Opinion

Wrong decision on T-shirt incident

Still unsure about the Common Core State Standards? Local schools are now actively teaching the new standards, but there remains some confusion about exactly what that means.Here are five things all parents should know about the Common Core State Standards:1. Common Core is not curriculum. The CCSS is simply a list of skills students should have by the end of each grade level. The standards tell educators what students need to know, not how to teach the skills. Curricular programs are still local decisions. Schools and districts choose methods for teaching and programs to use in classrooms. If a lesson feels wrong or confusing, ask your teacher, principal or curriculum director to explain. The problem you have could be with the program that is being used, not the standards themselves.2.Common Core is not a test. The Common Core State Standards do not require any assessments. Standardized tests are designed by large organizations, often for profit. States adopt and mandate these tests. Most current state tests were designed after the CCSS were imposed and attempt to assess whether students know the skills in the standards. Other assessments may be designed or selected by schools or districts.3.Common Core is easily accessible to the public. Go directly to the source. Read the standards before formulating an opinion about them, because your opinion may be about the chosen curriculum or the methodology your school is using, not the standards themselves. Don’t assume something is “in the standards” unless you can find it there. The official (parent-friendly) website is corestandards.org.4.Successful interpretation and implementation of the Common Core depends on training. The standards can be interpreted in many ways. Teachers need both time and quality training to successfully implement them, and schools and districts must provide this training. Training may come from employees of the district or from consultants outside the district. If you don’t already know, ask your local school to explain how its teachers are being trained to ensure your child’s success with the standards.5.  Educators have used standards for many years. While the Common Core State Standards are new, the concept of standards is not. Educators have depended on pre-set lists of skills for decades and have used the standards to assist them in deciding what subjects to cover. Before the Common Core State Standards unified the educational landscape in the U.S., all states had different lists. Some were more rigorous than others. Now, continuity is guaranteed from state to state. Also, educators across the country can now collaborate about best practices, lesson ideas, differentiated support, and tools and resources.There are many rumors and opinions swirling about the Common Core. Reading the CCSS and understanding the differences between standards, curriculum and instruction can help you be an informed participant in the debate.Debbie Lera is a national consultant, author and literacy specialist.  She is also a teacher and Common Core Liason at The Charter School of Morgan Hill.

Not too late for change

The move by the Daughters of Charity Health System to sell Saint Louise Regional Hospital in Gilroy and De Paul Medical Center in Morgan Hill might be the Roman Catholic religious order’s best decision since it was founded in France in 1633 by St. Vincent de Paul to care for the poor.Best for the nuns, to be sure. Their questionable business model and mission to treat patients regardless of ability to pay have created a financial disaster that cannot be resuscitated in its current form.But is it best for the south Santa Clara County communities of Gilroy, Morgan Hill and San Martin, which make up most of the facilities’ service area and are home to about 75 percent of their patients?Cut through the complexities and absurdities of healthcare, politics and union and corporate egos and the simple answer is, yes.The proposed sale of the DCHS medical facilities to Prime Healthcare makes the best sense in terms of healthcare and the best business sense.The alternatives—a private equity firm or the County of Santa Clara—are iffy and, in the county’s case, unrealistic and scary. The county hospital system loses tens of millions of taxpayer dollars.The sale requires review by California Attorney General Kamala Harris, who can approve or reject the bid or approve with conditions.Harris, a superstar in state Democratic Party circles who wants to be California’s next U.S. Senator, will decide by Feb. 20. Her announced run for the seat being vacated by Barbara Boxer begs the question: will politics influence her decision about Prime’s bid to buy the DCHS facilities?We applaud the attorney general’s diligence and that of her staff—and urge her to approve the sale with conditions that will ensure continued, quality care while not being so onerous as to chase away the anointed buyer-in-waiting and put the future of South County’s heath care delivery system at risk.We also urge her to resist mixing politics into her decision, no matter how badly she wants the financial support and votes of the Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers, which opposes the sale to Prime and prefers another bidder.Uions have important roles to play, but when their self-serving motivations take priority over what’s best for all the people, they dilute their importance in the discussion. After all, a union’s fiduciary responsibility is and should be to its membership.The Harris decision should not be about unions or political office. If the people of south Santa Clara County and other areas impacted by the sale of DCHS facilities—San Jose, Daly City and Half Moon Bay in northern California—are to continue to receive quality care, Harris’ decision on Prime must focus on two issues:•Will its business model keep hospital doors open?•Will Prime deliver sustained, quality care, including to the poor, that is substantially equal to or better than what DCHS provided?Prime’s record must not be discounted. Under founder Dr. Prem Reddy, a cardiologist turned hospital entrepreneur, the firm has rescued 30 hospitals, saved 35,000 jobs in nine states and won awards and the gratitude of communities.Unlike other bidders, Prime has promised to respect union contracts and pension plans, assume DCHS’s debt, spend $150 million on capital improvements and continue care to the poor. It has never closed or sold a hospital, according to Reddy and its literature.That Prime is a for-profit company should not be a deal killer.  It offered better terms and is the only viable bidder that would not force DCHS to go through bankruptcy. And bankruptcy proceedings are likely if the Daughter’s system becomes insolvent or a different buyer insists on it in order to shed financial liabilities before taking over.If bankruptcy happens—a requirement if the county buys DCHS facilities—then how the system is run and to whom it is sold would be up to a bankruptcy judge and a creditors’ committee, with no local say in the matter. Could the county outbid private healthcare or equity firms that would line up to buy at liquidation prices?  Arguments for approval are reasonable, unclouded by politics, give access to healthcare priority and come from a cross section of constituencies, including—tellingly—hospital workers bucking their own union.The Silicon Valley Leadership Group has endorsed the sale. So have the California Nurses Association, a lot of SEIU-UHW’s local members, the City of Gilroy and its chamber of commerce, the Gilroy Economic Development Corporation and the Morgan Hill Chamber of Commerce.Economically, DCHS employs more than 500 people, has a payroll in excess of $58 million and spends another  $130 million—easily nearing $200 million a year flowing into local cash registers and bank accounts.DCHS executives and around 45 employees in its administrative operation will lose their jobs if sold and will leave with severance checks, customary in the industry—not the improper windfalls critics suggest.Arguments against the sale don’t all add up, even if some are well founded—fears of some job loss (Prime says mostly middle management positions), programs being cut and not all insurance plans accepted.Others, such as Prime being under investigation for its billing practices, mislead. Many hospitals undergo such probes and some have paid big fines. Prime says it has never been charged with wrongdoing or fined.If Harris rejects the sale and hospital doors close, it would mean long drives, even in medical emergencies, for South County residents—and even for some as far away as Hollister, which accounts for about 10 percent of Saint Louise’s patients.If Harris approves the sale, her consultants have recommended conditions that are designed to make sure quality care continues. While some are for five years, most of the conditions are suggested to last for 10 years.That’s a potential problem for Prime. Changes in the nation’s healthcare system are inevitable. The Affordable Care Act is a good example. Virtually overnight it has changed the medical landscape.In most cases, the 10-year assurances are prudent. But they raise questions: is the consultant suggesting that for a decade Prime must continue business as usual at DCHS facilities and expect better financial outcomes? And is Prime to have no flexibility to adjust if the medical landscape shifts and what seems doable now becomes impossible in the future?Approval of the sale to Prime with doable conditions that protect services is what’s in the best interest of Gilroy, Morgan Hill and San Martin.  

City encourages illegal trespassing

Congratulations are in order for the local wine industry, as the results of the San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition are in. This is the first wine-judging event of the year and with more than 6,400 entries, this is the largest judging of American wines in the world. This year 86 awards went to wineries in Santa Clara and San Benito counties. Our wineries won 35 bronze, 37 silver, 11 gold, two double gold and one Best of Class.

Just when you think our South Valley can’t get any lovelier now that our golden hills have turned green, out of the cold and rain of winter (well, sort of—it’s been a strange year!) burst forth brilliant yellow flowers spreading like soft coverlets over our hills and vales.