Master plan to shape N.O. schools

Master plan to shape N.O. schools: "After more than a year of opening schools with a hard-to-avoid, seat-of-the-pants approach, public school officials are embarking on a master plan for the politically dicey issue of deciding which schools will reopen from now on.

Last week, the state-run Recovery School District, which earlier this year fumbled with contractor delays and, briefly, a student waiting list, joined with the Orleans Parish School Board to solicit bids for a multimillion-dollar contract to map out the future of all public schools. The contract will be awarded and work will begin next month.

The contractor chosen to manage the plan will organize a series of community meetings to seek input and educate neighborhoods on some stark realities of the city's educational needs"

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Charter School Effort Gets $65 Million Lift - washingtonpost.com

Charter School Effort Gets $65 Million Lift - washingtonpost.com: "The charter school movement, begun 16 years ago as an alternative to struggling public schools, will today make its strongest claim on mainstream American education when a national group announces the most successful fundraising campaign in the movement's history -- $65 million to create 42 schools in Houston."

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Eight States Advance for Growth-Model Pilot

A panel of experts will review eight states’ applications to participate in the Department of Education’s experiment with a new way of calculating adequate yearly progress, or AYP, under the No Child Left Behind Act



Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings has forwarded the proposals to the peer-review panel formed to evaluate the quality of the latest round of applications in the growth-model project.

Under the pilot project, states receive approval to define AYP based on methods that track students’ academic growth over time. The standard accountability system under the federal law requires states to make AYP calculations by comparing the test scores of groups of students against the students in the same grade during the previous year.

The panel will review applications from Alaska, Arizona, Hawaii, Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire, Ohio, and Pennsylvania.

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House Budget Resolution in Development

CQ.com: "House Panel Markup

Meanwhile, House Budget Chairman John M. Spratt Jr., D-S.C., will unveil his fiscal 2008 budget plan this week, with a panel markup expected March 21 or 22, and floor consideration planned for the following week.

Although the Democrats hold a larger majority in the House than in the Senate, Spratt also faces the challenge of bridging the divide between liberal and conservative factions over spending and taxes.

Blue Dogs are drafting an alternative budget plan, said Rep. Jim Cooper, D-Tenn., a member of the Budget panel. Cooper would not provide details, saying that he had yet to see Spratt’s budget plan.

Greenstein said he expects the House budget plan to be similar to the Senate’s proposal, perhaps with slightly higher spending."

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House Appropriations gets ready to work

CQ.com: "On March 15, the House Appropriations Committee approved its measure, which drew unified opposition from panel Republicans who fought the war restrictions.

President Bush has stressed that creating timetables for withdrawal could seriously hamper the war effort and has threatened a veto.

Republicans also criticized the addition of more than $20 billion to Bush’s $103 billion request, largely for domestic spending ranging from veterans’ health care to agriculture relief to low-income heating assistance.

GOP leaders expect their caucus to remain unified against the bill on the House floor. That means Democratic leaders cannot lose too many of their own."

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House NCLB Hearing Schedule

The reauthorization momentum gains speed. In early February, Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA), the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Health Education Labor and Pensions (HELP), began a series of roundtable hearings on the reauthorization of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) by addressing school improvement strategies. The next hearing on the topic of teacher quality is scheduled for March 6.



The House Committee on Education and Labor is now also laying out its reauthorization plans. The Committee’s tentative schedule includes:

• March 13: House and Senate bicameral committee hearing titled "Elementary and Secondary Education Act Reauthorization: Improving NCLB to Close the Achievement Gap on Accountability.” The scheduled witnesses include:
• March 21: Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP);
• March 23: English Language Learners (ELL);
• March 29: Special Education;
• April (date not set): Teacher Quality.

According to the House Committee staff, the House is planning an aggressive hearing schedule because George Miller, the Chairman of the House Committee on Education and Labor, wants to get a reauthorization bill through the House this year.
The aggressive House schedule has led to more intense advocacy activity because the hearings will require clear policy statements and expert opinion on short notice. Time is of the essence.

This, however, does not signify that reauthorization will be completed by the close of the year. The consensus projected date for reauthorization remains 2009, after the 2008 elections. But do not be lulled into inactivity by that date. It is critical to distinguish between the date of completion and the process of drafting the reauthorization bill. The decisive yeoman’s work is now well underway

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Fiscal Year 2008 in Full Swing

The fiscal year 2008 (FY08) appropriations cycle is well underway and this week was quite busy. The Budget Committees in the House and Senate are responsible for preparing a budget resolution (BR) that sets the federal spending caps. The process of setting the caps is called the 302(a) process, named after its authorizing section in the Congressional Budget Act of 1974. This week, the Senate Budget Committee began that 302(a) process by offering a plan that increases discretionary spending in FY08 by $18 billion over President Bush’s request. According to Chairman Kent Conrad (D-ND), the plan would balance the budget by 2012 while adding $6.1 billion more for the U.S. Department of Education in FY08.



Next week’s Senate floor debate on the resolution will be heated because Conrad’s plan makes many assumptions that are not probable and the Republicans will expose that. In order to achieve a balanced budget by FY 2012, the plan assumes: nearly $500 billion more in tax revenue over five years, that the percentage of discretionary spending will drop from now through 2012 and that all war funding ends by 2010. “It’s a budget from the Land of Oz,” said Judd Gregg (R-NH), the ranking Republican on the Budget Committee.

When the House and Senate eventually approve their BRs, the House and Senate Appropriation Committees move the process along by taking the 302(a) spending caps and performing 302(b) distributions to their respective House and Senate Appropriation Sub-committees.

In preparation for this upcoming 302(b) step, the House and Senate Apportions Subcommittees on Labor, HHS and Education held hearings on the proposed FY08 education spending this week. On Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, the House Subcommittee on Labor, HHS and Education held hearings to review the President’s budget request for the U.S. Department of Education (ED). Secretary Spellings went before the Subcommittee on Monday. Deputy Secretary Ray Simon went before the Subcommittee on Tuesday, and Under Secretary of Education Sarah Martinez Tucker and the Director of the Institute of Education Science Grover Whitehurst went before the Subcommittee on Wednesday. In sum, the message to the Administration was clear: the proposed budgets are insufficient and House Appropriation Subcommittee Chairman David Obey (D-WI) promised to invest more money into education. His displeasure was clear.

The Administration’s request is … 10% below 2005 levels after adjusting for inflation and for population growth. The NCLB funding is down 7% below the 2005 levels after adjusting for inflation and population growth. The President’s ‘08 budget also shrinks the federal commitment to cover a portion of the costs of special education for almost $7 million students. The request is almost a billion less than the 2005 levels … and we can go on and on.

On Wednesday, the Senate Subcommittee on Labor, HHS and Education hosted a panel to review the President’s education budget request and it was just as uncomfortable for Administration officials. According to Subcommittee Chairman Tom Harkin (D-IA), the requests, dating back to 2002, have simply been insufficient to meet the program’s requirements. “The more I get into it really a matter of resources,” said Harkin, “They [schools] are simply not getting it and I do not see the request for funding in your budget.” As in the House Appropriations hearing, the Senate Committee appears ready to provide more funding for education.

The Senate hearing then became tense when Harkin expressed the Committee’s serious concerns with how the U.S. Department of Education was implementing the money they now receive, citing the Office of Inspector General’s scandalous Reading First Audit. Secretary Spellings detached herself from the findings by stating that she was not “micromanaging” ED programs at the time, but this clearly did not reduce the Committee’s displeasure about the way ED has managed their funds to date.

Resource:
United States Senate Committee on Appropriations, http://appropriations.senate.gov/index.cfm
United States House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations, http://appropriations.house.gov/Subcommittees/sub_lhhse.shtml
“Budget Testimony,” United States Department of Education, March 14, 2007, http://www.ed.gov/news/speeches/2007/03/03142007b.html
Author: DAD

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