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News Clips –
May 21 - 28, 2004 STATE STATE Local
school leaders: Governor needs to adjust focus Doug Wilson, Funding reform is what
they want. "All of the ideas
that are being proposed really won't help the kids in the classroom.
It's the money that needs to be in the classroom," said Diane Robertson,
superintendent of the Jody Steinke, president
of the Quincy Federation of Teachers, said a blue ribbon commission
looked at education reform at the end of Gov. George Ryan's term in
office. The commission had several recommendations about how to improve
the school system. Topping the list was the call to change the way local
property taxes play too large a part in funding schools. "The Legislature
turned up its nose at that," Steinke said. Unfortunately, Steinke
and others believe that if the funding system is left as it is, none
of the changes on the table in Rebecca Rausch, a spokesman
for Gov. Rod Blagojevich, said that criticism is unfair. She said Blagojevich
increased school funding in the budget by $400 million last year and
has proposed another $400 million increase this year. Blagojevich also launched
a campaign to reform what he sees as inefficiencies in the State Board
of Education. During a speech in January, Blagojevich likened the agency
to a "Soviet-style bureaucracy" that needs to be largely dismantled
while a new Department of Education replaces it. Key lawmakers were cool
to that proposal. Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, made his own suggestion
about retaining, but revamping the State Board of Education. Blagojevich and Senate
President Emil Jones, D-Chicago, then came out with a compromise earlier
this week, which would give Blagojevich and future governors the power
to appoint or remove board members and the state superintendent. In a press conference
a few days ago, Blagojevich said the compromise was like "the Berlin
Wall" coming down — another negative reference to the ISBE's structure
and operation. Robertson said Blagojevich's
statement is "off base." She serves on an advisory council
and meets with ISBE officials several times each year. She's seen State
Superintendent Robert Schiller make lots of changes in the agency's
operation. "Dr. Schiller has
made tremendous amounts of progress. Lots of the things the governor
says he wants to change have already been changed," Robertson said.
For instance, a new
test system for Schiller said the current
battle is "about power and politics and control." He said
until Blagojevich and lawmakers address school funding, the situation
will not change. "At the end of
the day everything has to be about teaching and learning in the classroom
and none of that has been addressed this year," Schiller said.
Robertson said Blagojevich
has told school leaders that a buying cooperative run by his proposed
Department of Education would save them lots of money. "The purchasing
coops will not help us significantly. Many of the costs that they've
talked about offering schools, we already get from a buying group we're
in, and our group beats his prices," Robertson said. "I think he's not
in touch with today's educational structure. He's reacting to what the
State Board used to be like." Quincy Superintendent
Tom Leahy said the biggest problem in "I would like to
see them put the funding issue on the front burner," Leahy said.
Steinke wants to see
paperwork trimmed more on things such as continuing education forms
for teachers. He also believes insurance problems should be addressed,
describing it as a nationwide problem. But the core problem is funding.
"If what they do
doesn't affect the funding system, it's not going to change anything
for the schools," Steinke said. Sen. John Sullivan,
D-Rushville, is a member of the Senate Education Committee that passed
proposed legislation on to the full Senate earlier this week. The reform
bill would give the governor lots of new powers to make the ISBE more
accountable to him. The committee met for three hours, debating whether
the changes were necessary or would be helpful. Sullivan said he's willing
to give more power to the governor's office as long as funding issues
are addressed as well. "Funding is an
aspect of this that must be and will be addressed," Sullivan said.
Reforms for the education
system will take more than one year, he said. Blagojevich
given full reign over picking ISBE members By Matt Adrian, Lee
News The bill would give
the governor more control over an agency he threatened to neuter by
creating a new Department of education. However, Blagojevich’s initial
plan was criticized as being unconstitutional and a power grab. Sen. Miguel del Valle,
D-Chicago, a vocal critic of Blagojevich’s first education plan and
the architect of the compromise, said the measure gives the governor
more control without creating a new bureaucracy. “It is a means for the
governor to gain more control,” del Valle said. “I want him to be in
control so I can hold him accountable.” Del Valle pointed out
that lawmakers will be voting on separate proposals to loosen state
controls on local schools and improve the teacher certification process. House Speaker Michael
Madigan, D-Chicago, has raised the specter of unconstitutionality surrounding
the Senate proposal. Madigan has offered a proposal that would only
allow Blagojevich to appoint a majority of the board members. The purchasing program
in SB 3000 has raised concerns among the state’s business community,
said Todd Maisch, vice president for government affairs with the Illinois
Chamber of Commerce. He said the program would allow school districts
to buy products through the state without having to open up the process
for competitive bid. “It looks like an incentive
for schools to use the master contract and not put out for bids,” Maisch
said. “Vendors should be able to say ’If we didn’t get the bid at least
we got a fair shot.’” Brenda Holmes, the governor’s
deputy chief of staff for education, said the purchasing program is
optional for school districts. New school
ethics law creates more questions Paul L. Mikolajczyk,
Daily Chronicle Wednesday was the deadline
for Unfortunately, for some
local school officials and administrators, the law has only created
more gray areas. "My role is tremendously
in question," said Sycamore Schools Super-intendent Bob Hammon
after a May 18 school board meeting in which the new rules were adopted. Proposed in February
2003 following charges of corruption by state officials, including former
Gov. George Ryan, the final changes to the Illinois Governmental Ethics
Act were place into effect by the General Assembly on Nov. 19. Under the legislation,
no school district officer or administrator "shall intentionally
perform any prohibited political activity during any compensated time,"
nor "use any property or resources (of the school district) in
connection with any prohibited activity." Included in that list
of prohibited activities is campaigning for a school funding referendum. For Hammon, this means
that should the district ever try to get another referendum passed,
he could not express support for it in his role as superintendent. The new ethics rules
also specifically prohibit "campaigning ... for or against any
referendum question" and "managing or working on a campaign
... for or against any referendum question." "I would only be
able to present the facts," Hammon said, such as the number of
students in the district and the capacity capabilities. "Beyond
that would be trouble. "It raises a lot
of questions and leaves people walking a tight rope," he added. DeKalb School Board
member Holly Wallace, who worked on unsuccessful referendums for the
school district before being elected to the board, sees the superintendent
as "the eighth board member." Not having the superintendent's
voice to support a referendum would be an "enormously big deal." The new ethics rules
prevent current school board members from using school-sponsored events
or property to lobby for support of referendums. DeKalb Superintendent
Brian Ali was lead cheerleader for the district's first failed referendum
in 2002, participating in forums held at district schools to answer
questions about the measure and lobby for its passage. The rules also forbid
school board members from circulating nominating petitions at events
such as high school football or basketball games hosted by the district. People trying to unseat
incumbent board members, however, would be able to gather signatures
at such venues because the rules would only apply to them if they were
elected to the board. Melinda Selbee, general
counsel for the "It's a very poorly
written legislation," Selbee said of the new state ethics law. Ethics laws need to
be improved and updated to prevent abuses of power by elected officials,
Selbee said. However, lawmakers need to go back and adjust them to account
for situations that groups such as school boards or library boards encounter,
she said. Selbee said it was unrealistic
for the Legislature to match the same rules and enforcement methods
for state officials to the local government level. "The dissimilarities
are dramatic," she said. If lawmakers in "It does have some
constitutionality problems," she said of the law. State Sen. J. Bradley
Bur-zynski, R-Sycamore, said it does appear the ethics laws prevent
current school board members from petitioning on school property and
that he is frustrated by parts of the new rules. "We are bending
over backwards to keep ethics abuses down, but with things like this
it's starting to go overboard," Burzynski said. Burzynski joined 46
other senators in supporting the changes to the ethics rules following
the accusations of corruption. However, when discussion came to the
effect the laws would have on local governing bodies, he said legal
counsels told lawmakers the courts may have to provide the clarification. The Sycamore School
Board plans to send a letter to Attor-ney General Lisa Madigan asking
for clarification on parts of the new ethics laws. When the Daily Chronicle
attempted to contact Madigan's office with questions on the ethics laws,
Chronicle staff were referred to the Illinois State Board of Education. Questions left with
a spokes-person for the ISBE were not answered by press time. Seven
area schools are facing their final days Karen Hansen, ARROWSMITH -- Eating
lunch at the end of a long table in the multi-purpose room, a small
group of kindergartners disagreed about whether they want to attend
a new school next fall. "I don't want to
go to a new school," said 6-year-old Erin Clark of rural Saybrook.
"I'm just a little afraid I might get lost." Fellow 6-year-old James
Cohenour of Cooksville saw things differently. "More people --
yeah!" he said, finishing his peanut butter and jelly sandwich
and apple. "I'll have more friends and my cousin will be in third
grade." Like it or not, Erin,
James and their 100 or so classmates at As school districts
across the state deal with the consequences of ongoing financial problems,
Arrowsmith is among seven Teachers will lose jobs;
parents and children must adapt to a new school; classrooms and cafeterias
will be recycled. A focal point will be gone. "Districts are
making some hard decisions that are driven by economic and educational
forces," said State School Superintendent Robert Schiller. "These
decisions are being considered in every corner of our state." The downsizing will
be profiled in a two-day series, "Last Day of School," beginning
today. 7 schools in 5 districts While the Illinois State
Board of Education does not track individual school closings in the
state's 888 districts, five area districts will shutter six elementary
schools and one high school. The districts vary in size from 100 students
to nearly 11,000. In addition to Colfax-based
Ridgeview, which is closing Arrowsmith, other districts closing schools
include: • Unresolved is whether
Hopedale residents will try to pull out of • Unit 5: The Normal-based
district will close Eugene Field Elementary, a neighborhood school for
nearly 70 years. The closure is part of $6.9 million in budget cuts
and revenue increases implemented by the area's largest district for
2004-05. • New Holland-Middletown
Elementary: After the district's enrollment dropped by nearly 50 percent
in the past five years, the Logan County district will close its elementary
school in New Holland. The 44 students, in kindergarten through fourth
grade, will attend class at the district's The move will save the
district about $200,000 a year. • Chenoa: After voters
in the nearly bankrupt district turned down a merger with nearby Prairie
Central, the school board voted to dissolve the district. The DeWitt-Livingston-McLean
Regional Board of School Trustees supported the district's request to
annex to Forrest-based Prairie Central next fall. However, the matter
is not resolved and arguments in the 4th District Appellate Court are
scheduled for June. Should annexation proceed,
the high school, with 120 students, will be closed. Building a community Schiller said many of
this year's closings are caused by a combination of three forces: shifting
demographics; economic woes; and higher standards and expectations. For example, in the
New Holland-Middletown district, enrollment has dropped from 190 in
1999 to about 100 this year. "(The community)
realized if we wanted to control our future, this is a decision we have
to make," said New Holland-Middletown Superintendent Robert Richardson. Ridgeview, with about
660 students in pre-kindergarten through high school, will issue $1
million in working cash bonds to help patch a projected $919,000 deficit
for 2004-05. It is among 80 percent of Ridgeview's loss of
Arrowsmith Elementary, which houses pre-kindergarten through first grade,
also will end the town's 129-year tradition of having a community school,
beginning with a one-room schoolhouse in 1875. Plans are in the works
to convert the building into a community center. "These little schools,
you really can't beat 'em," said Arrowsmith teacher Kelly Borton.
"It's like a family inside a family." But Principal Robert
Baughman said students at his school are still fortunate compared with
some other districts. "It's difficult
for any small town to lose their local school," said Baughman.
"But we're not cutting teachers, we're not increasing class sizes,
we're not cutting any services." Those added consequences
are being seen in Unit 5 and 'A difficult decision' Hardest hit is the In addition, it plans
to cut $120,000 in extracurricular offerings, and has increased the
user fee from $100 to $250 for students in sports and other activities.
Fifty-five full- and part-time teachers have been notified they may
not have jobs next fall. "It's just a shame
we're even here," said Hopedale Mayor "Ace" Eilts about
the possibility of his community losing its elementary school. The 46-year-old Eilts,
the father of two small children, attended Hopedale as a youngster.
He said his community of 1,000 will survive if the school is lost. But he does worry about
the long-term impact on the district. "It's a tough issue,"
he said. "The passions run deep." Meanwhile, Unit 5 had
$4.4 million in budget cuts and fee hikes this year; they will be followed
by another $6.9 million in 2004-05. Included is the closing of Eugene
Field, with 132 students; the elimination of 69 full-time teaching positions;
and increased activity fees. Class sizes in the growing
district, which has nearly 11,000 students, are expected to rise. "I attended a year
there. My fifth-grade teacher there is a teacher I still stay in touch
with...He was at my daughter's wedding," said Unit 5 board President
Rick Percy of Eugene Field's closing. "It was a difficult decision." Yet, Percy concedes
it may not be the last time his district is forced to consider the option. The district still has
two other elementary buildings -- Towanda and Carlock -- which are "singles,"
meaning they have one class at each grade level. "Singles are not
as cost-efficient and cost-effective as larger buildings. As you look
down the road, those smaller schools, there's concern there," he
said. "You have to look at the economics of keeping a single open." Larger questions loom Those economic issues
lead back to larger questions of how The latest blueprint
for fixing the problem is the 2002 Education Funding Advisory Board
report. It advocates the much-ballyhooed swap of higher income taxes
in exchange for property tax relief. It also pushes several
measures aimed at creating larger schools and school districts: a mandate
that all high schools have a minimum of 250 students; consolidation
of all districts into unit (kindergarten through high school) districts
and financial incentives to promote larger districts. But immediate solutions
seem unlikely. Gov. Rod Blagojevich had made his disbanding of Schiller's
State Board of Education his current educational priority, arguing it
is a bureaucracy that needs to be replaced. After resistance from lawmakers,
he backed off that plan -- and now wants to settle for replacing Schiller
and all the members of the state board this summer. But, that has met
resistance, too. While the outcome is
uncertain, any push for school funding reform remains absent -- leaving
the local taxpayer picking up the tab for the foreseeable future. "Until the state
defines how they're going to fund public education," Percy said,
"the over-reliance on property taxes has become a stress point
in our community." "No
Growth" budget would be devastating to SIL according to Governor Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich
outlined the devastation The "no growth"
plan would allow for no new state spending in Fiscal Year 2005.
That means the state would be unable to invest more in education, health
care and public safety programs, and would also have to make deep cuts
to existing programs in order to meet the growing cost of Medicaid and
pension obligations. The Governor was joined
by state Senate President Emil Jones and several lawmakers who oppose
the alternative budget proposal, as well as more than a dozen representatives
from education, childcare, and labor organizations who understand how
painful deep cuts would be to According to numbers
from the Governor’s office, Other area projects
that would be cancelled according to the governor is the proposed World
Shooting Complex near In February, Gov. Blagojevich
unveiled a balanced budget proposal that closed corporate tax loopholes,
consolidated and streamlined state government, and closed outdated prison
facilities in order to pay for major investments in education, health
care and public safety. Chicago
Public Schools Hand Out Pink Slips NBC5 130 Teachers Among The
Cuts Schools CEO Arne Duncan
said about 180 administrators also will be let go. Another 1,300 non-teaching
employees -- including aides, security workers and clerks -- also are
expected not to have jobs next year. The school district
is trying to fill a multi-million-dollar budget deficit. Chicago Teachers Union
president Deborah Lynch said the administrative cuts aren't enough. Mayor Richard M. Daley
on Monday said elimination of the approximately 1,500 Chicago Public
Schools jobs due to economic realities in both Speaking to reporters
at an unrelated event on the South Side, Daley said the cuts announced
by Chicago Public Schools CEO Arne Duncan were a simple issue of cost
and "had nothing to do with" a failure of lawmakers in "We have layoffs
in our city, you have to -- because if you don't have the revenue coming
in, your expenses get too high, you have the cost of labor, the cost
of health care, all that," Daley said. When asked whether the
lost jobs would be a blow to the system, Daley said: "I don't think
you're hurting education, they can't be hurting education. But like
anything else, you have to live within the budget." Daley said the school
system has to find its own source of revenue, and "you don't wait"
for the state government to solve its own budget problems first. But Daley also said
he was working with Gov. Rod Blagojevich to find ways to address the
issue. "We're working
with them (state lawmakers) on this," Daley said. "We know
they have issues with revenue down there, and again, the key of any
child who is poor in the state of Madigan
prepares to act on his own budget plan Committees to begin
hearing bills; House could vote this week Doug Finke, Copley News
Service/Peoria Journal Star, 5/25/04 SPRINGFIELD - With state
budget negotiations going nowhere fast, House Speaker Michael Madigan
is preparing to move ahead with his no-growth spending plan. Illinois House committees
will start hearing those budget bills beginning today, setting the stage
for the full House to possibly vote on them later this week. The bills
will include money to keep "We are trying
to move a spending bill onto the floor based on what (committee) chairmen
feel are the minimum needs of the constituents that we represent,"
said Rep. Gary Hannig, D-Litchfield, the House Democrats' leading budget
negotiator. Madigan spokesman Steve
Brown said the budget
bills assume that no additional tax revenue will be available to balance
the budget. "I think it's a
recognition that there's not widespread support for some of the tax
increases that are being proposed," Brown said. Gov. Rod Blagojevich
has repeatedly blasted the idea of passing a no-growth budget that would
keep total state spending to the same level as this year. He said such
a budget would be "devastating" to schools and health care,
both of which were in line for large spending increases in the budget
Blagojevich presented to the General Assembly in February. Blagojevich's office
did not respond to a request for a comment on Madigan's budget plan
Tuesday. Madigan's decision to
proceed with a no-growth budget is another sign of escalating tensions
between the powerful speaker and the governor. Blagojevich had scheduled
a meeting with the four legislative leaders, including Madigan, for
Tuesday afternoon. It was canceled when Madigan sent word that he would
not attend. "The speaker said
he was unavailable," said Blagojevich spokeswoman Rebecca Rausch. Brown, though, said
Madigan was unaware that a meeting was scheduled. "We were not aware
of any plans (for a meeting)," Brown said. "We didn't know
the governor was in town. It's nice to have him here." Madigan's budget bills
include an increase of $250 per pupil in school aid, which would cost
about $355 million. Additional money also would be put into poverty
grants and designated programs like transportation assistance, said
Rep. Mike Smith, D-Canton, chairman of the House Elementary and Secondary
Education Appropriations Committee. Money also may be added for early
childhood education, Smith said. "We're trying to
operate within (Blagojevich's) $400 million," said Smith of the
governor's recommended increase for education. Another appropriation
bill would restore money to the Vandalia prison, as well as the youth
center in Blagojevich said a no-growth
budget would take health care away from hundreds of thousands of people.
However, Rep. Sara Feigenholtz, D-Chicago, chairman of the Human Services
Appropriations Committee, said the human services budget bill being
drafted will not hurt people. "We tweaked (the
governor's budget proposal)," Feigenholtz said. "We added,
we subtracted. At the end of the day, hopefully it will be at the same
spending level as he introduced it." Blagojevich asked for
a $690 million increase in health care spending. Blagojevich balanced
his budget plan - which increases state spending by more than $900 million
- with more than $400 million worth of business fee and tax increases.
Madigan, though, has repeatedly said he does not think there is enough
support in the House to pass those fee and tax hikes. Without them,
Blagojevich's spending plan must be reduced. Moreover, since introducing
his budget, Blagojevich has had to face the loss of $350 million in
gaming revenue he was counting on, and a $300 million increase in pension
costs that he was not counting on. A budget deficit he originally estimated
at about $1.7 billion is now at least $2.3 billion. Blagojevich has been
trying to drum up opposition to Madigan's no-growth budget plan. However,
administration officials insisted Tuesday they did not organize a rally
at the Capitol for today to protest the no-growth budget. "There's no formal
rally planned or being organized by our office or the campaign office,"
Rausch said. "There are some organizations that are going to lobby
with legislators." Groups must obtain a
permit from Secretary of State Jesse White's office to hold rallies
in the Capitol or on the Capitol lawn. White spokesman Randy Nehrt said
that the only group with a permit to be in the Capitol today is a junior
high school band from State
needs special session on education Sometime within the
next several days, the General Assembly and Gov. Rod Blagojevich will
decide on a spending plan for the state's schools in the fiscal year
that begins in July. Whatever the details
of the plan, it will not address the major issue of reforming the method
of funding the state's education. Rep. Bill Mitchell,
R-Forsyth, wants to change that, and he's one of several legislators
circulating petitions asking Blagojevich and the General Assembly to
call a special session to focus on school spending. Mitchell points out
that 80 percent of In This inequity creates
the problem of some school districts with an abundance of money while
others struggle to get by. The result is an inequity in education that
shouldn't be tolerated. The solution is not
to throw more money at education - that's not necessary. The solution
is to fundamentally change the way the state's schools are funded, shifting
the burden off of the property tax. A lot can be accomplished by merely
more equitably distributing the money that is being spent on education
in Politically, this is
a hard issue to tackle. Legislators representing well-to-do districts
have little incentive to change the current system. Since many of the
well-to-do districts are in Blagojevich has also
side-stepped the issue so far. He's focused instead on reforming the
state educational structure. That's a worthy goal, but again, it won't
make much difference in the state's classrooms. The issue will never
receive an adequate discussion during a regular session. The budget
debates overshadow each general session, making discussion about substantive
issues impossible. Thus the need for a
focused special session. The proponents of the petition drive believe
that away from the pressures of a general session, legislators may be
able to have realistic discussions of the funding issue. There's little doubt
this is an issue that must be addressed. Other states, most notably
Blagojevich has made
education reform part of the agenda, but he has failed so far to address
the funding issue. A special session to discuss education funding would
be a good way to start that discussion. Time
running out to reform education funding system While the Legislature
fiddles with the bureaucratic structure of education in Will it take a court
ruling to get the Legislature to revise the state's antiquated, property-tax-dependent
system? That's what has happened in a number of states. Public schools in Shawnee County District
Judge Terry Bullock had ruled that But the Supreme Court
blocked that order until it has a chance to rule in the case. More than a dozen other
states have revised their school-funding systems following court decisions.
Opponents of the Nearly six years after
the initial lawsuit was filed, the Illinois Supreme Court ruled that
process of reform must be undertaken by the Legislature, not the courts.
That was in October 1996. About the only significant
change since that ruling has been establishment of a "foundation
level" of funding per pupil. But that hasn't changed the wide gap
in per pupil spending among districts. Where students live determines,
in large measure, the educational resources and opportunities available
to them. As an increasing number
of districts are added to the state's financial watch list and voters
balk at higher property taxes, eventually the Legislature -- or the
courts -- will have to act. But the students who
miss educational opportunities because of where they live -- and because
of the state's failure to live up to its constitutional obligation to
have "primary responsibility for financing" education -- will
never be able to make up those lost years. Two strategies can do
more to enhance a child's learning than anything else: 1. Improve teaching. 2. Improve parenting. As it turns out, No.
2 is monumentally trickier than No. 1. And since there's no such thing
yet as Mommy-Daddy Boot Camp, let us focus on No. 1. The Chicago Public Schools
system has been quietly but steadily doing something about improving
teacher quality by increasing the number of teachers who are hired into
the system through alternative certification programs. Alternative certification
is a fancy way of saying that these teachers come in through a different
route. Often they are people in mid-career who simply decide they would
rather serve as teachers. Many are bankers, accountants, engineers,
saleswomen, lawyers and scientists. They have life experience and they've
developed an expertise in their field. Now they want to teach. Traditionally, the state
has made that as difficult as possible for anyone who didn't have a
couple of years to stop everything and sit in university classrooms
learning theory. The growing number of
alternative certification programs makes it easier, more affordable
and faster to make that transition into teaching. And because alternative
certification candidates tend to be older and more mature, and hail
from rigorous programs that provide critical support and mentoring even
after they've been plunked into a public classroom and given a box of
chalk, they tend to stick around longer. Because of layoffs and school
deficits, the once ballyhooed teacher shortage hasn't materialized as
predicted, but pursuing higher retention rates is one way to keep both
teachers, stability and experience in the classroom. "They're a different
caliber of people: smarter, more mature, more committed and more in
it for the long haul," said Chicago Public Schools Chief Arne Duncan. There has been a lot
of talk this week about layoffs in the So far, schools outside
of Madigan
torches governor's budget House speaker proposes
his own lean spending plan Ray Long and Christi
Parsons, SPRINGFIELD -- House
Speaker Michael Madigan wielded his legislative might Wednesday as he
launched a counterattack on Gov. Rod Blagojevich's budget proposal,
leaving the governor to watch as key parts of his fiscal plan went down
in flames. Escalating the clash
between the two Democratic titans, Madigan began advancing his own leaner
budget proposals that still managed to add hundreds of millions of dollars
for schools and social services. And then Madigan, in
dramatic fashion, called the governor's plan to raise business taxes
and let it die in the Democrat-controlled House with only 23 of the
60 votes needed to pass. In the Senate, meanwhile,
President Emil Jones (D-Chicago) weighed in with his own proposal to
shore up the governor's sagging budget plans. The Senate Executive
Committee approved raiding up to $523 million in what Jones views as
excess money in funds set aside for specifically designated purposes. The funds ranged from
$29 million in leftover pork-barrel money from the administration of
Gov. George Ryan to tens of millions of dollars set aside for purposes
ranging from education technology and horseracing to parks and the Abraham
Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum. As the action unfolded
in the two chambers, the governor met behind closed doors with Jones
and the House and Senate Republican leaders. Madigan did not attend. Madigan spokesman Steve
Brown said the speaker was working on a compromise over the governance
of the State Board of Education, an issue festering since the governor
launched a failed bid for a massive restructuring of the state's school
system. But Madigan was absent
from negotiations for the second day in a row, following weeks in which
the governor has aimed increasingly harsh rhetoric at the speaker. And while Jones said
the governor spoke favorably of some elements of a gambling package
pending in the Senate, Senate Republican Leader Frank Watson of Blagojevich's aides
downplayed the crushing defeat of the governor's big-ticket revenue
proposal in the House, calling it a false litmus test. The failed bill proposed
closing what the administration calls corporate tax loopholes and thereby
would have raised as much as $305 million. But lawmakers complained
the governor's plans would raise the cost of doing business and could
drive jobs out of the state. House leaders say Blagojevich
needs to get busy either changing his plans or winning support for the
ones he has. "It certainly sends
a message to the administration that there's not much support in the
Illinois House at this moment for the revenue package," said House
Majority Leader Barbara Flynn Currie (D-Chicago), the bill sponsor. But aides to Blagojevich
said the House didn't give the measure the same treatment as the Senate. "There hasn't been
any agreement or discussion or plan," Blagojevich spokeswoman Cheryle
In any case, the vote
did not bode well for the ongoing budget negotiations, prompting one
Blagojevich ally to suggest the budget may not be resolved until way
past the looming Monday deadline. "It's really not
so bad here in July," said Rep. Jay Hoffman (D-Collinsville), pointing
to the chamber's eastern windows. "If you look out the windows,
you can see the fireworks." Despite the governor's
prediction that Madigan's spending plan would be a do-nothing "no-growth"
budget, House Democrats suggested spending hikes in the neighborhood
of what the governor proposes. In particular, the House
Democrats propose spending more on schools and human services than the
state spent last year. And in one raucous House
hearing, black lawmakers took turns berating the governor's top agency
officials over the administration's minority hiring practices. Rank-and-file lawmakers
also didn't take kindly to the administration's efforts to prepare a
state government shutdown plan if the budget negotiations break down. "I think it's absolutely
irresponsible," said Sen. Denny Jacobs (D-East Moline). "But
since when has responsibility been one of his strong suits?" No Child Left Behind helps educators, kids Letter by Chyrlie Soltau
of President Bush has promised
to make educating every child his top domestic priority and reform a
system that has failed the most needy students in our nation's classrooms.
He proposed a comprehensive, bipartisan plan to improve overall student
performance and close the achievement gap between rich and poor students
in Measuring student performance:
A student's progress in reading and math must be measured in each of
grades 3 through 8 and at least once during high school. Providing information
for parents: States and school districts must give parents detailed
report cards on schools and districts, explaining which are succeeding
and why. Giving options over
failing schools: Children will no longer be trapped in failing schools.
If a school continues to fail, some children will be able to transfer
to higher-performing local schools, receive free tutoring or attend
after-school programs. Ensuring more resources
for schools: Today, public schools spend an average $7,000 a year per
student. Under President Bush's leadership federal funding for education
has increased 59.8 percent from 2000 to 2003. In spite of the criticism
of the No Child Left Behind Act, President Bush has made good on his
promise. There has been more federal spending on education than ever
before. Higher standards, newly recruited teachers and new education
tools, and accountability to parents and others have helped to make
this a successful program. The successes that then-Gov. Bush encouraged
in the Last-minute posturing does little for schools Editorial by Tom Martin,
This time of year we
might expect college students to procrastinate and then cram for finals,
but we deserve better from our elected officials. It's state budget season,
which has less than a week left and will be marked by bickering and
a flurry of last-minute power plays. When the dust settles about $54
billion of our money will be allocated for spending. It will take lawmakers
days and maybe weeks to comprehend the details of what they did. The stage is set with
the state's leading Democrats, Gov. Rod Blagojevich and House Speaker
Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, squaring off with five days left before
the May 31 budget deadline. If the budget is not passed by then, a two-thirds
majority will be required. In the House, for instance,
that means instead it taking 60 votes to approve a budget it will require
71 votes. And in a budget year when nearly everyone has something to
lose, every vote will be difficult to get. "This year is probably
the most difficult budget I've seen in my 12 years (in the House),"
State Rep. Don Moffitt, R-Gilson, said Tuesday. Compounding the usual
budget issues is a projected $2.3 billion deficit. Blagojevich has submitted
his plan for a "balanced" budget, which calls for $900 million
more in spending. He plans to raise $400 million more in revenue by
raising fees and taxes on Madigan opposes the
governor's budget, saying there's not enough support in the House to
pass those fee and tax hikes. Madigan appears ready to push ahead with
a no-growth spending plan, which would not increase spending over last
year. Blagojevich has blasted
Madigan's plan, saying it would devastate schools and health, two areas
that would receive more money under the governor's plan submitted to
the General Assembly in February. To complicate matters,
Blagojevich and Madigan are not communicating. Blagojevich had planned
a meeting for Tuesday with the four legislative leaders, including Madigan.
However, Blagojevich spokeswoman Rebecca Rausch said the meeting was
canceled when Madigan said he could not attend. Madigan's spokesman
Steve Brown said Madigan didn't know of the meeting or even that the
governor - often criticized for spending time in Lost in all this posturing
is yet another opportunity to address the problem with school funding.
The state continues to fail its schools by underfunding them, forcing
school districts to lean heavily on local property taxes. In a down
economy, which most of downstate Local schools such as
It will take courage
and time for the General Assembly to address the problems with school
funding. Both seem in short supply, especially during budget season.
No-growth budget is not same as do-nothing budget Pantagraph Editorial,
5/28/04 Gov. Rod Blagojevich
unintentionally didn't give much credit to existing state government
when he referred to a no-growth budget as a "do-nothing budget." The no-growth budget
was first mentioned by a leader in Blagojevich's own Democrat Party,
Speaker of the House Michael Madigan, as a potential way out of the
state's financial morass. By no-growth he was referring to spending
about the same amount of money in the fiscal year beginning July 1 as
will be spent this year. The budgeted amount was roughly $52 billion. Blagojevich was quoted
at a Sunday press conference as saying a no-growth budget "...
doesn't deal with the issues we face; failing schools, inadequate health
care, crumbling roads, the refusal to make hard choices by closing the
corporate loopholes and prisons we don't need." Only if nothing is being
done in state government now could a no-growth budget be a "do-nothing
budget." What the governor really means is that a no-growth budget
would not allow him to do all of the things that may be desired or that
he has promised unless he takes money away from existing programs. The governor's office
has made a point of informing the news media of what a no-growth budget
would mean. The e-mail to The Pantagraph took three printed pages. There
were "cuts" in nearly every area of the state's budget, with
emphasis on cuts for education and health care. Most are not cuts at
all, but programs that wouldn't be funded as budgeted, or new programs
that wouldn't see the light of day this coming year. Some have written off
the list as "scare tactics." But there are some legitimate
points. Becky Carroll of the governor's Office of Management and Budget
says agencies will be using only 98 percent of their budgeted amounts
this year. If inflation of just 2 percent is factored in for a year,
that would mean agencies would theoretically operate with 4 percent
less money in the next fiscal year when costs are increasing. So, there
would be cuts, but they don't have to be the kind of draconian cuts
suggested by the governor's office. There are proposals
in the governor's budget that we would like to see, especially one pertaining
to education: The $250 per pupil increase in the $4,810 minimum in the
general state aid formula for students in kindergarten through high
school. The cost would be about $348 million. As for closing corporate
tax loopholes, the governor's sound bites probably sound good to people
who are convinced businesses are making too much money and can afford
to pay more in taxes. But the governor needs to make sure closing those
"loopholes" won't have negative effects on jobs. Maybe there
are loopholes that should be closed over coming years to give businesses
time to adjust to increased taxes. Right now, Make no mistake, we're
not happy with a no-growth budget. However, when your budget
runs short at home, you don't go on a spending binge for "new things,"
which is what Blagojevich has proposed. The governor's new spending
plans may be desirable, but the reality is If Blagojevich won't
recommend a temporary increase in income or sales taxes for political
reasons, he should drop plans on spending for added projects and concentrate
on using the money he has to set priorities to head this state back
to a sound financial footing. =========================================================================== NATIONAL In failing schools, how real is transfer option? By Amanda Paulson, Staff
writer of The Christian Science Monitor, 5/19/04 CHICAGO - Last year,
Jesús Uriostegui was eager for his daughter Citlalli to transfer out
of Yet here in While supporters of
the controversial law say the problems will be worked out, the early
experience of In the long list of
consequences for schools under NCLB, the transfer option is one of the
earliest to kick in - students can transfer after their schools land
on the "needs improvement" list two years running - and carries
some of the largest logistical headaches. Students can't transfer to
schools that don't exist, after all, and - unless interdistrict agreements
become an option - many cities may see scenarios like "In big cities,
it's going to be a problem," says Madlene Hamilton, a researcher
with the Center on Education Policy in Champions of NCLB say
the transfer option not only helps individual students, but encourage
creation of better schools. Yet some critics see the provision as a
veiled attempt to promote vouchers, and worry that it will drain floundering
schools of resources and the brightest students. Even the staunchest
NCLB advocates agree transfers won't work everywhere. Many rural districts
only have one school for each grade, and attending nearby districts
could mean a 100-mile drive - or, in parts of In such cases, officials
say, free tutoring (the next consequence to kick in after transfers)
is an acceptable substitute. That's the route "What But some see a fundamental
problem with the mandates, saying they deflect resources from reform
efforts under way. As the law stands, they note, it's difficult for
schools with large minority and low-income populations to get themselves
off the failing list, even when they make improvements. "As you get farther
and farther out, you're going to see a higher percentage of schools
hit with these sanctions," says Daniel Kaufman, a spokesman for
the National Education Association. "Say you have an African-American
subgroup that doesn't meet adequate yearly progress [AYP] goals. You
correct that. But the next year the Hispanic subgroup doesn't meet it.
[The school is] still seen as not making AYP for two years in a row." Aspects of the law,
particularly its focus on narrowing the achievement gap for minorities,
are important, says Mr. Kaufman, "but there are some common-sense
changes that need to be made." In terms of transfers, for instance,
he'd like to limit the option to students in the groups that aren't
meeting the standards. "This is distracting
from the real issue," says Julie Woestehoff, director of Parents
United for Responsible Education, a parent watchdog group here. "Why
do we have over 400 schools on the 'needs improvement' list? Why don't
we spend our money on that?" Most parents, she says,
prefer to keep their kids in neighborhood schools - they just want those
schools to improve. Still, some say the
low interest in transfers that's often reported is misleading. One of
the most comprehensive studies of the law, authored by the Citizens'
Commission on Civil Rights (CCCR) found that parents often had great
interest in transfers, especially if they knew of their options. Overall, nearly six
percent of eligible students applied for transfers this year - up from
last year and substantial, according to Dianne Piché, CCCR director,
given the generally poor information that parents receive. While the
study found a few districts making solid efforts to facilitate transfers,
many more discouraged transfers or told parents of options too late. "This should be
viewed as extremely comparable to desegregation work," says Piché.
"It requires more than sending a note home to parents. Work needs
to be done at the receiving schools ... exactly the kind of work that
needed to be done with desegregation plans." And, as with desegregation,
she sees districts like "There's a real
leadership challenge here of communicating with the public to make all
of us concerned with the education of everyone's children," says
Ross Wiener, policy director at the Education Trust, which focuses on
narrowing the achievement gap. He, like most choice advocates, also
emphasizes that it's only a small piece of fixing the failing schools. "There are far
too many children assigned to schools that aren't serving them,"
Mr. Wiener says. "If we say there aren't enough other places for
them to go, we have to be committed to making their schools better." N.C. seeks 'No Child' law tweaks so schools will pass By TODD SILBERMAN, Without a single improved
test score, more than 300 additional The state wants to make
it easier by taking advantage of exceptions, exemptions and other technical
allowances the federal government is permitting. The State Board of
Education asked for more leeway this month. Among the changes: * Schools can count
passing scores of certain students with learning disabilities whose
scores last year were counted as failing because they were below grade
level. * Schools will get a
slight break on the number of students who must be tested. Instead of
95 percent tested each year, schools can meet that requirement over
an average of two, then three years. * Some schools can measure
their progress two ways and use the one that gives them the edge. Individually, few of
the half- dozen alterations would make much difference. But together,
along with other tweaks approved earlier, they could mean as many as
15 percent more schools might pass compared with last year. Like dozens of states,
"It should not
be a signal of our backing away, as much as a signal of our wanting
to get it right," said Howard Lee, chairman of the State Board
of Education. The changes are likely
to win federal approval, since they've been permitted in other states
or have been offered across the board. 'No Child' can hit hard Last year, about 47
percent of A number of key No Child Left Behind,
President Bush's sweeping education initiative, is intended to make
schools more accountable for student achievement through yearly testing
in reading and math, and through scrutiny of scores on those tests,
grouped by race, poverty and educational disadvantage. The goal is to raise
achievement, especially among poor students, minorities and those with
learning problems or language limitations. Schools that fall short
-- even within a single demographic group in just one subject -- can
be stung by bad publicity or worse. Schools that get federal
Title I money for poor students face penalties when they miss the mark.
Schools that fail for two consecutive years must let students transfer
to schools that have met the standards. After three failing years in
a row, schools must also provide students with private tutoring. Public expects results The adjustments the
state is making could help several dozen Title I schools now in jeopardy
of falling short for a second straight year clear the federal hurdle. A few hundred schools
that don't get Title I money, but whose reputations are at stake anyway,
also could meet the standard. Neil Pedersen, superintendent
of Chapel Hill-Carrboro schools and an adviser to the state board, said
he supports the changes. "I do think they
are providing some additional latitude and fairness to what in many
ways is an all-or-nothing system," Pedersen said. Education leaders say
the changes are more fair to schools, even if the mechanics by which
schools are measured are more complicated. "The public is
looking at whether the school made it or not," said Lou Fabrizio,
accountability director for the N.C. Department of Public Instruction.
"We need to be willing to do all those complex things in order
for the results to better reflect how schools are actually performing." How changes work Under a previous rule
change, That change alone might
account for upward of a 12 percent increase over last year in the number
of schools achieving the standard. Some other schools are
likely to pass because of the way federal officials now say schools
can account for the performance of immigrants still learning English. Last year, all such
students were tested and their scores included. This year, schools can
exempt students who are in their first year in a Title I schools that
fell short last year may escape sanctions this year if they fall short
in a different subject. For example, a school
that missed the passing target for reading last year would not be penalized
if it missed only in math this year. The law previously said a school
was in trouble if its passing rate fell short in either subject for
two consecutive years. In Wake, six of the
19 Title I schools that might be required to offer transfer options
because of the federal law could escape the penalty because of the margin-of-error
latitude, said Karen Banks, assistant superintendent for evaluation
and research. Banks said she's uncertain
of the impact of other adjustments. "The changes are
going to help some schools," she said, "but they're so complicated
that no one knows how they'll play out." The extra wiggle room
is a necessary step, some education experts say, to win wider support
for the federal law. But they fear too much
latitude could blunt the law's power. "The hope is that
states can get their accountability systems working so that people can
have confidence in the law," said Ross Wiener, policy director
for the Education Trust, a Washington-based organization supportive
of No Child Left Behind. "But you want to
be sure that flexibility isn't watering down accountability. When you
talk about making it less burdensome for schools, you can also be talking
about less learning for students." No Child Left Behind may not be enforceable, Lautenschlager
says By ALAN J. BORSUK, Wisconsin might have
no legal obligation to implement the controversial federal education
law called No Child Left Behind, particularly if costs exceed the amount
of money the federal government is providing, state Attorney General
Peg Lautenschlager said in an opinion released Thursday. Lautenschlager, in effect,
invited the state Department of Public Instruction or a school district
to sue to get out of requirements of the sweeping two-year-old law. Her opinion, written
in response to a question from state Sen. Fred Risser (D-Madison), was
based largely on a provision of the federal law that says no one in
the federal government can "mandate, direct, or control" anyone
in a state government or school district regarding curriculum or programs
of instruction or "mandate a state or any subdivision thereof to
spend any funds or incur any costs not paid for under this act." Opposition to the law
has been growing across the country, primarily, but not entirely, among
Democrats and teachers unions, and some politicians have cited the provision
that Lautenschlager focused on as grounds for fighting the law. But several state and
national education officials said Thursday that they were not aware
of a lawsuit being launched yet to test that aspect of the law. "This is the first
ruling of its kind in the But John Gibbons, a
spokesman for the U.S. Department of Education, said, "We disagree
with anyone who characterizes No Child Left Behind as an unfunded mandate." Gibbons said President
George W. Bush had proposed education spending increases for next year
that would bring In recent days, Democratic
presidential candidate John Kerry has criticized the law for being underfunded
by billions of dollars, while Bush has strongly defended the law and
its spending levels. The impact of Lautenschlager's
opinion is not likely to be clear soon. Tony Evers, deputy state
superintendent of schools, said it was premature to say whether a lawsuit
will result, and Department of Public Instruction officials had not
yet studied the opinion. "It raises great questions," he said. Ken Cole, executive
director of the Wisconsin Association of School Boards, said a school
district that wanted to sue would have to put together a factual record
of how much the law was costing and how much the district was receiving,
which may not be easy to determine. Cole said it was too
soon to tell whether anyone would sue, using the argument in Lautenschlager's
opinion, "but it isn't going to be too soon for very long." Lautenschlager called
it "a stark reality" that the law requires states to implement
programs that will cost more than the federal government is providing. "The states are
entitled to take Congress at its word that it did not intend to require
state and local governments to expend their own funds to comply with
the detailed and proscriptive federal mandates," she wrote. She wrote that there
were three major areas where federal funds were insufficient to cover
costs required by the law: a testing program that includes a requirement
to test all third- through eighth-graders each year in reading and math;
the costs of implementing sanctions against schools that do not meet
the law's requirement that they demonstrate annual progress in raising
the performance of weaker students; and the cost of sufficient funding
"to permit virtually every student in every school to reach 'proficiency'
levels on standardized tests." Lautenschlager said
She also wrote that
there were other legal grounds for questioning She said that the outcome
of a court challenge to the law was uncertain. "I do not, however,
presently perceive insurmountable hurdles" to a court being willing
to tackle the main question she raised, she said. Confusion Is Rampant With Change in the SAT's By TAMAR LEWIN, New
York Times, May 23, 2004 A revised College Board
exam, incorporating a writing test and more advanced math, will not
make its debut until next spring, but confusion about how to deal with
the changes is already rampant. Worry is especially
intense among this year's 10th graders, the first class that will confront
the new test. Most colleges seem to
be leaning toward allowing that transition group, the graduating class
of 2006, to submit scores either from the old SAT or the new SAT, and,
if an applicant submits both, to consider the highest one. That flexibility
creates a unique problem. Should students prepare to take the old SAT
next winter, midway through junior year, or should they concentrate
on the new format and wait until the spring, or even the fall of senior
year? Different people have
different answers. At Kaplan Test Prep and Admission, the advice is
to take both. "Since so many
colleges will take the highest combination of scores from the two tests
during this transition year, we recommend that students in the class
of 2006 take the current SAT this winter and the new SAT next spring."
said Jon Zeitlin, Kaplan's general manager of pre-college programs,
in a press release trumpeting the "unique one-time SAT advantage
for the class of 2006." At Hathaway Brown, a
girls' school outside of But many guidance counselors
see it as a waste of time and energy to prepare for two different tests.
"I'd rather have
them wait until March, when they've had those extra months of learning
and growing, than take the old one in January," said Frank Deady,
a guidance counselor at Then, too, some colleges,
like those in the In The parents first learned
the basics: the new test will be in three sections, with a perfect score
of 2,400, the analogies and quantitative comparisons will be eliminated,
and the new writing section will include a short essay and grammar questions.
Then they heard about
the ripple effects of the changes. "One of the ramifications
of the new SAT that no one's talking about yet is what's going to happen
to the SAT II subject tests," said Lisa Jacobson, the chief executive
of Inspirica. "Now that there's going to be a writing test on the
SAT I, the SAT II writing test is going to fall by the wayside. A lot
of colleges require people to submit three SAT II's, and some will now
drop back to two. But we've heard that some are still going to require
three." Many colleges have not
yet decided how many to require. "We are waiting
for the herd to see what the herd does,'' said Rob Killion, the director
of admissions at Bryn Mawr, Brandeis,
Carnegie Mellon, Swarthmore and the A few of the most selective
schools, Harvard and Yale among them, say they will continue to require
three SAT II subject tests, at least for applicants graduating from
high school in 2006. But even they sound less than certain how long
that decision will hold. Marlyn McGrath Lewis, director of undergraduate
admissions at Harvard, said that "for the class of 2011, we'll
make the decision later." Some schools, and some
parents, are advising students in 10th grade, or even 9th, to take the
SAT II writing test before it is eliminated, both as practice and as
a backup in case they do not score well on the SAT I writing section.
Parents had many questions:
Now that the SAT will have three parts - reading, math and writing -
instead of two, should tutoring start earlier? What might be the advantages
of taking the ACT instead of the SAT? And perhaps most poignantly: "What
about a normal regular kid? Does he stand a chance?'' Black Flight to Private Schools Is Growing By SAMUEL G. FREEDMAN,
New York Times, May 19, 2004 Early on weekday mornings,
as Lesley-Anne Jones implores her three sons to button their shirts
and knot their ties and tie their dress shoes, they ask why they can't
attend her school. If Ms. Jones wanted to be factual about it, she could
say that the family lives just outside the boundary for Public School
158 in the Then she drives the
children to a nearby private school, the There is nothing effete
about the private education at the In her decision to enroll
her children there, Ms. Jones has plenty of company among the When white families
pull their children out of big-city public schools, everybody pays attention
and debates whether the cause is educational failure, racial bias or
some other factor. When African-American parents do the same thing,
hardly anyone seems to care or comment, as if blacks are just supposed
to accept whatever the neighborhood school dishes up - good, mediocre
or abysmal. To put the myopia in
statistical terms, the database LexisNexis finds more than 2,500 newspaper
and magazine articles using the phrases "white flight" and
"public schools." With the term "black flight" substituted,
the number of citations plummets to fewer than 100. Not even an organization
devoted to helping African-American parents with school choice, the
Black Alliance for Educational Options, based in Still, some indications
of the scope of that migration exist. Black enrollment in Catholic schools
stands at about 200,000 students nationally, and minority enrollment
has risen from one-tenth in 1970 to more than one-quarter in 2004, according
to the National Catholic Educational Association. Some 400 historically
black independent schools operate around the country, serving 52,000
pupils, the educator Gail Foster reported in 2000 in the anthology "City
Schools" (Johns Hopkins University Press). Voucher programs in
Measured against more
than eight million blacks of school age, of course, the size of black
flight can seem picayune. But on the evidence of a place like the "As an educator,
I realized my children needed consistency," Ms. Jones said. "And
in the public schools there's no consistency. It's who's in charge and
what program they like. We've had math programs come and go, and as
soon as I master one, they go to another. And if I'm not mastering it,
how am I teaching it?" Napolitano initiatives
sail through Senate Robbie Sherwood and
Chip Scutari, The After a 134-day struggle
over the state budget, lawmakers voted Monday to invest heavily in education
at every level, from all-day kindergarten to community colleges and
universities. The Legislature sent
a $7.4 billion budget to Gov. Janet Napolitano that meets nearly every
priority she set in January and increases spending by $1 billion over
the current year. It guarantees all-day
kindergarten for more than 150 of the state's poorest schools this fall.
It raises university budgets by $24 million and community colleges'
by $15 million to handle the state's population growth. It also gives
most rank-and-file state employees a $1,000 raise and provides subsidies
for child care to thousands of working families now on a waiting list. And, with a $2.6 million
increase to the Office of Tourism budget, it means "We're going to
reclaim the Napolitano said she
will likely sign the budget bills. Monday's action could bring this
year's legislative session to a close by the end of the week. The Senate approved
the main budget bill 21-8 rather than risk negotiating again with House
leaders. The version approved by senators Monday was the same as the
House passed Thursday, when moderate Republicans and Democrats overran
their Republican leaders. A steadily improving
state economy gave lawmakers the cash they needed to avoid deep spending
cuts or a tax increase. But they still had to use long-term debt and
other fiscal maneuvers to cover about $284 million. Critics said it
is irresponsible to increase last year's budget by $1 billion despite
the extra revenues. House Speaker Jake Flake said the state budget will
hurt working moms and dads. "It's a billion-dollar
increase, and the revenues don't come in that fast," said Flake,
R-Snowflake. "We're locking ourselves into a tax increase like
you wouldn't believe, and there's no way out of it." But working mom Rene
Hinz of "This is a start
to get our education system caught up with the rest of the country,"
said Hinz, 32. "This will help test scores and, more importantly,
it's just good for the kids." Angelica Rubio, whose
three children went through all-day kindergarten in the "At this age kids
are like sponges," said Rubio, who lives in Child-care subsidies The budget also preserves
child-care subsidies for low-income working families and adds money
to cut in half a waiting list of about 8,000 children. Julie Palma,
who runs a home child-care business, said this is government money well
spent because it helps keep parents working and off welfare. "She was a single
mother of two, and her only choice she had was to quit her job or pull
one of her kids out day care," said Michelle Currier, a
single mother and surgical center employee who has to struggle every
week to find child care for her four children, has been on the Department
of Economic Security's waiting list for child-care subsidies since February.
She said she was glad the Legislature decided to give enough money to
reduce the waiting list for the program but would like to see the waiting
list eliminated and won't be happy until she gets the subsidy herself. "I'm still not
going to think it is good if my name doesn't come up. I have to be a
little bitter," Currier said. She said the program
makes sense and thinks it probably will help the state economy and reduce
some costs to other programs. State pay raises State employees were
less enthusiastic about their proposed pay raises, a $44 million piece
of the budget. Department of Public Safety officers got $3,500 apiece,
far more than the $1,000 for rank-and-file workers, but said it won't
be enough to stop officers from leaving for other departments because
of the low pay. Andy Swann, president of the Associated Highway Patrolmen
of Arizona, said 24 DPS officers are interviewing for the Phoenix Police
Department. "I think it is
a step in the right direction," Swann said. "Obviously, we
are grateful for anything we can get. It is not going to move us significantly,
and our fear is it is not going to change what we are experiencing now.
Right now, people are leaving for other agencies, and we are not getting
enough applications to fill the vacancies." Edmund Schulte, a supervisor
in DES' benefits and medical eligibility office, said he was hoping
for a bigger pay bump. "I'll take it,
but with inflation and gas and everything else, it is not doing any
good," Schulte said. "It is gone before you get it. (State
employees) are not here to get rich, but they would like to be able
to pay their bills." Higher-education advocates
successfully fought for a $24 million increase for universities, which
will help "It's not just
good for the Vending machines at schools must meet nutritional standard Rules to be written
in time for 2005-06 By Children in The legislation was
sparked by concern over childhood obesity and requires the State Board
of Education and the departments of Health and Education to write rules
setting minimum nutritional standards and portion sizes for drinks and
snacks sold in vending machines in schools for pre-kindergarten through
eighth grade. The rules are to be
written in time to be implemented in the 2005-06 school year. The bill states that
Bredesen, flanked by
state lawmakers, signed the legislation yesterday during ceremonies
at the old Supreme Court Chamber in the state Capitol ''I think within the
last couple of months I have done a couple of things focusing on the
enormous and increasing amount of obesity we have among the children
of our state,'' Bredesen said. ''This is one of those things that can
obviously help with that. ''I think setting some
nutritional standards for the sale of food items in the schools is a
very worthwhile thing.'' Mary Nell Bryan, president
of the Children's Hospital Alliance of Tennessee, was the lobbyist for
the bill and received hugs from legislators after the signing ceremonies. ''I hope that this leads
to not only healthier foods for kids in school but also a greater awareness
of the importance of nutrition to the overall health of children,''
''It was a hard-fought
effort,'' State Rep. Diane Black,
R-Gallatin, said the bill took a lot of compromise. ''But in the end we
certainly have done what needs to be done not only to our children who
are healthy but also our children who have special needs like the diabetic
children as well.'' The chief sponsors of
the legislation, Sen. Larry Trail, D-Murfreesboro, and Rep. Joe Fowlkes,
D-Cornersville, were praised by their colleagues for their work in helping
to pass the bill. Neither was present for the ceremonies. Fowlkes originally wanted
lawmakers to write into law the kinds of healthy snacks that could be
sold in vending machines in grades K-12, such as bottled water, fruit,
granola bars, juices, milk or dairy products, nuts, sports beverages
and trail mixes. But that ran into stiff
opposition from bottlers as well as from school officials who count
on revenue from the vending machines for such things as band uniforms,
field trips, and workshops for teachers. New law leaves schools in lurch By JANET ELLIOTT, AUSTIN -- Comptroller Carole Keeton
Strayhorn blamed lawmakers and Texas Department of Transportation officials
for miscalculating how much money a new law would generate. Strayhorn
said her office had warned them that the anti-fraud law designed to
improve collections of motor vehicle fuel taxes would generate only
a fraction of the amount projected. "The TxDOT estimates
were based on a limited understanding of fuel tax administration in
Lawmakers had expected
the change to generate $75 million for textbook purchases for the 2004-05
biennium, but Strayhorn said only $8 million will be raised. The overall
textbook budget is $585 million. It will be up to Gov.
Rick Perry and lawmakers to decide if they want to cover the shortfall
with other revenues. The new law moved the
point of collection of motor vehicle fuel taxes from truckers to tank
farms and underground pipeline outlets. The change reduced the number
of tax filers from more than 14,000 to fewer than 1,000, and lawmakers
expected that would lessen the opportunity for tax evasion and fraud.
The Legislature dedicated
one-fourth of the money raised from the new law to textbooks and the
remainder to transportation. Strayhorn said the lower-than-projected
collections also mean a "large portion of the transportation budget
will be underfunded." Randall Dillard, a transportation
department spokesman, declined to comment on Strayhorn's statements,
which were made in a May 17 letter to State Board of Education members.
Dillard said there has
only been three months of tax collections under the new law and collections
have increased by 5 percent from the previous year. "Certainly three
months does not make a trend. (But) the data certainly looks encouraging,"
said Dillard. Lawmakers approved the
new law to help restore some of the $200 million in textbook budget
cuts made to balance the overall state budget. The cuts forced a one-year
delay in TEA's schedule for replacing older texts. The bulk of the textbook
budget comes from investments of royalty money paid by oil and gas companies
for drilling on state land. DeEtta Culbertson, a
TEA spokeswoman, said Thursday the shortfall means the state may not
be able to buy ESL, or English as a second language, books for elementary
school students and the new high school biology books that were approved
last year by the State Board of Education. Culbertson said the
agency is required to prioritize its textbook purchases for subjects
and grades in which students are required to pass state tests. That
made ESL and biology books a lower priority. Legislative budget writers
estimated that the tax collection change, contained in House Bill 2458
passed during the regular session last year, would generate up to $300
million. Three-fourths of that amount was appropriated to the transportation
department, and one-fourth, or $75 million, to the TEA for textbooks.
The new law went into
effect in January, but the first collections were not made until March.
Based on three months of collections, Strayhorn told TEA that only $8
million will be available for textbooks. Supporters of the bill
said it would cut down on fraud to decrease the base of tax collections.
Other states had made that change and generated millions more in tax
collections. But the comptroller's
office told lawmakers that "I don't think
they believed we knew what we were talking about," said Deputy
Comptroller Billy Hamilton. Indianapolis Public Schools to end corporal punishment AP, May 26, 2004 INDIANAPOLIS -- Officials
have decided to ban corporal punishment in The Indianapolis Public
Schools board voted 6-1 on Tuesday to eliminate a policy that allowed
teachers at the district's 79 schools to use spanking to discipline
students. "It is time for
us as a public educational institution to be a role model and say that
hitting children is not acceptable," said School Board President
Marianna R. Zaphiriou. Supporters defend the
practice a key tool to show children there are consequences for disruptive
behavior. Critics say there are more effective ways to discipline students
and call paddling a negative response to negative behavior. The debate gained momentum
in School Board member
Michael D. Brown, a pastor who cast the lone vote against the ban, said
many parents still support the use of paddling. Five of eight parents
who testified at a hearing on the issue Monday spoke in support of the
school policy, he said. "For those who
believe corporal punishment is not a deterrent, they are not being honest,"
he said. "It is a deterrent. And if they take that away, they are
taking an option away from teachers and parents." That option is being
removed from teachers in an increasing number of districts across the
country. About 90 of the nation's 100 largest school districts have
eliminated the practice, The Indianapolis Star reported. In "It's a national
trend and we're following it," said Pat Pritchett, superintendent
of the Nadine Block, director
of the Center for Effective Discipline in Efforts to ban corporal
punishment have been introduced but never passed the General Assembly. A 1995 revision authorized
teachers and school staffers to "take any action that is reasonably
necessary" to prevent interference with educational missions. Another
law gives parents and guardians the right to use "reasonable"
physical force to discipline a child. Education can be long, hard haul for nation's rural kids
2 hours going, 2 hours
back: By Sam Dillon, New York
Times News Service, May 28, 2004 BLANDING, Lasting nearly two hours,
Mustache's route is one of the longest, dustiest, most bone-rattling
school bus rides in the nation. Bouncing its way along
the washboard roads of the Navajo reservation and a two-lane blacktop
north to Lyman Middle School and San Juan High School in Blanding, a
67-mile trip, Mustache's 24-seater bounces the students mercilessly
and kicks up a dust cloud that showers them with a powder of red clay.
Yet students and driver form a tight community aboard the bus and speak
of the discomforts with stoicism. "It lasts forever.
It's boring," said Chelsie Atene, an 8th grader who climbs aboard
at Mustache's second stop. "But I'm with friends, and a lot of
times it's fun." Every morning 440,000
yellow buses carry 24 million The average one-way
commuting time for "Apparently being
rural and poor is sufficient justification, in practice, to impose long
rides on some young children," Howley wrote. Mustache's long route
here in the southeastern His teenage son, Watson,
and daughter, Evangeline, climbed aboard outside their grandmother's
house a quarter-mile away, looking sleepy. Chelsie and two other students
boarded five minutes later. Over the next half-hour,
Mustache traversed the sandy, one-lane roads of an arid and largely
treeless highland. At one stop, two girls wrapped in Navajo blankets
seemed embarrassed by the presence of a photographer. "Don't take any
pictures," one said. After the last pickup
in that sector, Mustache accelerated to 40 m.p.h., and the bus became
a deafening cacophony of shakes and squeaks. Amid the din, students
remained largely silent. But when Mustache wheeled the bus onto a blacktop
reservation road, the ride grew smoother, the sun streamed over the
Sleeping Ute mountains, and students began to chat. Tyron Wells, a 17-year-old
junior who boarded the bus with his hair brushed up with gel, sat sullen
and quiet. But after 9th-grader Shymaine Miller boarded the bus and
took the seat immediately behind him, he became more animated. Three seats away, Danaman
Begay, a 15-year-old sophomore, sat with his knees propped against the
seat in front of him. He had boarded the bus outside a cluster of one-story
homes where his grandparents and father, a heavy-equipment operator,
keep cattle and sheep as well as turkeys and geese. Outside Blanding, the
blacktop broadened to four lanes, and the roadside sage and tumbleweed
gave way to asphalt parking lots and chain-link fences. Soon the bus
rolled up a slope to the rambling brick buildings of Students clambered out,
groaning. They shook their legs, brushed dust from their clothes, and
headed for classes, which begin at 8 a.m. At Study: 9 out of 10 schools won't meet federal standards
in a decade AP, May 28, 2004 HARTFORD, Conn. -- More
than 90 percent of Connecticut elementary and middle schools won't meet
federal education standards in 10 years, according to a new study commissioned
by the state's largest teachers' union. The Connecticut Education
Association study concludes that the number of schools failing to make
adequate yearly progress under the No Child Left Behind Act will increase
sharply by 2014 as standards are raised and more children are tested,
The Hartford Courant reported. The 2002 federal act,
one of President Bush's initiatives, includes penalties against schools
that are deemed to not be making adequate progress. Besides the stigma
of being labeled inadequate, schools could be forced by the state to
not accept federal funding, implement a new curriculum, offer interdistrict
school choice, add staff or remove the superintendent. Edward Moscovitch, a
private economist hired by the teachers' union to prepare the report,
based his conclusions on current trends in statewide test scores. "By 2009, virtually
all (Title I) schools fail," Moscovitch said in the report. Title
I schools are ones that receive federal aid for poor students. Susan Aspey, a spokeswoman
for the federal Department of Education, criticized the union's report. "It's absurd,"
Aspey said Thursday. "First of all, the goal is that all kids will
be able to read and do math on grade level. This report is saying that
will never happen, so why bother trying." No Child Left Behind's
goals include having all students proficient in reading and math by
2014. Only 19 percent of A school can be cited
for inadequate progress if even one group of students -- such as members
of a minority group, special education students or children from low-income
families -- fails to meet standards. The law requires testing
of children in grades 3 through 8, affecting about 800 schools in Moscovitch predicts
that nearly half the state's schools with children in those grades will
fall short by 2006 and that 93 percent will fail by 2014. Tom Murphy, a spokesman
for the state Department of Education, said current trends suggest that
the teachers union report is accurate. "We have no reason
to disagree with that projection," he said. "It raises the
question whether parents will view their school as deficient or the
law as deficient," he said. Other states, too, predict
high levels of failure. About 45 percent of "It's not surprising,"
he said. "That should be true everywhere in the country, given
the way (the law) is structured." Earlier this year, school
chiefs from more than a dozen states, including Study: By Juan A. Lozano, Associated
Press Writer, May 28, 2004 HOUSTON -- "Parents do need
to watch this in their kids," she said. "What this means is
being overweight is a health risk for kids. Parents need to look at
that as something they need to take some measures to prevent." Researchers collected
data from more than 6,000 students in 30 schools districts and 132 schools
throughout Obesity is defined by
a formula involving height and weight, called the body mass index, or
BMI. A BMI of 18 to 25 is considered healthy. People with a BMI over
25 are considered overweight and those whose BMI is 30 or more are classified
as obese. The Hoelscher said national
figures aren't broken up by specific school grades but the most recent
ones show 15.3 percent of children ages 6 to 11 were overweight, while
15.5 percent of kids ages 12 to 19 were carrying extra pounds. The federal government
has set as a goal of having only 5 percent of school-aged children classified
as overweight by 2010. "We're not close
to that," said Hoelscher, who is also director of the public health
school's human nutrition center. Marilyn Tanner, a clinical
pediatric dietitian at the Washington University School of Medicine
in "Now it's at epidemic
proportions," said Tanner, who also is a spokeswoman for the American
Dietetic Association. "I've had 2- and 3-year-olds come in." The percentage of overweight
students in For Hispanic boys in
all grade levels, Hispanic girls in fourth-grade and black girls in
the fourth- and eighth-grades, the percentage of overweight children
ranged from 23 percent to nearly 33 percent. That's five to six times
higher than national recommendations. Hoelscher said she has
no definitive answers for why Cultural differences
in food choices, body image and exercise could be possible reasons why
minority children have higher rates of being overweight, Tanner said. Company pleads guilty to scamming poor schools AP , NEC Business Network
Solutions Inc., part of Japanese electronics giant NEC Corp., was charged
in U.S. District Court with allocating contracts and rigging bids for
the federal E-Rate program, which is funded by telephone users. Prosecutors said the
Irving-based company inflated bids and submitted false and fraudulent
documents for reimbursement to the federal government for school projects
in Besides a $4.7 million
fine, the company will provide $15.9 million in cash and goods as part
of the agreement. The "This conduct deprived
the E-Rate program of fair and competitive prices, caused the program
to pay for unnecessary and ineligible items, and as a result, prevented
the funding of projects at other needy schools," said R. Hewitt
Pate, assistant attorney general in charge of the antitrust division. The E-Rate program gives
money to schools and libraries so they can install Internet access. "We made mistakes
with E-Rate," said Gerald P. Kenney, general counsel of NEC America,
the unit's parent company in Good Teachers + Small Classes = Quality Education By MICHAEL WINERIP,
New York Times, May 26, 2004 The secret to quality
public education has never been a big mystery. You need good teachers
and you need small enough classes so those teachers can do their work.
Period. After that, everything seems to pale, including the testing
accountability programs, technology, building conditions. Even curriculum
seems secondary, as our best public colleges demonstrate. We have Parents get this. Joe
Gipson, a black parent from Good teachers and small
classes. Those were the two main factors The state must provide
more money, the court ruled, so the city can afford to attract more
good teachers and improve classroom conditions, particularly reducing
class size. Michael Rebell, the
lead lawyer for the Campaign for Fiscal Equity, which brought the suit
on behalf of the city's poor children, says that research has shown
it's hard to attract the best teachers until you have good working conditions.
And the crucial element for good working conditions? "Small class
size," he says. In the original 2001
trial court opinion, Judge Leland DeGrasse put it succinctly: "The
advantages of small classes are clear. A teacher in a small class has
more time to spend with each student. Fewer students mean fewer administrative
tasks for each teacher. Student discipline and student engagement in
the learning process improve in smaller classes." There were 72 witnesses
and 4,300 exhibits for the trial, but as Leonie Haimson, a parent advocate,
says, the most important piece of evidence may have been a single table
showing how much larger classes are in Academic studies show
small class size carries many benefits, even mitigating racial problems
that interfere with learning. A recent study by Tom Dee, a Swarthmore
professor, in "The Review of Economics and Statistics" concluded
that both white and black children achieved more when they were taught
by teachers of their own race. This is bad news for black children since
the vast majority of teachers, even in big cities, are white and the
vast majority of urban children - 85 percent in But there is a hopeful
exception. If classes are small, Dr. Dee found, black children do equally
well with a white or black teacher. "It may be because there's
more personal interaction, less chance for stereotyping," Dr. Dee
said. Market forces tell us
that small class size is worth a lot. Well-to-do parents pay for private
schools with good teachers and small classes. At Horace Mann in the
So what's the obstacle
to small class size? Money, of course. New York's top court did not
specify how much was needed and the politicians have spent the last
year creating committees that have concluded that city schools need
$2 billion to $6 billion more a year in operating funds. Similar cases
in other states have dragged on for years. The Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg
is losing patience, as well he should. Having made his own billions
in the private sector, he understands that quality costs. He estimates
city schools need $5.3 billion from the state in extra yearly operating
funds and $6.5 billion more in construction aid. Smaller class size
requires more classrooms, and many city schools are overcrowded. Which raises the question:
Are we as a people willing to pay the price - are we willing to sign
the social contract - to give city children more good teachers and small
classes? The answer is supposed
to be the federal No Child Left Behind law, passed in 2002. It mandates
that every American child be proficient in reading and math by 2014,
that the achievement gap between white and black be eliminated once
and for all. To do this, President
Bush's budget calls for spending $13 billion for all Title I poverty
schools in At heart, leaving no
child behind is about eliminating poverty's effects. To President Lyndon
B. Johnson, that meant war - a war on poverty - since war is the best
model we have for the kind of mobilization it would take. We understand
that military wars cost; that's why the president has asked Congress
for an extra $25 billion for And for the education
war? All the rhetoric and data are in place for the education war: high
standards, tough accountability, disaggregated data by the truckload.
But financing? No Child Left Behind
is superb at finding fault. It has labeled a third of Blaming public schools,
their principals and teachers for losing the education war feels a lot
like blaming the ground troops for losing the Vietnam War. Are we committed
to an education war? Do we have the will? I fear that the late Walt
Kelly, creator of the comic strip Pogo, had it right: We have met the
enemy and he is us. By Michelle Galley,
Education Week, 5/26/04 A high school teacher
in Zephyr Cove, Michael Kiger, a mathematics
teacher at the 250-student His complaint alleges
that Principal Janie Gray told him that grades for eight youngsters
who were not in his class would be credited to him. "She was attempting
to place these kids under a highly qualified teacher," he said
in an interview last week. There is a "paper
trail" to prove the allegation, he added. The allegations are
currently being investigated by the state. "We are looking
into the issue," said Gloria Dopf, the state’s deputy superintendent
for instructional research and evaluative services. An investigation is
under way at the district level, Ms. Dopf added. "We will have
a short turnaround with a resolution by the end of the school year,"
she said. Ms. Gray, the principal
of the According to the May
11 edition of the Reno Gazette-Journal, Mr. Kiger filed his complaint
in the form of an e- mail in which he wrote: "It sickens me to
go to school each day and know that our school stands for nothing when
the principal and others are allowed to preach that we have the highest
standards and are 100 percent in compliance with the No Child Left Behind
Act." Because Whittell High
is not eligible for money under Title I of the federal education law,
officials at the school do not have to prove that all of its teachers
are highly qualified until the 2005-06 school year. By contrast, schools
that receive Title I aid have been required to ensure that teachers
hired after the 2002-03 school year meet federal definitions for being
highly qualified. An Issue to Watch Ms. Dopf said that even
if the allegations are confirmed, the principal’s actions would not
have had any bearing on the school’s NCLB compliance. "At this
point," she said, "whether their teachers are highly qualified
or not does not count against the school." While many educators
say they are increasingly feeling strained by the law’s requirements,
the incident in "That was the first
example I’ve heard" of a principal allegedly changing school data
regarding highly qualified teachers, said Daniel Kaufman, a spokesman
for the National Education Association. But, because school
districts and teachers are under pressure to comply with the law, such
infractions could become more common, Mr. Kaufman said. "We are on the
cusp of any possible trend," he said. "It is certainly possible
that we will see some unintended effects of the law along those lines."
Illinois State Board of Education |
