Advocacy in Action: Preparing for the National

Leaders Conference

Background and Briefing Webinar

February 7, 2013

Scheduling Your Capitol Hill Visits

Try to schedule at least three meetings -- with your Member of Congress and two Senators, but do not overlook those from your state on key committees.

Coordinate with others from your state

After meetings are scheduled, complete appointment form on NAESP’s website: https://www.naesp.org/content/2013-nlc-congressional-appointments-form

Preparing for Discussion on Capitol Hill

Federal Update

•New Session of Congress•Political Landscape•ESEA Reauthorization •Budget and Sequestration

Political Landscape

• 92 new Members of Congress sworn in.• Committee Chairman of the Senate

and House Education Committees remain the same, except for House K-12 Subcommittee.

• An exclusive focus on deficit reduction appears to have crowded out policies devoted to education reform or job creation.

ESEA Reauthorization•Remind Congress that they must reauthorize ESEA. State Flexibility Waivers from ED are not a 50-state solution, and pit states against one another to compete.

•Comprehensive K-12 legislation is needed to ensure an equitable education for all students.

•House and Senate have starting points on ESEA to pick up from that are not that far apart.

Making the Case to Build the Capacity of Principals•The current punitive accountability system under NCLB must be removed for all states. Waiver differentiated accountability systems still have NCLB-era “gap” labels and rely on standardized tests. •34 states and DC have taken up the Administration’s State Flexibility Waivers. The new reforms have put unprecedented demands on principals without any support for their capacity. •State and districts must be required to provide professional development for principals.•An estimated 3% of $2.5 billion in federal funds allocated for professional development for teachers and principals is actually spent on principals.

Framework and Guiding Principles for Policy Recommendations

1) Providing greater recognition of the role of principals in federal education laws and professional development for principals on the standards of practice.

2) Requiring states and districts to provide professional development opportunities for principals on education reform areas.

3) Establishing accountability systems that include student growth in the multiple ways in which students learn to avoid overuse of standardized assessment scores as the sole or primary criterion to measure student performance; to rate, grade or rank principal, teacher, or school effectiveness; to allocate funds; or to take punitive measures against schools and/or school personnel.

Framework and Guiding Principles for Policy Recommendations

4) Ensuring that any federal role in principal evaluation will urge states to provide fair and objective principal evaluation systems.

Evaluation systems must eliminate any narrow policies on principal evaluation that are limited to student growth and achievement that may omit consideration of contextual issues and how a principal meets the immediate needs of a school, the unique challenges of the learning community, and the level of authority afforded to an individual principal to make improvements.

5) Holding principal preparation programs to high standards.

6) Including federal support for standards-based certification, induction programs, especially for early career principals.

7) Investing in identifying and retaining effective principals.

8) Strengthening P-3 alignment policies that will help principals connect early childhood with K-12 education, and provide professional development opportunities for principals to develop strategies to support a continuum of learning, including strong literacy instruction, beginning in the earliest grades.

ESEA Reauthorization Legislative Priorities

•Principal Recruitment and Training Act (Franken-Davis)•Legislation to Improve Principal Evaluation Systems

March Budget Madness

•Current FY 2013 funding bill expires on March 27 – Congress expected to pass budget extension by March

27 to avoid government shutdown, extending current spending levels through end of FY 2013.

– Could use opportunity to alter some funding levels.

•Sequestration scheduled to begin March 1, following two-month delay.

•FY 2014 appropriations process about to begin, but delayed due to uncertainty around fiscal cliff, debt ceiling debates, sequestration.

FY 2013/ FY 2014 Appropriations Process

•Starting FY 2014 budget before completing FY 2013 budget.

•Annual spending limits, already set in law, are reduced through 2021.

– Squeezes current programs and leaves little room for new investments.

•House expected to push a budget below spending limits agreed to in law.

Budget Issues that Concern Principals

Principals support increased funding for Title I and full funding for IDEA. (supportive of IDEA full funding bills introduced).

Principals oppose additional consolidation and elimination of federal education programs, which can be expected from the House budget bill again.

Education has already been cut!

•FY 2011 cut ED by $1.2 billion.

•FY 2012 total ED funding cut by $233 million.

•K-12 education program cuts have a dramatic impact on the ability of educators to improve instruction and help children learn. •Only 2% of the total discretionary federal budget is spent on education!

2012 Federal Budget Outlays

Source: Committee for Education Funding

Sequestration- What is it and how will it work?

• The “sequester” or “sequestration” describes automatic across-the-board budget cuts set into law by the Budget Control Act of 2011.

• The Super Committee's failure to agree on over $1 trillion in spending cuts in 2011 led to automatic across-the-board budget cuts in FY 2013.– 50% of the cuts from defense, 50% from nondefense spending

(includes U.S. Dept. of Education)

• FY 2013 cuts start March 1, 2013– Nearly all cuts to ED programs wouldn't start until July, 2013

• This is not a one year issue. Total amount available to Appropriations Committees to fund individual programs is capped through 2021.  – Reduces spending by an additional $900 billion over 10 years.

Sequestration- What programs are exempt, how will it impact education?

• Several programs are exempt from sequestration: Social Security, Pell Grants (only for the first year), Children’s Health Insurance Program, Food Stamps, SSI.

• Roughly 5.1% across-the-board indiscriminate cuts to education programs expected.

• 5.1% cut = $2.6 billion cut for ED.– Head Start cut = $409 million.– FY 2013 funding would be below FY 2004

levels

How to Reduce the Impact of Possible Cuts

• Share how budget cuts impact the programs and students in your school.

• Congress must take a balanced deficit reduction approach to reduce the impact of devastating cuts.

AND Education Investments Improve the Economy

•Since early 2008, nearly 360,000 layoffs in local education jobs.

– Both enrollments and costs are rising, so spending per pupil is down in most states.

•Medium income for those with a bachelors degree is $2.3 million as compared to $900,000 for those with less than a high school diploma.•Poverty levels for children at record 25% (9% for 65+).

Questions?

• Ask you member of Congress to support the NAESP policy recommendations and highlighted legislation to building the capacity of principals.

• Provide the Members and staff with background about your school, e.g. % of Title I students your school serves.

• Do you have a great program or curriculum in your school?

• Share how principals make it work for teachers, staff and students.

Tips and Reminders

→Offer to answer any questions related to principals and schools, but tell staff that NAESP advocacy team will follow up to any “weedy” policy questions.

→Invite the Member and staff to visit your school when they are in the district.

→Send a thank you email after the meeting. NAESP will provide a template.

And…

We can help you provide follow up, too -- materials, such as descriptions of programs of interest to the Member or staff person and NAESP’s advocacy materials.

Wear comfortable shoes and expect short meetings with busy staff – even standing in the hallway to have a meeting is common!

Give yourself time to move through security and to walk between Congressional building.

Policy and Advocacy Team Contact Information

Kelly Pollitt kpollitt@naesp.org, Associate Executive Director, Advocacy, Policy and Special Projects (703) 518-6245

Emily Rohlffs erohlffs@naesp.org, Legislative and Advocacy Coordinator (703) 518-6268