#fundourschools

[lifelonglearnermuses]

Teaching in a Room on Fire

Teaching in a Room on Fire - How do you effectively teach a classroom full of kid and handle severe behavioral instances while maintaining equity for all?

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) of 1990 which secured all students with Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE) was one of the most powerful acts of educational reform of my time. I had just started college when this act was passed, and I remember the excitement with which professors explained the changes and protections for our nation’s students. When you look at the…

[hdouglasj]

America's entire system is broken. The failure of how America handles COVID-19 and systemic injustices demonstrate this to be self-evident. America is fractured because too many of its citizens refuse to get the necessary treatment to eradicate diseases such as white supremacy, racism, and internalized racism (WSRIR). These three insidious mental disorders continuously steal, ravage, and abort the American dream from Black and Brown communities. WSRIR molests, rapes, emasculates and silences, America's true potential of our children, adults, and every American institution. The first step is to admit that each of us is an addict. Addictive to WSRIR, and we need a diagnosis to treat. One demand is to get the American Psychiatric Association to add white supremacy, racism, and internalized racism as mental disorders to treat. It's time for America to address all dysfunction associated with each deadly disease. #AddWhiteSupremacyToTheDSM #AddRacismToTheDSM #AddInternalizedRacismToTheDSM #WSRIRDisorder #BlackLivesMatter #TherapyMatters #MoreCounselorsNotCops #FundOurSchools #AntiRacistTraining #CriticalRaceTheory #EndSchoolToPrisonPipeline #ResponseToIntervention #TraumaInformedInstruction #CulturallyRelevantPedagogy #RestorativeJustice #SocialJustice #Reparations #AchievementGap #STEMGap #HealthGap #WealthGap #DigitalDivide #GreenNewDeal #LoveLearningTeachingAndProfessionalDevelopment (at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) https://www.instagram.com/p/CBbijkjHdst/?igshid=923z3ly88tra

[fosterreisz]

We have to do better. #DefundThePolice #FundOurSchools #blacklivesmatter #blm #nojusticenopeace #mentalhealth #mentalhealthawareness @aclu_nationwide via @wcruz73. (at United States) https://www.instagram.com/p/CBJm_8lHe8t/?igshid=19uj4s6tts73m

[tcifiscal]

What’s Holding Virginia Back from Solving Its “Math Problem” and Funding Our Schools – Virginia’s Tax System

This Sunday, House Appropriations and Senate Finance will release their proposed amendments to the governor’s 2020-2022 budget. Educators and advocates are hopeful to see critical investments in Virginia’s public schools that build upon the introduced budget, especially with continued economic growth bringing in additional revenues to the state budget. Yet, these proposals are unlikely to include the full array of solutions needed to ensure a high-quality education for every student in every zip code of the commonwealth. State leaders have made it known that they are aware of the needs and share the concerns. What’s missing – and the reason why we are likely to not see all that is needed – is action to address the true culprit holding back resources for schools and communities: Virginia’s outdated and inadequate revenue system and lawmakers’ current reluctance to make needed changes to it.

Both lawmakers and residents alike are aware of the needs of Virginia’s public schools: underpaid teachers (Va. has one of the worst wage penalties for teachers in the country), understaffed schools (staffing has decreased over the past decade while enrollment has grown by 55,000 students), inequitable funding (divisions spend less per student in highest poverty localities than in those with the lowest poverty), and deteriorating facilities (more than 60% of Virginia schools were more than 40 years old in 2013). 

Solutions have been put forward by education leaders and advocates to address these challenges. This includes more appropriately staffing schools based on standards prescribed by the Virginia Board of Education (VBOE), creating an Equity Fund to direct resources based on student need, providing a 5% pay increase to teachers and school staff in both years of the state budget, and directing additional state aid to assist local divisions with construction costs for school facilities.

Virginia residents seem to understand these needs and support these types of proposals to address them, as seen in the annual VCU poll, including a willingness to pay more in taxes to pay for them. Legislators have taken up and championed some of these ideas this legislative session.

Yet when it comes to significant action, we hear about a “math problem.” We hear there simply aren’t sufficient resources to meet needed spending. Unfortunately, discussion of this challenge often assumes a fixed revenue system tied only to the performance of the economy and ignores the tax policy decisions made by the elected leaders every year. By focusing on spending and the economy, state lawmakers are ignoring the real driver of our “math problem.” Virginia is 47th in the state and local revenues (resources to fund public investments like schools) as a percentage of personal income. This means Virginia raises among the least revenue to fund budget priorities when compared to the earnings of the residents. 

Virginia’s tax system is not only inadequate, it is also upside down. The highest-income people in the state pay the lowest in state and local taxes as a share of their income. In addition, corporations are not asked to pay their fair share.

Lawmakers had opportunities this legislative session to make meaningful improvements to Virginia’s state tax system. Unfortunately, none of these important tax policy proposals have survived and crossed over to the other chamber for consideration. These proposals included: HB 739, HB 1109, and SB 756 to reform the corporate income tax by adopting unitary combined reporting, which would require large multi-state corporations to be taxed similarly as mainstreet businesses; HB 736 and SB 637 to restore the state estate tax that would be applied to only the largest estates; and HB 735 to annually update the state individual income tax code for inflation to prevent the eroding of key tax measures. 

Instead of rejecting these policies, lawmakers should work to re-design the state’s revenue system so that it brings in sufficient resources to fund public investments like our schools and asks the wealthiest households and large corporations to pay their fair share – including by closing some loopholes in the current tax system. 

Below we sketch how that could look in the future, based on tax proposals that were submitted this legislative session or in past years and an income tax surcharge on filers with incomes of more than half a million dollars.

Revenue options, along with specific examples used in the calculations, include: adopting a 1% and 2% surcharge on taxable incomes above $500,000 and $1,000,000 a year, modernizing our sales tax by taxing certain services in recognition that our economy has shifted from goods to services, restoring Virginia's estate tax, adopting a combined reporting law on multi-state corporations, taxing digital downloads similarly as other goods, eliminating certain loopholes in Virginia’s tax code (for luxury watercraft purchases and online hotel bookings), maintaining caps on certain tax credits (land preservation tax credit), eliminating certain other tax credits (Education Improvement Scholarship Tax Credit), proposed gaming changes from online sports betting, and use of discretionary deposits from the governor into the revenue reserve. 

Make no mistake, budget writers do not have all these tools at their disposal as they finalize their budget proposals this week, as legislators have already tabled the proposals that were put forward. What the exercise can offer is a glimpse of what state leaders could accomplish if they put their minds to modernizing Virginia’s tax system and eliminating unnecessary carve-outs going forward. 

We can design a more progressive tax system that raises sufficient revenues to invest in our public schools. This is a math problem we can solve. 

– Chris Duncombe, Policy Director and Chris Wodicka, Policy Analyst

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Learn more about The Commonwealth Institute at www.thecommonwealthinstitute.org

[khatter9]

#fundourschools

[96thdayofrage]

The playground2prison pipeline now funnels through Suburbia, thanks to the refusal to #defundthepolice and #endqualifiedimmunity. These armed numskulls, who will open fire on you during a wellness check or kill your pets, are not qualified to serve as substitute teachers.

We can’t teach real American history, but it’s perfectly fine to have armed mediocrity to grin dangerous ignorance and idiocy into our captive youth?! 

Teachers have to complete a masters degree to retain their jobs. They undergo background checks and every manner of screening to demonstrate they are fit to be in the classroom. What is so laudable about replacing them with this photo op for armed dunces whose only accomplishment before getting the shield and pistol was finishing high school as social outcasts with less than impressive grades?!!! 

[homesteadingfeminist]

I had this ridiculous idea that maybe I would run into my old teachers here. Lol. #redfored #colorado #istandwithteachers #fundourschools #repealTABOR

[williehearts]

I like to edit pictures. #SelfHelpTherapy #TakingCareOfTheBlackWoman #YouHaveThePowerToTeachYourOwnKidsRight. #FundOurSchools #LostPuppies #PsychoAnalitics #RadicalSmokeSomeChillVibesAndWorldPeace #OneLove #DrugAddiction #DrugAwareness #HoldOnTight #SelfTherapy #HashtagCray @nina_parks (at East Garfield Park, Chicago)

[bramsey302]

#fundourschools

[fkakidstv]

#CleartheList? How About #FundOurSchools - WeAreTeachers

#CleartheList? How About #FundOurSchools – WeAreTeachers

As a teacher I find myself scrolling through social media frequently to connect with other educators. I’ve found great ideas for my AP Lit classes, some funny memes when it comes to grammar, and have followed a slew of fabulous educators. Recently, I noticed a hashtag I often see this time of year and during back-to-school: #clearthelist. The hashtag took me to post after post of teachers…

[myweddingsandevents]

This afternoon, #VaLeg’s House Finance Committee advanced over $3 billion in ongoing tax cuts that would reduce $$$ for public services like #health care, transportation, & to #FundOurSchools

[thepolicyminute]

School Library Staffing #DataVizDay

Surprise! School library staffing has fallen in Massachusetts. Can you predict where the school libraries have closed?#EdChatMA #MAEdu #MAPoli #FundOurSchools #DataVizDay

Over ten years, the number of full-time equivalent (FTE) Library/Media Center directors has fallen from 833 in 2007/08 to just over 628 in 2017/18. While the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education data does not differentiate by role, you can assume these are FTEs who hold a DESE Library and/or Instructional Technology license. Check out the school and district level data here. 

For…

[tcifiscal]

K-12 Funding in 2020 Legislative Session: Lawmakers Have Opportunity to Turn Piecemeal Progress into a Profound Achievement

School funding will be a key area of focus as legislators debate and offer revisions to the governor’s introduced budget for 2020-2022 during session, which began on Wednesday. The governor’s K-12 proposals add approximately $470 million in new investments in K-12 (across the two-year state budget) and direct resources to critical services such as school counselors and need-based funding (At-Risk Add-On). These investments stand at only about one-quarter of the $2 billion that the Virginia Board of Education identified as needed to adequately fund the state’s Standards of Quality (SOQ), and only fully funds the Board’s proposal for school counselors.

As a result, the introduced budget’s proposed education investments are best understood as a starting point. Virginia ranks 40th in state funding per student nationwide and it would take an additional $2.5 billion per year ($5 billion total in the two-year budget) to reach the middle of the pack (25th) in state funding. That’s why we have called for bold action to fix school funding in Virginia earlier this year along with the Fund Our Schools coalition. Del. Aird (HB1316) and Sen. McClellan (SB728) have submitted legislation to do just that by fully funding the SOQ revisions put forward by the Virginia Board of Education. And a recent VCU poll shows Virginia residents see the needs of our schools and are willing to do their share to fund them.

Below we summarize the investments in the governor’s introduced budget and legislative proposals, like those by Del. Aird and Sen. McClellan, to strengthen them. 

Rebenchmarking

The advertised investment of $1.2 billion across the two-year state budget includes $808.5 million for technical revisions to the funding formula (called “rebenchmarking”) to keep funding current. The updates include enrollment estimates, student demographics, and prevailing salary calculations, among other factors. These dollars are not new funding and represent a current-services budget. 

Teacher Compensation

The proposed budget includes a 3% salary increase for teachers and support staff positions starting the second year of the budget. There is no salary adjustment included in the first year of the budget. This does not put Virginia on pace to reach the state’s goal of providing a salary “at a minimum, at or above the national average teacher salary” as listed in the Code of Virginia. The National Education Association (NEA) survey shows average salaries in Virginia were 14% below the national average in the 2017-2018 school year (the most recent year with actuals compared to estimates). 

Teacher salaries compare even more poorly to the private sector in Virginia. The Economic Policy Institute released a report last year showing that Virginia teachers are paid 31.3% less than comparable college graduates, which equals the third largest wage penalty in the nation. 

Legislation has been filed by Del. Mugler (HB233) to change the goal of providing a teacher salary at or above the national average into a requirement by July 1, 2025. 

Need-Based School Funding

The proposed budget also includes a substantial increase in Virginia’s need-based funding program called the At-Risk Add-On. The proposal increases this supplemental funding up to 1 - 25% more in state funding per student enrolled in free lunch, totaling $140 million across the two-year state budget. This is needed because spending in Virginia's highest poverty divisions falls far short of what national models show is needed and is even less than what the lowest poverty divisions are spending.

While positive, the $140 million increase is about half of what the Virginia Board of Education identified as needed to equitably distribute resources across the state to ensure that students who need additional support are getting it. In their approved revisions to the SOQ, the Board created an Equity Fund that would have allocated an additional $270 million in the budget. The governor instead chose to allocate $125 million to a new fund that allocates resources to schools based on the number of students rather than the needs of students. 

The creation of this additional fund that doesn’t take into account student need seems unnecessary and misplaced, given that the bulk of state K-12 funding (85%) is awarded through the SOQ based on enrollment and lottery dollars are currently used to allocate additional funds based on enrollment. Last legislative session, we saw the negative impact that a House proposal could have had on school divisions with the most students of color (as a percentage) and schools divisions with highest child poverty rates when the House Appropriations Committee proposed a shift in funding from need-based aid in the At-Risk Add-On to enrollment-based aid in the Lottery Per Pupil Allocation. Instead of running a similar play, the resources in the governor’s budget can be better focused by fully funding the proposal put forward by the Virginia Board of Education.

Del. Aird’s (HB1316) and Sen. McClellan’s (SB728) legislation fully funds the Equity Fund as proposed by the Board.

School Counselors

The introduced budget reaches the nationally- and Board-recommended standard of having one school counselor for every 250 students, investing $100 million in state funding (across the two-year budget) to reach this goal by the second year. Student caseloads have grown significantly for counselors over the past decade – up nearly 30% from 2008 to 2016. Schools with manageable caseloads have better graduation rates, higher attendance, and fewer disciplinary incidents than schools with higher caseloads, and this is especially true in high-poverty schools. 

Del. McQuinn’s (HB1508) legislation funds the governor’s proposal to provide state funding for counselors at the recommended ratio (1:250) by the second year of the budget, while both Del. Aird (HB1316) and Sen. McClellan (SB728) fully fund the Board’s recommendation in both years. 

English Learner Teachers

The proposed budget increases instructional positions for English Learner (EL) students from 17 positions for every 1,000 students to 20 positions for every 1,000 students in both years of the budget. The increase is a starting point, but is less than half of what the Virginia Board of Education recommends to adequately support the state’s EL students (equal to $31.4 million per year or $62.8 million over the-two year budget, at a minimum). 

Also left out of the proposed budget was the Board’s recommendation to tie staffing ratios to student language ability, so students who need the most support get the most support. This would have funded more instructional positions for students with the lowest English proficiency, and provided continued support for students who are more proficient and on their way to fluency. 

TCI analysis has shown that the level of funding as it stands produces persistent gaps in Standards of Learning (SOL) test scores and graduation rates for EL students. In 2019, pass rates for EL students were 47.5 percentage points lower than non-EL students on the reading SOL test, demonstrating that these students aren’t getting the instructional support and funding resources they need. Virginia lags behind the rest in EL funding, spending almost 12% more per EL student, compared to the national average of 39% more per student beyond the state support base. 

Del. Aird’s (HB1316), Sen. McClellan’s (SB728), and Del. Guzman’s (HB975) legislation would fully fund the Virginia Board of Education’s proposal for additional teachers for English Learner students. 

Support Staffing

Framed as a cost savings effort at a time of financial strain, during the recession the state enacted a “cap” on support staff in 2010 that arbitrarily limited state funding to one support staff position for every 4.03 instructional positions. The support cap has been included in every budget since 2010 and now local school divisions lose out on more than $400 million in state aid for vital support staffing. Because of the cap, support staffing has declined by 2,800 positions since 2009 while enrollment has grown by more than 55,000 students. The staffing impacts have been most felt by students of color. Support staffing has declined at four times the rate in Virginia’s school divisions with the most students of color (as a percentage) compared to divisions with the fewest. A division by division listing can be found here.

The Virginia Board of Education called for the complete elimination of the support cap in their proposed revisions to the SOQ. The introduced budget takes no action on this important recommendation and keeps the cap in place through 2022 – 13 years after this “temporary” cap was created. 

Del. Aird and Sen. McClellan have submitted budget amendments to eliminate the support cap.

Diverse Schools

The governor’s proposed budget also includes a proposal to report on and create diversity goals at Virginia’s year-round Governor’s Schools. As TCI has written about previously, racial and socioeconomic school segregation continues to be a problem, with students of color having significantly less access to advanced placement and high level math and science courses than white students. Increased racial diversity has widespread benefits for all students and especially students of color, including higher academic achievement, increased likelihood of going to college, better workforce preparation, and an improved likelihood of resource equity. 

Bold Action is Needed

Virginia has the resources to be a leader in its support for public education, yet year after year too many herald incremental investments as fixes, when they fall far short of what is needed to truly change the landscape. Legislators do not need to settle for Virginia being a bottom-tier state in state education funding. If we look to revenue solutions, we can live in a commonwealth where each educator is fairly compensated and has the resources to support their family, every student has access to the full array of services they need to be successful whether that is counseling, mental health, or language specialists, and no student is left out. Legislators have the opportunity before them to fully fund Virginia’s Standards of Quality – an opportunity they cannot afford to miss for our students, schools, and Virginia’s future.

– Chris Duncombe, Policy Director and Kathy Mendes, Research Assistant

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Learn more about The Commonwealth Institute at www.thecommonwealthinstitute.org

[rethinkela]

I’ve officially lost count of how many Oklahoma teachers won their campaigns tonight! #OKPrimary #oked #fundourschools #OklahomaVotes #Okelections

— Jennifer Murray (@JenLynneMurray) June 27, 2018

[greedforher]

Kentucky, Oklahoma Teachers Rally Against War on Public Education (PHOTOS)

Teachers are taking a stand #FundOurSchools #120Strong

United States (Sputnik) – Schools in Kentucky and Oklahoma closed Monday as teachers in both states went on strike to protest pension reforms and to demand pay raises.

In Kentucky, schools in multiple counties have closed for the rally currently taking place in the state capital of Frankfort. According to WSAZ, Kentucky Education Association President Stephanie Winkler is urging school…

[teachfromhere]

RT @AWQueen76: I’m a licensed OK teacher living in another state but I still support this because the kids deserve BETTER! ✊🏻 #oklaedwalkout #oklaed #SupportOKEducators #fundeducation #FundOurSchools #BeTheChange #EnoughIsEnough https://t.co/ubWpFV1IiF

I’m a licensed OK teacher living in another state but I still support this because the kids deserve BETTER! ✊🏻 #oklaedwalkout #oklaed #SupportOKEducators #fundeducation #FundOurSchools #BeTheChange #EnoughIsEnough pic.twitter.com/ubWpFV1IiF

— Amy (@AWQueen76) April 2, 2018

from Twitter https://twitter.com/TeachFromHere April 02, 2018 at 11:48AM via IFTTT