From time to time I’ve mentioned the disastrous Kansas City experiment, which tends to be a rallying point for those who dare to contradict the Kozol doctrine that increased spending will cure all that ails American education.  Looks like somebody didn’t get the memo, because we have a Kansas City for the new millennium:

Sausalito Marin City teachers are the highest-paid in the county, with an average salary in 2004-05 of $70,981 compared with the Marin average of $58,256. The district has three schools, an annual budget of almost $5 million, an enrollment of 283 K-8 students, and a pupil-to-teacher ratio of 14 to 1. Per pupil expenditure is $22,232, three times the state average.

Still, more than 50 percent of the district’s students fail to graduate from high school - sparking an attempt by trustees to turn around the district’s educational program.

This is a school district that has nearly everything in its favor.  It has a tiny number of students overall.  It has a ridiculously small class size (i.e. student/teacher ratio).  While it includes the city of Marin, which tends to be low-income, it also includes the upscale town of Sausalito in its boundaries.  And it has more money than it knows what to do with.  But performance has been so odious that parents traditionally flee the district for private schools!

Poor academic achievement in the Sausalito Marin City School District has rendered the concept of public neighborhood schools largely meaningless as dozens of children in the district, both black and white, flock to private schools.

Even the district’s relative wealth - it spends $22,232 per pupil annually, more than three times the state average - is not enough to coax students into the district.

"They are really being deprived of an education," said Marin City resident Catherine Shine, whose youngest daughter, Olivia, 6, attends private St. Patrick School in Larkspur, and oldest, Ashley, 13, briefly attended the district’s Willow Creek charter school before attending Mill Valley Middle School.

"These kids are getting a (poor) education and nobody seems to care. É I can’t figure out where the money goes."

George Stratigos, president of the Sausalito Marin City School District Board, said Shine’s complaint sounds familiar.

"Those were my words from 10 years ago," he said.

Nearly a decade ago, Stratigos led "Project Homecoming," a successful recall campaign of the school board that culminated in his ascent to the position of board president. In an interview at the time, he vowed to change "the long-standing culture of failure of the Sausalito Schools District to a culture for excellence."

In effect, Stratigos said, his goal was to attract would-be private school students to the public schools.

Today, Stratigos and another recall proponent-turned-trustee, Shirley Thornton, invoke nearly identical language to describe the district’s condition.

It’s been ten years.  And nothing has changed.  More on Stratigos here.  His blog is here.  And other Marin Independent Journal stories on this may be found here and here.  (Hat tip to Alan Bonsteel–who, come to think of it, really should start blogging–for bringing this to my attention.)

The colorful minds behind School Me! are still off vacationing, so we haven’t heard a lot of commentary from them yet on the progress of the takeover plan.  But one thing is clear: Villaraigosa has lost the LA Times editorial board on the idea.

United Teachers Los Angeles opposes merit pay for top-performing teachers. It makes the firing of bad teachers almost impossible. It’s against allowing administrators to assign teachers to the schools where they are needed most. It’s sharply critical of charter schools. The union doesn’t like having a unified curriculum, and it thinks that teachers shouldn’t have to put up with training from coaches.

In other words, the union is largely opposed to most reforms that demand more of teachers. (Individual teachers, many of whom applaud changing the schools to benefit students, are another matter.)

One of the biggest criticisms of the school board has been that the union wields too much power over its decisions because the union is by far the biggest donor to board candidates. Mayoral control of schools, in theory at least, dilutes that power because mayoral candidates draw from a larger pool of donors, and a mayor’s decisions receive more public scrutiny.

So much for theory. As it turns out, a mayor eager to work out a legislative compromise — and who has a long history with the teachers union — can hand far more to the union than the school board has ever agreed to.

And here’s the stinger:

A weakened school board, as beholden to UTLA as ever, makes an ideal negotiating partner for a powerful union. A superintendent who isn’t answerable to the board gives the union enough wiggle room to continually challenge district policy. A situation in which no one is dominant provides a perfect opportunity for the strongest player to emerge as the leader of the district. And UTLA is a strong, well-financed player. No wonder (UTLA president A.J.) Duffy likes this deal so much.

Go read the whole thing.   

UPDATE: The editorial didn’t tell the whole story on just what Duffy said at yesterday’s hearing.  Mike Antonucci fills in the blanks: 

In testimony before the California Senate Education Committee, Duffy defended the deal between UTLA and Mayor Villaraigosa by saying:

"This bill has been criticized for fragmenting authority over the system so that no one person is accountable, but that is precisely the genius of this legislation."

Duffy is absolutely right. It takes sheer genius to craft a proposal so cleverly that an operation involving tens of thousands of employees, hundreds of thousands of students, and billions of dollars holds no one accountable.

Bravo, sir.

Who would have thought Duffy would be so forthright about it? 

Taking remedial classes in college is pretty typical for most high school graduates.  The Dallas Morning News explains why:

The answer lies partly in the unique history of American education, according to Michael Kirst, an education professor at Stanford University.

"We built two mass, disconnected systems. The K-12 system built up on its own, and higher education grew away from it," Dr. Kirst said. Over time, they’ve developed in "splendid isolation" of each other.

In England, Germany and many other developed countries, the two systems developed together. They have a long history of cooperation. For instance, together they create tests for college admission and placement, Dr. Kirst said. And here?

Many states require students to pass a test built on their state’s curriculum – in Texas, the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills – to graduate from high school.

But to get into many colleges, students must take the ACT or SAT, tests that were created by national companies and that don’t really reflect the skills states require for graduation.

Then, many colleges give another test once kids arrive to place them in classes.

And often, the K-12 and collegiate tests don’t even resemble each other. For instance, students can use calculators on the math portion of the TAKS, but not on many college entrance and placement tests. 

Coming on the heels of yesterday’s post on the growing partnerships between K-12 and universities, this history–which, I think, most of us intuitively understand but never really acknowledge–kind of helps fill in the picture a bit as to why the disconnect exists in the first place.  Finally, these parallel universes seem to be joining together.  Faster, please.  (Hat tip to Education at the Brink.)

Get Schooled has a pretty interesting blog discussion on this subject.  Check out the comment thread for some entertaining thoughts on both sides of the debate. 

Teacher Union Speaks Out Against Closing Schools - Leaders of the Chicago Teachers’ Union went before a City Council committee Tuesday to spell out their objections to the public schools’ Renaissance 2010 plan. (more)

Reform for L.A. Schools Advances - Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s bid to assert significant control over the Los Angeles Unified School District cleared its first legislative hurdle Wednesday, with state lawmakers voting 7-1 in support of his plan despite expressing deep reservations. (more)

Mayor clears hurdle No. 1 - Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s controversial Los Angeles school-takeover plan cleared one of its first significant legislative hurdles Wednesday, winning approval from the Senate Education Committee even as lawmakers, school officials and parents questioned whether it would really help schools. (more)

Union bosses today, school bosses tomorrow - Editorial: In the muddled deal for authority over L.A. schools, one thing is clear: The teachers union would win. (more)

Antonio’s Theory of Relativity - Can Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa really claim victory with his compromise school plan? (more)

Passing Marks - Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s plan for L.A. Unified still faces another committee, the full Senate and the state Assembly. But Wednesday’s 7-1 committee vote sent some strong messages to partisans on both sides: The train is leaving the station, and Democrats are going to send the bill to a welcoming governor no matter how many questions are raised regarding the new L.A. Unified flow chart — one crafted in a burst of late-night negotiations just last week. (more)

Napolitano defends acceptance of school-choice measures - Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano said Wednesday she still opposes vouchers, but accepted several measures helping students afford private schools to gain legislative approval of additional spending for all-day kindergarten, teacher pay and other priorities. (more)

It’s a Wrap! - A super-sized legislative session comes to an end in Arizona, with education the big winner of the budget negotiations. (more)

Panel calculating how U.S. schools should teach math -  The National Math Advisory Panel is holding its second-ever meeting in Chapel Hill, North Carolina this week, with members discussing ways to raise math achievement of students across the United States. (more)

Unions: For the Children? - Opinion:  Who would obstruct the fight against sex trafficking of children? The Vancouver Education Association (VEA) comes to mind. (more)

State needs to step up - Editorial: Massachusetts has long boasted of the strongest public schools in the nation.  It’s discouraging to see new data showing we’re losing ground. (more)

How did primary affect the schools? - Both sides of Utah’s education reform debate are claiming victory after this week’s primary election. (more)

Reforming the school district - Los Angeles teachers and residents weigh in on the mayor’s LAUSD takeover plan. (more)

Parents applaud, complain as LAUSD proposal advances - As California lawmakers push ahead with a radical shake-up of the Los Angeles Unified School District, parents are as divided as the politicians over the plan promoted by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. (more)

Teacher unions to merge Sept. 1 - New York’s two teachers unions will officially merge Sept. 1, creating a lobbying entity 600,000 strong. (more)