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Caifornia Props. 6 & 9 Bad Deals say LA Activists

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 07:00:00 GMT

Our Weekly Author , News Report, Shirley Hawkins, Posted: Oct 06, 2008

If passed into law, two new propositions–Propositions 6 and 9–could impose stiff new penalties that could adversely affect disadvantaged members of the community, according to activists at the grassroots based Community Coalition.

Members of the organization held a workshop Sept. 11 to alert the community about the propositions that will be facing voters on the November ballot.

Proposition 6, if passed, would be earmarked for criminal justice programs that could cost taxpayers billions. The funds would go toward law enforcement and corrections as well as to prisons, probation or police. The funds would come out of the State’s general fund and would threaten funding for vital programs such as education and welfare.

But more disturbingly, coalition organizers said that Proposition 6, known as the Safe Neighborhood Act, would target youth for adult prosecution. Youths 14 years or older charged with a “gang related” felony, including nonviolent felonies, would be presumed unfit for trial in a juvenile court. If convicted, the youths would be tried as adults and serve longer prison sentences. The charge would also leave permanent felony convictions on their records.

Proposition 6 would also provide money to local housing authorities to conduct criminal background checks for Section 8 recipients and occupants which could lead to the withdrawal of the housing subsidy for tenants with recent convictions.

The measure would also enforce stiffer penalties covering a wide range of infractions, including increasing penalties for nonviolent violations of gang injunctions, vandalism, gun possession, and even penalties for a minor if he or she attempts to remove a GPS device.

Another piece of proposed legislation of concern, is Proposition 9, which would remove judges’discretion to decide if restitution is appropriate in a case. It would also prohibit efforts to relieve overcrowding in California’s jails or prisons, and deny people on parole legal counsel at parole violation hearings.
Community Coalition president Marquise Harris-Dawson said that the propositions will have dire consequences for undeserved communities. “They are destabilizing populations with these initiatives,” Harris-Dawson declared. “Look at the number of black people incarcerated. The state of California as 175,000 people in prison. Sixty percent are black, and one third of that 60 % are from Los Angeles County. We have exploding foster care because of mass incarceration,” Dawson pointed out.

Harris-Dawson said that many voters will be misled when they hear the term Safe Neighborhood Act. “When you hear the words ‘Safe Neighborhood Act,’ what does it bring to mind?” Harris-Dawson asked. “A safer neighborhood. But Proposition 6 would call for the criminalization of youth starting at 14 years old. In other words, this bill would lock them up as adults when they’re still children.”

The proposition will also broaden the definition of gang related activity and requires all occupants living in public housing to pass yearly background checks. “Family members who do not pass the background check will lose housing,” Harris-Dawson pointed out. “A lot of these propositions are written in complicated and strategic language when they promote these propositions.”
Harris-Dawson observed, “Once they go to prison, it will be difficult for them to get housing or jobs, so what happens? More people will stay in the criminal justice system.”

Andres Ramirez, Community Coalition youth organizer, pointed out that the propositions will ultimately impact black and brown communities. “Ultimately, these propositions are about money,” Ramirez said. “If passed, these propositions will generate billions of dollars for jails, prisons, and parole operations. It is modern day slavery because it will keep up the level of oppression on black and brown in the courts. People will lose their rights and these propositions will help to break up families.”

“We need to get educated about these propositions,” said Kokayi Kwa Jitahidi, civic engagement coordinator for the Community Coalition. “These measures are about putting more people in jail.”

Kwa Jitahidi added, “The board of supervisors can make policy for the activity in the prisons. They set policies for section of the communities who are most at risk of entering into the prison system such as the poor and the unemployed. So they play a major role in providing services and programs for people to prevent them from going into prison–such as job training, drug treatment and education in and outside of prison.

“We want people to be informed about these propositions and the connection to our elected officials, particularly on the county level,” said Kwa Jitahiti. “We want people to be informed voters and empowered with information to talk to their neighbors, friends and family. A lot of the information we provided is not widely known by the community and people don’t know where to get the information. The presidential election is important, but there are a lot of propositions in upcoming races that will tremendously impact our community,” stated Kwa Jitahidi.

Related Articles:

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Poor to Take Brunt of California Budget Cuts

Legal Immigrants Alarmed by Debate: A Poll Found They See Undocumented Workers as Helping the Economy

Prop 6 Hurts Black Youth

Tue, 16 Sep 2008 07:00:00 GMT

http://www.examiner.com/x-861-African-American-Community-Examiner

A proposition on California’s November ballot will hurt Black youth and their families, if it is passed.

Mike Reynolds, who seems to have his finger on the pulse of the most mean-spirited Californian voters - he authored the notorious Three Strike’s initiative - co-authored the initiative, listed on the ballot as Proposition 6, along with other members of his gang: Sen. George Runner (R-Antelope Valley), Assemblywoman Sharon Runner (R-Lancaster), and Gary Ovitt, San Bernadino County Supervisor.

What will Prop 6 do?

If passed, Proposition 6, which is deceptively titled the Safe Neighborhoods Act, will increase prison sentences for non-violent offenses. This means that more people will be sentenced to state prison and they will spend more time there, according to a 2007 legislative analysis of the measure conducted for California’s Attorney General.

This is the same formula that has California’s jails and prisons bursting at the seams today.

Of course, the Runner Gang is banking on the fact that more sentenced offenders serving longer sentences will equal more jails and prisons – more county jails will be built, and more people will enter them, if the legislation passes.

More?

Prop 6 will shift control of all funding for mental health and drug treatment for youth from qualified county level providers to already understaffed and overwhelmed probation units.

Prop 6 will funnel millions of dollars into the coffers of law enforcement and corrections and will divert just as much from youth programs and services.

One last lowlight identified in the Runner Initiative Overview conducted by the W. Haywood Burns Institute:

Proposition 6 will target teenagers as young as 14 for adult incarceration.

What Prop 6 won’t do: Prop 6 won’t help Black youth build and maintain healthy relationships with their families and their communities. Prop 6 won’t get Black youth jobs. Prop 6 won’t improve relationships between neighborhood residents and law enforcement. Prop 6 will make it even harder for community members to help Black youth and their families to achieve these goals.

Encourage everyone you know to get the facts on Prop 6 and spread the word:

Vote No On Prop 6!

Why should you care about Prop 6 if you’re not a California voter?

One reason: much like our wildfires, the decisions that California voters make on criminal justice policies spread quickly.

So, if you are a California resident but you are not registered to vote, register today and vote No on Prop 6 on November 4th, 2008.

If you are a registered voter in California, help someone else get registered and educate them on Prop 6.

If you don’t live here, help our community-based organizations educate and mobilize California voters with a donation.

Let’s put this fire out now.

CA Groups Say Freedom of the Press Should Mean "Free the Press" at RNC

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 07:00:00 GMT

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September 3, 2008

St. Paul, MN - Freedom of the press - means never having to ask the authorities to "free the press." That's what members of the news media are saying about the treatment of journalists and others by police, as protests and arrests continue outside the Republican National Convention in St. Paul.

An Associated Press photographer and Amy Goodman - cohost of the nationally syndicated radio news program "Democracy Now!" - were among those swept up in arrests during clashes between protesters and law enforcement officers that began on Monday.

Karlos Gauna Schmieder, media strategist for the Center for Media Justice in Oakland, says jailing journalists is not only unacceptable - it makes a mockery of our democratic process.

"Democracy truly requires a free flow of ideas, there's no doubt. Without that, the Declaration of Independence truly isn't worth the paper it's written on.

In Minnesota, attorney Gena Berglund, with the state chapter of the National Lawyers Guild agrees that targeting journalists doesn't look good for police.

"What is so harmful about somebody using a camera to document police activity? If the police are behaving appropriately, they shouldn't be afraid of anything."

In Bergland's view, police have been overstepping their authority all week in St. Paul, beginning with weekend preemptive raids on homes in which visiting demonstrators and journalists were staying.

"Why is the Constitution being treated like a doormat, instead of the basis on which we build our system of governing and our system of democracy here in the United States?"

Thousands demonstrated in St. Paul on Monday and Tuesday. Nearly 300 people, including reporters and photographers, were arrested after a group of protesters splintered off and began smashing windows. Eyewitnesses say many of those arrested were merely caught up in the chaos.

As St. Paul Police Chief John Harrington put it, police "won the day" against those who intended to disrupt the convention through violence and vandalism. Follow details of the convention-related arrests online, at www.centerformediajustice.org.

**Karlos Says:

Unfortunately, they didn't use the part of my quote that i'd wished.

What I continued to say was:

If we want to call ourselves a shining beacon of democracy, basic freedoms must be in place. Every human rights document around the world begins with freedom of speech, expression and the press - and it's this freedom upon which all others are based...

Californians Marking Hurricane Katrina Anniversary Say Same "Storm" Brewing Here

Fri, 29 Aug 2008 07:00:00 GMT

The banner story for 8/29/2008 [...today’s (FRIDAY) third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, California groups plan to call attention to the ongoing struggles in the Gulf Coast and highlight similar problems of displacement and gentrification in California’s urban centers. Comments from Robbie Clark with "Just Cause," which is part of the "Right to the City" coalition and August Forman, a Katrina survivor now living in San Francisco] was picked up by the Clear Channel News Network news feed, and distributed to 460 news talk stations across the country.

August 29, 2008

San Francisco, CA - Californians today are remembering the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina and the struggles that still go on--not only on the Gulf Coast, but in their own state as well. Groups fighting for racial justice are holding rallies and marches to memorialize the Katrina victims. They also want to call attention to the problems of displacement and gentrification--problems they say exist in California's urban centers, too.

Robbie Clark, who is taking part in the "Day of Action" of the Right to the City coalition, says they're protesting the redevelopment of San Francisco's Hunters Point neighborhood and the demolition of 1,600 public housing units in Oakland.

"We see the same trends here as on the Gulf Coast, in terms of corporations driving policy to make big profits and those policies really hurting and impacting our communities."

According to the Census Bureau, the number of African-Americans in San Francisco has decreased by half in the past 35 years, from just over 13 percent of the population in 1970 to only 6.5 percent in 2005. That's the biggest percentage decline in any major American city.

August Forman was forced by the hurricane three years ago to leave his New Orleans home and now lives in San Francisco. He says he wants to bring attention to the problems he experienced in New Orleans and, more recently, in California.

"Katrina is every day. It's a 'dry Katrina' out here in San Francisco. I believe it's my duty to bring up similarities to what we've been through in New Orleans, as opposed to where we are at in America."

More information on the "Day of Action" is available online at
righttothecity.org

Housing Fund Seen as Grassroots Victory

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 07:00:00 GMT

POLITICS-US:

WASHINGTON, 27 Aug (IPS) - Advocates are calling a new national trust fund to preserve, rehabilitate and build affordable housing, including public housing, a major grassroots victory and key step in addressing the needs of low-income people in the United States.

There are 9.0 million extremely low-income households in the United States and only 6.2 million homes renting at prices they can afford, according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC). This is a gap of 2.8 million units for extremely poor households.

Some 37 million households spend more than 30 percent of their income on rent or mortgages, according to NLIHC data.

'We had the broader foreclosure crisis and housing crisis. I think that sort of awoke the larger affordable housing crisis to the rest of America, not just for the effect on extremely low-income households, but a broader sense throughout the country,' said Greg White, a policy analyst for NLIHC.

The Trust Fund Campaign consisted of thousands of individuals and organisations at the local, statewide, and national levels. The NLIHC lobbied of members of Congress in Washington, while community-based groups, such as homeless shelters, homeless advocacy groups, and religious organisations, also created local campaigns calling on their respective members of Congress to act.

'They [the campaign] have been working on it since pretty much 2000,' White said. 'The coalition was founded to make sure the lowest income people weren't on the street and had a voice for federal housing assistance.'

In recent years, housing authorities across the country have been demolishing thousands of units of public housing, citing a lack of federal funding for renovations. The availability of new funding could undermine the agencies' arguments that demolitions are justified.

'Housing generally as an issue was enjoying a boom for many years,' White explained. 'The fact there was an affordable housing crunch, I don't think it was on too many people's radars, but when the crisis started affecting other people, that's when other people started to pay attention to the problem.'

In late July, the U.S. House of Representatives passed HR 3221, or The American Housing Rescue and Foreclosure Prevention Act of 2008. The Senate passed the resolution shortly thereafter, and Pres. George W. Bush, who initially expressed opposition, signed the legislation on Jul. 30.

It marks the first new housing creation programme specifically targeted to extremely low-income households since the passage of the voucher and subsidised housing programme known as Section 8 in 1974.

The legislation, first introduced by Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders in 2001, marks a significant domestic accomplishment for the Democratic-controlled Congress, which also raised the federal minimum wage last year.

The revenue for the fund would come from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, two Government Sponsored Enterprises (GSEs) which provide a secondary market for mortgages in the U.S. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will make annual contributions to the fund based on a fraction of a percent of each company's annual new business.

While Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae are now facing financial difficulties, the fund was included in a larger package of housing legislation that also provided financial stability for the GSEs.

In 2009, the first year of enactment, 100 percent of the funds would be diverted to a Hope for Homeowners programme, to cover losses the Federal Housing Authority might incur refinancing troubled mortgages through the programme. This percentage will shrink over the following two years, and in 2012, 100 percent of GSE contributions will go the Trust Fund.

The Congressional Budget Office estimated in July 2008 that the fund would raise 837 million dollars by 2018, White said. This could create or preserve at least 837,000 new affordable homes.

Marcie Porter of the Low-Income Housing Coalition of Alabama said her group's work on the National Housing Trust Fund dovetailed with their efforts to have a statewide trust fund as well.

'Our focus has been around the state trust fund in Alabama. Hopefully, having a National Housing Trust Fund would make it easier for people to understand the need for a trust fund in our state,' she told IPS. 'We have gotten a lot done in our state legislature, creating a housing trust fund task force and trying to see what a trust fund might look like in the state.'

At least 75 percent of funds for rental housing in the new trust fund must benefit extremely low-income households and all funds must benefit very low-income households. At least 90 percent of all funds must be used for rental housing.

The trust fund will be managed by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), which will distribute funds to states using a need-based formula.

States will designate a state housing finance agency, housing and community development entity, tribal designated housing entity, or any other qualified agency to receive the grants.

'We went and presented to all of our legislators in Washington about the need and benefits of a National Housing Trust Fund and how it would be used. We talked about our own trust fund in North Carolina where the money [may] end up,' Chris Estes, executive director of the North Carolina Trust Fund, told IPS.

'We got Congressional staff to tour housing developments to see what had been done. We did a lot of work with our local members, held statewide conference calls, to get them to contact their representatives... and talk about housing in their communities,' Estes said. 'We did a call to action when there were critical votes in the House and Senate.'

In a celebratory email to supporters after the fund's passage, Sheila Crowley, the NLIHC's president, wrote, 'It has taken several years and many twists and turns along the way. Less patient (stubborn?) people would have given up at several points along the way. The forces of opposition were mighty and not always nice. Overcoming many formidable challenges does make victory even sweeter.'

(END/2008)

Foreclosure's hidden victims

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 07:00:00 GMT

Friday, August 15, 2008

(08-14) 21:38 PDT -- In early June, a handwritten note appeared on the front door of Bing Ling Zeng's San Francisco apartment, written in a language she couldn't understand.

"You will be needing to vacate this property soon," it said.

The following month, Pacific Gas and Electric Co. shut off the power. The food in the refrigerator spoiled, forcing Zeng to go out several times a day to buy groceries and milk for her three young children. Her 62-year-old mother-in-law couldn't recharge her electric wheelchair.

Zeng and the other Chinese family sharing the space hadn't fallen behind in their rent or bills. The only thing they did wrong was to lease an apartment from a landlord who fell into foreclosure, an unforeseeable mistake that hundreds are grappling with across San Francisco.

Tenants' groups around the city report a sharp rise in such cases, as lenders repossess growing numbers of local homes. Renters are being told to leave, are living in the dark or are receiving little response to their complaints as their homes fall into disrepair.

State and local laws prohibit landlords from evicting tenants or shutting off utilities in most circumstances like these, but not all renters are aware of the rules, and not all of the entities that take control of properties try to learn them.

"The basic problem is that the people who are acquiring these properties, they don't understand or want to understand that tenants have rights in San Francisco," said Tommi Avicolli Mecca, director of counseling programs at the Housing Rights Committee of San Francisco. "You can't just go in and tell them to leave, you can't shut off utilities, you can't call the police, you can't do any of that stuff."

He and other tenant advocates and attorneys worry that many renters who aren't aware of these rules are being pressured into handing over their keys.

The issue was virtually unheard of a year ago. The San Francisco Tenants Union had to circulate a memo to its counselors earlier this year because few had ever encountered it before.

The exact number of tenants dealing with the aftermath of a landlord foreclosure is difficult to ascertain. Three tenants groups contacted by The Chronicle reported around 130 cases this year, but most counselors believe that many more tenants aren't contacting the organizations. What is known is that lenders foreclosed on 492 homes in San Francisco during the last year and a half, according to DataQuick Information Systems.

One of those properties was on London Street, in the Excelsior district, where Daniela Medrano has lived with her daughter since 2005. Shortly after the lender repossessed the home in December, an agent with Manhattan Realty Group of South San Francisco, hired to sell the building, told Medrano she had to leave within 30 days, Medrano says.

After she refused, the agent threatened to call the police or sheriff's department, and have them forcibly removed on at least two occasions, Medrano alleges.

Medrano was "completely frustrated," she said through a translator. "I didn't know where to go or who to go to."

Sunny Bali, the owner of Manhattan Realty, said in a prepared statement that the company did approach the tenants and offered relocation expenses if they would leave voluntarily. He denied that any threats were made or notices of eviction issued. He said the tenants became uncooperative after they were asked to leave temporarily so that multiple building code violations, for which the bank was being fined, could be fixed.

"We are aware that they have approached many organizations and agencies and have tried to portray Manhattan Realty Group as this evil company," he said. "Far from true. We have done every thing correctly and diligently, as we always try to do."

Lenders who take back properties or investors who pick up foreclosed homes generally prefer the buildings empty, because that makes them easier to sell. Under San Francisco laws, however, those aren't grounds for an eviction in a rent-controlled building.

Unless tenants have stopped paying rent or otherwise have misbehaved, generally they can be forced out only when a new owner plans to demolish the property, has secured the necessary approvals to convert into it condominiums or plans to move in family members or him or herself, according to the city's rent ordinance. Even then, the owner typically must provide several months' notice and thousands of dollars in relocation costs.

In addition, new owners - a bank, a trustee or otherwise - generally become liable for the same obligations of the previous landlord, said Robert Collins, deputy director of the San Francisco Rent Board. That means that if the original lease said the landlord pays for electricity, as Zeng said was the case for her Excelsior apartment, the company that bought it is responsible now.

Nevertheless, the Zengs' power stayed off for a week. It was switched back on only after the Housing Rights Committee contacted PG&E and tracked down New Vista Asset Management, which took control of the Huron Avenue property, Avicolli Mecca said.

The note left on the door, stating that the families "would be needing to leave soon," was from a real estate agent representing New Vista.

"I left that for them because I knew the bank's ultimate wish is for them to be kicked out," said Frances Medina of Century 22 Real Estate and Mortgage. She stressed that she was "in no way involved in the eviction process."

New Vista of San Diego didn't respond to inquires from The Chronicle.

PG&E spokesman Joe Molica said the utility has a policy to help customers in this situation. Among other things, it posts notices at homes letting tenants know that they can assume utility payments without become liable for the landlord's previous bills, and can deduct that amount from their monthly rent.

"We're more than willing to help our customers who are in difficult situations with their landlords," Molica said.

Even if the law is largely on the tenants' side in these circumstances, relaying the rights of tenants and responsibilities of landlords is a challenge, said Ken Greenstein, partner at San Francisco tenant law firm Greenstein and McDonald.

In an era when mortgages are bundled and sold to investors, just figuring out who owns a property after a foreclosure - and is responsible for duties described in a lease signed years ago - can be difficult. Since investors buying homes often say, in financial documents, that they will live in the homes, , when in fact they plan to rent the properties, it can be hard for the city, new owners or PG&E to know which homes actually are occupied by tenants. And the neighborhoods hardest hit by foreclosures are also areas with large immigrant populations, where language barriers and issues of legal status form yet another impediment.

To help bridge the communication gap, the city will soon begin sending letters in multiple languages to tenants in repossessed homes, advising the occupants to contact the Rent Board and housing counseling agencies, Assessor-Recorder Phil Ting said. Similarly, Supervisor Tom Ammiano has asked PG&E to find ways of ensuring occupied apartments aren't unplugged after a foreclosure.

In an e-mail, Ammiano said electricity is a basic necessity that all tenants should be able to depend on.

"There has been a lot of talk about the impact of the housing crisis on property owners, however, tenants are the underreported victims," he said. "Unlike homeowners, who know that their home is at risk, renters have no warning before the power is turned off or someone is at the door telling them they need to pack up and move by the next day."

If a renter is harassed into leaving an apartment, or if he or she vacates without receiving the proper amount of notice or relocation money due under local regulations, that person could have a case to sue, Greenstein said. Likewise, when a new owner doesn't pay for or shuts off utilities, the tenant could have grounds to sue under the state civil code, he said.

But tenant protections do have their limits. While Zeng and her family probably can't be evicted by the current owner, she remains worried about what will happen when the building is sold again, as Medina says the company intends to do. The new owners may want to move in, which probably would allow them to begin legitimate eviction proceedings.

"It will be very difficult to find a place we can afford in San Francisco," Zeng said through a translator, adding that rents have increased and landlords often don't want to lease to families with children. "We're very scared that we won't be able to find a new place to live. It makes me very sad."

Help for tenants

If your landlord has been foreclosed on or for more information on tenants' rights in San Francisco, contact:

Housing Rights Committee

427 South Van Ness, S.F. 94103

(415) 703-8634

www.hrcsf.org

San Francisco Tenants Union

558 Capp St., S.F. 94110

(415) 282-6622

www.sftu.org

St. Peter's Housing Committee

474 Valencia St., S.F. 94103

(415) 487-9203

www.comitedevivienda.org

E-mail James Temple at jtemple@sfchronicle.com.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/08/15/MNB31267IR.DTL

This article appeared on page A - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle

S.F.'s black students lag far behind whites

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 07:00:00 GMT

Friday, August 15, 2008

San Francisco schools earned bragging rights on state standardized tests again this year - performing better than the state as a whole across every grade in both math and English - but any celebration was clouded by the subpar proficiency of the district's African American students, who continued to fall further behind their peers.

Nearly all other categories of San Francisco students, regardless of ethnicity, income or English language ability, outscored the city's black students in California Standards Test results posted Thursday.

On the plus side, the scores of black students did go up about 1 percentage point in math proficiency and nearly 1 percentage point in English.

But that wasn't as much as everyone else, meaning the achievement gap in San Francisco got worse.

"The achievement gap is the greatest civil rights issue facing our country today," school Superintendent Carlos Garcia said in a statement.

The number of white students who were proficient or better in both math and English was about 50 percentage points higher than the city's black students. In second-grade English, for example, 23 percent of blacks were proficient, compared to 74 percent of whites.

Special education students had slightly higher proficiency rates than black students in second-, third- and fourth-grade math as well as fourth-grade English.

The district tested 41,000 students, including 4,800 African Americans, in grades two through 11 in the spring.

San Francisco schools face a steep uphill battle in boosting the test results of black students, educators noted.

The test results are not surprising, said Omar Khalif, ombudsman for the city's Juvenile Probation Department and an advocate for education and children's issues. Khalif, who is running for a seat on the school board in November's election, said black students often face obstacles tied to neighborhood poverty, crime and broken families.

But some schools are succeeding in the black communities - schools that hold high standards, said Khalif, a Bayview resident.

San Francisco's shrinking middle class, especially in the black community, also has an impact on schools, said school board member Hydra Mendoza, who is also the education adviser to Mayor Gavin Newsom.

"When you have a healthy middle class, it really does change the dynamic of schools and housing," Mendoza said.

The median household income for the city's black population was $31,080, about $10,000 less than blacks statewide, according to 2006 U.S. Census estimates.

The median income for the city overall, however, was an estimated $65,500, about $9,000 more than the rest of the state.

In addition, 25 percent of blacks in San Francisco in 2000 lived in poverty and comprised nearly half of those living in public housing, according to the city's African American Out-migration Task Force and Advisory Committee.

Such statistics are not an excuse but at least offer some explanation, Mendoza said.

"I recognize there is still a huge achievement gap, but I don't want to lose the idea that our kids are gaining," Mendoza said. "Some are gaining at a faster rate. That is what is widening our gap."

But district officials said they believe black students can and will catch their peers.

"It gives me hope when we find out there are some places, in spite of difficult situations, that are doing well," Garcia said.

District officials cited E.R. Taylor Elementary School, Roosevelt Middle School and Balboa High School as examples.

The San Francisco school board adopted a plan this year to identify schools where the achievement gap is widening. Those closing the gap will also be recognized and modeled.

Also, city voters in June approved a school parcel tax to raise an estimated $29 million annually, boosting teacher salaries, training staff on the needs of disadvantaged students, and providing incentives to teach in hard-to-staff schools - where students are more often than not black, Hispanic and poor.

"All of this work is going to be around the achievement gap," said Phil Halperin, president of the Silver Giving Foundation and co-chairman of the parcel tax campaign. "They are focused like a laser beam on making sure all kids get a quality education, all kids get what they need out of schools."

E-mail Jill Tucker at jtucker@sfchronicle.com.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/08/15/MNFA12B94A.DTL

This article appeared on page A - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle

State's schools improve, achievement gap widens

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 07:00:00 GMT

Friday, August 15, 2008

The state's public school students improved in reading, writing and mathematics this year, marking five years of near-steady growth on the tough California Standards Test, results released Thursday show.

But the good news came paired with bad as state Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell declared that the education of African American students has reached a crisis stage. Scores of that group remained well below those of white and Asian American students, he said, while black students' English skills generally match those of Latino students - many of whom are just learning the language.

"I am acutely concerned about our African American students," O'Connell said after his Department of Education released results from the test given last spring.

Low academic proficiency and a high dropout rate "indicate a crisis in the education of black students," he said.

Black students represent about 8 percent of the nearly 4.8 million students in grades two through 11 who took the California Standards Test.

While O'Connell has long spoken out about the need to close the achievement gap - pointing out that even black students from middle-class families lag in achievement - solutions remain vague.

Asked on Thursday to provide specifics, O'Connell repeated a pledge he made nearly a year ago that teachers can expect to receive more cultural sensitivity training and that schools will have to prove they have narrowed the achievement gap to be considered for a coveted "Distinguished School" honor.

Debra Watkins, president of the California Alliance of African American Educators, said that many in the black community have been "almost passive" about the academic crisis but that a sense of urgency now has taken hold.

"We're not going to wait for a state-level mandate," said Watkins, who sits on an advisory council O'Connell formed last year to tackle the achievement gap. "This is huge for our community."

Some advocacy groups for English learners say they are angry about the slow pace of change and blame O'Connell for doing too little to accelerate improvement.

"Parents and school administrators of English learners are impatient with this yearly lament over the persistent achievement gap and the failure to offer practical solutions to reverse the negative trend in the academic achievement of English learners," said Rosalia Salinas, president of Californians Together, a group of advocates founded a decade ago after voters mandated that courses be taught in English. "With this rate of progress, it would take 55 years for all of our current English learners to become proficient."

Test results are reported as the percentage of students scoring "advanced," "proficient," "basic," "below basic," and "far below basic." The state considers scores below proficient as unacceptable.

Since 2004, all student groups - including kids in poverty and those learning the language - have improved on the California Standards Test, which is widely considered one of the most challenging achievement tests in the nation.

What's unsettling, however, is that despite the gains, more than half of all students have yet to reach "proficient" in the core subjects.

And a close look at the performance of various groups, districts and schools shows huge disparities.

This year, 46 percent of all students scored proficient or advanced in English language arts. In math, 43 percent did as well.

That's much better than five years ago, when the rates were 35 percent in English, and 34 percent in math.

Groups with at least half of students scoring proficient this year in English are Asian Americans (69%); whites (64%); Filipino Americans, middle-class kids, and students whose first language was English (62%); children who have become fluent in English (55%); and girls (50%).

Groups with fewer than half of students proficient in English are those just learning the language (17%); students with disabilities (20%); low-income children and Latinos (32%); African Americans (33%); American Indians (40%); boys (42%); and Pacific Islanders (43%).

Similar trends are reflected in math, except that girls' proficiency drops to 42 percent. Boys perform slightly better, with 44 percent proficient. English learners also do far better in math than in English, with 29 percent proficient.

O'Connell also expressed concern about the only two subjects in which proficiency fell over the five years, by 2 percentage points each: geometry and algebra II. Although only about a quarter of students are proficient, tens of thousands more students took those courses and were tested this year than in 2004 - a victory in the state's push to expose more kids to rigorous subjects.

Two Bay Area districts took the top-scoring spots in the state.

Best in English was Hillsborough City Elementary District in San Mateo County, where 91 percent scored proficient. Best in math was Orinda Union Elementary District in Contra Costa County, with 91 percent scoring proficient. (Smaller districts may have done better, but results are suppressed in grades with 10 or fewer students.)

The Bay Area's most-improved districts each have fewer than 200 students.

Sonoma County's tiny Two Rock Union Elementary leaped 22 points in English proficiency since 2004, from 45 to 67 percent.

Alameda County's Sunol Glen Unified made a leap of 33 percentage points in math proficiency since 2004, from 35 to 68 percent.

In San Francisco, students outperformed the state overall, but black students on average did not. Only about 1 in 5 of the city's black students scored proficient in English, compared with about 1 in 3 statewide.

But even in San Francisco, students' performance appears to depend on the school. Two city schools that each enroll about 35 percent African American students show vastly different results - and vastly different philosophies about the meaning of achievement.

One, a middle school called KIPP San Francisco Bay Academy, is the most-improved school in the city since 2004, soaring 52 percentage points in math (73% are proficient) and 38 percentage points in English (64% are proficient).

By contrast, a high school named June Jordan School for Equity has declined the most in English - plunging 22 percentage points since 2004 (13% are proficient), and second-worst in math, dropping by 9 percentage points to a mere 2 percent proficiency.

Jordan Principal Matt Alexander is unapologetic.

"If you spend all your time teaching kids to take multiple-choice tests, you can't spend as much time teaching them to write a literary essay," he said. Or to appreciate the possibility of going to college. Or to learn to ask for help, he added.

Jordan students come from the city's most troubled neighborhoods, yet nearly 65 percent of the school's black pupils got into a four-year college last year, Alexander said.

"Our focus is on giving them the skills they need," he said.

Asked if such skills would include proficiency on a test of basic English and math, the principal replied, "Yes. In an ideal world, yes."

Rayan Nawfal, Chronicle editorial systems engineer, contributed to this story with data analysis of the math results. E-mail Nanette Asimov at nasimov@sfchronicle.com.

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This article appeared on page A - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle

Radio host drops lawsuit

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 07:00:00 GMT

Friday, August 15, 2008

(08-14) 18:29 PDT SAN FRANCISCO -- Conservative talk show host Michael Savage has changed his mind and is reluctantly dropping his lawsuit against an Islamic rights group that launched an advertisers' boycott after he attacked Islam and the Quran on the air, his lawyer said Thursday.

A San Francisco federal judge threw out Savage's earlier copyright and racketeering suit against the Council on American-Islamic Relations last month but gave him a chance to file an amended suit by today. In an unusual court filing, attorney Daniel Horowitz, who had earlier promised a new suit that would pass legal muster, said Thursday that Savage has a legitimate case but has decided not to pursue it.

Insisting that Savage can prove the Islamic organization engaged in a conspiracy that harmed him financially, Horowitz said the talk show host is reluctantly dismissing the suit because of "factors arising out of this litigation," which he did not specify.

Later Thursday, Horowitz said he feared his client would be in danger if he continued the case. The attorney said he has no evidence that CAIR commits violent acts but alleged that the Islamic group is out to silence Savage and conducts campaigns that may stir up violence by others.

Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for CAIR, said Savage was "cutting his losses" by dropping the suit.

"They realized they had no case whatsoever but wanted to get one more smear in before they headed for the bushes," Hooper said.

Savage, who has about 8 million listeners a week on 400 stations for his syndicated "Savage Nation" talk-radio program, said in a broadcast last Oct. 29 that Muslims were "screaming for the blood of Christians or Jews or anyone they hate." He called the Quran a "hateful little book" and a "document of slavery."

CAIR, based in Washington, D.C., posted four minutes of excerpts from the broadcast on its Web site and called for an advertiser boycott. The group says Savage has since lost $1 million in advertising.

Savage's lawsuit, filed in September, accused CAIR of copyright infringement, saying the group had misappropriated his words and used them for fund-raising. He also claimed the group was engaged in racketeering, describing it as a "mouthpiece of international terror" that had helped to finance the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. CAIR called those allegations preposterous and denied any connection to terrorism.

In a July 25 ruling, U.S. District Judge Susan Illston said anyone who listens to a public broadcast is entitled to take excerpts and use them for purposes of comment and criticism without violating copyright.

In dismissing the racketeering claim, Illston said that even if Savage could prove CAIR was part of a worldwide terrorist conspiracy, he hadn't shown how it affected him or his broadcast. She noted that his allegations were largely focused on activities - such as lawsuits, boycotts and criticism of his broadcasts - that are protected by free speech, but said he could try to rewrite the claim to cure its legal defects.

E-mail Bob Egelko at begelko@sfchronicle.com.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/08/15/BAPR12BDPO.DTL

This article appeared on page B - 4 of the San Francisco Chronicle

U.S. People of Color Population Will Be Majority by 2042, Government Says

Thu, 14 Aug 2008 07:00:00 GMT

Aug. 14 (Bloomberg) -- The white majority in the U.S. will be outnumbered by Americans of other races by 2042, eight years sooner than previously projected by the Census Bureau.

Minorities, defined by the agency as everyone except non- Hispanic, single-race whites, will make up 54 percent of the U.S. population in 2050, compared with 34 percent of the population today, the Census Bureau said in a statement. The data updates predictions made by the bureau in 2004.

The projections released today, based on census results and assumptions about future childbearing, mortality and migration, show the minority population of the U.S. will be 235.7 million out of a total of 439 million in 2050. More than half of all U.S. children are expected to be from minority ethnic groups by 2023.

The non-Hispanic, single-race white population is expected to rise slightly to 203.3 million in 2050 from 199.8 million in 2008, while the Hispanic population is expected to almost triple to 132.8 million from 46.7 million, with its share of the total increasing to 30 percent from 15 percent, the Bureau said.

The black population is expected to increase to 65.7 million, or 15 percent, in 2050 from 41.1 million, or 14 percent, in 2008. The Asian population will increase to 40.6 million from 15.5 million this year, almost doubling its share of the total, to 9.2 percent from 5.1 percent.

The projections also suggest an aging of the U.S. population, with the proportion of people of working age -- 18 to 64 -- declining to 57 percent in 2050 from 63 percent in 2008.

By 2030, after all baby boomers reach retirement age, almost one in five U.S. residents will be 65 or older, the bureau said. There are expected to be 88.5 million people over 65 in 2050, more than double the 38.7 million in the U.S. today, with an estimated 19 million of them over 85, up from 5.4 million today.

To contact the reporter on this story: Thomas Penny in London at tpenny@bloomberg.net.