Red Clay Citizen

COPs and "Creative" Financing

One of the big stories of the FY08-09 State budget is the General Assembly’s authorization of a staggering $523 million in Certificates of Participation (COPs) to finance UNC construction projects. The numbers push the boundaries of the debt affordability model. The economic realities have also spawned some creative future financing provisions. Included in this year’s budget is language (Section 27.7B(a)) that amends existing statutes (Chapter 116-29 (5) and appropriates from the General Fund to UNC, $172 million in 2009-10 and $45 million in 2010-2011 for completion of the of Biomedical Imaging Research Center (BRIC) at UNC-Chapel Hill. The provision expires if the Legislature provides by June 30, 2009, “sufficient debt financing” to complete the BRIC project. No doubt the provision is intended to show strong support for the project. However, as one General Assembly cannot bind another, the provision has little practical value. Someone in the know about UNC capital financing tells me you’d have to go all the way back to the early part of the twentieth century to see a similar provision.

The Biomedical Imaging Center is a huge project ($255 million). And, my guess is the remainder of the project will ultimately be financed through COPs. The growing use of this non-voter approved borrowing should outrage voters, as should the view -- common among many lawmakers -- that UNC capital projects are jobs programs. We’ll be paying for this building binge until the capital planning process is overhauled and limits are placed on COPs financing. We can’t start soon enough.

Would You Like Fraud With Your Free Lunch?

Kudos to David Bass of the John Locke Foundation. In a recent article in Carolina Journal, Bass unearthed a distrurbing truth: many families around North Carolina lie about their income when applying for free and reduced lunch programs. His findings are alarming. He writes:

CJ [Carolina Journal] reviewed verification summaries from four school districts, Buncombe County Schools, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, New Hanover County Schools and Wake County Schools.

Thirty two percent of applicants in the four districts had their benefits reduced or revoked after giving income evidence that differed from the amount reported on the applications, and 37 percent did not respond to the income verification request. That means nearly seven in ten applicants could not or would not verify their income to school officials.

While the fraud is bad, what’s worse is the refusal of many school administrators to pursue those accused of fraud.  Why? Follow the money. The percentage of free and reduced-lunch students in schools serves as proxy measure for poverty. It is used to determine a school’s eligibility for Title I funds and to determine if a group of students is making “Adequate Yearly Progress” under No Child Left Behind.  As much as schools will deny it, there is a strong financial incentive for schools to keep high enrollment in school lunch programs. Regrettably there are plenty of stories about teachers and administrators encouraging students to sign up for programs, even when both know a family is not likely to qualify.

Bass does an excellent job of highlighting where reform is needed and why free and reduced lunch is a wholly unreliable indicator for poverty. It should be required reading for school administrators and school board members.

Bullying Bill Passes House

The House voted 60 to 56 not to concur with the Senate bullying bill. What this means is that the House bill, which includes language that provides special protection to homosexuals, will go to conference committee. By the reaction of the homosexual/ACLU lobby, it is very likely that the conference committee will preserve language that (for the first time in North Carolina law) recognizes sexual orientation as a protected class.

Supporters of the legislation, led by Rick Glazier (why is no one running against this guy?), framed the argument in favor of the House bill as providing protection for "all God's children." Among Republicans, Rep. Cary Allred was a vocal supporter of the House bill.

Opponents of the bill, led by Rep. Skip Stam, instead called upon the House to pass the Senate bill, which would have provided protection to all children, irrespective of their membership in a protected class. As Rep. Nelson Dollar argued, the House bill is divisive because it divides kids up into different groups. Dollar also noted that one of the country's leading experts on bullying, Brenda High, opposes bullying legislation that specifies protected classes.

The Impact of Nationally-Certified Teachers in NC? Another View

There’s been much publicity (News & Observer) about a recent National Research Council study that says students taught by teachers with National Board of Professional Teaching Standards Certification (NBPTS) do better in school than those whose teachers are not nationally certified. Educators and teacher groups around the state are touting the study as proof that not only are North Carolina’s 12,770 nationally certified teachers making a difference, but also that the state’s 12 percent salary differential it awards to certified teachers is a good investment.

The study -- which included a large sample of NC students and teachers -- was intended to put to rest some of the questions that have hovered around the certification program. A closer look at the study and news reports suggests that results in North Carolina aren’t quite what we’ve been led to believe. Instead of answering these questions, the study may have only raised more. Education Week (6.18.08) reported that students with nationally certified teachers seemed to score higher than students with teachers without the credential. However when researchers analyzed studies, most of them struggled to assess the exact impacts of NBPTS.

'Most of the studies asked: When students have nationally certified teachers are test scores higher, and the answer is unambiguously yes,’ said panel member Mark Dynarski, a senior fellow at Mathematica  Policy Research Inc, in Princeton New Jersey and director of the federal What Works Clearinghouse.

The committee struggled though over how to characterize the size of the programs impact on students’ test scores. In North Carolina, for instance, the effect sizes ranged from .04 to .08 – the latter translating to about 1 point on a test with a mean score of 150 (emphasis mine), according to the report.

On the question of what happens to teachers once they acquire NBPTS certification,   Education Week continued…

While one study showed that board certified teachers were more likely to stay in teaching, data from North Carolina suggest, that once they achieve certification, they change jobs at a higher rate than do unsuccessful applicants for the credential.  And when they move, the statistics show, they end up in teaching jobs where student achievement levels are higher and student poverty levels are lower.

The disappointing findings regarding student achievement scores and teacher migration raise obvious questions about the cost effectiveness of NBPTS. While the NRC study was unable to draw any firm conclusions about cost effectiveness, a few quick calculations might contribute to this discussion. 

North Carolina has 12,770 nationally certified teachers. Staff at the Fiscal Research Office tells me NBPTS teachers received an average $527 more per month. On an average 10 month schedule, that’s $5,270 in additional NBPTS pay per year.  A conservative estimate of annual state salary costs for 12,770 certified teachers is $67.3 million ($5,270 x 12,770).  Sixty-three million for a 1 point increase in student test scores?  Does NBPTS really make a difference in NC?  I’m not against teachers. However,  I don’t think the NRC study can be used to tout the benefits of certification in North Carolina. If someone wants to forward evidence that this program is cost effective, I'm waiting.   

Special Needs Tax Credits: A Ray of Hope?

Conservatives who support school choice and parental rights should be pleased by yesterday’s press conference urging approval of a tax credit for parents of special needs children.  The presence of Democratic ( Lucas and Glazier) and Republican (Stam and Wiley) leaders attests to the bill’s broad appeal, as well as to its chances for passage. The bill has already been approved by the House Committee on Education. Results of a statewide poll conducted by Public Policy Polling reveal 80 percent of all North Carolinians favor a bill allowing tuition tax credits for parents of special needs children. The legislation underscores the right of parents to provide a free and appropriate education for their children, no matter their health status. According to House Republican minority leader, Rep. Paul Stam, the bill would save counties about $6 million a year. Florida and Arizona have similar programs. Let’s hope North Carolina is added to the list and that this legislation is merely a first step in providing all North Carolinians more choice in education.

Charter Schools in New Orleans

Fantastic piece in the Washington Post on the birth of an education revolution in post-Katrina New Orleans. Since Katrina, charters have become the norm in the educational system of New Orleans, with over half of all students attending charter schools now.  Success here could go a long way towards furthering the charter movement.

Note the one quote from a dissenter:

Leigh Dingerson, education team leader for the Center for Community Change in the District, says Louisiana school authorities have "opened a flea market of entrepreneurial opportunism that is dismantling the institution of public education in New Orleans."

Um, no.  Not dismantling public education.  Dismantling government-run public education.

Myrick Petitions ICE on Colleges

Congresswoman Sue Myrick has petitioned Assistant Secretary Julie Myers to explain just what ICE's policy is regarding the admission of illegal aliens into taxpayer-supported colleges and universities.

Download 52808_letter_to_asst_sec_julie_myers_illegals_comm_colleges.pdf

Following the state's decision to cease admitting illegal aliens, the News & Observer published an unsigned letter from ICE that stated, "It is left for the school to decide whether or not to enroll out-of-status or undocumented nonimmigrants."

As Myrick's letter points out, there is cause for "concern that ICE's stated position conflicts with the intent of federal law and undermines ICE's recent progress to enforce immigration laws."

Indeed.

More for More at Four? Think Again.

Before voting to spend another $23 million to expand More at Four, lawmakers should be required to read the Charlotte Observer article by Ann Doss Helms, “Does Bright Beginnings really work?” Helms shows how Bright Beginnings  – which in part, served as the model for More at Four – was passed on the promise that CMS would track students throughout school.  CMS has not followed through on its promise.  Albeit, initial results show the program provided early educational benefits to disadvantaged children. Third grade math and reading scores reveal the gains of many disadvantaged students had shrunk considerably. The difficulties of keeping a control group together limited evidence about Bright Beginnings long term impacts. Despite the failed efforts at tracking and lack of positive evidence, the program continues to grow. 

Sound familiar? More at Four has developed much the same way – and regrettably shows many of the same shortcomings.  Helms notes that More at Four students are tracked only through kindergarten and also lack a viable control group. Just like Bright Beginnings, there were lots of promises from pre-school advocates but now there seems to be little proof. All the more reason to stop expanding More at Four and have it evaluated not by a UNC child development office, but by the Program and Evaluation Division of the General Assembly.

Ed Budget Update

Even though the number crunching is far from over, there’s good and bad in Wednesday’s release of draft budget recommendations from the Joint Appropriations Subcommittee on Education.  While the current numbers still must be reviewed by Chairs of the Appropriations Committees, the lack of extra money has worked to keep spending – relatively speaking -- in check.  The increase in the K-12 budget is about a 1 percent increase over approved FY2008-09 budget levels.  On the negative side, there’s still enough questionable K-12 spending  in the education budget to infuriate most North Carolinians.  Some of the worst examples include: 

ABC Bonuses
The subcommittee recommended $90 million in ABC bonuses ($70 million  in FY 2007-08) for schools that meet or exceed expected growth in 2007-08 school year. That’s a lot of money. Is it worth it? Since 2000, NC has paid out approximately $760 million in bonuses. I’m all for rewarding excellence, but last I checked 42 percent of NC schools did not make AYP goals (2005). In 2007 Only 46 percent of white and 14 percent of black eighth grade math students were classified as "proficient" or above on 2007 NAEP math tests. Performance is an issue as well as how the ABC bonuses are distributed. ABC bonuses are based on school performance, NOT on individual merit.  In my view, ABC bonuses merely dilute and work against the concept of true merit pay -- a concept the entire system sorely needs. 

Low Wealth
The subcommittee recommended a second year of one-time funding ($2.9 million in non-sSupplemental Funding from FY 2007-08. I always assumed a drop in the need or eligibility for Low Wealth Counties Supplemental Funding was a good thing. The committee is saying, we need to provide additional assistance because improved economic conditions are creating a hardship for the district. Go figure.

Dropout Prevention Grants.
The subcommittee recommended an expansion of the dropout prevention grants from $7 million to $10 million.  While this may look like a good thing, don’t be fooled. Terry Stoops of the John Locke Foundation raises some legitimate criticisms of the program. Instead of being targeted to high need areas, many of the grants are going to schools that already have considerable resources to address dropouts or don’t really have a dropout problem.  A good program evaluation – such as those being conducted by the Program and Evaluation Division of the General Assembly -- would normally bring to light such shortcomings.  However, if the Joint Legislative Commission on Dropout Prevention and High School Graduation gets its way, that will never happen.  As I wrote about previously, the final draft of Commission’s report deleted language requiring the Program and Evaluation division to evaluate the impact of dropout prevention grants. The current language merely requires DPI to evaluate the recipients and report back to the legislature. There are several problems here. First does anyone really think DPI is going provide an unbiased and better evaluation than the Program and Evaluation division? Secondly, and equally important; why are we expanding a program that is poorly targeted and lacks sufficient evidence to say it is even working?

Liberals for School Choice?

Florida seems to be undergoing a school choice revolution - finally - with liberals coming aboard. A sliver:

When Florida passed a law in 2001 creating the Corporate Tax Credit Scholarship Program for underprivileged students, all but one Democrat in the state legislature voted against it. Earlier this month, lawmakers extended the program – this time with the help of a full third of Democrats in the Legislature, including 13 of 25 members of the state's black caucus and every member of the Hispanic caucus. What changed?

Our guess is that low-income parents in Florida have gotten a taste of the same school choice privileges that middle- and upper-income families have always enjoyed. And they've found they like this new educational freedom. Under the scholarship program, which is means-tested, companies get a 100% tax credit for donations to state-approved nonprofits that provide private-school vouchers for low-income families.

-Max Borders

Education: Funding Formulas Reformed?

North Carolina spends  $7.9 billion on K-12 education. Much of that money is distributed to LEAs and local schools through 13 different formulas. Doubtless, the average citizen finds many of these formulas dated, convoluted and unnecessarily complicated.  To remedy these issues, the Joint Legislative Study Committee on Public School Funding Formulas has been meeting for the past several months in hopes of improving how the state distributes money to the schools. This past Thursday the committee issued its interim report. Some of the committee’s recommendations include:

·         Mentoring Allotment – The commission recommends a significant expansion to the current Mentor Pay program ($8.1 million) to provide mentors for all first and second year teachers and instructional personnel. The committee also wants the state to pick up the tab for mentors for teachers  as well as those who aren’t paid by the state (Why?).  The cost to provide mentors to all first and second year teachers and instructional personnel: $7.9 million. I see little evidence touting the success of such programs. Double the money and give LEAs more flexibility in spending? It doesn’t sound like a good plan.
 

·         Transportation – Funding inconsistencies between LEAs have occupied much of the committee’s time. To remedy an immediate shortfall in funding due to the rapid escalation in gas prices, the committee recommends transferring $47 million from general fund estimates and another $7.5 million to a reserve fund to cover additional increases in costs.

·         Education Lottery Reserve –To compensate for counties that don’t qualify for Education Lottery supplemental proceeds, the committee recommends using $32 million from lottery reserve and distributing it to districts to equalize the ADM distribution for FY07-08. Yes, there are things wrong with the current formula, but this proposal is much worse than the problem.

Reviewing all thirteen funding formulas is a large task and won’t be finished this year. The highlighted recommendations and the inevitable tweaking are sure to keep the committee in the news. More later. 

 

 

Public School Monopoly (on your kids' minds)

Great Aussie video on the public school monopoly. Time for reform.
-Max Borders

Education Wish Lists........and Reality

$42 million. Remember that number. That’s the number the Education Appropriations Subcommittee identified as the upper limit for additional education spending in order to stay within the assigned spending target of $11.3 billion. With little room for expansion, the Governor’s recommendations for significant increases for K-12 (6.4 percent); UNC (6.5 percent) and Community Colleges (4 percent) quickly lost some of their significance. Included in the total recommended budget are $501 million in salary expansions, including 6.9 percent salary increases($392 million) for teachers. Yes, you heard me right the first time: I did say 6.9 percent. What’s that I heard about a recession and the need for tightening our belts? 

The Storm that Washed Away the Public Schools

A beautiful post from Alex Tabarrok on how Katrina washed away Orleans parish public schools (and the unions) and charter schools came to the rescue. Apparently it's working.

Here's the original NYTimes article on the matter.

-Max Borders

UNC: Economic Engine?

North Carolinians have long considered the state’s public universities to be an engine for economic growth.  For most of us, a college education is the key to a better job and the means to a more fulfilling life. Such thinking in part helps to explain the ever-rising government appropriations for public higher education -- even after adjusting for inflation and population growth. Last year, NC spent about $3.5 billion on the University of North Carolina and Community Colleges.  In the past year, state spending for UNC increased 17 percent and community college spending increased by 13 percent.

Is North Carolina getting a fair return on this massive investment of public money? Not according to a new report on North Carolina's Higher Education System by the Center for College Affordability and Productivity. Dr David Vedder, Center Director and co-author of the report, states North Carolina spends $7,153 per FTE higher education student, far above the national average of $4,871 and more than neighboring states Georgia, Virginia and South Carolina. Such high levels of public investment suggest that North Carolina’s population would be highly educated. However, the data say otherwise. Vedder writes:

In 2006 only one in four North Carolinian adults possessed college degrees, falling noticeably  (slightly more than one standard deviation) below the national average of 27.2 percent. Furthermore, North Carolina’s attainment rates have lagged behind the national average every year dating back to 1989 and even back to 1960 for every year data are available. . . A relatively uneducated population despite such a massive investment in higher education suggests great inefficiencies and wasted resources in the system.

According to Vedder, state appropriations aren’t effective in maintaining a higher educational attainment among the state’s population. Vedder writes, “North Carolina spends $10.64 per capita on higher education for every 1 percent of its population possessing a bachelors’ degree, whereas  neighboring states Virginia and Georgia spend only $6.64 and $6.61 respectively, to do the same thing.”

The problem? Waste, and there’s plenty of it--- bloated faculty salaries, institutional subsidies, ballooning non-instructional costs, and rising numbers of students who attend school for several years, but never graduate.

While investment in higher education will continue to be an important issue, we’d do well to reevaluate subsidies for public higher education. A better option would be to closely link public subsidies to effective management and the realization of public benefits. Read the report and recommendations to learn more.

Incompetent Teacher Protectionism

There's a good debate about the state of education on Cato Unbound. I particularly liked this thread from Michael Strong. A slice:

The salient question is will we do more harm, on average, allowing parents and students greater decision-making powers in education than we are already doing. It seems unlikely that parents and students would do much worse and highly likely that they will do far better over time once we have created a competitive education market.

There are several features of a prospective competitive market in education that seem to confuse some observers. First of all, education is often somewhat of a natural monopoly in many places; insofar as families have to bear the costs (in time and money) of transporting their children to non-neighborhood schools, there is often a significant implicit tax associated with all but the geographically closest schools. As a consequence, most local education markets are oligopolies rather than competitive markets.

In order to overcome the quasi-natural monopoly of local schooling, we need national educational chains that compete for the opportunity to create new schools, with national brand-name appeal and associated capitalization and focused R&D to support their particular brand advantage. KIPP, Green Dot, and others are the beginning of this trend, but they are all still developing their ability to bring quality to scale. John Merrifield explains why large scale school choice is a crucial prerequisite to reaping the benefits of innovation and how the few existing choices are largely irrelevant.

Speaking of scalable franchises, Thales Academy - for $5000 per year - sounds like a very competitive model. Parents have to decide whether they like Direct Instruction, though. But ignore the unions. It works.
-Max Borders

Dropping the Ball on Dropouts

Reducing North Carolina’s embarrassingly high dropout rate has been an issue that has been much in the news lately.  Over 23,500 students dropped out of North Carolina schools in 2006-07.  Last week, the Joint Legislative Commission on Dropout Prevention and High School Graduation developed ten recommendations to submit to the Legislature for consideration. (No these recommendations aren’t available online.  Maybe commission co-chairs State Senator Vernon Malone or State Rep. Earline Parmon can tell you why). Aside from a recommendation to evaluate the effectiveness of dropout prevention grants  --in my view, a good idea -- the recommendations are as disappointing as the problem they are trying to correct.  They provide nothing new and fail to offer the slightest suggestion that we’re in any way getting a handle on this problem. Recommendations like developing a system of sharing Information about dropouts (Recommendation 1), fostering a better school climate and safety (Recommendation 5) and urging more rigorous academic courses and less remediation (Recommendation 6) are vague and lack impact. 

My favorite is recommendation # 4 titled, Parental Involvement and Communication Between Schools and parents.  The text continues:

"The Commission believes that parental involvement is important to student educational achievement. . . The Commission believes that it is critical that parents be informed about a school’s expectations for students. . . The Commission encourages principals, teachers and Parent Teacher Association’s (PTAs) to develop methods to reach out to parents and guardians to involve them in student learning at home and school.”

All fine and good, but aren’t these recommendations suppose to be targeted on reducing the dropout rate? In another paragraph the Commission recommends in draft legislation that the Assembly appropriate funds for a dropout prevention coordinator in each high school that failed to attain a 65 percent 4-year cohort graduation rate. 

This is a bad idea. Last I counted, there are 147 public high schools in North Carolina that failed to achieve a 65 percent cohort graduation rate  --- about 37 percent of the High Schools in North Carolina.  A call to the NC Department of Public Instruction confirms that  although in some districts the dropout coordinator may have additional responsibilities, nearly all school districts already have a dropout coordinator.

Before spending additional funds, wouldn’t it be better to evaluate the effectiveness of these positions? Why bring in more staff if we don’t even know if dropout programs are working? Aside from the cost, adding dropout coordinators to troubled schools also seems to ignore the iron rule of the bureaucracy: bureaucracies work to expand their power and influence. Will a dropout coordinator really work to put themselves out of job? Seems to me a better option is to use incentives. Appropriate financial incentives for dropout coordinators and principals and added flexibility regarding the use of existing resources and staffing would do far more to reduce the dropout rate.  Now if only the Joint Legislative Commission believed the same we’d be making real progress.   

No More Board of Education

The Health Commission met to review its legislative agenda on Tuesday, April 22nd and at the top of the list was the latest effort to outlaw corporal punishment (CP).  The last time the Commission met, I detailed the plans by leftist Utopians to ban the practice of CP.  Little did I realize then that the days of the "board of education" were numbered.

Drafted legislation approved by the Commission states "Corporal Punishment shall be administered by hand spanking on the buttocks..."  No more paddles or rulers.  (What will creative high school shop teachers do with all of their new free time?) 

The other change to law requested by the social engineers is to report the age, gender, race  and special education status of each student disciplined.  Seems that the Utopians are worried about the number of minority kids on the receiving end of the rod.  I suppose quotas will be next. The Commission also worried that  special  education children are being punished despite laws against it.

I wonder why the NC Health Commission is pursuing this instead of a legislative committee on ... maybe, education? This is just what local school boards need.  More intervention from Raleigh that removes a tool that helps maintain discipline while adding yet another report to be collected, compiled and sent to Das Capital. 

Thank goodness that the legislature has already solved the drop out  problem and children  are capable of reading at grade level. Oh, wait a minute.  They are still "working" on it.  "Little Johnny, I know you can't read and you dropped out of school, but at least you didn't have to face the paddle."

Look for this bill to be introduced when the "Honorables" (sic) return to Raleigh for the "short" session in May.

NCDPI and Charter Schools: The War Continues

Last week’s State Board of Education (SBE) decision to penalize charter schools whose staffs lack the sufficient number of certified teachers is more evidence of the education establishment’s war on charter schools. New penalties for schools that fail to meet requirements could include withholding state dollars from charter school directors as well as the highest and second highest non-certified teachers (Does this seem heavy-handed only to me?). If noncompliance persists, schools may be recommended for closure.  SBE seems committed to making sure any charter school that strays too far from the officially prescribed beliefs about who should be able to teach in our schools will certainly pay. 

SBE has successfully managed to ignore an ever-growing body of research that only confirms what we’ve suspected for a long time: There is NO LINK between teacher certification and student achievement. Undeterred by the facts, the education establishment presses on.  I only wish SBE’s zealous quest for “accountability” and desire to close low performing charter schools applied to the other 96 percent of public schools in North Carolina.

$72 million High School: April Fool's Joke?

According to a reader: "The Local Government Commission will be meeting on April 1, to decide the debt application from Watauga County for $72 million for a new high school.  This debt is being sought without a referendum."
-Max Borders

Legislative Lowdown: Health Commission

The Public Health Study Commission met on Tuesday with a large agenda although,the most sensational moment by far was the display of a diseased lung to the committee by anti-smoking advocates just before lunch (Yum!). 
Tom Vitaglione, a Senior Fellow at the nonprofit organization Action for Children, presented his group's wish list for the legislative short session that includes adding five additional vaccinations(including the much questioned HPV vaccine) ($31.3 million, Recurring), more school nurses ($10.8 million, also Recurring) and regulating corporal punishment (Priceless) in schools.

Last year's legislative long session saw a ban on corporal punishment go down in defeat in the House by a vote of 66 to 50 in the House. Legislative rules do not allow a bill that has been defeated to be reintroduced until a new legislature is elected (in this case the 2009 long session.) Not to be deterred by that loss, Vitaglione is still after the paddle.

This new proposal calls for training in the ancient art of corporal punishment, defining what constitutes it and tracking the incidences of it.  Of all of these recommendations, the data collection is probably the most potent. Vitaglione noted that until we measure the use of corporal punishment in schools, we will never know just how many minorities and special needs students are being paddled.   It always comes down to the same thing with the Left.  Race is like the nine iron in the Left's golf bag of ideas.  You know its always going to come out at some point.  (Ironically, many African Americans support corporal punishment.  At least I know my 4th grade ruler ace, Mrs. Barrett did.)

It is instructive to note the tactics of Action for the Chil'run:
Run a bill to outlaw an activity you disagree with.
Lose vote but don't give up.
Restrict and regulate the activity.
Require statistical data to be collected on the activity to use as ammo in the next round. 

Vitaglione stated in the meeting that corporal punishment will be banned in North Carolina eventually and it is clear that he hopes to speed up the process through these proposals.  He would do well to realize that not all North Carolinians are as "evolved" as he and his group are.  There are some parts of the state that still believe in corporal punishment and would rather not have another educational edict handed down from the enlightened intelligentsia high atop Mt. Raleigh.

Civitas Blueprint Series

Civitas is rolling out it's series: "Blueprint for North Carolina". The education and transportation blueprints are live.

Citizens, thought leaders, and elected officials are encouraged to give these a close read. (Budget & Taxes, Healthcare, and Immigration are to follow...)
-Max Borders

Six-Figure Teacher Salaries?

Do higher teacher salaries lead to better schools and better student performance?  That‘s a question that has fixated much of the nation over the past two decades. It’s a difficult question to answer and so far the research hasn’t helped much. The results are mixed. Next year a new charter school in New York City will begin an experiment to help answer that question. The new school will pay teachers $125,000 plus a bonus based on school performance. Zeke Vanderhoek, the founder and principal of the new school is betting that high quality teachers is the most important ingredient to a successful school. Teachers at Vanderhoek’s school will have classes of 30 students, slightly larger than the average public school class. To make ends meet, Vanderhoek’s school will have no assistant principals, only one social worker and will also try to limit expenditures on technology and other frills.

Vanderhoek’s school turns the traditional model on its head. Teachers are on the top of the pyramid, even higher than the principal. Mr. Vanderhoek, will be the new school principal. He will be paid $90,000.  North Carolinians should watch this experiment with interest. It offers the chance to see what can be done when schools are freed from layers of cumbersome bureaucracy and not saddled by cumbersome pay plans. More later.   

'They're our children, now' says Cali Court

This is essentially what the California courts are saying here. If I were a homeschool parent in that state, I would dust off my copy of Civil Disobedience and the Cali Gestapo would have to drag my kids away in front of a thousand TV cameras.
-Max Borders

Wake County School Budget: Fuzzy Math and Chutzpah

Del Burns thinks the Wake County Public School System (WCPSS) needs more money – $35 million dollars more to be exact. The Wake County Superintendent of Public Schools is asking County Commissioners for a whopping 12 -- yes, I said 12  -- percent increase over last year’s budget. Burns says the money is needed to keep up with growth and inflation.

A couple of relevant facts: inflation for 2007 was 2.85 percent. Second, while Wake County did experience enrollment growth, the final student enrollment numbers for 2007 were 2,000 students less than the school board estimate. An additional $35 million dollars to keep up with growth and inflation?  That’s a fat increase and thin rationale.  Interesting, last year, Wake County Schools received close to $6.4 million dollars because WCPSS overestimated student enrollment and received additional monies for mandated teacher raises, monies. The monies should have been returned to taxpayers. Residents of Wake County ought to demand that Mr. Burns tell Wake County taxpayers how the additional money was spent. Now WCPPS wants a 12 percent increase for a so called “no frills” schools budget? The chutzpah is hard to believe. There’s a lot of explaining to do. In the meantime, let's hope the county commissioners don’t give them another dime!

Breaking Free of the Public School Monopoly

This video is a lesson for NC, not to mention 49 other states.

What's sad, however, is that parents have to fight teacher's unions and bureaucrats so hard to make a simple change for their own children. What considerations trump parental choice? None. That's why we need an education revolution.
-Max Borders

Competitive, Targeted Teacher Pay?

As a recent college graduate, I am a prime example of why we are suffering from a shortage of teachers. After graduating with a degree in engineering, I realized I had a desire to teach and began looking in to what it would take to do so.  With my engineering background, I realized I might make a good candidate for a high school math teacher.

I found that if I invested enough time, I could get certified to teach math, but there was a problem: money. After looking into the well-defined pay grades for teachers with zero years of experience, I realized I would make less than $30,000 a year − $29,750 to be exact.  I also saw the less-than-awe-inspiring pay increases each year. Despite my passion for teaching, I began to pursue other career goals.  It made me wonder how many other opportunities for well-qualified teachers our state has missed due to uncompetitive salaries.

Over the past decade state government has provided North Carolina teachers with generous pay raises and teaching bonuses. It seems little if any of those resources have been have directed toward raising starting salaries for new teachers. It is true when you include compensation and benefits, pay for North Carolina teachers is above the national average. It is also true that in many areas starting salaries for new teachers are too low to attract qualified young professionals. Raising starting teacher salaries needn’t be difficult. It can be done by better targeting existing resources and by creating more innovative pay plans. Making starting teacher salaries more competitive is a small step, but one that could have a big impact on convincing others like myself to return to the classroom and do their part in ending our statewide teacher shortage.
-Kyle Ward

More Civic Literacy in Higher Ed

Wow. Looks like ISI is right about the problem of civic literacy in higher education. Check it out. (I'm pretty sure this kid goes to Duke.)
-Max Borders

N.C. Teachers Can Stop Wingeing Now

... even though they won't. Terry Stoops shows teachers in N.C. are overpaid, just like in other parts of the country. Or should I say -- we don't know how much they should be paid, since the public schools are a monopoly? In any case, they get killer benefits, work only half the year in most places, and get paid a solid salary. What more could you ask for?
-Max Borders

Indoctrinate U at Duke

For those of you concerned about the egregious propagandization of college students should check out the proof in the puddin'. Indoctrinate U - a documentary on the subject of ideological brainwashing in higher education - will be at Duke on January 29th.
Check it out (here's the trailer).
-Max Borders

School Testing: Not Making the Grade

North Carolina is a leader among the states in student testing and evaluating school performance.  That’s a sentence I heard repeated in several newspaper stories this past week related to proposed changes in how N.C. tests students.  The description is certainly what the state’s public school leaders want us to think, but is it really true?  Over the past six months, the Blue Ribbon Commission on Testing and Accountability has met to review the states testing methods. First, let’s remember commissions don’t meet because things are going well.  When the commission released its findings last week there were enough significant changes to suggest that the current system of testing is NOT performing well. The commission recommended that NC reduce the number of standardized tests and make the remaining tests more rigorous. It also found that the current testing program fails to make students ready for entering universities or the workplace. Pretty strong words for a system that’s “a leader among the states.” 

It’s well known that an unintended side effect of No Child Left Behind and the quest for accountability was the creation of state systems that produced good looking results, mostly through the use of low state standards. Three years ago schools in NC came under increased scrutiny for disparities in student test scores. State students were performing much better on state-mandated exams than they did on nationwide tests such as the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). The high state test scores did nothing but reflect lower academic standards and prompted new tougher academic performance requirements in 2006.

An article by Harvard Professor Paul Peterson in last fall's Education Next, a respected national education reform journal, gave North Carolina a D- on the rigor of the state’s proficiency standards. For years teachers have voiced their displeasure with the number of tests, while critics say the results offer little beyond comparisons with other public schools in NC. Let’s hope these new efforts are a first step toward helping a testing system in need of improvement.

Why the Left Doesn't Want Charter Schools

Lefty types generally believe they - and the government - know what's best for you and your family. They are also naturally inclined to dislike that which is successful. In North Carolina, between teachers' special interests and the one-size-fits-allers on the left, you have incredible obstacles to the expansion of charter schools and school choice reforms in general.

But check out this story from Colorado:

In an effort to draw back students from charter schools and schools outside the Denver school district, district schools will receive cash if they successfully attract new students. The schools will receive $1,395 for each new student, but to receive the money, the school must have a net gain of students. Superintendent Michael Bennet said the bonuses are designed to motivate principals to recruit students into DPS traditional schools. The district has lost more than 8,000 students in the past six years.

So let me get this straight. To make up for the inadequacies of their traditional public system, they're having to pay families to return to schools parents have already determined are inadequate? Stunning. Give the parents just a little bit of choice and the government has to bribe families with their own money to make them second-guess themselves.
-Max Borders

Whose Kids are they Anyway?

The people who think they own your kids from 7:30 to 3:00 don't care what you think. They're too busy with social engineering. But parents are fighting back.
-Max Borders

Education Lottery: What's going on?

Look at this map that shows counties eligible for supplemental lottery revenue:

(FULL MAP page, plus explanation of methodology and tax distribution.)

A lot of questions creep into one's mind:

1) Why does the distribution look this way?
2) a. Funds are going to counties that are losing population; b. extra funds are going to the poorest counties, which has some appeal on some levels, but these are also counties that are not growing, at least not growing quickly -- so why do they need new schools? c. the justification we hear is that counties have to make an 'above average' effort locally, but there’s no measure for how well counties are meeting their own needs … (tax rates are certainly not a good proxy by themselves). So if it's not poverty, what is it?
4) Why would you want to create a perverse incentive for poor counties to raise taxes to get lottery money? (Counties “at the margin” of tax rates have an incentive to raise taxes and get a piece of the pot; this can result in incremental “creep” of tax rates as counties edge each other out of the pot.)
5) Western NC keeps taxes relatively low and therefore is excluded from the lottery supplement. Why so (particularly since poor people can't afford higher taxes, and revenues sometimes decrease due to Laffer-type effects)?
7) Union County's entering this year has the potential to reduce the allocations to other counties with smaller school populations. Is this a desired result?
8) If Wake County increases its effective tax rate, it could be eligible for the lottery supplement. With Wake’s huge enrollment – and since the distribution is based on enrollment – Wake’s entry will pull money from other school districts. Is this a desired result?
9) Was this originally designed benefit legislators from Eastern counties most of which belong to the same party?
10) What's Senator Pro Tem Marc Basnight (D-Dare) going to do now that his favored counties have been edged out of eligibility? Will he stick to the formula?
-Max Borders

Charter Schools: A Glimmer of Hope

Commissions are usually intended to give politicians time, political cover and some wiggle room on controversial topics.  I’m sure these were some of the goals when the Blue Ribbon Commission on Charter Schools was formed several months ago. Yesterday the commission held its last formal meeting  and in the next few weeks a final report with recommendations will be submitted to the legislature.  While we know it’s early, some of the recommendations give charter school advocates reason to be hopeful.  For starters, it looks like the cap is being lifted. Exactly how high will, in part, be determined by where charter schools locate and by the overall performance of the schools. The Commission is recommending the number of charter schools be increased by at least six annually. However, other factors could boost that number. For example, new charter schools that open in counties where none previously existed, would not be counted against the cap.  In addition, “high performance” by charter schools could also increase the number of new charters. Specifically, the Commission will recommend  that DPI approve up to as many new charter schools as there are “high performing” charter schools.  As yet, there is no definition for “high performing.” Most likely this will be the next battleground.

While there is reason for cautious optimism, it's still hard not to notice that many commission members hold charter schools to a standard that they are unwilling to apply to public schools. I’m all in favor of performance based measures and closing charter schools that don’t meet standards. However what does it say to others when we’ll shut down a school of a couple hundred that doesn’t meet standards, but will keep open for years schools with total enrollments in the thousands that consistently fail to meet performance standards? If someone knows the reasons for exempting public schools from the same evaluation process, please let me know.      

Teachers' Union Fights the Future

Really interesting story about a virtual school in Wisconsin being attacked by the teachers' unions - who, of course, know better than you do what's best for your kids.

Kids coming together and learning in virtual environments is the wave of the future, folks: lower costs, better education, 3D simulation, and the benefits of scale... But it will be fought by nanny statists and teacher's clinging to their interests.
-Max Borders

Civitas and NCCS: Doing Our Part

We extend our best wishes to  Scott Ralls, the new President of the North Carolina Community College System (NCCS). Ralls is set to begin his new duties next April.  He is the current President of Craven Community College. Ralls said his institution was one of 37 schools within NCCS that had not barred illegal immigrants from enrolling in classes. When asked if any illegals had actually enrolled on campus, Ralls didn't seem to know. Our advice: ask the North Carolina Community College System Office. They're right on top of this issue and know the system currently enrolls 340 illegal immigrants. I'm sure they could also tell you exactly where each of them is enrolled. How did they know? They JUST ASKED. Hey, we're glad to help out in any way we can.

How Much Will the New NCCS Policy Cost?

Laura Leslie’s coverage of the new NCCS policy change that forces community colleges to enroll illegal immigrants charges that “it’s also worth pointing out that the numbers put out by the right are just flat wrong.”

While we can’t vouch for ALIPAC, Civitas’ analysis suggests that the cost esimates put out by President Lancaster and the NCCS are misleading. This is not to say that they are “flat wrong,” but only right from a certain perspective –- that is, only when General Fund spending is included and general obligation debt is not.

President Lancaster claims that “to attend a community college as an undocumented immigrant, these students will have to pay $7,465 per year as full-time curriculum students, which is $2,090 more than the legislature gives the community college to educate a full-time student. Therefore, there is no state subsidy for these students to attend community college.”

Lancaster chooses his words very carefully when he says out-of-state tuition is “$2,090 more than the legislature gives the community college.” His numbers only include General Fund spending for community colleges. He thus omits local appropriations altogether, which account for 13 percent of funding for the community college system. More important, Lancaster omits statewide and local general obligation bonds devoted to community college needs. Currently, there are $850 million of outstanding statewide general obligation bonds ($250 million passed in 1993 and $600 million in 2000) dedicated to the community colleges. This number does not include millions of dollars of local obligation bonds, such as the $92 million bond referendum for Wake County Technical Community College passed by Wake County voters in October 2007.

The numbers being used by the community college system regarding enrollment are also inconsistent with data in the 2006 American Community Survey. Stay tuned for a fact sheet from Dr. Bob Luebke that will explain this issue in more detail.

More on Lancaster

Arrogant ... in a word ... is the best way to describe today's announcement by North Carolina Community College System (NCCS) President Martin Lancaster.

If previously it seemed that the NCCS thinks itself above the law, Lancaster's remarks leave no doubt. Lancaster comments that this policy is "the right law and policy." Yet, we have already seen that this policy not only violates federal and state laws, but the community college system's own codes of conduct.

Second, Lancaster considers it irrelevant that his office has been inundated with calls and emails from citizens who are angry over this policy change. He also seems oblivious to months of polling by Civitas and others that shows that North Carolina voters do not want to extend educational and other benefits to illegal immigrants. Again, the message is clear: the NCCS thinks itself above the law.

A second word we might use to describe Lancaster's missive ... misleading.

Consider the following points:

Illegal immigrants over the age of 18 are not children. They are adults. Even if these immigrants came here as children, once they turn 18 they are adults. At that point, they must choose whether to continue to break the law or whether to go back home. The fact that their parents broke the law does not force these young adults to also break the law. Moreover, illegal immigrants are not being denied educational opportunities. As adults, they can seek an education anywhere in the world -- including in the United States. They need only apply for a student visa, or go back to their native country to study.

The secret to success in a global economy ... high-skilled labor ... high-skilled, legal labor. If we want to grow North Carolina's economy, we need to create policies aimed at training native workers and legal immigrants. Instead, we are choosing to base our economic growth on black-market, unskilled labor. Why not enforce our immigration laws like nearly every other country that is a vital member of the global economy?

Finally, make no mistake about it, this policy is being used as a wedge to grant in-state tuition to illegal aliens. The same arguments -- regarding fairness and the creation of an underclass -- will then be used by the federal government to grant a blanket amnesty to every illegal alien enrolled in college or university in the United States. In short, this is the Dream Act for North Carolina -- amnesty and benefits for immigrants who have learned the lesson that it doesn't pay to obey the law in America.

Of course, none of these problems would exist today ... if only we had secured the border.

Charter Schools: Uncharted Potential

After much debate, the Blue Ribbon Commission on Charter Schools recently recommended to amend the cap to allow up to six new charter schools to open each year. This was a step in the right direction.

Charter schools are publicly funded institutions run by nonprofit organizations. By design, they have more operational flexibility than traditional schools. Another important difference is that, unlike traditional schools, parents choose to enroll their children in charter schools. An application to one of these schools is a sure sign that a parent believes in the school. Seats at some charter schools are so coveted that enrollment decisions are determined by lottery. Currently, there are approximately 5,100 students on charter school waiting lists in North Carolina.

Still, everyone is not sold on charter schools. A widely circulated June 2007 study by the North Carolina Center for Public Policy Research (NCCPPR), claimed that some charter schools do not perform as well as traditional public schools. A careful review reveals that the methodology of this study is flawed. NCCPPR compares all charter schools to all traditional schools in North Carolina. This approach fails to take into account the striking demographic differences between students at the two types of schools, as well as the relatively short period of time many charter schools have been in operation. As statistical comparisons have been refined to include such factors, more studies, like those of Harvard’s Caroline Hoxby, are showing charter schools to be equal to, or to outperform, comparable public schools.

No doubt, further studies could contribute to the ongoing debate about the effectiveness of charter schools. But while the academicians refine their analytical methods, thousands of children are left waiting for better educational opportunities. We have enough evidence to take action. Whom should we trust? The analysts or the parents?

Kyle Ward

Low Marks for the Commission on Testing and Accountability

“We’re testing more but we’re not seeing the results. . . .We’re not seeing the graduation rates increasing. We’re not seeing remediation rates decreasing. Somewhere along the way testing isn’t aligning with excellence.”  Those are the comments of Sam Houston, chairman of the Blue Ribbon Commission on Testing and Accountability. Earlier this week, the commission agreed on a draft report saying North Carolina is spending too much on testing. The report will recommend several exams be discontinued including the fourth, seventh and tenth grade writing tests and that the number of end of course exams be cut from 10 to 5.

While, it’s always good to evaluate testing procedures and I understand Mr. Houston’s frustration, I don’t understand his logic. Mr. Houston says, “Somewhere along the way testing isn’t aligning with excellence.” Shouldn’t RESULTS align with excellence?  Testing is the mirror for measuring those results. Scrapping the tests implies that doing so somehow improves performance. It doesn’t. Yes, excellence should always be the goal. But testing is a means --- a very necessary means --- for getting there. Believing we’re better off by testing less is foolish thinking.

School Choice is a Civil Rights Issue

...according to this post from Michael Strong.
-Max Borders

Quieting DPI Bragadoccio on Test Scores

The NC Department of Public Instruction (DPI) is patting itself on the back for improving test scores. But a pretty scathing critique ha