BILL CIRONE

My time in office is short, and the list of thanks I owe is long, very long. As the nation prepares to celebrate July 4, I want to first and foremost thank the Santa Barbara County community for the privilege and honor it has been to work as your elected representative in a system of […]

From coast to coast and around the globe, one of the most common questions parents ask their children is, “What did you do at school today?” A very common frustration we hear voiced by parents is that their children invariably respond with “Nothing,” or, “I don’t know,” or, “I don’t remember.” It’s hard to deal […]

We all know that when school budgets get tight, art and music education are early casualties. Traditionally, schools and classrooms are rated according to how students perform on standardized tests. You can scan those tests until you grow very weary, but you will never see mention of a treble clef or a two-point perspective. Fortunately, […]

Twenty-two-year-old Yaskin Solano surveys the group assembled before him at the Los Prietos Boys Camp, a 17-acre facility in the Los Padres National Forest that provides work and vocational training, counseling, and promotes volunteer and community service to young males aged 13 to 18 who have had trouble with the law. “Yesterday, my life was […]

Recent violent incidents are horrifying to all—a rare unifying sentiment in these days of deep division. It was painfully difficult to watch the videos of young black men being shot at point-blank range by policemen. It was equally horrifying to see the assassination of police officers that occurred in Dallas by a truly disturbed loner. […]

Some children are excited about a new school year beginning, while others seem to dread the end of summer vacation. Either way, parents have an important role in preparing their children for a smooth start of the school routine. For students of all ages there are certain basic areas where parents can play a role […]

The shootings continue. The deaths continue. We hear that Americans are angry, divided, fed up. But we are all horrified by the outcome in blood. And almost everyone shares the same reaction: Make the violence stop. First we must acknowledge that no other modern, civilized country on earth has the gun deaths we do here […]

Public education has always been the glue that binds our citizens together and forms the foundation for our democracy. The very birth of our nation was created on the premise of free public education for all. Our founding fathers believed it was the duty of all adults in a community to provide an education for […]

The written exchange between John Adams and his wife, Abigail, are true treasures of American history. But the native New Englander, away from home for months at a time in Philadelphia and Washington trying to preserve a young republic for future generations, also wrote at length to his oldest son, John Quincy, who himself would […]

William Doyle, a Fulbright scholar, New York Times bestselling author, and award-winning TV producer, wrote a powerful essay about the “School of the Future.” First, the context. As a Fulbright scholar, Doyle spent five months as a Finnish public school father and a classroom observer. In his own words, he was “completely amazed at how […]

From New York to California, and seemingly everywhere in between, the bad news proliferates: We’re falling short of teachers. In California, the situation has been described as “horrific” and “dire.” A new report, Addressing California’s Emerging Teacher Shortage, analyzes the sources and solutions to this major challenge. The problem is clearly based on supply and […]

As 2016 gets moving, here is a tip for parents to consider as they start off a new year: Turn the page on contentious encounters they may have had with their children since the beginning of the school year. One frequent source of conflict between parents and children is homework. If children faced challenges with […]