by Stories from School's FIRST guest blogger: John

The nationally syndicated article by E. J. Dionne on education that appeared in this past Sunday’s Seattle Times is relevant to Tom’s last post on what new approach the Obama administration will take on education policy.   

In addition to the policy statement Tom mentioned (EPI), Dionne also mentions a second policy onto which new Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has signed—the Education Equality Project.  It’s Statement of Policies includes this: “The sad reality is that these systems are not broken. Rather, they are doing what we have designed them to do over time. The systems were not designed with the goal of student learning first and foremost, so they are ill-equipped to accomplish what is demanded of them today.”

Schools were not built to overcome achievement gaps—they were designed to manage and rank all kids and educate some kids.  While this may seem depressing, I believe it offers some hope…

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By Tom

The next time your car underperforms, try this: Gather your friends and neighbors and issue a statement criticizing your car. Spell out its shortcomings as well as your expectations concerning its performance. Patiently allow it twelve years to reach those expectations, but make it clear that you will be voicing your disappointment at every opportunity. If it complains, silence it. Tell it that it has only itself to blame for its condition. Point out other cars that are doing just fine. You could even get David Brooks to say something menacing, like "Getting rid of the worst 6% of our nation's cars is one of the best things we could do to improve our nation's transportation system." If your car has the gall to ask for some additional funding in order to make the needed repairs, you could snarl, "More money!? We've been trying that for years! And look what it's gotten us! A broken-down car!"

You could try that approach. Or…

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By Tom

A year ago, before the economy went sour, the Basic Education Finance Task Force was told to figure out what the state of Washington would have to do if it was serious about providing a high-quality educational system. So they did. And to no one's surprise, the fixes involve spending more money. Billions of it.

The timing couldn't have been worse. Our state is looking at a $5 billion deficit as we head into the legislative session. Education amounts to about 40% of the state budget. The Task Force proposals will cost up to $3 billion beyond what the state already pays for education. So where is all that money going to come from? Good question. And it's exactly the question Governor Gregoire asked Dan Grimm, the chair of the Task Force.

As a former state treasurer, Mr Grimm should know his way around the state budget. His response? Increase taxes. Specifically, extend the state sales tax, currently applied only to the sales of goods; to services, such as doctor visits. The governor also told him that she would put the Task Force's funding proposal to a voter referendum. Hmm. I could probably name about four people that would vote for a tax hike at this point in time. And I work in a school.

Which means we won't be getting a pony for Christmas this year. We won't be starting the next school year with the school system described in the Task Force proposal. That's too bad, since the proposals address most of the obstacles that stand between us and a really effective public school system.

Is there a silver lining to this cloud? Perhaps.

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Driving to/from Olympia: 4 hours

Writing and rewriting testimony: 6 hours

Sleep lost due to nerves, obsessive rewriting, and worry
that being in the classroom is more important than speaking on school funding:
3 hours

Preparing for sub: 4 hours

Feeling of having spoken for greater educational equity:
priceless. 

Monday, I testified before the task force on Basic Education
funding. As the proposal moves to the legislature for full consideration, more
teachers need to testify.

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This is huge. Anyone who teaches in Washington State, has school-age kids or grandkids in Washington State, or plans to do any of the above should sit down and pay attention. The Basic Education Finance Task Force has been quietly working since way before the economy fell apart, drafting a recommendation to completely change the funding structure of our state's school system. The last time we posted about the Task Force on this blog they had five separate proposals. Now there's one. (Imagine being at that meeting.)

All told, the Task Force made six Key Recommendations:

1. Define basic education as the opportunity for students to meet proposed new high school graduation requirements.
2. Basic education includes supplemental instructional opportunities for disadvantaged students, including at-risk pre-schoolchildren.
3. Establish a new state budgeting system with allocations based on class size and instructional hours in model elementary, middle and high schools, with flexibility for local school district spending. Increase state allocation to school districts based on reduced class size assumptions, especially in grades K through 3, and more instructional time, and increase allocations for at-risk preschool children.
4. Reform the compensation system:
   • Determine salary increases and continuing contracts for teachers based on performance factors.
   • Set school employee salary allocations benchmarked by comparable wages in regional non-school employee labor markets.
   • Eliminate state allocations for teacher salary increases based in additional educational credits and degrees.
   • Create new performance-based teacher certification system supported by increased resources for professional development and mentoring
5. Implement a common state-funded accounting and budgeting system for all school districts and enhance the statewide student informational system.
6. Implement the State Board of Education proposed accountability system principals.

For this post, I'm going to focus on numbers 3 and 4. Not that the others aren't important. They are. But space, as well as my expertise, are limited. And again, I strongly encourage anyone with a horse in this race to read the entire report.

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