>>>URGENT AND IMPORTANT!<<< >>>URGENT AND IMPORTANT!<<< Government funding for well-balanced education for millions of CA public school students: to remain “required by law” or to turn into one of the “electives”?
The following quite improbable story could have easily worked as a memorable joke of a comedian, except it is very sad for the reason of being not just a true story… In fact, it is very hard to laugh about it, after realizing that it is about actual and repeated attempt by the elected official to institute a law that administers the logistics and curricula for education in all public schools of CA, thus impacting the lives of millions of California’s children and their families of generations to come:
In Winter 2010 CA State Assembly member Furutani (CA 55th district, Long Beach, LA, CA) once again proposed to approve legislation (infamous Bill #2446) that according to his believes, would "help" reducing the astonishing 47% high school dropout rate in CA public schools. Mr. Furutani explained that his action to create “research-informed” (in his own version) educational policy was driven by his deep concern about the fact that "high school dropouts indicated that they were not interested or engaged in their coursework" (as misquoted and taken out of context by him from quite reputable studies, made by Bill and Melinda Gates and James Irvine Foundations).
Also, according to Mr. Furutani, "there is a critical need to make the high school curriculum more engaging and relevant." That is exactly why Mr. Furutani must have acted in a “true visionary” manner and eagerly responded by proposing to … eliminate what he sincerely finds to be the most serious “obstacles” to having engaging and relevant educational experience: by turning studies of 1) visual and performing arts (VPA) and 2) foreign languages into mere ELECTIVES in the High School curriculum (vs. currently “REQUIRED FOR GRADUATION”), adding to the SAME group yet one more ELECTIVE to choose(!) from – 3) career technical education (CTE), as if any of these three subjects address similar intelligences and deserve to be grouped into the same category of electives, thus to be considered a substitute of one to another.
Could Mr. Furutani’s actions have been inspired by his constituents of Asian decent, who traditionally place the highest value on high educational pursuits, particularly including refinement in the Arts education? Or, was such “unconventional visionary” ability of Mr. Furutani impeded due to the unfortunate lack of his personal exposure to the beneficial effects of time-tested cognitive technology of the Arts education, well-documented by multiple modern neuroscience research studies? (Revealing data is available in the video “Music Instinct”, produced for PBS by Daniel Levitin/Bobby McFerrin)
It is interesting to note that nothing could stop Mr. Furutani in his continuously repeated pursuits, including the fact that proposed by him drastic lowering of public school standards does NOT resemble university admission requirements, thus preventing public high school graduates from the opportunity to qualify for higher education. He also does not find significant the fact that the process of proper establishment for the proposed by him career technical education (CTE) courses in actuality requires significant investment of funding (up to additional $1.5 million), obviously lacking during current budget deficit…
In fact, while promising easy, yet irrelevant shortcut to a complex task of increasing the percentage of high school graduation, Mr. Furutani successfully found brilliant cover-up to distract his colleagues-legislators from the highly destructive outcome –to turn the GOVERNMENT FUNDING into “ELECTIVE” for already highly underfunded the courses in foreign languages and the creative arts, instead of searching for the creative ways to meet the funding demands for what is currently so inconveniently “REQUIRED BY LAW” to be provided for millions of young students in the country’s most prosperous State of CA. (What a great way to respond to the multitude of looming lawsuits, filed by desperate school districts against the Government’s systematic and lengthy violation of this law!)
Most children of immigrants from other countries already find studying in American public schools significantly less challenging for their already existing learning capacity , established at public schools in the countries of their origin. Even without proposed legislative approval “to lower the bar” for CA educational standards additionally, during recent years United States, the leader in the World economy had to “importing” well-educated and creatively-minded professionals from other parts of the globe, eagerly offering working visas to foreigners, in order to maintain its economic advantage.
Throughout the World, the meaning of High School Diploma universally symbolizes well-rounded multi-faceted educational achievement that is earned through systematic studies of well-balanced curriculum. It will be very sad to see furutani’s succeed in instituting their own much lower intellectual standards for the future members of US workforce, while other countries methodically invest in nurturing their young generation’s advanced multi-tasking cognitive abilities and creative mental skills, that go far beyond mere reading and counting, which can be uniquely afforded through the demanding Arts education curricula for the whole-brain engagement.
Despite all the above deficiencies and thanks to its misleading nature, infamous Furutani’s Bill 2446 was already mistakenly approved by the votes of CA State Assembly members and sent to the Appropriation Committee for the final vote on May 28, 2010. Will the voice of logic finally prevail in the battle for the bright minds of young Californians? Will CA legislators finally understand their responsibility to leave the legacy they can be proud of?
The text of proposed Legislation AB 2446 (Furutani) - please, cut/paste into your browser if the link does not act live:
http://www.assembly.ca.gov/acs/acsframeset2text.htm
Contact CA Assembly member Mr. Furutani in order to express your opposition to his actions:
http://www.warrenfurutani.com/pages/issues.html
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