MASA... "At the Capitol" w/Charlie: Tough week for K-12 Ed

This is a message to the members of the Minnesota Association of School Administrators (MASA) from Charlie Kyte, Executive Director.

The attached audio podcast and the video clip are each about 10 minutes long. They add detail to the message below.

TOUGH WEEK! WITH VERY LITTLE TRUE SUPPORT FOR THE TRADITIONAL K-12 EDUCATION MODEL:

The K-12 education lobby is feeling pretty beat up this week. We lost ground on many of the Bills that were heard. We see a negative mood on the part of many legislators toward public education.

THERE IS NO WAY OUT OF THE BUDGET SHORTFALL WITHOUT BOTH A TAX INCREASE AND MAJOR CUTBACKS. YOU NEED TO BROADCAST THESE MESSAGES IN YOUR COMMUNITIES:

The budget deficit is so big, and so potentially prolonged, that it will require major tax increases, major cutbacks/concessions and major accounting shifts to get it resolved. We will share more on this topic next week and there is more detail on the video and audio podcast.

SPECIFIC BILLS:

Labor day:

The prospect of being allowed to begin school prior to labor day is dimming. We still hope to have it in the omnibus education Bill, but that won't be passed until very late this spring.

Shared Services:

Schools are doing a lot in the areas of cooperative purchasing and in sharing services. The current Bill now moving through the legislature (in its present form) is not helpful and rather creates a bureaucratic mess. We hope that the key legislators will be willing to find a way to make this Bill be helpful rather than hurtful.

Charter School governance:

The House has rejected any language to creat a moratorium on the creation of Charter Schools where school buildings are being closed. There needs to be some balance between the creation of Charter Schools and the downsizing of schools because of declining enrollments.

Math 11 GRAD Tests:

The change from high stakes testing to middle level stakes passed the House Policy Committee. This change which still requires multiple test tries and remediation, does not prohibit a student from graduating if they don't pass this one specific test. This is in line with the national Achieve organization that sees Minnesota a state leader in raising academic expectations.

 It baffles me that the MN Chamber of Commerce insists that the math test become high stakes when not one single one of the world leading countries in education (Finland, Great Britian, Singapore, etc) use high stake graduation tests. They fail to recognize the eventual political kickback that will be set off if 3500-5000 students are denied graduation in 15 months from now. And those kids won't just be poor kids. Some will be the children of the members of the local members of the Chambers of Commerce.

Mandates:

Most mandates being discussed for repeal are relatively minor. In most cases it is a variety of education constituencies that don't want their specific area hurt. We appreciate the work being done on this by several key legislators, but we are seeing more new mandates coming forward than the ones being considered for repeal.

Type III Bus rules:

The 'fix' to the Type III problem is moving forward. We hope to have this resolved well prior to the end of the legislative session.

PENSION SYSTEMS IN BIG TROUBLE:

The pension systems have lost a huge amount of money. There is a Bill coming up to require some additional contributions from both employees and employers. This Bill also resolves the problem of properly recognizing the needs of our post 1989 hires. MASA supports this effort and will also try to get Districts the levy authority to raise the money necessary for the employers contribution increaases. The Bill raises contributions beginning in FY 2012. Wisconsin is reducing their pension payments by over 2%. If the market swoon continues don't be surprised to see similar talk in Minnesota.

WE NEED YOU IN CONTACT WITH YOUR LEGISLATORS:

We will totally lose the battles at the legislature without your involvement. You need to be in close and continuous contact with your legislators. The future of our children and the State are at stake.

Comments

[Mark Stock]

Charlie,

You have one of the best uses of modern technology I have seen for keeping your administrators up to date.

Nice job.

Mark Stock
The Stock Mark Report
http://drmarkstock.com
What's Working in Schools
http://hopefoundation.org/hope/blog/