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Noelle EllersonFASFEPA
September 14, 2011
Federal Education Update
Overview Climates: Funding, Political, Federal and State ESEA
Reauthorization Regulatory Relief (NOT waivers!) Title I Formula Fairness
Budget and Appropriations FY11, FY12 Debt Ceiling Supercommittee Balanced Budget Amendment President’s Job Package
IDEA Full Funding Rural Education Education Technology Child Nutrition Choice: Charters and Vouchers Advocacy and Grassroots
ClimatesFunding
Continued recession at state and local levelCessation of ARRA/EduJobsActual and anticipated cuts from FY11 and FY12Anticipated cuts from Debt Ceiling Commission
PoliticalPartisan. Middle ground moderates are gone.Gearing up to an election year
Federal Gridlock between House and Senate
StateState legislatures were heavily impacted by last
year’s electionsStrong push on education issues with grassroots
implications
ESEA ReauthorizationIt’s the gift that keeps on giving; unlikely
before 2013Who’s Who
Administration and CongressBig 8: Sens. Harkin, Enzi, Alexander, and Bingaman;
Reps. Kline, Miller, Kildee, and HunterPrevious Architects of NCLB
Education OrganizationsAASA, NSBA, NAESP, NASSP, NEA, AFT, CCSSO, etc…
Foundations and Think TanksEdTrust, Gates, Walton,
ESEA Reauthorization: Key Issues
• Mandated Standardization v. Focus on Poverty
• Formula v. Competitive• Punitive Accountability v. Incentivizing
Accountability• Assessment: One-Time v. Growth• Overly Prescriptive v. Flexibile• Charters: More v. Less• Assessing Special Learners• Early Childhood Education• Health/Wellness/Total Child• Turnaround Models/School Improvement
ESEA ReauthorizationHouse has taken a piecemeal approach
Begs the question, ‘What is the piece? What is the meal?’Has moved three pieces to date, anticipates two more by
the end of the calendar yearRemaining two pieces expected to be related to teacher
quality and accountability/assessmentSenate is (allegedly) taking a comprehensive approach
Wanted to move a comprehensive bill by Easter (2011, that is)
Have yet to introduce any legislationQuestion bipartisan nature of effortsRaises concerns over how comprehensive the bill will be,
and if it is skeletal, concerns about the accompanying amendments
Activity this week?
ESEA ReauthorizationH.R. 1891 "Setting New Priorities in Education
Spending Act" Full Committee Wednesday, May 25, 2011Ordered favorably reported, as amended, to the House by a vote of 23-16
H.R. 2218, "Empowering Parents through Quality Charter Schools Act"Full CommitteeWednesday, June 22, 2011Ordered favorably reported, as amended, to the House by a vote of 34-5. Voted out of full House 9/13
HR 2445 “State and Local Funding Flexibility Act”Wednesday July 14, 2011Ordered favorable reported, as amended, to the House by a vote of 23-17
Waivers v. Regulatory Relief
80% of LEAs labeled as failing for 2011-12 school year
AASA/NSBA call to action for targeted, specific regulatory relief
More than 1,000 signatures from all 50 statesSecretary Duncan interest in quid-pro-quo
approach to providing relief through conditional waivers
Waivers v. Regulatory Relief Tentative Details on Duncan’s ‘Relief’ Proposal States would have to sign up for all three waivers….no
picking and choosing To receive waiver for 2014 deadline for 100% proficiency,
states have to adopt CCR standards (think Common Core) To receive waiver to freeze AYP/AMO sanctions, states
have to propose their own differentiated accountability systems incorporating growth and establishing new performance targets. Would do away with SES, choice, and Title I set aside
To receive waiver for HQ teacher requirements and to get funding flexibility, states would have to adopt an evaluation system for teachers and principals based on growth
Remaining questions: With what resources? With what political capital? What role for SIG turn around models?
Waivers v. Regulatory Relief
• LEAs should not have to adopt policy priorities (think Race to the Top or turnaround models), especially unfunded priorities, to get relief from a broken law
• Regulations got is in to the mess, regulations (well, reversing them) can get us out
• If the policies the administration wants were popular with policy makers or practitioners, they would be more widely adopted and implemented already.
• Using waivers to force these priorities is not good policy
Waivers vs. Regulatory ReliefIdaho and Montana have received relief
without adopting administration prioritiesExercise statute provision that authorizes
modification of state accountability workbookNCLB Waiver Watch: www.cep-dc.org
Waivers vs. Regulatory Relief
• Urge your Representatives and Senators to, in the absence of complete reauthorization, support targeted regulatory relief.– Suggested options? Suspension of sanctions.
This would freeze AMO/AYP at 2010-11 school year levels.
– This maintains accountability, is not a blanket waiver, and provides LEAs with the relief they need while we wait for Congress to pass a bill 4 years past-due.
Title I Formula Fairness
www.formulafairness.comLed by Rural School and Community TrustCurrent statute uses two weighting brackets
to determine an LEA’s Title I allocationUnintended consequence is that some larger,
less-poor schools can end up receiving more Title I dollars per-child than smaller, poorer districts
Title I Formula Fairness
• All Children are Equal (ACE) Act (HR 2485) provides legislative fix
• Turns down the volume on number weighting to ensure that Title I dollars are distributed to concentrations of poverty
• 11 original co-sponsors: Representatives Glenn Thompson (R-PA), Ruben Hinojosa (D – TX), G.K. Butterfield (D-NC), Louise Slaughter (D-NY), Dan Boren (D-OK), Mike Ross (D-AR), Tom Petri (R-WI), Lou Barletta (R-PA), Mike Kelly (R-PA), Todd Platts (R-PA), and Richard Hanna (R-NY).
• Also joined by Reps. Roby (R-AL), Hartzler (R-MO), and Crawford (R-AR)
• Urge your representative to sign on!
Budget & Approps: FY11 and FY12
• FY11 as an indicator, both in terms of cuts and process
• FY12: hard to imagine any scenario where education doesn’t take a big hit
• LEAs continue to weather the unfortunate ‘perfect storm’ when it comes to funding:– Ongoing effects of recession– Cessation of ARRA and EduJobs– Actual and anticipated cuts in annual federal
appropriations for both FY11 and FY12
• Districts and schools continue to make tough choices
• Double dip recession?
FY11
• It may be wrapping up, but the politics and policies of FY11 budget discussions have STRONG implications for FY12 discussions.– Think: DC vouchers
• Record-setting series of 7 CRs, including precedent-setting CR cuts
• $38 billion below FY10 levels; includes $12 billion in reductions from previous CRs
• Labor, HHS section cut by $5.5 billion (3.36%)• Includes 0.2% across-the-board cut• Title I, IDEA, and REAP were ‘level funded ‘, which
included the 0.2% cut• Administration priorities funded: Race to the Top
receives $700 additional funding; Investing in Innovation receives $150 million, and Head Start receives $340 million
FY12
• FY12 budget proposal released Feb 14 (2012-13 school year)
• Despite tight economic times, including non-defense discretionary budget freeze, education receives historic increases
• Proposal includes massive restructuring in ESEA reauthorization
• Policy shift toward consolidation and competitive grants• Elimination?
• Despite overall increases: – Title I receives $300 million – IDEA received a $200 million increase, falling to
16.5% instead of the promised 40%
FY12
• House Chairman Ryan (R-WI) introduced his Plan for Prosperity
• Cuts the overall budget by $5.8 trillion over ten years. • Non-security discretionary spending is but to pre-FY08
levels and would be frozen at that level for five years. • Essentially, all of the 10-year reduction comes from
cutting non-security discretionary spending. • Specific details on cuts to education remain to be
finalized. That said, I can give an unofficial summary of the Function 500 (education) issues within the resolution: • Cuts discretionary funding for function 500 to the pre-2008 level
of $80 billion for every year through 2020. • For 2011, it cuts funding by $15.7 billion (16.7 percent). • The cut deepens to 25 percent after 2011 and will translate into
a cut of roughly $30 billion per year. • Passed the House 235-193. While Democrats offered several
alternatives, all were voted down. All Democrats opposed, as did four Republicans (Jones (NC), McKinley (WV), Paul (TX), and Rehberg (MT)).
FY12• Full steam ahead. Sort of. Déjà vu?• House is moving along like trains on a schedule. They
anticipate moving 9 of the 12 appropriations bills before the August recess.– LHHS WAS scheduled for markup July 26– The FY12 allocation for the LHHS is $18 (11.6%) billion
below FY11 levels, $7 billion below HR 1 (3.9% below FY08 and roughly equal to the FY04 level). When adjusted for population and inflation, it’s even less than the FY04 allocation.
• Senate is a bit slow, but numbers are ready.– Have yet to officially release a budget.– Conrad released some of his details: $8 billion increase
overall. Within that, Security takes $7 billion cut and non-security increases by $17 billion. The House-passed budget is a cut of $30 billion below FY 11, with defense going up $18 billion and non-security being cut $48 billion.
– Coalition letter to appropriations chairs to put as much money as possible into the 302(b) allocations so LHHS is protected against cuts.
FY12House Appropriations Subcmte was to mark up
the week of September 5 House Appropriations Committee is expected to unveil its CR
9/14 so it is ready for floor action the week of 9/19. The CR is expected to run through 11/18 and provide funding for disaster assistance. According to CQ: “House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., on Monday reiterated his view that the CR will conform to the $1.043 trillion cap in the debt agreement, or only $7 billion below the fiscal 2011 level. Earlier this year, Republicans had hoped to cap fiscal 2012 discretionary spending at $1.019 trillion.”
Senate Appropriations Subcmte to mark up the week of September 19 (Sept 20, to be exact!)
Weigh in and let them know the importance of investing in and protecting education funding
Debt Ceiling House and Senate each skipped a recess to finalize Raised the debt ceiling and established annual spending caps
for the next ten years, includes an immediate reduction of $7 billion in FY12
Creates 12 member ‘Super Committee’ tasked with identifying an additional $1.5 trillion in cuts over the next ten years
If they fail to identify the full $1.5 trillion, we go in to sequestration (across-the-board cuts), which could translate into 6.7 % (or $3 billion) for USED.T This would be in addition to the $1.25 billion cut USED took in the FY11 appropriations process
While the debt ceiling discussions have wrapped up, the Super Committee and spending caps will continue to shape the annual appropriations processes for at least the next ten years.
Super Committee Roster:Senate: Murray (WA), Baucus (MT), Kerry (MA), Kyl (AZ), Portman
(OH), and Toomey (PA)House: Hensarling (TX), Becerra (CA), Camp (MI), Clyburn (SC),
Upton (MI), and VanHollen (MD)
Balanced Budget AmendmentCalls for balanced budget as soon as FY
2018Hard, fast cap on spending
Would freeze spending at 18% of GDPWe are currently at 24%, and the last time we
were at 18% was 1966That predates ESEA, IDEA, and Medicare
Super majority to raise any taxesUrge your members of Congress to
oppose any constitutional amendment to balance the budget.
President’s Job Package President Obama announced his Jobs
Package, The American Jobs Act, last weekIt is focused on infrastructure, including
funds for school modernization and renovation, as well as funds for saving/reinstating/creating educator jobs
Education provisions are located on pages 13-26
Education provisions are broken into two categories: teacher stabilization and school modernization
President’s Job PackageTeacher Stabilization
$30 billionED allocates funds to states in manner
similar to SFSF and EduJobs (60% on share of school aged population, 40% on overall population)
MOE language allegedly strongerUp to 10% of State allocation can be set
aside for state-funded early-learning programs
LEAs have until 9/30/13 to obligate funds
President’s Job Package School Modernization
$25 billion ED allocates funds to state a la Title I share40% of funds are directly allocated by ED to 100 LEAs with the
largest number of children in poverty (NOT including Hawaii, DC, or Puerto Rico)
State allocation reduced by aggregate amount of funds directly received by LEAs in that state in the ‘Top 100’ list
Of remaining state funds, at least 50% must be distributed based on LEAs relative share of Title I, with minimum award of $10,000
Remaining funds allocated through awards (competition?!) with priority for rural
Funds can NOT be used for new construction, routine maintenance or stadiums
LEAs have 36 months to obligate funds
IDEA Full FundingAASA’s #1 legislative prioritySenator Harkin has introduced the IDEA Full
Funding Act (S 1403). We are waiting for the House partner bill.
Rep. Polis has a IDEA funding bill, but our focus is on the Harkin version
Urge your Senator to sign on the S 1403, and talk with your entire Congressional delegation about the funding pressures of IDEA and the importance of protecting and increasing IDEA funding in FY12 and debt ceiling conversations.
IDEA Maintenance of EffortAASA is working to seek a MOE waiver
around IDEAIf feds can cut their effort, and SEAs can
receive waivers, where is the relief for LEAs?
Could be similar to ARRA approachOSEP letter interpretation and
subsequent pushback
Rural Education: REAPRural Education Achievement Program
(REAP)S 567, no House version yet!Transition to new locale codesAllow districts to choose between RLIS
and SRSA fundingSwitch the eligibility poverty measure Shift in the sliding formula from
$20,000 to $25,000 and $60,000 to $80,000.
Rural EducationOffice of Rural Education Policy (S 946)Creates office, within USED, leveraged
to evaluate and provide analysis on USED policies and how they would impact rural areas
Urge your Senators and Representatives to join their respective chamber’s Rural Education Caucus
Education Technology: E-RateFCC program that provides discounts to
help schools and libraries afford telecommunications services
Anti-Deficiency Act (S 297)Raise the spending capWaiting for final action by the FCC on a
host of rules/notices:Gift ruleCIPARoll-over funds
Education Technology: Ed TechTitle II Part D, Enhancing Education
Through Technology, E2T2Zero-funded by the administration,
eliminated by the House in its ESEA eliminations bill
Sen. Bingaman introduced the ATTAIN Act (S 1178), which allows for EETT-type program ($300 m trigger); Rep. Roybal-Allard to introduce partner bill
Child NutritionNSLP/SBP reauthorized last DecemberAASA, NSBA and Council opposed unfunded
mandates within the lawIncreased reimbursement, higher nutrition
standardsSet paid lunch priceSet training and certification requirementsReview indirect cost process
Continue to work on the regulations, which affirm our suspicions
Choice: Vouchers & ChartersVouchers have been the go-to topic in state
legislaturesVouchers played out in FY11 CR debate, and DC
Voucher was reinvigoratedTwo subsequent House efforts around special
education vouchers for military families were defeated
Expect another pushCharters are a priority in the administration and we
see support in both chambersAASA supports public dollars for public schools, and
public school choice, which includes public charters.Latest PDK poll gives vouchers their lowest level of
public support in ten years
Boil it Down to Three Bullets, Noelle!Funding: Education funding is and must be an
absolute priority. Education took a disproportionate hit in the FY11 funding cycle, and our nation and it’s future economic success cannot afford to continue these cuts. Invest first in IDEA and Title I!
ESEA: We want reauthorization, but we know politics will delay it. Provide immediate, targeted regulatory relief by allowing all states to freeze accountability at the 2010-11 level.
Balance: Recognizing the likelihood of cuts, it is prudent to examine the regulations and reporting requirements. As federal support declines, so should federal requirements.
Your AdvocacyWhat can you do? Weigh in early, weigh in
often.These decisions get made whether you
weigh in or not, and your voice carries a lot of weight.
Get to know your Representative/Senator, and especially their education staffer.
Build a regular dialogue.
Your AdvocacyFive minutes a week- schedule an outlook
appointment!Invite the Representative/Senator and
staffer to your district. Anecdotes and stories have a lot of sticking power with this Congress. Let the face of your school be the one that sticks in their mind!
Your AdvocacyAASA Blog: www.aasa.org/aasablog.aspxAASA Weekly UpdateAASA Advocacy NetworkUse your professional organizations, at the
state and local level. We are membership organizations and you are the members!
Questions?
Noelle EllersonAssistant Director, Policy Analysis & Advocacy
AASA
Yes, the slide show will be available.