Legislation and Guidance
- In Congress, July is a Critical Month
- Empowering Teaching and Learning Through Education Portals Act
News
Legislation and Guidance
In Congress, July is a Critical Month
July, as is often the case in an election year, is a critical month in Congress. When the House and Senate return from recess next week, they will have about a month to complete as much work as they can before the month-long August recess, when a majority of members of Congress will go home to begin the final stages of their reelection campaigns. Even after members return in September, their focus will remain campaign-centered until after the November elections. After that, the lame duck government is unlikely to push forward until the new Congress and the next President take office. In this brief, but important, working period in Washington, Congress has many issues to resolve, including fiscal year 2009 (FY09) appropriations, reauthorizing the Higher Education Act (HEA), and trying to finish work on a new school facilities funding bill.
As is always the case in the summer, appropriations will dominate much of Congress’ schedule in July. Appropriators may be able to focus on the normal FY09 spending bills, as the President signed the supplemental appropriations bill on Monday. But there may be a second stimulus bill in the works, and that would certainly delay the FY09 activity. The $183 billion supplemental includes about $21 billion for domestic priorities. The bill included a one-year moratorium on six of the seven proposed Medicaid changes, but it failed to incorporate the Senate’s language for a one-year, $400 million extension of the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act.
Congress has already begun working on FY09 spending bills, but political considerations are delaying the process. As the House Appropriations Committee met to mark up the Labor-HHS-Education bill last week, disputes over political maneuvers led Chairman David Obey (D-WI) to end the hearing early, when ranking Republican Jerry Lewis (R-CA) attempted to replace the draft bill with the language of the FY09 bill for the Interior Department and Environmental Agency. Congressman Lewis claimed that the Interior bill was the only vehicle by which Congress can try to help bring down gas prices. Chairman Obey accused Lewis of cheap political posturing in an election year and stated that the committee may not consider the bill until September or later.
Meanwhile, the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor-HHS-Education was able to move forward with its bill. The $154.9 billion measure, which is about $9 billion above the President’s request, was approved by a 26-3 vote, with only Republican Senators Wayne Allard (CO), Judd Gregg (NH) and Sam Brownback (KS) opposing it. The bill is very similar to the House’s bill, ignoring the President’s program elimination requests. Also, like the House, the Senate is calling for zero funding for the Reading First program.
Senate Appropriation staff have said that they will not proceed without a House bill, and the House bill may not be in the works anytime soon. House Appropriations Chairman David Obey has already said he is not interested in dealing with a President who is unwilling to negotiate on domestic spending. As such, Chairman Obey is likely to push for a continuing resolution (CR) to go into 2009, opting to pass a final appropriations package when a new Administration is in office. The CR will likely include funding levels from the fiscal year 2008 spending levels. However, if one of the chambers of Congress passes a bill with less funding than 2008, Congress may choose to enact the lower level in the CR. If that is the case, then Reading First may not receive any funding under the CR, expediting its fiscal extinction.
Aside from appropriations, Congress also has to finish work on reauthorizing the HEA. The Senate passed its HEA bill last July, with the House eventually following suit with its bill in February. Negotiations between the two chambers of Congress have been slow since then, coming to a near halt when Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee Chairman Edward Kennedy (D-MA) was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor. As he recovers, his staff is struggling to keep talks moving, hoping to have a final HEA package before the end of the year.
Finally, the House is waiting on the Senate to pass a companion to H.R. 3021, the 21st Century Green High-Performing Public School Facilities Act, which the House passed last month by a vote of 250-164. Due to recently implemented regulations on the QZAB bonds, which have discouraged many lenders from participating in the once popular program, school administrators are patiently waiting for new funding opportunities for school facilities projects. School modernization groups came out in support of H.R. 3021, and are pushing the Senate to pass similar legislation before the end of the 110th Congress. House and Senate Republicans, however, have little interest in this bill since they believe it would expand the federal role in school construction at the costs of existing education program funding and that the federal funding would infect more cost-efficient public-private building engagements.
Resources
Vicki Needham, “Senate Appropriators Hike Labor-HHS Spending $9.5 Billion More Than White House Request," Congress Now, June 26, 2008.
Vicki Needham, “House Appropriators Halt Work After Dispute Over Off-Shore Drilling Provision," Congress Now, June 26, 2008.
Ashley Roque, “Bush Signs What Is Expected to Be His Final War Supplemental Spending Bill," Congress Now, June 30, 2008.
Empowering Teaching and Learning Through Education Portals Act
On June 24, Senator Kerry (D-MA) introduced S.3184, the Empowering Teaching and Learning Through Education Portals Act. The bill would provide grants to States to help cover the cost of implementing and maintaining education portal initiatives. The grants would cover periods of one to three years and provide up to 50 percent of the cost of implementing and maintaining the initiative.
An education portal is a generic term that may have many applications, but to qualify for the grant, the portal must collect and make available high-quality resources, including multimedia resources, that support teaching, reading, learning, and are aligned with State education standards. The resources must also be available for teachers to use for ongoing and sustainable professional development related to the use of education technology, the development of 21st-century skills for teachers and students, and the portal must provide educators research-based tools for coaching, collaborating, or mentoring.
The potential uses for an online education portal are limited only by one’s imagination. They may, and some already do, provide rich resources for parents, students, and teachers. They can offer a breadth of instructional and professional information in a quickly searchable format. And they can provide professional networking opportunities for educators to collaborate on and discuss teaching, learning, curricula and experiences that connect teachers across the hall, across the district, across the state, across the nation and around the globe. For example, a teacher experiencing success in teaching third grade English language learners can now share that experience with a teacher working with students of similar demographics and challenges, but who is struggling with those students for some particular reason. This bill recognizes the powerful opportunities that education portals could offer and makes the first federal foray into supporting their growth.
However, S.3184 will not likely progress very far this year. Outside of the federal appropriations and possibly the Higher Education Act, the President will sign few education bills into law. This bill, then, is a marker for future work on this issue as separate legislation or as a part of larger legislation, such as reauthorization of No Child Left Behind. Whatever form it eventually takes, we can expect to see more initiatives focusing on the delivery of education resources and innovation at scale.
Resources
“S.3184, A bill to make grants to States to implement statewide portal initiatives, and for other purposes," Open Congress, visited July 2, 2008.
News
State Fiscal Woes
With the beginning of a new fiscal year underway this week, states across the nation are attempting to recover from a difficult fiscal 2008 and find solutions for fiscal year 2009 (FY09) —although the new fiscal year could prove more challenging than the last. Documenting the troubles, the National Governors Association (NGA) released The Fiscal Survey of the States in June 2008. The report finds that national economic troubles are apparent in the “expectation of only a 1.0 percent general fund spending increase in governors' recommended budgets for fiscal 2009." The report also cites a significant decrease in the FY08 total State expenditures, dropping from 9.3 percent in FY07 to 5.1 percent in FY08, and significantly lower than the 6.7 percent, thirty-one year State spending average.
The NGA survey, along with reports from the Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute, explains that the State economic declines are unique in their causal factors. In the past, declines in corporate and personal income tax revenue were the source of budget problems. This time, a decrease in revenue from sales tax, stemming from the current foreclosure crisis, has led to current budget struggles. States such as Florida and Tennessee are especially vulnerable as they have no personal income tax and depend upon sales tax for revenue.
The growing cost of health care and its related costs also compound the fiscal woes. Medicaid costs are steadily increasing while States attempt to increase healthcare coverage with declining financial participation from the federal government. Additionally, the NGA notes that the common trend during an economic downturn is increased spending pressure on health care and other social programs. This means that health care costs will likely continue to trend upward, leading to even greater budget pressures for States.
Some States have alternate means of revenue tied to agricultural revenues, lottery programs, and energy, which they are turning to in this time of distress. For example, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has called for the state to borrow against future lottery program revenue to ease the State’s financial pain. However, these alternative means are not enough for most States. While there are exceptional States that have yet to feel serious budget crises, the national economic trend has forced many to cut funding from various portions of their budget and in education in particular. States, generally, avoid cutting the education line items, but that will be difficult for many in FY09.
Resource
The Fiscal Survey of States - June 2008 (Outside Source; PDF; 581KB; 66 pp) (National Governor’s Association and the National Association of State Budget Officers: June 2008).
Six States Approved for Differentiated Intervention Pilot
In March, Spellings announced a differentiated intervention pilot program under No Child Left Behind (NCLB). Under the pilot, the U.S. Department of Education (ED) could approve up to 10 States to operate their own differentiated accountability systems. Seventeen States submitted applications and on Tuesday, July 1st, Secretary Spellings announced the approval of six States: Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Illinois, Maryland and Ohio. ED did not approve the following eleven States: Alaska, Arkansas, Louisiana, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia.
Under section 1116 of the current law, every State must develop its measure of adequate yearly progress (AYP) in accordance with strict federal parameters requiring that, among other factors, all students reached a "proficient" achievement level by school year 2013-2014. The consequences for schools not making AYP follow a uniform seven-year cascade of consequences beginning with school choice after failing to make AYP for two consecutive years, and then supplemental educational services, then corrective action, then planning for restructuring, and, finally, the implementation of restructuring in the subsequent years
Revising this uniform seven-year progression has been a major sticking point throughout NCLB reauthorization. Almost everyone agrees that the law should allow States and districts to distinguish between those schools and districts that need a little help and those that need major overhaul. The premise is simple, but converting that to legislative language is difficult. To help the process, ED sought State solutions through this pilot program.
Critics of the pilot feared that States would use this as a means to avoid the application of the legal consequences and according to submission reviewer comments secured by Education Week, there was some validity to the concern. Some reviewers noted that “the methods appeared largely to be based on methods of convenience rather than a focus on the underlying causes of schools inability to meet AYP;" and “very few of the proposals included a backstop to ensure that schools in milder levels of intervention did not allow any single group to persistently under-perform."
We are now reviewing the 17 submissions and considering the precedent that the approved pilots will have on future NCLB implementation and on the reauthorization discussions now underway in Washington.
Resources
"Differentiated Accountability Pilot States (Outside Source)," United States Department of Education, Visited July 2, 2008.
David Hoff, “Peer Reviewers Return 'Differentiated' Plans for Rewrite (Outside Source)," Education Week, Blog: NCLB Act II, visited July 2, 2008.
