AASA Federal Advocacy UpdateBruce Hunter & Sasha Bartolf

National Conference on Education

Denver, COFebruary 17, 2011

Optimism About finishing ESEA!

• John Kline shares our concern for local control and thinks that funding IDEA is the best thing the federal government can do for public education

• Divided control of the House and Senate - opportunity to

• Reformers iron lock on legislative proposals is broken

Not so fast, my friend• Many new Members of Congress want: – Deep budget cuts,

• $100 billion promised - will be less• the debt ceiling vote

– Vouchers– Eliminate the Department of Education

• Chairman Kline wants IDEA funding to be discretionary

Possible Timeline for ESEA• Out of Senate HELP committee by

Easter• Through the Senate by June• To the President by August– Bethany Little, Chief Education staffer,

Senate HELP Committee• At least most important parts of ESEA

this year– James Bergeron, Chief Education staffer,

House Education and Workforce Committee

Title I of ESEATitle I of ESEAPurpose?Purpose?

• Original – supplement local efforts to improve outcomes for low income students

• NCLB – Control over accountability, assessment, teacher qualifications, and punishments to:– Shed light on achievement in general and the

achievement gaps– Drive change through punishment and negative publicity

about results• ESEA 2011 - ??

Title I of ESEATitle I of ESEA• Provides the most federal $$$$ to schools• Definitions control eligibility for ESEA $$$$• Accountability controls state testing, reporting &

punishments• Teacher requirements control hiring, reporting

professional development and punishments • Rules determine administrative costs for ESEA

Hottest ESEA issue for the 112th

Teachers• Compensating teachers

– Experience & Degrees– Student outcomes/effectiveness

• Evaluating teachers primarily by test scores• Balancing teacher quality

– Across all schools– By per pupil costs

• Eliminating seniority for assignment• Alternative certification

– Special education – Rural isolated districts

Hottest ESEA issue for the 112th

Teachers – Why?Educational Reasons• Importance of teachers for improving student

outcomesPolitical Reasons• Reduce the power on unions over local policy• Reduce the power of unions over state and

national policy and politics

Hot ESEA issue for the 112th

Accountability & Assessment

ESEA 2011– Higher standards– Measuring growth is the goal – how?– Better assessment(s) – how?– Emphasis on critical thinking and application of

knowledge is a goal– Maybe multiple measures or sources of evidence

Targeting the bottom 5%Targeting the bottom 5%• Administration proposes that districts will have to

choose one of four possible interventions.– Turnaround– Restart– School Closure– Transformation

• Is this the right target for Title I and the rest of ESEA?• Do these the models predict the greatest success?

AASA on ESEAOur Heaviest Lifts

1. Limit the federal oversight to children served with federal funds – in the case of school wide programs –schools served by Title I funds

2. Separate Accountability and Assessment for learning– Accountability assessments focus on growth (value added

if desired) by sampling & including multiple measures– Instructional assessment includes a variety of methods of

measuring growth, formative, adaptive, embedded teacher developed, etc., that provide immediate feedback to teachers and administrators

Other Hot Issues

• Standardizing public education – Per pupil expenditures/Comparability– Teacher contracts– Standards/curriculum– Personnel decisions– Instructional strategies– Instructional methods

Other policy initiatives within ESEA Other policy initiatives within ESEA Re-AuthorizationRe-Authorization

• Rural Education Achievement Program (REAP) Re-Authorization

• Language to require LEAs to improve educational stability for children in foster care

REAP Re-AuthorizationREAP Re-Authorization• Bill sponsored by Rep. Dave Loebsack (D-IA)/Kristi

Noem (R-SD), and Sen. Kent Conrad (R-ND)/ Susan Collins (R-ME) to be re-introduced very soon

• Bill contains the following changes– Transition to new locale codes– Allow districts to choose between RLIS and SRSA funding– Switch the eligibility poverty measure – Shift in the sliding formula from $20,000 to $25,000 and

$60,000 to $80,000.

Beefing up the Beefing up the Rural Education Rural Education CaucusesCaucuses

• Find out if your representatives are on the House and Senate Rural Education Caucus

• Key to countering Chicago-centric Department perspective

• Fighting competitive grants

Foster CareFoster CareIt all started with the Fostering Connections Act of

2008…The old players: Senate Finance Committee

The new players: Senate HELP CommitteeThe good guys: AASA, Council of Great City SchoolsThe bad guys: The American Bar Association, The Children’s Defense Fund

What What they they are claimingare claiming• Schools don’t want to help foster kids• Schools don’t work well with Child Welfare

agencies• Unless schools are legally required to help kids

and work with child welfare agencies, schools won’t do anything to help children in foster care

What What we we are sayingare saying• Thanks for never telling us about Fostering

Connections and then blaming us for not acting on its provisions

• Most districts have great relationships with folks at HHS

• There’s no reason for a new bill when we don’t even know the old one exists

Fantasy Fantasy vs.vs. reality realityWhat they want mostLanguage in ESEA that requires schools to pay for transportation for foster care kids and immediately enroll them before we have education records and keep them at their school of origin if that’s what’s best for the kids regardless of transportation difficulties and costs that may arise as a result

What they could get Legislation in ESEA that

requires states to create a plan that is consistent with Fostering Connections; Secretaries of both agencies must approve plans; failure to compromise leaves $ decision to Governor

What is going to happenWhat is going to happenOur GOP allies will not support any new bill or bill language; they understand schools did not know about Fostering Connections and want to provide training and support for schools to learn about this bill and its requirements

If in two years time, child welfare groups can claim schools aren’t improving education stability for children in foster care, we could have to support a large bill with lots of regulations regarding enrollment, liasions, etc. that exempts us from paying for foster kid transportation. (This bill is already written and is called “Fostering Success in Education”)

NO MATTER WHATNO MATTER WHAT• We cannot leave it to the states to decide which agency

pays for transportation. • We run the risk of governors requiring schools to provide

McKinney Vento transportation services (this is already a case in West Virginia) for children in foster care.

• Funding to provide transportation is not guaranteed nor likely.

Funding IDEAFunding IDEA

• Bill to fully fund IDEA• John Kline – our hero?• CR cuts $557.7 million• Obama increases 200 million• Blended Funding Stream?

Child NutritionChild NutritionLegislation passed during Lame Duck Session in December 2010

• 6 cent increase in reimbursement in 2013• Required staff development• Required certification of directors• New standards for food quality• Fines for non compliance• Secretary to issue guidance limiting indirect rates• Feds set the price for paid lunches

E-RateE-RateOpportunities for changes to program:

Re-authorization of the Telecommunications Act• Remove 2.25 billion cap on E-Rate funding• Permanent exemption from the ADA for E-Rate

VouchersVouchers• Bill to expand and re-authorize the D.C. voucher

program was introduced by Speaker Boehner and Sen. Joe Lieberman in January

• House Education Committee held hearing last week where vouchers were prominently discussed

• Senate Armed Services report on whether a national voucher program is needed for special-education students in military families

What we have going for usWhat we have going for usNational Coalition for Public Education is working 24/7 to fight these vouchers; coalition includes education, civil rights and religious groups who have ties to many members

Tight fiscal environment; hard to push for any new or expanded programs

The Senate is still Democratically controlled; they voted twice to re-authorize the voucher program last session and it failed both times

MedicaidMedicaid Anticipate regulatory changes to parental consent

requirement• Option 1: Rescind consent requirement entirely• Option 2: Require consent to be given only a time

of enrollment and require schools to notify parents that they are seeking reimbursement each year

Criminal Background ChecksCriminal Background ChecksLegislation would require LEAs to perform the following checks periodically

on all school employees: • A search of the State criminal registry or repository in the State in which the

school employee resides and each State in which such school employee previously resided;

• A search of State-based child abuse and neglect registries and databases in the State in which the school employee resides and each State in which such school employee previously resided;

• A search of the National Crime Information Center of the Department of Justice;• A search of Federal Bureau of Investigation fingerprint check system using the

Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System; and• A search of the National Sex Offender Registry established under section 19 of the

Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006 (42 U.S.C. 16919)

Questions? Concerns?Questions? Concerns?

Questions? Concerns?Questions? Concerns?Bruce Hunter

bhunter@aasa.org

Sasha Bartolfsbartolf@aasa.org