NREAC Conference Call

  

June 27, 2005

1:00 – 2:00 EST

 

NREAC Member Participants:

Joe Bard, PARSS, Coalition Chair

Ray Patrick, MARE, Coalition Vice-Chair

Don Kussmaul, AASA

Steven Crawford, NREA

 

Other AASA Staff present:

Mary Kusler

Terri Schwartzbeck

 

Agenda Items 

Talking Points on Appropriations

Agenda Items:

  1. The Coalition was updated on the latest information on the FY 2006 (2006 – 2007 school year) appropriations. It was decided that we needed to work with the grassroots to encourage action, including working with local reporters so they understand the situation. The Senate Appropriations Committee is going to introduce their version of the bill on July 12th, so we need to work fast. Talking points are included at the end of these minutes.

  2. Terri gave an update on the trends in NCLB across the country right now.

    Accountability Plans: Accountability plan changes continue to be elusive. States and the U.S. Department of Education appear to be engaging in piecemeal negotiations with little or no information released to educators or the public. AASA continues to push for a more transparent process.
    Flexibility: New special education flexibility has yet to be clarified. It includes a potential 2% cap on modified assessments for persistently academically disabled students, as well as a ‘proxy’ for states to use in the short-term if they do not have modified assessments. It also appears to include many obstacles for states to ‘qualify.’ However, like the state accountability plans, it would appear that states are engaged in negotiations with the U.S. Department of Education that may or may not reflect the rules listed by the Department and are not very public.

    Growth Models: The Department did announce that it would form a task force on growth models, and this has taken place. Joe Bard indicated that we could hear results from this task force by October.

  3. The proposed regulations for IDEA were recently released. With 75 days for public comment, individuals should weigh in before the Labor Day weekend. Bruce will be preparing a series of talking points detailing the issues in the proposed regulations that members of the NREAC should respond. The three major issues that were outlined in the call were areas where a state complaint process for parents was added (even though there was none in the statute), the illogical tying together of the 15 percent flexibility for pre-intervening services and the reduction of the local maintenance of effort and the clarification that the district of jurisdiction is changed for parentally placed students in private schools. The coalition should expect further details no later than our next conference call.

  4. The coalition was informed that the FCC released a Notice of Proposed Rule Making for E-Rate. Mary plans on compiling the issues to comment on with in the changes to the program. The most alarming is the potential shift in E-Rate dollars to a per-pupil formula. This would have an adverse effect on rural America and shift the program to a grant based program and thereby threaten its funding source. NREAC should plan on filling comments for this important discussion on the future of E-Rate.  

  5. There was a discussion about our success for the first full year of the coalition. This discussion moved into determining how to get current members more involved the operation of the coalition and how to recruit new members. It was agreed that both Joe and Ray would spend some time doing some outreach. In addition, the decision was made to send out the next round of invoices as well as determine when we should meet during the NREA conference.

  6. We set the next NREAC Conference call for Tuesday, August 2nd, 2005 at 1pm EST. The call in number is (888) 809-4012 and the pass code is 5280700.

Talking Points on Appropriations

  • In the House FY 2006 (2006 – 2007 school year) Labor HHS and Education Appropriations Bill, the Department of Education received a 0.2 percent increase ($118 million).  While this was better than anticipated, funding for K-12 schools specifically did not fare as well.  The bill passed the full House with a vote of 250 to 151 on Friday, June 24, 2005.

  • Overall, funding for No Child Left Behind (NCLB) is cut by $806 million below last year’s funding level.  Title I is increased by only $100 million, which is more than $500 million below the president’s request and the smallest increase in two decades.  This increase equates to a measly $4.55 increase for every Title I eligible child. 

  • A small increase to Title I will only compound the issues of the redistribution of the funding between districts.  There is a large transfer of Title I funding from rural and suburban schools to districts in the urban centers.  Last year, over 50 percent of the districts in the country lost Title I funding.  This year, based on FY 2005 funding, we anticipate that two-thirds of the districts across the country will lose Title I funding.  This is due to a perfect storm for school districts.  Much of this is due to the shift in poverty counts under the 2000 census along with lopsidedness in the Title I formulas being funded.  This has caused a shift in Title I funding towards concentrations of poverty and away from poor students in other parts of the country, especially in rural districts.  Without substantial increases to Title I and a balanced funding of the formulas, districts will see larger Title I cuts than previously; right as the requirements for No Child Left Behind increase.

  • Another large area of concern is that bill greatly under-funds IDEA.  With an increase of merely $150 million, funding for IDEA is still close to $400 million less than the president’s proposal and $3.9 billion below the level promised for this year in the recently reauthorized IDEA.  This promised money would have meant an additional $562.53 per student above the approximately $14.42 per student provided by the $150 million increase.  Even more alarming, this appropriations bill would mark the first time since 1993 that Congress would take a backwards step in meeting its IDEA commitment to districts, falling from the current 18.6 percent to 18.1 percent, and even further below its promised 40 percent.  This is a true setback to the recent progress that Congress has made.  We need to make sure that Congressional members hear that this reduction in commitment is unacceptable. The 250 members of Congress who voted for the final funding bill accept that this reverse in progress is okay.  Those members need to know that it is not! The entire situation should help us make our case that the only way to get to full funding is through the mandatory funding process that many of you have been championing for us!  If your representatives do not hear from you, it will make them think we approve of their reduced commitment to funding IDEA. 

  • Despite our concerns over the threats to eliminate funding for the other major formula programs flowing to school districts, they fared relatively well.  While certain formula programs were not eliminated they still took cuts.  For instance, Title II, Part D of NCLB, Funding for Education Technology, is cut $196 million and Safe and Drug Free Schools is cut by $37 million.  However on a very bright note, REAP was included in the bill and level funded at $170.6 million and Perkins Career and Technical Education State Grants were level funded at last year’s level.

  • The Senate is not expected to provide any more funding when they introduce their funding bill on July 12, 2005.  The Senate will most likely suggest overall cuts to education funding.  Everyone should be preparing for the worst.  Despite the fact that it is summer and schools are out, this is when Congress is working on the important funding decisions.  Be sure that they hear from you.  Please do not assume that someone else will do it.  They are currently not getting the message that education is a priority and should NOT be cut.  Everyone needs to help us make this case over the summer!