Welcome!

Welcome to the blog of Zaq Roberts, Associate Head of School at The Berkeley School in Berkeley, CA. I blog about a wide variety of topics, from classroom moments I witness, to administrative events and conversations, to the educational blogs, videos, and books I am reading and watching, and how they are influencing my thinking. I hope this eclectic approach will give you insight into the many ways that I am engaging in advancing the school and strengthening our program, and I welcome your thoughts and comments!

This blog takes its name from a quotation by Archimedes that reads "Give me a lever long enough, and I can move the world." The TBS mission speaks directly to the need to engage a changing world, while many of the experiences in our program focus on the development of students' agency and authority. TBS is the lever by which we all - administration, faculty, students, and parents - can together move the world to be more humane, compassionate, and responsive. To borrow an important Montessori phrase, it is our way to remake the world.

Friday, May 6, 2011

The disproportionate impact of budget cuts

An interesting thread runs between these articles.

In this op-ed, Kathleen McCartney makes clear the importance of funding Head Start, and the value of pre-school programs.

This article from Katy Murphy at the Oakland Tribune looking at how budget cuts will impact school layoffs, as new teachers get fired first in a "last-in, first-out" process.

And this article, by Wyatt Buchanan at the SF Chronicle, details how a new bill in the CA state senate would let school districts raise taxes within their own districts.

What's the thread? Equity. Head Start - and the prison system - enrolls primarily non-White, socio-economically disadvantaged people. Urban schools with high numbers of new teachers tend to serve the same population. And suburban school districts with high income earners will be more likely to vote for further taxes to support their schools than those with lower income earners (ex: what happened with last year's voting in Berkeley and El Cerrito on the same issue).

No comments:

Post a Comment