Hector Villagra has worked as a staff attorney at MALDEF from 1999 to 2001. He has served as counsel in civil rights cases involving such issues as educational equity, employment discrimination, and language rights, and was MALDEF's lead counsel in Godinez v. Davis, the successful challenge to the distribution of Proposition 1A new school construction funds. The Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF) is a national litigation and advocacy organization that uses the law, community education, and research to protect the civil rights of the nation's 35 million Latinos.
SB: What were the problems that led you and other civil rights attorneys to file the Godinez case?
HV: We were concerned about the overcrowding crisis in Los Angeles. In particular, the negative effect the crisis was having on the educational opportunity of students. We discovered that Los Angeles has responded to severe overcrowding in three ways: multi-tracking, busing, and temporary portable classrooms. The more we talked to students, teachers, and education experts, the more we learned what a detrimental impact these methods of dealing with severe overcrowding were having on the quality of education kids were receiving. Then, we tried to figure out how it was that overcrowding had reached such crisis proportions, and discovered that the system needed to be fixed to help overcrowded urban districts like Los Angeles fund and build the schools their students, who are overwhelmingly students of color, so desperately need.
|
...17 fewer days of school equals at least 17 fewer nights of homework. Part of the fallacy underlying Concept 6 is that learning only goes on in the classroom. As teachers and students know, learning goes on at home as well. So, with fewer nights for homework, students can cover less material over the course of the year.
|
SB: What are Concept 6 schools? Why do they exist and why are they a problem?
HV: Concept 6 schools are a particular form of multi-track, year-round school. The kids at the school are divided into three tracks or groups, and they rotate being in school and on vacation throughout the school year. At any given time, two tracks are in school, and one is on vacation.
Concept 6 is used almost exclusively here in Los Angeles, and it's used because it's the most efficient way to house as many students as possible in existing facilities. But, for a variety of reasons, it's the worst possible school calendar. First and foremost, the calendar provides a maximum of 163 days of school a year as compared to 180 days on every other type of school calendar. This affects both the quality and the quantity of students' education. In theory, students at Concept 6 schools receive the same number of minutes as other students because their school day is extended. While in theory that might work, in practice it doesn't. Because of the constant rotation of classes in the Concept 6 calendar, teachers and students are forced throughout the year to pack up and move out of their classrooms. So, two or three times a year, teachers are building up or breaking down the classroom, and teachers aren't focused on teaching, or even able to teach, during those times. It's like having the week at the end of school year not once, like most kids do, but two or three times a year. There's another basic way in which Concept 6 is obviously not the equivalent of the traditional calendar: 17 fewer days of school equals at least 17 fewer nights of homework. Part of the fallacy underlying Concept 6 is that learning only goes on in the classroom. As teachers and students know, learning goes on at home as well. So, with fewer nights for homework, students can cover less material over the course of the year.
There are other serious problems with Concept 6 that are more specific to the high school level. For example, when you divide a high school in three, you have serious issues with providing electives on all three tracks. Typically, what happens in these schools is that the AP or honors courses end up on one track. Some students, although eligible for those courses, inevitably have a hard time taking them because they attend school on a different track that does not offer the courses. They're either not able to take them at all, or they must come to school during their vacations to take them. What you end up with typically is 3 tracks of students that have very different access to courses: some have access to college preparatory courses; others, often the majority, do not.
These are some of the main problems with Concept 6, but there are many others. Kids here in Los Angeles must experience these disadvantages every year they attend a Concept 6 school. Some will never know any school calendar other than Concept 6.
|
I can't see overcrowding reaching crisis levels in other communities, and having no one at the district, board, or state level respond to it.
|
SB: Why does this overcrowding exist? Why hasn't the state done more to resolve it?
HV: We have not had the investment in school infrastructure necessary to keep up with enrollment. The result is that overcrowding has been allowed to develop and entrench itself, in particular, in communities of color. Less empowered communities have been less able to get these problems remedied. I don't know how else to explain it. I can't see overcrowding reaching crisis levels in other communities, and having no one at the district, board, or state level respond to it.
I don't think the state has recognized or understood its constitutional obligation to ensure that kids in the state have the basic tools necessary to receive an education. Fundamentally, you start with a school or schools that have enough room to educate all the kids in the neighborhood. You can't discuss how math or science is being taught if you haven't taken care of the foundational issue that the child has a classroom or a school in which to learn. Every child needs room to learn.
|
If you talk to the district, they say it's the state's fault. If you talk to the state, they say it's the district's fault. You can imagine from the child or parent's perspective how terrible this all is, because everyone who should be responsible wants to avoid any responsibility.
|
SB: Have parents not responded?
HV: Parents have responded. I have been amazed to meet many parents who have been very active in their communities, complaining about the overcrowding situation and working with the district to identify new sites for schools. But there's only so much they can do when it comes to school construction. The problem is that they and their kids are often caught in the middle of the finger-pointing that goes on between school districts and the state. If you talk to the district, they say it's the state's fault. If you talk to the state, they say it's the district's fault. You can imagine from the child or parent's perspective how terrible this all is, because everyone who should be responsible wants to avoid any responsibility. That's why we're part of the Williams suit. We want to make clear that the buck stops with the state, because the state has the constitutional responsibility to educate its children.
SB: Why haven't the state's strategies for building new schools solved this problem?
HV: I don't know that there is a state strategy to build enough schools to solve the overcrowding problem. We have been surprised to learn that the state doesn't even conduct an inventory to determine how many classrooms every district needs to eliminate overcrowding, and to do away with the desperate measures districts use to cope with overcrowding. You'd expect that to be the first thing the state would do to determine how to go about building the necessary schools and classrooms to provide a quality education for all our children. This is part and parcel of the problem: the state does not do the most basic things to ensure that kids are properly educated.
SB: What rights do students have regarding overcrowding that result in the lack of chairs and/or desks for all students? Can students legally sit on the floor of a classroom?
HV: Legally, they shouldn't have to, because it can seriously impact their education. In reality, I've spoken to enough kids and parents to know that there's not enough desks or space in many classrooms. We are trying to ensure that the state puts in place a system to monitor problems like this, and either prevent them from happening in the first place, or take care of them as soon as possible. You can't tell me that the child sitting on the floor or on the window ledge, who has difficulty taking notes, or seeing the chalkboard, or sitting comfortably throughout the school day, is getting an equal education. The impact of disparities like this is unfortunately only going to become greater as the state phases in the high school exit exam. Every student will have to pass the exam to receive a diploma. But how fair is it to hold the student sitting on the floor or the ledge to the same standard as kids who have all the resources they need to pass the test? I don't know what that test is going to measure other than the disparities in the educational opportunities kids have been provided by the state. I fear that the state's accountability system will just become a fancy way to blame kids for the inadequate education the state has provided them.
SB: What rights generally do California students have concerning the quality of their school facilities?
HV: You have a constitutional right to an education and we're trying to set about defining the meaning of that to include: a neighborhood school that isn't overcrowded; a safe and sanitary school; a classroom that isn't overcrowded; a classroom that is maintained at appropriate temperatures throughout the year; etc. We're trying to give meaning to the constitutional right to an education. Unfortunately, a lot of this is still to be determined, because the state doesn't really have standards in all the areas that you would expect it to. You would expect a standard on classroom temperature, size, or occupancy of a classroom or school, but there aren't any.
|
You have elected officials making decisions about schools, but they're thinking of schools they went to twenty, thirty, forty years ago. It's important to educate legislators about what schools really look like today. Because, for too many kids, the promise of what a school should look like doesn't match the reality.
|
SB: What are some steps that students and parents can take to receive better educational facilities?
HV: I think it's important for parents to be familiar with their children's schools. As a parent, you can't assume anything about your child's school. Go through the school and check things out. Are the bathrooms in a state of disrepair? How packed are the desks in the classrooms? Are the labs, if there are any, stocked? Are other school areas, like the gym or cafeteria, being used as classrooms? Short of going to the school and visiting, parents need to talk to their kids about the conditions of their schools. Armed with the knowledge of substandard conditions, they should make complaints to the principal, district, and board. Go to meetings and speak out. Find out when things are supposed to be fixed or why they have not been fixed.
I know that a lot of students have gotten involved by documenting conditions at their schools or taking surveys of their classmates. They can survey whether the textbooks are out of date or missing pages, or whether the bathrooms are in working order and clean. Kids can do a lot of things like that to draw attention to the conditions of their schools. You have elected officials making decisions about schools, but they're thinking of schools they went to twenty, thirty, forty years ago. It's important to educate legislators about what schools really look like today. Because, for too many kids, the promise of what a school should look like doesn't match the reality.
It is truly heartbreaking: the kids get a clear message that they are receiving something less than what everyone else is getting. They understand; these things are no secret. They see it when they travel to other schools; they quickly notice that the facilities are far different from their own. They see it when they pick up the paper and read what education officials have to say about their schools. The state Superintendent of Public Instruction has said publicly that she "would love to get rid of Concept 6. But schools didn't move to it because they were trying out some educational innovation. It was out of desperation." And, the former president of the Los Angeles Unified School District Board has likened kids in multi-track schools to "rats in a maze."
SB: What sort of school facility do you think every California student deserves?
HV: The basic principle that we're after is a neighborhood school on a traditional calendar, because that's what most kids in the state get. And, when we talk about a neighborhood school, it must be a school with sufficient space for the kids designated to attend it. In Los Angeles, 15,000 kids ride the bus every day because their neighborhood schools are overcrowded and don't have any space for them. Some have round-trip commutes in rush-hour traffic of 100 miles. The district has studied the effect that busing has on their achievement, and it has consistently found that kids who ride the bus due to overcrowding are the lowest achieving kids in the district. With their early mornings, the hours they lose every day riding the bus, with the difficulty their parents have being involved at the schools they are sent to, it's not hard to see why these kids do so poorly.
SB: To what extent do all students in California now have access to this sort of facility?
HV: About 4.7 million kids go to a traditional school, out of 6 million. Another 300,000, although they are on year-round schools, go to single track schools. So only 1 million students in the state go to multi-track schools.
SB: What needs to be done to ensure universal access?
HV: We as a state have to commit to invest the money necessary to build enough schools for our children. And we need to put measures in place to prevent overcrowding from affecting children's education. I think we've seen something like this before with regards to transportation infrastructure. In the past decade or so, we noticed that our roads had deteriorated, we saw bridges become unsafe and collapse, and we realized that we hadn't invested in infrastructure in 30 to 40 years. I think we have to address the educational crisis the same way -- make the necessary investment to provide the best possible future for California by ensuring that every child receives a quality education. We need to understand we're all in this together.
To read Mr. Villagra’s testimony (in Adobe Acrobat PDF) before the Senate Select Committee on College and University Admissions and Outreach on November 9, 2001, click here.
(9 pages, 32 K)
|
Interview with Hector Villagra,