Students and advocates are loudly protesting a plan to significantly cut staff from the popular initiative, which emphasizes alternatives to punitive discipline approaches like suspension and expulsion.
New state data shows 46 percent drop in school suspensions over the last five years. The suspension rate for African American students in 2016-17 was 9.8 percent, for Latino students 3.7 percent, for white students 3.2 percent, and for Asian students 1.1 percent.
Superintendents say teachers are the group most likely to object to policies that would reduce student suspensions, according to a new national survey on school discipline released Monday by AASA, The School Superintendents Association, and the nonprofit advocacy group the Children’s Defense Fund.
California’s new school funding system is driving districts in diverse regions of the state to shift their resources to achieve one of the key goals laid out in the sweeping financial reform effort – graduating students so they are ready for college or careers.
