Fast Report
Congress addresses Medicaid issue
• NSBA is pleased that the House passed legislation April 21 -- by a veto-proof margin of 342-62 -- to protect the “Medicaid safety net” for schools.”
Last December, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services published regulations eliminating Medicaid reimbursements for certain administrative services and transportation provided by school districts to students with disabilities.
It was estimated that the rules could cost schools $3.6 billion over the next five years.
Thanks to strong advocacy by education and health groups, Congress enacted legislation imposing a six-month moratorium on those rules. But the moratorium is set to expire June 30.
The House-passed Protecting Medicaid Safety Net Act (H.R.5613) would extend the moratorium until April 2009.
NSBA believes this legislation gives Congress and a new Administration enough time to seek a more permanent solution.
A similar moratorium is included in an economic stimulus package introduced in the Senate by Sens. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) and Olympia Snowe (R-Maine).
NSBA’s goal is to keep the pressure on Congress to ensure that school boards’ interests remain a priority. Lawmakers need to fully understand the devastating impact the Medicaid rules would have on school budgets.
New federal policy model proposed
• Twenty-five years after the landmark report, A Nation at Risk, was published, “inconsistent and shortsighted” federal education policy has left the United States farther behind its economic competitors than it was in 1983. That’s the major conclusion of a report issued in April by the Forum for Education and Democracy.
Democracy at Risk: The Need for a New Federal Policy in Education says “the federal strategy of attempting to improve schools through mandates and sanctions” will not help the nation meet longstanding student achievement and equity goals.
Among the report’s major recommendations:
• Meet the federal obligation to fund programs for high-need students, including students with disabilities.
• Link state funding to efforts to improve equity.
• Invest in a new “Marshall Plan” to prepare 40,000 teachers a year and create a “West Point for education leaders.”
• Make schools true hubs of the community and gateways to social services for students and community members.
• Increase the federal investment in education research and innovation.
The forum says it will cost $29 billion a year to fund its proposals, which is less than what the nation is currently spending on the Iraq war every month.
Reading First not effective, study finds
n The $1 billion-a-year Reading First program has not significantly improved reading comprehension among young students, a federal study reported May 1.
According to the U.S. Education Department’s Institute for Education Sciences, “The program did not increase the percentages of students in grades 1, 2, or 3 whose reading comprehension scores were at or above grade level.”
The study did find that teachers in schools that received Reading First grants spent more time (about 10 minutes a day) on the “essential components” of reading instruction, such as phonics and vocabulary.
Last year, Congress investigated alleged corruption in the Reading First program, charging that friends of officials in the Bush Administration received favorable contracts.