Tri-State Area School Study Council University of Pittsburgh Windows of Opportunity; Prioriti ritizin zing Public lic Educati cation on in Harrisburg sburg and d Washingt hington. n. March 8, 2019 ■ Jonathan Berger, Director of Government Affairs, PSBA ■ Mark DiRocco, Executive Director, PASA
Federal Update Issues on the National Ed. Agenda ESSA • • Student Data & Privacy • Medicaid/CHIP School Nutrition • • Higher Education Act • Perkins Career/Tech • Early Education • IDEA • Affordable Care Act • Rural Education (REAP, Forest • Regulations: DoL and EPA Counties, Impact Aid) • Immigration / DACA • School Vouchers • Taxes E-Rate •
Edu-Policy 101 • Authorizing Statutes • Every Student Succeeds Act • Individuals with Disabilities Education Act • Higher Education Act • Carl D. Perkins Career & Technical Education Act • Head Start/Childcare Development Block Grants • Russell School Nutrition Program • Others that aren’t necessarily ‘education’: Farm Bill, Affordable Care Act, Telecommunications Act, et…..
On the Horizon 2019 ■ Split Congress: D’s hold the House, R’s hold the Senate On the House side: OVERSIGHT, OVERSIGHT, OVERSIGHT ■ Expect them to look into ESSA oversight and implementation ■ Hearings on regulatory action re discipline, transgender and Title IX work Other topics: ■ DACA/Family Separation ■ Infrastructure ■ Student Data and Privacy
Funding Federal Year 2019 • History setting year. This is the first time in nearly 10 years Congress has reached this point on the LHHS bill (which funds education, among other programs). • It is part of a three -piece package: a bill to fund Labor, Health and Human Services (LHHS), a bill to fund defense, and a bill that would provide a continuing resolution (CR) for the remaining portions of government through December 7. • Between FY18 and FY19, the non-defense discretionary (NDD) portion of the budget received an $18+ billion increase. • LHHS represents the largest share of non-defense discretionary funding in the federal budget, and if the overall NDD increase had been allocated an equitable share, the LHHS increase would have been more than $5 billion. • BUT, the conference bill provided an increase of closer to $2 billion for all of LHHS which resulted in nominal increases to a handful of education programs.
FY19 USED Funding • The final al bill provides des a $581 m increa ease se in fundi ding ng for USED, D, bringi nging ng the tota tal to nearly $71. 1.5 5 billion. on. • The bill rejects the Trump administration’s proposals to fund vouchers and privat atizati ization on prioriti ties, es, as well as proposed osed program m eliminati inations ons and the proposal sal to consoli solidat date e USED D with h the Depar artme tment nt of Labor or. • Tracki king ng a few key programs, ms, here are some e that t receiv ived ed increases ases • Title I, $100m; m; • Title II I is level funded; ded; • IDEA, $87m • Title IV, $70m st Centur • 21 21 st tury, $10m • Impa mpact ct Aid, $32m • Perkins ns Career er & Techni nical cal Educat ation ion, $95m; and • He Head Start, t, $200 m
Perkin erkins s CTE TE Rea eauthori uthorizati zation on ■ In July the House and Senate passed Perkins V, the newest reauthorization of the Perkins CTE Act ■ It was a bipartisan process, but not one that contained a lot of sound policy changes ■ New things A measure of “CTE program quality” for accountability New definition of CTE concentrator New requirement to do local needs assessment New requirement to limit federal funding to areas ID’d by needs assessment More paperwork and more stringent accountability requirements generally
Pub ublic lic Loss, s, Priv ivat ate e Ga Gain: n: How School ool Vouc ucher er Tax x Shelt lter ers s Undermine Und ermine Public lic Educati cation on AASA and the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) identified how state and federal tax policy promotes the privatization of education funding, while simultaneously draining public coffers to enable savvy taxpayers to turn a profit. Seventeen states divert a total of over $1 billion per year toward private schools via school voucher tax credits such as PA’s EITC Program. When combined with a federal tax loophole, nine of these states’ credits are so lucrative that they allow some upper income taxpayers to turn a profit (at federal taxpayer expense) on contributions they make to fund private school vouchers, all while leaving less resources available for federal investments in education. Simply put, wealthy taxpayers are benefiting from a federally sanctioned voucher tax shelter. 8
Medicaid and Rural Schools ■ The I Impro rovi ving ng Medica caid in Sch chools Ac Act - would reduce administrative obstacles to billing Medicaid ■ STOP treating school districts like they are hospitals and clinics ■ Small and rural districts much less likely to participate in Medicaid due to 1) inability to take on the administrative and compliance related paperwork, 2) inability to find a qualified healthcare provider for provision of services and 3) inability to afford a third-party biller to handle paperwork. ■ Solution: streamline the Medicaid program paperwork to ensure districts of all sizes can capacities can participate in the program and guarantee more equitable participation in Medicaid program by rural/small districts. ■ Simplify the reimbursement stream; open districts up to partnerships with Managed Care Organizations and reduce unnecessary red-tape and confusion
E-Rate Funding Remains Available, Underutilized! As the largest education technology program in the country, the Schools and Libraries program (E- rate) has transformed Internet access in our nation’s schools. However, with digital learning opening new opportunities for students and teachers, schools and libraries must continue to utilize the program to prepare their networks for the future -- and we want to help. In 2014 the E-rate program made changes such as: • A policy update to make the program broadband-centric; and • A critical vote to increase the funding cap to ensure that applicants could access meaningful funding both Category 1 (internet access) and Category 2 (internal networking). Since the changes, 83% of schools accessed Category 2 funding in 2018 (up from 15% in 2015) and twenty million more students have access to the minimum connectivity needed to take advantage of digital learning (Source: EducationSuperHighway). 10
E-Rate e Fundi ding R g Rem emain ins Avail ilable le, , Und Under erutil iliz ized ed! Still, more than $1 billion in E-rate funding is left on the table each year. With the possibility that Category 2 funding may expire after this funding year, now is the time for districts that have funding remaining to apply. To understand your available Category 2 budget, find your school district on Compa pare & Connect nnect K-12, or visit it the USAC C budg dget et tool. If your district has remaining funds, we encourage you to meet with your technology staff to make sure you can take advantage before they expire. With the E-rate 471 filing window set to close on March ch 27, 2019, school districts must get started now to meet all required deadlines. 11
ESSA UPDATE Future Ready PA Index: CSI, A-TSI, TSI CSI: I: Com omprehe prehensiv nsive e Sch chool ool Improvement ement ■ Lowest performing = 5% of schools receiving Title I Funds or any high school with a graduation rate of 67% or less. ■ Four-Year Cohort (First Year for Planning, Year 2-4 for Improvement Plan Implementation). ■ Approximately 100 schools identified. 12
Future Ready PA Index: CSI, A-TSI, TSI Tar arge geted ed School chool Improvement ement A-TSI SI (Additional Targeted School Improvement): Beginning 2018, Four-year Cohort same as CSI Schools - Approximately 200 schools identified TSI I (Targeted School Improvement): Beginning Fall 2019 – Announced Annually – Could be more than 200 schools Any school as a whole or with a subgroup within that school which scores at or below the CSI Level or any high school with a graduation rate of 67% or less. Studen ent t Groups: s: (Any studen dent t group with 20 or more studen dents ts) ) Asian, Black, Hispanic, Multi Racial, Native American/Alaskan Native, Native Hawaiian/other Pacific Islander, White, Economically Disadvantaged, English Learners and Students with Disabilities 13
Identifying Ineffective Teachers Transitioning from Highly Qualified under NCLB to identifying the following categories of teachers: 1. 1. Ineffectiv ective – (Methodology will be provided by PDE) New tab on the Act 82 Evaluation Form will automatically calculate this formula. PDE will sent info and documents out on January 17. 2. 2. Out-of of-Fie Field ld – (Teachers teaching without appropriate certification) 3. 3. Inexper xperienced ienced – (Non-tenured or less than 3 years experience) 14
ESSA Financial Reporting… 2018 18-19 school ol year: r: Expenditure data will inform LEA- and school-level reporting by PDE March h 2019: Publication of instructions, list of approved exclusions and FAQs Novemb ember er 2019: LEA reporting of FY 2018-19 data to PDE (AFR submission) De Decembe mber r 2019: Initial reporting of FY 2018-19 data 15
Sta tate e Up Updat date Who says, “the legislature never changes”
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