about California's higher education systems, including the impacts of the Occupy movement, the state's budget cuts and labor issues such as the upcoming faculty strike.

If you missed the show, you can listen to the archived broadcast by clicking here. Her interview is during the first 12 minutes of the show.

The University of California has canceled the meeting of its governing board scheduled for later this week out of fears that protests against UC regents could turn violent.

Protests by labor unions and student groups are not uncommon at regents meetings, but UC officials announced today that they had reason to believe the actions planned for the meeting on Wednesday and Thursday in San Francisco would be unusually disruptive. UC decided to postpone the meeting after law enforcement officials disclosed credible threats.

"From various sources they had received information indicating that rogue elements intent on violence and confrontation with UC public safety officers were planning to attach themselves to peaceful demonstrations expected to occur at the meeting," said a joint statement from Regents Chair Sherry Lansing, Regents Vice Chair Bruce Varner and UC President Mark Yudof.

"They believe that, as a result, there is a real danger of significant violence and vandalism," the statement says.

The statement does not name any individuals or groups that posed a threat.

A union-backed group called Refund California planned to organize buses to bring people from college campuses across the state to the regents meeting. The group wants UC regents -- many of whom serve on corporate boards -- to support the its proposal to raise taxes to alleviate the budget cuts public universities have faced in recent years.

UC has not yet scheduled a new date for the meeting, at which regents were to discuss the university's 2012-13 budget proposal.

California State University trustees will vote Wednesday on raising fees by $498, or about 9 percent, for fall 2012. That would bring annual tuition for undergrads at CSU's 23 campuses to $5,970, not including books, room or board. Most campuses charge an additional $1,000 in local fees.

The tuition increase is part of the university's larger plan for its 2012-13 budget. Trustees are also voting Wednesday on a proposal to ask the state for $2.4 billion in funding next year, an increase of $330 million over this year. If all of it comes through, CSU will not implement the tuition hike.

"We won't have to increase tuition for the fall if the state provides adequate funding in next year's budget," Chancellor Charles Reed said this morning in a phone call with reporters.

Universities make budget requests to the state every year but it's been many years since they received anything close to what they requested. For the current year, the state cut both CSU and University of California by $650 million. The state will cut the two systems by another $100 million each next month if mid-year budget projections are not met. A $750 million cut would translate to a 27 percent drop in funding for CSU compared with last year, Reed said.

Read CSU's tuition proposal on page 20 of the meeting agenda posted here.

The University of California will not raise tuition this school year even if state budget triggers are pulled next month and the system loses another $100 million, UC President Mark Yudof said today.

His announcement puts UC in line with CSU and the community colleges, which earlier had waved off potential mid-year tuition increases if state budget triggers are activated.

The state budget adopted in June cut UC by $650 million this year. UC responded over the summer by raising tuition for the fall by about 18 percent over last year.

Brown administration officials will decide next month whether cash receipts through the first part of the fiscal year and revenue forecasts for the first half of 2012 warrant further cuts, including $100 million to each higher education system.

The union that represents 23,000 professors, librarians and coaches at California State University voted today to strike on Nov. 17, cancelling classes for tens of thousands of students at the system's East Bay and Dominguez Hills campuses.

"Our members are angry and are willing to take this kind of action to get the attention of the chancellor," California Faculty Association President Lillian Taiz said in a phone call with reporters.

The faculty union has been at odds with university management for years, and campus protests denouncing Chancellor Charles Reed are not uncommon. But this is the first time the union has ever approved a strike, Taiz said.

The parties are negotiating a new contract as well as "re-openers" from their prior contract. Faculty are striking over an issue in the prior contract: the university's decision not to grant a so-called "equity raise" program that would increase the salary of faculty who have been with the university for many years but make less than recently-hired professors. The increases would affect 40 percent of the faculty, the university says, and cost $20 million.

The union says the raises are needed in the interest of fairness, and that the money is a tiny portion of CSU's overall budget. The university says it's already agreed to more than $59 million in raises for the faculty for the two years of the contract that's been re-opened, and that state budget cuts in recent years make it imprudent to spend more.

"The $20 million CFA is... striking over would pay for 315 full-time temporary lecturer jobs, enrollment of 2,800 students or 3,150 course sections," says a statement from the CSU Chancellor's Office.

Faculty at all 23 CSU campuses will be holding informational pickets tomorrow and Wednesday in advance of the Nov. 17 strike.

The wave of anger at banks that has swept the country with the recent "Occupy" movement is coming to California college campuses next week.

A union-backed group calling itself "Refund California" is organizing protests on Wednesday at more than a dozen college campuses, including Sacramento State and UC Davis.

The group argues that banks created the country's economic collapse that decimated state budgets and led to massive tuition hikes in recent years. It is calling on leaders of the public universities to pledge support for higher taxes on corporations and wealthy individuals as a way to restore funding for jobs and education.

The group sent letters today to University of California regents and trustees of the California State University, asking them to sign the following pledge:

Leaders of California's community college system are touring the state asking for feedback on a set of recommendations they believe will help more students complete their studies and land a job.

Sounds simple enough, but some of the suggestions are likely to stir opposition from various corners of the education environment -- there are some ideas faculty will likely balk at, and other ideas students are sure not to like.

The draft report by the "Student Success Task Force" calls for refocusing the state's 112 community colleges to emphasize goal completion, rather than the historic priority on open access to all. It includes 23 recommendations. Among them:

• Create a statewide assessment system so that students can take classes at different community colleges without taking a placement test at each campus.


• Require students to declare a program of study early in their academic career; create an online advising system that helps students keep track of progress toward their goals


• Adopt course-registration priorities that are the same statewide so that students who are new to the college can sign up early on.


• Cut off fee waivers to students who are persistently failing or dropping courses.

"We think with these kinds of policies we're going to say to some people: 'Get serious,'" Chancellor Jack Scott told The Bee's editorial board on Monday. "'Don't just be a professional student, dabbling in a whole lot of things.'"

College officials are holding public meetings to take feedback on the report -- in Fresno on Wednesday, in Orange County on Saturday and in Oakland on Nov. 16. You can see more about those meetings and links to the report here.

Community college leaders are supposed to finalize their recommendations in January, when they will also develop a package of bills intended to implement some of the changes.

It's a uniquely Berkeley scene.

College Republicans are selling cupcakes priced according to the buyer's race to highlight opposition to a bill they believe would overturn the state's ban on affirmative action in college admissions. Meanwhile, hundreds of demonstrators dressed in black are gathering to protest the Republican protest.

That's how a live blog by student reporters at the Daily Cal is describing today's actions at UC Berkeley -- a massive wave of lobbying prompted by dueling views of Senate Bill 185. The bill by Sen. Ed Hernandez, D-West Covina, would allow California's public universities to use race as a factor in the admissions process, though it would not allow preferences for any racial groups.

Students who support the bill are working the phones on the Berkeley campus, urging people to call Gov. Jerry Brown and ask him to sign it. The Daily Cal reports that Ward Connerly is on campus to help the Berkeley College Republicans oppose the bill with their bake sale, which had advertised that treats would cost $2 for whites, $1.50 for Asians, $1 for Latinos, 75 cents for African Americans and 25 cents for Native Americans.

Read the student newspaper's up-to-the-minute coverage here.

PHOTO CREDIT: A student who identified herself as "Hannah" sells baked goods during the "Increase Diversity Bake Sale" led by the Berkeley College Republicans Tuesday, Sept. 27, 2011, at the University of California campus in Berkeley. (AP Photo/Ben Margot)

This post was updated at 1 p.m. to reflect approval of the raises by the full board of regents.

University of California Regents approved raises for two top UC Davis Medical Center executives today.

Chief Executive Officer Ann Madden Rice was granted a raise of nearly $259,000, bringing her compensation to $960,000 a year. UC officials said Rice was being recruited by another academic hospital that was offering her a salary of $1.5 million. The raise UC is giving her is contingent on Rice withdrawing her application from the other hospital.

Vice Chancellor Claire Pomeroy was given a raise of nearly $27,000, bringing her compensation to $664,275. UC officials praised Pomeroy for overseeing the UC Davis medical school during a period when its national rankings rose significantly and the school doubled the amount of federal research funds it takes in.

Funding for Rice's and Pomeroy's salaries comes from hospital fees, not the state's general fund.

Their raises were among about a dozen compensation items the regents approved, including raises for medical executives at the Irvine, Los Angeles, San Francisco campuses and managers of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. They also approved bonuses for Marie Berggren, UC's Chief Investment Officer, and Jack Stobo, UC's senior vice president of health sciences and services. None of those positions are paid with state funds.

The only salary they approved that is funded by state government was the appointment of Barbara Allen-Diaz to fill the position of vice president of agriculture and natural resources. She will earn $280,000, about $40,000 less than her predecessor.

Details of all the salary adjustments are available here.

PHOTO CREDIT: Ann Madden Rice

The state Assembly voted today to send Gov. Jerry Brown a bill that allows undocumented immigrant college students to receive publicly-funded financial aid.

After a lengthy debate, Assembly Bill 131 -- the second part of the controversial measure known as the California Dream Act -- cleared the lower house on a 45-27 vote.

"Today is a wonderful day," said Assemblyman Manuel Perez, D-Coachella. "Today is a day of hope. Today, there are many students throughout the state of California who are saying, 'It's about time.'"

The Assembly today passed a bill that would allow non-medical school employees to give anti-seizure medication to epileptic students, sending the emotional issue a crucial step closer to final approval by Gov. Jerry Brown.

After 40 minutes of passionate debate on the Assembly floor, the lower house approved Senate Bill 161 with a vote of 47 to 15. It garnered substantial support from Democrats -- 22 out of 52 supported the bill -- despite opposition from the state's Democratic party chairman and several large labor unions.

"While it's not perfect, this bill is about saving the life of a child or saving permanent brain damage (from happening) to a child," said Assemblywoman Julia Brownley, D-Santa Monica, explaining why she was voting in favor of the bill.

Opponents also cited the well-being of children in making the case for their opposition.

"Let's vote no," said Assemblyman Sandre Swanson, D-Oakland. "And let's work immediately to fund nurses at schools, ...the best possible care for our children."

The bill is the second attempt by Sen. Bob Huff, R-Diamond Bar, to permit non-nurses to administer a drug called Diastat to school children experiencing seizures. Labor unions, including those representing nurses, teachers and support staff, oppose the bill. They argue that the medication, which must be injected into the patient's rectum, is difficult to administer and should only be done by a nurse. Supporters, including parents of epileptic students, said that most schools don't have a nurse on site every day and that their children must be protected if a seizure occurred during the school day.

The bill says school employees who volunteer to administer the drug will receive training.

The bill now returns to the Senate -- which approved it 32-4 earlier this year -- for a final vote that would send it to Gov. Jerry Brown's desk.

The University of California spent more on compensation in 2010 than it did the year before, but UC is relying less on students and the state's general fund to make payroll -- and more on its hospitals and the federal government.

Those are some findings from the annual report on compensation UC released today. The report compares UC's compensation practices from 2009 to 2010. Among the details:

• UC's total payroll grew by $107.7 million, or about 1 percent, during the period. UC spent $9.9 billion -- nearly half of its operating budget -- on salaries in 2010.

• The amount of UC's payroll that came from student fees and the state's general fund went down 6 percent, while the amount of its payroll that came from the federal government went up 8 percent and the portion coming from its hospitals went up 3 percent.

• UC spent $5.2 million less on salaries for teaching faculty, but $76.4 million more on salaries for clinical faculty. It also increased salary for health care employees by $62.7 million.

Read the full report here.

While state school officials continuously lament reductions in state education financing, they also continue to report fractional gains in academic achievement, with the latest being an upbeat report on high school exit examination passage rates.

State schools Supt. Tom Torlakson said Wednesday that nearly 95 percent of those in this year's senior class passed the test and passage rates among African American and Latino students increased.

"It is heartening to see that our students continue to learn and achieve despite the painful toll that budget cuts are taking on our schools," Torlakson said. "The results of this year's exit examination--and the progress schools are making to close the achievement gap--are yet another sign of the remarkable commitment that teachers, school employees, and administrators have to the students of California."

The results, are broken down by county, district and school as well as demographic subgroup.

Torlakson said they show increasing passing rates among most demographic subgroups with approximately 94.6 percent or 422,558 students in the Class of 2011 successfully passed both the English-language arts and the mathematics portions of the exit exam by the end of their senior year. The passage rate in 2010 was a tenth of a percentage point lower, 94.5 percent.

The exit exam completion rate among black students increased from 89.6 percent in 2010 to 90.9 percent this year while that of Latinos increased from 91.4 percent to 92.3 percent. That of Asian American students also increased from 97.4 percent to 97.7 percent while among white students, it increased from 98.1 percent to 98.4 percent.

Another trend in the latest report is that more students are taking and passing the test in the 10th grade, the first time it is administered. More than 82 percent of this year's sophomores have already passed the English and mathematics portions of the test.

Leaders of California's public colleges and universities said today that they are preparing for mid-year "trigger" cuts to their already-reduced budgets.

Under the budget Gov. Jerry Brown signed at the end of June, California State University and University of California stand to lose another $100 million if revenues do not meet expectations by the end of this year. California's community colleges are in line to lose $102 million in trigger cuts, Chancellor Jack Scott said in a conference call with reporters today.

"I'm sure they'll ... cut back on the number of sessions they'll offer in the spring and many of them will eliminate their summer sessions," Scott said of the state's 72 community college districts.

Brown's budget called for community colleges to handle the trigger cut by raising tuition from $36 a unit to $46 unit. But Scott said he hoped to convince lawmakers not to implement the tuition increase until the fall.

CSU Chancellor Charles Reed said he thought his system could handle the $100 million trigger cut without raising tuition in the middle of the school year. But he said he's not clear if the trigger cut would be ongoing.

"If they pull the trigger, is that a one-time $100 million (cut) and they'll replace it next year?" Reed said.

"If it is a one-time cut, we can muddle our way through. If it is a continuation cut, that is going to be much harder going into 2012-13."

How many legislators does it take to craft a bill limiting executive pay at California's universities?

At least four, apparently.

A flurry of bills on that theme have been introduced this week. All are responding to last month's decision by trustees of the California State University to award the new president of San Diego State a salary $100,000 higher than his predecessor's -- at the same meeting they raised student tuition by 12 percent.

The current tally of bills on university executive pay includes these:

• Senate Bill X1 25 by Sen. Elaine Alquist, D-Santa Clara, would prevent CSU from giving administrators raises above 10 percent in any year the university increases tuition for students. It would include sitting executives and new hires.

• Senate Bill X1 26 by Sen. Ted Lieu, D-Torrance, would limit CSU presidents' pay to 150 percent of the salary earned by California's chief justice, or $343,269 this year; would prohibit pay hikes if tuition has increased within three years; and would compel CSU trustees to give preference to applicants within the CSU system when hiring a campus president.

• Senate Bill X1 27 by Sen. Leland Yee, D-San Francisco, would prohibit executive pay raises at CSU and UC in any year the university systems' state funding is reduced.

• Assembly Bill X1 39 by Assemblyman Roger Hernández, D-West Covina, would prohibit UC and CSU from using state funds or student fees to give pay raises to administrators in any year the state cuts funding to the university systems. It would also cap salary for CSU presidents at $300,000 and cap salary for UC chancellors at $326,000.

By Phillip Reese
preese@sacbee.com

State Controller John Chiang has asked the University of California system to disclose employee pay data so he can publish it online, but system officials say they probably aren't going to give Chiang all that he wants.

Meanwhile, the comprehensive listing of UC salaries that the UC system usually publishes on its own each year -- posted in a searchable database at www.sacbee.com/statepay -- has been delayed once again, and is now several months late compared to previous years.

UC pay is a hot topic at the moment as students and parents wonder whether fee increases have partially gone to fund pay raises for staff, administrators and faculty. Without 2010 pay data, there's no definitive, comprehensive answer yet to that question.

Sen. Leland Yee is hoping the third time's a charm.

Senate Bill 8, which would expand the authority of the California Public Records Act on the state's college campuses, is heading to Gov. Jerry Brown for consideration.

The San Francisco Democrat's two previous bills to subject college auxiliary organizations, such as foundations, to the state's public records act were vetoed by then Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The Senate approved amendments to the current version today, 36-1, sending it to Brown's desk.

Private organizations that support public universities are now exempt from having to disclose much of the information that public agencies usually make public.

For example, last year the foundation at California State University, Stanislaus, declined to report how much it was paying former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin to speak at a fundraiser -- until it was forced to do so by the courts. Yee made national headlines by drawing attention to the case.

As University of California students head back to school paying tuition nearly 10 percent higher than last year, UC employees are starting the new school year with news that they could get a raise.

UC President Mark Yudof sent a letter to campus chancellors today outlining the details of a merit increase program that will provide staff members earning under $200,000 and faculty at all salary levels a shot at a 3 percent raise.

"One purpose of this pool is to give you a tool in your efforts to recruit and, most importantly, retain leading faculty members, who increasingly are being courted by competing institutions," Yudof wrote. "As I have said on many occasions, University quality cannot be compromised, and our excellent professors and researchers are the fountainhead of that quality."

Yudof added that staff who are not unionized have not received merit or cost-of-living increases in nearly four years, while most staff represented by unions have received the increases called for in their contracts. "Fairness dictates that we take this step," he wrote.

UC spokesman Steve Montiel said all professors who receive a positive performance evaluation this fall will get a 3 percent raise. Non-academic staff members who are not represented by unions will receive raises between zero and 6 percent, he said, depending on how they are rated on their performance reviews.

Find Yudof's letter below:

State Controller John Chiang today asked California's 72 community college districts to submit information on employee pay to the database he is compiling of local government salaries.

"The California Community Colleges, the nation's largest higher education system serving more than 2.7 million students, has earned and must continue to earn the public's confidence that it provides education in a cost-efficient manner," says the letter by Chiang and Jack Scott, chancellor of the state's community college system.

"In this vein, we ask you, as well as your peers in each of the system's 72 districts, to work closely with the State Controller's Office to collect and deliver this (compensation) information for each of your employees, as well as the members of your board of trustees."

Assembly Republicans questioned Wednesday whether the state budget meets a constitutional requirement for school funding in a letter sent Wednesday to Attorney General Kamala Harris.

The formula-based requirement, Proposition 98, determines the minimum amount the state must provide K-12 schools and community colleges each year. That amount increases whenever the state receives more revenues, which posed a challenge for budget writers this year because they relied on a revenue spike to help fill the state's $26 billion hole.

To ensure the state could apply more money to the deficit rather than increasing school budgets, lawmakers shifted more than $5 billion in statewide sales tax revenues to counties. They said that because this money was headed to county coffers, rather than to the state's, schools weren't owed an additional $2.1 billion they might otherwise receive.

Gov. Jerry Brown named six people Tuesday to the troubled Commission on Teacher Credentialing, fulfilling a vow to bring new leadership to a board whose teacher disciplinary practices were roundly criticized by a state audit.

The University of California should make more information about its finances available to the public, according to a report released today by State Auditor Elaine Howle.

The 92-page audit found huge disparity in the amount of money UC doles out to each of its 10 campuses, with UC Santa Barbara receiving $12,309 per student and UC San Francisco receiving $55,186 per student. The audit says UC sends less money to schools that serve greater numbers of black and Latino students, and recommends the university do a better job demonstrating the rationale for funding campuses so differently.

UC's response says the racial correlation the auditor draws is "unwarranted and inflammatory." It says campuses with greater numbers of graduate students and science students get more funding because those programs are costlier.

Gov. Jerry Brown has scored $1 million from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for the state's colleges.

During the next 18 months, the grant from the Completion Innovation Challenge is meant to help the state's community college system and the California State University system align requirements for at least 10 degrees.

Some transfer students take as many as 40 more units than the 120 needed to graduate from the CSU system because many of its universities don't count some community college units. Amid budget cuts, that has amounted to crowded classrooms and wasted money, according to Linda Michalowski, a vice chancellor for the community college system.

A state law that went into effect this year is intended to encourage transfer students to take 60 units at a community college and the remaining 60 units within the CSU system. Community college officials say that will save the system $160 million a year. So far, for example, the systems have agreed to simplify transfer requirements for a bachelor's degree program in communications studies as well as a few other majors.

University of California regents today voted to raise tuition by about $1,070, sending the total cost to $12,192 for the upcoming school year.

After a recently approved $650 million cut in state funding, UC regents said they had no choice but to raise tuition to close about a quarter of the system's $1 billion budget deficit. When combined with a previous hike, tuition will be 18 percent more -- about $1,890 -- in fall 2011 than it was in fall 2010. Each campus also charges undergraduates about $1,000 in additional fees.

Regents said they were unhappy about raising tuition but they felt compelled to do it to preserve UC's academic quality.

"To not support the faculty is totally irresponsible. We can't support the faculty unless we have these tuition increases," said Regent Richard Blum.

Four regents voted against the tuition increase: Eddie Island, Alfredo Mireles, George Marcus and Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom.

"The biggest threat to our democracy is income inequality, the loss of the middle class," Newsom said. "And here we are once again, putting the nail in the coffin of the middle class. That's exactly who gets hurt in this debate."

Not yet an "A" grade, plenty of work remaining -- but no longer at risk of flunking out.

That essentially was the Legislature's Joint Legislative Audit Committee report card Wednesday on the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing's response to a blistering state audit which found flaws that could pose risks to children.

State Auditor Elaine Howle, who said following the audit's release in April that the commission was one of the "worst-run" state agencies she ever had investigated, gave a tentative thumbs-up Wednesday to progress made since then.

"I think they have started to take steps in the right direction," Howle said, adding that it is too early to draw firm conclusions but she expects to see "quite a bit of corrective action completed" by next spring.

Of 13 recommendations in the audit, corrective action was pending or had partially been implemented in 12, Howle said. The lone exception involved tracking cases after they have been assigned to investigators.

The State Board of Education today gave tentative approval to rules outlining how parents may petition to dramatically restructure their children's low-performing schools.

The nine-member board voted unanimously to provide a final 15-day comment period before they vote in September to officially adopt the regulations. But board president Michael Kirst doubted members would make any significant changes to what was approved today.

The rules reflect a give-and-take between the powerful California Teachers Association and the well-funded advocacy group Parent Revolution. The regulations would fill in the gaps of the controversial "parent trigger" law signed last year by former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger after it squeaked through the Legislature.

The law allows parents to demand one of four school overhauls if a majority of parents at the school or from feeder schools petition for the change.

Elliot Hirshman, the new president of San Diego State University, became the highest-paid campus president in the California State University system when trustees awarded him a $400,000 salary yesterday.

Sacramento State President Alexander Gonzalez makes $355,000, including a $60,000 housing allowance. The lowest-paid president in the system is William Eisenhardt, who heads the Maritime Academy in Vallejo. He earns $258,680 and is provided a house to live in.

Here is a list from CSU that shows salaries of each campus president and several executives in the chancellor's office:

CSU ExecCompSalary2011_12

Editors note: This story was updated at 2:40 p.m. with a list that corrects the amount of the foundation supplement for the San Diego State president.

The beleaguered California Commission on Teacher Credentialing has named Elizabeth L. Graybill, a key employee of the Senate Education Committee, as its interim executive director until a permanent chief can be found.

Graybill, who begins her new job Monday, will serve on "loan" from her Senate position as principal consultant for the education committee, a post she has held since 2006.

The Senate's president pro tem, Darrell Steinberg, acted on a whistle-blower complaint last year by requesting a state audit that found flaws in nearly every aspect of the commission's process for investigating and disciplining teachers.

State Auditor Elaine Howle called the commission one of the "worst run" state agencies that she ever had investigated, citing lapses in launching investigations, updating files, gathering facts, tracking cases and revoking credentials. The Joint Legislative Audit Committee is following up on Howle's report with a hearing this morning.

California State University trustees today approved a salary for the new San Diego State president that is $100,000 higher than his predecessor's -- despite receiving a letter this morning from Gov. Jerry Brown telling the board that its "approach to compensation is setting a pattern for public service that we cannot afford."

Trustees voted 11-4, with Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, Margaret Fortune, Melinda Guzman and Steve Glazer voting against the compensation package for Elliot Hirshman, who began earlier this month as the president of San Diego State. The package called for a salary of $400,000, with $50,000 of it paid for with private funds from the university's foundation.

Hirshman's predecessor, Stephen Weber, earned an annual salary of $299,435 at the end of his 14-year tenure at the helm of San Diego State.

Newsom argued that CSU shouldn't approve such a large pay increase on the same day it raised tuition for students. Before voting on Hirshman's compensation, the board approved a second tuition increase for the fall that will make undergraduate education about $1,000 more than it was last year.

"I caution us today with these two decisions, and I feel compelled to make this point," Newsom said. "There are plenty of people watching, and people we need as supporters."

Newsom said he had heard from two lawmakers earlier in the day who were concerned about the proposed salary hike. One of them, state Sen. Ted Lieu, posted his thoughts on Twitter:

"To CSU full board, let me be very clear: I will find it extremely difficult to vote to restore CSU funding if SDSU Prez salary is approved," Lieu wrote.

Editor's note: This story has been updated to reflect that Trustee Melinda Guzman also voted against the compensation package for Hirshman, making the vote 11-4 in favor Corrected 1:56 p.m., July 13, 2011

Tuition is going up this fall at California State University. Again.

Today trustees approved a 12 percent increase that comes on top of a 10 percent increase approved last year. Combined, the two increases bring undergraduate tuition at CSU's 23 campuses to $5,472 a year. That's an increase of about 23 percent compared with last year, and does not include campus-based fees that average $950 a year.

The tuition increase is a direct response to the state budget approved last month, which cuts state funding to CSU by $650 million, or about 24 percent compared with last year.

"The enormous reduction to our state funding has left us with no other choice if we are to maintain quality and access to the CSU," Chancellor Charles B. Reed said in a statement. "We will focus on serving our current students by offering as many classes and course sections as possible. We will also be able to open enrollment for the spring 2012 term, which is critical for our community college transfer students."

The full board of trustees voted 13-2 for the tuition increase, with student trustee Steve Dixon and Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom opposing.

"We must invest in higher education and we can no longer allow the Legislature to get off the hook," Dixon said.

UPDATED 3:35 p.m. with final vote of full board

Gov. Jerry Brown has sent a letter to California State University trustees asking them to reconsider plans to give the new president of San Diego State a salary that would be $100,000 higher than his predecessor's.

The board is gathered in Long Beach today to take up a number of issues, including setting compensation for Elliot Hirshman, the new president of San Diego State, and raising student tuition by 12 percent.

CSU Chancellor Charles Reed is asking the board to set Hirshman's salary at $400,000. His predecessor, Stephen Weber, earned an annual salary of $299,435 at the end of his 14-year tenure.

Brown, in a letter to CSU board chairman Herbert Carter, said he was concerned about "the ever-escalating pay packages awarded to your top administrators."

"I fear your approach to compensation is setting a pattern for public service that we cannot afford," the governor wrote.

California State University trustees will take up two hot-button issues when they meet in Long Beach tomorrow: increasing student tuition by 12 percent and setting pay for the new president of San Diego State -- proposed to be $100,000 higher than his predecessor.

Stephen Weber, the outgoing president of San Diego State, earned an annual salary of $299,435 at the end of his 14-year tenure at the helm of the campus. CSU Chancellor Charles Reed has proposed paying his replacement, Elliot Hirshman, $350,000 plus an additional $50,000 to be paid by the San Diego State University Foundation. Hirshman also would receive housing provided by the university and a car allowance of $1,000 a month, according to the compensation package Reed is presenting to the board.

The California Faculty Association, the union that represents professors at Cal State's 23 campuses, is raising questions about the pay increase. It comes as trustees are being asked to approve a second tuition increase for the 2011-12 school year that comes on top of a 10 percent increase for the fall they approved last year. Combined, the two increases would bring undergraduate tuition at CSU to $5,178 this fall -- or $948 more than it was in fall 2010.

"Tone deaf?" the union asks on its Facebook page, where comments from faculty are flying. Sacramento State professor Michael Fitzgerald posts: "It is just wrong. What are the CSU trustees smoking?"

A budget-related bill that Gov. Jerry Brown signed Thursday has sparked a division within the education community as school districts push to reverse new protections for teachers.

Lawmakers rushed Assembly Bill 114 to the Senate floor and passed it out of both houses in the final 45 minutes of session Tuesday night, as we reported Thursday. The bill protects teachers from further layoffs in the new fiscal year. It also requires districts to ignore the possibility they could lose $1.5 billion in classroom funding in December -- equal to about $250 per student -- as well as $248 million in school bus money.

Teachers say those protections ensure stability through the school year and prevent districts from preparing for the worst when they don't have to. District officials say those requirements handcuff their ability to plan for a midyear reduction. They are also frustrated by a provision that suspends requirements that districts show how they balance their budgets for three years.

Two groups that represent school districts sent letters this week to Brown. School Services of California, which advises districts across the state on fiscal matters, wrote that the budget itself is unstable and that AB 114 "adds insult to injury by gutting these critical fiscal oversight provisions, and we believe, will put hundreds of school districts at risk of insolvency in the future."

The California School Boards Association penned a letter Thursday to the governor, urging him to clean up the bill with subsequent legislation.

In the letter, the group suggests it may consider legal action against the state for possibly underfunding Proposition 98 through a sales tax shift to counties. Many school officials believe an undercurrent of AB 114 was that the California Teachers Association could have challenged the state if lawmakers had not protected teachers and offered to repay schools $2.1 billion in future years.

California State University has not wasted any time responding to the budget Gov. Jerry Brown signed today, which cuts CSU funding by at least $650 million for the coming school year.

Chancellor Charles Reed announced this afternoon that he will ask trustees to vote on a 12 percent tuition increase when they meet on July 12. The increase would be effective this fall, and comes on top of a 10 percent increase that trustees approved last year -- also to take effect this fall.

If trustees approve the newest increase, annual undergraduate tuition at the 23 CSU campuses will be $5,178 this fall -- or $948 more than it was in fall 2010.

"What was once unprecedented has unfortunately become normal, as for the second time in three years the CSU will be cut by well over $500 million," Reed said in a statement. "The magnitude of this cut, compounded with the uncertainty of the final amount of the reduction, will have negative impacts on the CSU long after this upcoming fiscal year has come and gone."

The budget Brown signed calls for cutting CSU and the University of California each by another $100 million if revenue expectations are not met by December.

One of the most visible "trigger" cuts in the Democratic budget package is an additional seven-day school year reduction next spring should revenues fall short of optimistic projections.

But that potential $1.5 billion reduction won't be as easy as flipping a switch in December. The education budget bill, Assembly Bill 114, would require districts to bargain further reductions in the school year with unions representing teachers and non-classroom staff.

Some districts may seek to negotiate in advance for a "trigger" clause in their contracts, but they have less leverage because the bill also blocks them from laying off more teachers.

The state already has allowed districts to reduce the school year from 180 days to 175 days. According to a survey by the Legislative Analyst's Office, 30 percent of districts dropped the full five days this past school year, while another 28 percent cut between one and four days. Typically, teachers and staff have agreed to such furloughs to reduce other potential reductions such as benefit cuts or layoffs.

Some district officials previously complained that the state was quick to reduce the school year but not override collective bargaining protections. In essence, the state cut the money and told districts and staff to negotiate the best way to absorb it.

That appears to be what would happen again if the seven-day "trigger" cut takes effect. Some districts may cut the year, but others would find it difficult to bargain and have to search for other ways to save money.

PHOTO CREDIT: Tanishq Abraham, 7, is the last to join the line after recess to head inside for lunch at Heron Elementary School in Sacramento on May 4, 2011. Sacramento Bee / Renée C. Byer

No wonder the last bill of the night took so long.

The education bill associated with the Democratic budget came to the Senate floor shortly after 10 p.m. last night. Assembly Bill 114 is chock full of interesting provisions, including one that would make the state liable for roughly $2.1 billion in retroactive school funding if voters reject or never get the chance to vote on a 2012 ballot measure that increases taxes and shifts responsibilities to counties in the constitution.

Under the majority-vote budget, the state will shift $5.6 billion in taxes to local governments to pay for various services, including a redirect of inmates to county jails. By sending that money to counties, the budget no longer counts that $5.6 billion as state revenue -- and thereby does not have to give a roughly 40 percent share to K-12 schools and community colleges.

Gov. Jerry Brown and Democratic leaders have pledged to pursue a 2012 ballot measure that puts this "realignment" plan in the constitution, giving counties sufficient assurances that they will continue receiving money for providing services in lieu of the state. Based on AB 114, that measure also will include tax increases to pay for realignment in future years, just as Brown's original budget sought to do.

AB 114 says that if the voters reject this measure -- or if it never reaches the ballot -- the state must determine in November 2012 how much it would have owed schools for 2011-12 had the $5.6 billion never gone to local governments. Right now, that amount stands at about $2.1 billion. The money would be repaid over five years with 20 percent of it dedicated to paying off deferrals, mandates and other onetime purposes.

If the ballot measure fails, the bill seems to ensure that schools are essentially held harmless by the tax shift -- and that their base will effectively be $2 billion higher this year and in future years than Brown's original January budget proposed.

If the measure passes, schools will not get repaid that $2 billion, but they stand to get more money from voter-approved taxes in future years.

Teachers won other concessions in the budget deal, particularly provisions that prevents school districts from laying off any more teachers over the course of the next fiscal year. AB 114 suspends district powers to issue layoffs between now and August and requires districts to ignore the possibility of mid-year cuts for revenue projection purposes. As previously reported, it also requires that districts deal with a potential mid-year "trigger" cut by slashing school days and bus transportation rather than teacher jobs.

Students at California's public colleges and universities should brace for more tuition increases given the budget plan the Legislature is voting on today.

The 2011-12 plan calls for cutting an additional $150 million each from the California State University and the University of California -- for a total loss to each system of $650 million for the year.

"Because cuts of this magnitude inevitably will drive up tuition for public university students and their families, we cannot stand silent," UC President Mark Yudof said in a statement this morning.

"While we recognize the enormity of the fiscal challenge facing the state, we continue to oppose further cuts, and support any efforts that will restore long-term stability to state funding of higher education."

In addition, UC's Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco is slated to lose $1.5 million in the spending plan.

The budget also calls for further cuts to higher education if projected revenue doesn't materialize by mid-December. Colleges and universities will be the first in line to take those cuts under a tiered system Gov. Jerry Brown introduced yesterday.

If the state gets $2 billion to $3 billion of the $4 billion in projected revenues, UC and CSU will each lose another $100 million, and fees at community colleges will go up by $10 a unit, or $300 a year for a full-time student.

"The proposed 'trigger cut' of another $100 million is especially problematic because the trigger won't be pulled until classes for our last semester of the fiscal year have already started and it is too late for campuses to respond in any practical way," said CSU Chancellor Charles Reed. "This makes it impossible to plan and carry out our mission with any stability."

Community college officials also said the potential for mid-year cuts could create havoc on campuses. If the state decides to raise fees after students have paid for the spring semester, college officials and students will face huge hassles, said Dan Troy, vice chancellor of the California Community Colleges Chancellor's Office.

"It's a very messy situation, very administratively difficult," he said.

Editor's note: An earlier version of this post erroneously identified Charles Reed as CSU's president. This post also was updated at 2 p.m. to reflect that the state will evaluate revenue projections in December.

Michelle Rhee has taken her first steps onto California's political playing field, establishing a committee to make campaign contributions and hiring a lobbyist.

The former Washington, D.C., schools chancellor -- who founded the StudentsFirst education advocacy group in December -- has hired Sacramento lobbying firm Gonzalez, Quintana & Hunter, according to filings with the secretary of state's office. The firm, opened this year, also represents Facebook, the California Bicycle Coalition, clean energy groups and several Indian tribes. It doesn't count any labor unions among its clients.

Rhee made national headlines for her battles with the teachers union as head of D.C. schools from 2007 until last year. She closed two dozen campuses and fired hundreds of teachers while fighting the union over tenure and merit pay. Rhee left after her boss, Mayor Adrian Fenty, was voted out of office in September.

Top leaders of the state Commission on Teacher Credentialing are stepping down in the wake of a blistering audit report and fiery criticism by legislators over the panel's handling of teacher misconduct cases.

Executive Director Dale Janssen's final day is Friday and General Counsel Mary Armstrong, head of the division that oversees teacher sanctions, will depart as soon as a replacement can be found, said Ting Sun, commission chairwoman.

Sun announced their retirements Thursday during a public meeting of the commission's governing board in Sacramento.

The departures of Janssen and Armstrong come about a month after their ouster was requested by Assemblyman Ricardo Lara, a Bell Gardens Democrat who chairs the Joint Legislative Audit Committee but has no authority to fire commission personnel.

Janssen said that the decision to leave now was his own. Two months ago, before the political firestorm, he had announced plans to retire in December, giving the commission plenty of time to find a replacement.

"I don't believe I can be an effective leader under the circumstances," Janssen said today.

Armstrong reached a similar conclusion, Sun said. "She also believes she can no longer be an effective leader in the environment created after the release of the (state audit)."

After a half-decade of drifting downward, California's public school enrollment edged upward during the 2010-11 school year, according to a new collection of data from the state Department of Education.

Enrollment hit a high of just over 6.3 million in 2004-05 and dropped to just under 6.2 million in 2009-10 before increasing by about 27,000. Education officials say the upward trend "may be the result of a more complete data collection" but it could also reflect an increase in births in recent years.

The data was collected through CALPADS, the state's new education data collection system. Ironically, however, Gov. Jerry Brown's new budget would eliminate money for the system, saying that it needs an in-depth evaluation before continuing.

The new enrollment report, which includes data by county, grade level and ethnicity, can be found here.

Keeping a vow he made last week, the chairman of the Legislature's joint audit committee sent a letter today asking Gov. Jerry Brown to dump top officials of the state Commission on Teacher Credentialing.

Assemblyman Ricardo Lara, D-Bell Gardens, is seeking the ouster of Executive Director Dale Janssen; attorney Mary Armstrong, director of the Division of Professional Practices; and commission Chairwoman Ting Sun.

"Their leadership has contributed to the myriad of problems and threatens the safety of our most vulnerable -- our school children," Lara said in his letter, delivered to Brown's office today. (Read the full letter after the jump.)

Brown's aides, Janssen and Armstrong could not be reached immediately for comment. Sun declined to respond to Lara's letter, saying she had not seen it.

The commission of 160 employees sets state standards for teacher education, issues credentials to qualified instructors, enforces professional practices, and sanctions teacher misconduct.

Lara targeted commission leadership in the wake of a state audit that found fault with the panel's process for handling complaints of teacher misconduct, including lapses in launching investigations, updating files, gathering facts, tracking cases and revoking credentials in teacher misconduct cases.

Gov. Jerry Brown this morning acknowledged California will take in $6.6 billion more in tax revenue than once thought over the next 13 months, but reiterated his call to extend tax increases to avoid deep budget deficits in future years.

Brown's revised budget proposal pegs the deficit at $9.6 billion through June 30, 2012. The plan would eliminate 5,500 state jobs and 43 boards and commissions.

Brown's new budget assumes that trend will continue and projects the state will also take in $3.6 billion more in the next fiscal year.

Because of California's Proposition 98 guarantee, the state would owe K-12 schools and community colleges about half of those revenues. Brown's plan envisions schools getting about $3 billion more next year than it is getting this year.

Brown's January budget called for an extension of higher sales and vehicle tax rates, as well as a retroactive extension of higher income taxes, all for five years. The governor is still calling for the 1 percent sales tax extension and the 0.5 percent vehicle license fee extension after June, when the rates are slated to decrease.

But he is requesting that the 0.25 income tax surcharge be delayed until 2012. It would last until 2015. The move acknowledges the state's income tax surge this fiscal year, as well as the political difficulty state leaders would have faced by hiking the income tax retroactively by several months. Taxpayers have withheld income taxes since January assuming a lower rate than Brown was proposing.

He said he wanted the voters to weigh in on the tax increases "as soon as possible."

Assembly Republicans last week issued a plan last week they said would balance the budget without tax extensions. The GOP proposal relies on a revenue bump smaller than the one Brown projects, as well as a roughly 10 percent reduction in state worker compensation and depleting special funds for mental health and childhood development.

Brown repeatedly referred to the $34.7 billion in the state's outstanding obligations from years of internal borrowing -- what he called the "wall of debt."

"Yes, we've got some more revenue, but we've got a lot of obligations," Brown said. "If you adopt the Republican plan....that debt doesn't go away."

Brown is still calling for the elimination of redevelopment agencies, which he originally believed would net the state $1.7 billion. He has scaled back his approach to enterprise zone tax credits for employers, which he originally wanted to eliminate. Instead, he will seek to limit the credits to new hires.

An Oakland-based advocacy organization for educational achievement is indirectly spanking State Schools Superintendent Tom Torlakson for putting a positive spin on a decline in progress by the state"s "English-learner" students.

Earlier this week, Torlakson released the latest results of the California English Language Development Test, also called CELDT, indicating that proficiency had declined slightly from the previous year.

Torlakson noted that achievement was still higher than four years earlier and blamed the slippage on education spending cuts.

"These results demonstrate that the valiant efforts of teachers and school administrators to help our students become fluent in English are being undermined by budget cuts that are crowding classes and shortening the school year," Torlakson said in a statement.

To the Education Trust-West, however, Torlakson missed the point.

"The release of data from the California Department of Education showing a decline in the performance of English learner students on the CELDT is a cause for profound concern," the organization said in a statement.

"However, the CDE's statement on this data raises even greater concerns. The release gives Californians the impression that our state is making reasonable progress in serving its English learner students, while attributing this setback to the ongoing budget crisis. The data tell us a different story."

California State University trustees considered a worst-case budget scenario today as they discussed what they would do if the state approves an all-cuts budget.

Trustees would have to consider raising tuition by up to 32 percent and turning away as many as 20,000 more students, Chancellor Charles Reed said during the board meeting in Long Beach.

"If the governor gets the tax and revenue extensions, none of that would be necessary," Reed said.

Gov. Jerry Brown has already approved a cut of $500 million to the CSU system for the fiscal year that begins July 1. The university is handling that reduction "without devastating the system," Reed said.

But further cuts, he said, would amount to "nothing more than just devastation."

The chairman of the Joint Legislative Audit Committee vowed today to seek the resignation of the executive director and the "entire management team" of the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing after a two-hour public hearing into its handling of teacher misconduct cases and other issues.

Assemblyman Ricardo Lara, D-Bell Gardens, said he will write to Gov. Jerry Brown, asking that the governor also consider shaking up the commission's 15-member governing board, which consists of 14 gubernatorial appointees.

"Somebody needs to be held accountable for the gross mismanagement of the commission," Lara said after Tuesday's oversight hearing that focused on a blistering audit report that criticized nearly every aspect of the commission's process of handling misconduct cases.

Lara said the commissioners are "our public stewards and need to keep management in line. They failed at that, so we need to make sure we need to have a complete change in management."

State Auditor Elaine Howle appeared at the hearing Tuesday to present her office's findings of flaws in how the commission launches investigations, updates files, gathers facts, tracks cases and revokes credentials. Auditors also found that in August 2009 there was a three-year backlog of 12,600 arrest or prosecution reports to be entered into commission records.

The progress of "English-learners" in California's elementary and secondary schools has slipped slightly, the latest round of proficiency tests has found.

Tom Torlakson, the state superintendent of schools, blamed reductions in school spending for the downward trend.

"These results demonstrate that the valiant efforts of teachers and school administrators to help our students become fluent in English are being undermined by budget cuts that are crowding classes and shortening the school year," Torlakson said in a statement.

"For years we've been asking our schools to do more with less, and somehow they have managed to deliver. That cannot go on forever. The only way to achieve and sustain the excellence we want for English learners and all students is to invest in our schools again."

The slippage from a year earlier was confined to English-learner students that testing found to be "early advanced" and "advanced" in proficiency. There were fractional gains in other categories, and Torlakson noted that the upper levels of English proficiency were larger than they were four years earlier.

The full results are available here.

Gov. Jerry Brown has appointed a former Elk Grove Unified School District administrator as executive director of the State Board of Education.

Sue Burr, 57, of Rancho Murieta, will advise Brown on education policy, legislation and budget matters, college readiness, teacher credentialing, early childhood education and school construction.

Burr has served many local and state organizations, most recently as executive director of the California County Superintendents Educational Services Association.

Before that, she was an assistant superintendent with Elk Grove Unified, undersecretary of education under Gov. Gray Davis, and co-director of the California State University Institute for Education Reform. She has also been a consultant to the Senate Education Committee and the Senate Appropriations Committee.

Currently Burr is on the board of directors for EdSource and the Sacramento Children's Home.

The position, which pays $175,000 a year, does not require Senate confirmation. The Democrat replaces the board's interim executive director, Patricia de Cos.

Michael Kirst, president of the State Board of Education, said he is excited about what Burr will bring to the board.

"Ms. Burr's position will enhance the board's linkages to the governor on a wide variety of crucial education issues," Kirst said in a statement.

The California School Boards Association has tightened its wallet considerably in hiring a new executive director after last year's controversy over the pay of former leader Scott Plotkin.

Vernon Billy will take the group's helm May 4 at an annual salary of $232,000 -- a far cry from Plotkin's compensation of $516,517 in 2008 and $403,955 in 2009 after receiving sizable bonuses and other compensation.

Billy, 40, is replacing interim Executive Director Jeff Vaca, who will return to his previous role of chief operations operator for the association representing more than 1,000 school districts.

Billy, a blast from CSBA's past, served as a lobbyist in the group's governmental relations department from 1994 to 2000.

More recently, Billy has been a vice president of School Innovations & Advocacy, a consulting and lobbying firm. He also has served as a cabinet member for the San Francisco Unified School District and as a chief lobbyist for several school districts.

Leaders of the three branches of California's public higher education system emerged from an hour-long meeting with Gov. Jerry Brown today optimistic that an all-cuts budget would be avoided.

And the governor emerged feisty, pledging to keep pushing for tax extensions despite the breakdown in budget negotiations last week.

"I don't think the people of California want to wreck the state," Brown said as he stood beside the college leaders outside his office.

"The university is an engine of wealth creation. Stripping it of its professors and its research in the way that an all-cuts budget would require is unacceptable. I'm going to do everything I can to convince the Republicans here to vote for the tax extensions, to put them on the ballot. And I'm going to go throughout this state to mobilize support," Brown said.

He said he was exploring a range of options and will travel the state to meet with people whose livelihoods depend on the state budget, including university administrators, school boards, teachers, police and sheriffs.

"I'm convinced that we're going to have a very powerful coalition and rally California to protect its vital and basic interests," Brown said.

Jack Scott, chancellor of the state's community colleges, said he'll support the governor's efforts.

"We're willing to join our voices to say there needs to be some kind of extension of taxes, otherwise in all of our communities we're going to see young people turned away from our colleges and universities," Scott said. "That's going to be a tragedy for them, but it's going to be a bigger tragedy for the future of California."

Brown has already signed bills that cut $1.4 billion from higher education for 2011-12. Cal State campuses are planning to admit 10,000 fewer students, some UC campuses are admitting more out-of-state students who pay higher tuition and community college fees are going up by $10 a unit.

Mark Yudof, president of the University of California, said changes at the colleges will be even more drastic if higher education faces deeper cuts.

"You haven't seen anything yet in terms of layoffs, in terms of limiting enrollments, in terms of reducing programs, in terms of rising tuition," Yudof said. "If this all-cuts budget goes through, it's going to be terrible for California."

About 250 administrators from public universities across California are in the Capitol today, pleading with lawmakers and Gov. Jerry Brown not to cut any more from the higher education budget.

The governor has already signed bills cutting $1.4 billion from the state's colleges and universities next year, with community colleges losing $400 million and the University of California and the California State University each losing $500 million.

"We have done our part," CSU Chancellor Charles Reed told the crowd gathered outside the Capitol before the day of lobbying began. "But you know what? That's enough."

To which the audience burst into applause.

College leaders fear an all-cuts budget could lead to an increase in tuition and much steeper cuts for their campuses. Already, fees at community colleges are going up $10 a unit. Cal State campuses will admit 10,000 fewer students next year. And UC campuses are planning a range of cutbacks, including, at UC Davis, eliminating some academic programs and admitting more international and out-of-state students, who pay higher tuition.

And that's the best-case scenario. University leaders fear their budget cuts could double if lawmakers go with an all-cuts budget. Jack Scott, chancellor of the state's community colleges, said those schools will turn away 400,000 students if the state doubles its cut to the community colleges.

Speaking to the crowd on the west steps of the capitol this morning, UC President Mark Yudof said higher education officials are "engaged in the fight of our lives to preserve this wonderful higher education system in the state of California."

"The building behind me is filled with good intentions," Yudof said. "The problem is to have those assurances, which are heartening, translate into dollars."

Community college professors are none too pleased about the breakdown in budget negotiations.

The Faculty Association of California Community Colleges released a statement today saying "the failure to allow voters the opportunity to save their community colleges and other public services is beyond disappointing."

Community colleges were cut by $400 million in the budget bills Gov. Jerry Brown signed last week. Part of that cut will be made up by a $10 per unit increase in student fees. But without tax extensions, the colleges are predicting cuts of $685 million, according to the faculty association's statement. That would mean canceling so many classes that 400,000 students would be turned away statewide, the association claims.

"Not only will community colleges need to cancel more classes, turn away hundreds of thousands of students and lay off more faculty, California will be undermining its best provider of workforce development," association President John McDowell said in the statement.

Meanwhile, a national survey released earlier this week shows that California community college students are already more likely to be turned away because of full classes compared to community college students in other parts of the country.

Forty-seven percent of California students -- compared with 28 percent nationwide -- have been unable to enroll in courses because they were full, according to a survey by Harris Interactive conducted for the Pearson Foundation. The lack of courses means that in California, 41 percent of students enrolled in fewer classes than they originally planned, the survey found. Nationwide, the figure was 28 percent.

PHOTO CREDIT: Jazmine Lopez of San Jose, a student at De Anza College, participates in a rally of community college and university students at the Capitol on March 14, 2011 against budget cuts. Hector Amezcua / Sacramento Bee

With budget talks at a standstill and time running out for a deal, a group of California school superintendents are pressing for a tax vote, saying today that schools will suffer debilitating cuts if tax extensions are not approved in June.

The superintendents told reporters at the Capitol that they have urged Republican lawmakers to accept Gov. Jerry Brown's proposed election on taxes, a major part of his budget plan.

If the measure fails, Fresno Unified School District Superintendent Michael Hanson said, "We will spend the '11-'12 school year decimating, devastating and tearing down programs for students across this entire state."

Republican senators have demanded pension, regulatory and other government changes in their budget negotiations with Brown.

Asked about what kind of budget deal he would support, Jonathan Raymond, superintendent of Sacramento City Unified School District, said, "It isn't our job to come up with a deal. What we're saying is we want these measures on the ballot in June."

The Democratic governor needs at least two Republican votes in each house to reach the two-thirds majority necessary to put taxes on the ballot. Lacking Republican support, Brown is considering alternatives, including a simple majority vote or a November ballot initiative.

Hanson said November is too late, that schools would be devastated by whatever spending reductions Brown proposes in the interim.

"Frankly, November does us very little good," he said.

The state's chronic recession and budget crisis appear to be having a major impact on the financial health of the state's school districts.

While the number of districts and other educational agencies on the state's list of those unable to meet their financial obligations has leveled off somewhat, the number of those in danger of becoming insolvent has been growing sharply, a new state Department of Education report indicates.

The lists, moreover, do not take into account the potentially huge reductions in state school aid that loom this year, especially if Gov. Jerry Brown's plan to extend some temporary tax increases continues to stall in the Legislature or is rejected by voters. He largely exempted K-12 schools from his first round of budget cuts but has indicated they would be hit if the taxes are not extended.

"The emergency confronting California's schools is widening and deepening," state schools Superintendent Tom Torlakson said. "As disturbing as these numbers are, unless the Legislature moves to place the governor's tax extension plan on the ballot, they are just the tip of the financial iceberg facing school districts up and down the state."

There are 13 school systems on the state's "negative certification" list, derived from analysis of data on 1,032 school districts, county offices of education and educational joint powers agencies, up from 12 the previous year but down from a high of 16 in 2008-09. The largest of the 13 is Hayward Unified School District. Sacramento's Natomas Unified also makes the list.

There are 97 other educational agencies on the "qualified certification" list, meaning they are in danger of being unable to meet their obligations. The list is topped by the huge Los Angeles Unified School District but also includes, among other major districts, Oakland Unified, Mount Diablo Unified, Santa Ana Unified, Elk Grove Unified, San Juan Unified. Sacramento City Unified, Fontana Unified, Garden Grove Unified and Stockton Unified.

Overall, Torlakson said, 30 percent of the state's 6 million K-12 students are attending schools in districts that are either already in financial straits or in danger of being there.

The Department of Education report is available here while the district-by-district breakdown can be found here.

Education advocates today began the process to place on the ballot a tax on oil extraction to fund education.

The initiative proposes that California put a 15 percent tax on each barrel of oil extracted from the state, raising $3.6 billion a year at current prices. Revenue from the tax would be divided among the state's public education systems, with K-12 schools receiving 30 percent of the funds, community colleges getting 48 percent of the funds and the California State University and University of California each getting 11 percent.

"This will reduce college and university tuition fees, and restore cut class sections. The funding increases will pay to rehire professors, laid-off teachers, and reduce K-12 class sizes," proponents of the ballot measure wrote in a news release.

The attorney general has 40 days to produce a title and summary. Then petition gatherers will have to collect 504,760 signatures to get the proposition placed on the ballot.

Proponents said they have already begun gathering signatures on college campuses.

The fight between UC Regent David Crane, right, and state Sen. Leland Yee is getting weirder, with Yee planning a protest against Crane in San Francisco and Crane saying Yee is mischaracterizing his position on public employee unions.

Yee, a frequent critic of UC management and darling of its labor unions, is planning a protest tomorrow at UCSF where, he claims, "hundreds of community members and public employees (will) rally against Regent Crane's recent attack on working families."

Yee, who is running for mayor in San Francisco, is referring to an opinion piece Crane wrote Sunday in the San Francisco Chronicle that questioned whether public employees should be unionized. Yee fired back earlier this week with a news release criticizing Crane's perspective.

Now Yee says he plans to stop the Senate from confirming Crane to UC's governing board of regents. Former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger appointed Crane, one of his advisers and a vocal critic of public employee pension plans, to the regents during his final days in office. Crane has not yet been confirmed.

Crane responded to the announcement of Yee's protest by sending a statement to Capitol Alert saying the senator misunderstood his piece in the Chron. Crane believes UC workers should have collective bargaining rights, he wrote. What he objects to, Crane said, is unions for "public employees who have statutory civil service protections" -- which UC workers lack.

Read the full text of Crane's statement to Capitol Alert on the jump.

University of California Regent David Crane has joined the national debate over whether public employees should be unionized, drawing fire from Sen. Leland Yee, a longtime critic of UC management.

In an opinion piece published Sunday in the San Francisco Chronicle, Crane argues that unions make more sense in the private sector, where "compensation and benefits are determined through negotiations conducted by unions representing employees and management representing shareholders."

"Neither side has influence over the other, and there is a healthy tension as each side works to increase its share of the pie," wrote the former Arnold Schwarzenegger adviser, who has been a vocal advocate for changing the state's public employee pension system.

"But in the public sector," Crane wrote in the Chronicle, "no such healthy tension exists because unions can use campaign contributions to gain control of 'management,' which in California's state government means the 120 legislators and the governor who together determine employee compensation and benefits."

Not surprisingly, Yee -- who is adored by UC's labor unions -- fired back with a news release blasting Crane's perspective. Yee, who is running for mayor of San Francisco, said Crane had launched a "direct attack on working families."

"It is time for Regent Crane to put away his Wisconsin playbook and come down from his ivory tower," the San Francisco Democrat said in the statement.

"While the Regents have approved million dollar contracts for their top administrators," he added, "they allow many UC workers and their families to live in poverty. ... Now, Regent Crane wants to take away their only avenue to earning a livable wage and a respectable retirement -- their collective bargaining rights."

As school districts throughout the state begin to send out legally mandated layoff notices to teachers due to great uncertainty about state aid, an education think tank has issued a new study that's highly critical of the school layoff process.

Layoff notices that are later rescinded when financial pictures become clearer, layoff policies that are based on seniority rather than educational need and the disproportionate impact of layoffs on poor-performing schools are among the factors cited in the report by The Education Trust-West, an Oakland-based, foundation-supported organization that studies California education issues.

The reports authors studied data in three large -- but unnamed -- districts to reach their conclusions about effects of the layoff process, which begins each March with legally mandated notices to teachers deemed to be in danger of losing their jobs due to financial shortfalls.

"While layoffs are a serious problem, the way they are conducted every year can make a bad situation even worse for some of our highest-need schools," said Arun Ramanathan, Ed Trust-West's executive director. "The effects of this process can disrupt the lives of teachers, students and community members who desperately need stability in their schools to close achievement and opportunity gaps."

The report's recommendations include changing the layoff notification date to prevent over-noticing, giving districts explicit flexibility to protect high-poverty schools from disproportionate impact, replacing seniority with policies that emphasize job effectiveness, and giving principals and parents more authority to maintain staff stability. The recommendations largely mirror positions of education reform groups but have been opposed in the past by unions -- especially any modification of seniority as the basis for layoffs.

"With districts across the state already making plans for more layoffs this year, policymakers in Sacramento must take immediate steps to fix the impact of seniority-based layoff policies on our most vulnerable students and the future of California's teaching corps," Ramanathan added. "It's time for California to reform these dated policies and bureaucratic rules and protect the right of all students to be taught by effective teachers in stable schools."

The full report can be found here.

PHOTO CREDIT: A kindergartner walks to class with his parents on the first day of school at the new Cosumnes River Elementary School on Aug. 16, 2010. José Luis Villegas / Sacramento Bee

University of California students are campaigning in favor of two bills that would allow some undocumented immigrants to get financial aid while they attend college.

Throughout February, UC's Student Association is urging students on campuses statewide to write postcards to Gov. Jerry Brown asking him to sign Assembly Bills 130 and 131 by Gil Cedillo, D-Los Angeles.

The measures, which are now before the Assembly Committee on Higher Education, would allow illegal immigrant students who qualify for in-state tuition to also qualify for financial aid.

The state Supreme Court ruled in November that public universities can continue charging the discounted in-state tuition rate to students who attended a California high school and graduated -- regardless of their immigration status. But right now those students are not eligible for financial aid.

Cedillo's bills -- known as the California DREAM Act -- would change that.

"California has the opportunity to pass the California DREAM Act this year, with our newly elected governor who pledged to do so during his gubernatorial campaign," UCLA student Gilberto Soria said in a statement.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed a similar measure last year, saying in his veto message that "given the precarious fiscal condition the state faces at this time, it would not be prudent to place additional demands on our limited financial aid resources as specified in this bill."

UC students plan to deliver their postcards in support of the bills to Brown during UC's annual lobbying day on Feb. 28.

PHOTO CAPTION: Incoming freshmen tour the campus during a freshman orientation at UC Davis in Davis on Wednesday, August 5, 2009. Randall Benton / Sacramento Bee file photo

In the face of ongoing state budget problems, nearly three times as many K-12 districts have shortened the current school year than did so last year, according to a new survey released by the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office.

The Analyst's Office found that almost 60 percent have reduced the school year in 2010-11, compared to about 20 percent last year. The state has allowed districts to drop the school year from 180 days to 175 days, and many have saved money by furloughing teachers and shrinking the state calendar. About 30 percent of districts said they have gone all the way down to 175 days.

The report also found that average class sizes have grown significantly since 2008-09, the peak year of school funding. Kindergarten through third grade classes have gone from roughly 20 students per room to 25 in 2010-11. Average class sizes for other grades have gone from roughly 28 to more than 31.

Gov. Jerry Brown has proposed deferring about $2.1 billion for K-12 schools in 2011-12, not paying them that money until 2012-13.

Districts in the past have dealt with $7.4 billion in deferrals by relying on reserves, as well as internal and external borrowing. But the Analyst's Office said that nearly half of districts would face difficulty absorbing Brown's latest deferral and would instead impose more program cuts.

It was the State Board of Education's first meeting of the year today in Sacramento, and who should drop by but Gov. Jerry Brown.

The governor talked informally about education policy, telling the members he's sometimes wary of reform.

"I sometimes call myself a reformed reformer. ... Everything that people propose, they call it reform. That doesn't mean it's change," Brown said.

"I don't expect any silver bullets," he added. "I see a lot of fashion in educational theories and practices."

Brown also mentioned that critics of some of his picks had equated experience to "has-been."

"Well, I'm probably 'has-been' more than anybody around here," Brown said. Still, he added, "I'll be looking for some younger appointees, too, along the way. I don't want everyone to be on Medicare that I appoint."

Earlier, members picked the board's president: Michael Kirst, a Stanford education professor who has had a long relationship with Brown, who first appointed Kirst to the State Board of Education back in 1975.

Speaking of longevity, Brown told the board he'd gotten a congratulatory letter recently from his fifth-grade teacher, Sister Rosine. At his elementary school, he said, students had the same teacher for fifth, sixth and seventh grades.

"Actually I didn't like it because they knew too much about you," Brown said to laughter.

Check out a video of Brown's informal remarks posted on the Department of Education's website at this link. The video is closed captioned.

A new state board of education, gathering Wednesday for its first meeting of the year, chose Michael Kirst as board president and delayed taking action on two controversial issues.

Kirst is a Stanford education professor who has a long relationship with Gov. Jerry Brown. He served on the board during Brown's first term as governor (including a stint as president), consulted on education matters when he was the mayor of Oakland and advised Brown throughout his most recent gubernatorial campaign.

He is one of seven new members Brown appointed last week to the board that sets policy for California's public schools.

The board was supposed to tackle two hot-button issues in its first meeting, which runs through today: affirming the ability of the Aspire charter school chain to operate statewide, and regulations for a controversial law known as the "parent trigger" that made up part of the Race to the Top package of bills.

Both items will reveal the political leanings of the new board on education reform. The prior board, appointed by Schwarzenegger, favored charter schools and policies that give parents more choice about their children's education. But teachers' unions generally oppose such changes, and were heavy contributors to Brown's campaign.

The items were postponed to give board members more time to consider the issues, said Regina Wilson, spokeswoman for the state board of education.

Photo: Michael Kirst. Courtesy of Stanford University School of Education, 2010

Former state schools chief Louis "Bill" Honig, has withdrawn his nomination to the state Board of Education, Gov. Jerry Brown's office announced today.

Honig, one of seven appointed to the board announced by Brown last week, resigned as state Superintendent of Public Instruction in 1993 after he was convicted of felony conflict-of-interest charges. The charges, which involved authorizing state funds for schools to hire his wife's nonprofit group, were later reduced to misdemeanors.

A release announcing Honig's decision does not specify why he decided to withdraw his name. Brown had defended his decision to appoint Honig, who had also served on the board during his first go-round as governor.

"I've known him, I've known his family," Brown said last week. "He has the kind of knowledge of the bureaucracy of education, as well as education policy. I think he's acquitted himself well in recent years. I think people can be confident that he has a contribution to make."

Brown nominated Dr. Ilene W. Straus, Beverly Hills Unified School District assistant superintendent for educational services, to fill the post. Straus, who has also worked in the Santa Monica school district, is a Democrat, according to the release.

PHOTO: Bill Honig in 1996. Rich Pedroncelli/The Associated Press.

The state Senate will not confirm five people former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger appointed to the State Board of Education, leaving room for Gov. Jerry Brown to appoint seven new people to the board today.

The result is a shake-up on the board that sets policy for the state's public schools, with the loss of members who supported reforms -- such as the "parent trigger" law that allows parents to overhaul low-performing schools -- and the addition of a member from the California Teachers Association, which opposes such changes.

The Senate never confirmed Ted Mitchell, David Lopez , Alan Arkatov , Benjamin Austin and James Fang. The Senate wanted to allow Brown to form his own education team, said Nathan Barankin, spokesman for Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg.

"From our perspective we have a new governor and it's up to the governor to establish his own administration," Barankin said. "That includes selecting the leaders of key policy areas, and that certainly includes education."

Two other board of education members -- Ruth Bloom and Johnathan Williams -- have terms that expire next week.

Brown's appointments include two people who served on the board of education during his first stint as governor as well as a lobbyist for the California Teachers Association.

The appointments, all Democrats, include:

• Louis "Bill" Honig of Marin (shown above), the president of the Consortium on Reading Excellence. He was the Superintendent of Public Instruction until he was forced to resign in 1993 after being convicted of felony conflict-of-interest charges. Honig was found guilty of authorizing $337,509 in state funds to pay local schools to hire his wife's nonprofit foundation, Quality Education Project, to set up parent involvement programs. The charges were later reduced to misdemeanors. Honig previously served on the state Board of Education under Gov. Brown from 1975 to 1983.
• Michael Kirst of Palo Alto, a Professor Emeritus at Stanford University and member of the the state Board of Education under Gov. Brown from 1975 to 1982.
• Aida Molina of Bakersfield, the executive director on academic improvement and accountability for the Bakersfield City School District and a former commissioner with the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing. Molina has been a principal in Bakersfield and the Sacramento Unified School District and an assistant principal with the Galt Joint Union Elementary School District.
• Carl Anthony Cohn of Palm Springs, a professor and the co-director of the Urban Leadership Program at Claremont Graduate University. Cohn previously served as the superintendent of the San Diego Unified School District and the Long Beach Unified School District.
• James Ramos of San Bernardino, Chairman for the San Manuel Band of Indians and a member of the San Bernardino Community College Board of Trustees.
• Patricia Ann Rucker of Elk Grove, the legislative advocate for the California Teachers Association. Previously, she was a teacher in the Del Paso Heights School District.
• Trish Boyd Williams of San Jose, the executive director of EdSource. Previously, Williams worked for the Oklahoma Commission on Children and Youth the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Appointments to the state Board of Education require Senate confirmation and are compensated $100 per diem.

PHOTO: Bill Honig in 1996. Rich Pedroncelli/The Associated Press

Editor's note: This post has been changed from earlier versions to reflect that the Senate failed to confirm five board members. Updated at 4:53 p.m., Jan. 5, 2011.

Hilary McLean - who has spent the last seven years as press secretary to state schools Superintendent Jack O'Connell and communications director for the state Department of Education - is leaving government to join a private consulting firm, the agency announced today.

Incoming state schools Superintendent Tom Torlakson has tapped Paul Hefner as his communications director. Hefner has worked at Ogilvy Public Relations and on the staffs of Assembly Speakers Herb Wesson and Bob Hertzberg and State Controller Steve Westly.

"While I was honored to have the opportunity to work for Superintendent Torlakson, it feels right to explore a new professional challenge at this time of transition," McLean wrote in a statement.

McLean is going to work for Capitol Impact LLC, a Sacramento education consulting firm headed by Jay Schenirer, a Sacramento city councilman; Christopher Cabaldon, mayor of West Sacramento; and Rick Miller, a former deputy superintendent in the state Department of Education. McLean will be managing public affairs for the firm starting on Jan. 1.

California schools must cope with declining financial resources, ever-changing sociological circumstances of students and pressure from state and federal governments to raise academic performance - a combination of forces that may be overwhelming, a new report from EdSource, a Mountain View educational think tank says in a new report.

The report was issued Tuesday as Gov.-elect Jerry Brown convened his second major public discussion on the state's budgetary crisis in Los Angeles, this one focusing on education.

"California is above average in capacity but below average in effort," the lengthy report says. "Additionally, this state spends less on K-12 education than on many other public services, relative to the national average in each area. Given California's relatively large proportion of students and high cost of labor, this state's education expenditures yield staff-to-student levels that are at or near the bottom in nationwide rankings. And those rankings do not reflect California's recent, large cuts in K-12 education spending."

It adds: "And yet California's schools continue working to address the multifaceted needs of more than six million students and prepare them for the increasing demands of the global economy. As evidenced by scores on the California Standards Tests, student achievement has continually improved during the past eight years, but regular citizens and policymakers must confront the question of how to sustain those improvements as school resources dwindle."

The full report can be obtained from EdSource here.

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, has written to state university chiefs to object to new fee increases after legislators restored and boosted state funding this year to the embattled systems.

During tough budget negotiations, Steinberg said in a letter Thursday, "we provided more than $600 million in additional funding to backfill for cuts made in recent years while also funding for increased enrollment, class sections and vital student services."

"Consequently, I am deeply concerned about the recently adopted fee increased by CSU and UC and the impact they will on our students, their families and our economy," the letter said. "Passing more costs on to students and families threatens to price more Californians out of a quality higher education."

The UC regents on Thursday voted to hike tuition by 8 percent next year - on top of a 32 percent increase approved last year. The California State University board of trustees earlier this month voted to raise fees by 5 percent in January and 10 percent in the fall.

Steinberg's letter is addressed to Russell Gould, chair of the UC regents; Mark Yudof, president of the University of California; Herbert Carter, chair of the CSU board of trustees; and Charles Reed, CSU chancellor.

Read the letter here

California led the nation in charter school growth this year, according to a report released today by The Center for Education Reform, a pro-charter group.

California added 114 new charters in the 2010-2011 school year - the most among the 41 states and the District of Columbia included in the count -- bringing the number of charter schools in the state to 941. The number of charter schools nationwide grew by 9 percent, to 5,453 schools serving an estimated 1.7 million students, according to the report.

The state's charter growth was a central issue in the debate over the Race to the Top education reform laws passed early this year. The state's teachers' unions have largely opposed the expansion of charter schools, arguing the privately-run public schools, which are typically not unionized, are not subject to the same regulations as public schools. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Obama administration and several non-profit education groups have pushed for reforms that would make it easier to establish and grow charters, saying charters provide more choice and local control for parents and students.

UPDATE 9 a.m Nov. 10.: The California Charter Schools Association has released slightly different numbers for the state's charter school count. They say the state opened 115 new schools, bringing the total to 912.

Read the full report here.

California State University trustees will vote on a mid-year fee increase on Nov. 9 that would raise tuition by 5 percent for the spring term.

If the action is approved, tuition for a semester at a CSU campus would rise to $2,220, not including fees that specific campuses charge or books, housing and living expenses.

The proposal is not unexpected. When CSU trustees voted in June to raise fees for the current semester they said they would consider another fee increase after a state budget was approved. The budget Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed earlier this month assumed CSU tuition would go up by 10 percent -- but trustees had raised fees by only 5 percent in June.

"In our analysis, a mid-year adjustment of an additional 5 percent is needed in order to fulfill the budget's promise to restore access to students in a meaningful sense--that is, to restore access to courses and the range of services students need to succeed and graduate," states a CSU report prepared for the Nov. 9 meeting.

A mid-year 5 percent increase in tuition would allow Cal State's 23 campuses to reduce class sizes, offer 3,000 additional course sections and expand student services, the CSU report says.

Cal State officials also are officially changing the terminology they use to describe the money students pay to attend college -- instead of calling it "fees" they will now use the word "tuition." Historically both UC and CSU have used the term "fees" because California's 50-year-old master plan for higher education called for a tuition-free university system. Acknowledging how far the state has strayed from that vision, both of California's public university systems have now decided to start using the word "tuition," just like universities in the rest of the nation.

California State University will admit up to 30,000 new students this spring, the university announced this morning, reversing last year's policy of halting mid-year enrollments.

Due to budget cuts last year, most of the 23 campuses in the CSU system did not admit new students for the spring term of 2010. That led to a record number of applications for the fall.

University officials said in July that they were waiting until the state passed a 2010-11 budget before deciding whether campuses would accept new students for the spring of 2011.

"Despite the uncertainty surrounding the budget, we need to provide service as best as we can," CSU Chancellor Charles B. Reed said in a statement. "We remain optimistic that the legislature is committed to higher education and that the final budget will restore the necessary funding to the CSU. The restoration of funding is vital to allow us to serve these students."

Earlier this month, CSU announced that $106 million from a new round of federal stimulus funds would allow it to open spring admissions to 10,000 students.

Under the budget proposed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, CSU would get $366 million more than last year to restore cuts and expand enrollment.

The California Teachers Association and other advocates of higher spending on public schools often complain that California is at or near the bottom in per-pupil spending, compared to other states.

Conservatives on the other side of the school finance issue complain that too much of the state's school money is wasted, often citing the assertion that California's teachers are the highest paid in the nation.

The CTA et al. then counter that California's high salaries are not so high when the state's notoriously high cost of living is factored into the equation.

And so the debate goes, year after year, especially as the state struggles to balance its budget. But what are the facts?

EdSource, a Mountain View-based think tank on California education issues, has weighed in with a report called "How California Ranks," aimed at providing a factual basis for the debate. But it also warns that its data, like all numbers on schools, are at least a couple of years old while the overall financial picture for schools is changing constantly.

Among the report's points:

State education officials are reacting this morning to news that California wasn't a winner in round two of the Race to the Top competition for federal education funding.

The state was competing for a piece of $3.4 billion in federal stimulus dollars awarded to states that demonstrate a commitment to pursuing school reforms backed by the Obama administration. State officials had estimated California, which also lost in round one of the funding competition, could win hundreds of millions of dollars.

Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell said he was "deeply disappointed" that California wasn't selected as a winner this round.

"[T]he loss of the funding may slow, but not defeat, our efforts to improve student achievement in California," O'Connell said in a statement. "We remain fully committed to continue seeking the strategies and resources demanded to accelerate our efforts to close the achievement gap among different groups of students by creating fundamental and far-reaching reforms."

A legislative hearing today will examine a controversial UC Berkeley program in which new students are being asked to spit in a tube so the university can test their DNA.

Campus officials describe "Bring Your Genes to Cal" as an orientation project designed to introduce new students to Berkeley's intellectual rigors. Each year the college chooses a theme that new students and faculty will explore from various perspectives. This year's theme is personalized medicine. Instead of assigning students a book to read, the university sent them DNA kits over the summer and asked them to submit a saliva sample. The samples will be tested for three genes -- those involved in breaking down lactose, metabolizing alcohol and absorbing folates.

The program is optional for students, and their saliva samples are anonymous -- students are the only ones who will have access to the results of their tests, using a bar code number. Still, the project has drawn criticism from some bioethicists and genetic watchdog groups, including the Center for Genetics and Society in Berkeley and the Council for Responsible Genetics, in Massachusetts.

Today's hearing by the Assembly Higher Education Committee will include testimony from university representatives as well as bioethical experts.

The hearing takes place at 1:30 p.m. in room 437 of the Capitol.

The foundation at California State University, Stanislaus, does not oversee its assets responsibly but has broken no laws in managing the money it raises and spends for the school, according to an audit by Attorney General Jerry Brown.

Brown's Charitable Trusts Section investigated the foundation's financial practices, and found that the group "exercised inadequate oversight of its $20 million in assets," a statement from the Attorney General's Office said.

But, the statement said, there was "no misuse of... funds and no violations of state law."

The audit does not address the question of whether the foundation violated the state's Public Records Act in withholding documents about a June fundraiser that featured an appearance by former Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin. That issue is being resolved in the courts with a lawsuit filed by Californians Aware, a government watchdog group.

California State University campuses will begin accepting applications for the spring term on Sunday, though whether they enroll any students in the spring depends on the final state budget lawmakers approve.

"Despite the uncertainty regarding state support for the 2010-2011 academic year, we will move forward with the application process for spring 2011," CSU Chancellor Charles B. Reed said in a statement today. "The passing of the budget in a timely manner and the restoration of funding proposed by the governor will allow us to serve those students and provide immediate access for students already in the admissions pipeline."

Across the state, CSU typically enrolls 35,000 new students each spring. But due to last year's budget cuts of $625 million, the campuses cut back enrollment, in part by not accepting any new students for the spring of 2010.

This year's budget proposals are much more favorable to the public universities. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has proposed increasing funding to CSU by more than $365 million. If the Legislature approves that piece of his budget proposal, CSU officials say they'll be able to open spring admission and welcome an additional 29,000 students.

Students can apply for the spring 2011 term between Sunday and Aug. 31. For information on applying, go to http://www.csumentor.edu/

PHOTO CREDIT: Incoming freshmen tour the campus during a freshman orientation at UC Davis in Davis on Aug. 5, 2009. Randall Benton/ Sacramento Bee file photo

California has made the final round in phase two of the Obama administration's "Race to the Top" education grant competition.

California is one of 19 states to advance to the final round. Thirty-six states applied for a piece of the roughly $3 billion in federal stimulus dollars that will be awarded to states who best demonstrate a commitment to achieving the Obama administration's education goals.

Despite approving sweeping changes to the education system in hopes of winning up to $700 million for public schools, California didn't make the cut in round one of the competition. The state turned to a team of school district superintendents to spearhead the the round two application after its first effort received harsh reviews and ranked 27 out of 41 states competing in round one.