Federal Education Policy: Are We Having Fun Yet?

1. Federal Education Policy:Are We Having Fun Yet? Noelle Ellerson American Association of School Administrators PARSS, April 2012

2. Overview • ESEA • House & Senate Bills • Waivers • Budget & Appropriations • FY12 funding • FY13 budget proposal • Budget Control Act, Supercommittee & Sequestration • Education Technology • Child Nutrition • IDEA • Funding • Rural Education • Advocacy Resources

3. Climates • Funding • Continued recession at state and local level • Cessation of ARRA/EduJobs • Actual and anticipated cuts from FY11, FY12 and FY13 • Anticipated cuts from Debt Ceiling Commission/Sequestration • Political • Partisan. Middle ground moderates are gone. • It’s an election year. • Federal • Gridlock between House and Senate • State • State legislatures were heavily impacted by last year’s elections • Strong push on education issues with grassroots implications

4. ESEA Reauthorization: House • Student Success Act • Caps Title I funding to inflation • States must adopt content standards at least in math and reading, and linked to achievement standards • Returns control of accountability to states, who have to develop and implement accountability system • Increases state set-aside for school improvement to 10%, and eliminates School Improvement Grants • Allows all Title I schools to operate whole-school reforms (does away with 40% threshold) • Increases local funding control; beyond flexibility, eliminates all MOE requirements • Eliminates impossible goal of 100% • Eliminates AYP and AMOs

5. ESEA Reauthorization: House • Encouraging Innovation and Effective Teachers Act • Does away with HQT and focuses on evaluation systems with five components (student achievement, multiple measures, more than two categories, make personnel decisions based on evaluations, and seek input from stakeholders) • Caps use of these funds for class size reduction at 10% • Consolidates remaining teacher quality programs in to Teacher/School Leader Flexible Grant

6. ESEA Reauthorization: House • Points of Concern • Maintenance of Effort • Funding Cap • Equitable Participation • Charters

7. ESEA Reauthorization: Senate • Improvements • Eliminates impossible goal of 100% • Eliminates AYP and AMOs • Eliminates 2 percent testing cap • Changes testing requirement for ELL from one year to two years • Permits shifting to measure growth while retaining status testing • Permit multiple measures • Includes computer adaptive assessment • Shifts control of accountability to the states • Requires adoption of more accurate assessments

8. ESEA Reauthorization: Senate • Accountability Changes • Requires continuous improvement towards C/CR • Maintains disaggregation • Ranks schools, focus on bottom 5% • Achievement Gaps and Persistently Low Achieving • Achievement based on test scores, graduation rates, state summative test scores, and % on track for C/CR. • Turn Around Models • Transformation, Strategic Staffing, Turnaround, Whole School Reform, Restart, Closure, State Flexibility and Rural Waiver

9. ESEA Reauthorization: Senate • Points of Concern • Comparability Changes • Reliance on One-Time testing • Treatment of Foster Kids • Codification of RttT and i3

10. ESEA Politics • Senate passed out of cmte in Oct; House in Feb. • House version is Republican-only; Senate is bipartisan, and Sen. Harkin has indicated that he won’t move his bill until there is bi-partisan House language • Rep. Miller already on the record as unhappy; How will other House democrats react? • In case you didn’t know, 2012 is an election year 

11. ESEA: House & Senate Similarities • Both snap AYP, AMO, 100% proficiency • Both require annual testing in math/reading in grades 3-8 and once in high school • Continued data disaggregation • States get big say in intervening in low-performing schools • Eliminates requirement re: tutoring and school choice • Both reauthorize REAP

12. ESEA: House & Senate Differences • Both call for higher standards; House makes it illegal for Secretary to endorse specific efforts (Common Core) • House model lacks any specific turn around models, as well as any parameters in identifying who would use models • House doesn’t include another percentage of schools for special attention (Senate includes gap schools, administration includes those at-risk of 5%) • House bill eliminates HQT requirement • House bill requires SEA/LEAs to develop teacher evaluation systems (Driven by student performance and having more than 2 levels); Senate only requires it for those applying for competitive grants • House bill includes significant expansion of funding flexibility

13. ESEA: Regulatory Relief • Flexibility being offered in 11 specific areas • States have to adopt all three policy priorities: • Higher standards • Differentiated accountability system • Teacher/principal evaluation system based on growth • Conditional, quid-pro-quo deal, with states having to adopt specific policy priorities I exchange for relief • AASA position: we agree with the areas in which flexibility is being provided but are opposed to the conditional nature of the process.

14. ESEA: Regulatory Relief • 11 states applied for and received waivers in the first round: CO, FL, GA, IN, KY, MA, MN, NJ, NM, OK, and TN • 26 more states applied in the second round • Who hasn’t applied? AL, AK, CA, HI, ME, MT, NV, NH, ND, PA, TX, WV, and WY • One more round, applications due Sept. 6 • Direct to District Waivers? • Only for states who don’t apply?

15. Title I Formula Fairness • www.formulafairness.com • Led by Rural School and Community Trust • Current statute uses two weighting brackets to determine an LEA’s Title I allocation • Unintended consequence is that some larger, less-poor schools can end up receiving more Title I dollars per-child than smaller, poorer districts

16. Title I Formula Fairness • All Children are Equal (ACE) Act (HR 2485) provides legislative fix • Turns down the volume on number weighting to ensure that Title I dollars are distributed to concentrations of poverty • 11 original co-sponsors: Representatives Glenn Thompson (R-PA), Ruben Hinojosa (D – TX), G.K. Butterfield (D-NC), Louise Slaughter (D-NY), Dan Boren (D-OK), Mike Ross (D-AR), Tom Petri (R-WI), Lou Barletta (R-PA), Mike Kelly (R-PA), Todd Platts (R-PA), and Richard Hanna (R-NY). • Also joined by Reps. Roby (AL), Hartzler (MO), Crawford (AR), Kingston (GA), Latham (IA), Michaud (ME), Owens (NY), and Bishop (D-NY) • Urge your representative to sign on!

17. FY12 Appropriations • Budget Control Act/Joint Deficit Commission • identifying $1.5 trillion in cuts over the next 10 years • Failed to announce plan by Thanksgiving and take vote by Christmas • Includes required vote on Balanced Budget Amendment • Senate and House failed to pass BBA • Sequestration triggered 1/1/12 • Cuts go in to effect 1/1/13 • CBO estimates sequestration will be a 7.8% across-the-board cut; more likely to be a 9.1% cut • Estimated Education Impact at 7.8% level: • Title I: $1.1 billion • IDEA: 978 million • Perkins: $136 million • Head Start: $590 million

18. FY12 Appropriations • FY12 appropriations completed in fasted timeframe in 7 years, though still 11 weeks behind • Utilized a handful of short-term CRs before adopting a megabus and an omnibus to fund government for the duration of FY12 • Final LHHS bill included 0.189% across-the-board cut (to be compliant with Budget Control Act)

19. FY12 Appropriations • Head Start: additional $424 million • Title I: additional $60 million • IDEA: additional $100 million • RTTT funded at $550 million • School Improvement Grant: $534.6 m • Literacy: $160 million (restoration from FY11) • Impact Aid: $1.294 billion • Title II set aside in the competitive grant for professional development increases from 1% to 1.5% • Investing in Innovation: $149.7 million • REAP: $180 million • Teacher Incentive Fund: $300 million • Promise Neighborhood: $60 million • ESEA Title III: $733.5 • Career/Tech: $1.739 billion

20. Budget Control Act • Stems from Debt Ceiling Debate from Summer 2012 • Raised debt ceiling • Created Super Committee • By default, creates sequestration • Required votes on balanced budget amendment • Established spending caps for next ten years

21. FY13 Budget Proposal • USED only non-defense funding increase -about $1.7 billion • $30 billion to retain, hire teachers and first responders • $30 billion to modernize at least 35,000 schools

22. FY13 Budget Proposal • Level funds Title I and IDEA • Consolidates 38 programs down to 11 • $850 million for RTT • $150 million for i3 • $2.5 billion for teacher quality formula grants • $400 million for Teachers/Leaders Innovation Fund • NEW $5 billion grant program to reform the teaching profession

23. House FY13 Budget Resolution • Chairman Ryan proposed FY13 budget, passed committee 19-18 • Places FY13 discretionary cap at $1.028 trillion ($19 billion below Budget Control Act level of $1.047 trillion). • Funds defense at $554 billion, leaving only $474 billion for non-defense. This is a cut of $27 billion (5.4 percent) from Budget Control Act levels. • It seems to address the discretionary sequestration in FY13, but leaves the remaining $1 trillion in cuts bewteen FY14 and FY21 untouched. • Reduces funding for Function 500 (education programs) by $9.5 billion from baseline. • What next?

24. IDEA Full Funding • AASA’s #1 legislative priority • Senator Harkin has introduced the IDEA Full Funding Act (S 1403). We are waiting for the House partner bill. • Rep. Polis has a IDEA funding bill, but our focus is on the Harkin version • Urge your Senator to sign on the S 1403, and talk with your entire Congressional delegation about the funding pressures of IDEA and the importance of protecting and increasing IDEA funding in FY12 and debt ceiling conversations.

25. Education Technology: E-Rate • FCC program that provides discounts to help schools and libraries afford telecommunications services • Anti-Deficiency Act (S 297) • Raise the spending cap beyond current inflationary adjustment • CALL TO ACTION: File comments to let FCC know of opposition to proposed pilot, to be administered through E-Rate

26. Education Technology: Ed Tech • Title II Part D, Enhancing Education Through Technology, E2T2 • Zero-funded by the administration, eliminated by the House in its ESEA eliminations bill • Not included in Senate Base Bill or House bill • Sen. Bingaman introduced the ATTAIN Act (S 1178), which allows for EETT-type program ($300 m trigger); Offered as amendment in Senate ESEA mark up. • Rep. Roybal-Allard introduced the House companion of ATTAN (HR 3614)

27. Other Topics • School Nutrition • Seclusion/Restraint • Bullying • Foster Children • Forest Counties • Other?

28. Get—and Stay!—Involved! • Weigh in early, weigh in often • These decisions are made whether or not you weigh in. • 15 minutes per month is all it takes. • Don’t be a frequent flyer; a thoughtful note is a thoughtful note! • Get to know your Senator/Representative, and perhaps more importantly, their education staffer. • Invite the Representative/Senator and staffer to your ESA. Anecdotes and stories have a lot of sticking power with this Congress. Let the face of your ESA be the one that sticks in their mind!

29. AASA Advocacy Resources • AASA Website: www.aasa.org • AASA Blog: www.aasa.org/aasablog.aspx • AASA Twitter: @Noellerson • Annual Legislative Advocacy Conference • AASA Connect: www.aasaconnect.com • Weekly Update: Legislative Corps • Monthly Update: Advocacy Alert • Policy Insider

30. Questions? • Noelle Ellerson (nellerson@aasa.org)Assistant Director, Policy Analysis & Advocacy