April 29, 2019
EDCAL 3
Unlicensed prom ride providers may pose danger
Prom season is upon us, and the Califor-
nia Department of Education and Califor-
nia Public Utilities Commission are hoping
high school principals will remind parents
and students about the dangers of hiring
unlicensed transportation providers.
In a letter from both agencies addressed
to school officials, the CDE and CPUC
warn about unlicensed carriers, which
operate illegally and fail to demonstrate
compliance with insurance, safety and driv-
er requirements.
The California Public Utilities Commis-
sion licenses and regulates limousines, party
buses, and app-based ride services known
as Transportation Network Companies,
such as Uber and Lyft. These companies,
called TNCs, must carry between $750,000
and $5 million in liability insurance based
on vehicle size, undergo annual vehicle
or terminal inspections, and enroll in the
Department of Motor Vehicle’s program
that notifies the company when a driver
accrues an adverse action on his/her driving
record. Limousine and party bus drivers are
subject to drug and alcohol testing. State
laws require a company and its drivers to
ensure that minors do not consume alcohol
on board limousines or party buses. The
CPUC requires TNCs to promptly suspend
a driver accused of driving while under the
influence of drugs or alcohol. Drivers of
TNCs must undergo background checks
based on a driver’s Social Security number.
While all companies may transport
minors, the CPUC requires a company
whose primary business is to transport
minors to ensure that each driver undergoes
a fingerprint-based criminal background
check performed by the California Depart-
ment of Justice. Currently, five app-based
companies transport minors and conduct
fingerprint-based criminal background
checks: HopSkipDrive, Dolightful (Kan-
go), MVN 2 LLC, Tagsi and Zum. Uber
and Lyft require an accountholder to be at
least 18 years of age, and minors must be
accompanied by a parent or guardian.
The letter advises that parents receive a
written contract for the transportation and
check the company’s license (TCP) num-
ber, which is required on all advertising,
at www.consumers.cpuc.ca.gov/movean-
dride, or they may call the CPUC’s Trans-
portation Enforcement Branch’s Consumer
Intake Unit at 800-894-9444 and ask to
verify the company’s operating authority.
PIPELINE Four components of Principal Pipelines
Continued from page 1 1. Leader standards that guide all pipeline activities.
distribution without the initiative were
instead at the 56th percentile. Lower-per-
forming schools in particular benefited
from the approach.
New principals in these districts were
also 7.8 percentage points more likely to
stay in their jobs for at least three years
than new principals in comparison schools.
This means that for every 100 new prin-
cipals, districts that participated in the
initiative had eight fewer losses after three
years, compared with similar schools in
other districts.
Researchers did not find any other
comprehensive districtwide initiatives with
such demonstrated positive effects of this
magnitude on achievement.
“Our study provides compelling evi-
dence that when districts set clear leader- 2. Preservice preparation opportunities for assistant principals and principals
(including not only the preservice training itself but also recruitment and selec-
tion into these opportunities).
FROM THE
Executive
Director
With the May Revise
ahead of us, ACSA
members and staff have made advo-
cacy for increased education funding
a priority. More than 400 members
attended one of our most successful
Legislative Action Days earlier this
month. Our members advocated on
three issues, including increases to
LCFF base funding, mental health and
increases in special education funding.
In addition to Legislative Action Day,
ACSA’s Governmental Relations team
and members have been engaged in
advocacy at the state Capitol and in
their communities, pushing specific
legislative vehicles including:
• AB 39, which would establish
new funding targets for the LCFF
formula and increase the level of
base grants, which correlates to
increases in supplemental and
concentration grants.
• SCA 5, which would reduce the
vote threshold to 55 percent for
local parcel taxes.
• AB 428, which would require
special education funding to be
equalized at the 95th percentile.
3. Selective hiring and placement.
4. On-the-job induction, evaluation and support.
SOURCE: “Principal Pipelines: A Feasible, Affordable, and Effective Way to Improve
Schools,” RAND Corporation
ship expectations and used those standards
to hire, develop and support strong leaders,
then principals, schools and students bene-
fited,” said Susan Gates, lead researcher on
the report, in a press release. “The positive
effects were remarkably widespread across
grade levels and across districts.”
Researchers also found that the ap-
proach can be affordable. Participating dis-
Paid Advertisement
tricts spent $42 per pupil each year to adopt
the approach — an estimate that includes
activities that districts were doing prior to
the initiative.
Researchers also noted that the effects
of pipeline activity kicked in early, with
improvements noted in the earliest cohorts.
All of the participating districts were
among the 50 largest school districts
nationally and were minority-majority dis-
tricts, serving a student population between
65 percent and 96 percent minority. Those
districts were Charlotte-Mecklenburg
Schools in North Carolina, Denver Public
Schools in Colorado, Gwinnett County
Public Schools in Georgia, Hillsborough
County Public Schools in Florida, the New
York City Department of Education and
Prince George’s County Public Schools in
Maryland.
“This groundbreaking study by RAND
adds to a roster of findings that together
show that building principal pipelines is
feasible, affordable and effective — and can
also be sustained,” said Will Miller, presi-
dent of The Wallace
Foundation, in a press
release. “We now
have compelling and
Read the full
meaningful evidence
report and find
that pipelines can
other tools,
be a major strategy
including an
for large districts to
interactive
improve schools and
infographic
raise student achieve-
on developing
ment.”
Principal Pipe-
The Wallace
lines at www.
Foundation launched
wallacefounda-
the Principal Pipeline
tion.org/princi-
Initiative in 2011 to
palpipeline.
determine if large
urban school districts
could build pipelines
and whether stronger
pipelines would improve schools and raise
student achievement districtwide. It initial-
ly awarded grant funding of $7.5 million
to $12.5 million to each district to cover
part of the costs of setting up the pipelines.
Districts were given additional funding of
$430,000 to $1 million each to strengthen
the skills of principals’ supervisors.
“This study has important implications
for school districts trying to improve stu-
dent achievement,” said Jody Spiro, director
of education leadership of The Wallace
Foundation. “The findings show that the
achievement effects were notably large for
the lowest performing group of students.
That means states and districts could use
federal Title 1 money to promote pipelines
in their statewide school improvement
plans.”
FYI
While necessary, the aforementioned
legislation is aspirational and/or would
require the governor to contribute even
more non-Proposition 98 funds —
which may be difficult given legisla-
tors’ perception that public education
already gets too much of the state
budget. Attaining full and fair funding
will demand a multi-faceted approach
that includes LCFF and special educa-
tion legislation, as well as a long-term
fix for public education funding.
ACSA members and leadership have
been clear that we need to work on a
long-term education revenue generat-
ing proposition. In fact, our strategic
plan sets an outcome for 2021 wherein
“ACSA is leading a collaborative effort
to increase school funding in Califor-
nia.”
For months, ACSA has been co-leading
a multi-agency effort to explore the
feasibility of a 2020 ballot measure to
reform public education funding. This
collaborative effort includes representa-
tives from management, labor, charter
schools, community groups, and civil
rights and advocacy groups.
ACSA and CSBA have paid for four sur-
veys thus far and the data are extreme-
ly encouraging. Of those polled, 71
percent of respondents believe that the
state’s public schools have a need for
funding. On a local level, 69 percent of
those polled believe their local school
district needs more funding.
Our polls also presented two initiative
options to respondents, the first in
the amount of $11 billion based on
Personal Income Tax, the second in
the amount of $14 billion based on
Corporate Income Tax. Nearly 6 in 10
respondents to that portion of the poll-
ing support public school funding.
This polling shows our potential ballot
initiative is viable, but there is a lot of
work to be done. Fiscal accountability
is very important to voters and there
must be clarity on where the money
goes and how the funds are used.
But our initial steps are encouraging.
ACSA’s top priority is student advocacy
and we intend to push forward with
this initiative and strengthen opportuni-
ties for our students.
– Wesley Smith