SFUSD plans for budget cuts; across CA, poor students are hardest hit

Last Friday’s SF Chronicle had two articles detailing the effects of the California budget crisis on local and statewide education.

Locally, the $113 million budget shortfall is forcing SFUSD to consider larger class sizes, teacher layoffs and unpaid furlough days, and – as mentioned in our last post – eliminating summer school options.  In a letter to SFUSD staff, Superintendent Carlos Garcia said the district is thinking about suing the state:

“We must all stand up for children and let the governor and legislators know that the current state of education funding is unacceptable,” he wrote.

Across the state, cuts to education budgets are responsible for teacher layoffs, increased class sizes, and changes in busing, counselors, social support services, and more – but schools that serve low-income students are making much deeper cuts, according to a new study by UCLA’s Institute for Democracy, Education and Access.

More than 66 percent of principals in high-poverty schools, for example, reported teacher layoffs compared with 15 percent in schools where students primarily come from middle- or upper-income families.

While wealthier communities are better able to supplement their school’s funding with private support, schools serving poorer communities have few additional resources to draw on; at the same time, these schools are seeing an increase in the number of students who qualify for free or reduced lunch and whose families face job losses, home foreclosures, and dwindling help from supplementary education, health, and social services (also suffering in the recession).

Like these schools, Aim High is anticipating the need to make some difficult cuts at a time when students and educators need an opportunity like Aim High more than ever.  We are hopeful that the Bay Area community will step up to support youth at a time when so much community and school support is disappearing.

SFUSD looks at huge cuts to summer programs

With San Francisco Unified School District facing budget cuts of up to 24% over the next 2 years, summer classes are on the chopping block, according to this week’s SF Examiner.  Only courses for 11th and 12th grade students who require credits to graduate are expected to be preserved.

Summer school cuts will save the district just $2 million of its $83 million budget deficit, and will disproportionately affect students who are already failing, many of whom are Black and Latino.

Last year, districts across the country – including LA Unified, San Diego, Sacramento, and nearly the whole state of Florida, to name a few – made significant cuts to summer programs or eliminated them altogether.

Though district enrichment programs disappeared from SFUSD’s offerings years ago, remedial district summer school programs are an integral component of the district’s efforts to support low-performing, mostly low-income students; they provide failing students a second chance to master grade-level material, minimize the summer learning loss that adds enormously to the achievement gap, and give thousands of San Francisco students a free, safe place to be during the summer.

Aim High, already turning down about half of all applicants in San Francisco, will be further stretched in this difficult fundraising environment.  It is unlikely that summer enrichment programs like Aim High, Breakthrough Collaborative and the Boys and Girls Club will be able to accommodate the thousands of students in need of academic intervention and left with no free option this summer.

SFUSD’s next Board of Education meeting is Tuesday, January 26th, and budget cuts – including summer school – are likely to be on the agenda.  Who will be there to advocate for the district’s neediest students?

A push for Latinos to pursue education

NPR’s Marketplace had a great piece last week on the opportunities and challenges facing Latino students thinking about college.

As white baby boomers retire from professional positions, Latinos, the fastest-growing population in the US, are the largest population to replace them – yet only 13% of Latinos get bachelor’s degrees.

Under-resourced schools with insufficient counseling services, communities with few professional role models and poor understanding of the path to college, language barriers, and low expectations for success are all obstacles Latino youth face may in their early and secondary education.

Read more or listen to the story here:  A push for Latinos to pursue education

Dropping Out of High School is Hazardous to Your Health

Dedicated, delightful, fearless, exceptionally attractive readers, I apologize for the long silence – your Aim High communications guru spent December communicating via mail and email and then enjoyed a delightful winter break, but is glad to be back in the saddle here at the office and the blog.

In case you needed another reason to encourage kids to stay in school, here’s some new data:  Dropping out of high school is bad for your health.   According to this article in Science Daily, new data from the Columbia School of Public Health indicates that high school dropouts lose 5.1 years of perfect health.  As a health concern, being a high school dropout is almost as risky as smoking (6.6 years) and more risky than being obese (4.2 years) or uninsured.  The riskiest circumstance:  poverty.  Americans in the bottom one-third of income earnings lose 8.2 years of perfect health.

In 2010, Aim High’s resolution is to get more kids excited about learning – a factor that helps reduce dropouts and, ultimately, can allow young people to escape poverty through education.  At a time when the health of our nation is in the spotlight, I hope you too are resolved to support education and reduce poverty.

Happy New Year, everyone!

2009 Review

Despite a challenging economic climate and the closing of one San Francisco site, 2009 was a strong year for Aim High, serving more than youth in the Bay Area and strengthening our curriculum, partnerships, fundraising and more. After the jump, read the “headlines” for Aim High’s top developments in 2009.

Aim High E-News: November 2009

Aim High fans,

Things have been busy here at the Aim High Central Office – events, awards, a pilot program, and more have kept us on our toes through October and November. We are deeply thankful for your support and generosity, and optimistic that we can dream big in 2010, serving more students and communities than ever. Read on for a generous helping of Aim High News – Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

In this issue:

• Nosh, Shop and Support Aim High at Sports Basement Happy Hour
• Vote Today: Help AH earn $25,000 from Chase Community Giving on Facebook
• Your Holiday Shopping Can Support Aim High – Here’s How!
• Aim High’s New Pilot Program Helps Students Apply to Top High Schools
• BIG Thanks – Your Reviews Won a YouthThrive Award for Aim High!
• Aim High Volunteer Leader Wins Bank of America Neighborhood Hero Award
• Marin Community Rallies Support for New Aim High Site
• Check Out This Month’s Updates on the Aim High Blog

Marin Community Rallies Support For New Aim High Site

More than 70 members of the Marin County community gathered in November to learn about Aim High’s plan to expand the summer program to serve high-need youth in Marin.

Hosted by Patrick and Marney Tenney, the event formally introduced Aim High’s Campaign for Marin, which aims to raise $250,000 in gifts and multi-pledges by March 1st to support the launch of an Aim High site in Marin in 2010.

Vince Matthews, a former Aim High teacher and Mt. Tam High School administrator who now serves as State Administrator for Oakland Unified School District, spoke of the impact of programs like Aim High on troubled districts and low-performing students. “Without question,” Matthews said, “Aim High is doing what we would like to do throughout the entire system.”

Guests also heard powerful stories from Aim High graduate and UC Berkeley graduate student Rita Molestina, as well as Aim High parent Natalie Thomas, who attributes her daughters’ pursuit of a top-tier high school to Aim High’s spirit of community and opportunity.

To read their stories, get more information on Aim High’s plans for Marin, or make a gift or pledge, visit Aim High’s Campaign for Marin web page.

Aim High Volunteer Wins Bank of America Neighborhood Hero Award

Scott Wu, President of the Aim High Board of Directors, was honored by Bank of America with a Neighborhood Builders Award, one of 5 such awards given this year in San Francisco.

The award included a $5,000 grant, which Scott chose to give to Aim High.

Scott has committed more than 10 years of service to Aim High, serving and leading the Board and guiding Aim High in its strategic growth from serving 350 students in San Francisco to serving more than 1,000 students in four Bay Area cities.

Scott also contributes time and effort to the United States Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, an organization that advocates for refugees, assists them in finding resources and resettlement, and educates the public about refugee issues.

“I am deeply honored, humbled, and surprised to be included among such incredible individuals,” Scott said.

Aim High’s New Pilot Program Helps Students Apply to Top High Schools

Aim High is committed to helping students reach for their dreams, and this year, an Aim High pilot program is helping students who dream of admission to San Francisco’s top high schools.

25 students are enrolled in the program, which meets for four hours each weekend for 10 weeks in the fall and winter.  Most of the students are currently 8th graders and are preparing to apply for admission this year, though a few 7th graders are taking advantage of the program to get a head start.

Achievement Gap story: A Mixed-Race School Where Races Don’t Mix

This NPR story from October 31st caught my eye because of how well it captures the truth that students held to high expectations achieve highly and students of whom little is expected achieve little.  Unsurprisingly, those low-expectation students are almost all African American; what surprised me is that the school is well-funded, the school and community are very diverse, and the low achievement among African American students appears to be income-irrelevant.  Racial Achievement Gap Still Plagues Schools