Kentucky School News and Commentary

Pruitt's well-intended video

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Day) — Fri, 01 Sep 2017 18:35:00 +0000

Arguing that he understands state government - and that education somehow exists outside of that realm (which is fairly convincing evidence that he doesn't understand state government at all) Education Commissioner Stephen Pruitt made a video appeal to Kentucky teachers to keep a cool head. The gist of his message, though not said directly, was "Please don't retire."

The probability that someone from the governor's (or Ed Secretary's) office asked Pruitt to make such an appeal?: I'm thinking 100 percent. Because, well, you know - politics.

Pruitt lumped the governor's million dollar report in with news reports and Facebook and Twitter comments and called them "conjecture" as opposed to "good information." Pruitt did not specify what good information is, but the governor's report contained specifics and recommended raising the retirement age to 65, freezing pension benefits, and forcing current teachers into a 401(k)-style investment plan, while taking away cost-of-living adjustments that retirees received between 1996 and 2012.

"I've been...around state government for a long time, and one of the things I've learned is whatever's being said prior to a session ...sometimes happens; sometimes doesn't," Pruitt said. By this reasoning, every piece of state legislation is conjecture - right up to the moment it is voted upon, at which time it is no longer conjecture, but it is also too late to do anything about it. The message may have been well-intended, but it came off as a bit condescending.

If, as Commissioner Pruitt says, the pension system has been "a mess for a long time," just how much longer should teachers remain calm? Pruitt says, "It's something that we've got to make sure we are being kept up-to-date on, but it's also a reality that there's gotta be more done to fix it."

This pretext tends to soften the ground for bad news and undermine his other, more supportive, comments about how teachers come to work on days they might prefer to stay home sick, and that teachers are not in it for the money, or the pension, but for the children.

While that is certainly true in a broad general sense, none of us chose the profession so that we could work for free. I am sure that Pruitt showed up for his students. But he would not have shown up day after day if he was not being paid a fair wage. He could not have afforded to. We have families of our own to support. Teacher's salaries are just plain average when viewed nationally - and low when compared to other professions that require advanced education. But the only thing that made underpaying teachers acceptable was the pension system. Now, that is in jeopardy, and failing to maintain a strong system will jeopardize countless future Kentucky teachers and students, as well as the state economy.

This is a time to listen. This is a time to learn. This is a time to speak. This is a time to call the governor and your legislators to fully express your concerns. But this is not a time to be calm and engage in magical thinking to conjure up happy endings.

Raising the revenue required to save the pension system does not presently seem to be part of the governor's plan. Governor Bevin claims that he will save the pension system. But his plan, so far, will only save remnants of it. And our legislature has repeatedly shown that, left to its own devices, it will happily content itself to under-fund the pension system and break its promises to teachers.

Rise up!

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Day) — Wed, 30 Aug 2017 17:39:00 +0000

"We may have to knock them out in order to get them safely to shore,"

-- Gov. Bevin comparing state employees to drowning victims

Following "the policy principles and direction set forth by Governor Bevin and the Commonwealth’s leadership" PRM Consulting Group issued "Pension Performance and Best Practice Analysis. Report #3," this week. None of the recommendations, are good for Kentucky teachers, and creates a situation where existing teachers may not receive promised benefits, while prospective teachers may be persuaded to enter other fields. Meanwhile, approximately 20 percent of Kentucky teachers are eligible for retirement right now.

It used to be that teachers were valued for their dedication and faithful attendance at work. Substitute teachers cannot be expected to be as effective as regular faculty. But unfortunately, remarks by Governor Bevin this week cast dedicated teachers who don't fake illness and waste their sick days during their careers as somehow gaming the system (that was promised to them when they decided to become teachers) and sticking it to the taxpayer. Franklin County Superintendent Mark Kopp called the governor's remark "a cheap shot."

Now, Gov. Bevin is to be commended for taking on the difficult tasks of tax reform and fixing the pension system. His statements that fixing the system will require more revenue are simply true, but too few legislators are willing to utter the words aloud. If we are honest with ourselves we will admit that decades of Democrat leadership could not get the jobs done. But it would be great if the governor's "solutions" were real solutions that kept Kentucky's promises. Anyone can wreck a system by carving out benefits - while declaring the system saved.

As happens when cutting taxes for the rich is seen as a higher priority than providing government services to the people, Kentucky's middle-class and poor kids will ultimately suffer. When the adults in charge fail to deal with long-standing problems the future dims and our standing among the states slumps - perpetuating the notion that Kentucky can't, while many other states can.

If adopted, the pension recommendations, would raise the retirement age to 65 while ending the promise of a pension check - all while freezing the pension benefits of Kentucky teachers. Teachers would be moved into a 401(k)-style investment plan that says how much the state will contribute but is mute on the retirement benefits one might expect a the end of their service to the state.

Ron Richmond of the Kentucky Public Pension Coalition expressed his criticism of the recommendations in a statement to Spectrum News.

“This report was put together by an organization that puts political agendas over data,” Richmond said. “As a state, we must take their recommendations with a grain of salt – their math doesn’t even add up. Other states have made this mistake before and faced the consequences. In the early 1990’s West Virginia switched to a 401(k)-style system for their newly hired teachers after years of underfunding, only to make the situation worse. So much so that they moved teachers back to a defined benefit pension in the mid-2000’s. How PFM could make this recommendation is astounding.”

Gov. Bevin said Thursday the former head of the Kentucky Retirement System should be in jail. If that is true, (it's not) a whole bunch of legislators should be in the cell next door.

It is time for Kentucky teachers to rise up.

This from Robb Smith, Supt, Bellevue Ind. via Facebook:

Dear Governor Bevin,

As a 22-year veteran of Kentucky’s public education system, I have followed with earnest the increasingly dismal outlook provided by TRS forecasters. Allow me to frame this letter with the acknowledgement that our pension system is flawed and/or broken. I know it is. We, the public educators in the state, know it is.

The underlying reasons for the decline in our system are many: legislative neglect, longer life spans, and a recession to name a few. Regardless, the finger pointing need not overshadow the solutions. I can tell you who is NOT at fault—those of us who, in trust and good faith, signed up for a retirement system at the onset of our careers. Please turn your finger away from us.

Robb Smith

My mother began her career in Kentucky public education in 1970 earning a salary of less than $4000. She worked in our great Commonwealth for over 30 years. She is now 68 with lots of life left. She does not live in a gated community, does not drive a fancy car, and does not take lavish vacations. At 21, she knew wealth would never be in her future. She did it anyway.

Following my mother’s example, I signed my first contract in 1995 with a salary around $28,000. This is much less than my friends earned, who graduated college with degrees in other areas, and barely enough to fashion a life of my own. I tell you this not to play the martyr, because I am just one of thousands who agreed to these terms. I tell you this because, like all educators, we knew of the modest life in front of us, and we did it anyway.

You may not know this, but our degrees and our certificates become worthless unless we complete graduate programs. These are mandatory and are at OUR expense. Full-time jobs, involvement in extra-curricular activities at minimal compensation, graduate classes, and trying to start families characterizes a teacher in his or her late 20s and early 30s. Sounds fun, no? We did it anyway.

Mr. Bevin, despite these flaws to public education, generations of Kentuckians have chosen teaching as a profession. The compensation for spending our professional lives giving back to our communities has always been relative comfortability in retirement. Most give over 30 years to the cause and only hope to get 30 more after it is over, albeit at a much lower rate.

There are no absolutes when dealing with humans, but I can confidently say 99% of the people with whom I have worked, and there are hundreds, are not the greed-fueled personalities you have referenced in your speeches. The professionals in our schools are altruistic in motivation and pure in practice. To characterize them as anything else is irresponsible and unjust. To say they are anything but compassionate and dedicated is to distort the truth.

Politics aside, the future of democracy and the sanctity of the Commonwealth rests firmly in public education. There is no tool in the history of humankind greater than our public schools. The services we deliver to our communities ensure opportunities for equality and fairness. You cannot put a price on this investment, Governor.

Behind the brick and mortar facades are schools full of the toughest, most resilient people I have ever known. I am a better educator and person because of these people. There are hundreds of thousands of students who are educated contributors to society because of these people. Despite attacks on our achievement, our character, and our motivation, we persist. Public education is an easy scapegoat. We get it. We knew this going in, but we did it anyway.

As I mentioned earlier, Mr. Bevin, we know the retirement system needs work. Why it needs work is much less important than the bi-partisan effort that it will take to fix it. Let me emphasize that those of us working in public service are neither the problem nor the enemy. If we have to give a little, fine. We have been giving our entire careers. I just ask that you honor the retirement terms we agreed to as beginning teachers and that you involve our organizations in discussions of any potential concessions.

As dire as the situation may be, I am optimistic that a viable solution exists. You have an opportunity here, Governor, to show the nation the fortitude and resolve of the people of Kentucky. I trust that you will take that responsibility seriously and work for the interests of the children and teachers in our public schools.

Sincerely,

Robb Smith
Superintendent
Bellevue Independent Schools

Be afraid. Be very afraid...

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Day) — Wed, 26 Jul 2017 17:45:00 +0000

Advisory council on charter schools gets into the nitty gritty

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Day) — Tue, 25 Jul 2017 15:59:00 +0000

This from the Courier-Journal:

Calling it a "historic day," Kentucky's education commissioner on Monday hailed the first meeting of an advisory council that was created to provide recommendations on how charter schools operate in the Bluegrass State.

This past legislative session, Kentucky became one of the last few remaining states in the nation to add a charter schools law into the books.

And now comes the nitty gritty work of coming up with regulations on exactly how to implement portions of the charter schools law.

"This is new waters for us in Kentucky. Exciting waters, in my opinion," Kentucky Education Commissioner Stephen Pruitt said Monday.

Pruitt told the committee that figuring out regulations for such things as the process for student applications or for how charter schools will be authorized or nonrenewed is the "grinding part" of the process but one that's needed ahead of the opening of any charter school in the commonwealth.

"This is another great opportunity to serve our kids, to give us something else that probably can help a lot of our kids turn a corner because the traditional setting was not doing it for them," Pruitt said.

Kentucky's Charter Schools Advisory Council is meant to provide recommendations to the state Board of Education on a number of things related to charter schools.

The nine-member council was created through an executive order by Gov. Matt Bevin, who also appointed the members of the council. Although Bevin's executive order is being challenged by state Attorney General Andy Beshear, the council met for its first meeting Monday.

The council spent hours going over regulations related to charter school applications, the evaluation of charter schools and process for closing the ones not working, the procedure for converting a more traditional public school into a charter school and how charter school students would apply and be selected.

The group appeared to like the idea of having a uniform student application for all charter schools.

Council chair Wayne Lewis said having a uniform application will help Kentucky track things like which students are and aren't being admitted and what happens to students who apply and get into a school versus those who don't.

The council also had a discussion about the opening of single-gender charter schools and what federal rules there may be for offering something similar for the opposite gender.

The charter school law prohibits charter school authorizers — local school boards or the mayors of Louisville and Lexington — from not approving a charter school simply because it is single gender.

But Kevin Brown, associate commissioner at the Kentucky Department of Education, said it's possible that it may be up to authorizers to ensure that similar options are then made available for the other gender, saying that is what he'd heard when he spoke with education officials in Georgia.

Brown added that he has not further explored the federal government's guidance on this subject and will look into this question more.

The Kentucky Board of Education is expected to take its first look at the draft charter school regulations — as well as recommendations from the charter schools advisory council and other groups — at its meeting next month.

The regulations would have to go through another reading, as well as public comment and other hoops, before being approved. The state expects that the regulations would not go into place until at least January 2018.

Only after the regulations go into place would prospective charter schools be allowed to apply to open in the state. And that means, at the earliest, Kentucky will see its first charter school open in the 2018-2019 school year.

"We’re no longer talking about charters. We’re doing charters," Brown said. "We’re working out the details. We’re down in the weeds. We’re talking about appeals and timelines."

DeVos budget brings class war to the classroom

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Day) — Sun, 21 May 2017 01:42:00 +0000

Under Trump proposal, student loan forgiveness and Special Olympics

would get axed to fund private schools.

This from AlterNet by way of Salon:

President Trump is proposing a massive change in the federal government’s role in education: the diversion of $10 billion from a host of student-friendly programs into federal programs to expand corporate charter schools and vouchers for private schools. As the Washington Post reports:

“Funding for college work-study programs would be cut in half, public-service loan forgiveness would end and hundreds of millions of dollars that public schools could use for mental health, advanced coursework and other services would vanish under a Trump administration plan to cut $10.6 billion from federal education initiatives, according to budget documents obtained by The Washington Post.”
The budget proposal calls for a net $9.2 billion cut to department spending, or 13.6 percent of the spending level Congress approved last month. It is likely to meet resistance on Capitol Hill because of strong constituencies seeking to protect current funding, ideological opposition to vouchers and criticism of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos.

DeVos, a billionaire Republican donor, became a household name during a bruising Senate confirmation battle. With no experience in teaching or school administration, she has had a rocky start to her first government job.

Video

What’s in Trump’s proposed education budget

In January, she was chased away from the first public school in Washington, D.C., that she visited (as seen in the photo above).

Last week she was booed by graduating students while giving a commencement address at Bethune-Cookman University.

DeVos’ Priorities
The Trump budget proposal calls for the creation of a new $1 billion federal grant program under Title I of the Elementary and Secondary School Act (or ESSA, which has been rebranded as the Every Student Succeeds Act), which will allow students to take federal, state and local dollars to their public school of choice. That money would be added to the $15.9 billion that the Title I program will receive under the 2017 budget. Current funding is not “portable” to public schools of choice, according to Education Week.

Noelle Ellerson Ng, associate executive director of AASA, the School Superintendents Association, told Education Week that Congress rejected the idea of allowing Title I funds to follow students to the school of their choice when lawmakers passed the Every Student Succeeds Act in 2015. In general, she said she was deeply concerned about the ssage the budget proposal sends.

“This is the first direct threat on ESSA opportunity and ESSA success,” she said. “President Trump is completely undermining federal funding to support key elements of the law that Congress passed less than two years ago.”

While DeVos champions a school “choice” agenda, her proposal would actually create a federal program that would supersede state and local control of charter schools and voucher programs.

Colorado Rep. Jared Polis, the ranking Democrat on the House subcommittee for K-12, told Education Week the proposal clashed with the intent of Congress in reauthorizing ESSA. “We never set it up in a way so that those funds could be diverted to support private schools,” he said.

Polis also slammed the budget proposal for shifting money away from schools with high levels of poverty to wealthier schools. And he said it would damage prospects for poor students and their families.

“I hope that it is dead on arrival in the House,” Polis said. “Traditionally, presidents haven’t had their way [with the budget]. I hope we keep with that tradition.”

Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, the ranking Democrat on the Senate education committee, issued a statement saying, “This budget would weaken communities by eliminating funding for after-school programs, grant aid for struggling college students and teacher and principal training programs, and so much more—even Special Olympics education programs.”

Charter School Chatter

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Day) — Sun, 21 May 2017 01:29:00 +0000

I was invited to join Tom Shelton and Brent McKim for a conversation on charter schools in Kentucky during a recent edition of Eastern Standard, hosted by WEKU's John Hingsbergen.

Here's the station promo:

Kentucky Charter Schools on Eastern Standard

By John Hingsbergen • May 8, 2017

Host John Hingsbergen sat down with Drs. Richard Day and Tom Shelton in our studio to talk about Charter schools in Kentucky. We also heard from Brent Mckim out of Lousiville and Tiffany Williams from a Cincinnati Charter school via phone.

Photo by Marisa Hempel.

Kentucky’s General Assembly has passed legislation that will allow Charter schools to open as early as next year.

Listen Here: 52:02

On this week’s EST, we’ll learn more about Charter schools and where they’re most likely to first appear in the Commonwealth. Guests on this week's program include:

Richard Day: EKU's Faculty Regent, and Professor at Eastern Kentucky University's School of Clinical Educator Preparation.

Brent Mckim: President of Jefferson County Teacher’s Association: Brent was a high school physics teacher for fifteen years, and has been president of JCTA since 2001. He also lobbies the state legislature on behalf of members and is the chair of the representative council. Brent also serves on the National Education Association’s Committee on Legislation.

Dr. Tom Shelton: formerly Fayette County Superintendent and Executive director of The Kentucky Association of School Superintendents (KASS). Dr. Shelton is also assistant professor of education leadership at Eastern Kentucky University.

We will also be hearing from Tiffany Williams, Principal of the K-6 school at Cincinnati College Preparatory Academy in Ohio, a K-12 Charter school to tell us of the successes of their Charter, which has been educating students since 1999.

Send your questions or comments before the show to wekueasternstandard@gmail.com , or call 859-622-1657 and leave a message, or call in when you tune in for EST Thursday morning at 11:00 on 88-9 WEKU. You can also post a comment or question for our guests regarding charter schools in Kentucky to our Facebook page, or tweet @WEKUEST.

Tax shortfall signals need for reform

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Day) — Mon, 15 May 2017 12:20:00 +0000

This from the Herald-Leader:

There’s been plenty to distract Gov. Matt Bevin and state legislators from the challenging task of reforming the Kentucky tax code.

But with the news last week that revenues are expected to fall over $100 million short of projections by the time the state fiscal year ends June 30 — likely spurring further cuts to an already-bare-bones state budget — reforming Kentucky’s tax code needs to take center stage.

Although he hasn’t set a date, Bevin has indicated he will call a special session on tax reform sometime in the fall. He has asked law firms to bid on writing a new tax code for Kentucky, with a deadline of late September to deliver that document.

But legislators can’t wait until late September to take on something as big, complex, important and politically volatile as overhauling the tax code. And they can’t rely on an outside contractor to write a code that will be fair to citizens and generate enough money to provide government services they need and demand.

Bevin and other Republicans seem taken with the idea of lowering income taxes and increasing sales taxes, which they call consumption taxes.

It’s an approach that has been disastrous in Kansas, where legislators this week are debating a $1 billion tax increase to fill their budget gap, and there’s no reason to believe it could be successful here.

Income taxes account for 43 percent of Kentucky’s revenue. Taking a chunk out could dig a deep hole that would be hard to fill by increasing sales taxes, which now contribute 33 percent of the state’s revenue.

It’s also just not fair. Anna Baumann, with the Kentucky Center for Economic Policy, made this case Monday on KET’s Kentucky Tonight Monday during a discussion on tax policy.

Cutting the top income tax rate from 6 percent to 5 percent, she said, would cut taxes for the wealthiest 1 percent of Kentucky taxpayers by $7,000 a year, while adding another penny to the 5 percent sales tax would increase the total tax burden on 60 percent of Kentucky taxpayers at the lower end of the income scale. And as that lower income majority becomes poorer from that burden tax collections will decline.

Bevin has promised to look at Kentucky’s hundreds of generous tax exemptions (we exempt more taxes than it we collect), claiming “there are no sacred cows.” We agree with the critical exception of the tax exemptions on food and medicine. Kentucky is a poor state; people struggling to survive should not face higher bills at the grocery or drug store. But there is every reason to look at taxing the rapidly growing service sector.

In January, well before he knew there would be a revenue shortfall, Bevin, in his state of the commonwealth address, promised tax reform, including raising more tax revenue. His fellow Republicans didn’t react well then to tax increases and they don’t seem to have warmed up to the idea since.

Rep. Steven Rudy, R-Paducah, chair of the House Appropriations and Revenue Committee, said on the KET panel that if he wants to increase taxes, “it’s imperative the governor sells this to the people of Kentucky and to members of the Kentucky General Assembly.”

Even more imperative, the governor needs to have a tax plan that funds the state adequately without impoverishing even more of its citizens.

ad more here: http://www.kentucky.com/opinion/editorials/article150061282.html#storylink=cpy

Brad Hughes retiring from school boards association after nearly a quarter of a century

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Day) — Mon, 15 May 2017 12:10:00 +0000

This from the Kentucky Press Association:

Brad Hughes

Chances are really good that if you’ve covered education — local primary or secondary schools, or school board meetings — over the last 24 years, you’ve dealt with Brad Hughes.

Now after 24 years as director of Member Support/Communications Services for the Kentucky School Boards Association, Brad has announced his retirement effective June 30.

Whenever a newspaper reporter called me asking a question related to schools, school boards or about the policy on taking pictures of school children while on school property, Brad was the person I always turned to. I knew I was going to get an answer, an explanation of the policy and an invitation to have the reporter contact him if there were further questions. And it was going to be in a true professional manner.

Brad has been the consummate media relations person to deal with, probably all tied to his background as a reporter himself. He knew what reporters sometime faced in doing their jobs and he was more than willing to help them as much as possible.

His 24 years with KSBA followed 10 years in a similar capacity with the Cabinet for Human Resources (today, the Cabinet for Health and Family Services) where he averaged 250 media interviews a week.

He got his experience on the media side of the fence from 1973 to 1983 when he was an announcer/reporter WFKN Radio in Franklin (trained by Tom Caudill, Henry Stone and Stan Portman); announcer/reporter WHOP Radio in Hopkinsville; news director/reporter WKCT Radio in Bowling Green; reporter WBKO-TV in Bowling Green.

You can see he got started back in the “Dark(room) Ages” because in talking about some of the changes he has seen over his career, he mentions having to develop film and using a manual typewriter. (For those younger journalists out there, manual typewriters had no electricity.)

OST: I asked Brad about changes he has noticed in the media, and the way the news about school boards and education in general has been handled?

BH: There are so few education beat reporters today in Kentucky. Combine that with the turnover of reporters who cover schools in many communities, and you have young journalists who are trying to explain extremely complicated education issues, sometimes with – but sadly too often without – the collaboration of local educators. Clearly there are many more media outlets that are no longer bound by a publication or broadcast deadline to post their stories online. A small number of media outlets are doing instant reporting from school board meetings, which I think is great in the cases when the reporters understand what they are hearing and tweeting/posting without the time to ask “What does that mean?” Unfortunately, it’s very easy when listening to a complex presentation on an education matter, not fully understanding what was said, what was meant, and then putting the information out. I’m a big promoter of social media use by schools and government agencies. I wish every school board member use social media to communicate with constituents – as long as they don’t see that as an alternative to working with mainstream reporters and their readers, viewers and listeners.

OST: Since he deals with school board members, local education officials and at the same time professional journalists, I asked Brad if there’s a common theme or complaint from those education officials about the news media.

BH: Well, there are multiple themes. There is a huge lack of understanding how media outlets really work, why this makes “news” and that doesn’t. Everyone loves positive coverage, but many people – school leaders included – tend to remember the negative stories. Turnover – both in terms of school leaders and reporters – works against building trusting relationships. School officials in communities with multiple public school systems and a single newspaper are constantly doing a comparison of coverage – perceived positive versus negative, features, news release pickups, sports stories, standalone photos. And not enough public school systems have dedicated communications.

I’m blessed to be able to teach a lot of classes on media relations to public officials and agency staff around Kentucky and several times a year in other states. I often wear a t-shirt from the Newseum in Washington, D.C. imprinted with the message, “Trust me. I’m a reporter.” And I try to use those 44 years as a journalist – 10 as a mainstream journalist and 34 in what I call ‘public affairs journalism’ – to increase understanding about how news is gathered, about professionalism and credibility needing to be earned by both sides of an official/journalist relationship, and how to deal with mistakes on both sides. Errors happen but can be reduced when a superintendent or board member or district spokesperson makes it known that they are willing to take a call anytime to clarify. I hope I can continue to do this kind of training for many years to come with KSBA and other groups. On a really good day, a superintendent, board member or principal mentions remembering my training about creating a message or avoiding “No comment,” and I’m on top of the world.

All that said, I see about 200 education stories a week, and sometimes I just stare at the computer screen, wondering “What?” The vast majority of stories in Kentucky newspapers are well-written. But I find too many that leave me wondering who failed to ask a question or to offer an explanation. I’ve come to learn that a story that’s either flat out wrong, partially in error or just confusing can be just as much to blame on the side of the information provider as on that of the story writer.

I do wish I could have educated Kentucky newspaper reporters and editors that it’s the Kentucky School BoardS Association, not the Kentucky School Board (no ‘s’) Association. If I had a dollar for every time I’ve had to correct that (and I do know sometimes the information comes wrong from school folks), well, I could have retired many years ago. And that’s no joke.

OST: When Brad took the position with KSBA, he was the perfect choice. Can you imagine putting an educator in a position of dealing with the media on a daily basis? That’s why one of Brad’s observations (2) is so on point:

BH:

1)      Relationships – not friendships – are crucial between local officials and local journalists. There always will be another story.

2) The best public affairs people have been reporters. Having met a deadline, got a clarification, wrote a correction, told a story in limited seconds or copy inches makes all the difference.

3)      Some of the nicest comments I’ve heard since my retirement became public came from reporters and editors I’ve worked with for years – even a few for decades. It proves point No. 1.

4)      Being married to one of the best newspaper reporters I ever competed against and hands down the finest copy editor I’ve ever worked makes me a debtor to journalism for the rest of my life.

OST: And 4) led to the obvious question: Has Judy (his wife) given you a list of “Honey Do” jobs now that you’re getting close to retirement?

BH: When Judy isn’t helping University of Louisville researchers and reporters who need an expert on this topic or that issue, she’s an incredible basket weaver. Two-time Grand Champion of the Kentucky State Fair. She hasn’t created a Honey Do list, but mine includes being her “Reed Roady” for weaving classes around the country.

I’ve appreciated the working relationship with Brad, going back to the days he was communications director for the state cabinet. Whatever we were discussing, whatever question I needed to ask him to help a newspaper reporter, Brad was always the same. Mild-mannered, professional and understanding.

Kentucky projects $113 million revenue shortfall

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Day) — Tue, 02 May 2017 21:43:00 +0000

This from the Courier Journal:

Kentucky’s budget director is predicting the state will suffer a $113 million revenue shortfall when the state’s fiscal year ends June 30.

The new projection by state Budget Director John Chilton means the state's precarious budget outlook is a bit worse than expected and will likely bolster Gov. Matt Bevin's push for a special legislative session to reform the state tax code and pension system.

If the projection proves accurate, it will require Bevin to direct budget moves to assure that - as required by the Kentucky Constitution - the fiscal year ends with a balanced budget. However, a $113 million shortfall from $10.6 billion is not so deep as to require drastic spending cuts - particularly because the state "rainy-day" fund will provide some protection.

Chilton made his projection late Monday in a quarterly economic and revenue report posted on the budget office’s website. The report said tax receipts to the state General Fund fell 3.2 percent during the third quarter of this fiscal year compared to the third quarter of the prior fiscal year. And through the first nine months of the fiscal year, revenues have grown at just 1.2 percent compared to last year, although the state budget requires a growth rate of 2.7 percent, Chilton reported.

Though some recovery is expected in the final quarter, Chilton's report projects “a current-year revenue shortfall of $113.2 million" on June 30.

The General Fund collects revenues from most state taxes and pays for most state programs including education. The report blames the projected shortfall on weaker-than-expected performance so far this year of the two biggest taxes: the individual income tax revenue grew at 2.4 percent through the first three quarters, and the sales tax grew by just 0.6 percent.

The General Assembly sets rules for Bevin to follow in taking steps to balance the budget. And in such situations, governors can tap the state’s reserve "rainy-day" fund, which currently has a balance of about $235 million. However, one rule lawmakers put into the state budget is a provision that no more than 25 percent of the balance of that reserve fund be used to help balance the state budget at the end of this fiscal year.

While a $113 million shortfall can likely be met without much immediate pain, it adds urgency to concerns over the state's revenue outlook and strengthens Bevin's case for the need for tax reform.

The governor has said he will call a special legislative session for later this year to address both tax reform and pension reform. Bevin has said the unfunded liabilities of state pension funds (officially reported $38.7 billion, but Bevin says the outlook is much worse) present a major financial crisis and both the tax system and pension system must be reformed to address it. Bevin has not specified when he plans to call the session later this year.

Monday's quarterly report had better news for the state Road Fund. This fund, which collects revenues from the gas tax and sales tax on vehicles and spends it on road maintenance and other transportation needs, is projected to take in $1.5 billion this fiscal year, about 1.2 percent more than the current-year budget requires.

Public Regional Colleges Never Die. Can They Be Saved?

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Day) — Tue, 02 May 2017 18:00:00 +0000

It’s possible to imagine a future iteration...that looks and operates

less like a collection of independent public universities and more

like a system of branch campuses.

This from the Chronicle on Higher Education:

You don’t need a Ph.D. to understand the math that spells trouble for public higher education in many states. Typically, the number of high-school graduates is projected to decline by X percent in the coming decade, and state support has dropped by Y million dollars since the recession with little sign of ever rising again. Meanwhile, the number of four-year regional comprehensive universities remains constant, an inflexible
denominator.

The numbers are plain, but solutions remain elusive. Comprehensives are the workhorses of a public higher-education system, awarding the bulk of bachelor’s degrees and providing educational opportunities in all corners of a state. But certain corners of many states are home to institutions that have been hemorrhaging students and struggling to balance their budgets.

Pennsylvania is one of those states. Nine of the 14 institutions in the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education, known as Passhe, have suffered double-digit percentage drops in fall enrollment since 2009. (Only one, West Chester University, in a Philadelphia suburb, has seen steady annual increases during that period.)

Enrollment at Clarion U. of Pennsylvania has dropped nearly 29 percent since 2009.

In January, the system announced the first ever full-scale review of its universities and the system over all, which Frank T. Brogan, the chancellor, says is unsustainable in its current form. "The Board of Governors pretty quickly made the case that everything should be on the table. What got most of the attention was the word ‘closure,’" he says. But neither he nor the board want to take that route: "Sustainability is a more complicated approach, and I think a more powerful approach." A State Senate committee will also conduct its own independent review of the system later this year. Passhe’s is slated to be completed this summer.

What can be done, in Pennsylvania and in the growing number of states that are being forced to reckon with their comprehensive-university systems? Universities, even wobbly ones, are complex and substantial organizations sunk into the bedrock of their communities, their regions, their states. It may be nearly impossible to close one. And so some leaders are looking for ways to keep colleges alive, by carving out niches for them in the marketplace or by merging and consolidating, as has happened in Maine and Georgia.

But are such efforts transformational enough, or are they just a way of rearranging the deck chairs? And what will public comprehensive universities look like on the other side?

Whatever happens, it’s probably high time, says Karen M. Whitney, president of Clarion University, a Passhe institution. "We are," she says, "in a moment of reformation."

Some Passhe institutions are not waiting for the results of the two reviews to try to improve their fortunes, and they’re using a strategy being employed by colleges everywhere: finding a distinctive competitive niche. It’s a remarkable shift for institutions designed to be "comprehensive."

But significant transformation is not unknown at an institution like Clarion, according to Ms. Whitney. Since its founding in 1867 in the small Western Pennsylvania hilltop town from which it takes its name, Clarion has been a private Methodist seminary, a commonwealth normal school, an independent public university, and, since 1983, a Passhe institution. "Each of those reformations came with a shift of development in our mission and why we exist," she says.

The latest shift has been sparked by a serious enrollment decline. Clarion’s fall enrollment dropped from 7,346 students in 2009 to about 5,224 students last year, a decrease of nearly 29 percent.

For Clarion to rebound, it must focus on what its students want, Ms. Whitney says. And those preferences are clear: About 80 percent of Clarion’s students enroll in its business, health-care, or education programs. "I am not going to ignore 80 percent of our students," she says. "We’re moving from a broad-based approach to being all things to all people to what I’m going to call a distinctive mission."

The university recently expanded its health-care offerings with a nursing B.S.N. program, and she says she’s encouraged by the trends in applications and admissions for next fall. Ms. Whitney adds that in five years, if all goes well, she expects the share of its students enrolled in professional degree programs will have topped 90 percent.

Meanwhile, fall enrollment at Mansfield University, in rural north-central Pennsylvania, dropped from 3,569 to 2,198 since 2009, a decrease of 38 percent. It is planning to increase its appeal to students by shifting its role away from a straightforward comprehensive university toward a liberal-arts institution at a public-education price point, including ambitions to suffuse its existing professional and pre-professional programs with "liberal-arts-type tenets," says Brig. Gen. Francis L. Hendricks, the president. Mansfield isn’t making a left turn from its mission, he says, "it’s just a matter of playing to our strengths."

Edinboro University, in the commonwealth’s northwest corner, is responding to losing about 28 percent of its fall enrollment between 2010 and 2016 by identifying four academic program areas on which to refocus its resources, including its arts and digital entertainment program, among other pre-professional tracks.

Emphasizing certain things leads to de-emphasizing others. As Clarion’s nursing offerings have grown, disciplines such as philosophy and history have dwindled to a handful of faculty of each. At Edinboro, programs that are less in demand by students may have to be cut, says H. Fred Walker, the president. "What we’re being asked to do right now is become responsive to the changing economy," he says. "That’s a healthy thing."

While leaders at some Passhe institutions may be setting a new course for their universities, those courses may be reversed by the recommendations of the looming system reviews. Five years from now, Clarion might have staked out its niche funneling students into careers in hospitals, small businesses, and schools. Or the system might have steered it in an entirely new direction. Or it might be shuttered.

But Ms. Whitney and other Passhe presidents agree that something must be done. Whatever happens, she says, "the worst thing that can happen is that nothing happens."

In the abstract, closing faltering institutions makes some sense. In reality, it’s all but impossible.

"Devastating" is a common response to questions about the possible effects of a closure. Clarion University, for example, is the largest employer in Clarion County. It is an economic and cultural driver in a poor region where the population and the manufacturing base that once employed it have both trailed off in recent decades. If Clarion closes, "you just basically say, ‘We’re shutting down Clarion County,’" says Jamie L. Phillips, a professor of philosophy and chair of the Faculty Senate at Clarion.

If the region is to rebound, it needs Clarion more than ever, says Mr. Phillips, who has worked there for 18 years. About 86 percent of the university’s students come from within 200 miles of the campus, and Clarion represents one of the few options for higher education in the immediate region. "Take that away from them, and what’s left?" Mr. Phillips says. "There’s nothing."

But the truth is that public colleges almost never die. The only commonly cited example of a stand-alone quasi-four-year public college that has been shut down is the University of South Dakota at Springfield, a small technical college that mostly offered two-year programs until it closed in 1984. (It was soon converted into a state prison.)

Even killing off a failing branch campus can be an agonizing process. Partly because of a $30-million cut to state support, the University of Connecticut system last year closed its campus in Torrington, where enrollment had dwindled to about 150 students even as it climbed at all five other UConn campuses. System officials spent a year in discussions about the necessity of the move with the Board of Trustees, state and local elected officials, and students and community members, says Sally M. Reis, the system’s vice provost for academic affairs.

But still there were objections, which were both practical and quirky. Torrington residents insisted to the board that it stay open, even though many of their own children had enrolled at UConn campuses elsewhere, Ms. Reis says. Community members suggested revitalizing the campus with a new manufacturing emphasis, even though nearby community colleges provided such training at a lower price. Some fretted publicly about the fate of the library’s in-house cat. (It found a new home before the campus closed last May.)

Suggested closures not only alarm local communities, they’re political poison. Each endangered university sits in some representative’s or senator’s district, and there’s "lots of downside for the people who represent those areas and not a lot of upside," says Iris Palmer, a senior policy analyst for education policy at New America, a former Department of Education official, and an expert on public higher-education policy.

If states actually wanted to close institutions, Ms. Palmer says, it would help to have something like the United States military’s Base Realignment and Closure process, which is designed to make holistic, impartial decisions about closing defense installations, "to right-size these systems and do it well."

Since closing universities often isn’t a realistic option, several systems have considered campus mergers and other kinds of consolidation. That can take the form of sharing or pooling some business functions with other institutions, or merging two separate campuses under the same management and leadership.

Some struggling Passhe institutions are already sharing services with their peers in order to increase efficiency and reduce their costs. Cheyney University, a historically black institution outside Philadelphia that has seen enrollment drop by more than half since 2010, now outsources most of its business functions to nearby West Chester University. Mansfield University, which is handing over many of its business functions to the larger Bloomsburg University, about 90 miles away, will save the former money "so that we can protect the primary mission," says General Hendricks, the president.

Mr. Brogan, the system chancellor, says he suspects that consolidations could be a part of how the system moves forward after the reviews "Our system has up until quite recently been very much an every-man-for-himself operation," he says, with many of the same basic functions reproduced 14 times over. "They just don’t have the money to do that. More importantly there is no longer the necessity to do that."

Other states have taken similar tacks. The University System of Georgia, for example, has merged 14 institutions over the past six years in an effort to improve academic opportunities and cut costs. Maine has also looked to mergers to help adjust the scope of its system of seven public four-year institutions to serve a shrinking population of 1.3 million.

The University of Maine system announced in March that it would merge its coastal Machias campus, which enrolls fewer than 800 students, with its flagship campus in Orono, about 90 miles away. The Machias campus had been struggling to maintain its enrollment — fall headcount shrank from 863 in 2011 to 786 in 2015 — and years of budget shortfalls had led to numerous staff cuts. "It had really become hollowed out," says James H. Page, chancellor of the University of Maine system. "That’s a strong term, but it really had."

The system’s Board of Trustees considered closing the campus, but ruled it out. "Would you take one of the last anchor institutions out of a region to save five, six, or seven million dollars, which would probably be a quick back-of-the-envelope net savings from something like that?" Mr. Page says. "And the answer is, you would not."

Because of Orono’s size and relatively good financial health, it can perform back-office functions far more cheaply than Machias can. The flagship can also offer the smaller campus services that it hasn’t had money for in several years, according to Mr. Page, including marketing and enrollment assistance. There are also academic synergies woven into the merger. Orono students and faculty will gain better access to Machias’ marine research facilities and teaching opportunities, while Machias could gain more students and access to more research funding. If Machias gets back to more solid footing as part of Orono, Mr. Page says, it might be able to strengthen itself, and its region, again.

Still, the old model of individualized universities has presented barriers to efficiency, and difficult questions. The system has a cybersecurity program taught on three different campuses. Do students have to enroll in three different universities? What about the differences in fees from campus to campus? And then there’s accreditation. The New England Association of Schools and Colleges accredits individual institutions, not systems, Mr. Page says.

Consolidations also may not be the silver bullet, financially, that many hope they are. While merging campuses can save money for a system, the savings typically come from layoffs of employees made redundant. "Saving that money will result in people losing their jobs, and some legislators are going to fight very hard to preserve jobs in their district," says Thomas L. Harnisch, director of state relations and policy analysis at the American Association of State Colleges and Universities. While closing or consolidating some offices can result in savings, many merged institutions still maintain two physical plants, two sets of faculty, and many administrators. Mergers are increasingly popular options, but "it’s an open question to how much money will ultimately be saved at the end of the day through these campus consolidations," Mr. Harnisch says. (It’s difficult to gauge the extent of savings in Georgia; the University System of Georgia did not respond to interview requests before press time.)

Yet, despite the uncertainties, Passhe, the University of Maine, and other systems may be peering over the lip of a new era of public higher education, where the autonomy and distinct identity of individual universities is redirected to a focus on delivering education to students as efficiently as possible. "The real question in all of this is, How do you use the collective assets of the institutions to serve students wherever they are?" says Dennis Jones, president emeritus of the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems, or Nchems, a nonprofit organization that advises colleges and systems on higher-education policy, and which is conducting the review commissioned by Passhe. Looking at the situation with a student-centric focus, rather than an institution-centric one, moves the conversation away from which individual universities might be closed or merged and toward how those universities operate and collaborate to provide education to students — which may have to be reconceived, he says.

It’s possible to imagine a future iteration of Passhe that looks and operates less like a collection of independent public universities and more like a system of branch campuses.

Each state’s political realities shape what’s possible in rethinking, and possibly reconfiguring, a large public university system. They are especially daunting in Pennsylvania.

No overarching office or organization coordinates its higher-education policy. Reforming that policy is the sort of complex and potentially contentious political task that’s going to take an official who "wakes up every morning and thinks that solving Passhe and its issues is my everyday job," says Mr. Jones. "The problem in Pennsylvania is that nobody does that, because there’s nobody that’s charged with that."

There are many issues to solve, some of the stickiest falling well outside the control of Passhe’s Board of Governors. Penn State University, the flagship research university, now has 24 campuses located throughout the commonwealth, all of them vying for many of the same students who might attend Passhe universities. Thanks to its laissez-faire approach to higher-education strategy, "this state has created an inherent competition even within the competition," says Mr. Brogan.

Passhe leaders also say that the system’s union contracts have made it tough to maintain their institutions’ sometimes shaky bottom lines. Mansfield University cut its labor force by almost 7 percent last year to help close a projected $8-million budget gap, says General Hendricks, the president, only to be hit with increased labor costs from a new faculty contract: "We watched all that water that we bailed out of the boat come right back in."

The system’s labor agreement with faculty also contains limitations on dismissing or reassigning professors that may make it difficult to substantially shift how its universities deliver instruction in a revamped Passhe.

But Passhe’s problems have nothing to do with its unions, according to Kenneth M. Mash, president of the Association of Pennsylvania State College and University Faculties, known as Apscuf, which represents the system’s faculty. The financial straits affecting many of the system’s institutions stem from crumbling state support (only about 24 percent of Clarion University’s annual operating budget now comes from the commonwealth, for example), and from bad choices made by the leaders of individual institutions, he says. "It’s easy to say that this university or that university is failing, but is it really failing, or are the conditions such that it just can’t succeed?" he says. He adds that union-contract strictures provide an important check on "business mentality" decisions about the course of Passhe’s universities. System leaders "should be required to justify why what they’re doing is necessary," he says.

In the end, resolving these complications — or even electing to face them — comes down to political will. "You can do a great review, you can do a great study," Mr. Brogan says. "But if the powers that be don’t want it to happen, it either won’t get off the ground or it will crash and burn immediately after takeoff."

The state’s elected officials are ready to shake up Passhe, according to David G. Argall, a Republican state senator. The enrollment statistics for the system convinced him and many of his legislative colleagues that the status quo can’t endure. Mr. Argall was the lead sponsor of the measure that called for the Senate Legislative Budget and Finance Committee to review Passhe. The committee’s review will not be completed until months after Passhe’s review, but Mr. Argall says he’s "hopeful that they come up with very similar answers. This way we can say to everyone we have looked under every rock, we’ve asked every possible question."

Even if there is consensus among decision makers, Mr. Brogan says he expects that there will be objections, opposition, and arguments over what happens to Passhe and its institutions. He hopes that all parties to the discussion can put their own turf concerns aside and think about the bigger picture. The outcome of this process could determine not only the fate of 14 universities, their faculties, and their students, it could set the course for higher education in Pennsylvania for future generations.
"This thing’s going to long outlive the chancellor," Mr. Brogan says. "It’s going to outlive any of the 14 presidents. It’s going to outlive most of the people in the General Assembly. And therefore it needs to be designed with the best interests of those to come."

Lee Gardner writes about the management of colleges and universities, higher-education marketing, and other topics. Follow him on Twitter @_lee_g, or email him at lee.gardner@chronicle.com.

Career Readiness and State ESSA Plans

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Day) — Tue, 02 May 2017 14:03:00 +0000

This from Terry Holliday in CTE Policy Watch:

I recently reviewed the Every Student Succeeds Act plans from the 17 states (including DC) who have submitted their plans for review by the U.S. Department of Education. Of interest to me were the measures that states are using to identify college and career readiness. I also researched the draft plans of the other 33 states and if they did not have a plan available, I looked at the existing state accountability model.

What I found is very interesting. During the NCLB era, there were very few states who utilized a measure in the state accountability model for college and career readiness. Kentucky and Louisiana were among the very few states to have actual measures of college and career readiness included in their models. Based on my quick review, 25 states will have measures of college and career readiness in their new ESSA state accountability model. 10 states are continuing to discuss the inclusion of a measure and 16 states do not have any plans for college- and career-ready measures.

Why the change in state measures? Some part of the change is due to the public perception of the “honesty gap.” For years, high school graduation rates have been improving. The United States currently has the highest graduation rate in the history of the nation—over 80 percent. However, the postsecondary remediation rate in some states is over 70 percent of high school graduates. This means that a high school diploma does not validate that a student is academically prepared for college credit-bearing courses. Also, the research has been very clear that many of America’s high school graduates are not prepared for entry level academic and/or technical programs that lead to jobs that pay a living wage.

States have been responding to these concerns. Council of Chief State School Officers and numerous other national and regional organizations have been responding to the “honesty gap” issue and one of the strongest policy responses is to include college and career readiness in the state accountability model.

However, there is a growing concern with the models that I have seen to this point. Most states have been using a “menu” model for state accountability. Schools will be held accountable based on the percentage of students who choose among menu options. The menu of college and career indicators usually includes student performance on Advance Placement, dual credit courses, International Baccalaureate exams, WorkKeys, SAT, ACT, Accuplacer, completion of a CTE course of study, ASVAB, and industry-recognized certifications. These measures are good measures, however, there are some potential pitfalls that states should avoid or we will find that many students are pushed toward measures that are seen as “lesser than” measures and most of these are aligned with the career-ready label.

“Career ready” should be a measure that ALL students who graduate from high school have obtained. Whether a student is preparing to become a surgeon or obtain a two-year technical credential, ALL students need to have academic preparation equal to the requirements of entry-level postsecondary courses. While some students will focus primarily on the academic measures, many students will already know that they have an interest in a career area and these students should have an opportunity to gain the technical skills that will give them advance credit and preparation for their future studies.

The bottom line is that career readiness needs to be something all students strive for as a graduation measure and must include measures of both academic and technical skills. College readiness should be a subset of career readiness and only ensures a student is academically prepared to enter postsecondary credit bearing courses. If the career-ready measures used by our states are a “lesser than” model, then we will continue to perpetuate the myth that “career-ready courses are for those other students and not for my students.” Our nation has a perception problem when it comes to career education in high school and we have a great opportunity to address that problem with the ESSA accountability models. If readers want to see a few states that have good models of career-ready measures, I refer them to the Delaware, Tennessee and Louisiana plans that can be found at www.ccsso.org/essa.

This guest piece was written by Terry Holliday, former commissioner of the Kentucky Department of Education and current board chairman of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. Dr. Holliday was also ACTE’s 2016 Champion of the Year, and continues to play an active role in education at the national level through involvement in projects like New Skills for Youth. We are pleased to share his insights into ESSA implementation*!

Changing the World - One Heart & One Mind at a time

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Day) — Tue, 18 Apr 2017 16:04:00 +0000

A nice statement on diversity and unity at EKU...

This from President Michael T. Benson in EKU Magazine:

As our country emerges from a historic, albeit fractious, election season, I have thought many times in recent months about unity.

And I am always reminded how our University blends the unique gifts and talents of students, faculty and staff from all corners of the globe to our mutual benefit. We call it unity in diversity.

For many of our students through the years, especially the last half century, the Richmond campus was their first substantial exposure to others of a different race, nationality or faith. Maybe it was a professor, a classmate or perhaps even a roommate. Whatever the context, fear soon gave way to acceptance and deep-seated suspicion to a once unimaginable trust, and all came to understand that unity didn’t mean conformity but, rather, our common bonds as human beings and a shared purpose.

Have Colonels always seen eye to eye? Of course not. They didn’t in the turbulent 1960s, and they don’t today. But I know many readers of this magazine could tell heart-warming accounts about how their exposure to different cultures opened not only their minds but their hearts. I know because you have shared with me many such stories. Two articles in this magazine tell how some of our students’ lives were changed forever as they shared a love of music or served others in international settings. Another tells of a social work graduate who used her Eastern education to change lives all around the world.

Back home, we have all come to see that our community is at its best when it focuses on what unites us, rather than divides us; fosters a spirit of inclusion that celebrates individuals and their ideas; and honors the value of service. Among those uniting forces are the campus traditions that have linked generations of Colonels, such as rubbing Daniel Boone’s toe for good luck. Other traditions, such as freshman beanies, have not survived, but remain vivid memories for thousands of alumni. You can read about some of our most cherished traditions, past and present, in another article in this issue.

A recent addition to our Campus Beautiful was the setting in August for what I hope will be a new campus tradition: the passage of each freshman class, in its entirety, through Turner Gate. Our newest landmark, on the west side of campus, is distinguished by four simple but profound words — Wisdom and Knowledge on the side facing Lancaster Avenue, Purpose and Passion on the other — that describe what students come here seeking and what they acquire during their studies to use for the betterment of society.

Then, for our many “legacy” students, Eastern is a family tradition. It’s not unusual at all to meet current students who are the latest of several generations of their families to attend. What better testament to the enduring value of the Eastern Experience!

Through any period of change, whether on a national scale or in higher education, we can all take great comfort in the fact that Eastern continues, as it always has, to change the world, one mind and one heart at a time.

And that, friends, is our best campus tradition of all.

Michael T. Benson
President, Eastern Kentucky University

SCOTUS could clear roadblocks to School Vouchers

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Day) — Tue, 18 Apr 2017 15:06:00 +0000

“No portion of any fund or tax now existing,

or that may hereafter be raised or levied for educational purposes,

shall be appropriated to, or used by, or in aid of,

any church, sectarian or denominational school.”

-- Kentucky Constitution, @ Section 189

This from Morning Education:

The Supreme Court on Wednesday is set to hear a case that could have huge implications
for school voucher programs. At issue is an 1875 provision of Missouri's Constitution banning public money from going "directly or indirectly" to religious groups, including schools. Similar provisions, called Blaine Amendments, exist in roughly three dozen states and have been a major barrier to school vouchers. They've also proved resilient, surviving numerous state ballot repeal efforts - including an unsuccessful Michigan initiative pushed by Education Secretary Betsy DeVos nearly two decades ago.

Religious groups see this and a related Colorado case as their best shots at scrapping the amendments - and they believe Neil Gorsuch, who just took his seat on the high court, will take their side. They point to Gorsuch's deference to religious rights in other cases. Most notably, while on the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals, he backed a religious challenge to the Affordable Care Act - joining the panel's majority in the Hobby Lobby case to rule that the Obama administration could not require a closely-held business to offer contraceptive coverage if that interfered with the owners' religious beliefs - a decision later upheld by the Supreme Court. In another case, he ruled that a Wyoming prison had to provide a sweat lodge to a Native American for his religious practices.

Court watchers believe Gorsuch might cast a tie-breaking vote since the court had apparently delayed arguments in the Missouri case until they had a ninth justice. "The justices have likely seen this as a case on which they would have been divided four to four," said Stephen Wermiel, a constitutional law professor at American University. "They must expect that Gorsuch will be the deciding fifth vote."

There is a chance the case could get tossed out . The case hinges on the state's denial of Trinity Lutheran Church's request for a grant to reimburse the cost of resurfacing its preschool playground with recycled tires. State officials said the Blaine Amendment prevented it from aiding the church in any way. But late last week, Missouri's newly elected Gov. Eric Greitens, a Republican, announced that he has directed the state agency to consider religious organizations for such grants. The parties on both sides must submit their views by noon today on whether the the announcement makes the legal dispute moot. Even if the justices dismiss this case, they could soon hear the same issues in a pending Colorado case in which the ACLU and Americans United for the Separation of Church and State claim a school voucher program violates the state's no-aid clause.

Kentucky Leads the Nation in School Turnaround, Says National Study

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Day) — Fri, 14 Apr 2017 14:43:00 +0000

This from Debbie Wesslund in Public School Citizen:

While the legislature debated public schools this year, a significant accomplishment went mostly unnoticed: Kentucky was singled out as uniquely successful in school turnaround.

The Kentucky Board of Education (KBE) got this news in February, delivered by Dr. Susan Lusi, President and CEO of Mass Insight, a national group that focuses on education reform.

“As national experts in school turnaround, we see Kentucky as a leader in establishing a system of continuous improvement,” said Dr. Lusi. “We talk about turnaround being dramatic, systemic and sustained, and we believe in many ways, Kentucky has achieved this.”

While school turnaround efforts often don’t work, they do here, she said. In January, a separate evaluation of the Obama administration’s school improvement grant (SIG) program called it a failure, and that report made big national news.

“That’s not what we see in Kentucky,” said Dr. Kelly Foster, head of the Office of Continuous Improvement and Support at the Kentucky Department of Education (KDE). But, she added, “You can’t just get handed a bunch of SIG money and immediately be successful.”

Kentucky broke the mold, Dr. Foster says, because “we believe in a continuous improvement model in our work. We try to be reflective and always improving. It is important to build sustainable systems.”

So, this isn’t a story about test prep drills yielding quick one-time results; it is a lesson in building systems that support student learning.

As bureaucratic as that might sound, a systemic strategy is key. Think of it using the phrase coined during early space flight: “all systems go.” It means that you’ve looked into every area critical to overall performance.

Just as NASA develops a solid system, then checks all the boxes before blastoff, that’s what Kentucky developed – an “all systems go” strategy for Kentucky’s schools.

Kentucky was judged using what Mass Insight has designated as the crucial components that must be strong in a state-level system to impact low-achieving schools – from diagnosing weaknesses, to staffing and training and involving families.

It praised the historic Kentucky Education Reform Act along with the state laws and policies that followed to support education reform, which have “created a culture of continuous improvement and clear theory of action to assist focus and priority schools.” It said there is a clear and strong accountability system for all schools that spells out how and when KDE offers support.

Furthermore, it commended the department’s strong commitment to working directly with its low-achieving schools, focusing on three key priorities: academic focus, school culture and use of data. These have been coined the “Big Rocks.”

KDE and school/district leadership roles are clearly defined in school intervention, with resources provided for diagnostic reviews, explained the researchers, along with school leadership development assistance and implementation of the Baldridge continuous improvement model.

Mass Insight said KDE has received adequate resources over the years to address school performance, but questioned whether there would be enough for future work. And it pointed out the challenge of effective staffing, but recognized Kentucky’s attention to this issue and its efforts in employee training and retention in struggling schools.

Dr. Lusi said that of the low performing schools receiving state support and exiting priority status in Kentucky, 74 percent are performing at a proficient level or above. Schools are designated as “priority” based on various measures including test scores and graduation rates.

And in March, there was more good news with the exit of Louisville’s Valley High School from priority status. It has now met its improvement goals for four years straight, with a graduation rate of just shy of 80 percent. That consistent upward trend indicates “all systems go” in how the school operates.

The report says public support has been key to our success so far. “Over the years, a consensus emerged that schools should be preparing students for college and the workforce. The expectation was that school improvement would help Kentucky produce more skilled workers to compete in the future, with school accountability a key strategic priority. A changing political environment, however, has made this work challenging.”

With implementation of a new federal law – the Every Student Succeeds Act – and the new state law – Senate Bill 1, the report says, “It is important that KDE finds a way to maintain its commitment to continuous improvement during the transition and ‘stay the course.’”

The consensus that emerged years ago to support all Kentucky’s public schools is still essential to continue the systemic reform that has made a solid difference.

That public support depends on us to get the message out about the record of public education excellence in Kentucky. Citizens will more likely support investing in something that has shown to be a success.

So, next time you hear someone criticize public schools, this is a story to tell. Kentucky leads the national in school turnaround.

You can read the report by going to the link within KDE’s press release.
http://education.ky.gov/comm/news/Documents/R%2017-019%20KBE%20meeting.pdf

Could Kentucky's charter school law be unconstitutional?

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Day) — Wed, 05 Apr 2017 20:17:00 +0000

UK law professor Scott Bauries is right about the current legal climate, but remember, the climate at the time of the Rose case was hardly hospitable to judicial solutions - so much so that the Supreme Court ruling was shocking to legislators who had forgotten they were in charge of the schools.

I'm also dubious about challenging charter schools based on funding. Maybe it has a shot, but I don't see the angle.

I am more aligned with Senator Neal who debated specific points from the Rose decision related to an efficient system of schools. Any ruling would have to be considered in light of the definition of an efficient system as detailed in the Rose decision.

This from the Courier-Journal:

Charter schools are finally allowed in Kentucky, but legal experts and advocates say it's only a matter of time before the law permitting them is debated in court.

Kentucky's Republican-controlled legislature passed House Bill 520 last month, and Gov. Matt Bevin quickly signed it into law, championing charter schools as an innovative approach to helping at-risk children who are falling behind in class. Many Democrats, however, cautioned that charter schools will sap money and students from struggling public schools.

Todd Ziebarth of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, which was "intimately" involved in the effort to pass this kind of legislation in Kentucky, said pretending the state's existing education system is equal for all students is "baffling." But he expects the new law's detractors will go to court in hopes of having it declared unconstitutional.

"I would be stunned if they didn't challenge it," Ziebarth said. "I just see it as a desperate attempt by those who oppose charter schools to do anything possible to prevent them from coming to the state and serving kids."

But Democrat Ray Jones, a state senator and attorney from Pikeville, believes a constitutional challenge to Kentucky's charter school law has a shot at success. "And I would be more than happy to help challenge this," he told the Courier-Journal.

Rob Garda, a law professor at Loyola University New Orleans, said it's a "longshot" that Kentucky's charter school law will be declared unconstitutional.

Charter schools are new to Kentucky but not to the U.S., and more than 40 states permit them. Garda said only one case — a lawsuit in the state of Washington — has succeeded in getting a state supreme court to declare a charter school law entirely unconstitutional.

Even that 2015 ruling hasn't wiped out charter schools in Washington, Garda said. Instead, the legislature tweaked the way it funds those institutions, which also has been challenged in court.

Legal challenges to charter schools usually focus on how they are paid for, he said. A case in California in 1999 tried but failed to have charter schools deemed unconstitutional irrespective of their funding methods.

In New Orleans, charter schools took off after Hurricane Katrina struck in 2005, he said. The first five years or so were dominated by political debates over the concept, but the city's public school system is on track to eventually become comprised completely of charter schools.

"We are way past the argument of whether charter schools should exist," Garda said. "Once we did turn our attention away from 'How do we eliminate charter schools?' to 'How do we make this work?' it resulted in huge improvements."

During the Kentucky Senate's debate over the charter school law last month, Jones explained why he believes the measure could be found unconstitutional in the commonwealth.

In a massive 1989 decision, the Kentucky Supreme Court declared that education is a fundamental right under the state's constitution, Jones told his colleagues. That case, Rose v. Council for Better Education, led to major reforms after the court deemed the state's school system unconstitutional.

The Supreme Court ruled that the state legislature must adequately fund an efficient system of common schools throughout the commonwealth, Jones said. That's where he thinks charter schools could run into legal trouble.

"I do not believe that charter schools are permissible under Kentucky's constitution if it takes one penny away from our common schools that are already underfunded," he said. "It is unconscionable and immoral for us to leave any child in a school that is failing, and that is exactly what will happen if you create a system of charter schools in Kentucky."

Constitutional challenges to charter schools are tricky, said Scott Bauries, a University of Kentucky law professor. The Rose case dealt with widespread underfunding of the state education system, he said, and the precedent it set may not be strong enough to invalidate an experiment like charter schools that moves government money around but doesn't underfund the system as a whole.

"Charters have been such a big hot-button political issue in Kentucky for so long that it would be hard for me to believe that somebody wouldn't file a lawsuit to challenge that current legislation," Bauries said. "I think it's certain it will be challenged. I don't think it's likely the challenge will succeed."

The Rose ruling came down at a time when the commonwealth ranked dead last on many educational measures in the U.S., but since then Kentucky's lower courts seem to have "lost their taste for adjudicating school funding suits," he said.

"We're just not really in that kind of constitutional moment right now," he said. "And I doubt that the legislature is as receptive to a decision like that as they were in 1989."

Mendell Grinter graduated from the Jefferson County Public Schools district and went on to found the Tennessee-based Campaign for School Equity, which encouraged Kentucky lawmakers to pass the charter school law.

He disagreed with the argument that charter schools are unconstitutional in Kentucky and would make the education system unequal by taking money and students from traditional schools.

"A JCPS-authorized charter school is going to be a JCPS public school," he said. "I don't think that it is going to destroy the system."

At this point, Grinter said Kentuckians should focus on figuring out how to implement charter schools effectively.

JCPS board chairman Chris Brady said many districts are awaiting direction from the Kentucky Department of Education on what the next steps for charter schools will involve.

Brady questioned the idea that everyone should forget about taking legal action and focus on making the law work as well as it can. The "kumbaya moment" should have happened when the bill was being crafted, he said, but the people developing it didn't appear too interested in school boards' recommendations.

"It seemed that there was really not an open door for suggestions on this," he said. "I think that there are certainly some grounds to challenge the law. As to who will go forward with that, I don't know at this time."

Although he has concerns about Kentucky's charter school law, he said Jefferson County's school board hasn't had a collective discussion about the measure's legality.

Lawmakers pass comprehensive education reform bill

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Day) — Thu, 30 Mar 2017 18:42:00 +0000

This from Ronnie Ellis in the Richmond Register:

Kentucky lawmakers gave final passage to another round of major education reform Wednesday which is aimed at changing how schools are held accountable for student achievement and how teachers are evaluated.

Senate Bill 1, sponsored by Sen. Mike Wilson, R-Bowling Green, will eventually replace Common Core academic standards with standards developed by Kentucky educators and approved by the state board of education.

New standards will be developed by local and state educators with help from postsecondary educators and guidance from political appointees of the governor and legislative leaders. Common Core will continue in use until the new standards in each discipline are adopted.

This bill will increase the post-secondary readiness of Kentucky graduates, and it significantly impacts every classroom and future generations of Kentuckians, according to Wilson.

It also gives more control to local school boards in devising plans to turn around poor performing schools and training teachers. Another aim is to align curriculum in public schools with postsecondary education and revises and simplifies accountability assessment.

Wilson often refers to the bill as the “let teachers teach bill” and contends it will significantly reduce paperwork, reporting and testing preparation for teachers so they can concentrate on instruction.

Wilson has tried to pass earlier versions of the measure in previous legislative sessions only to see it pass the Republican-controlled Senate but die in the Democratic-controlled House. But two things changed: Republicans captured the House in the November elections and Wilson reached out to education groups for their input on changes to the bill this year.

Ultimately, the latest version of the bill gained the support of the Kentucky Education Association, the Kentucky School Boards Association and others.

The bill requires regular review of the academic standards and assesses school success on data such as graduation rates.

Kentucky's Charter Challenge

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Day) — Thu, 30 Mar 2017 17:30:00 +0000

This from Sara Mead at US News and World Report:

Earlier this week, Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin signed legislation enacting the state's first charter school law – making the state the 44th in the country to allow establishment of these independently operated, free public schools of choice. National charter advocates hailed the legislation, which will allow districts in the state to begin considering applicants from prospective charter operators starting in the 2017 to 2018 school year. The new law is the result of years of advocacy and legislative efforts: Bills to allow charter schools have been filed in the Kentucky General Assembly since 2008. But the passage of this legislation doesn't mean the fight is over – in fact, the hard work is just beginning.

In the increasingly polarized debate over public education in the United States, supporters and opponents of charter schools alike often speak in broad generalizations, hailing charter schools as creating high-quality options for students, or criticizing them as opening the door for creeping privatization. The reality, however, is far more complex.

Experience and research in the 43 states that already have charter schools illustrate that charter schools can live up to both the best of what their proponents promise and the worst of what their detractors fear. Moreover, what charter schooling looks like varies tremendously across states and communities. Stanford University researchers found Rhode Island charter school students gained 86 days more learning in reading than peers in traditional public schools, while those in Nevada learned 108 days less.

What determines whether a state's charter schools perform like those in Rhode Island or those in Nevada – and what might this mean for future charter schools in Kentucky? As I've learned in researching and working with charter schools in several states over the past two decades, it's complicated.

Clearly, public policies – particularly but not exclusively state charter laws – play a role. Kentucky's charter law incorporates some lessons from the past 25 years' experience with charter schooling that may help support charter quality. For example, it requires charter school authorizers – who play a crucial role in approving charter applicants and holding them accountable for their performance once approved – to adhere to policies and procedures consistent with national professional standards for authorizing. It also prohibits creation of virtual charter schools, whose performance has been disastrous in many states.

But a review of charter school performance across states and cities suggests that laws and policies alone can't account for variation in results – nor are they sufficient to ensure charter school quality. Other factors, such as the quality and will of charter school authorizers; the presence of strong human capital pipelines; the ability to attract and cultivate great school leaders and operators; and the presence of robust ecosystems of philanthropic funding and support services for charters, also play a crucial role – as do idiosyncratic features of state and local contexts that are hard to quantify.

Some conditions in Kentucky, such as a history of commitment to standards-based education reform, could support creation of quality charters. Other conditions are more mixed. A requirement that charter schools employ only certified teachers, for example, could make it difficult for charters with innovative models – such as Montessori, bilingual, and personalized learning-focused schools – to attract or cultivate the talent they need. The state's law gives primary responsibility for authorizing charter schools to local school districts, while also providing for repeal of district decisions to the State Board of Education. This approach has enabled charter growth in places like California, but relies on districts' willingness and capacity to be good authorizers – which can be hard if districts have limited capacity or view charters as competitors. The law also allows Mayors in Louisville and Lexington to choose to become authorizers. Partisan polarization around charter schools could also create challenges.Ultimately, ensuring that Kentucky's new law actually creates great schools for kids will require a combination of actors to work together, including talented educators and leaders with vision to create new, high-quality schools; district leaders and mayors committed to being quality authorizers; philanthropic funders willing to invest in cultivating new school, authorizer and sector capacity; and advocates willing to maintain pressure for charter autonomy and quality. Most immediately, the legislation charges the State Board of Education to promulgate regulations to support implementation of the new law, and what those regulations look like will influence how statute plays out in practice.

Numerous advocates and organizations, including the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce, the Kentucky Pastors in Action Coalition, Greater Louisville Inc., the Foundation for Excellence in Education, the Campaign for School Equity, the National Association of Charter School Authorizers and the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, worked to enable the passage of Kentucky's charter legislation. These organizations can't afford to rest on their laurels now, however. Now they must keep working to cultivate and attract great school founders for Kentucky; support authorizers in implementing quality practices; and broaden the coalition of support for charter schools.

First charter school applications could come in early 2018

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Day) — Thu, 30 Mar 2017 16:33:00 +0000

This from Brad Hughes at KSBA:

Kentucky Education Commissioner Stephen Pruitt has a goal to have the regulatory

process on House Bill 520 – the charter school law -- completed by the end of this year, allowing applicants to begin approaching local boards of education and/or the mayors of Lexington and Louisville in early 2018.

Pruitt and staff of the Kentucky Department of Education will give district officials insights into the law and its related procedures during an April 4 webinar. Other laws passed by the 2017 legislature also will be addressed during the event.

As HB 520 had no emergency clause, the new law signed by Gov. Matt Bevin on Tuesday didn’t take effect immediately. However, Pruitt told the KSBA eNews Service this week that KDE staff already are at work on the complicated regulation-writing process.

“We won’t wait until the law takes effect in July. We’ll start developing the regulations now, but the formal regulatory process can’t start until a little later,” Pruitt said.

“We’re still working on the timeline of the regulatory process, but obviously we can’t afford to let grass grow under our feet, so we’re going to get going as fast as we can,” the commissioner said. “It takes about six months to get a regulation passed, but when that time frame starts depends on how long it takes us to get (the draft regulation) written.”

Along the way of the six-month process to final regulations, the department must conduct a public hearing, allowing questions to be raised or sections to be challenged. KDE staff consider the comments and produce an analysis for the Kentucky Board of Education. The KBE must have two readings on the proposed regulation, which also must be considered by the General Assembly’s regulatory review committee and the Interim Joint Education Committee.

Pruitt said, “Our goal will be to have the regulation completed by the end of 2017, so applications could be considered next spring if any charters are to open in the fall of 2018.”

The commissioner said the April 4 webinar will be designed to give district officials a solid foundation of understanding about the new law.

“It’s just going to be about what’s in the bill. We want to make sure that the accurate information is out there about HB 520,” Pruitt said.

Typically, KDE records its statewide webinars and archives them on the agency’s website for viewing by those unable to participate live.

Betsy DeVos’s “School Choice” Fallacy

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Day) — Fri, 24 Mar 2017 12:09:00 +0000

“Undermining public education is not a choice,”

---Senator Patty Murray

This from the New Republic:

Patty Murray (L) and Betsy DeVos (R)

As Senator Patty Murray tells it, Luke was a middle-school boy who used a private school voucher program to attend Manatee Learning Academy in Bradenton, Florida. He did well at Manatee, but when he tried to switch schools for tenth grade, he realized his credits wouldn’t transfer since Manatee—unbeknownst to him and his family—lacked accreditation.

“For all those glossy voucher program brochures,” Luke’s grandmother Nadell Northrop wrote in a Medium post for the American Federation of Teachers, “nobody running the program bothered to mention that schools taking voucher students didn’t have to be accredited, and their teachers didn’t have to be certified.” And so, instead of repeating a grade, Northrop’s grandson simply dropped out of school altogether.

“Luke was a good student,” Murray said Wednesday in a speech at the Center for American Progress. “We failed him.”

Murray’s point, as she also explained in a Wednesday memo to her Senate colleagues, was that Education Secretary Betsy DeVos’s school privatization agenda will hurt lots of students like Luke. And the senator, a Democrat from Washington state and the ranking member on the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, wants her colleagues to start making this case more aggressively, as DeVos ramps up her advocacy for school vouchers nationwide.

The central appeal of DeVos’s school privatization agenda is the notion of “school choice”—that students trapped in failing public schools, many of whom are minority kids, should have the opportunity to choose a public charter or private school that will, ostensibly, provide them a better education. It’s a powerful narrative for President Donald Trump and Republicans, allowing conservatives to cast their policies as a form of social justice—the free market in service of civil rights.

But Murray pointed out that the path to privatization ultimately hurts the very students it’s intended to help. “On its face, providing students with more choices sounds great,” Murray said, “but that is not what their plans would do. By diverting taxpayer funds from public to private schools, we are taking away parents’ and students’ choice to go to a quality public school.”

“Undermining public education is not a choice,” she added. “It means forcing students to either attend an unaccountable private school or an underfunded public school.”

On accountability, Murray pointed out that opting for a private school over a public school can often mean a choice no student should have to make—foregoing federal civil rights protections, including those provided under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. As excellent as many private schools are, others aren’t held to the same standards of accountability and transparency as public schools, such as standardized reports to parents about their child’s performance.

Murray also noted that vouchers and other privatization efforts are especially detrimental to students in rural America, home to many of President Donald Trump’s own voters. In these areas, there are less likely to be private options anywhere near public schools, rendering the notion of “choice” irrelevant to families. Murray also stressed the fundamental problem with all privatization schemes: They divert funding from public schools, which educated 90 percent of American students.

Advocates of the DeVos agenda point to polling showing “school choice” is popular with Americans in the abstract. Democrats must explain that vouchers typically fail to provide better educational opportunity and undermine a vital public institution. By following Murray’s lead, they can make clear that the choice provided by privatization ultimately isn’t a very good choice at all.

JCPS: $40M 'mistake' found in salary study

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Day) — Wed, 22 Mar 2017 22:43:00 +0000

This from Allison Ross at the Courier-Journal:

“It's a very long study and it was a very detailed and complex undertaking.

There were a lot of moving parts to it.”
--Carolyn Long, MAG vice president

Jefferson County Public Schools said Tuesday that it has discovered that a controversial salary study that was released in April has a major mistake that made it seem that the district was paying a lot more in "premium" salaries than it is.

In April, the state's largest school district released information from an outside contractor that said in part that JCPS was paying between $52 million and $66 million in "premium" salaries for certified administrators and classified staff – non-teachers – when compared to similar school districts around the country.

But on Tuesday, Superintendent Donna Hargens said that Virginia-based Management Advisory Group International Inc., which conducted the salary study, had "grossly overestimated" the salaries that JCPS paid to non-teacher employees compared to other benchmark school districts.

Instead of spending $50 million or more in "premium" salaries for non-teachers, the figure is closer to $10 million to $14 million, Hargens told the school board Tuesday.
"To say that this district is outraged is an understatement," Hargens said. "This study caused employees to feel unvalued and underappreciated. It also caused significant stress between employees at different levels. A $40-million mistake by MAG is unacceptable. MAG owes the district, its employees, this board and this community an apology."

The release of the salary study in April —as well as a district discussion about the idea of not giving step raises or cost of living increases in the 2016-17 school year for any employee making more than $14 an hour as "market reconciliation" — caused immediate outrage among JCPS employees and others in the community.

JCPS employees staged massive "walk-ins" at numerous district schools in the spring to show their outrage over the salary study and other issues.

JCPS paid MAG $192,000 for the salary study. It is unclear whether JCPS will be getting any refund. The salary study began in December 2014 and was made public in April 2016.

Hargens on Tuesday referenced communication between the district and an attorney for MAG — even quoting part of a letter from MAG's attorney that she said showed that MAG takes responsibility for the error.

A JCPS spokeswoman on Tuesday evening said she did not immediately have a copy of the letter that Hargens referenced.

"We are exploring our legal options regarding MAG," spokeswoman Allison Martin said.
JCPS has known about the error since January, Chief Financial Officer Cordelia Hardin said, saying that the district has been going back and forth with MAG since.

When asked if the error was contained to non-teacher salaries, Hardin said she wasn't sure and that her focus was on the non-teacher part of the study.

"We're not going to make any changes based strictly on that report," Hardin said.

Board member Chris Kolb noted that "prominent voices in our community" have been using the numbers in the salary study to push for policy changes — an apparent reference to former board chairman David Jones Jr., who has been saying JCPS could free up money for roughly 1,000 more teachers or employees by revamping JCPS' salary structure.

Board chairman Chris Brady said that he is "deeply disappointed" to learn of the mistake, saying he believes it did "real damage" in the district. He thanked the district for finding the error.

“The math just didn't make sense for $50 million.”

Brent McKim, president of Jefferson County's teachers union
However, Brady said that a salary study was needed for the district, which had not had such a comprehensive compensation review since 1979.

Brady said the district is looking at its options in its contract with MAG, but noted that "it may cost more than it's worth to seek some kind of restitution."

Brady said he was "almost not surprised" by the discovery of the error, because the numbers in the salary study didn't seem right to him.

Brent McKim, president of the county's teachers union, had the same sentiment, saying he had long been saying that it didn't seem feasible that JCPS was so significantly paying employees above the averages of comparable markets.

"The math just didn't make sense for $50 million," McKim said. He added that "What's surprising is they make an error this big and take this long to find it. ... This has disrupted many people's lives and caused a great deal of stress."

And this:

JCPS contractor: Study still good despite error

The contractor that compiled a salary study for Jefferson County Public Schools admits its error made it seem the district was paying a lot more in "premium" salaries than it actually was, but said the error was limited to a supplemental report and does not negate the entire study.

"There was one error in one report, and we took responsibility for that," said Carolyn Long, vice president of Virginia-based Management Advisory Group International Inc., which conducted the salary study.

Long said the roughly $40 million error was in some extra information her firm provided as a courtesy in an addition to the original report on salaries that JCPS had requested. She said that JCPS has "conflated the error in the ancillary" file with the more than year's worth of work her company did for JCPS.

"It's a very long study and it was a very detailed and complex undertaking," Long said. "There were a lot of moving parts to it."

Still, the revelation of the error on Tuesday caused a new round of furor this week over the controversial salary study that was originally released in April.

"That salary study hurt us during contract negotiations," said John Stovall, president of the local teamsters union. "(Is JCPS) going to come back and renegotiate raises because this salary study was flawed?"

In April, the state's largest school district released information from Management Advisory Group that said in part that JCPS was paying between $52 million and $66 million in "premium" salaries for certified administrators and classified staff – nonteachers – when compared to similar school districts around the country.

But on Tuesday, Superintendent Donna Hargens said an error meant that MAG had "grossly overestimated" the salaries that JCPS paid to nonteacher employees compared to other benchmark school districts.

Carolyn Long, Exec VP

“It's a very long study and it was a very detailed and complex undertaking.

There were a lot of moving parts to it.”
--Carolyn Long, MAG vice president

Instead of spending $50 million or more in "premium" salaries for nonteachers, the figure is closer to about $14 million, Hargens told the school board Tuesday.

At issue was apparently a miscalculation — which MAG said was caused by a "computational error" — that caused some employees' annualized salaries to be misrepresented.

For instance, a spreadsheet given to the Courier-Journal by JCPS Chief Financial Officer Cordelia Hardin shows the example of an intervention specialist whose annualized salary was calculated at $164,563 instead of $117,816.

When the salary study was initially released in April, the findings —as well as a district discussion about an idea of not giving step raises or cost of living increases in the 2016-17 school year — caused immediate outrage among JCPS employees and others in the community.

In the spring, JCPS employees staged massive "walk-ins" at numerous district schools to show their outrage over the salary study and other issues.

Stovall said the initial release of the salary study caused employees to feel undervalued and underappreciated for the work they do. He said that now, his members feel like the error is a "slap in the face."

Ron Richmond, political director for the regional chapter of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, agreed.

Richmond said more than 4,000 of his union's members were "directly impacted by this miscalculation" and said he hopes JCPS will take action over the flawed results.

JCPS paid MAG $192,000 for the salary study. The salary study began in December 2014 and was made public in April 2016.

In a Feb. 22 letter, an attorney for MAG told JCPS that the company "completely, professionally and credibly completed the contractual requirements at issue," saying that the report with the error was provided to JCPS as a courtesy.

JCPS on Tuesday said it was exploring its legal options regarding its contract with MAG.
The question now is on what, if anything, JCPS plans to do to alter its salary structure. Hargens said that the error in the MAG calculations was found in January as the district was working on figuring out options for a future compensation structure.

Angie Moorin, a member of the community advisory team that looked over and provided recommendations based on the salary study, said it is hard for her to wrap her head around the error found in the report "because I think about the fallout that came about because of that (study)."

“You can't make good decisions with bad numbers.”

-- Angie Moorin

She said the discovery of the error "changes the urgency of addressing" the issue of restructuring JCPS salaries. She said that she still thinks there are better ways to allocate some of JCPS' money, but said the initial numbers provided by MAG about the "premium" salaries made it sound like "there was this spigot that was wide open that needed to be addressed."

Moorin noted that "you can't make good decisions with bad numbers" and wants to learn more about any other potential issues with the study.

Former JCPS board chairman David Jones Jr., who has been saying JCPS could free up money for roughly 1,000 more teachers or employees by revamping JCPS' salary structure, said he was "appalled that there could be an error of this magnitude."

But it doesn't change the fact, he said, that JCPS needs to do something different in restructuring to find more money to put in classrooms.

"There is some very very hard work ahead on restructuring the organization and on finding the resources that are required to get the (district's) strategy funded," Jones said.

Matt Bevin signs charter schools bill into law

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Day) — Wed, 22 Mar 2017 18:15:00 +0000

This from the Courier-Journal:

Gov. Matt Bevin signed the hotly debated charter schools bill into law on Tuesday, according to the online legislative record.

Bevin's signature on House Bill 520 comes as no surprise, because the governor made the bill authorizing charter schools in Kentucky his top priority in the latter part of the legislative session, testifying for it before both the House and Senate education committees.

The bill was vigorously debated throughout the legislative session and in its final form ultimately passed the Senate 23-15 and the House 53-43.

It will allow local school districts as well as the mayors of Louisville and Lexington to authorize an unlimited number of charter schools, the first of which are not expected to open until the 2018-19 school year.

Proponents say charter schools will give some parents the choice to send their children to a school that better serves their children's needs and can boost the performance among poor and vulnerable students. But opponents say the new law will take money from underfunded traditional public schools and does not explicitly require charter schools to target underprivileged students.

The General Assembly also passed a bill which would transfer state and federal education funds to cover the costs of students at charter schools. But that bill, House Bill 471, was not yet signed by Bevin, according to the online legislative record as of mid-day Wednesday.

Over at the Prichard Blog!, Susan Weston has been ferreting out the budget for charters and estimates (using 2106-17 numbers) that the average per student allocation would be somewhere around $7,178.

$4,672 as the average per student from SEEK base and add-ons
$758 as the average per student from categorical programs
$1,603 as the average three particular benefits listed below*
$7,178 as the average per student combining all those sources

*$1,027 per student for school employee health insurance
$574 per student for certified employee retirement
$2 per student for employee life insurance
$1,603 per student for the three kinds of benefits

RELATED:GOP blindsides Democrats with surprise bill to fund charter schools

► Kentucky, stand up for your public schools | Ravitch
► Why I was wrong about charter schools | Hornbeck
► Charter schools equals a lack of control
► Charter schools bill has 80% shot of passing, lawmaker says
► JCPS board: Mayor Greg Fischer 'blindsided' us with charter schools stance
► School boards group opposing current charter bill

KY law would allow student groups to discriminate against LGBT people

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Day) — Tue, 21 Mar 2017 16:02:00 +0000

This from The Hill:

Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin (R) has signed legislation that would allow student organizations at the commonwealth’s public schools and colleges to bar gays, lesbians and transgender people from joining, opening a new front in a national battle over so-called religious freedom laws.

The law, Senate Bill 17, will allow students to engage in religious activities and to express religious views in public schools and in their assignments. It would also allow teachers to include lessons about the Bible in discussions of religion and history.

The legislation stems from a 2015 decision to remove references to Jesus Christ from a student production of “A Charlie Brown Christmas.”

But LGBT rights groups assailed the new law, which they say codifies legal discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. One provision of the law allows student religious groups to set their own rules for membership, which LGBT rights groups say is a path to discrimination.

“No student should fear being excluded from a school club or participating in a school activity because they are LGBTQ,” said Sarah Warbelow, legal director at the Human Rights Campaign. “While of course private groups should have the freedom to express religious viewpoints, they should not be able to unfairly discriminate with taxpayer funds.”

The bill passed both the state Senate and state House with broad bipartisan support. Just three state senators and eight House members voted against the new law.

The Kentucky law is one of about 100 measures advancing in legislatures across the country that gay rights groups warn would allow discrimination. Kansas legislators passed a similar measure granting student groups the right to limit membership last year.

Kentucky is one of a handful of states that is considering an ordinance similar to North Carolina’s controversial H.B. 2, which prevents transgender people from using the restrooms of their choice. Other states, like Arkansas and Alabama, are considering measures that would permit adoption agencies to block gay and lesbian couples from taking in children.

Educators take governor to task for criticizing motives of “those who have failed to deliver in schools”

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Day) — Tue, 21 Mar 2017 15:33:00 +0000

This from Brad Hughes at KSBA:

More than 600 people have signed an online petition calling on Gov. Matt Bevin to apologize for saying opponents of charter school legislation were lying and questioning their motives during testimony earlier this month before the House Education Committee.

Dottie Miller, a retired Kenton County teacher and former president of the Kenton County chapter of the Kentucky Education Association, created the petition using the Change.org website. As of noon today, the petition has collected 657 signatures.

“The teachers and the retired teachers of Kentucky demand an apology for your tirade against us, our professional organizations and legislators who stood up for public education,” Miller said in describing the petition. “Calling us liars and making unfounded accusations about our motives while testifying to the House Education Committee is beyond the limits of civility.”

The petition may be seen here.

During a March 3 House Education Committee hearing on House Bill 520 – the charter school enabling legislation that passed both houses of the General Assembly last week – Bevin blasted opponents of the bill – without ever using the word “teachers.”

“The argument that this is somehow a threat to our public education system is a lie. It is not correct. It is a scare tactic. It is meant to preserve the status quo,” the governor said.

“I’m personally disgusted by the fact that the people who oppose this so adamantly continue at every turn – in between texting – to be passionate about what? About power. About money. About the transfer of dollars. It’s not about the students to any of those who are opposing this bill. This is not a threat to anything except failure. It is a threat to those who have failed to deliver in certain school districts and in certain schools in particular. Those who think that they are beholden to the very unions that are trying to desperately to maintain power and are answering to those people who are trying to curry favor, that is not what this is about,” Bevin said.

Miller’s petition came to the attention of eNews Sunday while examining dozens of comments in response to a letter to the editor of the Lexington Herald-Leader from Wolfe County Schools Director of Pupil Personnel Ernie Whisman.

In the letter, titled “Bevin insulted teachers,” Whisman also takes issue with Bevin’s characterization of educators for their opposition to House Bill 520, which awaits the governor’s signature.

“Gov. Matt Bevin, a fanatical proponent of charter schools in any form, responded angrily to educators across the state who opposed House Bill 520. He accused them of being opposed because their focus is on money, not their students,” Whisman said. “How incredibly insulting.”

“Perhaps Bevin is unaware that countless educators across the state routinely spend their own dollars to feed hungry students at school events, pay for school supplies or buy Christmas presents for needy children. Judging by his comments, it seems unlikely that Bevin knows that countless educators serve as community volunteers, often spending their own dollars to buy sports equipment, tickets for trips or pizzas for a group dinner. It is just as unlikely that he is aware that educators spend countless hours after school working at basketball games, chaperoning dances or volunteering for youth league sports,” he said.

“I worked in public education for more than 22 years and have witnessed more acts of making kids’ lives better with no expectation of return or reward by teachers, staff and administrators than I could list. Bevin’s remarks are not only rude and offensive but also totally out of touch with reality. I am not sure which is worse,” Whisman concluded.

As of Monday afternoon, Whisman’s letter was among the top trending articles on the Herald-Leader website, with approximately 90 almost exclusively supportive comments posted in reaction.

Clock running out on neighborhood schools bill

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Day) — Thu, 09 Mar 2017 17:13:00 +0000

This from the Courier-Journal:

Time is growing very short in the 2017 General Assembly for the controversial bill to allow children to attend the public school closest to their home.

Although Sen. Dan Seum, the champion of the so-called "neighborhood schools bill" in the Kentucky Senate, said earlier this week a new version of the bill would make compromises – primarily that the bill would apply only to grade schools – some key senators said Wednesday they still have concerns.

And the bill is not on the agenda to be considered at Thursday's meeting of the Senate Education Committee.

Sen. Dan Seum

"I think the feeling is that bill is going to languish. I don't think it will move," said Sen. Alice Forgy Kerr, a Lexington Republican who is on the Education Committee. "There's a feeling that we need to be concentrating on the charter schools bill, I know my thinking is that we ought to keep our focus on charter schools."

But Seum said Wednesday he's working to secure votes for the bill in the committee. "I think we still have a very good chance of that happening," he said.

House Bill 151 passed the House on a 59-37 vote two weeks ago. Since then it has been awaiting consideration by the Senate Education Committee. Sen. Mike Wilson, the Bowling Green Republican who chairs that committee, said Wednesday only that the bill is not on his committee's agenda for Thursday, and he referred all other questions about the status of the bill to Seum.

The bill would require school boards across Kentucky to give priority for school assignments to students who live closest to a particular school starting with the 2019-20 term, although it includes exceptions for certain situations and for places like magnet schools. If the nearest school is full, the district would give that child priority for assignment to the next-closest school.

Several senators said they've heard from a huge number of opponents of the bill from Jefferson County who say it could harm black and low-income students, give rise to the return of segregated schools and cause a logistical nightmare.

The Education Committee is comprised of three Democrats and nine Republicans. And it takes seven of the 12 committee members to approve a bill and send it to the Senate floor.

Most Democratic legislators oppose the bill, but support among the committee's Republicans is uncertain. Kerr said she is "probably leaning against the bill." And Sen. Max Wise, a Campbellsville Republican on the committee, said he is opposed.

Six Republican members of the committee said they had not taken a final position on the bill, most of them noting that they had yet to see the substitute bill that Seum described in interviews early this week as restricting the bill to apply to only grade schools.

"I hate to comment on a bill I haven't seen," said Sen. Jimmy Higdon, R-Lebanon. "...If nothing else comes out of this, it has at least started a lot of conversation about the need for change in Jefferson County."

Sen. Stephen West, R-Paris, said, "I see both sides of the issue. We had busing to desegregate – and that was good and helped with the constitutional issues Louisville had at one time. But there's something to be said for a child going to the closest school and not having to sit on a bus for two hours."

Wednesday was the 26th day of a legislative session that can last no more than 30 days. Seum said if the committee does not take up the bill Thursday, he hopes the committee will meet Monday to do so.

"We still have about four or five working days to get this thing on the agenda. It ain't dead yet," he said.

Bye Bye to a Bad Regulation

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Day) — Wed, 08 Mar 2017 22:32:00 +0000

Quite possibly the worst idea to come out of corporate school reform was the notion that teacher education programs could be scientifically evaluated based on the performance of their "grandstudents" - that is to say, the test scores of students who were never taught by the college faculty and who never attended the teacher education program being evaluated, but rather the students of former students from the teacher prep program.

I can say with certainty that there is absolutely nothing a college could have taught one of my new teachers that, as the principal, I could not trump on the very first day of employment. Teachers in our schools are not responsive to their former professors, but they had better follow the dictates of the school administration.

The desire to understand the value added by Teacher Ed programs is certainly understandable. But there is no one-to-one-to-one correspondence that exists here. If teacher education programs were in charge of a particular school, and its principal, then perhaps. But short of that, measuring the performance of grandstudents is a totally invalid approach and endorsing it is on some level, anti-scientific. When we know that particular piece of data is unreliable and invalid, we ought not use it. But CAEP pressed ahead with its Standard 4.1 anyway, and the Obama administration adopted it in its teacher prep rules.

Now it appears the Republicans are poised to get rid of the rule. They've got this one right. Good riddance.

This from Morning Education:

Two Obama-era education regulations appear to be going the way of eight-track tapes and pay phones. The Senate is expected to pass measures today that would scrap one regulation designed to hold schools accountable under the Every Student Succeeds Act, and another that governs teacher preparation programs. Republicans have long claimed the regulations are examples of federal overreach in education. They are using the Congressional Review Act to get rid of them, and President Donald Trump has indicated he will sign the measures.

Not all Republicans are united in the effort to get rid of the accountability rule. Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio said he wants to keep it. And the business-friendly Chamber of Commerce joined civil rights groups in defending it. Supporters of the regulation say getting rid of it now would disrupt work already being done in states to develop plans under ESSA.

But the teacher preparation rule never had many cheerleaders on Capitol Hill. It was supported by the Council of Chief State School Officers, however, and some members of the education reform community. They said improving teacher training was needed to boost the quality of the nation's teaching corps. The rule would have rated teacher training programs based in part on how well students taught by the program's graduates performed on tests.