Tuition-Free Community College: Too Good to be True

EDUCATION POLIITICS-Two separate proposals- one by President Obama and one by Governor Brown in the California state budget- that appear to strengthen both state and federal government commitment to post K-12 public education fail to address a critical factor that might make the increased money that they seek to make available a complete and utter waste for state and federal taxpayers and … more specifically … students; if a major oversight prerequisite for their effective implementation is not first put in place. 

That prerequisite must be an entity with the independent power and authority to monitor and reform the longstanding dismal performance of school districts like the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), where students continue to be allowed to pass through their K-12 education without attaining the fundamental English language and math skills that are needed to successfully take advantage of college or university. In short, without reform the only thing that is likely to be accomplished is to extend K-12 to equally dismal K-14. 

As long as there is no independent auditing of school districts like LAUSD, they can continue to squander any amount of money given. Just look at the recent iPad scandal, where LAUSD spent $1.3 billion on devices that presuppose English and math literacy skills not possessed by the vast majority of LAUSD students.  

At the same time, the ranks of seasoned well-trained teachers continues to be decimated in fulfillment of a narrow and unquestioned LAUSD administrative implemented policy of saving money by forcing out these veterans on trumped up charges for the sole purpose of hiring cheap, fresh-out-of-college untrained replacements.  

Giving junior colleges and universities more money for free tuition under these circumstances will not even address the critical issue of students' subjective needs in a timely manner at the K-12 level, which is a clear prerequisite for these programs having any chance of succeeding, no matter how much money is thrown at them. 

All the money in the world will not improve our junior colleges, colleges and universities, if students continue to be socially promoted through K-12 education without the fundamental skills necessary to do college work. 

At Los Angeles City College, 70% of entering students irrespective of whether they have passed the California High School Exit Exam (CAHSEE) or been given a highly suspect high school diploma by LAUSD, are unable to pass the LACC basic skills test required upon entry to be allowed to take college level classes and not just remedial courses, which should have already put some city, county, state, or federal regulatory agency on inquiry notices as to why students can not do entry level college work.  

 However LAUSD still claims against all evidence to the contrary that their students are fully qualified high school graduates. This doesn't just happen, rather it has been purposefully allowed to go on for years by those in LAUSD entrenched administration that remain unaccountable. 

According to Harris, 70% of the students arriving at junior college with mastery of K-12 prior grade-level standards graduate and go on to college or career programs without a hitch. So how hard would it be to finally clear up the K-12 mess that continues to be allowed to fester?

So, while it is admirable that both Obama and Brown want to help American colleges and universities, they must first look at what is- or is not- going on in public K-12, if they want these initiatives to have any chance of success.

It is worth mentioning that Governor Jerry Brown's father, Edmund G. "Pat" Brown, as Governor of California actively believed in subsidizing the cost of higher education. He clearly understood the money it cost the State of California or government in general to lower the cost of college (I paid only $80.50 a quarter in tuition at UCLA in 1969) would come back manifold to both the state and federal tax coffers in the form of higher taxes paid by a highly educated workforce that made us the logical choice in the past for aerospace, computer, and other leading edge technology driven businesses that have given California a GNP right up there with the most successful countries in the world.  

There is no reason, but the failure to address corruption and ineffective methodology in K-12, that we cannot turn things around again. And in the process, maybe we lessen the 2.4 million prison population in the U.S. that is 60% African American and Latino. Could that have anything to do with a de facto segregated LAUSD that remains 90% African American and Latino 60 years after Brown vs. Board of Education said this is illegal? 

 

(Leonard Isenberg is a Los Angeles observer and a contributor to CityWatch. He’s a second generation teacher at LAUSD and blogs at perdaily.com. Leonard can be reached at [email protected]) 

-cw

 

 

 

 

CityWatch

Vol 13 Issue 4

Pub: Jan 13, 2014