Neglect of Bright but Poor Students Frustrates Teachers

La Jolla High School math teacher Elaine Maltz scrounged $1,200 from friends during the past two weeks to cover some of the Advanced Placement Exam fees that promising Latino students cannot afford to pay.

Yet she and other frustrated teachers need $3,000 more immediately to ensure that all of their Advanced Placement Latino students--academically bright but economically poor--will be able to culminate a year of high-powered instruction by taking the tests that, if passed, promise college credits for high-school courses.

For several years, Maltz and other teachers have been upset that the school district will not help these students financially, even though top San Diego city schools administrators require that schools do better academically with their nonwhite students and encourage more to go to college.

Although La Jolla High School alone has tripled the number of minority students in Advanced Placement classes, the district offers no funds for needy students to pay for the tests, which cost $65 each.

This spring, the anger of teachers has been exacerbated by information about how the district has been using its discretionary funds. They complain that priorities are misplaced, citing recent articles about several million dollars spent annually by the district on consulting, travel and other programs.

“My morale is severely affected when I see this happen,” La Jolla principal J. Tarvin said this week. “I see district spending as a professional game, and the kids are not included as players.

“Damn it, something is wrong with our system.”

Tarvin cited the district’s recent hiring of a professional fund-raiser for $2,500 plus 10% of all proceeds to raise money for a hoped-for summer camp for African-American males. “But we can’t get a dime to help with these kids, and that makes me mad.”

Tarvin, who clashed with now-deceased assistant schools Supt. George Frey in an unsuccessful effort to get money two years ago, wrote a letter to Supt. Tom Payzant this week on the issue.

A survey done by Tarvin last week showed that 196 students at the school could use some financial assistance to pay for the test. More than 500 students take the AP exam each year at La Jolla.

La Jolla High School Spanish teacher Katherine Stukenberg said, “Here we are, with a 41% (districtwide) dropout rate for Hispanics, bending over backwards to get Hispanic and African-American kids into college-prep programs and programming them into Advanced Placement classes, and then telling them when the time comes for the test, ‘Well, too bad if you don’t have the money.’ ”

Her colleague, Spanish literature mentor teacher Sandra Scherf, added, “All the money going into consultants, fine, maybe some of it will work. But these (Advanced Placement) kids have already demonstrated success, who don’t need dropout prevention. Why not reward them just a little?”

Almost 28% of La Jolla’s students are Latinos who voluntarily are bused to the school from the Barrio Logan area.

Scherf has more than 40 Latino students eligible for Advanced Placement exams in Spanish and in Spanish literature alone. Other students are taking exams in other subjects. I’ve got one girl, who has a child, who takes care of her mother’s children as well because her mother is on drugs, and yet she has worked hard in school and wants to take the AP.

“I’m ashamed if we can’t help in these cases.”

Scherf said that, for example, Stanford University will award 10 units of credit toward graduation for any student achieving a 4 or 5 grading (out of 5) on an Advanced Placement test. The 29 different tests are given by the College Board, the New York-based organization that also administers the Scholastic Aptitude Test used by many colleges along with school academic records and other factors in deciding whether or not to admit a student.

(The College Board will reduce the fee by $12 for students who demonstrate financial hardship.)

“I would get a lot more inspiration from (district) money being invested in the future of these kids than in having me in a lecture room hearing an inspirational (consultant) speaker,” Scherf said.

Scherf said math teacher Maltz “has practically martyred herself” in begging for money. Maltz said that the students already work to support their families and to pay for other necessities, “and to them, an extra $65 is a lot of money. But I’m not a professional fund-raiser, I just am able to phone my friends, PTA types, and get them to write out a small check.

“I think a lot of the students feel betrayed, but they’re sort of used to it,” Maltz said.

English teacher Cynthia Soriano said she is particularly concerned because many of the Latino students, after their first successes in advanced Spanish language and literature, go on to success in other subjects as well.

“They develop a whole different outlook on their ability to compete, and their view toward college,” she said.

Although the students have done fund-raisers, such as selling pens and working other tasks around the high school, Tarvin said the “school board and Payzant have no idea how long it takes to raise $2,000 . . . yet they’ll pass $40,000 (in travel and consultant fees) in a moment.”

Robert Amparan of San Diego High, the school with the highest percentage of Latino students, praised Tarvin “because his teachers are getting (bused) students and doing an excellent job of getting them to take more difficult AP classes. . . . I don’t blame him for being frustrated.”

Mira Mesa High School principal James Vlassis said the district needs to face the issue squarely.

“If you expect schools to put more students into Advanced Placement, then the district has an obligation to pay for this. And, since we’re upgrading the curriculum in particular for minorities, it would be a good use for some out-of-district travel budgets or integration money” to pay fees for disadvantaged students.

Vlassis said the district has always forced individual schools to come up with money for equity issues, such as to pay for any student unable to afford an authorized field trip or other activity.

State Sen. Gary Hart (D-Santa Barbara) has introduced a bill that would provide funds to pay fees of economically disadvantaged students eligible to take Advanced Placement exams.

Sue Burr, an education aide to Hart, said the issue is a priority for Hart. A similar bill was passed by the Legislature last year but vetoed by former Gov. George Deukmejian, she said.