Top Five California Education Issues in 2010

In The College Trail's Home market of Orange County, California there are significant issues facing public school parents and children in 2010. These issues generally reflect nation-wide concerns. Recent data published in the Orange County Register point to five key issues.

Budget cuts, layoffs, school closures

School finances and budget cuts will continue be at the forefront of public education in Orange County in the new year. Many of the county's 28 school districts have already announced hundreds of millions of dollars in budget cuts for the 2010-11 school year, including proposed layoffs, cuts to programs and services, larger class sizes and school closures.

Educators say more budget cuts may be announced in coming months following a recent announcement from the state's Legislative Analyst's Office that California may face a new $21 billion deficit over the next two years.

School districts will begin announcing projected teacher layoffs and additional budget cuts by early March, ahead of the March 15 deadline to issue teacher pink slips.

Meanwhile, at least one Orange County school – Riverdale Elementary in eastern Anaheim – already has been identified for possible closure, with school officials eyeing a few others to possibly be put on the chopping block in the coming months.

Race to the Top reforms - Teacher Evaluations Tied to Student Academic Performance

The local educational community will be keeping close tabs on President Obama's competitive $4.35 billion Race to the Top grant program for schools – and the controversial education reforms that states must implement to apply for this funding.

Perhaps the most contentious reform for Orange County schools is the requirement that teachers' evaluations be based at least in part on their students' academic performance.

At least 20 of O.C.'s 28 school districts already have signed letters of intent to carry out Obama's education reform agenda and apply for the Race to the Top stimulus money, should California win a slice of the $4.35 billion pie.

State officials are rushing to meet a Jan. 19 deadline to apply for the funding, but California's application is contingent upon the Legislature passing an education reform bill that will make California competitive for the funding.

Both the Assembly and Senate have passed a version of this legislation, but the differences in these competing bills must be ironed out before the reforms can become law. Getting a bill to the governor's desk is a top priority for lawmakers right now.

If California misses the January deadline or doesn't win any money, it can apply for funding again during the program's second and final phase in June.

Federal officials have indicated California schools could receive up to $700 million.

Capistrano Unified's ballot initiative

South County voters will head to the polls this June to decide whether to change the way trustees are electedin the politically volatile Capistrano Unified School District, Orange County's second-largest. The parents' group that brought the initiative to the ballot wants Capistrano's approximately 220,000 registered voters to elect trustees by geographic districts, instead of all seven in an at-large election.

The switch is intended to give voters a chance to get to know candidates in their local area better, and would mirror the way Orange County supervisors are elected. No other O.C. school districts elect trustees in this manner, although some large districts, including Long Beach Unified, have adopted the practice.

If the ballot initiative passes, the rules would be changed in time for the November 2010 school board election, when three trustees' terms are up. The parents' group backing the initiative is seeking to unseat these incumbents, who all ran on the district's politically popular "reform" platform three years ago.

Separately, Capistrano Unified's school board has filed a lawsuit in Orange County Superior Court seeking to postpone the June ballot initiative by five months, to November 2010, on the grounds that the later date would save the district nearly half a million dollars in election-related fees. The school board's tactics have rankled supporters of the initiative, who say it's a thinly veiled attempt to keep the election rules unchanged for the November 2010 race.

A judge in Santa Ana is expected to decide the fate of the lawsuit in the coming weeks.

Appeal of Christian student's lawsuit

A Mission Viejo high school student who sued his teacher over his anti-Christian classroom rhetoric is appealing his case in federal court, with oral arguments possible by the end of 2010.

Capistrano Valley High senior Chad Farnan, 17, says he's happy with a federal judge's ruling last May that found history teacher James Corbett violated his First Amendment rights when referring to Creationism as "religious, superstitious nonsense" during a 2007 classroom lecture. But Farnan – who attributed more than 20 allegedly anti-Christian comments to Corbett in his original lawsuit – is seeking a broader ruling against Corbett that would find him liable for more of his statements.

Corbett, meanwhile, has cross-appealed the case seeking to be vindicated. He has retained a new, four-person defense team that includes nationally renowned constitutional scholar Erwin Chemerinsky, dean o fUC Irvine's law school.

Farnan will continue to be represented by Advocates for Faith & Freedom, a Murrieta-based Christian legal group.

The case will be heard by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Both sides are asking the court to reconsider essentially all of the facts of the case.

Orange County, CA Register's annual school rankings

Will Irvine's Bonita Canyon Elementary School again be ranked the best public elementary campus in Orange County?

Will Pioneer Middle School in Tustin clinch the best middle school honor for the second year in a row?

Will Cypress' Oxford Academy and Fullerton's Troy High School again be the No. 1- and No. 2-ranked high schools, respectively?

All of these questions and more will be answered when the Orange County Register releases its annual school rankings – a comprehensive analysis of how O.C.'s public elementary, middle and high schools stack up against one another.

The rankings are based on a weighted mathematical formula developed by the Register's education team that incorporates a variety of age-appropriate data, from standardized test scores and physical fitness indicators to college-going rates and ethnic and socioeconomic diversity.

The elementary school rankings will be out in February, followed by middle school rankings, and high school rankings by the end of the school year in June.