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News Clips
– STATE Blagojevich, school leaders in tug of
wills / Sun Times STATE In the year since
Rod Blagojevich took office, the So Schiller should
hardly have been surprised last month when Blagojevich used his
State of the State address to lob a grenade at the state's education
bureaucracy. Even so, the school chief was stunned by Blagojevich's
unbridled contempt. The board, Blagojevich
charged in an attack that consumed more than half of his 84-minute
speech, was a bloated, inefficient "Soviet-style bureaucracy"
that undermined educational progress and deserved evisceration. And so was born
a caustic turf battle over control of the state's multibillion dollar
education machinery that will consume the legislature in coming
months. And it will figure prominently in Blagojevich's annual budget
speech Wednesday as he lays out spending priorities for the next
year, of which education consumes the most state tax dollars. Blagojevich says
his request to take direct control of schools is motivated by a
desire to improve accountability and efficiency in education and
redirect more money to classroom spending. But there is far more
to the story than that. Interviews with
dozens of officials from the State Board of Education and the administration,
as well as key lawmakers, reveals a collision course in the making
for more than a year that was driven by petty slights, personal
animosities and competing egos. Blagojevich cut
the board's budget; the board did an end run around the governor
and got the legislature to restore some of the money. The board
prodded Blagojevich to spend more on education than he was prepared
to spend in the midst of a budget crisis. The governor hired a fired
board lobbyist to be his top education aide and demoted the board's
Republican chairman by sending him a fax. Instead of working
together to fix a long list of problems in public education, the
governor and school bureaucrats acted like spoiled members of rival
playground cliques, charged Sen. Miguel del Valle (D-Chicago), chairman
of the Senate Education Committee. "They all should
be sent to the principal's office," del Valle said. Some of the tension
between the governor and the board is by design. The arrangement
creates a predicament for Blagojevich just as it has for many of
his predecessors, several of whom also contemplated gutting the
board. Governors have to come up with billions of dollars a year
in school spending, but then the board oversees the money. All of the board's
current members were in place when Blagojevich took office. One
slot has been open for months, and he has failed to fill it. In
addition to overseeing an $8 billion annual budget, the board sets
broad educational policies on student testing, teacher certification
and curriculum matters. It also hires the superintendent. The relationship
between the board and the administration got off to a bad start
when board members hired Schiller in 2002 even though Blagojevich,
then a candidate for governor, suggested they should wait until
after the election to allow the winner some input. Last February, only
one month after Blagojevich took office, the education agency openly
defied him by refusing his demand to cancel a $240,000 contract
with a "The easy thing
would have been to simply roll over and do what the governor told
us to do," said board member Greg Kazarian.
"But we weren't about to do that ... and we took heavy political
heat because of it." In March, Blagojevich
made public a list of state workers he claimed had "gamed the
system" by accumulating thousands of dollars in unused vacation
and sick days, including a much-admired board employee who had recently
died of cancer. Asked at a news conference whether that might seem
disrespectful, Blagojevich responded with a flip comment about how
she should have taken more vacation days. `Band-Aid on bullet
wounds' Tensions were further
strained in April when the governor presented his budget, which
called for boosting elementary and secondary education spending
by about $200 million. Blagojevich sought praise for increasing
school spending in tough economic times. But Republican Ronald Gidwitz,
then the board's chairman, called the proposal "a Band-Aid
on bullet wounds." Gidwitz's comments incensed the administration. "What is irritating
about Schiller and Gidwitz is all they
talk about is funding, saying, `Oh, poor schools, we need more money,'"
said Brenda Holmes, Blagojevich's deputy governor for education.
"Well, fine, get out there and tell us how we are going to
find this money." A week later, the
governor's office faxed Gidwitz a letter
replacing him as chairman. Janet Steiner, a board member and a Democrat,
was elevated to the position. She said she found out about her promotion
by reading it in a newspaper. As the budget battles
raged, the board and the administration butted heads over personnel.
The governor instituted a hiring freeze across all state agencies
and asked the board to abide by it. Even so, his staff sent Schiller
more than two dozen resumes of "individuals that may be interested
in a position" with the agency. The board declined to hire
any of them. With tensions running
high, the governor's staff launched a series of internal meetings
in June to develop a major education policy initiative. Quarterbacked
by Deputy Governor Bradley Tusk, the meetings included Blagojevich
allies, Rep. Jay Hoffman (D-Collinsville) and a variety of Cabinet
officials, including budget chief John Filan. Absent from the
discussions was Schiller or any member of the board. "We wanted
to do something that was fundamental and meaningful, something that
could improve education and went beyond single issues," Tusk
said. In August, Blagojevich
hired Holmes, who worked for the board for 13 years before being
fired in 2000. Neither side would say what led to her termination,
but Holmes had tangled with Gidwitz in
her role as an agency lobbyist. Holmes met with
board officials a few times during the summer, but both sides acknowledge
a strained relationship. When Schiller had
major education issues to discuss, he wanted to talk to the governor,
not Holmes. Holmes, on the other hand, rarely spoke to board officials
and did not attend board meetings, where critical education decisions
were being made. "The bottom
line is this man [Schiller] has not called me," Holmes said.
"If he had been willing to discuss things with me, he might
have had a better chance getting to the governor." Schiller counters
that if Blagojevich truly cared about public education, he would
have made time to meet with the agency that oversees schools. "On behalf
of the state board, I am their spokesman, and I should have access
and be able to communicate with whomever I need to communicate with,
whether it's Filan, Tusk or the governor," Schiller said. "You
can't be on the team if you are not in the dugout." As the two sides
spent the summer freezing each other out, Blagojevich used his veto
pen to slash $21 million from the state board budget. In response, the
board eliminated a program that oversees private business and vocational
schools and one that monitors some non-public schools. The board
also doubled fees for high school equivalency tests and closed a
teacher certification office in Board members publicly
blamed the governor for forcing their actions, triggering an angry
response from the administration. "They could
have shifted their priorities and made cuts that were less harmful
to students, but they refused to make the tough decisions that every
other agency was making," said Becky Carroll, spokeswoman for
the governor's budget office. "They made it clear to us in
the beginning that they were not going to play ball." As relations continued
to splinter, the agency was barraged with bad press. Release of
the annual School Report Cards, which analyze test scores and spending
by districts, were repeatedly delayed after a board contractor failed
to deliver the data on time. When released, the report cards were
riddled with errors. In October, the
board was blasted by teachers and lawmakers after the agency disclosed
that it had not approved training and mentoring programs that educators
need to continue teaching, leaving 7,000 in the lurch. Such problems helped
convince the governor's education task force that just pouring more
money into schools would not improve education as long as the board
controlled it. "As we look
at it further, all points led to the State Board of Education,"
said Hoffman. "What's driving it is the abysmal failure of
the state board. ... It's like a bad movie." Prodding the governor
to seek dramatic change were the state's teachers unions, who gave
his campaign more than $1.2 million--the largest amount from any
special interest bloc. The Illinois Education
Association and the Illinois Federation of Teachers have had a prickly
relationship with the board for years. But the bitterness deepened
further as the board began ratcheting up teacher licensing requirements. The two sides also
have been at loggerheads over control of the Illinois Teacher Certification
Board, the 19-member panel that advises the board on teacher licensing
issues. The unions want an independent board, something the governor
proposed last month during his attack on the education agency. Another source of
tension between the agency and the board was what board leaders
contend was Filan's attempt to steer leaders of the state teacher pension
fund toward more conservative investment strategies. The Teachers'
Retirement System, whose president is Schiller, stuck with its own
strategy. An analysis by the
retirement system showed it pulled in $507 million during the first
six months of this fiscal year, an 11.7 percent return on investment. The retirement system
estimated that following what it interpreted as Filan's
more conservative investment strategy would have yielded about $53
million, a 1.2 percent return. The animosity reached
a crescendo during a November meeting between Holmes, Schiller and
Steiner. Holmes was irritated
about a flood of complaints her office received over the board's
decision to cut programs and hike fees in response to the governor's
budget reductions. Holmes told board leaders she could save the
programs by transferring them to other state agencies. But Schiller and
Steiner declined. A few days later they persuaded lawmakers to restore
the funding. "We gave the
state board some time to come around to our point of view, and we
were a bit surprised they rejected our suggestions," Holmes
said. "It was becoming clear to us that they were not going
to cooperate with us on anything." Loophole to squelch
panel Blagojevich's inner
circle considered seeking a constitutional amendment, a cumbersome
and less than surefire process. Then, on a Saturday morning in December,
Hoffman was surfing the Internet in his Hoffman contacted
Tusk, and the move to usurp the board gained momentum. "In
mid- to late December, Rod decided to pull the trigger," Tusk
said. A few weeks later,
Holmes met with union officials to go over the plan. "They were
part of the governor's campaign, and we wanted some feedback,"
Holmes said. At about the same
time, Schiller said he was repeatedly trying to schedule a meeting
with Blagojevich. "There was
nothing but silence on the other end," Schiller said. "In
hindsight, I guess he didn't want to meet with me because he didn't
want to tell me to my face what he was planning to do with the board." Funding of 'No Child' law a big concern The federal No Child
Left Behind law, signed in 2002, requires all public school students
to perform at least at grade level in math and reading by 2014.
It also beefs up educational requirements for teachers and aides,
and penalizes schools that do not perform well enough on standardized
math and reading tests. At least 36 states
have studied what financial effect the federal act will have on
them. Local school districts
aren't so sure. "In order to
beef up programs and do the things you need to do, everybody's scrambling,
trying to figure out what will work and what won't work," said
Lawmakers for years
have struggled over ending a school-finance system that many consider
relies too much on local property taxes, creating a fiscal gulf
between property-rich suburban areas and landlocked urban and poorer
downstate areas. Add to that the
economic downturn and the budget crisis that continues to haunt
Gov. Rod Blagojevich
boasted "new money" for schools last year, but Those are the children,
along with special education students, who will have the toughest
time meeting the standards, especially without sufficient money
for remedial programs, educators fear. Federal funding
for the program is up 11 percent for The biggest state
grant -- Title I -- for remedial math and reading programs for poor
children, totaled $462 million in grants to schools this year, a
32 percent increase over two years ago, according to an Associated
Press analysis of Illinois State Board of Education figures. But Title I money
doesn't reach every eligible low-income child. The National Education
Association, the nation's largest teacher's union, says Illinois'
federal grant would have to increase 150 percent -- to $1.25 billion
-- to reach all eligible students and prepare them for the law's
benchmarks. "You're asking
the states to do all these additional things when you have economic
problems, budget problems, but you're not providing enough additional
funding for that," said NEA spokesman Dan Kaufman. William Mathis,
a local school superintendent and education finance professor in
The states claim
they need, on average, 28 percent more a year to meet the requirements,
Mathis said. That would be a $118 billion increase over the $422.7
billion spent by local, state and federal governments on education
nationally in 2001-2002. 40 service hours too much, schools say Not all area school
district officials are on board with Gov. Rod Blagojevich's plan
to make community service a graduation requirement. Some districts,
especially those with service programs already in place, believe
A 40-hour requirement,
they say, would interfere with extracurricular activities and jobs.
At Senior Rick Lange,
who works part time doing custodial work, said it would have been
nearly impossible for him to work and complete 40 hours of service.
"Forty hours
would have been tough to get done," Lange said. "Almost
all of my friends need to work. You could get 10 hours done in a
year, that's pretty simple, but it would take away from other school
activities." A spokesman for
Blagojevich's office said that 40 hours is not that much to ask. Many students already
perform community service for National Honor Society and student
council, reminded Rebecca Rausch. Chicago Public Schools,
for example, is six years into its service-learning program, also
a 40-hour requirement. Besides, Blagojevich believes high school
is a time when students begin to understand why volunteering is
important, Rausch said. "And no community
in the state has a shortage of community service projects,"
said Rausch, adding that such projects can increase self-esteem
and grade-point averages. But Katy Cunningham,
government teacher and community service liaison at Reavis,
said 12 hours is all her students could squeeze in between sports,
clubs and schoolwork. She fears more hours
might make students resentful of community service. "Forty hours
is almost punitive," Cunningham said. "The way we do it
doesn't overburden the school or the students. These kids are in
every club under the sun," she said. Cunningham coordinates
the community service for more than 300 seniors taking government
courses each year. If the governor's
bill is approved, Reavis would have to
hire a full-time community service liaison to coordinate the school's
1,700 students, she said. The proposed legislation
sets the parameters for how much time each student must devote to
service. The governor's proposal allows each school district to
define what qualifies as service and where service is most needed.
Blagojevich's legislation
would assist schools in implementing the requirement. It is estimated
the community service initiative will require $6 million in fiscal
year 2005 for block grants to schools. Of the $6 million,
each high school will receive $10,000 to fund two coordinators to
implement the community service requirement. In the proposed legislation,
the requirement would begin for students starting high school in
2006. Reavis Supt. Larry Daker said his
high school's system serves its students' needs. "We feel very
satisfied with our program. We've looked at what other school districts
are doing, and we like ours better," Daker
said. Principal John McGraw
said a strategic planning survey several years ago showed that most
students were not interested in forced service. "The majority
of our students felt that forced serving is not serving," McGraw
said. His students, he
said, decide where their interests lie. "You will make time
for things you're interested in," he added. At Reavis,
a 40-hour service requirement would increase the number of hours
of supervision and seems excessive, given that many students go
beyond the 12 hours required by the district, Daker
said. "You couldn't
expect seniors to do it in one semester without losing the intensity
and focus." Chicago Public Schools
service learning manager Jon Schmidt said to keep seniors from scrambling
to complete the 40 hours, the district, effective next year, will
require students to complete at least 20 hours by the end of their
sophomore year. At Reavis,
senior Pat Hartigan, said 40 hours over
four years is hardly excessive and could be done easily as long
as kids are smart about it. "A lot of kids
are in sports, but you could easily get 10 hours done a year. I
waited until the last month (of the semester) to do mine and it
was like nothing," In order to complete
his required 12 hours for his government class, Hartigan,
who also works part time at a drug store, helped a Girl Scout troop
create a haunted house and volunteered at the Burbank Park District's
Winter Wonderfest for his project. Learning first-hand
what service is makes students feel more responsible for their communities,
said Schmidt, adding that young people want to make contributions
to their communities. "Service learning
helps fulfill one of the tenets of public education by teaching
students to be active citizens in a democracy. It is as important
to learn how to read, as it is to have a democracy. If we don't
have active citizens, we don't have an active democracy. We've got
to get them to think critically; we want them to act on good principles,"
he said. Among the positive
results, Chicago Public Schools report higher attendance rates for
students who fulfill the requirement. And, 83 percent
of schools with community service requirements report higher grade-point
averages for participating students. Real issue for schools is money Gov. Rod Blagojevich's
plan for education, outlined forcefully in his State of the State
address to the General Assembly in January, falls well short of
what's needed to address the issue of educational equity for financially
strapped school districts such as mine. The governor spoke
about education for an hour, but it's clear that he doesn't understand
the dilemma we face in the public schools. Instead, his speech was
about power, not equality, and not at all about what children and
their schools need to succeed in today's schooling environment. A few facts about
my school district may help readers understand my point of view.
Mindful of these
disparities, I served as an ex-officio member of the Illinois Education
Funding Advisory Board, charged with recommending state funding
levels and supplemental aid and grants for districts with high concentrations
of poor children. After exhaustive study, it recommended that the
foundation level for per pupil spending should be $5,665, or $2,000
more per pupil per year than what we have available in our district
now. How does all this
bad financial news impact the quality of education in District 144?
Here's one example. The average teacher in District 144 is paid
$42,400 a year, or about $10,000 a year less than the average teacher
statewide. You better believe that when I'm competing for high-quality
teachers, my schools are at a significant disadvantage. The combination
of noncompetitive salaries for teachers and staff and a high proportion
of children at risk of academic failure has consequences on academic
performance. Our money is limited, but we are judged in exactly
the same way as resource-rich schools in wealthy communities. The
comparison is devastating. In our most recent district report card,
just 44.1 percent of our student test scores met or exceeded the
Illinois Learning Standards. Statewide, 61 percent of all scores
met or exceeded standards. The governor seems
to believe that any dollar spent for something other than a teacher
in a classroom is a wasted dollar. But I can tell you that my children
must have safe ways to get to school, nutritious meals, counseling
and other kinds of assistance to be in those classrooms ready to
learn. We have to heat our buildings, repair leaky roofs, train
teachers to improve skills and provide essential administrative
services or we are not doing our jobs. The Illinois State
Board of Education, the state's education agency, understands all
this. ISBE works closely with us to find alternative funding sources,
such as grants and foundations. The state board is and always has
been a strong advocate for adequate and equitable state funding.
ISBE gets it, in other words. What's more, because
ISBE is independent, with no political ax to grind, I find it to
be a professional agency focused on ways to help districts do a
better job. I am free to comment candidly on agency plans and programs.
When we disagree, we do so as educators allied in a common cause,
not as officials maneuvering for political advantage. So why does the
governor want to dump ISBE? It looks to me like he wants to avoid
the cost of funding schools equitably (estimated by EFAP at another
$1.8 billion annually). Perhaps by killing the ISBE messenger he
can also kill the message. I am very concerned
that a politicized state education department reporting only to
the governor would sometimes, perhaps often, find it difficult to
stand up for the needs of children and schools in the face of other
political trade-offs and compromises. I believe that the governor
truly does feel responsible for helping all children obtain a good
education. I don't believe that he really understands yet what that
entails. The best thing that
the General Assembly can do for our neediest districts is ignore
the governor's window dressing and, instead, make full school funding
the priority it deserves to be. Keep politics out of education But Flood found
out that the state Board of Education doesn't operate like, say,
the Secretary of State's office, which is notorious for its political
hires. Although the governor's office forwarded 28 resumes to Schiller,
none of those applicants was hired. Schiller said he
believes that's one of the reasons for Blagojevich's aggressive
push to create his own education department -- for the jobs. "People
see this for what it is: power, politics and control," Schiller
said. Shuffling bureaucratic
jobs also makes it appear that Blagojevich wants to improve education.
But we think that replacing an independent board with a politically
controlled department would result in less school accountability,
not more. An education chief
who answered to the governor would not be ready to cut off state
and federal funding for Even if you agree
with Blagojevich, he is going about this the wrong way. The state
constitution set up the independent State Board of Education in
the 1970s; Blagojevich is trying to make an end run around it. If
the governor wants this change, he should work to put a constitutional
amendment on the ballot, so the people can decide. Referendums near record level A near record number
of school referendums will go to Of the 131 school-related
questions on primary ballots, 93 seek tax increases to prop up sagging
finances at districts stretching from The number of school
referendums is just shy of the record 137 on last November's ballots,
and is nearly double the state's average over the last eight years,
state election records show. "It's a sign
that we have drastic problems. They're all desperate, and they're
leaning again on that property tax, and you just can't do that anymore,"
said Alan Hickrod, a retired Robert Schiller,
the state education superintendent, said local tax referendums have
risen as the state's share of funding for "Short of seeing
sufficient revenues from the state and running out of options locally
to cut back, they have nowhere else to turn but their local communities,"
Schiller said. Tax increases have
historically faced an uphill battle at the polls, where voters have
approved only 37 percent of the 522 proposals that have appeared
on ballots since 1996, according to the elections board. School administrators
say they sympathize with taxpayers, even as they lobby them for
more money. "It's a tremendous
burden to ask property owners to maintain schools. The state really
does need to look at other ways to fund education," said Harvard
Superintendent Randy Gross, whose northern Gross and other
administrators said the Legislature needs to revisit school funding,
and he advocated a state income tax hike coupled with guaranteed
cuts in property taxes. "I know no
one likes to hear it ... but there's going to have to be another
revenue source identified. That means our legislators are going
to have to take a hard look at raising the state income tax,"
said Ralph Grimm, superintendent in Grimm said his district
is seeking a 55-cent tax-rate increase to cover a $1.2 million deficit
that remains after more than $1.8 million in cuts over the last
two years that included 25 teaching positions and freshman sports.
More sports, music programs, elective courses and other programs
could be trimmed if the referendum fails, he said. Schiller said cuts
have boosted class sizes and pared programs, affecting education
for the state's 2.2 million students. "The bottom
line is that districts barely have enough money to keep operating
and can do very little to improve education," Schiller said. Report: Latino students founder By Ana Beatriz Cholo, From preschoolers
trying to get into early childhood programs to students wishing
to attend magnet schools, Latino students are being shortchanged
in Chicago Public Schools, according to a study released by the
chairman of the state Senate Education Committee. The report, released
by Sen. Miguel del Valle (D-Chicago), states that Latino students
are being "pushed backward instead of forward" in the
city schools and also around the state. It details myriad
issues facing Latinos, who make up about 36 percent of the students
in Highlights of the
report include how schools in Latino neighborhoods are extremely
overcrowded, how Latino students are less likely than white students--who
make up less than 10 percent of the student population--to be accepted
into the district's coveted magnet schools. It also talks about
the smaller proportion of Latino youngsters enrolled in full-day
kindergarten programs and the overrepresentation of Latinos in the
half-day programs. Spots in these early
childhood classes are coveted, with thousands on the waiting list.
According to the report, Spanish-speaking children make up the majority
of children waiting to enroll. Del Valle said opportunities
for very young and gifted native English speakers are available,
yet the same options are not afforded to gifted Spanish-speaking
youngsters. The report states
that urgent attention must be paid to the Latino population and
to their low test scores, high dropout rate, and a shortage of Latino
teachers and principals in the schools. Del Valle is a graduate
of "It's getting
rougher and rougher out there in our schools," said del Valle
Friday, shortly after giving the 46-page report to Chicago schools
chief Arne Duncan and meeting with him briefly to discuss its contents. Del Valle said he
will use the findings in the report to "make a case in He is calling on
Gov. Rod Blagojevich to keep education in the forefront when he
delivers his budget address Wednesday. He said he will
join the senator during a news conference Monday and both will meet
again in several weeks to get a plan in place to improve the situation. The district, he
said, is partnering with community groups to provide more sites
for early childhood education, adding 800 new spots for a total
of 4,800. In September, the number is expected to increase to 6,000. An innovative pilot
program called "Pre-K and Kinder Plus" will roll out in
the spring and target overcrowded Latino neighborhoods, Currently, he said
21 bilingual psychology students are going through a program at
The report was written
by a group of volunteer educators, most college-level professors,
who worked on the study for almost a year. Andrea Lee, the
schools initiative coordinator at the Neighborhood Capital Budget
Group, said they are particularly concerned about overcrowding in
schools on the Southwest and Northwest Sides, where the Latino population
is growing rapidly. "I think it
is a real urgent, pressing issue that "We realize
money is tight and we appreciate Sen. del Valle's efforts to propose
a $1 billion appropriation for the school construction program.
However, with this said, we urge the Chicago Public Schools to also
be more accountable with our money--making sure it's going to schools
most in need, that there is a short- and long-term plan to relieve
our overcrowded schools." At One has a large
tray full of sweet, sugar-coated churros
selling for $1 a piece. A hundred yards away, on the corner of Principal Sylvia
Rodriquez said it's hard to keep up with the number of children
that come into her school each year in droves. Rodriquez remembers
that when she started with the school district more than 30 years
ago, Latino students barely made up 10 percent of the population. Now her elementary
school, with three buildings on its spread-out campus, has a population
of almost 2,000 pupils, about 97 percent of them Latino. Overcrowding
is her biggest concern but she said they are doing the best that
they can. Mobility is another issue. "With people
going back to Half of the school's
teachers are Latino, but where they encounter the most difficulty
is in hiring support personnel. They are lucky to have a bilingual
psychologist and a social worker that speaks Spanish, but they have
had difficulty in finding a bilingual nurse. The study by del
Valle's committee points out there is only one bilingual psychologist
per 6,390 Latino students. "Now you're
hitting a big nerve there," said Eduardo Negron, the school's
assistant principal regarding the need for Spanish-speaking staff.
"We actively recruit for the bilingual teachers but there are
just not enough available." No Child Left Behind law gets mixed reviews from By Nicole Ziegler
Dizon - Associated Press Writer/Fox News This is the first
in a three-part series on the No Child Left Behind law which has
changed the face of education in Illinois and nationwide.A
welcome note from Champaign Unit 4 School District proudly proclaims
that six of its 17 schools have been singled out for academic excellence
by the federal government's elite Blue Ribbon Schools Program. This year, though,
a new federal education law has put five of those six schools in
an unwelcome category: failing. The sweeping act,
dubbed No Child Left Behind, is changing the way public schools
operate across "This legislation
is impacting every part of our professional life in and out of the
classroom," said Tom Donausky, principal
of The impact on The law, signed
in 2002, will require all public school students to perform at least
at grade level in math and reading by 2014. It also raises educational
requirements for teachers and aides and penalizes schools that do
not perform well enough on standardized math and reading tests. The toughest of
the law's requirements didn't kick in until this year. Now schools
are required to report not just overall test scores, but scores
broken down by race, gender, special education and other categories.
A failure by just one of those groups to meet the test benchmarks
- in 2003, having 40 percent of students pass state standardized
tests - labels an entire school as not making adequate progress. In Schools that receive
federal Title I money for low-income students and fail to meet the
standards two years in a row must offer students the chance to transfer
to other, better-performing public schools and could be forced to
close if they fail for six years. A majority of In While fewer than
600 schools have been on the list in the past, this year the number
is expected to be well over 1,000 of the state's 3,900 schools. Champaign Superinten-dent
Arthur R. Culver agrees with the law's bottom line, that all students,
regardless of race, gender or socio-economic status, can learn when
the bar is set high. He said the requirement to break down scores
by groups identifies vulnerable students - such as those from low-income
families - that may have fallen through the cracks in the past,
and it gives schools a focus to help those groups. But Culver also
said the law should delineate between schools whose students fail
in almost every category and those where just one or two groups
are struggling. And he said local educators should have more flexibility
in determining whether certain students, such as the mentally disabled,
should be tested at all. "I like setting
a high goal," Culver said. "I just don't like setting
up a school as failing." Because of that
stigma - as well as a potential cost crunch if schools are forced
to offer transfers or spend money on private tutoring - schools
are doing whatever they can to improve test scores. They're drilling
students to make sure they know how to take standardized tests and
trying to get kids interested in an exam that doesn't affect their
grades. At "There's some
important things, I think, that we're not spending enough time on,
but our hands are forced," At "I can't spend
as much time teaching a novel because I have to go back and teach
test-taking strategy," said Matt Shachter,
who teaches junior and senior English. Some of Shachter's
colleagues said they spend so much effort getting students just
to understand the directions to the ACT and drilling vocabulary
that they have lost time they had in the past to improve their critical
thinking skills through, for example, looking for symbolism in a
play. "Are we teaching
to the test? Yes, we are," said David Hines, who teaches sophomore
and senior English. "It seems to me that's what they want us
to do." That's not a bad
thing, as long as the test is tied to state standards and accurately
measures a student's progress in core subjects, said Ronald Tomalis,
counselor to U.S. Education Secretary Rod Paige. "What they're
basically saying is the test scores are coming back and saying children
are not reading on grade level," Tomalis
said. "So they're going back and making sure students can read
on grade level. That's the crisis?" Some teachers and
principals also worry that the federal law's intense focus on reading
and math may force them to cut back on instruction in other subjects,
such as social studies or art. But Tomalis
said No Child Left Behind was meant to complement state standards
in other subjects, not eliminate them. "You cannot
do social studies if don't know how to read. You can't do physics
or economics without understanding math," he said. "Those
two are building blocks of all other subjects. That's why this attention
on math and reading and language arts is so strong." Some administrators
lament that No Child Left Behind's goal of getting 100 percent of
students at grade level in reading and math by the 2013-2014 school
year means that eventually all public schools will be listed as
failing, since some groups of students - particularly special education
- may never be able to reach grade level standards. But Tomalis
called that a defeatist attitude and said that even if schools now
at 40 percent achievement eventually reach 85 percent, the law will
have been a success. "These are
our children," Tomalis said. "We
shouldn't expect to say we are going to write off these millions
of children." Teachers
answer the call to duty Some By Ana Beatriz Cholo, Amaris Britton, an 8th grader at It's been almost
a month since Launder Carter, a major in the Army Reserves, left
to train with his unit in "You could
hear a pin drop when he was here," said Amaris,
a quiet girl who said that she has been struggling to keep up with
her studies while substitutes try to fill big shoes. One substitute,
she said, "Let us do whatever. Eat, holler." Increasing numbers
of teachers, who belong to reserve units, have been called to active
duty to serve in continuing operations in At Last year, he was
hit in the foot with shrapnel during combat. While recovering in
a military hospital in They have given
him encouragement and done their best to keep his spirits up. The
incident, said Principal Dyrice Garner,
"shook him up." It was not enough
to hire just one replacement for Carlos Ruiz, an art and theater
instructor at The school had to
hire two teachers--one for art and one for theater. He was also
the girls and boys volleyball coach. Ruiz, who left shortly
after Christmas, is a weapons specialist in the Army. His departure made
an overseas conflict more real. "The kids really
understood how close the war was when they saw someone leave, especially
someone they were close to," said Nilda
Pauley, the fine arts department chairwoman. "They were very
afraid that he was not going to come back. There were a lot of tears." Maynard Favila,
a teacher at Even in that short
period of time, Favila made an impact,
said Principal Jose Barrera. He sent the school an American flag
from "We are waiting
for him to come back so we can give him a big party," Barrera
said. When Carter ran
his 8th-grade class, test scores improved, Tanner Principal Aaron
Barnes said. But when he started teaching at the school eight years
ago, pupils had to get used to Carter's drill-sergeant style. Up to the last hour
of his last school day, Jan. 23, Carter was still working out algebra
problems with his class. The teacher exemplified,
"military bearing." He examined a pupil's
answer on the overhead projector. "The solution
is right but is that the way I showed you?" he said in a booming
voice. "No,"
the class said in unison. "But that's
all right. It's just not the way I showed you," he said. Even with former
pupils coming in to bid him goodbye, he kept the class on track--almost
to the end. At Some, however, could
not stop crying. Two weeks later,
he talked to his pupils on the telephone and was able to quiet them
down--from As usual, it was
in a no-nonsense manner. "When I come
back, I don't want to see none of y'all's
face in here," he told the prospective high school freshmen. Barnes said it has
been difficult finding a replacement for Carter. He came in early
and stayed late to tutor pupils, Barnes said. "It's hard
to find people who are able to come in and teach 8th-grade students
in the middle of a school year," Barnes said. "Most would
struggle. It's hard material." Barnes said national
defense is a priority but for a group of pupils on the South Side
"it certainly is a disruption." Blagojevich Reinvents The Wheel Exclusive commentary by Nancy Salvato,
Washington Dispatch In IL Governor Blagojevich’s 2004 State of the State
he expressed his discontent with how the Illinois State Board of
Education (ISBE) has handled money. He also blamed the ISBE for
The former president of the ISBE, Ronald Gidwitz, said spending decisions are made by local school
districts. According to him, it would seem that Gov. Blagojevich
is picking the wrong target. The problem, according to Gidwitz,
is not the state school bureaucracy; it's a lack of funding for
education. Robert Schiller, the state education superintendent,
accused Blagojevich of distorting facts and misleading the public.
“What we’ve seen here is a focus being placed on politics and power
and not … how we provide equity of funding for 4,000 schools.” Governor Blagojevich is not going to increase taxes.
He is of the opinion that a reduction in school bureaucracies will
free up more than $1 billion for As part of his restructuring, he wants to create a Teacher
Certification Board (TCB) to help teachers become certified and
help to eliminate lengthy paperwork filing for certificate renewal
requirements. What the average person wouldn’t be aware of is that
teachers getting initial certification simply apply for certification
upon completion of their course of study at a college or university.
This, of course, includes meeting the required hours of observation
and student teaching and passing the general and subject tests required
for their particular credentials. This is a pretty straight forward
process. Having enrolled in an educational certification program
at the undergraduate or graduate level assures the student that
if requirements for the state change during their course of study,
they will be unaffected because they have already begun their degree
program. Certificate renewal has become a little more cumbersome
because now teachers have to account for additional educational
training by providing CPDUs or graduate
credit hours. This isn’t all that difficult though. Schools issue
CPDUs for nearly every bit of training
their teachers receive. Workshops issue CPDUs to those teachers in attendance. I completed my CPDUs in less than two years and teachers usually have 4 years
to compile their credits. Governor Blagojevich wants to pass legislation which
requires elementary school teachers to complete half their education
hours based on best practices on how to teach children to read.
Although I understand how important it is to learn to read, it is
the goal of most schools that their students learn how to decode
by the end of first grade. Children hone their reading skills as
they go through the educational system. Good readers read at home
as well as at school. That is why it is so important that families
of young readers model reading rather than spending time in front
of the T.V. Parents need to place a high priority on reading in
the home. These children should be required to read books as part
of their daily routine. If students don’t read on their own, they
do not become good readers. No amount of educational training on
the part of the teacher will change that fact. If the above such legislation was actually implemented,
subjects such as science, social studies, and math would suffer
since the upper elementary teachers would earn half of their education
hours in reading methods. The governor contradicts himself when he suggests that
more educational training in reading methods classes are necessary
to improve our teachers’ potential to reach their students, yet
in the same breath suggests creating a teaching task force which
would study the issue of alternative routes to teacher certification.
If educational training in reading is so important to becoming a
good teacher, then I don’t understand why he doesn’t put his resources
into studying why current educational practices aren’t working,
rather than recruiting people from other fields with no educational
experience, as it were. The governor endorses a Childhood Hunger Relief Act which
would require schools to provide breakfast to poor children. In
addition, he wants to reinstate Project Success, which would use
the school as a hub of delivery for basic preventative health care
services for children; proper nutrition and education; mental services
for children and families; services promoting the stability of families;
substance abuse prevention; and intervention and social activities
to bolster parental and community involvement in a child’s education.
While the goal may be admirable, it should be pointed out that many
schools simply do not have the facilities to carry out these kinds
of responsibilities. Where I work, we don’t even have a separate
cafeteria. Our kids eat lunch in the gym and it is a constant rush
to get them outside so the janitors can clean up for PE. Besides, it should be the parents’ responsibility of
getting their kids health care, feeding them, and getting involved
in their education. If parents can’t manage this, the community
can choose to provide these types of services but not necessarily
by putting the additional burden on the schools. Teachers and administrators
are strapped for time and resources as it is. The rest of the community
can step up and “be the village.” Public schooling was put in place
to ensure an educated citizenry. It seems forgotten that this is
the schools primary mission. While his intentions may be good, unless
Gov. Blagojevich wants to create these hubs in separate buildings
attached to the schools, I just don’t see this as being feasible. I agree with the governor’s suggestion that soda and
junk food be banned and that there should be legislation eliminating
unhealthy snacks from school vending machines and replacing them
with juice, water and milk. I’m amazed at the amount of garbage
the students at my school consume. Candy is sold at school to create
additional revenue for various extracurricular programs. Aside from
the litter generated from wrappers strewn about, many of the healthier
choices from their subsidized school lunches are pitched when Snickers
and Sour Punch Straws are made available for purchase. In addition to healthier food choices, there should be
an end to physical education waivers. Keep in mind that there needs
to be an alternative way to accommodate students who can’t participate
in the regular PE curriculum for legitimate reasons. Achieving success in today’s society begins with earning
a high school diploma. The key word here is “earning”. Too many
students that graduate from high school do not deserve their diplomas.
A GRADS program to help students, particularly Latino and African
American students, stay in school and earn their high school diplomas
needs to take the reality of this fact into consideration and act
accordingly. I applaud the idea of an Illinois Tech Prep program to
expand existing class curricula so to allow high school students
to move into vocational programs. Technology preparation programs
should begin in high school and lead to apprenticeships, associate
degree programs or two-year certificate programs. This would boost
the graduation rate among participants and, most of all, a non traditional
course of study will be offered that will lead to employment. Governor Blagojevich wants to spend $15 million on 143
reading specialists to work downstate and an undetermined number
to work in Any parent whose child is the recipient of reading recovery
services has to sign a contract agreeing to work on the books at
home with their child. Parents who break the contract have the services
dropped. Think about it, if classroom teachers could have the same
type of contract signed with regard to regular educational services,
we wouldn’t need so many specialists. By requiring all parents to
meet the responsibility of helping their children with homework,
the amount of remediation in school would not go up proportionately
with how many years a child has spent in the system. Homework is
nothing more than reinforcing what is done during school. Practice
is the key. Bottom line: the one on one attention that a reading
specialist gives would be ineffective if parents and students weren’t
required to do their part at home. Lack of parental involvement
with their children’s education is often the reason the classroom
teacher can’t assure a child’s progress in any given subject area.
The governor wants to spend $6 million to implement a
new requirement that students perform 40 hours of community service
before graduating. As much as I would like to see all Finally, he wants to spend $5 million to resurrect a
program that delivers social services through schools and $26 million
to give every child 5 and under one free book a month. Governor
Blagojevich wants to take 26 million out of our taxpayer money to
give away books? What happened to libraries? The last I heard, libraries
were free. Of course, the people who check out the books have to
be responsible about it. They must take care of them and return
them. Is that asking too much? By sending a free book to the home
there is no guarantee that it will be read. It could end up being
used to line the litter box. There is a much greater guarantee that
a trip to the library would inspire kids to read. The local library
has a plethora of services to involve their local communities in
reading. Not to mention, there is a larger selection of books from
which to choose. I haven’t heard much discussion about IL Governor Blagojevich’s
State of the State speech in educational circles or anywhere else.
I wonder how many people tuned in or if anyone was listening. Nancy Salvato is a middle
school teacher in Cindy Richards, It's been 10 years since Dawn Clark Netsch's campaign for governor went up in flames fueled by
her plan to fix the way the state funds public education. Four years later, Jim Edgar, who beat her to become governor
of Now, we are reaping what the state's lack of political
will has sown over the last decade. Nearly 80 percent of the state's
891 school districts are running at a budget deficit even as rising
property taxes threaten to drive some people from their homes. For our trouble, we get a state where the poorest districts
spend less than $5,000 per year on each student while the wealthiest
districts spend more than $18,000 per student. And, despite a constitutional
requirement that says the state ''has the primary responsibility''
for financing the system of public education, Now, a coalition of policy groups, unions, children's
organizations, education groups and tax reform advocates suggests
there ought to be a better way. In fact, their way reflects much
of what Netsch suggested 10 years ago. ''They're doing precisely what I wanted to do,'' Netsch said in an interview. ''I am delighted.'' The group calls itself A+ Illinois, and Netsch is a supporter. She said she believes this group might
succeed where she failed. The difference this time is the coalition
includes a broader base of supporters -- there are even a few business
interests represented -- and the schools' financial woes have reached
crisis proportions. On the downside, there's one other big difference: The
state's financial woes have reached crisis proportions as well. ''I think that's a legitimate question: How do you do
this when the state is stone broke and deeply in debt? Maybe it's
the only time to do it,'' Netsch said. MarySue Barrett, president of the Metropolitan Planning Council,
a founding member of A+ Illinois, said she believes the group's
comprehensive agenda will be the key to success this time. The group wants to ''bring the bottom up'' by making
sure that state aid gets to the most severely underfunded
districts without harming the higher-performing, better funded schools.
It wants the state to pay at least 51 percent of the cost of educating
students, and it wants to pay for it on a statewide level, either
through higher income taxes or sales taxes, while providing tax
relief to property owners. Equally important, A+ Illinois wants sweeping fiscal
changes that will increase the state's ability to "protect
education, human services and community programs that are vital
to the well-being of children and families, particularly those Illinoisans
most in need." Barrett pointed to the findings of voter polls and statewide
focus groups that asked residents about their attitudes toward education
funding. Two-thirds said they believe the state needs "comprehensive
school funding reform in order to increase revenues for education
and reduce the over-reliance on property taxes to fund schools.'' A+ Plus Illinois wants to raise $1 million to get out
its message through print and radio ads and to "support the
hundreds of parents organizations that are ready to talk" about
the importance of adequately funding public education, Barrett said. Gov. Blagojevich will unveil his budget proposal today.
It is expected to propose another increase in education funding,
despite his need to close a $1.7 billion budget gap. Education supporters,
however, were hoping he would pledge to add $250 per pupil again
this year, just as he did in last year's budget. But, they now say
they expect only about $100 per pupil. Barrett said this may not be the year that comprehensive
education funding reform makes its way through the Illinois Legislature,
but next year might. If it isn't, it won't be for lack of effort
on the coalition's part, she said. "This is not just a 'let's coordinate our efforts.'"
We're saying 'we ought to go to the mats on this.''' Governor
wants lawmakers to help decide school spending John O'Connor, Associated
Press In an unusual move,
the Democratic governor sidestepped difficult decisions in divvying
up the pot of money by suggesting that the General Assembly should
be at the bargaining table from the beginning. "We need to
invest more money in our schools - and we need to make sure that
the money we invest in our schools goes into the classroom where
it belongs," Blagojevich said in the prepared text of his "I've asked
you to make sweeping changes in the way we manage our schools,"
he told lawmakers. "It's only right that we work together to
decide how this money should be spent." The move might be
an olive branch to lawmakers, whom Blagojevich derided in November
as "drunken sailors" on a spending binge for adding money
to the budget he had vetoed. Typically, governors
spell out in their budget blueprints how much they want spent per
pupil, for instance, or how much they want spent on other initiatives.
The independent State Board of Education carries them out. But Blagojevich
left those questions unanswered just a month after slamming the
state board, likening it to a "Soviet-style bureaucracy." He wants to create
an Education Department answerable to him, saying he can do a better
job running schools. Blagojevich's budget
director, John Filan, said the governor's
strategy is not to use the pooled money to bargain over the education
revamp, but he said the Legislature should decide whether it agrees
on creating a new department before plunging into finance questions. Blagojevich proposed
an elementary and secondary education budget of $5.7 billion, a
6.5 percent increase over the current year. While general funding
would increase $396 million, he would cut $45.7 million from programs
funded with other state dollars - mostly from a $50 million school
technology loan fund from which schools borrowed only $7 million
this year. He's also suggesting
$33 million in new education programs, including $15 million for
school specialists to raise reading scores. Another $10 million
would go to set up a program that provides a book a month to every
child from birth to age five. Higher education
would see a decrease of $165 million - 6.6 percent. Filan
said colleges and universities will cut administrative costs by
$25 million with an eye toward reducing such costs by 25 percent
over three years. Even if he is not
specifying them, Filan said Blagojevich
has his own ideas about elementary and secondary school spending.
He lists raising per pupil spending to $5,060 as a priority, along
with increasing funding for early childhood education and programs
such as special education and transportation. But spending more
in any of the areas quickly eats up the new money. Increasing per-pupil
funding by $250, from $4,810, as a task force recommended be done
every year in a steady climb to provide a sufficient "foundation"
funding level, would engulf nearly the entire increase - about $390
million, Filan said. To keep pace with
costs associated with special education, transportation and other
"categorical" programs, the state would have to increase
funding by $139 million, according to the State Board of Education. Downstate, less
affluent school districts favor hikes in per-pupil spending. Richer
suburban districts, whose local property wealth allows them to spend
much more than the foundation level, prefer spending more money
on "categorical" costs. School
officials doubt soda ban would improve students' health By Jennifer Ramseyer, Olney Daily Mail A governor-proposed
ban on soda and junk food in schools will have little impact, except
the loss of revenue from vending machines, local school officials
say. Like many schools
in Under a plan proposed
by Governor Rod Blagojevich, soft drinks and junk food would be
banned from the school. Some, like the Officials at East
and "I know it
sounds good. Get rid of vending machines and kids won't get chubby.
The thing is, our kids leave campus. They are going to get it somewhere,"
West Richland Superintendent Don Carlyle said. The ban would also
create a loss of revenue for the schools. According to the
Illinois Principals Association, at least one vending machine is
present in most A recent AP story
cited an estimate from IPA Executive Director David Turner, who
said a school's vending machine revenue typically ranges from $500
to several thousand dollars a year. Soft-drink contracts
to schools usually come with a generous up-front payment to the
schools for exclusive rights to use the company's products plus
the schools receive a percentage of the sales. The school also
has a snack machine and another which sells juice in the cafeteria. Students can purchase
from vending machines before and after school and at lunch. West Richland High
School Principal Dick Steinman said the ban would not be much of
a detriment but would cut into the funds, much of which are used
for student functions. "We spend the
money back on the kids," Steinman said. The money, about
$3,000-$4,000 per year, has gone for things such as an outside billboard,
charter buses for the senior trip, dances, special speakers and
prom. "It does help,
otherwise we would have to have more fundraisers. I think we need
to preach more nutrition. But at this age, they are going to have
a choice," Steinman said, adding that the students would bring
in junk food irregardless. "The importance
of the contracts is an extra source of revenue of the schools,"
East Richland High School Principal Larry Bussard
said. The school has eight
Coca-Cola machines and three snack machines. Whether the snacks
or drinks are allowed in a certain classroom is up to the individual
teacher. The money from the
machines is used to benefit the department in which the machine
is located. For instance, a
Coca-Cola machine close to the gymnasium is used within the athletic
department, providing equipment. The Coca-Cola contract
also provided new school scoreboards in all the athletic venues. "It's a financial
supplement to the schools," Bussard
said. "At all times, now, when revenue is much tighter, losing
it would put us in a more difficult situation." Though nutrition
is a concern at the school, Bussard noted
that if soda is not available on campus, students will get it at
fast-food restaurants and other stores in town. The store is open
for According to Blagojevich,
his plan shouldn't saddle extra financial weight on schools because
other drink revenues would increase. But when given the
healthy alternative, will students spend money there or go elsewhere?
School
board to vote on extracurriculars ban for home-schoolers Dave Fopay,
Journal Gazette & Times Courier Niehaus' recommendation would be added to the committee's for
the school board, which is scheduled to vote at its meeting tonight
on a parent request to allow the participation. The committee recommended
turning down the request, largely because members felt it would
be too difficult to monitor home-schooled students' academic progress.
Keith and Ellen
Wolcott made the request to the board. Their children, Jane, 14,
and Scott, 16, have taken band classes through the district since
grade school, but are otherwise home-schooled, and their daughter
wants to participate in soccer and track at The board meets
at Kate Clements, The News-Gazette The governor's $43.5 billion operations budget for the year beginning July 1 proposes cutting costs by $840 million and generating $945 million in new revenues on top of $280 million in estimated base revenue growth. Major cost-cutting
initiatives include an early retirement package for up to 2,000
state workers and elimination of another 2,000 unfilled state jobs,
consolidating and streamlining some agency functions, and the closure
and sale of prison facilities in Vandalia, "Frontline" workers, including correctional officers, would not be eligible for the early retirement. The vast majority of the new revenues, some $400 million, are slated to come from businesses, through new fees and the elimination of a number of tax breaks, prompting concerns from business groups and lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. Business concerns Last year, the governor also increased business fees and taxes to help balance the budget, and area lawmakers said they don't want to see that again. "I am not going to support any tax or fee increases on local residents or businesses," said state Rep. Naomi Jakobsson, D-Urbana. "We have already seen how the fee increases last year that I opposed have negatively affected business growth in our community." State Sen. Rick
Winkel, R-Urbana, said the state is becoming increasingly
unfriendly to business and driving out jobs. The elimination of
additional tax breaks the governor proposed Wednesday is "just
one more negative factor that is thrown into Blagojevich said he is only trying to "level the playing field" for small businesses by closing loopholes that the largest corporations have been exploiting for too long and helping individual taxpayers who currently shoulder the largest part of the state's tax burden. "How we can justify keeping corporate loopholes on the books, when the people are paying more and more of the tab every single year is way beyond me," Blagojevich said. He said the loopholes he wants to close "don't help benefit the economy, don't help the taxpayers, don't create jobs, don't keep companies from moving out of state, in short, don't make this a better state." Increased spending State Sen. Dale Righter, R-Mattoon, said the governor would not have to look at so many tax increases if he would put a stop to new state spending. The governor is proposing a 6 percent increase in spending over this year's operations budget, and he increased general fund spending last year as well. "This
budget sacrifices jobs and economic development to pay for state
government," Righter said. "We lost 16,000 jobs in Winkel expressed similar concerns. "I don't see how we spend ourselves into a balanced budget," he said. "I'm very concerned about the increased spending in the face of a growing deficit. I find that very disturbing." The governor's proposed new spending will be spread among his stated priorities of K-12 education, health care, public safety and job creation. About $50 million would go toward the governor's "Opportunity Returns" program, which includes targeted economic development initiatives for each of 10 regions in the state. Blagojevich has not yet unveiled his plan for East Central Illinois. New money for health care is targeted mainly at insurance programs for the indigent, including SeniorCare, KidCare and the Circuit-breaker prescription drug program for senior citizens. New spending
planned in public safety includes the addition of 200 new state
troopers in the coming year, 100 more parole officers, 20 new fire
inspectors, and money to reduce the backlog on processing DNA samples
and buy new 425 vehicles and equipment for the Illinois State Police.
The governor said he would finish opening the new prison in Funding for the
New money for education The biggest chunk of new spending is in education, where the governor has proposed $400 million in new money, without saying how it should be spent. State schools chief Robert Schiller said the state board will meet soon to discuss how it would like the see the money used. "We face some
tough decisions as we strive to move education forward in Jakobsson applauded the increase, calling it "an investment in the future of our state," but said she was still awaiting an explanation of the governor's plan to reorganize education. Although the governor has proposed stripping the state school board of its duties and moving them to a new education department under his control, details of that were not included in his budget documents. Blagojevich also proposed more than $50 million in new education programs in his State of the State address, including a new book each month for kids under 5 and more funding for reading specialists and dropout prevention, but did not specify those in his budget book. The $400 million is not enough to pay for all of his new ideas and to increase per pupil spending by the recommended $250 next school year, Schiller said. There are also needs for increased funding for mandated programs like special education and transportation, he said. The governor's lack of detail on how the new education money should be spent drew a lot of attention. "I don't know what he's doing, whether they just couldn't figure out what they wanted to spend it on, or whether maybe making the decision on what we spend the $400 million on is a little too dicey for his comfort level," Righter said. "So I don't know why he did that." Motives questioned Blagojevich claims that his decision to offer only the lump sum now and seek input from the General Assembly on how to allocate the $400 million demonstrates a renewed spirit of cooperation, but some state lawmakers fear that it may be, like his decision to delay the capital budget until late March, a form of political blackmail. "To me that's
classic Budget director John Filan said delaying the capital budget, which lists which construction projects the state plans to fund, was simply an attempt to make sure that that part of the budget gets the attention it deserves, and allow people to focus on one part of the budget at a time. Winkel's take, however, was more in line with Black's, as lawmakers have been left to wonder what will happen with construction projects in their districts, and whether the $400 million will be targeted in a way that benefits their local school districts. With those issues up in the air, Winkel said he feels "like there is a gigantic club poised over" the General Assembly. "All of these things are left unanswered," he said. "Certainly that makes them a part of future negotiations. I think it is very clear that the governor is wanting to be in as strong a bargaining position as he can be as these debates go through the General Assembly." Perhaps another example of that maneuvering for bargaining position is the governor's decision to close the Vandalia prison, which just happens to be in Senate Republican Leader Frank Watson's district. "It's real hard to take that as anything other than political retribution," Righter said. "There are other facilities in the state that the governor could close. He chose to do this one. I don't think the governor taking a slap at Sen. Watson like that is going to help matters at all." Watson said he would like to think the governor is above that kind of thing, but said if it was intended as a threat, he considered that to be deplorable. More than 500 workers will be affected by the closing, Watson said. At a news conference after the speech, Blagojevich claimed he did not know that the prison was in Watson's district. Winkel said he did not know whether it was meant as a threat to Watson or not, but if it was, he doubted that it would work. "If anyone
thinks that Sen. Frank Watson is going to be browbeaten into changing
his position or threatened into silence, they are dead wrong,"
he said. Kewanee
School Board has no use for No Child Left Behind Mike Berry, Kewanee Star Courier When it comes to the No Child Left Behind Act, the Kewanee School Board would just as soon leave it behind. The board Tuesday passed a resolution calling for the act to be amended or repealed, and pledging not to support any elected official who supports the act as it is currently interpreted. No Child Left Behind (NCLB) is a federal law aimed at improving failing schools and making educators accountable if students perform poorly. Under the law, if students' scores on achievement tests don't meet federal standards, students must be given the option of transferring out of their school. The resolution passed Monday says Kewanee school officials have "long supported that our school district is accountable for the success of our students. The district supported the NCLB provisions of higher test scores, schools being held accountable, students being taught by highly qualified teachers, the increase of attendance rates, the increase of high school graduation rates and students being taught in a safe environment." When the NCLB legislation was passed, the resolution says, "The district was excited about the possibilities of education funds flowing to school districts to help students improve." But the resolution says that while NCLB "was well intended, it has proven to be woefully underfunded and yet another financial burden on the schools." The resolution says the Kewanee School Board "strongly disagrees with the premise that qualiity and complexity of teaching and learning can be adequately and solely assessed on one achievement test during the school year." NCLB requires that certain percentages of students in a school get passing scores on the achievement test. It also says a majority of students in a number of "subgroups," such as racial or income groups, must pass the test. The resolution notes that the U.S. Department of Education treats special education students and students with limited English proficiency as subgroups, and calls for a change in this procedure. Rather than school choice, the resolution said, "the Kewanee Board of Education believes supplemental services determined by the individual school district should be the first intervention" when test scores don't meet the federal minimums. Under NCLB, "schools are being judged for their effectiveness without looking into the students' poverty and other environmental problems," the resolution says. It adds that the school board feels the sanctions in NCLB for identifying failing schools aren't "constructive to the educational process." The resolution also says the board feels NCLB "is rhetoric, not reform," and that "the interpretation of this legislation is setting school districts up for failure." In the resolution, "The Kewanee Board of Education strongly asserts that there should be extensive research conducted as to what is a good benchmark for student progress. For example, all researchers know that 100 percent of students reaching state standards is not an achievable goal. Research should take place as to what is an achievable goal." The resolution also says NCLB should not be implemented unless it is fully funded, and that the board "strongly asserts that federal legislators need to modify this legislation and monitor the U.S. Department of Education." Supt. Robert Lagerblade, who presented the resolution to the board, said, "We're making a very strong statement here." He said he had talked to teachers about the resolution, and they were generally supportive of it. "It continues
to be a burden," said Board President Jeff Johnson. To illustrate
that point, Johnson said a school attorney told him that the original
NCLB legislation, when printed, filled two boxes that barely fit
into the back seat of the attorney's car. Blagojevich digging deep into bag of budget tricks Gov. Rod Blagojevich
used his bag of budget tricks extensively last year. Now he has
turned the bag upside down and is shaking it to see what is left.
The answer: Not much. Employing variations
on last year's themes, Blagojevich is counting on selling state
property, closing more "loopholes" and streamlining government
to balance the Fiscal Year 2005 budget. But will that yield
the $840 million in expense reductions and $945 million in new revenue
that Blagojevich is counting on to balance the $43.5 billion operations
budget he presented this week? A lot will depend on whether the
Legislature goes along with all parts of his plan. But it also depends
on how realistic Blagojevich's estimates are. In his budget address,
Blagojevich gave himself and the Legislature pats on the back for
closing the $5 billion budget gap faced at the beginning of the
fiscal year without increasing income or sales taxes. "Most of the
pundits said it couldn't be done," Blagojevich said. "Thanks
to you -- we did it." But did they? Some revenue projections
on which this year's budget is based have not been as lucrative
as expected. In addition, revenue
generated from the sale of an unused casino license, originally
intended for this year's budget, has been moved into next year's
budget. That's a $350 million shift. Although Blagojevich
is anticipating a budget gap of "only" $1.7 billion in
the next fiscal year, it could be larger if attempts made to close
this year's $5 billion deficit fall short. And even though
sales and income taxes were not raised last year and are unlikely
to be raised this year, don't think you are not paying more -- directly
or indirectly -- to the state. The cost of lost
"loopholes" and increased business fees are frequently
passed to the customer or reflected in a stagnant or shrinking workforce. There's one thing
Blagojevich was right about: the need for the Legislature -- and
him -- to budget "in a way that recognizes that the decisions
we make today impact our budgets and our plans for tomorrow." Along those lines,
Blagojevich has proposed three pieces of legislation to address
how the state manages its fiscal business: the Balanced Budget Act,
the Responsible Spending Act and the On--Time Payment Act. They
are a step in the right direction, but final judgment should be
reserved until full details of their implementation are revealed. Under the Balanced
Budget Act, every spending bill or spending increase would have
to include a corresponding revenue increase or spending reduction
to pay for it. That sounds good
in theory, but how practical will it be in application? Lawmakers
include "revenue notes" in spending bills now, but they
frequently fall short of really identifying the cost of a particular
piece of legislation. A more promising
proposal is his Responsible Spending Act. That would require: • An additional
$50 million deposit in the Rainy Day Fund for every $1 billion increase
in the budget. • Each state agency
setting aside 2 percent of its budget funds for emergencies. • And, best of all,
every agency allocating their budgets on a quarterly basis and following
a monthly spending plan. That third element
would make it easier to adjust to changes in economic conditions
and missed projections for revenue and expenses. There would be
fewer late fiscal year "surprises" -- many of which get
pushed off to the following year by putting off paying bills until
the following fiscal year. Speaking of delayed
payments, Blagojevich's On Time Bill Payment Act would set up a
line of credit so bill payments would never be later than 60 days.
Based on state history, this is just another borrowing plan. The current Prompt
Payment Act requires the state to pay a penalty for late bills.
That hasn't stopped the delays and it doesn't help providers of
goods and services to the state that have cash -- flow problems
waiting for state payments. Blagojevich argues
that his plan will ensure bills will be paid on time and interest
paid on the line of credit would be less than the penalty under
the Prompt Payment Act. Another promising
aspect of Blagojevich's budget address was his greater willingness
to work with the Legislature rather than dictate to it. On education
spending, he went so far as to say, "it's only right that we
work together to decide how this money should be spent." But his offer to
share responsibility with the Legislature in divvying up the $400
million in new education money he proposed may be little more than
a bargaining chip to get the Legislature to back his plans to create
a Department of Education and strip the Illinois State Board of
Education of nearly all its power. We'll see how long
that cooperation lasts when the governor and the Legislature get
down to the nitty-gritty. Bright spots tough to find in budget By Doug Wilson,
Herald-Whig Senior Writer, Blagojevich's plan
to increase funding for elementary and secondary education by nearly
$400 million was one of the few positives in his Wednesday budget
speech. School superintendents saw the funding plan as good news.
It was seen as either a hopeful sign or as a big question mark by
lawmakers. Blagojevich proposed
an elementary and secondary education budget of $5.7 billion, a
6.5 percent increase over the current year. While general funding
would increase $396 million, he would cut $45.7 million from programs
funded with other state dollars — mostly from a $50 million school
technology loan fund from which schools borrowed only $7 million
this year. "I was worried
that he wouldn't even mention education funding. I'm glad he did.
The next step is to see how much is mandated or categoricals.
We need flexibility now," said Tom Leahy, superintendent of
Quincy Public Schools. Leahy said it may
be months before it is clear how much money is going to schools
and what programs will be funded. Blagojevich's education
budget is about 35 percent smaller than the $611 million requested
by the Illinois State Board of Education. However, lawmakers might
choose to push for higher funding during an election year. Rep. Rich Myers,
R-Colchester, said it was good to see schools in line for more money.
Unfortunately, he and other legislators don't have enough details
to say how much schools will be helped. "It's a small
step in the right direction. Is it going to be enough to solve all
of our school problems — no it's not going to be enough, but it
should help our schools keep up with rising costs," Sen. John
Sullivan, D-Rushville, said. Sen. Vince DeMuzio, D-Carlinville, said better funding for schools is
absolutely essential. "Every school
district that I know of in Blagojevich said
the funding increase will be enough to assure that spending-per-pupil
rises at least $250 this year. Blagojevich said he intentionally
left the budget addition vague because he wants the General Assembly
to help decide where and how those funds are spent. Some other budget
issues were more specific to Rep. Art Tenhouse,
R-Liberty, was frustrated to see that the Rushville prison is not
funded in the budget while two other new prisons are slated for
funding. "A lot of political
gamesmanship is taking place here in terms of how and where they
allocate those dollars," Tenhouse
said. He was referring
to Blagojevich's announcement that a prison in Vandalia would be
closed. That prison is located in the "Is that (Vandalia
prison) in his district? I didn't know that," Blagojevich said
when questioned by reporters after his speech. Sullivan also was
disappointed the Rushville juvenile facility was not budgeted for
a startup this year. "I guess the
bright spot is they're closing old facilities and looking at new
ones. That gives us hope for the future ... because Rushville is
a new facility," Sullivan said. Tenhouse, Sullivan and Myers all were concerned about plans to
remove tax exemptions for farm chemicals that are bought by large
farms. "How do you
determine what is a large farm?" Tenhouse
asked. Beyond that question,
Tenhouse wants to know how much business will be lost across
the river into "That's going
to be a significant amount of savings. What's going to happen is
it will either send people across the river or it's going to accelerate
the move to Internet sales of farm chemicals because the state doesn't
tax Internet sales," Tenhouse said. Myers said vendors
will be hurt as badly as farmers. Blagojevich also
announced plans to cut the Department of Agriculture's funding by
more than $6 million and split up the department, sending Land and
Water Resource workers to the Department of Natural Resources and
sending the environmental programs to the Illinois EPA. Sullivan, who is
vice chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, said he would
fight to keep the department from losing ground. "The Ag Department
about 20 years ago started losing clout and responsibilities. I
think this is another step in that direction. I'm going to fight
very hard to keep that from happening," Sullivan said. Tenhouse added that elimination of the Council for Ag Research
also sends a message that agriculture and farm issues are not important
to the Blagojevich administration. What to cheer, jeer in budget speech Daily Herald Reports,
Too bad the state
budget is not a living, breathing human, like any of those state
legislators squirming in their seats during Gov. Rod Blagojevich's
budget epic. If so, the governor might not have to do anything more
to try to balance that budget. Because it would have stood up and
shouted, "OK, enough already. I give up. I'll balance myself.
Just wrap it up!" The governor certainly
had a lot to say about how to repair the state's budget. He said
some things that made sense. And he said some things that just as
well could have been left out of the speech. And there were a few
things that should have been said, but weren't. The governor's good
ideas on how to close the $1.7 billion deficit include consolidation
of state government duties to save money; deferring expenditures
that aren't critical to the basic function of government; eliminating
more state jobs; sending a message to unions that a new state worker
contract should be faithful and fair to beleaguered taxpayers and
a deficit-ridden state government; and closing business loopholes
that have little or nothing to do with generating jobs or maintaining
the health of the business environment. But while closing
tax loopholes is fine, imposing millions of dollars more in new
fees on business, as the governor has proposed, is a potential prescription
for economic disaster. This budget is being balanced heavily on
the backs of businesses, which just might start looking beyond the
state's borders for relief. The governor and the legislature have
to be very wary of that. The governor is
to be commended for refusing to reach into the classrooms for money
to mend the budget. In fact, he proposes that the schools get a
$400 million boost. But instead of laying down terms, he takes a
unique approach in asking the legislature to help him decide how
best to spend that money. This might help
Blagojevich with legislators who dislike the governor's style of
distancing himself from them. It is not a bad idea, on the governor's
part, to extend such an olive branch. Or, it may be a bargaining
chip to get his Illinois State Board of Education revamp through
the legislature. In any event, we
can only hope this results in wise education funding policy with
accountability, not a politically, parochially driven distribution
of dollars that isn't true to need. A shortcoming in
Blagojevich's address is the lack of urgent attention to a state
pension system that is dangerously riddled with debt. As of last
month, those pension funds were owed some $20 billion. To his credit, Blagojevich
has called for a thorough examination of the pension system. This
cannot be a focus group discussion with findings filed away and
forgotten. Action must be taken to reform a retirement system that
has the state struggling to meet its obligations now. And in the
absence of changes today, the future promises to be that much more
fiscally frightening. Educators mixed on Blagojevich speech By Liza
Roche and Teresa Black, Courier News Staff Writers While area educators
welcomed a proposed $400 million increase in state funding for elementary
and secondary schools, Gov. Rod Blagojevich's 2005 budget plan leaves
many questions unanswered and could have disappointing implications
for community colleges. "Obviously
(Blagojevich) committed money for education, but I'm not sure where
and how," said John Prince, chief financial officer in Elgin
School District U46. Prince and other
officials said they'll have to watch the budget process firm up
before implications on next year's financial picture are clear. Still, Prince said
he would love to see some of the proposed additional education funding
go toward addressing the state's funding formula, especially when
it comes to growing school districts. School districts
receive a certain amount of funding based on enrollment, but because
the enrollment figure lags a year behind the budget year, growing
districts suffer, Prince said. "Certainly
more revenue would help us deal with that, but I think it's still
a basic weakness in the formula," Prince said. In fast-growing
But funding for
"categorical" programs like special education and transportation
also need to be considered, officials said. Associate Superintendent
Robert Hansen said District 300 is expecting shortfalls this year
in reimbursements from the state for categorical expenses due to
problems with the 2004 state budget. If the district receives less
revenue than expected this year, the question may be whether next
year's funding should go toward recouping those potential funding
gaps, or toward something else. District 300 school
board member Mary Fioretti watched the
governor's speech on television and was glad to see an increase
in school funding. "That's really
welcomed and we'd like to see it stay there," Fioretti
said. But the question
of how increased state dollars could best help District 300 needs
to be discussed by the school board in coming weeks, Fioretti
said. One issue to address,
she said, is whether to restore funding where cuts previously had
been made, such as in gifted programs, or to direct money in other
areas. "I know we
want to put teachers back in the classrooms," Fioretti
said. ECC to see less
While the governor
and the General Assembly have yet to dictate exactly how increased
funding for elementary and secondary schools should be spent, the
Illinois Community College Board already has made projections for
the upcoming fiscal year. Carole Robertson,
vice president of administration and finance at Under the governor's
plan, ECC would receive about $5.49 million overall in state funding
— about $182,000 less than Robertson anticipated. ECC is waiting to
hear on one last state funding program, but at best, the governor's
plan would create a 3.2 percent decrease in funding from last year,
Robertson said. "I did project
a decrease, but unfortunately it did decrease more than my estimates,"
Robertson said. State funding makes
up about 14 percent of all revenues at ECC, but some specific programs
and services could be hit hard by the governor's budget proposal. Work force development
grants, which prepare displaced workers for new sources of employment,
could drop by nearly 56 percent, Robertson said, noting that the
program relies heavily on state money. While the governor's
speech gave few specifics about education, U46's Prince said he
was pleased that Blagojevich continually addresses the need for
improved education funding. "I think the
proof will be in his ability to take us through the process and
in his ability to carry out what he wants with the legislature,"
he said. Budget's promises greeted with doubt By DERRICK GINGERY,
Northwest Herald Gov. Rod Blagojevich
on Wednesday proposed several popular ideas in his budget message
and said officials could solve the state's $1.7 billion deficit.
But local legislators
and others want to wait until the governor's words are put into
action before sharing his optimism. Most legislators
did not receive copies of the budget until just before Blagojevich's
speech and still needed time to review it late Wednesday afternoon.
State Sen. Pam Althoff, R-McHenry, said it appears the new budget once again
increases spending while asking for fiscal discipline. Althoff said the state should make spending fit revenue, not
look for more revenue to fit spending. "I am pleased
to note that the governor recognizes the crisis we have financially,"
she said. "I have grave reservations about his tendency to
also want to provide new and expanded programs. In my estimation,
that seems to be a contradiction in terms." Included in the
governor's budget address to state legislators was a call to increase
education spending, consolidate departments, and close several corporate
tax loopholes. There was no increase in income or sales taxes. State Rep. Jack
Franks, D-Woodstock, said the proposal is attainable, but he remained
cautious about several provisions. "I think it
is [possible] if we prioritize correctly," he said. "With
a $1.7 billion deficit, you do more with less, and I think he's
doing that." Blagojevich asked
for $400 million in additional education spending for the second
consecutive year, but did not outline where that money would go.
Prairie Grove District 46 Superintendent George Steffen said he
wants to see the details of the increase. Steffen said he
would prefer more money for general state aid. But he said suburban
districts generally receive more categorical money, which is earmarked
for specific programs, such as gifted programs or reading improvement.
"General state
aid is more for helping lower income and poverty areas," he
said. "Categoricals help suburban districts. If there were no categoricals, [suburban districts] would get virtually nothing."
State Rep. Mark
Beaubien, R-Barrington Hills, said increasing spending on
education is a good idea. But he said that and all of Blagojevich's
ideas must be translated into real-world terms. "How do you
not agree [with more education spending]?" he said. "I
think you're going to have a hard time getting the Legislature to
say it's not a good idea." Blagojevich also
proposed cutting several corporate income-tax loopholes that combined
could save the state $172 million to $217 million. That includes
a provision allowing businesses to keep income in Karen Patel, president
of the McHenry County Economic Development Corp., said small-business
owners, who also benefit from some of the tax provisions, could
be hurt if the loopholes are repealed. She said the state should
not attack a sector that helps to support it. "Business owners
will not be creating new jobs but be forced into further looking
at profitability and survival, and will be reducing jobs or eliminating
them," Patel said. "And that is not the climate you want
to have for economic vitality." Better state government starts with education finance
reform Opinion by Victor
Darst of Is this any way
to run a state? This has to be the question after two recent stories
about some of the governor's sleight-of-hand efforts to reduce a
$2 billion budget deficit; and the budget problems facing almost
80 percent of school districts in the state. Next month, there
will be 93 school referendums seeking tax increases because of the
failure of the state to comply with Article X of the state constitution. The underfunding
of education by the state forces many school districts to seek additional
funding through referendums that raise property taxes. More than
half of these referendums will fail because homeowners are already
bearing an oppressive tax burden. This will leave many school districts
with serious financial problems. When the governor and legislature
seriously begin to talk of eliminating the waste that occurs from
pork-barrel projects, unnecessary personnel and departments, duplication
of state services, patronage, backroom deals like the one that blew
up in their faces in Rosemont and corporate welfare, then we will
know they are really serious about the financial problems of the
state. Almost every study
of school funding has come to the conclusion that the funding of
education through the property tax is seriously flawed. When local
governments have the primary responsibility for the funding of education,
there will always be significant achievement and spending gaps between
the rich and poor school districts. Reform of school funding will
mean that the state will have to comply with Article X and assume
the primary responsibility for funding. Unless our representatives
in Of course, raising
the state income tax will also mean that the property tax will be
reduced. Reform will result in a much fairer system of school funding.
Since a majority of voters continue to re-elect the same representatives
responsible for the fiscal mess in Expecting our representatives
to reform both school funding and state government is probably too
much to hope for. So let's take one thing at a time and insist that
the governor and the legislature do something about school funding
immediately. The present system of school funding is not only ineffective
it is extremely unfair. What does a school board actually do? By Jessica Johnson,
member of the Indian Prairie School District 204 Board, Sun Publications What does a school
board actually do? Do you get paid? Why are you on the board if
your kids aren't even in school yet? These are the questions people
often ask me when they find out that I am a member of the Indian
Prairie District 204 school board. Here is what I tell them. A school board is
a unique body of governance, in that, unlike a traditional corporate
board, we have a duty not only to our taxpayers (or shareholders)
but also to our students. We must provide a quality education for
our students today, while ensuring we can afford that same education
to our students of tomorrow. All this at an expense to our taxpayers. As someone that
grew up in District 203, I am well aware of the impact a strong
education had on my life, and I am committed to helping to shape
that educational process for students in District 204 today and
in the future. So what do we do?
One of our most critical roles is to employ the superintendent.
With more than 26,500 students and an operating budget of more than
$180 million, we can't possibly be aware of everything that is happening
in the district. We rely on our superintendent and her cabinet to
identify emerging issues and provide us with the information we
need to make operational and financial decisions. While it seems
like a small task, selecting the superintendent and building a balanced
relationship of trust and inquiry is critical. The next major role
is to set the strategic direction for the district. We maintain
a three-year strategic plan. The board meets with the administration
annually to update the plan and to identify goals for the upcoming
school year. The plan encompasses
financial goals and academic goals. It also includes operational
goals, like improving operational efficiency through the use of
technology. The setting and
monitoring of district policy, while it sounds mundane, is the area
where our role is the least clear. We strive to identify objectives,
or ends we would like to achieve, and allow the administration to
identify and implement the means to achieve those objectives. Easier said than
done. Often, we find ourselves advising and questioning how objectives
will be accomplished. This of course isn't all bad, it is just part
of finding the balance again between trust and inquiry with the
administration. We need to rely on their expertise while also knowing
the tough questions to ask. The most difficult
role — and most rewarding — is to stay connected with the community.
Each of us has friends and neighbors we talk to regarding how things
are going. We also build relationships with the Indian Prairie Parents
Council and the school parent-teacher associations to further connect. Finally, through
informational items, student reports, public comment, and a weekly
delivery of newspaper clippings and school newsletters, we learn
about what's happening in our schools. So what keeps me
going Monday night after Monday night? That's simple. It's seeing
all the wonderful opportunities our administrators and teachers
provide to our students. Where else are teachers
so committed that over 16 passed the elective, rigorous National
Board Certification process in one year? Where else are students
participating in the human genome project? Every week I am privileged
to hear about the exciting opportunities to learn. This is what
feeds my commitment to District 204. =========================================================================== NATIONAL Education chief defends 'No Child Left Behind' Brett Lieberman,
Newhouse News Service Critics of President
Bush's "No Child Left Behind" plan are driven by ideology
and a lack of understanding of the reforms, Education Secretary
Rodney Paige said Wednesday. Complaints alleging
insufficient funding levels and overly stringent requirements are
unfounded, Paige said in a 30-minute interview in which he touted
what is seen by some as one of Bush's biggest accomplishments. "Much of this
is disingenuous," he said. "There are some who mean to
distort. They have a different ideology." The reforms require
national testing of schools and allow students to transfer from
failing schools. Criticism of the
law and its implementation has been bipartisan. Republican-controlled
legislatures in But Paige defended
the law as a rational attempt to improve education after years of
federal spending with little success. "There's nothing
unreasonable about this bill," Paige said. Federal education
spending has increased by $11 billion to $53.1 billion since Bush
took office, and he has proposed increasing funds for special education
by $1 billion in each of the past four years. No Child Left Behind
funds will have increased by 42 percent if Bush's recent budget
proposal is adopted. Complaints about
funding levels detract from the debate about how to best improve
skills such as reading and math and too often mask schools' underlying
problems, Paige said. Schools that improve
performance can expect increased funds and support, he said. "Show me the
money you are using now produces student achievement and that more
money is going to produce more student achievement, and I'm going
to be your best cheerleader," he said. No Child Left Behind: Leaving States Cold Perry Bacon, Time
Magazine James Dillard isn't
negotiating anymore. The former teacher and current member of the
Virginia house of delegates met repeatedly with Department of Education
officials and even visited the White House to complain about No
Child Left Behind, the law President Bush signed two years ago that
requires states to test students in reading and math every year
and penalizes schools that don't meet standards. Dillard wanted
more flexibility in administering the policy; he got none. So last
month he led the house of delegates in passing a symbolic resolution
calling for Congress to exempt At least 20 states
have joined the revolt. The issue is upending
the usual party divide. Republicans have led the fight against Bush's
policy in states like Teachers crucial, first lady says Associated Press, BENTONVILLE, Ark. -- First Lady Laura Bush promoted teaching
as a profession Tuesday, recalling 20 sets of young eyes staring
up at her on her first day on the job. "There are few professions where you can see the
impact of your work so vividly, and there aren't many jobs where
hero and best friend are part of the job description," Bush
told students at Bush told of her first day as a teacher in "At Bentonville, a fast-growing city in northwest At Bentonville High, Bush visited with students, dropped
in on David Chapman's American history class and spoke in an auditorium
to help launch "TeachArkansas,"
a state-sponsored program to recruit teachers. The program is reaching
out to bring education graduates, retired teachers, people wanting
second careers and others into classrooms across the state. The first lady said the need for teaching talent is not
"I understand that a lot of states have budget problems.
Money is tight," Bush said. "But I also know how crucial
really good teachers are to the whole future of our country." Bush urged school districts and state legislators to
recognize teaching as a profession that deserves good pay and to
keep education in the forefront of their budgets. If she wanted a section of the state to raise campaign
money for Bush-Cheney '04, she couldn't have picked a better spot
than Bush was host for a fundraising lunch that brought in
$150,000 at a country club in nearby Parents support theory, not practice of leaving no child
behind By LEE HENDREN,
Times & Democrat Staff Writer Most American parents
want an educational system that leaves no child behind, but they
don't like the way the federal No Child Left Behind law works, a
national opinion survey has found. Support for NCLB
is "a mile wide and an inch deep," said Pam Solo, president
of the Civil Society Institute, a Newton, Mass.-based nonprofit
that seeks to serve as a catalyst for change to help improve society. The institute's
Results for Nearly four in five
parents of school-age children said they were aware of the No Child
Left Behind law, and of that group, two-thirds support the concept
of ensuring that every child gets an education. Yet more than half
of the parents oppose high-stakes testing, which is fundamental
to how No Child Left Behind works, Solo said in a recent conference
call with reporters. "Parents don't
much like the idea of high-stakes testing ... or the notion that
their own child's school could be branded a failure and penalized,"
she said. "They reject a one-size-fits-all approach to reforming
education." Only 46 percent
associate NCLB with "improved learning," while 34 percent
see the law as "punishing schools for failure instead of rewarding
them for success." "These survey
results indicate that, while American parents are supportive of
the concept of 'No Child Left Behind' for America's schools, the
level of support melts away significantly when they are asked to
consider what this could mean specifically in the context of their
child's school," said Wayne Russum,
senior research manager for Opinion Research Corporation. "This does
not appear to be a political or ethnic phenomenon; (it) cuts across
most demographic and political groupings," Russum
added. "Even the Republicans have concerns about the implementation
and the tools used in the implementation of the act." If additional federal
education dollars become available, only 10 percent of the respondents
prefer to see them spent to further implement NCLB, while half would
spend that money to reduce class sizes. "We have lots
of research data, in addition to experience," indicating that
smaller class sizes and "more relational settings" boost
academic performance, said Ken Rolling, executive director of Parents
for Public Schools. PPS has chapters
in "We've found
that parents like the intention of NCLB. No one disagrees with its
goal of a better education for our children," Rolling said.
"But what they don't like is ... the details of how NCLB really
works." NCLB "attempts
to take apart their neighborhood schools," but "parents
like their neighborhood schools and want them fixed," he said. According to Solo,
standardized testing: -- "Measures
failure rather than promoting success." -- Leads to a "narrowing
of the curriculum" that stifles creativity. -- Encourages teachers
to "teach the test at the expense of other learning experiences." -- Creates "adversarial
relationships" among teachers, administrators and parents. "There are
no standardized children," Solo said. "Parents want policies
that promote learning ... based on what we know about how kids learn,"
as well as "more voice in educating their children." She called for "returning
the power of teaching to those who know how to teach ... rather
than having the educational police looking over our shoulder." The survey was conducted
between Jan. 22 and Feb. 1. Telephone interviews with 3,047 adults
were weighted by age, gender, geographic region and race. The margin
of error at a 95 percent confidence level is plus or minus 4 percentage
points for the sample of 699 parents. Republicans Praise NCLB Policy Giving Schools Flexibility
on Students with Language Barriers WASHINGTON -- U.S.
House Education & the Workforce Committee Chairman John Boehner
(R-OH) and Education Reform Subcommittee Chairman Mike Castle (R-DE)
today praised the U.S. Department of Education for a new policy
that will give states and local schools flexibility in assessing
limited English proficient (LEP) students without compromising on
the rights of such students to learn English under the No Child
Left Behind Act (NCLB). The rule means schools around the country
will not be unfairly identified by states as "needing improvement"
as a result of complications relating to the difficulty of testing
students who face language barriers or are hindered by inadequate
schooling they received prior to arriving in the "This policy
will help to ensure good schools are not incorrectly identified
by states as needing improvement, while continuing to ensure limited
English proficient students are learning English and making academic
gains. It provides flexibility to states and schools without denying
these children the opportunity they deserve to learn English in
our public schools," said Boehner. "The policy reflects
the intent Congress had when these provisions were written and passed
two years ago with overwhelming bipartisan support. I congratulate
Secretary Paige, Deputy Secretary Hickok,
and the administration for taking this step." "Once again,
the Department of Education is giving states great flexibility in
how they implement No Child Left Behind. This new transition policy
will help schools, teachers and students meet the standards of this
historic education reform bill, while at the same time ensuring
those students for whom English is a second language receive the
quality education they need and deserve," Castle said. "We
stand ready and willing to help all schools meet the standards their
states set and I appreciate the Department's willingness to address
these issues." According to a recent
national survey, Republican leaders noted, 81 percent of Hispanic
Americans support using standardized tests to decide whether students
can move from one grade to the next, and large majorities of both
African-Americans and Latinos support using such tests to "identify
areas in which students need extra help and teachers could improve."
Ninety-two percent of Hispanics agree it is "very important"
for immigrants' children to learn English in school. Support is
strongest among those born abroad. (Hannah Gladfelter Rubin, " "This policy
comes two months after the Education Department finalized a similar
rule on students with special needs that will also help to ensure
good schools are not wrongly identified by states as needing improvement,"
said Boehner. "Many of the law's skeptics ought to stop and
take a look at these rules and policies, and recognize they provide
significant flexibility to states and schools without compromising
the ability of disadvantaged children to access a quality education.
They are reasonable and fair, particularly in light of the billions
in federal education funds states are receiving to implement the
law's requirements." NCLB requires states
to test all public school students annually in key subjects, such
as reading and math. The Department of Education policy gives states
and local school districts flexibility in assessing limited English
proficient students. Newly-arrived limited English proficient students,
during their first year in the The flexibility
policy also allows states to include limited English proficient
students in a school's LEP subgroup (AYP purposes) for up to two
years after these students attain English proficiency, helping to
ensure schools receive credit for good work they have done in helping
LEP students attain full proficiency. NCTAF News Digest for Topics This Issue: - Race a Factor
in School Facilities, Senator Says - The MetLife Survey
of the American Teacher: An Examination of School Leadership - Reductions Hurt
Across State, Say - - - Educators Leery
Of Online Program - Seeking Alternatives
to Standardized Testing (Deborah Meier Interview) - Grading the Systems:
The Guide To State Standards, Tests, And Accountability Policies ---------------------
Race a Factor In
School Facilities, Senator Says Excerpt: Many of
the state's school buildings are in bad shape because affluent,
white parents send their children to private schools and leave public
facilities in neglect, Sen. David Bisbee, R-Rogers, told the Republican
Women of Benton County. "The South
has been re-segregated, with white students going to private schools
and poor black students in schools that have not been maintained,"
Bisbee said while speaking at the group's lunch meeting at Ryan's
Steak House in Bisbee did not have
figures for white private school enrollment, he said after the meeting,
"but we know there are towns that are not majority-black that
have majority-black school districts." Bisbee is Senate chairman
of the Joint Budget Committee and the co-author of the state's new
school funding formula, along with Sen. Shane Broadway, D-Bryant.
The new funding
formula obligates additional kindergarten-12th grade education spending
of more than $400 million next year. Bisbee made his remarks while
defending the Legislature's decision to spend up to $10 million
on a study of school building needs in A $2 billion price
tag would not surprise him, he said. "No business spends $2
billion without some really good research," he said. The $10
million for a detailed study "isn't pocket change, but it's
a very small portion of what we'll have to spend." http://www.arkansasnews.com/archive/2004/02/18/News/126328.html ------------- MetLife [School
Leadership} The MetLife Survey
of the American Teacher: An Examination of School Leadership February
2004 Report Excerpt:
In schools across the country, more and more emphasis is being placed
on the importance of leadership. The school principal is increasingly
regarded as the primary factor in implementing reform and raising
student achievement. However, those most closely involved with schools
– principals, teachers, students and parents – all have different
ideas of what school leadership actually means. What should a principal’s
priorities be? What are the key elements of the principal’s job?
How do other members of the school community perceive principals?
The MetLife Survey of the American Teacher, 2003 examines the attitudes
and opinions of teachers, principals, parents and students regarding
these and other areas of school leadership. The different experiences
and school community roles of teachers, principals and parents and
students allow each to bring a unique perspective to an examination
of the issue of school leadership. Despite these differences, the
survey revealed remarkable unanimity in what these groups view as
most important in a discussion of leadership in the schools: motivating
teachers and students. All three adult stakeholder groups are most
likely to believe that motivating teachers and students is the most
important characteristic of a school, the most important role of
a school leader and the most important part of a school principal’s
job. Principals report that they spend more than one-third of their
workweek during the school year on this task, more than on discipline
or reporting and compliance. Although teachers
are in agreement with principals and parents on the relative importance
of guiding and motivating students and faculty, they differ in their
emphasis on other aspects of the school and a principal’s priorities.
Teachers believe that test scores are most important to principals
– more important than motivating teachers and students. Yet principals
overwhelmingly report that the motivation of students and faculty
to achieve is their top priority. Teachers believe that principals
spend more time on reporting and compliance than on guiding and
motivating teachers, but principals report that the reverse is true. In addition to examining
views on school leadership directly by asking about the most important
aspects of school leaders and the priorities of school principals,
the study explored this issue by looking at areas that can be affected
by the quality of school leadership such as the school atmosphere,
relationships among key groups and job satisfaction. Teachers, principals,
parents and students report great differences in these areas. Of
the three groups of adults, principals consistently report the most
positive views of their schools. They are most likely to describe
their school as showing concern for students and being welcoming
to parents. http://www.metlife.com/WPSAssets/20781259951075837470V1F2003%20Survey.pdf The ------------- Reductions Hurt
Across State, Say Excerpt: About 1,400
teachers have lost their jobs, class sizes have grown so large that
they're hard to control, and some students are paying high fees
for sports, activities, and transportation. Those are the effects
of the state's $527 million cut to local aid during the past two
years, and a portion of that cut affected education, according to
a state teachers union report released yesterday. The cuts are chipping
away at the progress the state's schools have made since the Education
Reform Act of 1993, the report contends. The authors of the
report said they did not have a figure for education cuts during
the past two years. News reports have indicated that the state cut
basic education aid last year by $150 million for local school districts
and also reduced MCAS preparation funds from $50 million to $10
million. This year, Governor Mitt Romney is proposing $72 million
in basic education aid, a 2.3 percent increase, and an additional
$40 million to create various new programs for school districts. The statewide look
at the cuts was compiled by several teacher and administrative groups,
including the Massachusetts Teachers Association and the Massachusetts
Municipal Association. State education officials yesterday argued
that that the report focuses on too short a time span. While local
aid has been reduced over the two-year period, overall education
spending has increased by 6.7 percent, the officials said. The spending
increase, however, comes from a variety of sources, including municipal
reserve funds and overrides of Proposition 2 1/2 tax limits. The school districts
that responded reported eliminating 1,400 teaching jobs during the
past two years. In addition, 153
districts reported average class size data. Of those, 59 percent
said class sizes have increased, 18 percent said classes have decreased,
and 24 percent said the sizes have remained the same. Many school
districts, including The ------------- Md. Offers An Advance
Of $42 Million Excerpt: Gov. Robert
L. Ehrlich Jr. said yesterday that he will advance the struggling
"A lot of questions
must be answered to everyone's mutual satisfaction," he said. Details of the accountability
plan still are being hashed out, but a specific condition the governor
is requesting is an "oversight person" who will report
directly to him on the status of the city schools' money. "I
want answers," the governor said at a news conference he called
yesterday with Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley, city schools Chief
Executive Officer Bonnie S. Copeland, state schools Superintendent
Nancy S. Grasmick and others. The state advance
will require legislative approval, and yesterday some state lawmakers
complained about the prospect of again bailing out the city school
system. The state's advance will be in addition to an $8 million
loan from the city and an $8 million loan from the nonprofit Abell
Foundation - both at a 1.5 percent interest rate. The total - $58
million in loans and advances - will address the school system's
current fiscal year cash-flow emergency, which has caused school
officials to fall behind on bills. The ------------- Excerpt: A network
of nonprofit private schools that has educated some of Pennsylvania's
most vulnerable children for four decades is nearing meltdown because
the state owes it as much as $30 million and doesn't have the money
to pay. But the Pennsylvania
Department of Education ran out of money to pay the schools last
spring, and it has decided to pay them only a fraction of what it
acknowledges they are owed. Some of the private schools say they
will start sending children back to their home districts if the
crisis isn't resolved by June. Others are insisting that local school
districts pick up the entire tab for their students if the problem
isn't settled soon. Either way, school districts would be hard-pressed
to come up with acceptable alternatives, said Michael Kelly, the
director of pupil services for the Lower Merion School District
in Montgomery County, which sends about 45 students to Approved
Private Schools, at a district cost of about $700,000. Paying full
tuition would add more than $1 million to the district's costs and
"that would be a hardship," he said. But "what concerns
me more," he said, "is finding an appropriate education
for these students." Districts will find a way if they have
to, he said, but "... it takes years to develop programs to
meet the needs of these students. This would be uncharted territory."
A quick resolution appears unlikely. The state notified some of
the schools this month that they will get less than half of the
$7.3 million in expenses they are owed from the 1999-2000 and 2001-02
school years, with the schools having to write off the rest. Other
schools that have not yet been audited and claim expenses totaling
millions more will get nothing, at least for now, state officials
said. And there is no money to pay almost $11.5 million the schools
say they are due for the 2002-03 school year. http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/living/education/7985463.htm ------------- Educators Leery
Of Online Program Excerpt: Educators
are questioning how an online certification program approved by
the Idaho Board of Education can adequately prepare teachers to
handle the demands of a classroom. The State Board of Education,
with only state Superintendent Marilyn Howard dissenting, approved
the Passport to Teaching certification process in November, which
bypasses requirements of state education colleges. The test is sponsored
by the nonprofit American Board for Certification of Teacher Excellence,
based in http://www.spokesmanreview.com/news-story.asp?date=021604&ID=s1488301&cat=section.idaho ------------- Seeking Alternatives
To Standardized Testing (Interview) Excerpt: MATTHEWS:
I see many good schools in low-income environments, like the KIPP
schools, or some of the MEIER: It mostly
depends on how one defines being "well-educated." You
get what you ask for. For those who define it as KIPP or Alas, in a society
determined to increase all the other gaps between low and high income
and black, brown and white Americans, it will get harder, not easier,
to narrow, much less close, those gaps. But even if one could do
it, the gap in test scores is not the one I'm most worried about.
Neither is it the one that most affects how kids do after they leave
school, or what kind of society we are creating. The kinds of tests
we're all focused on simply are not a good measure of what really
counts. C.P.E. [Central Park East] started from a different premise
-- the premise that got me interested in becoming a teacher to start
with. I do not, for good reasons, view test scores as a measure
of intellectual achievement -- or of much else that we know matters
in the long haul. The success of C.P.E. was not based on test scores
but on the remarkable data we collected on who graduated, who went
on to college, and, most important, how they fared in real life
afterward. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A47699-2004Feb17.html Thomas B. Fordham
Foundation [NCLB] ------------- Grading the Systems:
The Guide To State Standards, Tests, And Accountability Policies Excerpt: The No
Child Left Behind act requires all states to establish state academic
standards in reading and math, to test all students on whether they're
meeting those standards, and to hold schools and districts accountable
for their academic performance. Yet a new study indicates that few
states have successfully tied their standards, tests, and accountability
policies into a comprehensive and rigorous system. Grading the Systems:
The guide to state standards, tests, and accountability policies,
from the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation and AccountabilityWorks,
examines thirty states' standards, tests, and accountability policies
to see how well these essential components tie together (as of January
2003). Specifically, the authors look at six key elements of an
effective and complete accountability package for primary-secondary
schooling: - state standards
(for reading and math), - the content of
state tests, - alignment between
standards and tests (to ensure that what's supposed to be taught
is also what's being tested), - test rigor (whether
passing scores are set where they should be), - test trustworthiness
and transparency, and - accountability
measures (whether the state has incentives, consequences, and interventions
for students, adults, and districts).
Illinois State Board of Education |
