Suggestions for Future CP Projects

I think it would be a great CP project to work with any type of program at an alternative high school. These schools serve the most at need students and anything we can do to help improve these schools would help society. My suggestions would include helping music programs, P.E. programs, art programs, or any other programs in schools that have a tendency to have funding cut. Even finding out how to increase funding in Fine and Performing Arts in regular schools would be interesting. These are all enriching programs that unfortunately have their funding cut. Just today, I learned that the marching band/music program that I was a part of in high school only gets $550 from the local school district to operate. Yet, this program currently serves 110 musicians and performers. All of their fundraising has to be done by the booster program in order to keep the group functioning. This is an example of how program funding has been cut and the program responds. So, I suggest that someone continues to work with any school program that has funding cut. It is an enriching experience to work with youth on all accounts.

CBL component

The CBL component of the course helped to bring to life the issues with the interactions in government. It made the issues more close to home and easier to see the problems that are created. My community partner had a lot of issues with budgeting and their interactions with the local school district. For this reason, I paid closer attention to the chapters on budgeting and what issues could be stopping money from channeling to the P.E. program at Valley Oak High School. In addition, it was useful to learn about the way in which government entities could raise moneys for their respective CPs. It made me realize the importance of property taxes and how they can raise more money for schools. In addition, it pointed out that schools, although they are supposed to be equal, will have different abilities to raise money based on the value of the property in the area. This made me question why Valley Oak High School does not have adequate funding for P.E. even though it is in the Napa Valley where property values are high because of vineyards etc.

In addition, my CP made me think about the channels in which to influence change. Powerful interest groups such as teachers unions have the ability to effect change in educational policy. In addition, the governor of a state has the ability to push legislation through the legislative body by gaining the trust of an assembly or senate member and having that representative push the bill through for them. This tends to happen when the governor has strong personable skills and has connections to members of congress. In addition, the governor can bring the topic up at the federal level at the annual governor’s meeting where they discuss common issues. It is amazing how many different channels there are for influencing change with my CP. Never before was I able to think of this. In addition, I thought more about how I could help make a difference with my sister after working closely with her. It made me more aware of just how difficult the situation is for many teachers.

I think the most useful part of the CBL component for this class was having a CP that made issues come more to life. Without the CP, I would not have examined issues in this class as closely as I did. It made me think a lot more about the issues that affect the different entities within the government. It was also helpful to learn from other people’s CPs. For example, Sam’s CP who was the local library brought to life the issue of privatization. If she did not have her CP, I would not have thought about why it may be a bad idea to privatize a library. Erika’s CP also brought to life the idea of capacity and the ability to serve a communities needs on a limited budget. The various CPs brought to life so many of the different issues we talked about in the class. In addition, we all picked such different CPs that the majority of the issues covered some type of element of state and local government that we talked about. This helped to make the issues more real and close to heart.

In the future, I think the CBL component to the class will continue to be helpful. Although it can be time consuming and stressful to put the extra hours in outside of class, it helps to understand better how state and local government can function. It also helps to illustrate problems that would otherwise go unnoticed. The best way to understand exactly what is going on in the world is to see it firsthand.

Governors and My Community Partner

The governor of California has the ability to influence education, education policy and budgets in a number of ways. First the governor has the ability to strike down or sign into effect any laws. If the governor likes a law promoting a certain education policy, than he will sign it into law. Meanwhile, if the governor does not like a certain bill, he has the ability to veto it. He can either line item veto where he will strike out a certain part of the bill, pocket veto the bill where he leaves it on his desk unsigned until it expires or he can just do a regular veto on it. Vetos have the ability to hinder or help education by preventing the wrong bills from going into place or by striking down the right ones.

In addition, the governor has control over the annual budget. He has the ability to propose how much money will be spent in the field of education or where cuts will be made. He can specifically set aside money for P.E. programs or alternative schools that would help my community partner. After the governor proposes the annual budget, it goes to the legislative branch where it will either be approved and put into effect or sent back. In this way, the legislative branch also has some say over the amount of money that the governor can budget for education. Because of the recent budget crunch in California, a lot of money normally allocated to education has been cut because it is deemed as unnecessary or too much overspending in this category. The governor may find that the easiest place to make budget cuts is in the realm of education. This is why you have propositions being passed in states, like Proposition 30 in California, that are meant to give more money to education once again.

In addition, the governor has the ability to work closely with the legislative branch. In this way, he has the ability to influence legislation that will be channeled through the house and the senate and also have bills introduced by members on his behalf. If the governor sees that education needs more funding or whatever other needs it has, the governor has the ability to try to introduce a bill through a member of the legislative branch. By being close to members in the legislative branch, he has the ability to influence law in this way as well.

The governor may also have motivation to make sure education stays funded because it is an issue that many of his constituents will not be happy with if he makes major cuts in it. If the governor is concerned about being reelected to his next term, he will make sure he doesn’t do something that will upset voters. For this reason, he may restrain from cutting money in education.

Finally, the governor also has the ability to influence at the federal level. Annually, governors meet at a large conference where they discuss various issues. In the past, they have tackled nation-wide issues such as global warming, taxing, education and disasters. In this way, the governor has the ability to influence education policy and grant-in-aids at the federal level. This could potentially mean more money to education as it is also a federal issue in some sense. The governor could also try to get a grant-in-aid to help fund public schools that are desperately in need. This could dramatically help my Community Partner.

State Constitutions

Is your CP constitutionally mandated? Does it seek any kind of protection relating to its existence or scope, or any guarantee relating to its area of interest, under a state constitution?

My CP is constitutionally mandated because education is delegated to the states. States have to establish and maintain public schools. Schools are established under the state constitution and then are given funding by the state to carry out their duties. Then the local governments take over the duties of running the schools. They are allocated money by the state government to run the schools. The existence of the schools is guaranteed by the the state constitutions and are protected under this.

Although schools are guaranteed by the state constitution, it does not guarantee certain programs to exist within the school systems.  This means that programs and classes that are not tested under No Child Left Behind have the tendency to be cut from schools in order to improve test scores and to save money. These programs include music, art, P.E., woodshop, etc. In the case of P.E., these programs have been significantly reduced in size in order to direct funding towards the core subjects like English and math. The students that are EL or are performing at the basic levels in core subjects are usually given two periods of the subject that they are struggling in. This means that these students don't get to take other classes like P.E., fine arts or other subjects. At Valley Oak High School, all of the students have not yet earned their P.E. credits. Some failed because they did not dress out to class or participate while others never got the chance to take P.E. because they were failing their other classes.

Although P.E. has experienced some cuts to its programs, it will continue to exist because the states are interested in the well-being of all of its citizens. The states are responsible for the well-being of the citizens and therefore promote programs to keep their citizens happy. P.E. is important because of the recent interest in preventing childhood obesity. The purpose of P.E. is to teach healthy habits to the students such as leading a healthy lifestyle and being active. In addition, P.E. also incorporates in information that is about healthy eating choices.

This chapter talked about the variety in all of the different state constitutions. Some state constitutions are lengthy and wordy and include and extensive amount of articles addressing a wide variety of things. The largest state constitution has 365,000 words and includes a a vast number of articles. It is interesting that those constitutions that have a large number of articles are related to unimportant things. For example, "A constitutional amendment in Florida prohibits 'cruel and unusual  confinement of pigs during pregnancy" (54). This is an article that does not need to be written into a state constitution. If it is really necessary, it should just be put into effect with a law.      

Taxation and Spending in School Districts

My CP does not directly have the authority to raise funds through taxes although there is a channel that it can go through to do so. As a teacher, she cannot directly raise taxes because she does not have the authority to do so. However, if she can demonstrate the importance of getting more funds to the School Board she has the ability to influence the raising of taxes. School boards have the authority to raise property taxes if they are in need of more funding for their school district. Although the state has to give each school board funds for education, they are often not budgeted enough money to be able to effectively run a school district. In order to compensate for the lack of funding, school boards can propose to raise property taxes in their district to make up for this loss. I believe that this proposal has to be approved by voters in that district before it goes into effect.

Property taxes can be a bit controversial because they rank low in acceptability and accountability in comparison to other taxes. These taxes are applied based on assessment of the house or property which will determine the value of the lot. Once a rate of taxation is placed on that property, the owner will pay the pay the amount based on the rate of taxation and the value of the house. In this way, pieces of property that are worth more will produce more income for the school board that is trying to raise money. Because school boards raise money based on the district that they serve, the can be controversial in the unequal distribution in property values in different counties. Poor counties will yield for poor school districts while rich counties will yield for rich school districts. In addition, it should be noted that assessments of property values can also be over-assessed, under-assessed or just right. So in this way, individuals could be paying more or less than they should be in property taxes.

Napa Valley is home to well-valued property because of the vineyards and presence of well-off individuals. For this reason, the school district can easily raise money through property taxes by raising the local property taxes. However, Carolyn would have to make the case to her school that she needs more funding for her P.E. program to make something happen. Then, her school administrators would have to go to the school board to propose that she needs more funds. Because she does not need that much money, the school board would most likely try to budget her some more money that has already been raised. On the other hand, if all the P.E. programs in the district went to the school board and asked for more funding, the school board would likely have to hike property taxes in order to meet the budget needs. Because of the enactment of No Child Left Behind, funds have been diverted away from programs like P.E., music, art and other programs that are deemed unnecessary to meeting the high academic standards in English-language Arts, math and science. This makes it more and more difficult for P.E. programs like Carolyn’s to receive more funding.

In regards to schools themselves, they are associated with the spending side of the funds that are raised by taxes. This also includes programs within the schools like the P.E. program. The school board is what is directly associated with raising taxes. In different states and school districts, the citizens have veered away from property taxes to raise funds for schools and have instead opted to raise sales tax or higher income taxes. The argument behind doing this is it is more evenly distributed across the board and it also allows school districts that have lower property values to be able relieved of the  burden of having a poor funding pool. In other cases, it has been proposed that school boards should apply a service tax. This would mean that only those families that have a student attending a public school would have to pay taxes or another fee for the use of that service. That would heavily place the burden on the families and avoid having single people or senior citizens pay.

Budgeting

My community partner is reliant on the state government and the local government to provide money for the program. Currently, my community partner is without the money and resources to be able to perform her job effectively. The state government makes the overall budget that will give money to state-wide education. This money tends to be reserved more for Title I, Title III, and other specific education programs. Many of the students at Valley Oak are designated as Title I as they come from low socio-economic backgrounds. Even though the school receives extra funding for these students, it is usually not directed towards programs such as P.E. At the local level, the school is funded based on the money allotted by the local government. Most of the money for education is raised through property taxes at the local level. I am not sure what kind of budgeting method that the Board of Education uses to allocate funds to schools and certain programs. Regardless, Valley Oak would request money from the Napa Unified School District Board of Education to carry out its duties. Valley Oak could try to specifically request money to buy a certain type of P.E. equipment as a one-time request (although it is not a large amount of money) or it could ask for a certain amount of money to be set aside for the P.E. program. It should also make a case for why there needs to be money specifically set aside for this P.E. program. My Community Partner could bring to the School Board’s attention that P.E. is an effective and healthy outlet for many of these students. This could be a way to receive more funding by making sure they know how important it is to keep properly funded.

As my community partner has only been with Valley Oak for this school year, I am unable to find out if she specifically has to ask for funding from the budget. I am pretty sure that the administrators of her school propose a budget to the School Board. Because she has recently gotten comments from various administrators and other outsiders about the work she has done with the students, she is hoping that they will recognize the need for more funding in the following school year. This is the first step to hopefully getting additional funding directly from the school district. Unfortunately, the School Board does not have P.E. as a priority on their budget. They, instead, are more concerned with raising test scores in English, math and science. I believe that the school reapplies for a budget for every school year. They should review the budget from the previous year and see how the funds were used and if the ideal results occurred. My community partner is virtually fully dependent on the school district for all of its funding needs.

I think there is a lack of consistency with budgeting in the most recent school years. Because of the recent recession and cuts to education, schools have had no choice but to make drastic cuts in its programs. Performing Arts, Fine Arts and Physical Education always seem to be the first programs that experience the chopping block in some way. Physical Education has experienced budget cuts by seeing cuts to equipment funding. My community partner has especially experienced this cut because she does not have the proper equipment to be able to effectively run her classes. The majority of the time she has to modify her lessons or borrow equipment from other schools because she does not have what she needs.

The Judicary

                My community partner does not directly work with the judicial process to resolve problems, nor does she work with the prison system in any way. The closest thing to using the judicial system is the fact that many of the students at this alternative school have been in previous run-ins with the law. Also, students may face having to go through the judicial process to resolve any truancy issues, as it is punishable by law. However, this all takes place at the most local system of the judiciary branch.

                I think it is interesting to look at the various ways in which judges are appointed to positions whether it is at the local or state level. Many states use the merit system which is used to combine the nominating of a judge, the approval from the governor and then accountability by the citizens. There are also variations on this merit plan that will adapt to the state’s needs. The merit system is interesting because it incorporates the elements of non-partisanship and accountability by the people. I think that it is important for judges to be held accountable by the people because otherwise the people cannot speak their voice about how their feel about certain issues. However, most voters do not attempt to get rid of the incumbent judge unless it is a controversial issue that is decided in a unfavorable way. It must be a high-profile issue and decision in order to vote a judge out.

                In the case of judges who are only appointed by the governor, there seem to be accountability problems. That judge is only really accountable to the individual who put that judge into office. A gubernational appointment can also be seen as a political favor by appointing someone that the governor may own. An appointment can also be used to satisfy party leaders or voters in certain regions. According to the author, the gubernational process is actually the most common way for a judge to be appointed to an appellate or major trial court. There is no accountability to the voters in this method of appointment because they are not subject to an election. In addition, even if a state uses the merit system, a governor has the ability to appoint a new judge in an internment term after one retires. This will give a judge incumbency to help them be more likely to be elected.

                For those states that elect judges into their appointment, there are also problems. There is often a lot of campaign funding that comes into play. This can subject an election to bias based on the amount of money that one candidate may have. There is also low voter turn out to elect judges because it is not a position that is really in the spotlight. In addition, campaign money will often come from individuals that are heavily invested in the outcome. For example, major law firms, corporations and lawyers may contribute to the judge that will most heavily favor them because they will have to deal with them in court. These individuals will want to have a person in the judge’s seat that is going to rule in their favor. In this way, the election of a judge could be a reflection of the opinion of a few individuals as opposed to being that of the majority.

                The most important thing to learn here is that the appointments in the judicial branch should be free from partisanship, money, favors and any other biases that could occur. Money in the election of judges could corrupt the system. In addition, the appointment of judges by political favor could also corrupt the system if it is done from a partisan stand point. Regardless, personal opinions and views will always come into play in the minds of the judges. The important thing is appointing someone to be judge who will do their best to rule by the law and not by their own bias.