I Thought a Think

Sunday, September 18, 2011

How Did the On-Line Schools Do This Year?

Long-time readers have seen a lot from me about on-line schools here in Washington State, including a comparison of test scores that I did last fall. The whole series can be found here.

What's changed in the last year? Not much. If anything, on-line schools are doing worse than ever when compared to their brick and mortar counterparts. You can see a spreadsheet that I made here; the general upshot is:

Out of 111 tested areas, on-line schools were better than the state average 12 times.
On-line highschools fared extremely poorly--in 29 attempts, they didn't beat the state average a single time. It's the same for 5th grade (0 for 12).
The brightest spots were 6th grade math (2 school out of 5 beat the state average) and the third grade tests (3 of 8).

In the interim since I worked on this year's spreadsheet and got around to finally putting it up on the blog I also received the September edition of the Freedom Foundation's Living Liberty newsletter. Within there's a column from their lead education analyst Diana Moore where she once again overstates the case for on-line schools. For example:

Like the mythical king Sisyphus, reformers seemed doomed to roll a heavy rock up a hill for eternity. Yet online learning might just be the lever to heave that rock to the other side.

That lever was better than the existing system about 11% of the time. In some cases those lever schools had scores less than half those of the state average. On-line schools aren't excelling. The groundswell of online learning is growing. If this continues at the same pace, it will be hard for status quo protectors to stop.
Not really--you'll just have to look at the results and say, "Wow, those schools have problems." With online learning, we have the historic ability to reclaim the mission of public education from the statists and interest groups who have perverted it. It is possible to offer access to a world class education to every child. Every child.
And this is when I get pissy. Those statists that Diana slags on here are beating the online schools regularly and thoroughly. This call that she makes here, to some bygone era where learning was somehow better, doesn't match up with the data owned by the schools that she's pushing. For certain kids online education may well be a better option, but instead of focusing on the micro aspect she tries to take it into a macro argument about the school system in general, and she's a lesser person for it. We should have online programs, but let's make sure the conversation about them stays honest. What I get thrown back at me fairly regularly is "But Ryan, the mission of the on-line schools is different!", and that may well be true, but consider--if I made that argument about a public school like Wellpinit, or a program from downtown Seattle, Spokane, or Tacoma, if I showed you a "failing" public school and said to you "But those kids are different!", do you think that those in the ed reform movement would grant the point or accuse me of embracing the soft bigotry of low expectations and giving up on kids? When the data is this overwhelming you have to ask yourself what the Freedom Foundation gets out of it, and they've made that clear: the important thing is to screw the WEA. This isn't about freedom, the free market, or conservative principles--it's about the agenda, and that agenda has absolutely nothing to do with students.

A new year begins. Online schools have been poor for two consecutive years. Is there any reason to believe that will change?

Labels: Diana Moore, Evergreen Freedom Foundation, internet, Not E Just FF, on-line learning

Read more here, if any.

Sunday, September 12, 2010

Virtual Schools--The Picture is Mixed

The Evergreen Freedom Foundation has new project promoting on-line learning academies here in Washington State. Good for them, since it's something they've been talking about for years. It's interesting to me, though, because one of the state legislators I work closely with (a Republican, even) has been pretty critical of some of our virtual academies--he's essentially the opposite of this:

Some will ask how we can be sure they received a good education and didn’t just slack off and slide through? Because online programs are designed to prevent that. These students were held to high academic standards, subject to regular accountability, and—like all online public school students—had to prove mastery of content before they could move on. And ultimately, before they could move that tassel.

The trouble comes when you look at the state testing results for some of the online schools around the state, and it isn't a pretty picture. What do I mean?

Last year, on the 2009-2010 MSP results, and on the 23 tests that I looked at, no on-line school beat the state average in any test.
It's worse than that--in every single area but one, the difference between the state average and the on-line results is a double-digit number.
The worst internet school I looked at also seems to be the oldest: Federal Way Internet Academy. They had a 2% passing rate in 10th grade math--that means 1 out of every 50 10th graders got over the bar. They were 50% or more below the state average in reading and writing.

If this is the "fresh stream of water coming into a stagnant backwater", be wary of dysentary.

There's also the video that the EFF put out promoting their new on-line schooling efforts. It prominently features Tom Vander Ark, who deserves much of the credit? for founding the Federal Way Internet Academy when he was superintendent there. It has Steven Magi saying that "On-line programs are subject to more accountability than any other public school program", which is awfully counterintuitive and a point I look forward to them expanding on in the future. It takes them a full 4:47 of the 6 minute video to get around to slagging on the unions, which is remarkably restrained.

That said, I'll be one of the first to defend on-line schools. The story of Apolo Ohno has been told repeatedly, about how online school allowed him to become one of the best speed skaters in the history of the sport, but that's a great thing--the flexibility from the online program gave him the ability to become one of the all-time greats. For a lot of the small school districts that I work with here in Eastern Washington online schooling allows them to access courses that the kids wouldn't have any shot at taking otherwise. As a union guy I represent more than a few teachers who serve online academies, and they are some of the happiest teachers I know.

Where I chafe, though, is when supporters of online schools lead off with lousy state and national test scores as an argument for having their chosen ed reform. If you're going to measure me and my public school by those test scores (as the EFF has done with their school report cards), then you have to allow that same scrutiny on your online programs. They are an alternative--they are an alternative that we desperately need--but if you're going to go off the test scores, have the intellectual honesty to acknowledge that online schools at this time are failing in that metric. Paragraphs like this, for example:

There are some traditional schools and traditional teachers who do a wonderful job and graduate well-educated men and women. They should be commended and keep up the good work. But for the rest of the system, and for a lot of students and families, online education is a ray of hope on an otherwise overcast horizon.

If you go off the MSP and WASL results that's not a ray of hope--that's a fart that someone lit.

I also see district like Valley, near Chewelah, where they reported have 743 kids in May, and yet they don't have any test results to show for it. Why is that? It's the same for Columbia Virtual Academy of Orient.

For more information, check out Liv Finne of the Washington Policy Center here. A news story about online schools losing money, here. 5/17 on online schools from earlier this year, here. The big OSPI audit of online schools from last December, here.

Read more here, if any.

Sunday, August 16, 2009

Fun With On-Line Schools

The passing rate on the 10th grade math WASL for the Insight Academy, an on-line charter school run by the Quillayute Valley School District in Forks: 17.9%

The statewide average: 45.2%.

Must be the vampires.

Also check out the Columbia Virtual Academy, operated by the Valley School District in Stevens County. The Valley School is a K-8 building with about 200 students, while Columbia Virtual is a cash cow that had more than 700! students enrolled in October of last year. Note, first, that they don't have any WASL scores listed. Note, too, that though they started with 707 kids, they only finished with 225. I may have to do more research into the why on that one.

You could also try Columbia Virtual Academy of Colville, where 10% of the kids pass the math WASL in 10th grade.

There's nothing wrong with on-line learning. Some of these aren't looking like they're really on-line learning.

Labels: internet, on-line learning

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Tuesday, February 12, 2013

This Week in Olympia: Punching Teachers is Bad

Monday: The Senate K-12 Committee will be hearing SB5497, which makes it a case of 3rd Degree Assault to punch a teacher. Bus drivers and their supervisors are already covered, which would be an interesting piece of legislative history to see where that came from, but this creates equal footing. It's law that I hope isn't used often.

At the same time over in the House the Capital Budget committee will be hearing a pair of bills related to school district construction, and Reuven Carlyle's Flaming Liberal Finance Committee will be having a work session on the Joint Task Force on Education Funding.

Tuesday: I'd guess that the House Higher Education committee will start getting more interesting as the session goes along and they'd have to take legislative action on things like differential tuition, but for now their 8:00 meeting covers non-controversial topics like letting veterans register for classes early.

At 1:30 both the Early Learning and Education Committees are meeting; I'm rather interested in the farm apprenticeship program (HB1276), which could be good for several schools here in Eastern Washington. On the Senate side the Higher Education committee is scheduled to hear a draft bill on efficiency, which is in draft form on the committee website now.

The day ends with the House Appropriations Committee hearing a bill on differential tuition, while the Senate Ways and Means gets the first crack at one of the dumb bills that Senator Litzow got out of the K-12 Education Committee.

(Aside: How dumb? The fiscal note for the bill points out that the State can't direct how Title funds are spent, the way that the bill did, so expect to see amended out something that shouldn't have ever been there in the first place)

(Aside to the aside: The Democrats did the exact same thing with federal stimulus funds two years back, so there's that)

The most important thing today is the school bonds and levies that will be voted on around the state. Good luck to you if you have one up!

Wednesday: One of the keynote bills of the WEA, regarding collective bargaining for Community College employees, gets a hearing in the House Labor and Workforce Development Committee at 8:00.

At 1:30 the Senate K-12 Committee will be hearing a bill to change the testing requirements and codify a lot of the Common Core work that has gone on. At the same time the House Higher Education Committee will be hearing a pair of efficiencies bills, including the companion to the bill heard in the Senate on Tuesday.

The meeting I'll be paying the most attention to is at 3:30, when the Senate W&M Committee is holding a hearing on what the potential impact of the sequestration at the federal level could be on the state. For a district like mine, where federal aid is a huge percentage of our budget, it would be devastating.

At the same time, the House Appropriations has a meeting scheduled to pass the differential tuition bill they're hearing on Tuesday.

Thursday: Happy Valentine's Day!

At 8:00 the House Education committee will be hearing a bill related to on-line learning; expect one of the lobbyists from Valley to be there. A different bill would yank your license if you lie about your WEST-B or E scores, which was legislation done by request of the Professional Educator Standards Board if memory serves me.

At 10:00 the House Higher Education committee is having a work session on "Postsecondary affordability", lead by the Economic Opportunity Institute. They're also set to pass a bill authorizing a couple of new educational specialist degrees at Western and Central.

In the afternoon, starting at 1:30, you've got Senate Higher Education, then at 3:30 the Senate Ways and Means committee will be hearing a bill prime sponsored by Rosemary McAuliffe that would raise more money to pay for the McCleary decision. It has no sponsors from the Majority Coalition, though, so I can't see a path for it to move forward.

Also at 3:30 the House Education Appropriations subcommittee will be holding a session on the importance of school counselors. We lost mine at our school this year, and the absence has certainly been felt.

Friday: In the morning Litz and the Tantrums will be playing over on the Senate side at 8:00; the most interesting bill on the agenda is their proposal to pay math and science teachers more. They'll have to be deemed "expert" by the PESB, a group that isn't exactly known for the brevity of their work, so if this bill were law I wouldn't worry about it until well after 2020.

In the afternoon the House Education committee will be hearing an idea, prime sponsored by Brad Klippert, to make it easier for districts to look at going to a four day school week. It's mildly interesting to see Eric Pettigrew signed on as a co-sponsor--Seattle would never, ever do this--and also look for the PSE of Washington to be out in force, because while teachers are protected from the impact of a four day week because of the salary schedule, it's devastating to bus drivers, custodians, and cafeteria workers who lose 20% of their salary.

Read more here, if any.

Saturday, December 05, 2009

50 Ways To Save Money in the Education Budget

Yeah, I'm ripping off the EFF. So sue me.

A nice thing about Assembly Days for the legislature last week was that you see everything that's going on around education, from the PESB to the SBE to the QEC to the OSPI. It's difficult to keep track of--I don't know, frankly, how my friend the education staffer does it--but for education wonks and education hobbyists, it's fun stuff.

Anyhow, all the conversation about cutting education makes one wonder just what could be cut. I did a little playing around with the idea in April, when things were last going to hell, but I think it's worth bringing up again.

First stop: the enacted state budget, beginning on page 123.

Idea #1: Suspend development of the new finance system. I'm not saying throw all the work that's been done away, but is there any reason that it can't sit on a hard drive at OFM for a year until things maybe start getting better? Savings: $941,000.

Idea #2: Put aside the alternative pipeline programs at the PESB. These are the paras-to-teachers pipeline programs, alternative certification programs, and the conversion math teacher loans. All of them are good programs in a shortage, but we're laying people off--the market doesn't need these programs. Savings: $4,501,000 (I'm blending together subsections i and ii on page 124).

Idea #3: Suspend the Recruiting Washington Teachers Program. Same rationale as above--it's not needed right now. Savings: $231,000.

Idea #4: Suspend the Retooling Math/Science Educators Program. I'd be willing to bend on this if there was still a demonstrable need, I suppose, but in this economy I'm doubtful. Savings: $244,000.

Idea #5: Suspend CEDARS. This is the new data management system, and while I really like how it's coming together and the potential it has for the future, there's no reason it can't wait for a year. Savings: $1,227,000.

Idea #6: Don't put extra into teaching financial literacy to students. Yes, the lessons matter, but "practice what you preach" is a pretty good lesson to teach, too. Savings: $75,000.

Idea #7: Suspend the Interstate Compact on the Military Child. This one hurts to even suggest, because these are my kids--my school is 90%+ the sons and daughters of active duty servicemembers. The trick is that many of your school districts that serve military installations also are heavily into levy equalization money, and if this "macro" cut helps at the "micro" level, we have to do that. Savings: $45,000.

Idea #8: Suspend implementation of SB5410 (On-Line Learning). There's no reason that this can't wait until a different year. Savings: $700,000.

Idea #9: Eliminate Project Citizen. Good goals, not worth the money right now. Savings: $25,000.

Idea #10: Suspend School Safety Training. Training is important, but try to find a cheaper way. Savings: $100,000.

Idea #11: Eliminate the School Safety Center at OSPI. This would also have the happy side-effect of eliminating another state board (The School Safety Center Advisory Committee), which fits in with where we're trying to go in streamlining government. Savings: $96,000.

Idea #12: Cut funding for suicide prevention programs. This isn't an easy call to make. This is what the Governor means when she says that the cuts will hurt. But it's an open question as to whether the program works, and in these times....you have to. Savings: $70,000.

Idea #13: No more leadership training from the Institute for Community Leadership. Savings: $50,000.

Idea #14: Money for the technology to make CEDARS happen. There's absolutely no reason we can't wait a year for this. Savings: $1,045,000.

Idea #15: End the Special Services Pilot Project. They never should have started it to begin with. Savings: $1,329,000.

Idea #16: No more money for the Washington Achievers program. Savings: $750,000.

Idea #17: No more money for information about women during World War II. Being someone's pet project shouldn't make it a legislative priority. Savings: $25,000.

Idea #18: Eliminate Navigation 101. It's a decent curriculum that has a lot of district support, but there's no reason we can't go back to it when times are better. Savings: $3,220,000.

Idea #19: End dropout prevention programs. Research says this will cost us more money in the long run. Research also says that we can put a cost to this line item RIGHT NOW. Savings: $675,000.

Idea #20: End the initiative to reach out to Latino families. This was a partnership with the Seattle Community Coalition of Compana Quetzal, and they're just going to have to find their own way for a year. Savings: $50,000.

Idea #21: End the program to encourage bilingual students to go into teaching. Ideally every teacher would be bilingual. These aren't ideal times. Savings: $75,000.

Idea #22: End the dyslexia pilot program. Dyslexia has turned into a catch-all for 100 other reading difficulties, and this is a need that could be better met through federal Reading First dollars, Title funds, or other avenues. Savings: $145,000.

Idea #23: Stop the support of vocational student leadership organizations. I love the Future Farmers and Future Business Leaders and Future Whatever the Homemakers Are Calling Themselves Now, but they may have to find their own way. Savings: $97,000.

Idea #24: End the Communities in School Program in Pierce County. It's not basic education, and if Pierce County schools really need this, that's what levy dollars are for. Savings: $25,000.

Idea #25: Enough of the Math/Science work out of the ESDs. My hunch is that a lot of this money is going towards LASER, which has been one of the biggest time-wasters that I've ever encountered in my 10 years in the classroom. I truly don't believe that they have their act together; this cut seems common sense. Savings: $3,355,000.

Idea #26: End support for Destination: Imagination and Future Problem Solving. They're great programs--I worked with DI for about a decade before my schedule got to busy, and I've been a DI coach--but we can't afford this. Savings: $90,000.

Idea #27: End support for the Centrum Program at Fort Worden Park. I know nothing about this, beyond what it says in the state budget. Savings: $170,000.

Idea #28: Halt funding of math and science coaches. This money comes out of the Education Legacy Trust, so it's not general fund money, but it's the thought that counts. Savings: $1,925,000.

Idea #29: Postpone OSPI's STEM initiative. This pays for grants for 20 teachers and staff at OSPI to supervise; now is not the time. Savings: $139,000.

Idea #30: Cut funding for LASER. Oh, look, it's a line item just for my favorite science program! Lock the kits in a warehouse for a year and move on. Savings: $1,579,000.

Idea #31: No leadership academy for principals and superintendents. This has been one of the Association of Washington School Principals' big projects; in fact, they recently got a nice fat sole source personal service contract with OSPI to run the thing. This is a nice idea when things are flush--we can't afford it now. Savings: $900,000.

Idea #32: Eliminate the Washington State Reading Corps. This hurts, but it has to be done. Savings: $1,056,000.

Idea #33: Eliminate the Center for the Improvement of Student Learning. Savings: $225,000.

Idea #34: Cut back on OSPI technology leadership. This is a line item for improving, monitoring, promoting, and coordinating technology; it sounds like one big support program. Savings: $1,959,000.

Idea #35: Suspend National Boards bonuses for a year. Yeah, I said it. I have all the respect in the world for the people who go through the progress, and I believe that it's thorough--one of the most respected teachers in my district just tried and didn't get over the line, which is amazing to me. The point is that, reform efforts be damned, we simply can't afford this right now. Savings: $36,513,000.

Idea #36: Suspend the Local Farms-Healthy Kids program. I'm married to a farmer, and I think the state stinks when it comes to supporting agriculture most of the time, but a lot of this money went into creating yet another FTE at OSPI. Again and ideally, we'd be able to have this. Right now? Savings: $300,000.

Idea #37: Suspend the Beginning Educator Support Program (BEST). Here's the trick--since beginning educators are the first ones out the door in a financial crisis, is it better to support them and then fire them, or let them work? Savings: $2,348,000.

Idea #38: End the state funded internship program for principals and superintendents. Right now I don't perceive that these jobs go lacking for qualified applicants, and if districts have quality candidates who they want to support as they get their internships done that can be accomplished using local dollars. Savings: $530,000.

Idea #39: Lower the state funding for administrators by $1,000. Right now the state only funds about $59,000 of the cost per administrator, which is a terribly outdated formula. That said, the rest of the money comes from local funds, so let's allow local districts to make the decision: do they come up with the money, or do they ask their administrators to take a haircut? Teachers are losing the LID days, after all. Savings, based on about 5,000 school administrators: $5,000,000.

That's 39 ideas from the most recently enacted K-12 budget alone, and I didn't even touch everything there. Some of these may have already happened (I thought I heard, for example, that the WWII women's project didn't go through), and some of them are damnably shameful (cutting funding for Destination: Imagination would be a tragedy), but the discussion has to occur.

Next up, playing with the Personal Service Contract (PSC) listings at the OFM website. This is money already spent, but I think it drives the point home that we could be doing things differently. I've listed them as "potential savings" instead of "savings", because the contracts are already signed.

Idea #40: Teach someone at OSPI how to read blogs: In July they issued a $15,000 PSC to a Washington DC consulting firm to track what's happening at the federal level. Can no one at OSPI do that now? Isn't there some sort of education department over there that tracks these things? Potential savings: $15,000.

Idea #41: Don't pay for crap like this. "Contractor shall communicate a vision for hands-on, project-based Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (S.T.E.M.) curriculum, and promote the benefits and positive impacts of technology-rich learning environments attuned to the new digital learner." Bullshit bingo: succeed! Budget reality: failure. Potential savings: $12,000.

Idea #42: Put the Bylsma School Reform Plan on hold. Pete Bylsma's a nice guy--I've met him through WERA a couple of times--but we've already given him an awful lot of money to come up with his plan to fix failing schools, and now we're in line to give him $65,000 more. That's not OK. Potential savings: $65,000.

Idea #43: Price your meeting facilitators better. On page 38 you've got someone making $2,400 to facilitate a two day meeting. Why? Hell, that may not have even included expenses. Potential savings: $2,400.

Idea #44: Write your own damned reports. "The Contractor shall research if the two incentives for attaining National Board certification and serving challenging schools make a difference in the mobility, distribution, and retention patterns among the National Board Certified Teachers (NBCTs) compared to teachers with similar characteristics that teach in schools with similar characteristics and do not obtain this certification." There's no one on the state government payroll, be it OSPI, OFM, WSIPP, or whatever, that can do this? Potential savings: $80,000. (source)

Idea #45: No, really--write your own damned reports. "The Contractor shall analyze 2008 graduates’ course-taking patterns in high school and their enrollment in two-year and four-year colleges." Offered without comment: that particular contract went to the BERC Group. Potential savings: $30,000.

Idea #46: Avoid the appearance of impropriety. A $251,240 sole-source PSC look funny on its face--when you're giving it to the Washington Association of School Administrators, a group that's heavily involved in the consequences of the school reform debate happening right now, it's proper to raise an eyebrow.

And ideas that I can't put a cost savings to:

Idea #47: Take another look at school district consolidation. Sure, it's the same drum I've been pounding for a while, but it's being taken up by more and more states around the country. Why not take a closer look at it for Washington State? Potential savings: depends on how you do it.

Idea #48: Freeze the state salary schedule. There was a rumor running around late last session that the legislature was seriously considering this, and it just might be the right thing to do. Sure, we teachers wouldn't get our step and lane increases, but on the other hand it could save jobs and have the happy side effect we wouldn't go backwards. Potential savings: millions of dollars.

Idea #49: Don't make membership in the Washington State School Directors Association mandatory. This also came up last session, but the time is ripe to revisit it, especially since the WSSDA just put a dues increase in front of their members. The timing couldn't be worse. Potential savings: varies by district; dues depend on size, and the district would have to opt-out.

Idea #50: Take a closer look at OSPI personal service contracts. Go here and marvel at the number of $100,000+ a year contracts that OSPI is giving out to support the school improvement efforts. Sure, they're paid out of Title I Part A, but is there no room to pay some of these folks $90,000 (still more than any teacher makes!) instead of $110,000? How competitive are these grants, anyhow?

Labels: budget, Budget Deficit, ideas, savings, state budget, the usual crap

Read more here, if any.

Tuesday, May 09, 2006

Teachers Salaries Posted On-Line

It's sort of discomforting to go on-line and see your salary posted for all the world to see. That's what I did over the weekend, at Louis Bloom's website. His hobby is making Public Information Requests of state agencies and putting it on-line, and thus there we all are, since teachers are state employees. Bloom himself admits it's an oddball, gossipy hobby, but more power to him. As someone who pushes for transparency I can't rightly complain about it, right?

And hell, here I am surfing around to see what the principals make, the other teachers in my grade level, the superintendant, the guys I went to college with who are also in teaching, and so on. It's nosy, but addictive. Try it at your own discretion.

Read more here, if any.

Friday, March 20, 2009

For Those Attending the PoliSparks Conference in Olympia This Weekend

Hi, Sparkies!

My name is Ryan Grant; I'm a first grade teacher in Medical Lake, president of the Medical Lake Education Association, WEAPAC Chair for WEA-Eastern, and for the purposes of this workshop (and in the eyes of Ann Randall :-) a political blogger of some small note.

I've been writing here at I Thought a Think for 3 years now. It started as a bit of a lark--everyone was doing it, so I will too!--but since then I've really come to see the power that blogging and other internet communication can have as a tool to get the message out. Having the blog has opened up contacts for me with people involved in education that I wouldn't have made otherwise, and for everything that I've put into it I've gotten just as much out.

Below, then, I'm sending you on a bit of a treasure hunt to show you some of the resources that I use when I'm working on my own blog projects. There'll be some video, there'll be some audio, there'll be lolcats twittering memes. Hopefully it'll be educational for you, the same way it has been for me. Please follow the links freely, and have fun doing it!

Part I: Why Blogs MatterSee the PI.

Print, print, print, says the PI.

See the PI....die?

I'm a longtime lover of newspapers; they're how I learned to read, and while it may sound rather trite growing up in small-town Washington (Rochester) they really could take you places that you wouldn't otherwise be able to go. This post at The Stranger from the day that the closure of the PI was announced is a rather stunning look at that moment in time.

And then the Seattle PI went online only, the biggest newspaper in the country to do so. The model that they're apparently running with is to be an online aggregator of other content that is found on the 'net, with some small bit of original reporting thrown in from the few staffers that they have left. Broadband access is becoming more ubiquitous by the day, the reasoning goes--if people are opening their laptops in the morning before they would even think to open a newspaper, then isn't being on the internet better?

Hence, blogging. The immediacy of the internet can be a blessing in getting a message out; take, for example, the League of Education Voters, the anti-school group trying to ram HB2261 through the legislature. They've done good work in liveblogging events like House Education Committee hearings and important votes that give a sense of vitality to the issue being covered that simply can't be matched by dead-tree media. By the same token consider what happened to the Washington State Labor Council last week, where a scandal over an email that killed their most important bill was thoroughly dissected by both the left and the right before the first drop of ink was ever spilt.

The take home here? Something I tried to do around HB1410/SB5444 was to get reasons out there, quickly, why they were bad bills and inspire people to respond. At the link above I was able to get a reason out and have it sitting right next to an email link to the legislators to let their voice be heard, and it worked--Statcounter showed that when people "left" the site it was typically to go and send an email. You can't reproduce that experience with a newsletter, a newspaper, a rally, or a flyer.

Rich Wood and Simone Boe have also been doing great things with the group set up on Facebook; it was originally designed to fight against 1410/5444, but has now evolved into a more general group on the budget crisis with almost 1,600 members. Consider that; people opt-in to join the group, meaning that they want to be there, and that creates an instant list of folks who you know are receptive to the message.

The internet: it's only gotten better since 1994.

Watch 24: The Unaired 1994 Pilot on CollegeHumor

Part II: It's All In How You Say It

The website that I use for my blogs is Blogspot, because it was the first one I found when I googled "blog" at the beginning. Coincidently Blogspot is owned by Google, so let's hear it for corporate synergy!

Blogs are almost always automatically indexed by your major search engines, and the "labels" function is also useful if you want to categorize your posts a certain way. I also have a script called StatCounter installed--a tracking cookie--so I can see who's been coming, who's been going, what brought them to my page, how long they stayed, if they've ever come back, etc. It's a real kick in the pants when you see that your blog post has been noticed by someone else, who comments on it on their web page, which moves traffic your way. Again, synergy.

So as y'all think about starting your own political blog the piece that I'd ask you to think about is voice--what tone do you want to take in your communication? I've given you some examples below; which ones best match your personality?

Voice #1: Snark. A shortening of "snide remark," think of snark as the insult comic at the Celebrity Roast who rips the target up and down. Long knives drawn, on the attack, true snark can be a bee-yoo-tiful thing to behold.

Th snarkiest snark on the internet is found at Wonkette, a pleasent alternative universe where everyone is a drunken version of James Carville and has something really funny and really wrong to say. Consider this recent post on the gloriously stupid AIG debacle, which is an update on the current legislative session wrapped up in profanity with a "Go f- yourself" ribbon on top.

For a local example take a look at Horse's Ass, a blog that started with the wonderful initiative to officially label Tim Eyman a horse's ass. They also do a hell of a podcast.

Voice #2: The Storyteller. One of the best blog posts I've ever read from one of the best bloggers around was The Nice Man Cometh at New York City Educator; whenever people talk about alternative routes into the classroom, this is the piece of writing that I point to. NYC Educator is one of the best at taking those slice-of-life stories from the classroom and turning them into (sometimes damning) indictments of the system writ large, and that can be one of the most powerful tools in the internet activists arsenal. Mrs. Bluebird and Dr. Pezz are two more who share their classroom stories while also keeping an eye on the larger prize, and it's a neat thing to see.

One of the basic tenets of lobbying is that the legislators respond to the personal stories, those anecdotes that really drive home what legislation means. With the impending cuts to the school budget, there's so much that could be done to share how the decisions made in Olympia will impact teachers, students, and parents in the schools.

When you think about your school, what story would you tell to answer these questions:

How does class size matter?
Why does compensation matter?
How did ProCert impact teachers new to the profession?
Why should we care about National Certification?
When you think of a kid who had a good turn-around in life, what was it that helped him get right?

Voice #3: The Wonk. This is, perhaps, the toughest one to pull off convincingly. The Science Goddess at What It's Like on the Inside (a Washington State blogger, too!) isn't a fan of teacher's unions but is always interesting, topical, and has a depth of knowledge in her field that really shows. She presents frequently and is this able to break down sophisticated ideas into bite-sized pieces, which makes her an easy read.

Or, going right to the original, EduWonk, aka Andrew Rotherham, who used to have a position in the Clinton White House as an education advisor and still keeps his ear close to the ground on the big education issues of the day.

The trick to being the wonk is taking something obtuse and opaque, like state law or taskforce recommendations or the lyrics of Morissey, and making it easily understandable. I've been working for a week now on a post about the impact that the new legislation coming out of the Basic Ed Finance Task Force recommendations would have on regional salary adjustments for education professionals here in Washington State, and when the summary is four lines long you can imagine what it's like when you really explain it.

Not that every blog necessarily needs a "voice", mind you. These are only the ones that I've identified that are used to make a point; there are plenty of blogs out there that are simply sharing their day-to-day lives and having a great time doing it.

Something to consider is the potential in group blogs, like Washington Teachers, Stories From School from the CSTP, or Education Policy Blog. Then you can get all the voices of the choir singing together, which is always good reading.

Part III: Tools of the Trade
The absolute best way to follow blogs is Google Reader. By entering the names of blogs of interest you can be notified automatically when they're updated, which saves you from having to check them yourself, and the ability to "star" posts that are especially interesting is handy for when you want to go back and comment on something yourself.

Are you on Facebook yet? If not, think about it. When you hear people talk about Web 2.0 and social networking it's platforms like Facebook that are the next step in the evolutionary process of on-line organizing. Plus they have Bejeweled, which is every bit as addictive as crack cocaine.

And in the "It works for me, maybe not for you" department--Microsoft Word. Typing into Blogger proper has never really felt all that organic to me, so I type most of my posts into Word and then transfer them into Blogger after I've given them some time to digest.

That's it from me. I regret not being able to be there with you for this workshop--my daughter's health made it impossible for me to get away for the weekend--but I hope that the two days were enjoyable for all of you, and here's to political action!

Yours,

--Ryan--

Labels: polisparks

Read more here, if any.

Saturday, January 02, 2010

50 Ways to Save Money in the Education Budget (Revised and Updated)

Last month I did a post looking at the education budget passed last year. Since then the Governor has released her budget and I've come across some new ideas; this post is to aggregate the new information. Under each item I've noted how it was treated in the Governor's budget.

A nice thing about Assembly Days for the legislature last week was that you see everything that's going on around education, from the PESB to the SBE to the QEC to the OSPI. It's difficult to keep track of--I don't know, frankly, how my friend the education staffer does it--but for education wonks and education hobbyists, it's fun stuff.

Anyhow, all the conversation about cutting education makes one wonder just what could be cut. I did a little playing around with the idea in April, when things were last going to hell, but I think it's worth bringing up again.

First stop: the enacted state budget, beginning on page 123.

Idea #1: Suspend development of the new finance system. I'm not saying throw all the work that's been done away, but is there any reason that it can't sit on a hard drive at OFM for a year until things maybe start getting better? Savings: $941,000.

Governor's Budget: This amount is unchanged, which is a little odd considering that she trimmed $9,000 from what was appropriated last year. If they're already underspending, why not encourage them to keep it up?

Idea #2: Put aside the alternative pipeline programs at the PESB. These are the paras-to-teachers pipeline programs, alternative certification programs, and the conversion math teacher loans. All of them are good programs in a shortage, but we're laying people off--the market doesn't need these programs. Savings: $4,501,000 (I'm blending together subsections i and ii on page 124).

Governor's Budget: She actually went there, cutting about $2.1 million from the alternative routes programs. That said, there's also some items that she left intact (Recruiting Washington Teachers, Pipeline for Paraeducators) that are of dubious need right now.

Idea #3: Suspend the Recruiting Washington Teachers Program. Same rationale as above--it's not needed right now. Savings: $231,000.

Governor's Budget: See Above.

Idea #4: Suspend the Retooling Math/Science Educators Program. I'd be willing to bend on this if there was still a demonstrable need, I suppose, but in this economy I'm doubtful. Savings: $244,000.

Governor's Budget: See Above.

Idea #5: Suspend CEDARS. This is the new data management system, and while I really like how it's coming together and the potential it has for the future, there's no reason it can't wait for a year. Savings: $1,227,000.

Governor's Budget: This item was left unchanged.

Idea #6: Don't put extra into teaching financial literacy to students. Yes, the lessons matter, but "practice what you preach" is a pretty good lesson to teach, too. Savings: $75,000.

Governor's Budget: The Governor's budget eliminated this item. Savings actualized!

Idea #7: Suspend the Interstate Compact on the Military Child. This one hurts to even suggest, because these are my kids--my school is 90%+ the sons and daughters of active duty servicemembers. The trick is that many of your school districts that serve military installations also are heavily into levy equalization money, and if this "macro" cut helps at the "micro" level, we have to do that. Savings: $45,000.

Governor's Budget: This item was left unchanged.

Idea #8: Suspend implementation of SB5410 (On-Line Learning). There's no reason that this can't wait until a different year. Savings: $700,000.

Governor's Budget: This item was left unchanged.

Idea #9: Eliminate Project Citizen. Good goals, not worth the money right now. Savings: $25,000.

Governor's Budget: The Governor's budget eliminated this item. Savings actualized!

Idea #10: Suspend School Safety Training. Training is important, but try to find a cheaper way. Savings: $100,000.

Governor's Budget: This item was left unchanged.

Idea #11: Eliminate the School Safety Center at OSPI. This would also have the happy side-effect of eliminating another state board (The School Safety Center Advisory Committee), which fits in with where we're trying to go in streamlining government. Savings: $96,000.

Governor's Budget: This item was left unchanged.

Idea #12: Cut funding for suicide prevention programs. This isn't an easy call to make. This is what the Governor means when she says that the cuts will hurt. But it's an open question as to whether the program works, and in these times....you have to. Savings: $70,000.

Governor's Budget: The Governor's budget eliminated this item. Savings actualized!

Idea #13: No more leadership training from the Institute for Community Leadership. Savings: $50,000.

Governor's Budget: The Governor's budget eliminated this item. Savings actualized!

Idea #14: Money for the technology to make CEDARS happen. There's absolutely no reason we can't wait a year for this. Savings: $1,045,000.

Governor's Budget: This item was left unchanged.

Idea #15: End the Special Services Pilot Project. They never should have started it to begin with. Savings: $1,329,000.

Governor's Budget: This item was left unchanged.

Idea #16: No more money for the Washington Achievers program. Savings: $750,000.

Governor's Budget: The Governor's budget eliminated this item.

Idea #17: No more money for information about women during World War II. Being someone's pet project shouldn't make it a legislative priority. Savings: $25,000.

Governor's Budget: The Governor's budget eliminated this item.

Idea #18: Eliminate Navigation 101. It's a decent curriculum that has a lot of district support, but there's no reason we can't go back to it when times are better. Savings: $3,220,000.

Governor's Budget: This item was left unchanged.

Idea #19: End dropout prevention programs. Research says this will cost us more money in the long run. Research also says that we can put a cost to this line item RIGHT NOW. Savings: $675,000.

Governor's Budget: The Governor's budget eliminated this item.

Idea #20: End the initiative to reach out to Latino families. This was a partnership with the Seattle Community Coalition of Compana Quetzal, and they're just going to have to find their own way for a year. Savings: $50,000.

Governor's Budget: The Governor's budget eliminated this item. It also cut $10,000 from last year's appropriation.

Idea #21: End the program to encourage bilingual students to go into teaching. Ideally every teacher would be bilingual. These aren't ideal times. Savings: $75,000.

Governor's Budget: The Governor's budget eliminated this item.

Idea #22: End the dyslexia pilot program. Dyslexia has turned into a catch-all for 100 other reading difficulties, and this is a need that could be better met through federal Reading First dollars, Title funds, or other avenues. Savings: $145,000.

Governor's Budget: The Governor's budget eliminated this item.

Idea #23: Stop the support of vocational student leadership organizations. I love the Future Farmers and Future Business Leaders and Future Whatever the Homemakers Are Calling Themselves Now, but they may have to find their own way. Savings: $97,000.

Governor's Budget: The Governor's budget eliminated this item.

Idea #24: End the Communities in School Program in Pierce County. It's not basic education, and if Pierce County schools really need this, that's what levy dollars are for. Savings: $25,000.

Governor's Budget: The Governor's budget eliminated this item. It also cancelled last year's $25,000 appropriation.

Idea #25: Enough of the Math/Science work out of the ESDs. My hunch is that a lot of this money is going towards LASER, which has been one of the biggest time-wasters that I've ever encountered in my 10 years in the classroom. I truly don't believe that they have their act together; this cut seems common sense. Savings: $3,355,000.

Idea #26: End support for Destination: Imagination and Future Problem Solving. They're great programs--I worked with DI for about a decade before my schedule got to busy, and I've been a DI coach--but we can't afford this. Savings: $90,000.

Governor's Budget: This item was left unchanged.

Idea #27: End support for the Centrum Program at Fort Worden Park. I know nothing about this, beyond what it says in the state budget. Savings: $170,000.

Governor's Budget: This item was left unchanged.

Idea #28: Halt funding of math and science coaches. This money comes out of the Education Legacy Trust, so it's not general fund money, but it's the thought that counts. Savings: $1,925,000.

Governor's Budget: This item was left mostly unchanged--there's a reduction of $90,000, which equates to about 1 FTE.

Idea #29: Postpone OSPI's STEM initiative. This pays for grants for 20 teachers and staff at OSPI to supervise; now is not the time. Savings: $139,000.

Governor's Budget: This item was left unchanged.

Idea #30: Cut funding for LASER. Oh, look, it's a line item just for my favorite science program! Lock the kits in a warehouse for a year and move on. Savings: $1,579,000.

Governor's Budget: This item was left unchanged.

Idea #31: No leadership academy for principals and superintendents. This has been one of the Association of Washington School Principals' big projects; in fact, they recently got a nice fat sole source personal service contract with OSPI to run the thing. This is a nice idea when things are flush--we can't afford it now. Savings: $900,000.

Governor's Budget: This item was left unchanged, and I'll continue to bitch about it until the budget passes.

Idea #32: Eliminate the Washington State Reading Corps. This hurts, but it has to be done. Savings: $1,056,000.

Governor's Budget: The Governor's budget eliminated this item.

Idea #33: Eliminate the Center for the Improvement of Student Learning. Savings: $225,000.

Governor's Budget: This item was left unchanged.

Idea #34: Cut back on OSPI technology leadership. This is a line item for improving, monitoring, promoting, and coordinating technology; it sounds like one big support program. Savings: $1,959,000.

Governor's Budget: This item was left unchanged.

Idea #35: Suspend National Boards bonuses for a year. Yeah, I said it. I have all the respect in the world for the people who go through the progress, and I believe that it's thorough--one of the most respected teachers in my district just tried and didn't get over the line, which is amazing to me. The point is that, reform efforts be damned, we simply can't afford this right now. Savings: $36,513,000.

Governor's Budget: This item was left unchanged. In fact, the cost has gone up to $37,204,000, about a $700,000 increase.

Idea #36: Suspend the Local Farms-Healthy Kids program. I'm married to a farmer, and I think the state stinks when it comes to supporting agriculture most of the time, but a lot of this money went into creating yet another FTE at OSPI. Again and ideally, we'd be able to have this. Right now? Savings: $300,000.

Governor's Budget: This item was left unchanged.

Idea #37: Suspend the Beginning Educator Support Program (BEST). Here's the trick--since beginning educators are the first ones out the door in a financial crisis, is it better to support them and then fire them, or let them work? Savings: $2,348,000.

Governor's Budget: The Governor's budget eliminated this item.

Idea #38: End the state funded internship program for principals and superintendents. Right now I don't perceive that these jobs go lacking for qualified applicants, and if districts have quality candidates who they want to support as they get their internships done that can be accomplished using local dollars. Savings: $530,000.

Governor's Budget: The Governor's budget eliminated this item. Nah, just kidding--they're still in line to get their half million dollars, and that's ridiculous.

Idea #39: Lower the state funding for administrators by $1,000. Right now the state only funds about $59,000 of the cost per administrator, which is a terribly outdated formula. That said, the rest of the money comes from local funds, so let's allow local districts to make the decision: do they come up with the money, or do they ask their administrators to take a haircut? Teachers are losing the LID days, after all. Savings, based on about 5,000 school administrators: $5,000,000.

Governor's Budget: Tbis was actually my idea, so there's nothing to reflect it in the schools budget.

That's 39 ideas from the most recently enacted K-12 budget alone, and I didn't even touch everything there. Some of these may have already happened (I thought I heard, for example, that the WWII women's project didn't go through), and some of them are damnably shameful (cutting funding for Destination: Imagination would be a tragedy), but the discussion has to occur.

There are more cuts that could be made at the ESD staff level if we could just get the ESD's to stop offering design and CM services around the state, undercutting the private sector. Guess they need a math lesson - lower gross revenues at private companies means lower tax revenues to the state means less money for state employees. Or maybe the ESD's could start paying B&O taxes on their gross revenues like we do.

NEW Idea #53: Reform how National Board bonuses are paid.From Jim Anderson, ace teacher:

They could change the bonus from $5000 per year for 10 years to $4000 per year over 13 years, deferring the cost and saving $7.3 million immediately. Meanwhile, teachers would gain $2000 in the long term. Everyone wins.

NEW Idea #54: Begging. If every kid in the state brought in a $3 ream of paper as part of their school supplies, that would be $3,000,000 that schools could save. It's great for Weyerhaeuser, too!

Read more here, if any.

Sunday, January 10, 2010

Washington Education Week #6: The Calm Before the *hitstorm

The Washington State Legislature gets back to work tomorrow. It's expected to be a bipartisan affair where tough budget decisions are made in a spirit of teamwork and cooperation, where the needs of the individual are pushed aside so that the needs of the state can be fully shriven to the benefit of the citizens that make the Evergreen State great.

Nah, just kidding! Think crabs in a bucket, or out-of-control toddlers. Think out of control toddlers in a bucket with crabs. That's actually probably pretty close to the reality.

Item #1: School District Consolidation and Levy Equalization. It's looking like Rep. Sam Hunt of Olympia is the guy who's going to be the grinch that finally brings this conversation to the forefront. The money quote:

"It's a terribly hot issue. But I don't think we can justify having 295 school districts," Hunt said. "If you want to save money, I think this is one way to do it. It sets up a commission."

Rep. Hunt's proposal to get it done is HB2616, which would establish a commission to look at cutting the number of school districts in the state from the current 295 down to 150. Looking it over I like how he's written it--there's a lot of public involvement, and the bill just commits to the conversation, not the eradication of school districts. Whenever it comes up before the House Education Committee (and given that Rep. Dave Quall, the committee chair, is a co-sponsor, you can bet that it will) I'll have to try to make the trip over and watch the proceedings.

Another piece to keep an eye on is the School District Cost and Size Study that the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Committee (JLARC) has started work on this year. Their final report is due in either May or June, which means that this is an effort that could really work hand-in-glove with what Rep. Hunt is proposing.

The practical impact, then, is that Eastern Washington newspapers like the Yakima Herald-Republic can host superintendents and write angry editorials until they're blue in the face, but if small school advocates aren't willing to look at every cost--including the cost of their very existence--then they're ceding the moral high ground to folks like Governor Gregoire who can now go out and say "Look, I wanted to save levy equalization, but we can't poor more money into those districts without knowing that it's worth it, yadda yadda I hate this budget."

Item #2: If the State Doesn't Want to Raise Tuition, Let the Colleges Do It To Themselves. An interesting idea wandering around Olympia is to allow the University of Washington the power to set its own tuition prices. It's come up before and never really gone anywhere, but maybe this is the right economic climate for something to happen.

Item #3: Things That Only the Shadow Knows. On one hand, you've got budget director Victor Moore saying that we can't change union contracts.

On the other, you've got Amber Gunn of the Evergreen Freedom Foundation with the contract language; her reading is that the state can re-open should revenues decreased.

What's the education angle? Idaho, where school districts are declaring fiscal emergencies and reopening their teacher's contracts. Numerous small districts here in my area have given back pay and benefits, and as my local president I might end up leading my people that way as well.

You might be surprised at how many teaching contracts have language related to financial conditions. An example:

The following instructional load standards are established except for traditional large group instruction classes, such as music, K-6 physical education, team teaching and special education programs for which state standards are prescribed, and except when the District because of financial crisis (such as levy failure) has significantly less money for the instructional programs than it traditionally has.

The trick is that these things have to be collectively bargained, but that is also as it should be. Some districts are overstaffed at the administrator level, and demanding that the cuts be applied to the classified, certificated, and administrative levels is fair.

Item #4: The State Board of Education and the New Accountability Plan. This is one of those stories that I've been wanting to spend more time on. With the Bylsma Plan set to come on line soon and the Board of Education getting ready to push through legislation, this'll be something to keep an eye on. Edie Harding, the executive director of the SBE, says that it's not a state takeover. Edie Harding is a damned liar.

The trick is, like with everything going on in the state right now, there is no money. It's a happy conceit that you can make extremely troubled systems better with only existing resources, but anyone who has worked with struggling kids knows that is not true. The money quote from the article:

“Some of the lowest 5 percent have made attempts to improve and have not been successful,” said board member Kristina Mayer, an educational consultant from Port Townsend.

She said some districts have not chosen to make changes, so the state board is acting on behalf of the children in those schools.

If it sounds outrageous, it probably is. C'mon, Ms. Mayer--if there really are districts that have chosen to ignore the needs of their kids, name them.

If you want a hint of where things could go, check out the EFF's School Rankings and go to the bottom of any one of the lists, like I did with elementary schools. This isn't going to be easy.

Bits and pieces:

No Child Left Behind had a birthday last week. The CW is that reauthorizing the ESEA with a new name will be a high priority this year so that the DC pols have something to hang their hat on as they gear up for the mid-term elections.
Calculated Risk says that the reason the unemployment rate is holding steady is because a lot of people are just dropping out of the job hunt and not trying any more. Similarly, the Huffington Post says that 1-in-5 working age men is unemployed. That's scary.
WEA President Mary Lindquist on school funding in Washington State.
Offered without comment: the League of Education Voters is very proud of their recent appearance on Fox News.
A group called MomRising is deliving brown-bag lunches to the legislators on Monday, encouraging them to work hard on the needs of kids. This is much better than my "A Flaming Bag of Doody on Their Doorsteps" initiative.
I still haven't seen a good answer to the concern that privatizing the liquor stores would only make our short-term economic problem worse.
The Washington Budget and Policy Center on what the Governor's proposal could mean for the schools and colleges.

This week in the Legislature:

Tuesday, January 12th:
House Education Appropriations Committee, 8:30.
House Education Committee, 10:00.
House Higher Education Committee, 10:00.
Senate Higher Education and Workforce Development, 10:00.

Wednesday, January 13th:
Senate K-12 Education and Early Learning Committee, 8:00.
House Education Committee, 1:30.
House Higher Education Committee, 1:30.
Senate Higher Education and Workforce Development, 3:30.
House Education Appropriations Committee, 6:00.

Thursday, January 14th:
House Early Learning, 8:00.
Senate K-12 Education and Early Learning Committee, 10:00.
House Education Appropriations, 1:30.

Friday, January 15th:
House Education Committee, 8:00.
House Higher Education Committee, 8:00.
House Early Learning, 1:30.
Senate Higher Education and Workforce Development, 1:30.

Next time: we'll look at the Governor's State of the State address, I'll have finally digested the report coming out of the QEC, and the first 7 days of the legislature. Salud!

Labels: consolidation, contracts, Edie Harding, EFF, Evergreen Freedom Foundation, JLARC, Sam Hunt, SBE

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Thursday, April 06, 2006

Nitpicking Hess and West: The Benefits Issue

The American Enterprise Institute released a new report from Rick Hess and Martin West last week called “A Better Bargain: Overhauling Teacher Collective Bargaining for the 21st Century.” Mr. Hess is one of the most widely heard voices on education, and Eduwonk calls West a "rising star" in the field of education research. Together they’ve created a reasonably balanced look at the issues that are inherent in collective bargaining for teaching.

The interplay between unions and schools is a fascinating one to me. Last summer I was on the bargaining team for my union as we negotiated a new contract with my district, and it was a chore. We met about 15 times, I spent better than 100 hours working on writing language and trying to find the common ground, and things were so heated at one point I thought we were going to impasse. After a lot of give and take we were finally able to get done a week before the teachers came back to school. This year I’m a building rep and actively involved at the Uniserv level as well. It’s given me a much better understanding of the entire system.

Anyhow, I’ve been reading the report. It reads very well, as these things go. There are some areas of it that I disagree with, though, so I thought I’d do a series of posts on those. I’ll quote liberally, but you might want to download the PDF and follow along. The first problem: the benefits issue, which begins on page 25.

The first paragraph starts off well enough:

Evaluated solely in financial terms, the benefits teachers receive are modestly more generous than those received by comparable private sector workers. A 2004 Bureau of Labor Statistics Survey indicates that the fringe benefits cost per teacher amounts to 20.2 percent of total salary, as opposed to 17.0 percent in the private sector.

But then things go off track:

The average elementary school district in California spent more than $13,000 on statuatory, health, and welfare benefits per teacher in 2002-2003. When added to an average salary of slightly more than $55,500, these benefits brought the state’s total cost per elementary teacher to more than $68,000.

Notice the shift from talking about the national average to talking about the situation in California. I’ve criticized my union for using California as a stalking horse before (see here), and I’ll criticize the report for the same reason: given the cost of living and the inflation in California, it makes for a lousy comparison to anything when you’re talking money. Note too that in California the benefits actually work out to 23.4% of the salary, higher than the average that was quoted only a sentence before.

In the second paragraph they discuss retirement plans for teachers:

Nearly all public school systems still rely on “defined benefit” retirement plans that provide a formula-driven pension and disproportionately reward educators who stay in one place for 15 or 20 years at the expense of those who depart sooner. For instance, in 2000-01, 15 of the 16 states that constituted the Southern Regional Education Board required newly hired teachers to teach at least five years before vesting in the retirement system, and five states required a period of at least ten years.

There’s a couple of problems here, one extreme and the others niggling:

1) The biggest problem is that most retirement plans are run and managed by the states, not by the individual districts, and therefore lie outside the scope of any collective bargaining agreement. Here in Washington the Teacher Retirement Systems (TRS) are run by the Department of Retirement Services (for the defined benefit portion) and ICMA Retirement Corporation (for the defined contribution). Thus this is not a matter of “overhauling collective bargaining”; it’s something that is clearly a state prerogative.

2) Spinning off of the first point, it’s also something that is well within the power of the states to do. Here in Washington there are now three active TRS plans (1, 2, and 3, naturally). If you’ve been hired after 1996 you’re automatically on TRS3, which provides only 1% of the average of your “average yearly compensation” (AYC) for every year of service credit. As an example consider Mrs. Smith, who is seeking to retire at 60 after 37 years of teaching. Let’s also say that her final AYC was $60,000 a year:

37 years * 1 percent per year * $60,000 = $22,200 per year = $1850 per month

Were Mrs. Smith on TRS1 or 2 she would be able to claim 2% for every year of service credit, which would double her “defined benefit” pay to $44,400.

The folks who count the beans in Olympia decided long ago that TRS 1 and 2 would be too expensive. As a result TRS 3 was born, which cuts the defined benefit severely but requires that you put in a certain portion of your salary to a “defined contribution account,” which is managed by the state but completely your responsibility to fund and choose where the money goes.

I’ll personally testify to the fact that the WEA is a powerful union with a lot of clout. If Washington State could change their retirement system to better fit the needs of today, then why can’t other states?

My ultimate question to Mr. Hess and Mr. West would be—is this enough flexibility, to your mind? The ultimate free market exercise would be to get the state out of the retirement business entirely and demand that teachers instead make their own choices about where the money goes, which would provide the ultimate in flexibility for career-changers. It’s tough to understand just where they want to go with retirement; the motivation is there, but they’re awfully muddy on the execution.

The next paragraph (on page 26) takes on health care. Sadly, it does it very poorly:

There is also mounting evidence to suggest that teacher benefit packages are poorly equipped to deal with the rising cost of health care. The Rhode Island Education Partnership published a 2005 study that compared benefits for public school teachers to those of employees in the state’s private sector. It found that in all of the private sector firms, managers had the discretion to select a health carrier and the design of the health-care plan, while none of the school districts in the study had that capability. More than 85 percent of the private sector contracts required employees to pick up more than 15 percent of their health-care costs, compared with none of the teacher contracts. Seventy-three percent of school districts provided health benefits to retirees at no cost, while none of the private firms did so. In short, it appears that—much like troubled industrial-era firms such as General Motors, the failed steel giants, and major airlines—school districts are sinking enormous sums into gold-plated benefits plans for workers and retirees that may prove unstable.

Health care costs are one of the top things that districts worry about (there was a good Edweek article on the subject here). When we were negotiating last summer the district was very frank in saying that they needed to find a way to keep health costs in line, particularly the “carve-out” that the state charges to pay for retiree health costs.

That said, using the situation in Rhode Island to argue that there’s a national problem is deceiving. Are there no national studies that prove the point Hess and West are trying to make? Doesn’t the NCES or Education Week or somebody have the numbers to show how much is being spent?

But even beyond the total cost argument, why not give teachers a hell of a health-care package? Hess characterizes the packages as “gold-plated” (page 42, and this interview) and argues that since people look more at the base pay than at the benefits we should thus move more money into pay (particularly merit pay and extra pay for high-need areas), but to my mind a much better idea is to talk about the idea of “Total Compensation Package.” If you want to attract “mobile, skilled, college-educated professionals” (p. 41) to teaching, celebrate the fact we have good health care!

In my capacity as a building rep I’ve had dozens of conversations about benefits, and we all know we’re getting a good deal. Cherish that and publicize it, and don’t polarize an entire profession by messing with health care. Hess brushes on this point himself when he talks about the teacher strike in Vermont in 2005 where health care was the biggest issue; can you imagine that on a national scale? Will it make teaching an attractive profession if we’re all on strike and rallying? If you give the NEA a club, can you be all that shocked when they hit you over the head with it?

In my own district there was a proposal two year ago to switch dental plans. Right now there are two options; this would have taken both of those away in favor of a new plan with lower costs. The district put it to a vote of the teachers, and it failed miserably. Had that been forced upon us, the results would have been disastrous. This point is brought up in the last paragraph of the sections:

The response to efforts to rein in such packages often reveals a sense of entitlement among both union leaders and members that will make change difficult.

Part of this, too, is the fact that teaching still attracts a lot of young mothers. There have been 8 pregnancies at my medium-sized elementary school in the last two years, and I know they all appreciate the sick leave packages and medical care that they get. No one will fight harder than a mother who feels her family is threatened, and that’s how many of them would look at an attack on health care.

That was long. Next up we’ll look at what the report says about hourly pay.

Read more here, if any.

Tuesday, December 31, 2013

The Education Year-End Awards for Washington State

The Hulk Hogan Heel Turn Award:
Senator Rosemary McAuliffe

Late in the summer the federal Department of Education, which has been absolutely hostile to teachers without an ounce of push-back from the NEA or AFT, told Washington State that we needed to "strengthen" our evaluation laws or else we'd lose our waiver from the most pernicious effects of No Child Left Behind. This caused Superintendent Dorn to go slightly mad and grow Olympia's worst mustache:

......but it also guaranteed the eventuality that there would be legislation this upcoming session to mandate that student test scores were a part of a teacher's evaluation, never mind that the tests are changing RIGHT NOW along with our adoption of Common Core standards.

So, who was going to do the dirty, disgusting deed, destined to damn them to the WEA forever? Rodney Tom, who's been gung-ho about this idea for years? Steve Litzow? Bruce Dammeier?

Nope--it was Rosemary's baby.

That would be State Senator Rosemary McAuliffe (D-Bothell), on whom the WEA spent about $125,000 to help beat back primary challenger Guy Palumbo and beat down general election opponent Dawn McCravey during a really hot 2012 contest. Stand for Children spent more than $200,000 trying to defeat McAuliffe with some of the most negative mailings you'd ever hope to see, and a year later she's on TV in a segment with Stand for Children talking about her shiny new evaluation bill.

The policy is stupid--an angle that Publicola missed--but the politics is just insane. This is someone who is nominally the teacher's best friend, the kind of politician we point to when signing people up for WEA-PAC, an award winner, someone we doorbelled for, someone we've made TV ads about:

....and the payoff is a kick in the teeth when Senator Tom shepherds this bill through with a big grin and a thank you to someone who really should have known better. The state is going to bend over backwards to implement a bad idea at the behest of a lousy federal administration, and there's no good reason why. Pbbbbbbt to you, Rosemary.

The "I Really Hate the Reykdal Family!" Award:
Representative Cathy Dahlquist

It started on Valentine's Day when Kim Reykdal, a counselor for the Olympia School District, went to the Education Appropriations Subcommittee as part of a panel to give one of those perfectly innocuous "We have a meeting scheduled, let's put something on the agenda!" presentations that happen throughout the session.

After giving her spiel the committee chair opened things up for questions, leading to this eyebrow-raiser from Rep. Dahlquist:

"I have children, they're juniors and seniors in high school, and I can tell you that they went K-12 without ever really seeing a counselor.....It's very difficult for some of us to see the value (of counselors) for those kids who are just regular kids."

That's right--regular kids wouldn't ever need to access a school counselor. This is a former president of the Enumclaw School Board talking, folks.

11 days later Rep. Chris Reykdal goes to that same committee to speak on behalf of a bill he prime-sponsored on paying kids to work in agriculture programs, where he is promptly met by Rep. Dahlquist asking some of the most bizarre questions ever posed during a committee hearing--the fun starts at about the 10 minute mark:

HB1276 did eventually pass the House 89-8, only to die a lonely death in the Senate. The vote on final passage created the odd partnership of Matt Shea and Reuven Carlyle being 2 of the 8 to vote no; Rep. Dahlquist was one of the many, many yes votes. Whoddathunkit?

The "Can We Blame Obamacare for This? No? Crap." Award:

The Washington Education Association
and Premera Blue Cross

It's perfectly swell to have your name attached to things. I, for example, have a classroom. It's a nice classroom, with windows and everything, and when people say, "That's Mr. Grant's room!" I'm more than happy to agree and take ownership, because it doesn't actively hurt me to say, "Yep, that's mine!"

On the other hand, if my classroom featured a portal to Hell at the back of cubby #7, faucets that ran red with blood, and a whiteboard that screamed whenever you tried to write on it, I would disavow that room and seek to hang my shingle somewhere else.

That's my entirely appropriate lead-in to the fact that there's a WEA-Premera health insurance plan, and this September if your benefits coordinator looked grumpy it was probably because everything about that plan sucked ass this fall. Things were in a giant state of flux anyhow because of changes mandated by the legislature, and when on-line enrollment got added onto that the system basically collapsed. If this was just Blue Cross, or just Premera, they'd take all the heat. When it's WEA-Premera, though, it makes my union look foolish.

The "I Spoke Truth to Power, Power Told Me to Fuck Myself" Award:

The Washington State School Directors Association

If you read this, you probably also read the Legislative Update put out by the Washington State School Directors Association (WSSDA). Their February 24th update (since edited!) was a dandy as it talked about some of the reform-minded legislation that was still alive at the time, namely retaining 3rd graders and giving schools letter grades:

This legislation is part of a national push for model legislation supported by the American Legislative Exchange Council. Bill sponsor: Sen. Bruce Dammeier, R-Puyallup.

This legislation is part of a national push for model legislation supported by the American Legislative Exchange Council. Bill sponsor: Sen. Steve Litzow, R-Mercer Island.

Now, if you're Steve Litzow, and you like to make a show of being moderate, you'd just as soon not have yourself linked to ALEC, even if it's glaringly obvious that the bill THAT YOU FILED has language cribbed from Jeb Bush's Florida and being pushed around the country. So maybe you make a phone call, or you have Rodney make a phone call, and you say, "Hey, remember how in previous years we had a proposal to make membership in WSSDA optional? Fuck you, that's back." So the next day you backpedal like an NFL cornerback with this:

In the February 24 Legislative Update, references were made linking bills in the Les Misérables list and their sponsors to “model legislation proposed by the national organization American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).” This link between bills and ALEC model legislation is incorrect, and WSSDA sincerely apologizes for the error.

That's the way Olympia works--hell, my union had to apologize for leaving a flaming bag of doody on Steve Hobbs' doorstep--but I think it also goes to show you that, despite all prostrations to the contrary, the Majority Coalition Caucus wasn't really all that interested in being different than the Democrats were when they had power. And speaking of people who didn't handle power well......

The Peter Principle in Action Award:
State Senator Steve Litzow

It's been eminently clear that one of the big reasons--perhaps the biggest reason--that Rodney Tom switched parties was because he really, really hates Rosemary McAuliffe, and that's what made Senator Litzow the chair of the Senate Early Learning and K-12 Education Committee.

He simply wasn't ready for the job.

The good Senator tries to wear a big grin with his bipartisan bona fides, but his committee kept crapping out some of the most anti-teacher, anti-education legislation that has ever been countenanced in this state. What's notable is that of the 16 education-related bills that Senator Litzow prime sponsored this year, exactly 1 went on to be signed by the Governor, and even that was only after it was completely overhauled by the House.

Senator Tom (R-Medina) is promising that education reform will again be a hot issue during this short 60 day session coming up, which is going to once again put Senator Litzow in a prime position, but it's not easy being the tip of the spear when you're dull.

The Education Person of the Year Award:
Randy Parr

I've had more false starts on this section than I've had on anything I've ever written, and it's because of the level of respect I have for the guy in question.

I thought first about trying the "Lobbyists are like lawyers, everyone hates them until you need a good one!" line of thinking, but that kept leading me to "Randy Parr is just like Thurgood Marshall," and I don't know that he'd appreciate that.

Similarly, I thought about comparing him to some of the other lobbying professionals I've come to know from hours of watching TVW--"Say what you will about Randy, but he's got a better haircut than the guy from the Association of Washington Cities!"--but that's a joke that works for about 5 people in the world.

Instead, I'm going to go with regrets. As a local president I get asked sometimes just what the point of WEA membership is. It costs a ton of money, after all, and my members don't always see the tangible benefits linked to that big outlay every month. I wish that I could show all of them this piece of video:

.....and make them understand that when our retirement plans were under attack, it was Randy Parr of our lobby staff who gave some of the best testimony I've ever seen and won the argument for us. When there have been technical committees looking at the formulas for salary, retirement, or student funding, it was our budget lobbyist Randy Parr who had to get into it up to his neck to maneuver through all the numbers and come out the other side with legislation that was good for our schools. We've got an outstanding Government Relations office that often toils in anonymity, but I will loudly sing their praises to anyone at anytime, and Randy has been a big part of that.

This year, Randy retired. My hope for him is that he's sitting by the side of a lake somewhere with absolutely no thought of politics, because he's earned that. The work that Randy Parr did for all of us for years improved the life of every public school employee in the state--even those who are represented by a different union, or no union at all--and I thank him for it.

Read more here, if any.

I Thought a Think

Sunday, September 18, 2011

How Did the On-Line Schools Do This Year?

Sunday, September 12, 2010

Virtual Schools--The Picture is Mixed

Sunday, August 16, 2009

Fun With On-Line Schools

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

This Week in Olympia: Punching Teachers is Bad

Saturday, December 05, 2009

50 Ways To Save Money in the Education Budget

Tuesday, May 09, 2006

Teachers Salaries Posted On-Line

Friday, March 20, 2009

For Those Attending the PoliSparks Conference in Olympia This Weekend

Saturday, January 02, 2010

50 Ways to Save Money in the Education Budget (Revised and Updated)

Sunday, January 10, 2010

Washington Education Week #6: The Calm Before the *hitstorm

Thursday, April 06, 2006

Nitpicking Hess and West: The Benefits Issue

Tuesday, December 31, 2013

The Education Year-End Awards for Washington State

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