Landmark change for Public Schools. And the big political win for governor jerry brown. So big, that some say this will define his legacy in california. Now, for the first time in nearly 40 years, money will be distributed to schools in an entirely new way. Early this week, the governor signed new School Funding legislation, known as local control funding formula. It eliminates mandates. And for the first time, directs more money to high Needs Children and gives local School Districts more control over how they spend that money. Its a big change, many say its long overdue, and the governor has been fighting for this for a very long time. What this does, it cuts the red tape that tends to strangle local schools and forces them to please one more bureaucratic imperative after another. Secondly, it sends the money, at least a portion of it, based on need, not need as proved in some 400 page application. But just based on the census data, how many kids dont speak english very well, and how many foster kids are there . Im joined by the architect of that plan, michael kirth, the president of the state board of education. Youve been on this merry go round now twice with jerry brown. You were on the same board of education, when he was governor the first time, and here you are again now, with the governor, i know youve been percolating this idea of changing the way we fund schools. Youve been ruminating with this for a long time. Why did you decide that this was the right time to make the move . Well, i think a number of factors came together. Of course, the governor wanted to lean on this, he had been mayor of oakland and understood the problems with the School Financing system, you had a politician willing to lead. You had a system that was indefensible. The system had no underlying rationale. It was an historical accretion, it essentially did not adjust for pupil needs and it was so complex and controlling that nobody could understand it, and nobody could really maneuver enough in the system. People have said on this show over and over again, they didnt understand. Education experts say they were baffled by the system. Right. I think in political terms, a policy window will open, where we had the factors coming together. And then the state budget helped. You know, its always nice to have a rising tide of revenue, and so that just sort of topped it off, and then the voters stepped in, and passed proposition 30 and raised taxes which also enabled us to do it. So it was a confluence of factors that may have happened just in six months, and now a year from now, it wouldnt have happened. Lets blake it down in a way that parents can actually understand it, i have two kids in Public School, theres 1,000 School Districts here, parents have been dealing for the last few years with districts in schools that are very lean and mean, thats about to change significantly, you say . Yes. The local control funding formula increases money dramatically, over an eight year period. Indeed, low income districts like alam rock will go from 7,000 to 12,000. Thats a 5,000 increase per pup pupil. It raises the base funding for every student about an average of 537. Districts, as we heard the governor receive for low income english language learners, an additional 20 of that base. Maybe 1400, 1500, depending on where the base starts, correct . Districts were 30 of high needs, 50 of the base. So those districts like youre seeing may receive 3800 more than what were getting right now . Yeah, over time. And all of them get an increase in the short range as well. Plus we added some money to implement a new curriculum called a common core curriculum. The whole package is based on you have a base, you have a target funding after eight years. You have an adjustment for low income and English Learners, and if you have a high concentration, you get even more money. And it frees up numerous, tens and dozens of categorical earmarks that had grown up like an accretion over the years, some of them going back to the 1970s, so we had 42 categorical earmarked pots that the local districts had to spend on these littlity bitty things like more counselors or a small garden or things like that, and they couldnt maneuver the money to places they needed it most. A larger district will go from 7100 to 7500 next year. By the time the plan the is fully implemented, oakland will be getting 11,000 per kid. It sounds like a lot of money. There are people who say, thats great, thats wonderful, but were still far below where some other districts are in other states, like in new york, theyre getting 19,000 per pupil. In vermont, its 16,000. What do you say to people well, theyre right, new york and new jersey spend almost twice as much per pup id as we do now. This was not a plan to get School Districts to where you would say this is an adequate number for you to educate all pupils well. I mean, we just dont have the money to do that. So this was not this will close the gap with some schools and state other states. But this is not an answer to the base low funding that weve had in a complete way. It will not, i think, get us as far as we want to go. But thats something for the future, i think, that will come about. But at least its a change. Yeah, its a big change, and its a nonincremental big start, toward being near the top again in spending. Okay, now, you heard how it works, and you heard what its going to do for your kids. When we come back, well tackle whether its fair and whether the districts can be counted on to deliver the money. How is it going to get to students, classrooms and schools. Its not clear thats part of this proposal so far. Words of caution from a couple of high profile education experts when we come back. Welcome back to class action, were talking today with mike kirth. Hes the president of the state board of education. And the architect for the new funding for schools. Before the break, we were talking about the disparity of what each School District will get due to kids that have higher needs because their English Learners. The problem people have with this whole funding problem is fairness and accountability. What do you say to the parents of a kid in a more affluent School District thats been pumping money into the school through the ppies and all those things, and then also supplementing their kids education with tutoring. What do you say to them to make it more palletable, that this kid is still going to get more money than your kid is get something. Well, i think the formula is based on higher needs kids, and so the parents of middle and upper class children have an ability to help with those children more at home. They start school with a much better vocabularvocabulary, the more enrichment activities. Every piece of Educational Research you see, is that very low income children who also may be English Learners are really struggling much more. So were trying to match the money to the needs. And what is going on in the home and over the summer is also an issue with these pupils that are high needs. Its i think some of these districts also can raise partial taxes. They have school foundations. And they have contributions, that i think would be important. Is there a Bigger Picture that people should be looking at in terms of the economy of california . What it means in the long run of the need to have to educate these kids and spend more money on them in the presence . Yes, there is. I mean, our current, for example, Public School population is 53 hispanic, 25 of our students, 1. 6 million cant function in english in the classroom. That would be to me a clear idea why you need more resources, and the labor force in the future will be heavily impacted by the changing demographics of california. Lets talk about the other big issue, accountability. On this show, we talked to Michelle Rhee, whether you like her or not, people want to hear what she has to say. Shes been a critic of Higher Education in california. She has some reservations, listen. If you allow a bureaucracy to spend money where they want. What happens if they spend it more on the bureaucracy than on the kids in the classroom. Your basic premise is, you want to see the money to go directly to the kids . We want there to be full transparency about where all the dollars are going, and there has to be an analysis on what the return on investment is. Oakland unified is a good example. The state controller came out and said, their finances are a mess, how are we supposed to know that the moneys going to be well spent and spent accurately, if theres no one really watching the money . The formula goes from the state to the local School Districts. So Michelle Rhee is right, theres a problem with where does it go after that. However, there are 10,000 schools in california, were not smart enough in sacramento to say, each school ought to be spending exactly that much, and you cant have any of the money at the School District level. So there are district wide needs. Were going to install a new common curriculum. That will take professional development and other things the district can do. For we cannot decide all these details in sacramento. Therefore, the decisions will have to be made by local school boards. The people that are happy with this have to go partially to the local school board. Were shifting politics in california from insiders in sacramento to local communities. And theres a responsibility not just for lawmakers in sacramento but parents and communities to get after that school board and say, you got this state money. We want it here and it deserves to be here. So jerry brown, obviously, this is going to be his legacy, youve been working on this for 30 years. When you look at this, do you say, great, my work is done. Or do you see a mountain you have to climb . What do you see this being . I think this is just a start. Money doesnt answer all your problems. We need much better instruction, and so the future is much heavier around now, we have local control funding formula done increasing our support for teachers. Raising our curriculum standards and improving the day to day classroom instruction. And thats what were moving to now. Money is a necessary but not sufficient thing in education. And were well aware of that, so were shifting to classroom instruction and supporting teachers and improving teaching. Thank you very much, thanks for giving us a look at whats going on in the schools. We appreciate you doing it for us. When we come back, getting your teen to take a summer break from social media. Im joined now by a professor at stanford. Were talking about summertime social. Kids out of school, lots of free time on twitter, instagram nonstop. I told you i was just in los angeles with my kids, they were instagraming every step of our vacation. Its like it wasnt happening if they didnt post it. And they were interested in the likes. If youre instagraming youre out of the experience, youre a spectator, thats a loss. The kids are constantly, when theyre looking at facebook and twitter, theyre constantly seeing what other people are doing, it seems to me then you get the, im bored, evyones life is better than mine. It seems like theres a level of depression that creeps in with that. There is evidence that kids who are very frequent facebook users and other social media users do show higher levels of depression for exactly what you said. People think everyone else is happy all the time, because everyone is smiling. People are doing all these things, there are pictures of them at the beach and here and there. When you live in that world, its a world where, of course, life seems deficient. Now especially in the summer, when the kids arent seeing each other on a day to day basis, theyre trying to be on their mobile devices more. How do you curtail that . I think its hard. One of the things is to reemphasize face to face communications. The incredible importance with kids, looking at the person, interacting with them, seeing them, one thing is really making an effort that they are seeing kids face to face. It forces that upon them. I think thats one. Sometimes you see the kids sitting next to each other, theyre together and theyre still on their phones. We called this the parallel play of teenagers. Its developmentally appropriate when youre two, two and a half. Then you say, i can play with you. Now we dont see that, were starting to see a relapse into a much earlier time. What do you think how do you you talk about unstructured time, what does that mean for kids over the summer. It means that kids should be really away from media and experiencing. Not just doing things, we talk about kids bringing their telephone. Not that, it really is putting things down and doing one thing and being totally immersed in it. Okay. And summers a great time for that. You dont have the demands of school, the demands of as many extracurriculars. Its a great time to just be in the moment. In the moment. Thats really. You say multitasking. I love to multitask, but multitasking is not good for kids. No, its not good for anyone. But kids theres a difference. The multitasking youre doing, youre doing many things, focused on one thing. When youre preparing a show, theres lots of stuff going on, youre pulling pieces together, but theyre related. Thats not really what we call multitasking, youre trying to prepare your show and you would also be watching a video of something totally different and doing something again different. So related activities at the same time are very good for the brain. Okay. Unrelated activities are very bad for the brain. Especially with developmentally for young kids. How does that harm them. You see kids doing it all the time. Ed problem is what weve shown is, kids who do that, even when we tell them now you must focus, they cant do it, kids who multitask all the time have difficulties focusing, even when they want to. They have difficulties managing working memory. They have difficulties switching from one task to another. And recent search shows their writing skills are impacted. Its hard, there are so many things in life that require focus, and so much of childhood used to involve focus. So we would hear all the time, look at me when i talk to you. You dont hear that any more. No, you just hear me screaming focus. You say alone time is important, why is that . Theres a wonderful quotation, if we dont teach kids to be alone, were dooming them to loneliness. Its very important to learn to be able to imagine, to think about things, to focus. Without media constantly agitating us. Without media preventing us from confronting who we are. It used to be called reflection. Gone. Thats all gone now. Thank you very much. Up next, well go inside one of the most talked about education startups in the country. Would you be interested in an ivy caliber degree online that allows you to travel around the world . Before you balk, you should know, they do have backing from top tier academics and major Silicon Valley investors. Heres a look at the making of a 21st century education. The most telling feature of the minerva project in San Francisco may be just how empty it is. Six months from now this space will look different than it does today. He has grand plans for his education startup. The project is creating a new kind of elite top tier university, classes will be small, online seminars, with fewer than 20 students. And heres the twist. Were going to bring them all together here to San Francisco in their freshman year. After their freshman year, they break into cohorts, they travel through six different cities under the next six semesters. Some the semesters include mumbai, sydney and sao paolo. Our Student Newspaper will have 25 foreign bureaus. With such losty aspirations, you would think it would be hard to recruit faculty . Its turned out to be the opposite. Hes recruited his dean, a professor from stanford. And on the advisory board, larry somers, former president of harvard and former secretary of the treasury. I think theyll get a lot of hype and recognition for having a different really revolutionary model. Its not clear whether its a model that will work out, its completely new. I think its very possible. We talked to some College Students in the bay area, and they seemed genuinely interested in the idea. Thats cool, to travel, and get experience in other countries and places. I think thats cool. I wonder how feasible it is, and how expensive it would be in that sense. The room and board will be similar to a Traditional Ivy League university. You have to live and eat, we havent found a way to make that more affordable. However, our tuition, which at a Traditional Ivy League school is 40,000 a year, at minerva will be about half of that. Last attempt at a Tier One Research university was rice, that was 1912. So as you can see, they are really aiming high over there. In fact, theyve announced a new prize, the minerva prize, a 500,000 dollar reward for teaching. It could be a minerva professor or a professor anywhere around the world. Thats going to do it for our show. Thank you for watching. We hope to see you next time. [ male announcer ] how do you do a Summer Clearance the dodge way . First wait till summer. Then get the cars ready. Now add the dodge part. The dodge Summer Clearance event. Right now get 0 financing for up to 72 months and no payments for 90 days on all dodge vehicles. It has been a week. Cory montieth tragic death at able 31 remains a shock. Hi everybody. Welcome to access hollywood. This is a weekend edition. Im shaun robinson. Of course we now know a mixture of heroin and alcohol killed cory but so many quest. How did the girlfriend learn of the death and what will she do without him. All of that when we begin with a final message from cory. Ironic heart breaking words now the final video during the flight to vancouver from japan. Malorie im cory. Im sheilas friend. According to a report he was approached by an air canada Flight Attendant who asked him to say a few word on video for her boyfriend daughter. Testament to his gracious nature in seeing how happy and healthy he looked to the tragic fact that the life ended all too sichbility found about his death few minutes before everybody else around 10 00 oclock on saturday night. Friend said that she lost her mind she was crying