WELV Federal Education Update

Noelle EllersonAASA

March 2015

Climates & To-Do List• Funding

– State and local budgets have yet to reach pre-recession levels

– Sequestration at the federal level

• Political– ….partisan, and battle of

the wills between Cong and the admin

• State Government– Trend in legislation and

policy to undermine public education

• Annual approps process• ESEA• IDEA• Higher Education• Early Ed (Head Start and

CCDBG)• Perkins Career/Tech

Other• WOIA• ESRA

The Five Ps of Effective Advocacy

–Policy–Process–People–Pressure–Politics

3

What is Going On?

• Activity vs. Productivity• Regulations• Authorizations and Reauthorizations• Budget/Appropriations• Hearings/Mark Ups

A Quick Word About Money

• At the federal level there are two processes:– Budget – where the amount of money to be

spent is set.• Fight for the maximum amount of $ available for

education.

– Appropriations – where individual program funding levels are set.

• Fight for specific education programs.

Things to Focus on…

• It’s a Marathon, Not a Sprint• Relationships, Not Just Substance• Systems, Not Just Meetings and Letters• Information, Not Just Lobbying• Putting your School District’s best foot

forward

How to Move Forward• Every district must identify issues within federal

education policy to weigh in on.• You can use the AASA Legislative Agenda and

policy briefs as a starting point.• Make sure to use as many local references as

possible. Anecdotes!• Be sure to talk about areas you would like to

change and areas that have helped you.

Where Do We Go From Here?

• Use your professional organizations, both state and national.

• Make the first call, send the first email.• Keep issues on the front burner in your communities

to help create the dialogue.• 15 minutes a month (less than 5 minutes a week) is all

it takes to place a call or send an email to your Senators and Representative

There is a long road ahead….

ESEA: The Time is Now

• Sen Chrmn Alexander and House Chrmn Kline are both prioritizing ESEA reauthorization

• Timeline: – Senate: bill is out; 3 hearings; in cmte week of 4/13– House: intro first week of Feb, mark up mid-

Feburary, to the floor (?) week of 3/16• Both bills represent a rolling back of the federal

overreach/prescription rampant in current law.

ESEA: Things to Watch For• Portability & Vouchers: Whatever happens re:

vouchers/portability in Title I is what they will push for in IDEA and Perkins– OPPOSE vouchers and portability; Title I dollars must remain

targeted on concentrations of poverty• Assessment: AASA welcomes language that would reduce

the amount of federally mandated testing, with continued focus on high-quality, rigorous assessments– Important to note that the burden of overtesting is most

exacerbated at state/local level. Fed govt can reduce its role, but states/locals must do their part, too.

– Proposal for grade span testing, random sampling (like NAEP!) or every year (with alternating subjects)

– Alexander bill maintains annual testing requirement

ESEA: Things to Look For

• Accountability: Return autonomy to state/local level– Maintain current data disaggregation, oppose effort to

expand accountability matrix– Reduce highly prescriptive turn around models

• Funding: Oppose funding caps; AASA prefers the language ‘such sums’, allowing appropriators to fund programs

• Rural Education: AASA champions the rural ed program, with four specific changes:– Poverty indicator, sliding scale, locale codes and eligibility

under both programs

ESEA: Things to Look For

• Comparability: AASA opposes any effort to include teacher salaries in the calculation of comparability. Keep current law.

• Maintenance of Effort: AASA opposes the elimination of MoE. We want to keep current law, with the 90% threshold.

• Ed Tech: AASA advocates a strong, stand alone ed tech program, currently Title II Part D.

• Background Checks• & Much More!

Source: Center on Budget and Policy Priorities How Has State K-12 Funding Fared in Your State?

Appropriations: FY14, FY15, & FY16

• The final FY14 appropriations package restored roughly 80% of all sequester cuts. USED received an amount that covered roughly 65% of its cuts.– Impact Aid: fully restored– Title I and IDEA have most of cuts restored (~90%)– REAP left at post-sequester level

• For FY15, the final deal was essentially level funding, with nominal increases for Title I and IDEA.– FY16 (as indicated on the previous slide) is the third consecutive year of

level funding.• Pres Obama’s FY16 budget included $2.7b increase for ESEA• House and Senate committed to timeline budget process (relates to

pressure on ESEA)

Federal Funding: Sequestration• Unless rescinded, sequestration cuts return in FY16• FY15 reality is such that most programs are still not to pre-

sequester levels• No across-the-board cuts in FY16, unless Defense is

exempted.• Continued push to isolate cuts to non-defense discretionary • Important to keep the pressure on Congress to protect

education funding, preferably through avoiding sequester, if not at least ensuring cuts are to ALL of the budget

IDEA: Maintenance of Effort

– The recession proved that a 100% MOE requirement is neither good, nor equitable public policy

– Current provisions do not incentivize additional investments in special education when districts budgets improve

– More flexibility is needed in IDEA to encourage districts to invest in special education when budgets are good, and ensure districts can utilize optimize efficiency when budgets aren’t as good

IDEA: Maintenance of Effort

AASA has a proposal to provide districts with more funding flexibility in IDEA• Allow states to grant districts an MOE waiver

akin to what states can be granted by ED• Ensure that reductions in MOE that do not

affect FAPE, but that result in $ efficiencies is an allowable reason for districts to reduce effort

We anticipate a bill introduction this summer

IDEA Reauthorization

• On the horizon…Jan 2016?• Big issues for reauthorization

– Fixing Due Process• Rate of due process continues to decrease, but not

because system is working• Due process drives good teachers away from special

education • Due process is incredibly costly

AASA Due Process Proposal: A 2-Prong Approach

Prong 1: State complaints/OCR complaints are allowed, but no more individual parent complaints. Instead, when IEP is not signed, district/parent must engage in IEP facilitation process.

Prong 2: If IEP facilitation fails, a new special education consultancy model (no hearing) takes place.

Option to go to mediation between facilitation and consultancy remains.

Perkins/CTE

• Last passed in 2006 – expired in 2013• Reauthorization possible after ESEA and HEA• What’s happened since 2006?

– In 2011, the Obama Administration proposed cutting overall Perkins funding by 20% (compared to FY10). Congress agreed and funding was cut.

– In April 2012, Administration released Perkins Blueprint – Perkins expired in June 2013– In fall of 2013, the House held a series of Perkins

reauthorization hearings

• Administration’s Perkins Blueprint– Removes the basic state grant guaranteed to any school district with a CTE

program

– Requires districts to partner with post-secondary institutions for Perkins funding

– Creates a “Pay-to-Play” system for Perkins funding

– Mandates a set-aside within current Perkins allocation for innovative programs

• Themes for Reauthorization– Common definitions for Perkins

– Requirement for consortium application

– Increased reporting requirements

– Career counseling

Perkins/CTE

Early Learning

• Support federal program that funds/supports existing and new successful early ed programs, with deliberate alignment with K12.

• Cannot draw on an oversubscribed ESEA or other statute unless paid for.

• Public schools must be a core partner in all stages of planning, implementation and evaluation.

• Improve access to high-quality early ed programs for poor families.

E-Rate: Impacting Schools• The core of the program is still the same. Category One and

Category Two remain in place, with comparable functionality.• Poverty indicator is now district level (not school-based).• Legacy services will be phased out (phone, webhosting,

paging, etc…).• Reduction of top-level discount (from 90% to 85%)• FCC voted on Dec 11 to raise the E-Rate cap (permanently!) by

$1.5 billion.

Educational Broadband Services

• Formerly Instructional Television Fixed Service (ITFS)

• FCC licenses channels to education institutions– Schools can lease excess spectrum– Provide schools with revenue and expands

technology infrastructure• Pushing to reopen licenses

School Nutrition• Provide reimbursement to schools when federal food service

requirements result in loss of revenue.• Make all licensing and certification requirements for school

nutrition workers a state responsibility. • Avoid federal overreach into nutrition policies, which are best

addressed at the local level.• Provide LEAs with option to waive out of unfunded federal food

service requirements. • Specific to reauthorization:

– Increase meal reimbursement– Grant SFAs authority to determine if fruit/veggie element is offer/forced– Allow food items allowed to be serves as part of reimbursable meal to be

available a la carte– Provide program simplification

Student Data & Privacy

• FERPA, COPPA, CIPA, but not in ESEA!• Provide coherent and easy-to-understand

guidance for parents and educators regarding FERPA, PPRA, and COPPA and their protections of the privacy and security of student data.

• Update definitions to address the realities of the digital age, making it possible to protect data while ensuring appropriate use of student data for legitimate educational needs and reforms.

Higher Education Act

• USED Proposed Regulations regarding teacher preparation

– Requires states to link student outcome data to teacher preparation programs

– Employer surveys required for all new alumni

Healthcare: Affordable Care Act

• Excise (Cadillac) Tax: Modify excise tax to reduce negative disproportionate tax burden on schools

• 30 v 40 Hours as Full Time: Support legislation to modify the law to define full time as 40 hours (currently at 30)

• Contribution Threshold

Questions? Comments?• Become an AASA Member.• AASA Website: www.aasa.org• AASA Policy Blog: www.aasa.org/AASABlog.aspx• AASA Advocacy on Twitter (next slide!)• Annual AASA Advocacy Conference • Weekly Update: Legislative Corps• Monthly Update: Advocacy Alert• Policy Insider• Legislative Trends• Toolkits (E-Rate, ALEC, etc…)

AASA Policy & Advocacy TeamNoelle Ellersonnellerson@aasa.org

@Noellerson

Sasha Pudelskispudelski@aasa.org

@Spudelski

Leslie Finnanlfinnan@aasa.org

@LeslieFinnan

Francesca Duffyfduffy@aasa.org

@fm_duffy

Join AASA today! http://aasa.org/join.aspx