2/4/2010
With our focus on state politics in Olympia, it’s easy to forget that more and more of our education policy is now being decided in the other Washington. I just returned from NSBA’s Federal Relations Network conference in Washington D.C., where we were briefed by Secretary Duncan and met with key members of Congress. Here are three of the most important messages we were sending on the hill:
1. Reauthorize ESEA!
The Elementary and Secondary Education Act (a.k.a. "No Child Left Behind") has made great strides in accountability, measuring annual student progress in math and reading in every school across the nation. However, it’s punitive measures to turn around schools not meeting Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) have proven counterproductive and desperately need to be updated based on what we’ve learned since 2001. Currently, half of our districts in Washington state are in some form of "Improvement Status" and have Title 1 funding set aside to provide for transporting students to other schools…funding that won’t be returned if it’s not used. By 2014, the goals ratchet to 100%, ensuring that all schools are failing AYP and we have no easy means to identify the schools that really need help.
- Make AYP based on year-to-year growth, not absolute values. If test scores show a school is providing 2 year’s worth of improvement in one year, that program is working and should be celebrated, even if they’re starting with disadvantaged kids that are 3 years behind the national average. Eventually, they will close the gap.
- Broaden tests to include assessments of more than just math and reading. At a minimum, we need to evaluate science (promised, but not delivered) and writing (like the new SAT), but ideally this would include multiple measures of academic achievement reflecting the kind of well-rounded education necessary to be successful in a 21st century economy.
- Sanctions should only apply to schools and districts when the same subgroup fails to make AYP in the same subject for two consecutive years or more.
- Sanctions should be aligned with the need for improvement, targeting only the subgroup that fails to make AYP instead of the entire student population (many of whom end up transferring to schools with lower performance for their subgroup).
- Students belonging to multiple subgroups should be counted in each group as an equal fraction, totaling one student towards AYP.
2. Fully fund 40% share of IDEA!
Currently, Washington school districts spend an average of 8% of their local levy dollars backfilling unfunded requirements of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, totaling $160M per year statewide. The federal government currently funds 17.2% of their promised 40%, resulting in a yearly national shortfall of $16B and a whopping total of $670B since its inception.
- Co-sponsor EDUCATE Act (H.R. 3578) and IDEA Full Funding Act (S.1652)
- If federal funds aren’t available, reduce local Maintenance of Effort requirements
3. Teachers and students are our most leveraged investment!
Thanks to the federal stimulus grants from last year, Washington state only lost 2,700 teachers. Without that safety net, things would have been much worse…and this year OSPI estimates that we’ll be losing 8,000 teachers due to budget cuts during this short session. Like jobs saved at Boeing and Microsoft, when we save a teacher’s job there are trickle down effects to the community that multiply its impact on Main Street. In addition, any investment we make in education at least prepares future generations to ultimately pay back the federal debt we’re incurring.
- Support the Jobs for Main Street Act, which provides a $23B Education Jobs Fund. (Senate version is pending, estimated at $18B for education.)
- Remember that the best jobs and anti-poverty program is a world-class education.
Please contact your U.S. Senators and local House representative to ensure they get these messages. With the President’s budget released, debates ensuing in both House and Senate, and new proposals being released daily from the Department of Education, now is the time to ensure those representing us in D.C. know where our priorities lie. 1/27/2010So I drove down to Olympia today to testify on a couple of school levy bills…and ended up unexpectedly flogging the Superintendent of Schools on public TV for retreating on math and science graduation requirements, lowering standards and delaying testing by 2 and 4 years, respectively.
Click here to see the KOMO News footage.
Update: This bill was ultimately defeated, and OSPI has stepped up to deliver the first end-of-course math assessments in Spring 2011. 11/21/2009
This week at the Washington State School Directors' Association conference in Seattle I was elected to the Legislative Committee, representing King County. I was also appointed to the NSBA Federal Relations Network as Coordinating Member for Congressional District 8. I'll be attending the FRN conference at the end of January along with my 10-year old son Duncan. (Aren't Alaska $50 companion fare coupons great?) We're looking forward to exploring our nation's capitol together in addition to meeting with our representatives in D.C. to discuss priorities for reauthorization of ESEA (a.k.a. No Child Left Behind), federal education stimulus programs, core standards and assessments, and other initiatives for education reform.
5/20/2009
I get a lot of questions about education funding inequities, and that's really to be expected because of the complexity of the current funding formulas. Many community members know that the Issaquah School District gets considerably less funding than most districts, but there's more to this story.
First of all, let me state clearly that I'm proud that Issaquah continues to achieve some of the highest standardized test scores in the state while ranked 271st in per-pupil revenue out of 295 districts statewide in 2008-09. We have the lowest administrative overhead in King County, saving $4M/year compared to the average. We do more with less, and I wish that more government institutions would follow our lead.
The objection I have is that the current funding inequities have no rational basis and create an uneven playing field for school districts.
Our current funding formulas and levy lids were essentially hacked together in 1977 and included grandfather clauses to passify large influential districts that were paying higher teacher salaries and collecting larger local levies. The intent, of course, was to eventually equalize the rates by raising everyone up to these levels, but that never came to pass.
So what does this mean to Issaquah?
Currently, we would receive an extra $11.5M/year with the average state per-pupil funding. In addition, we lose an additional $7.3M/year vs. Bellevue and $10.6M/year vs. Mercer Island because of inequities in our levy authorization.
Ultimately, that means that neighboring districts can provide students more class offerings and offer teachers and principals more competitive pay.
For example, by recovering just $3.0 - $4.7M of these funds, we could offer an additional class period in our high schools enabling us to further raise graduation standards and offer electives that give our kids the edge they need to get the best jobs.
So is there hope for change?
ESHB 2261 established K-12 Funding Formula and Local Funding technical working groups to create a new set of funding formulas based on a model schools approach rather than political compromises from the 70s. Our expectation is that the new model will much more closely reflect the real costs of education, including adjustments for regional cost of living.
Unfortunately, the Local Funding working group doesn't meet until July 1, 2010, and we expect quite a bit of resistance to change from those districts benefitting from the current inequities, which are basically districts with grandfathered levy lids and smaller districts who receive levy equalization (LEA) funds and fear local funding disparity from perceived "property rich" districts.
What will drive change?
Our district lost an additional $7.3M this year to budget cuts and the expectation is that additional cuts will be forthcoming next year and the following state biennium budget when we will no longer have benefit of state fiscal stabilization funds from the federal government. Many districts like ours will become insolvent, especially if they hold back on budget cuts, retain too many employees, or agree to concessions they can't afford in collective bargaining.
Currently, there are two high-profile legal cases drawing attention to state funding inequities, which makes me confident that the legislature will soon enact measures to address these issues next session when they have recommendations from the K-12 Funding Formula Technical Working Group and Quality Education Council. There are currently no legal cases highlighting the inequities in levy authorization, however, so I'm not as optimistic about seeing changes to the levy lids. If we want change here, we're going to have to drive it ourselves by participating in the K-12 Supplemental Funding Technical Working Group and raising awareness with the QEC, our legislators, and the general public. 10/29/2008
Well, after almost four months of preliminaries, including several written questionnaires and two rounds of interviews, the Issaquah School Board finally made its selection tonight to fill the seat vacated by a recent resignation. There were five candidates in total, with two invited back for the second round of interviews.
So guess who won?
It was a 3-1 decision, which was fortunate because 2-2 deadlocks can get ugly. My swearing in ceremony won’t be until November 12th and the term for the open seat ends in 2009, so I’ll have to run for reelection next year. Regardless, you should look for my smiling face adorning this Web page real soon:
So, about 16,000 students are now looking to me to ensure that the Issaquah School District will maintain its position of leadership for decades to come all while compensation expenditures throughout the state outpace local, state and federal revenue by 63% every year. Did I mention that Issaquah currently ranks 272nd of our 295 school districts in per student state funding due to some antiquated funding equation created back in the ‘70s when Issaquah was an agricultural community? How about that this isn’t a paid position?
This might be quite a challenge, but I’m still pretty excited. 7/24/2008
Congratulations, we did it!
Together, we changed our schools for our kids. Students, parents, educators, and business leaders spoke with one loud voice: We want our high school graduates to be ready for college and careers.
Thank you to:
- Over 500 supporters who signed our postcards and online petition;
- Over 50 activists who boarded the Did You Know Campaign bus to the State Board meeting in Vancouver yesterday;
- Dozens of students who gave great testimony about how CORE 24 will help prepare ALL our kids for success; and
- Members of the State Board of Education for raising the bar.
The CORE 24 framework will replace our state’s outdated high school graduation requirements and increase the number of credits needed to graduate from 19 to 24. Students will choose between three graduation pathways based on their plans after high school. In addition, the State Board set a high standard for math and voted to adopt Algebra II as the default third credit of math.
(Yeah, that's my head poking up in the back there.) |
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