Stay Balanced

Last week the Delaware State Education Association was host to a briefing by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) on the national economic picture and the impact on state budgets. Jon Shure, the director of State Fiscal Strategies for CBPP, was the presenter.

Three immediate thoughts came to me during the presentation. First, things are bad out there, really bad. Second, as bad as they are here, they are worse in most other states. Third, in Delaware we used a balanced approach, a combination of revenue and budget cuts, to deal with the worst of the crisis. This is exactly the approach recommended by the nation's top policy wonks at CBPP.

One startling fact in the presentation dealt with the loss of public employee jobs nationwide:




In case the chart is a little difficult to read, that's 646,000 jobs since August of 2008. Those job losses represent a major stepping away from public services by many states. While the loss of 646,000 jobs alone means a mighty blow to the economy, consider that these are jobs that support the foundation of the greater economy: Education, public safety, transportation, and health care to name just a few.

The loss of public services ripples throughout the economy. Allow me a simple example. If I need to renew my license and I wait for 3 hours instead of the usual 30 minutes, that's a residual economic loss (my time) from the economy, in addition to the laid off DMV employees and their spending power.

We live in an increasingly complex society with a complex and interdependent economy. Correspondingly, it takes a complex and comprehensive network of public services to provide the foundation. States who go too far down this path of smaller government, fewer public employees, and less public investment are borrowing against their economic future.

As we enter our fourth consecutive tough economic year, we should maintain our balanced approach, and keep Delaware a great place to live, work, and raise a family.

Guilty Reappearance

It is with some guilt that I come back onto the blogsphere after a long absence. There's been so much happening and little time to write about it. So, in no order of date or importance, here are some of the issues and happenings that deserve comment.

The Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) has been "marked up" (amended in committee to reflect spending needs) in the US Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) committee. The Senate version as it has been passed out of committee, has no teacher evaluation component. This has caused the United States Education Department to pull their support for the bill. The NEA continues to support Harkin's bill and is working to make it better. There is no word on when the bill will go to the floor of the Senate. We do know it will not happen before November 8th. Chairman Harkin agreed to another hearing on November 8th for the benefit of Senator Rand Paul who authored about half of the 150 amendments proposed for the bill.

Delaware is competing for another Race To The Top grant. This one is for early childhood education. The Delaware Department of Education solicited input from Kindergarten teachers before completing the grant application. Lt. Governor Matt Denn met with Kent and Sussex County Kindergarten teachers on October 3rd and with New Castle County K-teachers on October 6th. While the program is centered on pre-K education, the Kindergarten teachers would be tasked with assessing children to determine their preparedness for school.

DSEA has had two very successful trainings recently. October 14th -16th was Leaders' Weekend training. This training had an emphasis on the meaning of union and establishing a successful union culture in Locals. October 22nd was the Education Support Professionals conference. Feedback from both events has been positive.

November 1st, 2nd, and 3rd will be Political Action Leader (PAL) trainings. Any DSEA political activist is welcome to join us for one of the following: Nov. 1 at the DSEA building in Dover from 5:00PM to 7:00PM, Nov. 2 at Heritage Shores from 5:00PM to 7:00PM or Nov. 3 at DSEA Newark office from 5:00PM to 7:00PM.

Ok, I'm back...once again I'll try to keep up with postings.
Peace.

Major NCLB Changes Ahead

President Obama announced this afternoon that states will be able to apply for waivers to No Child Left Behind. Educators and policy makers have complained for years about the unreasonableness of certain NCLB mandates such as the Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP).

Instead of the sanction orientated focus of the Bush years, the new emphasis will be recognizing and rewarding successful schools while providing struggling schools with targeted support and more flexibility.

One major change is the elimination of the 2014 drop dead date to have proficiency for 100% of students. Instead, states will be able to have realistic improvement goals for students in reading/language arts and mathematics.

States and school districts will have greater flexibility on the use of federal funds, while at the same time funds to meet the needs of particular populations of students will be protected.

Under the waiver, priority schools will no longer have to choose one of the four intervention models. They can design their own improvement plan based on turnaround principles.

Teacher evaluation systems will not have to be fully implemented until 2014-15 school year. This will allow states time to develop stronger and sensible evaluation systems.

In order to qualify for a waiver, states must develop a plan to address three areas of education reform: 1. Statewide college and career ready standards and assessments for students. Delaware is ahead of most states in this area 2. Systems for differentiated recognition, accountability and support. In other words, a way to identify and provide resources for the lowest performing schools. Again, Delaware has this system operating. 3. Evaluation and support for teacher and principal effectiveness. Delaware's DPAS II fits this model.

The hard work of Delaware educators in winning the Race To The Top grant may now pay off in another way. The requirements for NCLB waiver appear to be very similar to the requirements for RTTT.

Ok readers, I hope the above article makes sense. I had to write it in a hurry, but I wanted you to know the scoop before the weekend.

Jobs Bill Offers New Hope

The Obama Administration sent the Jobs Bill to Congress today. Tonight, Vice-President Biden was on a national phone call with educators explaining aspects of the Jobs Bill. Education is a major part of the bill because the Administration continues to recognize education as key to our future, because we have lost 129,000 education jobs since January, and because educators are prime examples of middle class workers.

The bill has $30 billion to employee 280,000 educators for the school years 2011-2012, and 2012-2013. This type of stimulus is at work, right now in Delaware. Delaware is today utilizing money they saved from the 2010 Education Jobs Act to keep educators working this year.

$30 billion will be used to renovate our crumbling schools. $10 billion of this money will be distributed directly to school districts utilizing Title 1 funding formula. The other $15 billion will be sent to the states to allocate for school building and repairing. The average age of a US school is forty and the buildings are notoriously energy inefficient. It is estimated that we might save $2 to $4 billion on energy costs with new and renovated buildings.

$5 billion is in the legislation for community colleges although their need is much greater as demand for their services have increased with the bad economy.

Other middle class help in the bill includes deeper cuts to payroll tax and foreclosure relief.

Small business tax cuts are included as well as tax credits for those businesses hiring veterans and the long-term unemployed.

For those that have caught the fiscal conservative bug, this bill is paid for by closing tax loopholes. For example, in spite of year after year of grossly high profits, we continue to give oil companies tax breaks worth $37 billion. We also allow hedge fund managers (who actually detract, not add to the economy) to be taxed at 15% instead of the 28% rate that common folks pay on earnings. Both of these loopholes are closed by the law.

This stimulus package creates about 1.9 million jobs. The entire debt ceiling/ deficit reduction fiasco created zero jobs.

A Jobs Bill is Coming

If you are reading this consider yourself invited to join the Delaware State Education Association at the annual Labor Day Parade in Wilmington, Delaware. We will line up at 9:30Am at 15th and King Streets. Give an hour to Labor since they gave you the whole weekend!
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President Obama will be unveiling a new jobs program in a few days. One interesting distraction has been the setting of the date to address Congress. The Republican House rejected the first offered date and suggested another...well you can hear about it in the news. The only reason I say "interesting" is that I have never seen such crude disrespect for the office of the Presidency than I have since Obama took office. Remember Congressman Joe Wilson's "You lie!" during the State of the State? Or John Boehner's not returning the President's phone calls? There have been other incidents as well. The point is civility appears to be gone. It's like the meaner cousins of the Beverly Hillbillies have come to Congress.
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Let us all hope that Obama's jobs plan will be worth the wait when the House does finally let him speak. Playing catch up is always difficult, but that's what he needs to do. When Obama's first stimulus, the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act, was before the people he should have stated something along these lines:
My predecessor attempted to help this economy with a massive initiative in trickle down economics when he bailed out the banks. This Administration is not going to do that. We are going to put money at the grassroots level to stimulate the economy and in the process of putting people back to work we will improve our education system, repair crumbling infrastructure, and move the nation forward in alternative energy and green economy. With all that said, I must warn you: This is a deep recession. Just like the Administration of FDR, we may have to come back again, and maybe again, with more stimulus until the citizens in this country are back on their economic feet. I will never apologize for investment that puts us back to work and strengthens us for the future.

Unfortunately nothing like the above was said during the first stimulus fight. So, instead of creating jobs with federal spending, we've been on a mission to cut federal spending. We didn't think of taking on this job when we gave $1 Trillion in tax cuts to the wealthy, when we took on two wars costing billions of dollars every month, or even when we gave billions to extremely profitable oil companies. No, we decided to cut spending in the middle of a deep recession. FDR must be rolling in his grave.

How the President now changes the debate from 'kill government and shrink its head', to 'government is the only entity that can get money moving again in the economy so lets rebuild and build anew', I don't know. However, he is a great communicator. Moreover he's going in the right direction and there is a power that comes from doing the right thing.

Irene's Out and School's In

School's in, and Irene's out! Most schools in Delaware started a day late as the maintenance crews in school districts made sure that water and debris were cleaned up before allowing the kids back.

Delaware acted responsibly in preparation for Irene and in response during and after Irene. That seems like a "no brainer", but it's not. Governors and media of the East Coast are actually receiving criticism from some pundits for being too cautious and "hyping Irene". This is absurd Monday Morning Quarterbacking, but it is out there in the public discourse now.

Delaware deaths due to Irene are now at two, and insurance claims at around $2 million. These are tragic but contained losses. Evacuations and a state of emergency declared by Governor Markell were a major factor in easing the impact of the hurricane. Additionally, public employees at every level of government really performed well.

Emergencies like Irene remind us of the importance of public infrastructure and public employees.

Odds and Ends

Labor Day is coming! DSEA members are encouraged to participate in the annual Labor Day parade in downtown Wilmington. Labor Day is in honor of American Labor and like all your other weekends would not exist without the Labor Movement. So, if you are a DSEA member please join us at 15th and King Street (this is our starting position in the parade line up) at 9:30 AM on Labor Day. This is a fun activity, bring your spouses and children to walk with us and hundreds of other Labor families from the area.
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New Teacher Orientations have been taking place around the state. As teachers are welcomed into school districts to take on their new roles, they are also recruited by DSEA and welcomed into the union. The DSEA locals do a great job, often getting 100% of new hires signed into the union.
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The teachers in Capital School District will come under Fair Share rules this year. That means that teachers who choose not to be members will pay a fee for the services they receive under the contract. In Locals without Fair Share, the loyal dues paying members pay to sustain the organization that negotiates contracts for compensation and working conditions enjoyed by all, including the non-members. That will no longer be the case in Capital, congratulations to that Local.
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At the federal level the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act is moving forward. US Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, will announce a plan in September to allow flexibility around some of the NCLB requirements. However, this will be in exchange for undisclosed commitments to reform.
This action prompted National Education Association President Dennis Van Roekel to comment:“What we need now is teacher-led and student-focused comprehensive reform instead of making states jump through more hoops. The Administration should be leading efforts that support all students and schools by providing real relief from parts of the law that everyone acknowledges simply don’t work.”