Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/531381
ByLisaLeff The Associated Press SAN FRANCISCO Whilethe Common Core education standards provoked polit- ical backlash and testing boycotts around the coun- try this year, the state that educates more public school children than any other — California — was conspic- uously absent from the de- bate. Gov. Jerry Brown and California's elected K-12 schools chief are united in their support of the em- battled benchmarks. The heads of the state's teach- ers' unions, universities and business groups are on board, too. More than one- quarter of the 12 million stu- dents who were supposed to take new online tests linked to the standards this spring were Californians, but the technical glitches and par- ent-led opt-out campaigns that roiled the exams' roll- out elsewhere did not sur- face widely here. "I'm glad it's not us," state Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson, a former high school science teacher and state lawmaker, said of the anti-Common Core senti- ment that has put his peers in many other places on the defensive. The prevailing equanim- ity may stem most from what the state did not do, Common Core opponents and advocates in Califor- nia agree: tie student test scores to teacher evalua- tions. The 2012 decision cost the state $49 million from the federal Race to the Top grant program, as well as a reprieve from the sanc- tions in the 2001 No Child Left Behind law for schools defined as low-performing based on test results. But the refusal scored the governor and state ed- ucation officials points with teachers that staved off dissent over the new stan- dards, California Federa- tion of Teachers President Joshua Pechthalt said. "When you don't attach those high-stakes tests, then you've really cut much of the opposition," Pech- thalt said. California also owes its comparative calm in part to the lock like-minded Dem- ocrats have had on state- wide offices and the Leg- islature since the start of 2011, mere months after the state school board adopted the voluntary math and language standards with approval from an initially ambivalent Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. GOP voters and lawmakers who saw the Obama admin- istration-backed framework as federal overreach were the Common Core's earli- est critics. "In smaller states, peo- ple can organize and say we don't want this and go to the governor and super- intendent and see results," state Sen. Sharon Runner, a member of the GOP minor- ity in Sacramento, said. "In our state, there are millions and millions of students ... But there is no big swell or group out there that is try- ing to stop Common Core." More money in school coffers hasn't hurt the Common Core cause ei- ther. Since the start of the 2013-14 school year, Brown and the Legislature have put $1.5 billion toward the technology and teacher training that school lead- ers argued were needed to bring the new standards into classrooms. The gov- ernor has proposed spend- ing another $3.5 billion on Common Core implementa- tion next year. "Teachers are the first- line communicators with parents, so when teachers are getting what they need, they are communicating something that is more pos- itive," California State PTA Vice President for Educa- tion Patty Scripter said. California officials stood firm in the face of a threat from U.S. Education Secre- tary Arne Duncan last year to withhold $1.5 billion in school funding if the state suspended its old pencil- and-paper standardized tests a year early and only administered the computer- based Common Core tests on a practice basis. EDUCATION Ca li fo rn ia t em pe rs b ac kl as h while embracing Common Core GOSIAWOZNIACKA—THEASSOCIATEDPRESSFILE Farm workers pick paper trays of dried raisins off the ground and heap them onto a trailer in the final step of raisin harvest near Fresno. By Sam Hananel The Associated Press WASHINGTON The Su- preme Court ruled on Monday that the govern- ment can't force raisin farmers to give up part of their annual crop for less than it's worth, a victory for conservative groups that hailed the decision as a win for private property rights. The justices ruled 8-1 that a 1940s-era program born out of the Great De- pression is unconstitu- tional because it allows federal officials to seize personal property from farmers without fully compensating them, even though the goal is to ben- efit farmers by stabilizing market prices. The court sided with California farmers Mar- vin and Laura Horne, who claimed they were losing money under a program they called outdated and ineffective. They had been fined $695,000 for trying to get around it. Writing for the court, Chief Justice John Rob- erts said the government must pay "just compen- sation" when it takes per- sonal goods, just as when it takes land away. Roberts rejected the government's argument that the Hornes volun- tarily chose to participate in the raisin market and have the option of grow- ing different crops if they don't like it. "'Let them sell wine' is probably not much more comforting to the raisin growers than similar re- torts have been to others throughout history," Rob- erts said. "Property rights cannot be so easily manip- ulated." The case was consid- ered one of the most im- portant property disputes to reach the high court since 2005, when the jus- tices ruled that the city of New London, Connecticut, could use the power of em- inent domain to hand pri- vate homes or businesses to developers to help stim- ulate economic improve- ment. That case sparked a backlash in many states and led more than 40 state legislatures to pass laws protecting property rights. By contrast, Monday's ruling in the raisin case was seen as a decisive win for property-rights advo- cates seeking to limit gov- ernment power. "The decision confirms what should be obvious: the government cannot come and take your per- sonal property without compensation, whether raisins or other property, on the ground that the tak- ing is for your own good," said J. David Breemer, at- torney for the Pacific Law Foundation, a conserva- tive group that backed the Hornes. The program was autho- rized by a 1937 law that al- lows the U.S. Department of Agriculture to keep prices for raisins and other crops steady by helping to manage supply. A 1949 marketing order allowed farmers to form a commit- tee that decides how much of the raisin crop handlers must turn over to the gov- ernment each year. High court rules seizure of raisins unconstitutional PROPERTY RIGHTS CHRISTINE ARMARIO — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Leticia Fonseca, 16, le , and her twin sister, Sylvia Fonseca, right, work in the computer lab at Cuyama Valley High School a er taking the new Common Core-aligned standardized tests, in New Cuyama. By Martin Griffith The Associated Press RENO, NEV. A leading en- vironmental group has stepped up the fight against the proposed expansion of a Lake Tahoe ski resort, say- ing its impact on traffic and mountain scenery threatens to destroy the charm of the site that hosted the 1960 Winter Olympics. Sierra Watch's opposi- tion comes ahead of a pub- lic hearing Thursday in Kings Beach, California, on a draft environmental im- pact report of the project from Placer County, Cali- fornia, planners. Operators of the Village at Squaw Valley just north of Lake Tahoe are seeking approval to build a year- round indoor recreation center and 850 hotel-con- dominium units with 1,493 bedrooms on over 80 acres of the resort's parking lot. They would go up around the former site of Blyth Arena, where ice hockey and figure skating competition was held during the 1960 Winter Games. The arena was torn down in 1983. The new plans would change the resort's charac- ter forever with high-rise hotels and condo projects containing as many rooms as in three major hotel-ca- sinos on Lake Tahoe's south shore combined, said Tom Mooers, executive director of Nevada City-based Si- erra Watch. He also criti- cized what he called devel- opers' plans for a "massive indoor amusement park as big as a Walmart." "The more we delve into the (proposal), the more we see how development would transform Squaw Valley into a noisy, urban place and threaten everything we love about the Tahoe Sierra," Mooers wrote by email. "Traffic would choke Tahoe's highways, so visi- tors would be stuck in their cars instead of enjoying the great outdoors." Andy Wirth, Squaw Val- ley's president and CEO, ac- knowledged there will be an impact on traffic, but said his resort is "fiercely com- mitted" to developing mass transit to mitigate problems. The current plan is down considerably from the origi- nal proposal for 1,275 units with 3,097 bedrooms and represents only 38 percent of the units and bedrooms allowed under the Squaw Valley General Plan, he said. Developers revised the plan 28 times to lessen im- pacts in response to com- munity feedback after at- tending 300 meetings over the last three years, said Wirth, a former wilder- ness ranger and a grand- son of Conrad Wirth, who was National Park Service director under Presidents Dwight Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy. "Do (opponents) think the 82 acres of parking lot are attractive to what we hold dear about Lake Tahoe? Do they think they add to the aesthetics?" he asked. "The community believes there can be some- thing better than the park- ing lot, and we agree." While Squaw Valley's ski terrain is on par with the greatest ski areas, Wirth said, the resort needs a better quality and variety of lodging in order to com- pete in the future. LAKE TAHOE Fight over ski resort's expansion plan heats up RUNNINGS ROOFING SheetMetalRoofing ResidentialCommercial • Composition • Shingle • Single Ply Membrane Ownerisonsiteoneveryjob ServingTehamaCounty 530-527-5789 530-209-5367 NoMoney Down! 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