Third Grade Reading. SB 1275 is a proposed amendment to the state school aid act that would require extensive program changes and testing requirements for students in grades 1-3, along with considerable follow-up in the upper elementary and middle school grades for students who are not reading at grade level by grade 3. While there have been no official cost estimates for the bill, we believe that the cost to school districts would be in the tens of millions of dollars and could run into the hundreds of millions. So far the bill has not been taken up, but indications are that it may be considered in the near future, perhaps along with the budget.
2008-09 BUDGET BILLS. On May 16th the budget process took a step forward with the report of the May Consensus Revenue Estimating Conference. That report estimates that revenue dedicated to the School Aid Fund (SAF) for 2008-09 will be $11,707,400,000 which is some $163.2 million less than they estimated in January. Looked at another way, this is an increase of 2.9% over the 2007-08 SAF revenue. The 2.9% increase is partially eaten up by a shift of $238 million from the SAF to cover programs that have historically been paid from the state general fund budget.
The state aid bill this year is SB 1107. The bill has passed the Senate and is currently before the House K-12 Appropriations sub-committee. In its current form (as passed the Senate) the state aid bill includes increases of $71/pupil for the Basic Foundation Allowance (the highest foundation allowance) and $142/pupil for the lowest foundation allowance, and a proportional share of the difference for those districts in between the two. That means that the Basic Foundation Allowance is projected at $8,504/pupil while the lowest foundation allowance is projected at $7,346/pupil. In crafting this budget the Senate built in $150 million of the $163 million reduction in the revenue estimates. As of today the House K-12 sub-committee has not taken the bill up for a vote. Because of the reduced revenue projections, it seems likely that the final state aid bill will peg the per-pupil allowance somewhat below the figures the Senate passed ($7,346 to $8,504).
We expect the House K-12 sub-committee to amend and report the bill to the full House in the next week or two. If the House version of the bill makes up the entire shortfall from the per pupil allowance, that would require a reduction of $8 to $10 per pupil from what the Senate adopted. Once the House acts on the bill, it will go to a conference committee where the final work will be done, probably in the next month to six weeks.
HIGHER EDUCATION BUDGETS. See the Legislative Update of 4/29/2008 for details on the community college and higher education budget bills for 2008-09. The Consensus Revenue Conference is now projecting that the state general fund budget (GF/GP) will have a reduction of $279.5 million (or 3.1%) in 2008-09 when compared to 2007-08. This will result in further downward pressure on the higher education budgets as they work through the process.
BUDGET 2007-2008. Public Act 137 of 2007 (HB4359) is the 2007-08 state aid bill. See the Legislative Update of 4/29/2008 for more details.
A 2007-08 School Aid Budget Supplemental bill, HB 5531, was signed into law on April 29, 2008 as PA 112 of 2008. The Act provides for negative adjustments to the total spending for foundation allowances and special education based on updated student counts. Additionally, it restores the $4.7 million that was cut from the Michigan School Readiness Program grants last fall, it adds $1.3 million for grants to sparsely populated rural districts, $0.1 million for competitive Cultural Access Grants and $80,000 for Newsline (a news service for the visually impaired). It also includes two expenditures that MEA opposed. Those are $3.3 million for the Department of Education to establish an assessment item test bank, and $0.6 million for the Department to develop end-of-course prototype assessments.
READING REQUIREMENTS FOR CERTIFICATE RENEWAL. The MEA lobby team is working with legislators on a proposal that has surfaced recently in the Senate Education Committee to add a requirement that all teachers complete a course in reading disabilities and differentiated instruction not later than July 1, 2011 or have their certificate invalidated. As of yesterday, May 15, the Senate Education Committee reported SB 842 (version S-3) to the full Senate. Due to our efforts, and contrary to some media reports, this version does NOT contain a requirement for all existing teachers to complete a 3 credit reading course in order to renew their certificates. Instead, it requires school districts to provide at least 5 days of professional development dedicated to the diagnosis and remediation of reading disabilities for all teachers except those who hold a provisional certificate. For holders of provisional certificates as of July 1, 2009 the requirement to take a course in reading disabilities in order to attain a professional certificate remains the same as current law.
CERTIFICATION (STATE BOARD). The State Board is in the process of changing teacher certification requirements. Those working on these changes believe it will take at least one year to develop. However, discussions regarding new certification requirement involve adding a “subjective criterion” (e.g., a subjective evaluation by an administrator or other person that would be a mandatory part of the certification renewal process) that would in effect provide for a continuing probationary period. We have been asked to participate in a workgroup to address our concerns over the possible change from objective standards (years of teaching experience and class hours) to one that would give administrators (some without education degrees and experience) the authority to determine continued employment of a trained and “highly qualified” teacher.
MANDATORY FULL DAY KINDERGARTEN, SB 162 and HB 4662. HB 4662 is getting some movement in the House while SB 162 languishes in the Senate Education Committee (see the 4/29/2008 Legislative Update for more detail). A substitute version of HB 4662 has been reported to the floor of the full House of Representatives. This version requires a district to provide kindergarten classes. Beginning in 20011-12, for any district that has not made adequate yearly progress under the NCLB law, it would require that the length of the kindergarten day be the same as the day of other elementary school grades operated by the district. For all districts it would phase in as of 2011-12 a requirement that a child be age 5 by September 1 of the school year in order to be eligible to attend kindergarten that year.
KINDERGARTEN FUNDING. Related to the full day kindergarten proposals is the issue of per pupil funding for kindergarten students. Under the current state aid act all kindergarten students count as a per pupil FTE whether they attend for a full day or for a partial day. The budget proposal from the Governor changed this funding scheme to provide a full per pupil allowance for kindergarteners who attend school a full day and to reduce the amount proportionally for those who attend for only part of a day. The Senate passed version of 2008-09 state aid (SB 1107) continues the current language of counting all kindergarten pupils as a full FTE for state aid purposes. On 4/16/08 the House K-12 Appropriations sub-committee chairperson proposed changing the kindergarten count to be the same as the Governor’s proposal. This will be taken up by the K-12 sub-committee when it acts on the bill.
PUBLIC EMPLOYEE RETIREMENT HEALTH CARE, HB 5913. While nothing will happen on this issue this week, the bill is under active consideration and discussion. This bill will authorize and create irrevocable public employee retirement health care trust for the purpose of holding, investing, and distributing assets to be used for post-employment health care benefits as well as set forth certain rights that public employees have in retirement health care benefits. This is one possible vehicle for discussion of the whole question of how to pay for retirement health care benefits for public employee retirees, including school retirees. The issue is being discussed in the House Public Retiree Health sub-committee, chaired by Rep. Mark Meadows (D-East Lansing). MEA has been meeting with and monitoring the activities of this committee.
HB 5375 the Michigan Promise Zone Act, this bill creates a new law to provide assistance with the cost of higher education for low income students. See the Legislative Update for 4/29/08 for more details. The bill passed the House on December 13th and is in the Senate Education Committee. MEA has concerns related to the fact that this is yet another hit to the school aid fund for something that is not a K-12 expenditure.
ACADEMIC FREEDOM BILL, HB 6027, sponsored by Representative Moolenaar (R-Midland). This Bill adds significant protections to academic freedom. The State Board, Board of the local school district or ISD, and other public school officials shall endeavor to assist and allow teachers to help pupils understand, analyze, critique, and review and an objective manner the scientific strengths and weaknesses of existing scientific theories pertinent to the course being taught. These officials shall not prohibit any teacher in a public school in this state from helping a pupil to understand, analyze, critique, and review in an objective manner the scientific strengths and weaknesses of existing scientific theories pertinent to the course being taught. MEA is concerned that this bill could encourage or mandate the teaching of questionable theories under the guise of science.
MANDATORY ATTENDANCE AGE. HB 4042/SB 11 and HB 5594 would establish a mandatory attendance age of 18. See the Legislative update for 04/29/2008 for more details.
HB 4533 OUTSOURCING/PRIVATIZATION would remove the prohibition against bargaining over outsourcing or the impact of outsourcing that is currently contained in PERA. The bill passed the House in May and was referred to the Senate Education Committee. We continue to seek ways to move the bill through the Senate and onto final passage.
CLAIMS DATA, HB 5454 would fix the problems created by SB 418 (P.A. 106). It would change the required claims data to be released to the data on which the district has been rated. This is what we attempted to achieve when SB 418 was moving. However, the House leadership refused to make passage of this bill the price for the Senate leadership to get the fix it wanted on the “service tax” when that issue was addressed in December, 2007.
CAMPAIGN FINANCE, HB 4628 makes several changes in the Campaign Finance Act. These include removal of the requirement to have an annual authorization to collect PAC contributions by payroll deduction and a provision to allow payroll deduction of PAC contributions by public employers.