Educational Issues in Fresno Unified

Campus Safety & Discipline
Teacher’s association and board members request stricter discipline policies for students because of violence. These requests have risen due to teacher’s personal violent engagements with students resulting in injuries to teachers. Some suggestions offered to solve this issue include the district creating more alternative schools geared toward restructuring a students behavior while offering psychological support as well. This solution would then all require the schools to hire more psychologists and social workers. Teachers agree that what students need is an intervention that can address their behavior instead of more expulsions or suspensions (Mills). Even though the rates for suspensions and expulsions are going down, the students are not actually getting the help they need, especially repeat offenders. Teachers and the district disagree on whether or not these rates have gone down accordingly. Mills and Ashjian feel money that should be designated for discipline and student safety has not been well spent
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Superintendent/Board Member Politics
Fresno Unified School District claims the spot of California’s fourth largest district made up of close to 74,000 students and one-hundred schools (fresnounified.org). Superintendent Michael Hanson oversees the district in partnership with the board of education which has seven members (fresnounified.org). As with any public sector powerhouse, FUSD leadership is often featured in news media namely the Fresno Bee. Mays (2015) highlights the struggle between FUSD and Fresno Teacher’s Association—once again, the union is denied pay increase and other requests. Another article by Mays (2016) tells of a politically-charged scandal last year where FUSD contracted with Harris construction without the required budding process; people in the community were outraged and sure enough a law suit followed. Hanson alone is the target of much negativity “as he is under federal criminal investigation” (Mays, 2016). Local author Mark Arax (2015) touches on the superintendent’s suspicious secrecy and mentions the board’s use of a private communication app called Cyber Dust. HE additionally reminds readers that Hanson cleverly disguises data to celebrate student/district success upon criticism (Arax, 2015). Forfaro (2014) offers some affirmation in reports that confirm Hanson's contract extension to 2019 and annual salary of $297,000. ABC 30 news houses several reports clips that show the superintendent engaged with the community and responding to important matters—in this regard, Hanson is granted a more positive public image.
Diversity in FUSD
According to 2015 statistics measuring the ethnic/racial demographics of FUSD students, the majority identity as Hispanic/Latino at 66.5%; Asian students make up 11.1%; Whites at 10.8% and African Americans represent 8.9% of student population. The same source shows median family income of those with children in FUSD at $28,168 which is in range of the federal poverty level (kidsdata.org, healthcare,gov). A number of maps color-coded by neighborhood average incomes reveal divisions in the city. Aguilera writes about Fresno’s long history of concentrated poverty pockets and geographic racial divides. Schools in Fresno Unified suffer as a result. Some issues in Fresno’s education system concerning diversity involve equal access to GATE programs. Superintendent Hanson recently sent a district-wide email to staff stating that black and "brown students" achieve less; this offended a lot of people (Mays, 2016). Soon after Hanson shared an animated video on his Twitter page with FUSD’s promise to make GATE testing more universal. Another important aspect is the large amount of English Language Learner students and their levels of success. Of the 26.6% (kidsdata.org) ELL students, the majority of first languages are Hmong and Spanish which are also representative of Fresno’s large presence of Latino and Southeast Asian immigrants (eddata.org). Fresno Unified School District’s website boasts of its student diversity but the facts show that there are mostly white educators and administrators in the system (Deruy, 2016). It is clear that FUSD has recognized the diversity as a positive district-wide quality but has a long way to go in terms of equity.
Segregation Among School Districts
Fresno area schools are known to be one of the most economically segregated in the country.The Fault Lines report released by Ed Build names Fresno as one of the 50 most segregated school district borders in the U.S. Not only are the schools from within FUSD economically segregated among themselves but the district itself is economically segregated from the surrounding districts. It is known that 46% of people living in the district are living in poverty while Clovis district has a 16% poverty rate and Golden Valley district, in Madera, only 12%. These two districts are incredibly close to Fresno. The economic segregation can also be seen among the percentages of those students who qualify for free or reduced-priced meals. Fresno district has a 90% of students who qualify, Clovis district has 43%, and Golden Valley district 34% the qualify. Property values within the districts also contribute to the segregation. Fresno Unified’s local revenue for schools is $1,585 per student, Clovis Unified’s is $3,190, and Golden Valley’s is $3,660. Even though Fresno has the lowest amount, they do end up having the most total revenue because of the help they receive from the state. The district received $154 million under California’s Local Control Funding Formula due to having disadvantaged pupils that live in poverty and are English learners. Segregation can also be seen among the state test scores from the three districts. Clovis Unified has 67% of its students scoring proficient in English while only 31% of Fresno Unified students are scoring proficient and Golden Valley is at about 60% proficient rate. The racial/ethnic populations in each district also contribute to the segregation because they are also very different. Only 10% of students in Fresno district are white, 42% white students in Clovis Unified, and 55% in Golden Valley. According to Fresno Unified Superintendent, Michael Hanson, “these differences are no coincidences”.
*FUSD is California’s fourth largest school district.
Taxpayer Funds
The vast majority and highest allotted amount of American tax payer dollars are spent towards education. Approximately 25 percent of all tax revenue is used towards K-9 education, while thirteen percent is used towards higher education. This means that a total of 38 percent of tax payer dollars goes directly back into our educational system (Policy Basics).
The largest amount of designated educational tax dollars contributes directly towards funding the Pell Grant program (Camera). This program was created to assist lower income students with tuition payments. Over the last decade and a half, federal funding for education has increased by nearly 36 percent (Camera).
Teacher Shortages
During the Great Recession many school programs and classes were cut due to financial hardships. As a result the interest and enrollment in teacher-preparation programs has decreased dramatically. Over the past five years enrollment in these programs have lowered by over 35 percent (Westervelt). With the current shortage in teachers, programs such as special education and English as a second language are greatly affected (Camera).
Lack of available teachers has directly affected students and education all across the nation. Many programs that had previously been cut due to budget costs, are now being eliminated because there are no available teachers. Class sizes have increased substantially in order to accommodate more students with less teachers (Heim).

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