March 24, 2004 - Joint Ed. Oversight Committee Looks at Legislative Requests
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Topics include:
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ABCs Bonuses | Weighted Classes | Compulsory Attendance Age |
| Reading First, | Certification Issues | High Priority Schools | |
| Financial, Process Issues |
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Expanding Charter School Gap |
Linda S. Suggs, Legislative Director
State Board of Education
North Carolina Dept. of Public Instruction
Superintendent Mike Ward presented the State Board's policy requests for public schools. He acknowledged the presence of SBE member Tricia Willoughby, who attended the meeting, and began with brief comments about progress made by North Carolina schools, progress verified by performance on NAEP tests, SAT's, and other independent measures. The policy items requested will help continue that progress.
The SBE's policy requests had been provided to the committee prior to the meeting for perusal. Committee chairs have requested materials in advance and brief presentations, so members will have ample time at meetings for questions and discussion.
Mike explained to the committee that some of the items on this year's list were carried forward from the 2003 legislative agenda and some were new. In the meeting today, he touched briefly on each of the new items and a few of the old ones.
* ABC's bonuses, carried forward from the 2003 list. In 2001, the General Assembly directed the State Board to " include a 'closing the achievement gap' component in its measurement of educational growth in student performance for each school." The General Assembly signaled last year in a special provision its intent "in future fiscal years, to address efforts in schools to close the achievement gap by providing an incentive for schools that make adequate yearly progress as required by the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001." In 2003 the SBE suggested $600 each for meeting expectations, exceeding expectations, and making AYP under NCLB (for a maximum total of $1800). Mike explained to the committee that the SBE is not wedded to that or in fact any particular configuration of bonuses and acknowledged that the decision on the incentive bonuses will ultimately be made by the General Assembly.
* Weighted credit, a new item. The requested change will make decisions about weighted credit joint decisions between higher ed and the public schools. Now statutory authority rests with higher ed. Mike noted that public schools have been in partnership with higher ed on these decisions, even absent this legislation. However, while we have a signed agreement and the issue is not being negotiated, this is a good time to clarify the appropriate relationship in statute.
* Compulsory attendance age, carried forward from 2003. Nearly half the states have compulsory age higher than 16. A bill was introduced last session by Sen. Garwood to raise North Carolina's age to 17. The bill is now in the Senate Appropriations Committee and is eligible for consideration in 2004.
* High Priority Schools, two new items. Mike noted that some schools view the high priority status as a negative designation and have requested an avenue out of high priority status. The requested provision would remove the designation and the additional resources if the school requested, if the local board of education approved, and if the school made high growth and increased the performance composite to 80% or better for 3 consecutive years.
* Reading First testing provision, carried forward. NC vigorously resisted including a testing provision in its Reading First grant proposal. The grant was turned down 3 times until the 4th submission included the testing component. The grant brings $154 million dollars to 134 eligible schools including 5 charter schools (average $225,000-$250,000 per school per year ) to focus on teaching reading to students in K-grade 2. Without this legislation, North Carolina will not be able to access these federal funds.
* Certification requirements, a new item. Legislation changing "shall" to "may" is necessary to allow the SBE to implement the recommendation of the Select Committee on Teacher Reciprocity regarding testing requirements for middle school and high school teachers from other states coming into North Carolina. Mike noted that the Education Oversight has already voted unanimously, at the request of Co-Chairman Doug Yongue, to support this change.
* Extend the sunset on retired teachers returning with no earnings cap, a new item. This issue has also already been discussed in Ed Oversight, and the committee has voted unanimously to support it. In presenting this item, Mike also touched briefly on shortening the 6 months to 2, carried forward from the 2003 request list, which the SBE also supports. Rep. Yongue noted that he has already requested information from SREB on what other states are doing in this regard.
* Revise statute outlining process for removal of local board members, a new item. DPI worked with NCSBA in drafting language to clarify the process already in statute.
* Carry-over of certain funds by LEAs, a new item. The language requested is boilerplate language, added to the SBE agenda this year to ensure that we don't forget it in this year's process.
* Greater financial flexibility for LEAs, a new item, as a placeholder. Specific statutory changes needed have not yet been determined.
* Expanding the cap on charter schools, carried forward from 2003. Mike offered the caveat that one of the SBE's chief concerns relative to this item is staffing at DPI, needed to support, assist, and monitor new charter schools. He said that DPI staffing would need to be expanded if the cap is expanded.
There were few questions during Mike's presentation of the policy agenda, and no questions when he finished. At the very end of the meeting, after the university presentation, members of the committee came back to two items on the SBE list: raising the compulsory attendance age (why would we want to force students to stay in school who don't want to be there, and in fact, how can we force a student to come to school who doesn't want to and whose parents can't make him/her?) and removing high priority school status and resources (opposed to removing resources; why would you give schools money to get them there, and then take the money away?).
At the end of the meeting, Sen. Swindell asked committee members to e-mail their concerns and suggestions about both the public school requests and the university requests to the committee staff. The staff will compile concerns and items suggested for inclusion in Ed Oversight's report to the 2004 General Assembly.
The next meeting of the Education Oversight Committee is scheduled for April 27.