Fast Report
11/25/03 -- Voucher bill rolled into omnibus spending bill
• The U.S. Senate has voted to remove a proposed $13 million voucher program for the District of Columbia from the D.C. appropriations bill.
As this issue of School Board News was going to press, a House-Senate conference committee was preparing to add the D.C. voucher measure to a larger "omnibus" spending package. That tactic means that members of Congress opposed to vouchers will either have to accept them or vote against the entire bill, which includes funding for many federal agencies -- and could risk shutting down the federal government.
For weeks, voucher supporters in the Senate have been unable to get enough support to pass what would be the first federally funded private school voucher program in the nation. "The voucher proponents have been reduced to hiding vouchers into a large omnibus spending package. This shouldn't be railroaded into law," says NSBA lobbyist Joan Wodiska.
Seattle approved for 'Local-Flex'
• The Seattle school district is the first district in the nation to win approval of its plan to use a flexibility provision of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act, the U.S. Education Department announced Nov. 6.
The Local Flexibility Demonstration Program (Local-Flex) allows approved school districts to consolidate certain federal formula grant funds to meet local priorities in exchange for increased accountability for student academic progress.
Seattle's Local-Flex plan seeks to improve the quality of teaching and learning in under-performing schools. The plan's strategies include improving teachers' ability to use research-based practices and strategies, using data to improve instruction, providing mentors for beginning teachers, and enhancing technology in instruction.
Mass. school leaders condemn NCLB
• The Massachusetts Association of School Committees (MASC) approved a resolution at its annual conference this month strongly condemning the No Child Left Behind Act.
The resolution calls for MASC to reach out to the Massachusetts congressional delegation to seek changes in the accountability provisions of NCLB that "move away from the annual testing requirements and severe sanctions now included in the law."
The resolution also urges Congress to suspend the current sanctions imposed upon school districts until the law is fully funded.
Of the 130 delegates who considered the resolution, only seven voted against it, says MASC Executive Director Glenn Koocher.
"Massachusetts has the highest competency standards in the country," Koocher says. "An overwhelming number of people feel it is designed to create the perception of failure and discredit public education."
He says, "There is enormous anger in Massachusetts regarding the mandates in NCLB and the zeal with which the Massachusetts board of education has 'out-Bushed' the Bush Administration in implementing them."
Charter schools hurt NY school districts
• There is no conclusive evidence that New York's charter schools are improving student achievement, concludes a report released Nov. 9 by the New York State School Boards Association (NYSSBA) and the state's teacher unions.
The report, Not So Fast, found improved student performance in some charter schools. In others, academic performance remains very weak. Overall, the report says, "Student performance in most charter schools remains below that of students in 'host' public school districts."
The report says the state's five-year experiment with charter schools has placed a heavy financial burden on many school districts and proposes a moratorium on the creation of any new charter schools.
School districts in Albany, Troy, Syracuse, Rochester, Buffalo, and Long Island have had to increase class sizes, eliminate important academic programs, increase taxes and borrowing, and lay off teachers and staff -- just to make payments to charter schools.
School board pay cut proposed
• John Crose, a former member of the St. John the Baptist Parish, La., school board, has proposed that school board members lose their salaries if the schools in their districts fail to make improvements in raising student performance.
School board members in Louisiana receive up to $800 a month plus expenses and health benefits.
Louisiana School Boards Association (LSBA) Executive Director W.F. "Freddie" Whitford doesn't think Crose will have an easy time finding a legislator to introduce his proposal. But if he does, LSBA "will go to the mat on this one."
Whitford says any talk about cutting school board members' salaries ought to be extended to members of the state board of education and state legislature.
Rep. Carl Crane, chair of the House Education Committee, says school boards should be more accountable, but questions the logic of cutting their pay. "Somebody could argue that a sheriff shouldn't get supplemental pay as long as the crime rate is up," he says.
Crose did succeed in getting the legislature to pass a bill last year to restrict school board members' travel expenses.