Members of the District Advisory
Council (DAC) and other concerned San Diego Unified School District
parents held a press conference at Kimbrough Elementary School
on Wednesday, September 5. In an attempt to stop the school district
from further misuse of federal, Title I funding, district parents
have filed an appeal to Rod Paige, the United States Secretary
of Education.
This appeal follows a 14-month long investigation by the California
Department of Education (CDE) that was triggered by a complaint
from the DAC against the district. The investigation found that
the school district had violated state and federal law by illegally
misallocating $62 million that was intended to help educationally
disadvantaged youth.
Despite this violation of state and federal law, the state authorities took no action to correct the situation. In this 15-page appeal, parents are asking the federal government to stop the district from further violations of the law and to stop the school district's "course of conduct that is stripping San Diego's disadvantaged youth of the opportunity to academically succeed now and in the future."
DAC parents and community representatives
from about 100 schools meet monthly with school district staff
to monitor funding and programs for the impoverished and low-achieving
youngsters who comprise over half of all 143,000 San Diego students.
The parent group has existed for over 20 years and was formed
to comply with state and federal law requiring parent oversight
of Title 1 and other funding for compensatory education programs.
Secretary of Education Rod Paige is scheduled to speak at a
"Back to School, Moving Forward" rally at UCSD's Thurgood
Marshal Field at 1:00 p.m, Friday, September 7.
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